Here Are Five Good Pointers About Cruising

A look back at my 9/23/13 blog entry reminds me that, upon completion of my first-ever cruise (7 nights, Vancouver departure, Alaska, inside passage), I admitted to having enjoyed it, but not to the extent that I was overly anxious to do another one.  One thing I did have to admit, though, was that I felt Celebrity Cruises did a lot of things right.

Well, it took him a while, but my husband Mike finally convinced me to try another cruise.  We spent 11 nights on the Celebrity Equinox in May, heading out of Miami to six different Caribbean ports.

Our reasoning for picking this particular cruise was simple.  We own a timeshare in Aruba, visit the island at least every other year, and love it unconditionally.  That being said, we’ve often wondered if we might like some of the other Caribbean islands, too.  But we’ve always hesitated to give up our Aruba week for a week somewhere else without being relatively certain we would enjoy it.  After perusing dozens of options, we chose our cruise based purely on which islands it stopped at.  Almost all of them had at one time or another made it into our discussions about islands we suspected we might enjoy.

Long story short – we loved it.  We loved the length of the cruise, we loved the ship, we loved the spectacular crew, we loved seeing the different islands.  We spent a day at Magens Bay on St. Thomas – every bit as gorgeous as we’d heard.  We spent a day on a catamaran on St. Croix, and a day at a small  resort on St. Lucia.  We spent a day at Boatyard Beach on Barbados, and a day on a bus tour around both the Dutch and the French sides of St. Maarten.  We had the entire gorgeous beach to ourselves at Beach Limerz on Antigua.  In addition, we had plenty of time on the ship, where we lazed at the pool, played trivia, did a wine tasting and a wine blending class, and just basically relaxed.

But I thought what I would do in this blog – my first since last November, and only my second since 2014!! – is to offer some pointers on how to maximize your enjoyment on a cruise.  These are things I picked up from different cruise forums, etc.  

Disclaimer - some of the things I mention may very well only apply to cruises on Celebrity ships.  The reason being, as you probably gathered, I've never been on any other cruise line!

Hope you enjoy!

1. Get the unlimited internet package.

We weren’t going to.  I mean, we’re both addicts at home, but, we reasoned, we would certainly not be using the internet during the cruise.  However, our need to stay “connected” with the outside world overcame all arguments, and about two days into the cruise, we signed up for the unlimited internet package for two devices.  I have a neurotic need to stay in touch with my petsitter, Mike likes to keep up with his sports teams – and we’re both Words With Friends fanatics.  It’s a little pricey, but we felt it was worth it.

2.  Get the Premium Beverage Package. 

We’re not huge drinkers.  However, that being said, we enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail when we’re vacationing, and we do like wine with dinner.  We talked about it and talked about it, and finally came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to be watching the drink prices.  The premium package on our cruise covered anything up to $13.00 per serving.  We ordered our wines based on what we felt like having, rather than on price.  We enjoyed spending time in the various bars around the ship.  We even had a drink or two while hanging out at the pool.  Not having to worry about surprise charges at the end of the cruise made this a very good decision

Bonus tip – we travel “Concierge Class” on Celebrity.  Among the “perks” we get is a bottle of sparkling wine in the cabin when we get there.  It’s not exactly Veuve Clicquot, so it’s not like we had any intention of sipping it out on the balcony.  However, what we DID do was to order orange juice a few mornings with our room service.  Voila!  Make-your-own mimosas!

3.  Don't Over Pack!

Despite the fact that I don’t get dressed up often, and don’t wear a ton of makeup, I am nevertheless known as the queen of overpacking.  I really tried my best this time, but failed again.

If you’ve ever been on a cruise before, you already know how tiny the cabins are.  Yes, they’re very cleverly laid out, with an impressive amount of storage space - but they’re still about the size of your master bedroom at home. 

Our (less-than-spacious) home away from home!

Here’s the thing – a lot of the ships (including ours) have done away with “formal nights” in the dining rooms.  These were replaced on our ship by “elegant chic” nights, which just meant no jeans, shorts, tee shirts, sneakers, etc.  You can now make do on a week or longer cruise with 3-4 simple dresses (think LL Bean “fitness dresses,” for instance), a few pair of khakis for the men, along with a nice assortment of polo and dress shirts.  One or two pair of shoes for dinner, along with some pool shoes and some running shoes/sneakers will do you just fine. Oh, and swimwear, of course, if the weather on your cruise is prime pool weather - I took two suits for me, two for Mike.  It worked out fine.  And we used them every day.

Now, this being said, there is still a lot of “stuff” you’ll want to bring along.  Shampoos, conditioners, hair brushes, styling products, shave gel, deodorants, moisturizers, some makeup.  And for a couple, most of this stuff is doubled.

Here is a great tip that I picked up on one of the cruise forums:  bring an over- the-door shoe bag.  I kid you not.  I bought one on Amazon for about $20.00, hung it over the door in the bathroom, and kept all of our toiletries in there.  They were easy to find, but still out of the way.  It was perfect!

Shoe Bag Storage!

As I always do when traveling, I brought along one of those pop-open laundry hampers.  They’re about $10 at the grocery store, or you can sometimes get them much cheaper at flea markets, etc.  So much easier than jamming your used clothes into plastic bags.

I also took along a portable clothes line to hang up in the bathroom to dry clothes on.  That was a bit unwieldy, but it worked.

Something else that proved useful was a pack of smallish magnetic hooks (thanks again, Amazon!).  We used these to hang up our daily activity notices, etc.

One thing I also brought, but will not recommend, is a “portable washing machine.”  This was a plastic contraption that you fill with water and cleaner, then add several items of clothing.  Secure it, and shake it up and down for a while.  Rinse, refill, and repeat.  I found that just washing stuff out in the sink worked every bit as well, and was a whole lot easier. 

4. Leave Unrealistic Expectations – and Your Inner Couch Potato - at Home!

I am cynical beyond all reason.  Also jaded.  Likewise, I am an insufferable snob about things like music and art.

That being said, do go and see some of the shows onboard your ship. It’s fun, and sometimes they’re actually pretty good.  (And when they’re spectacularly bad – that can be fun, too!)

We even attended the “Silent Disco” one night.  This is a Celebrity Cruises thing.  When you walk in, you are each given a wireless headphone.  There is a DJ, and he is playing three different stations of music.  In other words, the reason Mike was looking at me funny at one point was because he was dancing to something like REM - I was dancing to Abba.  It sounds stupid, I know, but it’s kind of fun!

Likewise, be adventurous at dinner.  Try something you’ve never had.  Worst case scenario, if you don’t like it, they’ll bring you something else.

Talk to people!  Mike and I are pretty introverted.  But if there’s a couple at the next table who are talking about something you have an interest in, and they’re not whispering, join in!  You might even learn something!

Also - do get off the ship at the ports.  These are places you might never otherwise experience.  If you decide you don’t like what you see, you can just stop somewhere for a drink, take a walk, or simply return to the ship. There is a deadline on when you can get back on the ship, but there is no minimum amount of time you must stay off!



Beautiful Magen's Bay on St. Thomas

5. Don’t Be One of “Those” People!

The crew and service staff work their butts off on these cruises.  These men and women are working for months on end with little or no time off. And, more than anywhere else I have ever spent a vacation, they will do whatever they can possibly do to make sure you enjoy yourself, and have everything you need.

So, yes, ask for what you need.  But don’t be pushy or nasty about it.  Be polite.  And if it’s something they aren’t able to do for you, don’t act like a jerk.  Just thank them and get on with your life.  Your trip isn’t going to be ruined because they aren’t able to provide you with an extra bathrobe, or a footrest.

In case you aren’t aware, tips are automatically added to your meals, drinks, etc.  (At least on Celebrity.)  You can prepay for this, which we did, just to avoid too huge a credit card bill after the fact. 

But, you know what else you can do?  You can also cough up a little more cash for someone who truly goes above and beyond to help make your vacation special.  A small extra tip and a nice note to your cabin attendant isn’t going to break you, but it could mean the world to that person, just to know you appreciated his or her hard work.

And one last thing, before I get down off of my high horse – say “please” and “thank you.”  (Not just on your cruise – everywhere it is warranted!  But I think that’s another blog, for another time.)

Most of all, relax and have fun!  After all, that is what cruises – and vacations in general – are all about!

See you onboard! I’ll be the redhead with the martini.