When you embark, your cruise starts from the moment you step onboard, so you’ll want to make every moment count. Whether you’re a new cruiser or you’ve done quite a few, I have a shipload of tips for you. The best way to settle in is to get everything in your cabin sorted out ASAP, so I have six topics to consider.
And I have a couple of bonus general cruising tips at the end so don’t miss them.
Contents
- Appreciate your cabin
- Check everything out
- Meet your cabin steward
- Unpacking
- Set up your home-from-home
- Get your cruise started
- Bonus cruise tips
Appreciate your cabin
When you first get to your cabin it will look beautifully clean and presented – hopefully! Well, it always has for us. Before you drag your bags in and start putting your belongings everywhere, take some photos or videos.
You might think I say this because I do cabin reviews on YouTube, but we always used to do it, just to remember what our temporary home looked like! I love looking back at the photos of cabins and hotel rooms we’ve had over the years.
Your cabin won’t look as good as it does when you first enter it for the rest of your cruise so get it done now!
Check everything out
OK so your cabin is looking great, but is everything working or set up the way you want it? It’s best to check that everything’s in working order before you start unpacking, and definitely before you find out something isn’t great in the middle of the night!
Here are my suggestions:
Is the bed set up in your preferred configuration? If you’re new to cruising, you may not realise that you can have the bed set up as two singles or one queen. If not, no worries, just let your room steward know.
Now lie on the bed – is it too hard or soft? Are the pillows OK? The room steward can often help with any of these problems and its best to ask straight away rather than realising at midnight that your back is starting to hurt.
Check the air conditioning is working and isn’t noisy – the best way to do this is to dial it right down and make sure you can feel cool air coming in. If it isn’t working check that your balcony door is closed and locked – most ships deactivate the cabin air conditioning if the balcony door is open or even just unlocked.
Check the bathroom for sewage smells. Sometimes these are due to stale water being trapped in the drains so if there’s a smell tip a couple of glasses of water slowly into the floor drains.
Make sure the safe isn’t locked, and that it works.
Inspect everything to make sure it’s in good working order – turn on taps, flush the toilet, open cupboards and drawers. If you find any problems that you can’t fix yourself, make a list for the room steward.
Check the minibar – is there anything there that isn’t included? Drinks in the fridge aren’t usually included, even if you have a drinks package. To avoid temptation remove them and store them somewhere else, which has the benefit of freeing up space for anything you want to put in there or add it to your list to ask the room steward to remove them.
Meet your cabin steward
While you’re in your cabin your cabin steward should come by and introduce themself. Make sure you remember their name so you can greet them when you see them in the corridor!
Now is the time to give them your list of things you need fixed, from the previous section. As well, you can ask them to provide a kettle if there isn’t one there – if you want one of course!
You can also ask them for more towels if you haven’t got enough, and they can even remove small items of furniture such as coffee tables if you’d prefer more space.
You may also like to ask your steward if certain other things in your room are complementary – such as tote bags, bottled water sitting on the desk, and so on. I’ve heard that Virgin Voyages used to provide kits for, let’s say, adult use that didn’t specify a cost but when people used them, they were surprised to find a charge on their account!
Unpacking
I’m a huge advocate of unpacking fully and finding a home for everything. How can you feel at home living out of a suitcase? Also, seeing the suitcase every day will remind you that it won’t be long until you have to pack up and disembark. Who needs that in their face when they’re trying to enjoy a lovely, relaxing cruise?
Look around the room for hidden storage. There are often drawers under couches or beds, cupboards in corners or above the bed, and drawers or cupboards in the bathroom. And there can be storage in ottomans too!
When you finish unpacking, stash your cases under the bed. Most cruise ship beds are designed to allow this, but you might find there is a lower frame around the edge that stops them sliding in. Just lift the bed and push them past this. Or if you have a big clamshell style suitcase you may need to open it, so it’s half its height and store it that way.
Set up a code on the safe and put your valuables straight in it. They’ll be safer and the bonus is that you’ll always know where they are!
Hang up your clothes – if there aren’t enough hangers you can ask your steward for more. But if there are more hangers than you need, remove them and put them under the bed or on the floor of the wardrobe, so they don’t rattle with the ship’s movements. Or some people leave them hanging and put a towel through them all, which stops them rattling too.
Does this make you count the days until your next cruise? I know I always am! Please comment with when your next cruise is! I’d really appreciate it if you’d subscribe to our emails and our YouTube channel too!
Set up your home-from-home
OK so you’ve unpacked and now it’s time for a bit of setting up, to achieve that home-from-home feeling.
Things I like to do are to find all the light switches, so I know which lights they turn on.
Look for all the power outlets. These will definitely be on the desk/vanity, but you may also find them next to the bed and in the bathroom.
There may also be USB outlets in these places and look for ones that are hidden! Bed lamps, telephones and the TV may all have them.
And if you need a power outlet near the bed, say if you have a CPAP machine, a lot of cruise ships have one hidden behind the bed, so pull it out and have a look! But remember this one is likely to require a European plug, so make sure you have an adapter.
Next thing is to put your magnetic hooks, lights and other accessories in places where you need them, then you can hang the last few things up. Hooks are great for cruise cards, phones, bags, hats and much more – I even hang my pyjamas on them to keep them out of the way during the day.
And my secret tip – many cruise bloggers tell you to bring a collapsible laundry hamper onboard. I don’t do this – our Away suitcases have a laundry bag tucked in a pocket, so we always use this for our dirty clothes. I hang it in the cupboard or on the wall using magnetic hooks.
One last thing – if you’re in an inside cabin, you can now turn on your window – what? Yes, that’s right you have a window to the outside world – it’s the bridge cam on the TV! We love to use it as our window in an inside cabin – if you leave it on at night, with the sound muted, you’ll be able to see at a glance if it’s daytime when you wake up. And you’ll also be able to see what the weather’s like.
So, you have your home from home all set up, what’s next?
Get your cruise started
Let’s look at the paperwork that will be in your cabin when you arrive. You should find a daily program, excursion tickets, invitations to various activities and raffle drawings, loyalty member drinks and there should also be an itinerary for the full cruise.
Most important thing: check you have tickets for all the excursions you booked through the cruise line. If you don’t follow up with the shore excursions desk as a priority.
Decide if you want to attend any of the events you’ve been invited to and have a look at the daily program to see what else is happening on that first day. If it’s a paper one use a highlighter to mark things you’re interested in. Some cruise apps allow you to favourite things so you can see them at a glance.
Check the itinerary for formal and other party nights, if you are interested in these, and see if any conflict with speciality restaurant bookings so you can change them. Alternatively, if you aren’t interested, these might be great nights to book a speciality restaurant!
If you have loyalty status there’s often information in your cabin about what perks you’re entitled to, and it’s good to know these up front so you don’t miss out. If there isn’t any info in your cabin go to the loyalty manager’s desk – they’re often the future cruise director – and ask.
And speaking of loyalty perks and the like, if you were expecting something, such as a bottle of wine in your cabin, for your status or from your travel agent and it isn’t there, you’ll need to follow that up too.
Bonus cruise tips
That wraps up everything to do in your cabin but if you have any other ideas please comment below!
My final tips aren’t to do with the cabin but will help get your cruise off to a fantastic start.
Get your muster activities over and done with. You can often watch the safety video online before you even get to the cruise, so get that out of the way. Then as soon as you can visit your muster station and get checked in. We always do this as soon as we arrive on board.
Next put your phone in aeroplane mode to avoid high charges when you are out at sea, from the maritime network.
And then don’t forget to sit down, relax and have a drink with your travel group to get the voyage started. Whether it’s a cocktail, mocktail, champagne or coffee, get your favourite drink and say CHEERS!
Now that you know how to decide which cruise line to book, to learn what to pack click here, and to find out the secrets behind the cruise ships, click here! Or click here for all my cruise tips.
Links to products
Items for your cruise packing list (may be affiliate links):
🪝 Magnetic hooks https://geni.us/fZ2C9l
📋 Magnetic clips https://geni.us/Av4sxur
🚪 Over the door organiser https://geni.us/ZYSDgz
🪟 Blackout curtain https://amzn.to/4e8q5X7
🪪 Lanyard with sleeve https://amzn.to/4e5brjq
📱 Phone card holder https://geni.us/J7vn
⌚️Princess medallion holder wrist band https://geni.us/BlvH
⭕️ Princess medallion holder sticks to phone https://geni.us/QcSsA9
⛓️ Princess medallion holder necklace https://geni.us/hm4gli3
🏷️ Air Tag holder https://geni.us/amD7BgG
📱Phone case with loops and cross body strap https://geni.us/EgqhaY
🔌 Cruise safe power adapter USB https://geni.us/BOI64Fs
🔋 Cruise safe power strip with cord https://geni.us/lQrtk2
🪫 Cruise safe power strip plug in 3 https://geni.us/xb3Z
✈️🛳️ When we travel, we use the following (may be affiliate links):
📱 Phone data: AloSIM eSIMs. Use code 7NBZZYI
🔐 Data and device security: NordVPN
🎟️ Tours and tickets: Viator
🧳 Away luggage. Get $40 off and we get a commission if you use this link
🏷️ Air Tags have helped us find lost luggage
🛍️ Mardi’s favourite toiletry bag
🧴Larger containers to decant toiletries into
⏰ Philips Hue 2 can be used as a sunrise lamp
🌅 Philips Sunrise alarm clock
🪝 Suction hooks for additional hotel storage
🧊 Packing cubes
🪞 Folding lighted makeup mirror:
🪭 Handheld fan for warmer climates
💍 We use this hanging jewellery organiser as a travel medications organiser
🎧 Airfly allows Bluetooth headphones to connect to in-flight entertainment
🧳 Level8 luggage
About
We are Mardi and Michael Linke. We’ve been travelling together for over 25 years and we love to share our experiences, showing the places we go and reviewing hotels, airlines and cruises.
Our main content is on YouTube. Click the image above to see it!
