What We Take on a Cruise

For The Cabin

We have four critical needs in our cabin. I will review our reasons for each, and as in a lot of areas in life, not everyone will need or want these items, but for us, they are necessary.

Gaffer Tape

We used to take duct tape, and there are huge discussions around the internet on what you can use duct tape for. Some of them are way out in left field. For traveling on a cruise ship, Gaffer Tape is a better solution than duct tape. It can stick well, but doesn’t leave behind residue and doesn’t damage the finish.

My primary use for tape is to secure the extension cord or cords that we use. In particular, I will use an extension cord for my CPAP. In our cabin on the Jewel, my side of the bed wound up across the room from the available outlet.

I used the Gaffer Tape to secure the cord down the wall, and across the carpet to the bed. Without the tape, the cord would have posed a tripping risk and interfered with movement in the cabin. The tape solved that without any issue.

Here is a link to the Gaffer Tape I bought from Amazon*.

Over the Door Shoe Holders

We always take at least one vinyl, over-the-door shoe holder. We use these to store small items that if left loose, can get misplaced or clutter up the limited flat surfaces available.

On our Alaskan cruise, since there were three of us traveling, and each taking multiple pairs of shoes, we took two. One went over the bathroom door, and the other on the inside of the closet door. We filled most of the compartments in each of them.

Here is a link* to the ones we took.

https://amzn.to/2IJd7Dh

LED Tea Lights

We also took a couple of small led tea lights, they are not bright, but in a dark (pitch black) cabin they make it easy to find your way to the bathroom without turning on a light. Here are some I found on Amazon.

Extension Cords and Multiport Chargers

As I mentioned above, I travel with a CPAP and always need an extension cord. Some times it just needs to be long enough to reach the other side of the bed, and sometimes it needs to reach across the room.

For our last trip, we took two; one was a long, plain three-outlet cord. The other was a power strip that had three outlets, and also three hi-speed USB charging ports. We also took another four-port USB charger. That may seem like a lot, but between the three of us, we had three phones, three tablets, and two other cameras that charged regularly.

One thing to remember is that nothing can have surge protection built-in. Those devices are viewed as a fire hazard and will be removed from your luggage and returned at the end of the trip.

The link below takes you to the extension cord and charge we bought for the trip. It meets all of the requirements.

Other Things We take

I am particular about sweetener, so I took along some stevia.

We also took along a large cup each. The cups on board are usually very small. Mine was a 32 oz coffee cup, and I used it for coffee and iced tea. My wife used a 24 oz cup for tea and flavored water. We would fill these on the buffet and then had what we wanted to drink around the ship.

Ibex Tumbler

One thing to remember when filling a personal cup on the ship, you always use a clean cup from the ship to obtain your beverage and then pour it into your personal cup. Never fill your cup directly from the dispenser.

Another thing we take is zip lock bags. These come in very handy for taking food from the buffet to your room. We used several each day. My wife and I were fond of several things, including dried fruit and pretzel rolls, and we would put them into the bags for those late-night munchies.

They do not have plastic straws on the ship, so if you like plastic straws; take a reusable one with you. You can find a variety of reusable straws on Amazon. I do suggest silicone as if you fall with a metal straw in your mouth, the results could be devastating. Here is a kit that has the straws and a cleaning brush.