Ultimate Cruise Preparation Checklist: What to Remember Before Leaving Home
- Ryan O'Hare
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
So you've worked with your Voyage Geeks advisor to find the perfect itinerary, the perfect ship, and the perfect stateroom. Now you've booked it, and you'll soon be on the cruise of a lifetime. But as your departure date nears and the excitement builds, it's very easy to overlook a few essentials that can make or break your trip. Trust me — I know from experience! So I've put together this guide to serve as a brainstorm for you to help you think through some of those often forgotten miscellaneous things.
This article isn't specifically about what to pack in your suitcase — there are plenty of articles about that for every destination, including right here on the Voyage Geeks blog. Instead, this guide focuses on the things to consider and remember before you leave home, so you can simply relax and be confident that you are ready to travel.
Passport
If you are reading this and prepping for a cruise soon, do me a favor — GO LOCATE YOUR PASSPORT RIGHT NOW! All cruises require a passport. Period. There are a few key exceptions to that rule, but that exception would have been noted during the planning and booking process if it applies to you.
After planning countless trips for clients, I've received countless panicked phone calls because somebody has misplaced their passport. During the booking process, I will have asked you to provide me with your passport information as this is required to be loaded to your reservation or for booking international air travel. This is saved securely in your file with Voyage Geeks. However, if after you sent that to your Voyage Geeks advisor, you tossed it back in the kitchen drawer that you promise will eventually get organized, you'll want to get your eyes on it now and then KEEP IT IN A SAFE PLACE and ready for your travel day.
During your travel, make sure to keep your passport in your carry-on baggage — a backpack or a purse, for example. Do not place it inside any suitcase you intend to check with the airline, the cruise line, or even leave with a hotel bell desk. This should remain with you at all times.
Travel Documents
Even in the digital era, a cruise comes with a lot of documentation — from your cruise confirmation, luggage tags, airline confirmations and boarding passes, hotel confirmations, etc. When you work with Voyage Geeks, we ensure that all the necessary documentation you need for your trip is safely stored in your digital itinerary in Travefy in the Information & Documents section at the top. You can always view this digitally, or it can be printed out if you prefer.
Pro Tip #1: If you prefer paper documentation for your trip, just ask! We will happily ship that to you before you depart.
I recommend that you keep a folder with all your important documentation in it. We (the Voyage Geeks, Ryan and Amanda) travel so frequently that we have a dedicated plastic folder that we use for just such a purpose, labeled prominently "Travel Documents" on the front. Choose whatever type of folder you want, but if you have things printed out, get yourself a folder.
Be sure to keep these documents with you in your carry-on baggage. You will need these close at hand when you are checking in for your flight, checking into a hotel, or checking in for your cruise.
Medications
A very important thing to consider is the length of trip you are taking and how much medication you may need to bring along. If you are like me, you have a pill organizer which fits a week's worth of medications. But if you are traveling longer than a week or over the days which you normally refill your organizer, you will need to bring extra medications along. I recommend you save a pill bottle from a prior refill and use that to store the extra that will not fit in your organizer. You can choose whatever method you like to bring it all along, but the point is — bring enough medication to last your entire trip. And maybe a few extra days of medication as well, just in case of any delays returning home.
Pro Tip #2: Check your medication supply well in advance of travel. Request any refills if you do not have enough to cover your entire trip.
It's not just your medications themselves that you should bring. You may also need to bring along any medical paperwork you might need such as documentation for prescriptions, emergency contacts for your doctor, etc. You can also check in with your doctor(s) before leaving to ensure that you have everything you may need to travel.
Make sure to keep your medications in your carry-on baggage (you may be noticing a theme with these first three items). Luggage that goes completely missing is relatively rare (it does happen, but not as often as media would have you believe), but misplaced or late arriving luggage is much more common. And when you check your bags with the cruise line they may take several hours to arrive to your stateroom as it takes time to load that onto the ship and navigate it up to your floor and room. If you have a specific time to take medication, you wouldn't want to be anxiously awaiting your bags to do so.
Pro Tip #3: Bring a small day bag. Not only is this great to hold all the above carry-on items, but you can double the use for carrying essentials for excursions (sunscreen, water, ID, etc.) or for embarkation day to carry your swimsuit onboard to hit the pool before your luggage arrives to your stateroom.
Check the Weather
I already mentioned that this article is not going to tell you exactly what to pack in your suitcase for your specific destination. However, I do encourage you to check the weather for your cruise destinations - embarkation/disembarkation city and ports of call.
Alaska can be cold in July. The Caribbean in February can be quite breezy. The Mediterranean can be overwhelmingly humid in August. That's all generic forecasting and advice — but the actual weather can vary widely on the days you will be in port.
I recommend using your weather app of choice and adding your port stops as saved locations so you can check it frequently on the days leading up to your trip. It can change frequently and wildly, so keep a close eye on it. You can see more about how to do this in our article: 4 Key Travel Apps to Make Your Trip Go Smoothly with Voyage Geeks.
Get Charged Up
Nothing is worse than lining up to board a flight and your phone gives you the dreaded "Low Battery" alert. I've seen my fair share of people huddled around the one single electrical outlet to be found in an entire airport to know that many choose to ignore this piece of advice.
Be sure to charge all your devices fully before leaving home. And I recommend bringing along a small, portable charger so if you still are nearing the battery danger zone you won't be tethered to that single, coveted outlet along with the others.
Pro Tip #4: Most streaming apps allow you to download content for viewing while you are offline. Be sure to do that before leaving home. The WiFi in public spaces is often overcrowded and you may not finish downloading that full season of Stranger Things before you have to board your flight.
Complete Your Cruise Check-In
The check-in process for a cruise is often more involved than check-in for a flight. You may need to upload passport information and a photo of yourself. You will need to provide payment information and authorization to be used for incidentals onboard. There may be health questionnaires to complete. Each cruise line will ask different questions and will open/close online check-in at different times. Your Voyage Geeks advisor will walk you through those nuances.
Doing check-in online not only gets it done and off your plate for embarkation day, but for many cruise lines it can speed up the process of embarkation significantly. Many cruise lines now have dedicated lines for those who have successfully completed all steps online, such as Royal Caribbean's Express Pass lanes, or the Green Lane for Princess Cruises.
Notify Your Bank
Your cruise is likely taking you to many different international destinations. And you certainly will be making purchases outside of your normal home location. Both of these factors can be red flags for a bank and you may find yourself with a declined charge while trying to pay for that new Hawaiian shirt (it looks great, btw).
While this is great to prevent actual fraud, it can be very frustrating when you are trying to enjoy your vacation but instead are now on hold with your bank to resolve payment issues.
Prevent the frustration ahead of time — most banks and credit cards now allow you to inform them of upcoming travel. There is often a form to complete in their online banking site. Some cards are intelligent enough to document this automatically when you purchase a flight. But when in doubt on how your particular card works, you can call the customer service number on the back of your card and they will walk you through getting it set up.
Notify Your Emergency Contact
Cruise lines (and sometimes airlines for international travel) ask for your emergency contact information either at time of booking or during check-in. But how many people actually reach out to those trusted contacts to inform them of their plans and what to do should they actually be contacted in the unlikely event of an emergency?
Will they answer that unknown number from a foreign country? Or do they have their phone set up to send all unknown numbers to voicemail?
Inform your emergency contact about:
Cruise line and name of ship
Embarkation and disembarkation port
Dates of travel
Ports of call
What they can do for you if they receive an emergency call
This may seem like a safety formality, but it can be truly a life saver in the most serious of circumstances.
Summary
For the TL;DR type folks reading, here's a quick summary:
Get your passport — NOW! Put in a safe place ready for your travel day. Keep this in your carry-on bag while traveling.
Gather all your important documentation for the cruise, flights, hotels, etc. This is safely stored digitally in your Travefy itinerary if you booked with Voyage Geeks. Print it if you like and keep it in a folder. Keep these documents in your carry-on bag.
Check your medications and set aside enough for your entire trip. Take extra to cover for any travel delays. Request refills if you don't have enough to cover your trip. Keep your medication in your carry-on bag.
Charge your important devices before leaving home. Download any shows, movies, or music you want to listen to while offline.
Complete your cruise check-in to speed up the process of embarkation.
Notify your bank of your upcoming travels to prevent any errant fraud alerts.
Notify your emergency contacts about your travel plans and what to expect should they actually receive a call about you.
How Can Voyage Geeks Help?
If you found this article helpful, just think how helpful we can be if you choose us to help you plan your next cruise. We are experts in all things cruising and we can make sure you are fully prepared for your next cruise adventure.
Ready to plan your next voyage? Get in touch today.