What are the biggest time-wasters on a 2026 cruise? — featuring Life Well Cruised

0:00 Is any time truly wasted on a cruise? Probably not. But, if you're watching this video, you want to use your cruise vacation time wisely and have zero regrets. After all, wasting time on a cruise can mean missing out on an activity or experience that you could have enjoyed instead.

0:22 Hi there. I'm Ilana from [music] the website lifewellcruise.com. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Now, do not make these mistakes that I have actually made and other cruisers have made where they wasted time and regretted it on a cruise. Now, some of these you might have heard before if you are an

0:42 experienced cruiser, but I guarantee you there are some new ones in this video as well that pertain to cruising right now. Now, before I get started, I did want to mention that if you like this video, if you find it helpful, informative, or enjoyable in any way, then please do give this video a big thumbs-up. I

0:59 really do appreciate it, and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Let's get started. Number one, arriving at the wrong time on embarkation day. Now, I often tell people to arrive early on embarkation day, but what I mean is try to snag, in my opinion, the earliest possible

1:19 embarkation date boarding appointment time. But, I do not mean arrive at 9:00 a.m. on embarkation day because that is what some people are doing. They're actually arriving way too early on embarkation day. So, something to keep in mind is most of the time embarkation might start around 11:00. So, you could

1:39 arrive at the cruise terminal somewhere around 10:30, and if you have to park, maybe you want to arrive a few minutes before then, but really not any earlier because arriving any earlier, you're only probably going to be able to get onto the cruise ship somewhere closer to noon, and it's just going to mean that

1:57 you are going to be wasting time getting frustrated at the cruise terminal instead of maybe sleeping in a little bit at your hotel. Now, I have a couple more ways that people are wasting time on embarkation day, but then we're going to be moving on to some of the activity and dining mistakes that people are

2:12 making. Number two, not completing the pre-cruise online check-in completely. Now, this is where I made a mistake, so I am going to explain. Something that I did is I completed my online check-in, or so I thought. I put in all of my passport information for a recent cruise, and I was good to go, but there

2:30 was one last step, and that was uploading or taking like a selfie photo. Now, the day that I was doing my online check-in, there was a bit of a glitch on the app, and my photo just wasn't being accepted. I put it aside, and I forgot about it, and I thought I'll just take care of my photo when I actually embark

2:49 at the physical check-in. Well, what ended up happening, and I was on Norwegian Cruise Line, and it can be different on different cruise lines, but they actually had to look me and my family up on a paper manifest instead, which honestly was a bit of a hassle. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to do this

3:06 extra step. Now, it's not their fault, but what I should have done is just made sure that I was good to go before my cruise. Number three, waiting till the last minute to download or activate your cruise line app. Now, a lot of experienced cruisers already have their apps on their phone. So, this is

3:20 actually a mistake that a lot of experienced cruisers make because about every 6 months to a year, the cruise lines actually update their app. So, you might have to re-download the app, or just reactivate it. So, make sure that you do that before you board your cruise. And something for first-time

3:35 cruisers, or anybody who hasn't taken a cruise in a few years, should know is that your cruise line app these days is really quite necessary on a cruise. You're going to have your daily planner of activities that you could look at, your menus, and more. Now, speaking of time wasters, here's one that a lot of

3:50 people don't think about, and it actually starts before your cruise. When you're researching travel, booking cruises, signing up for travel deals, your personal information can end up on data broker sites, and that's why you suddenly start getting spam emails and calls, which is not only a time waster,

4:08 but a big hassle. Now, that's where today's sponsor, Incogni, comes in. Your personal data, like your name, email, phone number, and even your travel patterns, can all be bought and sold by hundreds of data brokers that you've probably never even heard of. All being used, unfortunately, without your

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4:40 minutes. You create an account, you authorize Incogni to act on your behalf, and they handle the rest automatically. Now, signing up for an annual plan is best because they keep removing your data proactively each and every month, even as new data broker sites emerge. Now, I do have an awesome 60% off

4:57 discount code on the annual plan with Incogni, so I will leave my exclusive link and the discount code down in the description below, as well as a pinned comment. Packing items that get flagged by security. So, I'm talking about bringing prohibited items on your cruise. Now, it is a good idea to know

5:15 what is allowed and not allowed, because if you do bring a banned item onto the cruise, it just means the security is going to take it away. But, while they do rifle through your carry-on or any other items, that is going to take away from the time that you could actually board your cruise and start your

5:32 vacation. And worse yet, at the end of the cruise, let's say you bring an iron or a steamer on the cruise, they're going to take it away cuz you can't use it, but they are going to give it back to you at the end of the cruise, but you are going to have to go line up and pick that up on the confiscated items table.

5:48 All right, moving on to the cruise, attending seminars and other talks that are really sales pitches. Now, this is something that is one of the biggest pet peeves for a lot of cruisers is going to a spa seminar or a health seminar or even a port shopping talk in the theater only to find out a few minutes later

6:06 that this is a pretty hard sales pitch. Now, it doesn't mean that you won't get some information, so there's nothing wrong with going, but there might be other ways that you could have gotten that information by speaking directly to somebody at the shore excursion desk, the shopping guide, or even the fitness

6:22 trainer at the gym. Waiting in long lines at guest services. Now, these days there's really almost no reason you should have to wait in that super long line at guest services. You do have some alternatives. Many cruise lines on their app now actually have a chat feature. So, if it's a simple question, ask in

6:40 the chat feature, and even if there's something that you need from housekeeping, you can contact housekeeping directly. Now, if you do have a question that really needs to be answered by guest services, you can actually use your phone in your cabin, or simply head to guest services when

6:54 there is little to no line. Now, when does that happen? During meal times, early in the morning, late at night, and something to remember is that guest services are open 24 hours a day. Not avoiding anything that has long lines and queues. Now, that is one of the biggest ways that people waste time, and

7:12 just by adjusting when you go to certain places, you're actually going to be able to do this. Avoid the cruise ship buffet during busy times. Now, not only can you have lines and queues, but you can also be standing around with your plate looking for a table, and that is definitely a bit of a hassle. Now,

7:30 starting with embarkation day, there are a lot of different alternative places that you can eat lunch that do not include the buffet. So, take a look for the main dining room or other casual restaurants that you can look for or sometimes even a specialty restaurant that has an embarkation day lunch

7:47 special. Now, whenever you go to the buffet, you can also adjust the timing of when you go. Go right when the buffet opens or closer to when that mealtime service is ending. Waiting until you're on board to purchase packages like dining and Wi-Fi and beverages. Now, these days all of this is available

8:05 online and if you know that you want this anyway, you might as well purchase it before your cruise. Not only is it going to be typically a little bit cheaper, but there are people that actually do book on the first day of their cruise and you will notice a half an hour or more lineup. The cabin wait

8:23 on the first day of your cruise. Now, when you embark on your cruise, most of the time your cruise cabin is not going to be ready. Now, some cruise lines are going to allow you to drop your carry-on bags down in your cabin and then move on and come back after about 1:00. While other cruise lines are not going to

8:42 allow you into the cabin area until somewhere between 1:00 and even 3:00. And every single time I go on one of those cruise lines, I will see some people that seem like they're almost loitering waiting outside the elevator banks or stairway of their cruise cabin hallway. Now, do not do this. Make sure

9:02 that you pack a carry-on bag, maybe even a backpack, something that is easy for you to carry around and use your embarkation day to explore the ship and start doing some of the activities. And then once the cruise line makes an announcement that you can go to your cabin, only head there then. Speaking of

9:19 elevators, if you are on any large cruise ship, you are going to have that elevator wait time. But, there are some ways around it. Now, one of them is to take the stairs, of course, if you are going only, you know, a couple of floors and you are able to do so. But, beyond that, I do have some tricks. When you

9:37 were coming back on the cruise ship after a day in port or even on embarkation day, don't head to the first elevator bank after the area where you're embarking. Instead, walk down the hallway to the next set of elevators that often won't have many people waiting at all. And this one might be a

9:55 little bit tricky, but go up if you want to go down or go down if you want to go up. What I mean is if everybody is trying to get down because they want to get off the cruise ship on a port day, taking the elevator up even one deck will mean that you will be on that elevator when it goes down again. And if

10:13 you're going to wait one way or the other, you might as well be on that elevator already. Now, speaking of cruise ports, cruise line excursions can waste your time. Now, I'm not actually trying to discourage anybody from taking cruise line excursions or from visiting the cruise port of call. After all,

10:30 that's why we're cruising, at least in part. But something to know is that when you take a cruise especially if there are going to be 40 or 50 people or more on that excursion, it is going to include waiting time for other people to gather. And we have been at times waiting 15 to 30 minutes on the dock or

10:50 even worse in the theater for everybody to gather. And really, this just is a little bit of a waste of time when you might only have 6 to 10 hours to explore a cruise port. Now, something that I like to do is research my cruise ports so that I can decide do I want to do that excursion with the cruise line?

11:09 There are definitely times that I want to do that. Do I want to do my excursion with an independent tour company like Shore Excursions Group that offers smaller groups? Or do I want to explore on my own? Now, over the years, we've had some great excursions with the cruise lines, but we've also had others

11:24 where we've waited for other people or maybe they were tourist traps that were built in to our excursion that I wouldn't have had had I booked independently. The free gift scavenger hunt. That's what I'm calling it at least. That is the time wasting activity that a lot of cruisers partake in

11:42 whether in port or on the cruise ship where they're trying to gather the free charms or the free earrings or the free tanzanite that is available either at the cruise ship shops or even worse because it sends you on a little bit of a wild goose chase at the shops in the port of call. Now, while these items are

11:59 free and it can be a lot of fun to collect these, if you value your time and prefer to do an activity, this might be something to skip. Specialty dining. Now, this one might surprise you. It actually surprised me when I did ask about this topic in the LifeWell Cruise Community group. Many people shared that

12:18 specialty dining is a little bit of a waste of time. So, not even a waste of money. But, what they were talking about is the fact that at specialty dining as good as it is, that it does take approximately 2 hours to eat dinner and sometimes more. And I thought about it and something I realized is that on a

12:37 cruise we were on, it was on Star Princess, we had the premier package and five or six nights out of the 7-day cruise, we ate at specialty dining. And we absolutely loved it by the way. The restaurants were so good. But, we did actually say that that dinner did become in a way our evening entertainment and

12:55 sometimes it was hard for us to get to the shows. Waiting for a sea day to do the onboard attractions. Now, if you wait for a sea day to do those onboard attractions, you are definitely going to experience those long lines. However, there are two ways to get around this. One of them is to utilize your

13:12 embarkation day as one of the days of your cruise vacation. A lot of people unfortunately just don't do that. So, if it's the water slides or other types of activities, just come prepared even with your bathing suit under your clothes or packed in your carry-on bag. But, the other way is to actually use the port

13:29 day as an extra sea day. Most people are going to get off the cruise ship, but you can stay on that cruise ship, and then you can experience and enjoy all of those different activities without the lines. Speaking of activities, going to art auctions or bingo or other things that people say is a waste of time. Now,

13:50 art auctions are definitely one of the more polarizing topics that come up. And that's because many people think that art auctions are a waste of time, are a waste of money, but I will say equally there are a lot of people that really do love them. And if people didn't love them, they wouldn't still be on the

14:08 cruise ship. So, let me know either way, are art auctions a waste of time or are they something you really value? Please let me know down in the comments below. Not organizing your cruise cabin the right way. Now, this is one of the biggest ways that you can waste time is leaving your cruise cabin and not having

14:26 everything you need. So, first, make sure that you are unpacking on day one. Set yourself up so that you have everything you need. Have a go-to spot so that when you leave your cruise cabin, you have the things that you need for a pool or port day. Now, something that I like to do is I keep my pool bag

14:46 ready with my sunscreen, lip balm, towel bands, and even a bathing suit cover-up. Not exploring your cruise ship. Now, there are a couple of ways that you can explore your cruise ship even before you get on board. One of the ways is to actually just watch some YouTube videos of ship tours and get a little bit of a

15:06 lay of the land because one of the worst things that you could do, especially on one of those bigger cruise ships, is head to the pool or maybe head to the dining room only realizing like 7 minutes later after walking that you're actually heading the wrong way. So, do get a sense of the cruise ship not only

15:24 before your cruise, but also on the first day of your cruise. Use that day as a day to explore so that you do not miss out on any venues that you want to check out later. Not taking advantage of your cabin or your loyalty perks. Now, sometimes when it comes to the loyalty perks, people are not even aware of the

15:44 perks that can actually help them to save a little bit of time and waiting in line on a cruise. And now, as an example, if you do have any tender ports during your cruise, often times if you have your loyalty perks, you are going to be able to disembark before other people or just get early embarkation day

16:03 tickets. And honestly, on a day that you might be in a private island and have a long wait to get off the cruise ship, that can absolutely make a difference. And if you have a suite or any cabin that comes with some extra perks, make sure that you do use this. Now, this can be as simple as booking in Celebrity's

16:20 concierge class where you have a concierge that can help you out with a variety of arrangements on your cruise. Not reserving shows and dinner reservations in advance when possible. Now, this is definitely going to depend by cruise line, but if you are sailing with Royal Caribbean on one of their

16:36 larger cruise ships, you're going to want to make your show reservations online before your cruise and then build your dinner plans around it. And on other cruise lines, including Norwegian Cruise Line, you're going to want to make your show reservations on embarkation day as soon as you board

16:51 your ship. Now, this next one is one that people really never talk about and it does have to do with disembarkation day. And I think people just don't like to talk about disembarkation day, but it is really very important and it is a way that you might be wasting time waiting around on the last morning of the cruise

17:09 when you really want to get off. Maybe you have an early flight or another reason. Now, if you get a disembarkation day luggage tag sent to your cabin, and you would like to get off the ship earlier, then what you can do is you can actually switch that luggage tag at guest services. So, all you need to do

17:28 is go over to guest services when you get them, and you just have to let them know that you would prefer to leave earlier. And most of the time, instead of having a luggage tag that says, for example, that you will disembark at 8:45 or at 9:00 a.m., that you might be able to get a luggage tag that says that you

17:46 will disembark around 8:00 a.m. Or you could even self-disembark with the earlier group if you take your luggage off with you. Now, I have to say one of the greatest pieces of advice came from somebody from the LifeWalkers community who said that nothing is really a waste of time on a cruise because we should be

18:03 enjoying every moment. And I definitely agree with that. Now, I'd love to hear from you, including would you like to see a video about disembarkation and some different tips and tricks that we can all use. Please do let me know down in the comments below, and let me know what do you think some of the biggest

18:17 time wasters are on a cruise. Bye for now, and happy cruising.