As any parent can attest, traveling with children involves a lot of luggage. Somehow when you have kids, even a trip to the grocery store becomes something that leaves you wishing for a pack mule loping along behind you. So trying to pack for a cruise with kids in tow? You’d better start early!
My family actually starts a solid 2-3 weeks before we are due to leave for a cruise. There are a lot of items that we don’t use in our daily lives that we do want to have with us on board the ship. So we start with those items, and work our way down to the daily use stuff as we get closer to sailing.
Get Ready: Print Luggage Tags
Assuming you are sailing with a line that requires luggage tags, you will want to print these out in advance. Before you add anything to a suitcase, put a luggage tag on it! You don’t want to put this off and be scrambling when you arrive at the port. Even for bags that are staying with you and not the luggage porters, put a luggage tag on it! This serves as a “lost and found” device in case of emergency, and it is also a great trigger when you are looking around the house before you leave. Do you see a bag with a luggage tag on it? It should probably be going with you!
Consider also, any bags that you are packing into other bags. This might be a dirty clothes bag, or a special bag that you bring along to make extra space for souvenirs. Go ahead and attach a luggage tag to each of these, and they will be ready to put out into the hallway on the last night for pickup.
Tip: Rather than following the instructions to staple (or heaven forbid, tape) the paper tag directly to your bags, consider buying yourself a set of luggage tag holders built specifically for your cruise line. These are far more durable than pure paper, resist water, and maximize the odds that your luggage will actually arrive at your cabin in time!
Step 1. Pack Theme Night Clothing
Practically every cruise is going to have at least one or two theme nights or special parties with the opportunity to dress up. These are not required, of course, but it is a lot of fun to get the whole family participating, and it gives you a great additional photo op each time you do! By the time you are within about a month of your cruise, you should be able to find out the themes available. Royal Caribbean, for instance, posts the first draft of a schedule of events in their app about 30 days before departure, including the theme for dinner each night. Virgin Voyages has two set themes that you can count on for every voyage. If in doubt, ask your travel agent, or look up similar cruises to see what you might expect.
My family usually packs for every theme night, which could mean as many as 4 themes and 2 additional formal nights that we need to prepare for. These clothes very often fall outside of our usual daily wear routine, so we can pack them early to get a head start! We’ve been known to share a single large garment bag for all of our formal and theme clothing and accessories, and pack that bag up in a single weekend afternoon three weeks before the cruise. It’s the perfect way to start the countdown to our vacation!
Tip: Storage space is limited in your cabin! Minimize the amount you need to pack by considering what you can re-wear during your time on board. For example, my daughter has a beautiful prom-style dress in pure white that she adores. Formal night, check. White night, also check!
Step 2. Pack Cruise Essentials
The best advice I ever got on packing for a cruise is this: make sure you have your passport and your boarding pass. Everything else can be purchased in a pinch!
That said, there are a few special items that we like to have with us, that are specific to cruising. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases below. They’re still the products I use and would recommend to my family. As a matter of fact, I have!)
- lanyards with phone connectors, to carry around our door keys, extra cash for tips, and even our phones so we can dress without pockets
- a collection of magnetic hooks for hanging up hats, lanyards, wet swimsuits, and whatever else would otherwise be lying around
- a handful of magnet rocks for clipping papers such as excursion tickets up to the wall to keep the desk surface clear(er)
- a hanging shoe organizer (which we can hang with magnetic hooks) to hold shoes, sunglasses, and whatever other sundries would otherwise wind up tossed about the floor of the wardrobe
- an assortment of cruise ducks that we plan to hide around the ship for others to find (and passports for them to “carry”)
All of these items are optional, absolutely, but having them with us makes for a better vacation for our family. And since we don’t use them outside of cruising, they are perfect items to pack well in advance of our trip!
Step 3. Set Aside Carry-ons
From bottles of wine to consume in your room to a swimsuit and dinner clothes for embarkation day, there are certain things you need to carry onto the ship with you rather than leave with a porter to deliver to your cabin later. You will want to pack a separate small bag, easy to lug around with you, just for these essentials. Don’t risk these items getting mixed in with your normal luggage; put them directly into your carry-on bag!
Tip: Your passport and your boarding passes are your most crucial carry-on items. Also think about sunscreen, medications, a diaper or entertainment bag for the kids, and the cash you’ll need to tip your hardworking luggage porter at the dock.
Step 4. Pack Daily Wear for Everyone
My family does this in two stages: we pack for the kids 2 weeks out, and we pack for the parents 1 week before departure. This gives us plenty of time to handle last-minute laundry or make a run to pick up more shorts for the boy who’s outgrown everything he owns since our last getaway!
This is where a detailed packing list really shines. You’ve already got your theme clothing handled, so now you just need normal casual “cruise wear” to get you through the length of your trip. Don’t forget about swimsuits and cover-ups, socks and underwear, and pajamas, just like any trip away.
Tip: Common cruise advice goes like this: lay out all of the clothes and all of the cash you think you’ll need on your bed. Now pack half the clothes and twice the cash! For traveling with kids, I would modify this advice just slightly: pack twice the socks and underwear for your kids, but you can take half the rest of the clothes! You parents know what I’m talking about here.
Step 5. Pack Your Overnight Bag
Okay, last step! If you live any distance at all from the cruise port, I hope you are following advice to travel at least one day before your departure. Rather than try to dig through everyone’s luggage in the hotel, we find it’s easiest to have a separate overnight bag just for our hotel necessities and toiletries. This bag gets packed up the night before / morning of our departure from home, so we can get all of the last-minute essentials that we had to use right up until the time we leave home – phone chargers, toothbrushes, daily medications, that between-the-knees pillow that keeps Mom’s sciatica from acting up – you know the stuff.
Tip: Pick a larger bag than you think you’ll need for this, because it’s also going to be your catch-all for the things you nearly forgot to bring with you, as well as car/plane snacks and other kid-friendly essentials!
Any type of travel with children can be rough to prepare for. The best way to lower your stress and set yourself up for a great, relaxing vacation together is to spread out the workload. Do a little bit at a time, and then rest and recover while the stack of packed luggage slowly builds itself up. Before you know it, you will be lying by the pool with a cold drink in your hand!
