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We recently returned home from our first cruise as a family of 4. As much as I love cruising, I was a little apprehensive about having 4 people live in one room for a whole week. Just because you pay for extra people doesn’t mean that you receive extra storage or a bigger space. Here are a few of our favorite things for cruising that help make living in a cruise cabin for a week a little bit easier.
- Magnetic hooks – I can’t believe I had never thought about this before this trip. Walls and doors in your cruise cabin… they’re metal, making them the perfect place to hang magnets. The ones that we used were fairly small and wouldn’t hold a ton, but they were perfect for ball caps and hats, purses, gift bags from our shopping onboard, and lanyards. Anything that can keep items off the floor and not using valuable drawer or shelf space is a win in my book.
- Outlets – If you are as concerned about documenting your trip as we are, you are going to need a few extra outlets. You will find one in your bathroom and one by your vanity area on the ship. If you’re counting, that’s two for your whole room. For a boost in that number (3 regular + 2 USB) we like this power strip. As much as we normally love a surge protector, on a cruise ship, it’s a no-go.
- SNOOZ – I don’t know how we ever functioned without this handy tool. We need our white noise to sleep, especially when there are two extra little people in the room. You can turn this sound machine down to a whisper or up to something resembling a jet engine, depending on your preference. And it has a handy little app so you don’t have to get out of bed to turn it on or adjust it. We have used this one for years and never leave home without it.
- Travel Wallet – I received this gem for my birthday last year and oh how I loved using it the whole trip. It has pockets inside that fit 4 passports, multiple card slots, a pocket inside for cash, and a pocket outside that can hold your phone, airline tickets, or both. It was perfect carrying it as a wallet all week and as a clutch to carry to our evening meals with a few extras in it like lip gloss and peppermints.
- Cruise tags – Again, first time using these on this cruise, but so much easier than dealing with the little paper tags and tracking down a stapler the morning of the cruise and hoping that the paper and staples hold so that your luggage finds you on the ship. Ours were a gift from our travel agent when we booked our cruise.
- Extra hangers – Depending on how long your cruise is and how often you’ll be dressing up for dinner, you may or may not have enough hangers for your evening wear (especially with two extra stowaways in your room). When I pack, I layer two dresses per hanger for myself and do the same with my husbands dress shirts before packing them in our garment bag. I also had my daughter’s dresses each on a hanger so that they could go straight into our closet when we started unpacking.
- eBags packing cubes – I have a feeling that this is another item that will have itself on repeat, but we never leave home without our packing cubes either. For cruising, each member of our family has their own set of colored bags making it easier to organize and find things as we are traveling. I’ll often pack by “event” as well, so a “swim cube” gets packs in our carryons that has flip flops and everything we need for a quick trip to the beach.
- Hanging toiletry bag – Again, this one will be on repeat because I don’t leave home without it. I don’t have the one linked below, but something like this is invaluable to hang on the back of your bathroom door, keep clutter off of your sink area, and keep everyone’s basic necessities organized.
I feel like there is so much more I could share, but we’ll leave it here for now. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below and we’ll do our best to answer them.
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