What are the best Dollar Tree cruise hacks? — featuring Life Well Cruised

0:00 On a recent Dollar Tree haul, I found some bargain travel essentials and new cruise hacks that you could use for your next trip. While I often shop on Amazon, these travel budget hacks can all be found, albeit for 125, at the dollar store. [music] Hi there, I'm Elana from the website

0:23 lifewwellcruise.com. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Now, recently I went to the dollar store in search of new travel essentials. And honestly, I was pretty impressed with some of the, let's just call them, hidden gems that I found, including some items that are literally, let's just say, inspired by

0:43 some of the most popular cruise items and hacks. In this video, I'm going to share with you cruise cabin hacks, cruise packing hacks, um, some cruise and travel wellness items and also some of the items that probably I suggest that you don't get at the dollar store and where you can find them instead. And

1:01 because many of these are sort of hacks, they aren't just the items themselves, I'm hoping that maybe I can inspire you a little bit to think about how you can use some of these items differently and save money at the same time. Now, before I get started, I did want to mention that if you like this video, if you find

1:18 it helpful, informative, or enjoyable in any way, then please do give this video a big thumbs up. I really do appreciate it. And please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Let's get started. All right, let's start off with cruise cabin hacks or cruise cabin essentials, the stinky bowl spray. Now,

1:35 you know, if you're a cruiser that this is basically an inspired byproduct of PooPourri. Even the packaging is the same and I really do like this size. Um you could even bring it along with you when you are traveling. It's really good. Now I have to say I tried it and this one um the inspired by product

1:58 smells a little bit more perfumey than this one. Uh but still it does actually work and there is a lemon scent as well. All right, speaking of cruise cabin essentials, the number one item that cruisers are bringing these days is magnet hooks. Now, why do you need magnet hooks for a cruise? Well, that is

2:16 because cruise cabin walls, unless you're on a ship that's older than about 25 years or so, which most of them aren't, um, your walls are going to be metal. So, you're able to put a hook onto the wall and actually get extra vertical space. Now, I do have a little caution about that. I will tell you in a

2:32 minute. But first, I did want to share with you these magnet clips. They are actually really good because in a past dollar store video, I said maybe you skip buying these at the dollar store. These are so good. I have a magnetic whiteboard. I will show you. This is really, really holding on. These are

2:51 great. So, you might have paperwork um in your cruise ship cabin. You want to get all of that clutter off the desk or the vanity. So, I do suggest that you get these. Honestly, very, very good quality for 125. The one thing that I wouldn't do though is magnet hooks. While you can find them at the dollar

3:10 store, they are just they really are not going to adhere or stick the way you need them to. If you want to hang up a backpack and really have them be useful, even for wet bathing suits, you do want to have something that is heavy duty. So, usually about 85 lbs in weight or more. I'm going to leave my personal

3:32 recommendation that is from Amazon, but I will leave that down in the description below this video along with other cruise essentials as well. A whiteboard. Now, I just showed you this magnetic one before. So, this one is a better quality. It is from Amazon, but honestly, it was probably 10 times the

3:48 price. So, you don't need that if you want to bring a whiteboard to write messages um to other people that are in your cabin. If you don't all, you know, have your phone, you could do that. Um, but what a lot of people actually use this for these days is to write a message to their cabin attendant. So,

4:04 you know, can I have more towels? Or other people, what they do is they put this on um their cabin door. There are like these magnets just over here. And then what you can do is you can write a message or write a joke and people can sign on it. I've actually seen a lot of people these days decorating their door

4:22 with it. Disinfectant wipes. Now, I think every time that I go to the dollar store, I always pick these up because I know I'm going to want to use them um when I'm on the airplane, when I enter the cruise cabin, I'm always going to do just a quick wipe of some of the high touch points in the cabin. Tea lights.

4:39 Now, these are super smart, and these are a cruise cabin hack that a lot of people swear by. If you are in a dark cabin, like an interior cabin, or even you just like to keep the curtains closed at night, it gets very, very dark. You can keep a little tealight um like this. Obviously not a real flame,

4:58 but you can keep this on the shelf in your bathroom. And these are three for 125. Now, another cruise hack that I heard recently, but I did not buy. Uh but you might want to is get a package of like 10 glow sticks and you can actually just keep a different glow stick every single night in your

5:16 bathroom. Hand soap. Now, I got to give a shout out to Matt from Royal Caribbean Blog. I was watching his video on the items that he bought at the dollar store and this was one of them. And truthfully, I don't usually think about it. On our recent cruise, um the cruise line that we were sailing with did

5:35 actually have um liquid hand soap, but I know not every cruise line does. So, you want to bring like not only liquid hand soap, but you want to think also about the quality of the hand soap. And you know, your hands can get really dry when traveling. So, I think that this is smart pretty much anywhere you go.

5:52 Painters tape. Now, this really is not something everybody should buy, but I did want to share this with you because many people have shared their little trick to use with painters tape. Now, if you are somebody on one of the newer cruise ships that has the automatic uh little night lights uh that go on in the

6:12 closet or maybe um you know, underneath some of the furniture if you get up. I know for some people that really bothers them if a light goes on during the night. So, what some people do is they actually cover up the little sensor or the light with some painters tape. And of course, don't forget to remove it at

6:31 the end of your cruise. All right, moving on to some packing hacks. Although there is some crossover with all of these, but this I thought this was a fabulous item. So, I found a compression bag and basically it's a vacuum one. Now, in my experience, you don't actually have to use the vacuum

6:51 for it to still be effective. Now, in this case, only one came in the package. I've bought this before uh from Amazon, and I think I had to spend 12 or maybe $15 on several. And if you only need one for the purpose I'm going to tell you about, then just get this at the dollar store. So, what I do when I'm going to

7:12 Alaska in particular is I take our puffer jackets and I put them into a bag like this. And this way, what I can do, you can just roll this up and it's actually going to compress all of the air out so that it can lay flat. Use a craft organizer to organize your jewelry. Now, this is really just the

7:34 right size. It has eight little compartments and you can put your necklaces, you can put your earrings, you can put your rings, and it really is not heavy at all and will not take up a lot of space in your luggage. A pill organizer. Now, at the dollar store, you actually have several different kinds of

7:53 pill organizers depending on how many days you're going on your cruise or how many times a day you are taking medication. So, I just picked this one up. This is for 7 days once a day of course. Um, and by the way, if you are wondering about how to pack medication, what are some of the rules for travel

8:11 and for cruises, I do have an entire video all about that. So, I will leave like my packing playlist at the end of this video. Laundry bags. Now, I actually had high hopes for the laundry bags when I did pick them up, but they were smaller than I expected. I did get three in the package. But what I did

8:29 think about is the fact that these could be really very useful though for socks, for swimsuits, for undergarments, or even if you are packing like a personal bag and you want to pack one change of clothes or maybe just some sleepwear. Storage containers. Now, I think that these might be like my favorite item to

8:48 buy from the dollar store. And I even buy these for at home for storage as well. You could see they come in uh different sizes. even something smaller than this. And what you could do with these is, for instance, this one makes a great little storage box for everybody's flip-flops or shoes um in the cupboard.

9:08 Uh a size like this could be great for hairsprays and other products, maybe even sunscreen, etc. And even the smaller boxes that you could find, people keep different items as well. Oh, and by the way, for anybody watching this who says, "But where do you have room for all of your clothes?" This is

9:26 the size of it. So, it packs up flat and even after you open it, you fold it right back. Super smart item to bring on a cruise. Now, I always bring zip locks on a cruise. Maybe you do already as well. And some people, what they do is they even bring like small Tupperware style containers. And why would you do

9:44 that? Well, if you do want to go to the buffet, you want to pick up some cookies or even anything else from the buffet, fruits, etc., you want to bring them back to your cabin to eat as a snack for later. But the other thing is these um food plate covers. Now, let me just show you. The idea is that when you go to the

10:03 buffet, maybe you take a plate of food, maybe you take some shakurerie or something like that, and you bring it back to your cabin. and you want to enjoy it on your balcony, but now you have your plate and you have to bring it in the elevator or the stairway. You don't want things to fall off or you

10:17 don't want anybody sneezing and coughing on it. Cover it with this little plate cover from the dollar store. And by the way, the alternative if you have them already, if you have any shower caps, this is one of um the shower caps that I have. You can see that it pretty much is virtually the same size. So, speaking of

10:39 what else you can do with these plate covers or with the plastic shower caps is you can use these as a shoe cover to pack your shoes. All right, here's a cruise hack, but this one has to do with the crew. If you are planning on giving a cash tip to your cabin attendant or maybe to a waiter, and by the way, this

10:57 is completely optional. Do not feel obligated that you have to give extra cash tips. But sometimes your cabin attendant is really going to go above and beyond and make an impact on your vacation. And the same thing for your waiter. Well, something crew have said is that when they get a handwritten note

11:15 from guests that they really do appreciate it. So these are four for I guess. 125 now. Well worth it. Ponchos. Now in my experience, these are not always available. In fact, on my last Dollar Tree run, I never found these, but I have found them in the past. So, seasonally, they must come up. These are

11:33 super smart to just keep in your luggage. And that's sort of like a cruise hack that was shared by several viewers is what they do is they just pick up some ponchos. Um even clear ones and they're great even if you go to theme parks and they just kind of keep them in that little zippered part of

11:50 your luggage because you never know if you unexpectedly get caught in the rain during your vacation. At least you'll have this and you won't get wet. And of course it is going to be much cheaper than buying these at the theme park or any destination. A pencil case. Now, what will you use a pencil case for?

12:08 Well, in the past, I did talk about using a pencil case, but it was for leaving your passports and other documentation. Now, you can still do that. Personally, I don't do that these days because a pencil case is not RFID protected and I have my Nexus card, etc. Anyway, uh so I have my passport holder.

12:26 I will leave a link down um below in case you are interested in that. I swear by it. It's amazing. But still, a pencil case can be a great little zippered pouch. Now, in this case, what I have is just medication, over- the-counter medication, um, even prescription medication. And you can keep everything

12:46 in here. You can keep it in your personal bag. And then when you get to your cabin, you can even put it in the safe if you want to. Now, speaking of medication, the over- the-counter medication section at the dollar store is really good, and a lot of the items are brandame. And if you only need a

13:03 little bit of an item, just pick it up there. Over-the-counter pain reliever, etc. But one of the things that I definitely swear by, this little first aid portable pack of band-aids. And what you could do even is just keep this straight in your purse or in your carry-on bag. And you can even just

13:21 replace um band-aids as you need to in this little pouch. Now, the other item that I'm holding up is something that I swear by. It's Moleskin padding. And I use this preventatively, as does my son Ethan, sometimes Frank. Especially if you're wearing dress shoes. You don't often wear them for men even. So, if it

13:40 is a new pair of shoes, you could just put this on your heel preventatively. It really does work. A must to pick up are throat lozenes, cough drops, that kind of thing. A lot of people do say, "How is it that I get sick on a cruise?" It does happen. You can get sick on vacation. You can get sick on a cruise.

13:58 And the bad thing is that it is going to be hard to find that over-the-counter medication um at the like store on a cruise. Sometimes you're going to find it, often times you're not. And you don't want to wait until the next port when you don't even know if you're going to find the products that you like.

14:13 Personally, I find this one good and more pleasant. We pick up some snacks. So, I love these Worther's candies. This is good, too. Sometimes you don't really have a sore throat, but you just need a little something for your throat. So, I picked these up. Um, and M&M's. That's my road trip snack. But there are other

14:30 things as well, including chips and Pringles. And something that you should know is when you're on a cruise, all those items are pretty expensive, so you might as well bring it from home. Safety pins and a small sewing kit. Now, of course, you do not need to bring an entire package like this, but I have

14:45 bought this years ago. And I just keep a few of them in my hanging toiletry bag, and this way it's with me no matter where I am. If I do have to, you know, pin up a hem, if something happens, if I lose a button or anybody needs one, I definitely have it. And of course, a sewing kit. A very small sewing kit. You

15:04 never know when you'll need it. Now, while you're in the dollar store, pick up all of the items that you might need for your oral hygiene. The size of the toothpaste is exactly the size that you'll need, and honestly, it's a better price than most elsewhere. Toothbrushes are a great price, and you can get these

15:23 toothbrush covers as well. Now, speaking of travel toiletries, I will tell you I found somewhere better for travel toiletries in terms of selection. And even generally, the price was still very reasonable. So, I am going to share that in just a minute. Now, here's something that my mother suggested I buy. And this

15:39 really is not a travel essential, but it is like an inspired by item. So, again, just for the ladies for a minute, my mother was reading an article on Facebook about the different dollar store or Dollar Tree items in particular that are basically a good quality of makeup. I wasn't sure how true it could

15:58 be, but in any case, one of the items that was mentioned was this eye shadow pencil. Now, I'm actually wearing it now. Um, and you know what? Um, it's by LA Colors, by the way. It is really very good. I'm actually here. Let's see. I'm like quite impressed because I do have one that's by Charlotte Tilbury. And I'm

16:21 not going to say that the texture and everything feels the same, but truthfully, for 125, this is pretty good. So, I'm probably going to go back to the dollar store and see what else I can find. Tweezers. You're going to find manicure sets, tweezers. I definitely suggest that you bring this on your

16:37 cruise. And of course, nail clippers as well. Now, something that I didn't buy this time, but I have in the past is a small scissor. Just even in the children's art section, you can find this there. You never know, sometimes you have a tag that you need to cut off, and you're going to need a small

16:53 scissor. Now, I did want to share with you a couple of items. um not to bring. They either just don't work well or they're not allowed on a cruise. So, one of the things is a regular power adapter or any type of extension cord. You cannot bring these on a cruise. They do have to be non-sur protected and Royal

17:11 Caribbean in particular is actually more strict. It needs to be only a USB charging station. However, something that I do bring on cruises is a travel adapter. I like to bring a travel adapter that I can use the um here I'll just show you. I can use the European outlet and this way um I have a little

17:33 sort of charging hub, extra outlets, etc. So that's my little cruise cabin hack. Um the other item I just don't suggest. I actually did try them because I know that this is a little bit of a hack if you need um any earplugs for sleeping or anything like that or when you're traveling on the airplane. I

17:55 tried these. Honestly, I did not find that they worked well. I could still hear a little bit. They weren't comfortable either. So, I do suggest these are u my loops if you are looking for something really comfortable that works well. I think that loops, even though they are more expensive, um this

18:14 really is a much better product. All right, so at the dollar store, and again, this could be seasonal, but there weren't a lot of travel-sized items that I wanted and needed, in particular, the toiletry items. So, we happened to go to Target and I walked down their aisles and you know what? For the price, just a

18:34 little bit more than a dollar, $159 or so. Um, hairspray, small size of like a little travel size Vaseline. Um, something that Frank likes to pick up is travel size shaving cream or shaving gel just for about $2. It's the perfect size and this way he can fly with it and even pack it in his carry-on. Now, I'd love

18:55 to hear from you. Please let me know what are some of the items that you buy from the dollar store that you think are the very best items to bring on a cruise or when traveling. Please let me know down in the comments below. And I'm going to leave that cruise packing playlist up next. I hope that you

19:11 enjoyed this video. If you did, please do give it a big thumbs up. I really do appreciate it. And please subscribe if you haven't done so already. Bye for now and happy cruising.