In just 24 days I get to venture onto another Cruise! It’s my daughters 17th birthday and a cruise is what she asked for her gift. We narrowed down the options for her birthday week quite quickly because she saw that a few cruises were 8 days instead of 7. She quickly narrowed it down further because Royal is her favorite cruise line (yea shes 17 and already has an opinion… spoiled much??)
We get to go sail on Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas. I’ve been on a couple of other oasis class ships, a few of them multiple times. The ships are massive! Some don’t like big ships because they think with all those people it will be crowded, but I feel quite the opposite. There are so many places to go and things to see and do that everyone is quite spread out and it doesn’t seem too crowded at all. I’d say the parades they do tend to be the most crowded, but any parade on any ship will seem crowded. One of my big tips for Oasis class ships is that if you need to cross the ship from the front to the back or the back to the front, go to the Central Park level and walk through the park. Yes these ships have a park in the middle. It makes for much nicer, more direct way across the ship and it’s always a nice peaceful walk. Sometimes you’ll be walking when a quartet is playing music which is lovely.
Elevators: The day of the week is on the mat, take a glance to remind you what day it is. Also, the elevators get super busy, especially on a port day! Use the stairs for 1 flight. then get on the elevator. Sometimes the floor you are on is insane crowded… get away from it! Go down to go up. Go up to go down.
Anytime you have a big bunch of people in front of the elevator all waiting to get on, you should go to the next level. Meaning, when you arrive back from a port, you will usually arrive on the second or third level. Or when a show finishes everyone will be waiting for elevators. There will be sooo many people trying to congregate at the elevators, waiting for it to come down to pick up and then go back up. It takes forever and they get full fast!
On port days, I highly recommend walking up the stairs, one level and just press the down button. This will allow you to get on the elevator that will be going down fill up again with everybody and then it will head back up – With you in the back of the elevator. If you go up one level and press the up button, it will skip you until it’s completely filled up with everyone below.
This works in the mornings when everybody is trying to go up to the Windjammer for their buffet breakfast. You can catch the elevator on the down word route and get in, and it will very quickly be turning around to go up to the top.
If you are staying on the 8th floor – for example – and you need to get up to the 14th deck. Jump on a downward elevator and get in. It will pick up anyone else below you and then you will all head up together. Sometimes if you don’t do that, the elevator will pass your deck and fill up on the floors below you before going up to the top. It seems like it might take longer but when you see elevator doors close in front of you full of people 3-4 times before there is room for you, you’ll get it. 
After you get in your room and unpack your suitcase, keep your suitcase unzipped and open and slide it under your bed. It will now be an open hamper, and you can slide it out throw clothes in and push it back under. It saves you from having piles of dirty laundry in the closet or having to bring a collapsible hamper that takes the closet space.
The walls are magnetic. You can go on Amazon and grab some heavy duty magnetic hooks and put them on the walls – they a great for hats. Your key card lanyard (I have lots of these for free if anyone wants one). Light weight swimsuit coverup etc. if you prefer the paper version of the daily schedule, you can typically grab that in a couple of places on the ship, including near the customer service desk.
If you tend to have lots of lotions and potions, grab a door hanging shoe rack. Hang it on your bathroom door and you will have lots of extra storage that way.
Be sure to bring some kind of power block/extension cord! Do not bring a power strip that has a reset button because they will take it away (for some reason that reset button makes them think it is a fire hazard). But a block that can plug into your plug that allows you more plug access and USB will be very helpful, there are a few good ones on Amazon. Most cruise ship cabins have only one plug (and it’s on the desk not near your nightstand) so plan ahead for that.
If you have an inside cabin and you don’t like it pitch black, there are some magnetic motion activated nightlights you can grab cheap on Amazon that is really helpful when you go to get out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Don’t put them up too high because when you roll over in bed, the lights will turn on. But I have found putting them at floor level to be helpful because when I start to get out of bed and my feet pass them, they will turn on.
If you have kids under 10, then you certainly should be taking advantage of kids club! All of those who work in Royal Caribbean kids clubs have early childhood education degrees. That means they actually like children! They enjoy hanging out with them and doing activities with them, and my daughter always loved going because she got involved in whatever they were doing. Science experiments, super hero costumes, even talent shows.
Dinners are super valuable when it comes to Royal Caribbean benefits. When you sit in the main dining room (I don’t know about “my time” dining, this is for regular dining times) – there is a Royal Caribbean kids club employee outside the doors of the dining room waiting for your kids when they are done. The staff will bring the children their dinners when they bring you your appetizer. So by the time you finished your appetizer, the kids have finished their dinner, you can walk them to the employee who will take them up to kids club. that way you can go sit and enjoy the next hour of your dining experience and head out to a show if you have plans to do that. There have been many times I have gone back to pick up my daughter just to go get her in her pajamas and take her back to hang out in kids club. She has spent many evenings in kids club and falling asleep in front of a movie while I’ve been at a game or comedy show. But she would always ask in the morning to go back showing me the plans for the day. She’s turning 17 on the ship this year but I’m guessing she will make some friends in the teens bar.
If you are flying in the night before, I highly suggest you get a zip up garment bag, like a dress bag. Not like a thick garment suitcases. Just a thin dress bag. Use packing tape to tape your luggage tag to the outside and/or slide it in the pocket if it has one or attach it to the hangers after you put your clothes in it later. I usually put two luggage tags somewhere on there.
Pack your clothes you might not want wrinkled WITH their hangers into your suitcase. It’s fast! Grab hold of them all, lay down and fold over.
When you get to your hotel the night before the cruise, take out the clothes iron any you think need it. Take all those hanging clothes and put them in a garnet bag and tie the hooks together. I usually tie them together using a thick hair tie because it’s easy to take off and it doesn’t break like a rubber band. One time I did a zip tie but then I forgot scissors lol. There is not any irons in your room and royal Caribbean ships don’t have them available like Carnival ships do. This will mean all your shirts and dresses are close to wrinkle free.
Now you will have a bunch of extra space in your luggage! This is a great place to put 12 pack cans of soda, water or wine if you want to take those to your room. Walmart will deliver same day so if you plan ahead and do a Walmart order they can deliver it to your hotel room the night before your cruise with whatever water or soda you might want. We usually split this stuff among a few different suitcases, using swimsuits and stuff as padding (you might want your swimsuits before your luggage is delivered so it’s good to have anyway!). If you have a carry-on size suitcase, you can move the stuff into your larger suitcase and use that for your soda and water and carry on. I believe the reason they tell people to bring it as a carry-on is because they really throw the luggage around and it would be a disaster if someone’s wine or a soda broke and leaked all over someone else’s clothes as they pile the suitcases up. Carry on this suitcase when you board the ship and set it to the side while you lunch. The cabins usually are open at 1pm. I tend to board the ship around 11:30am then head to the buffet for lunch. After lunch the rooms are usually ready, so I go change into the swimsuit I bought and hit the pool!
I usually like to take some potato chips and basic chocolate also because I’m a snacker (especially playing games), and those kinds of things are super expensive on the ship. By packing like this, it will be a very fast unpacking experience the first afternoon also. Your garment bag gets delivered and you unzip and hang up your clothes. Then it’s just putting the last of it in the drawers. It goes very fast.
You can check out towels at the pool two at a time. Always make sure you check them back in. The maids will not usually take them out of your room because you need to check them back in on the pool deck. If you don’t check your towels back and you will see a charge for them.
Last, bring a good game! There are some great pocket travel games that can be really fun when you are sitting around. I’ve included a few of our favorites in my list.
CLICK HERE for my shopping list on amazon that has some of my favorite cruise and travel items.
