What do first-time cruisers need to know before going? — featuring Life Well Cruised

0:00 most people don't know this from cruise ship Basics to budgeting to cruise cabins and ports these are the things that you'll wish you knew before your first cruise not knowing these things can leave you feeling unprepared wasting money and even mess up your first cruise vacation hi there I'm Elana from the

0:22 website lifewell cruise.com welcome or welcome back to my channel this video is part of the cruising 101 Series so if you are first- time Cruiser you are in the right place now I have I think I counted 37 tips it may even go a little bit over because if I remember one or two along the way I am going to make

0:42 sure that I include these now by the way all of these things to know before our first cruise really do come from real firsttime Cruisers because I did ask what are the things that you want to know to some of the people that I actually know in real life these are all questions that came out so I hope that

1:00 this can be extremely helpful now before I get started I did want to mention two things if you are not a first-time Cruiser if you are an experienced Cruiser please share additional tips anything we might have missed please share that in the comments below I know that is extremely helpful and if you

1:17 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 really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already let's get started number one today to these modern cruise ships have stabilizers and are really even

1:34 built in a way for stability and smoother sailing now I mentioned this because it turns out that a lot of first-time Cruisers are really worried about the Seas if they're going to get motion sickness and even though I do talk about this on my channel I think it's always good to be prepared just in

1:53 case it really is something that's relatively rare because most of the time the seas are actually pretty calm and in contrast to being like on a ferry or a small fishing boat for instance you are just not going to feel that kind of movement on a cruise ship in fact most of the time you may not feel it at all

2:11 number two let's talk about cruise ship Wi-Fi now you may have heard that Wi-Fi or Internet on cruise ships is really bad and maybe that's a bit of a concern for you however in the last couple of years there have been some great strides and even things that I might have shared two or three years ago have really

2:30 changed about this now the basic Wi-Fi on most cruise ships is okay now it isn't free on most cruise ships so it is something to know you are going to have to budget for that but if you do need really good internet or faster internet many cruise ships do have premium Wi-Fi available at a cost and if you're

2:48 sailing in the Caribbean most of the time it is pretty accessible and you're going to find that the speeds are relatively good number three cruise ship cabins are smaller than hotel rooms now you might have heard that before and honestly on the most part this is not going to be a big deal because most

3:04 people are not spending a tremendous amount of time in their cabin but who does affect I think the most are families that are often surprised that a cruise ship cabin for four people as an example does not have like two double or two queen beds most of the time this is going to mean that you're going to have

3:21 like two twin beds or two single beds that can combine into one queen bed and you're going to have beds above that are going to be like bunk beds but they're called called Pullman beds on a CR ship or you might have a sofa bed or a trundle bed so just be prepared for the cabins to be more Compact and plan

3:39 accordingly so families may want to get two cabins side by side or maybe with connecting doors or leave it as is and just know that it is going to be a little bit more cozy and just plan on some space savers for your cabin number four food availability now one of the great things about cruises is the fact

3:57 that there is a lot of food that is available and just pretty unlimited now what is included is you're going to have all of your meals you're going to have all of your snacks and you do have some things that you can buy extra like specialty dining for instance but you definitely do not have to so pretty much

4:17 everything is included if you don't want to pay anything extra however what is not included and does surprise people a lot of times is a lot of the drinks are not included now you definitely have some drinks that are included you'll have some juice you'll have some basic coffee some basic tea you'll have

4:32 drinkable water you'll have maybe lemonade and that kind of thing but what's not included on most Cruise Lines is soda so I know that surprises a lot of people and water bottles so you do want to plan accordingly I am going to talk a little bit later about things you can budget for that are extra that will

4:49 be coming up soon number five Cruise cabin bathrooms now honestly on the most part they're going to be like a hotel room maybe a little bit smaller however something that might surprise you is the fact that the toilet in a cruise ship cabin bathroom works more similarly to an airplane so it'll

5:07 make a similar sort of that vacuum or that suction sound to an airplane I'm just letting you know because it does surprise some people in addition to other types of entertainment there is on most cruise ships a very Lively casino and it does stay open until sort of the we hours of the morning now you're going

5:25 to have your slots but you're also going to have like games like your poker your Blackjack your roulette and that is something to know and if you really do enjoy playing in the casino you'll want to sign up for the cruise lines Casino program because there are some pretty advantageous perks including in the

5:41 future even being offered free or discounted cruises now I know a lot of people say they're worried about feeling stuck on a cruise but many cruise ships especially the bigger ones there is a lot to do on board so not only the things that you see in the advertisements like in some cases this

5:57 is going to be like surfing pools or race cars or just water slides or really nice resort pools every cruise ship every Cruise Line is different but inside the cruise ship you're going to have entertainment options but you're also going to have shopping so if you're somebody who's like I like to do a

6:14 little bit of retail therapy you're going to find dutyfree shops you're going to find souvenir shops you're going to find jewelry you're going to find merchandise t-shirts even vintage designer handbags if that is something you like and even some popup or sidewalk sales as well number eight boarding time

6:30 now I think this is one of the most important things and honestly it is hardly ever talked about and sometimes we see it in reels or Tik Tok videos but it has to be talked about it is the boarding time when you see that your cruise ship is supposed to leave for instance at 5:00 p.m. that that is the

6:48 sailaway time some Cruise Lines require you to be there at least 2 hours before sailaway time and some Cruise Lines it's 90 minutes so it can vary but you do really really want to be careful do not chance it and arrive Too Close allow extra time on boarding day because if you do arrive beyond that window it is

7:10 very likely that they will not let you on the shift now speaking of boarding day and I'm not going to go very much into boarding day because I have an entire video All About boarding day that I'll leave at the end of this video in case you have not seen that but on boarding day something that you should

7:26 plan for is the fact that you're not going to get your luggage delivered to your cabin if you do leave it with the porters at the terminal until the late afternoon usually or even the early evening so plan for that by bringing a carry-on bag when you do board your cruise ship and you may even want to

7:43 include a change of clothing to wear in the evening so you are not stressing out room service breakfast now this is very different from a hotel or even a resort because most Cruise Lines include room service breakfast even if room service is not included on that cruise and some Cruise Lines do have it but you do need

8:01 to watch something because over the last couple of years a lot of cruise lines have everything on the app and they may not have a room service menu in the cabin it may not be obvious so take a look on your app where it says food orders and take a look the menu might be there or you might see it on the TV

8:19 instead or you might even need to use the in Cabin phone to call for room service breakfast but definitely do some research inquire in advance because this is a nice little luxury that you could get especially if you are going out on a port day this can be very convenient now if you're planning your first cruise and

8:38 you are trying to keep organized I do have the lifewall cruise ultimate Cruise planner now the lifeall cruise ultimate Cruise planner is a 47-page downloadable principal Cruise planner that you could use to keep organized from the time that you book your cruise all the way through

8:52 embarcation and unfortunately disembarkation and everything in between now it includes Cruise packing list Cruise planning forms including cluding a Shore Excursion planning form that you could print out as many of these Pages as you need for as many cruises that you go on now if you are interested in

9:08 seeing what's included in the lifeall cruise ultimate Cruise planner I'm going to leave all of the information linked Down Below in the description of this video in case you do want to check it out store your suitcase under your bed so I mentioned that cruise cabins are Compact and unfortunately a lot of

9:23 people don't realize that under your bed that is storage space so put those bags right under your bed and by the way if it seems like your luggage is not going to fit just lift that bed up just a little bit because I even have like fairly good siiz luggage and mine always fits bring small bills so I'm not going

9:41 to talk about packing in general in this video but one thing that you are going to want to remember and think about and you can even collect small bills even in advance is bring this because you may want to give additional tips to people on the cruise ship or you might want to give tips to your Excursion tour guide

10:00 or you might want to buy something in one of the ports of call and using some small bills might get you a better price or you just might feel a little bit more comfortable now by the way if you're sailing to the Caribbean Bermuda or Mexico US dollars are pretty much accepted widely so you can just bring

10:16 that now in your cabin you're going to find that there are not a lot of electric outlets and unless you're on a newer cruise ship you're not going to have any USB Outlets so plan ahead for that what you'll want to do is bring a non surge protected power power Cube unless you're on Rural Caribbean I will

10:32 explain more after but on every other Cruise Line bring a nons surge protected power Cube that you could use to have extra Outlets as well as extra USB Outlets so that you can charge your devices now if you're on a Royal Caribbean cruise you are allowed to bring USB charging multi-outlets I am

10:52 going to share both of those items I'm going to share them in the description below this video in case you are interested and you do need them plan for disembarkation now I hate to think about the last day of the cruise at the beginning of the cruise but it is something you just have to think about

11:08 so one of the things that you want to think about is whether or not you're going to use self disembarkation or if you're going to have assisted disembarkation assisted disembarkation just means that the luggage is going to be removed from the hallway outside of your cabin by the crew and you're going

11:25 to be able to collect it at the cruise terminal that's honestly the easiest way to do it however the other way is that you bring all of your luggage down yourself when you get off the cruise ship now you definitely can do this but you do have to make sure that you are able to carry all of that luggage

11:41 yourself because on the last day of the cruise disembarkation morning the elevators are going to be very full so there's a good chance that you may need to carry that luggage down several flights of stairs now the other thing to think about for disembarkation morning is to plan an outfit for when you are

11:59 leaving the cruise ship so sometimes what people do is they'll just wear whatever they traveled with on the way to the cruise like for the airplane or something they just wear it on the last day of the cruise to get off the cruise ship that's an easy way leave that outfit out but don't forget because I

12:14 can tell you that there are always like some people that are wearing the clothes that they were wearing the night before or maybe even a pair of pajamas and you definitely also want to leave out a pair of shoes the mustard drill is mandatory now it has changed over the last few years

12:30 but it is still mandatory so what you'll need to do is check in at your mustard station that's sort of your Gathering station so you'll want to do that they'll scan your card when you do that and usually either in your cabin or on your phone on your app you can watch a safety video as well and this is

12:47 something that all passengers need to do before the Ship Sails away okay this is a money saving tip and it is pretty unique I actually have not heard anybody share this specific thing so you're going to look out for discounts or Salon discounts and typically this is going to be on Port days Port days are going to

13:07 usually be less expensive than if you go to the spa on C days but there's an extra time that you can actually save money now you'll want to usually do this before your cruise by booking online but if you know you want to get your hair done or maybe you want to get a pedicure or a manicure take a look at the times

13:26 of the appointments something that I ended up noticing is if if I went and I had a salon appointment at 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. it was less expensive than if I went at 1 or 2: p.m. or in the morning when it was usually less expensive and honestly since I usually eat dinner around 7:00 p.m. I'll make an

13:45 appointment to get my hair blowdried and I'll have that done around 5:00 and it's just perfect I'm ready for dinner an elevator tip so we mentioned that it's going to be busy in terms of the elevators on the last morning of the cruise disembark in but also on embarcation day the first day of your

14:02 cruise you're going to notice it does get very busy but here is the tip the middle elevators can to really be the most busy because they're near the atrium however if you go forward or aft you're going to find that they're less busy typically aft is the least busy of them all and I think most of the time

14:21 it's not always but I think most of the time the gang way to get on and off the ship is usually in the middle and in the front and this way I found at least most of the time on cruise ships that that back elevator has been the most quiet budgeting for extras now there's a lot included on a cruise but there are a few

14:39 things that you'll want to think about just to know to plan on your budget one of them is gratuities for the cruise now this is not typically included on most cruise lines so you'll just want to know that this is going to be added on to your cruise day by day now most Cruise Lines it's going to be between $15 and

14:58 $20 per person in the cabin and if you want you can prepay this before your cruise you can even adjust this once you're on the cruise ship as well if you do really want to now in addition to that some other things to think about is do you want to go to any specialty restaurants now while the food the main

15:18 dining room the buffet and even a lot of casual restaurants are included there are some optional specialty restaurants research your cruise ship and see what you want to do do you want to buy a drink package or do you want on some Cruise Lines they have a sort of bundle package where you get different things

15:34 including specialty dining and maybe shore excursions and the tips and the Wi-Fi Etc that might be bundled together so take a look at that to see if that is a good savings now beyond that things like the spa and the salon are going to be extra and even things like if you want to play Bingo or Deal or No Deal or

15:53 go to the casino those are all things to think about and budget for as well print out your cruise luggage tags now I realize this is something that's not necessarily obvious when you've booked your cruise as it gets a little closer you do need to do your online check-in now after you do your online check-in

16:09 you're going to be prompted to print out your luggage tags now they are just paper so basically you do have these little instructions as to how to fold them and how to staple but most experienced Cruisers what they do is they go and they purchase these plastic reusable luggage tag holders now they

16:27 are available in different sites sizes depending on your cruise line I'm going to leave them all linked Down Below in case you do need any but it is so good to get these because they are basically waterproof so you can just put your luggage tags in you can save yourself honestly about 45 minutes stapling and

16:44 possibly taping these and laminating them and you are going to need it to board your cruise a cruise card now when you're on a cruise you're going to have a cruise card instead of a key card like a hotel now it's going to work to open your door but beyond that it's also going to be almost like your wallet or

17:01 your credit card during your entire cruise so every time you buy a drink or maybe you check into one of the activities you are going to need to have this with you at all times even to get off the cruise ship and on the cruise ship you are going to need this now in the past we only had Cruise cards

17:16 however now we also have other things so if you're sailing with Princess we have these little medallions and they basically really work the same way we have for Virgin we have these really cute sailor wristbands but it really is all the same idea now I do want to show you if you do have the

17:34 cruise card which is still most Cruise Lines what you're going to want to think about is how are you carrying your cruise card because you're not usually going to be walking around with a wallet or even like a big purse or anything like that so you want to have your cruise card handy now I usually bring a

17:50 lanyard and I like this one because it does uncp so even in the evening time when I have an evening bag I can just put this straight into into my evening bag my husband really likes a cruise card holder either way but you do want somewhere that you make sure that you don't lose your card bring a sweatshirt

18:09 or cardigan for a cruise now even if you're going on a Caribbean cruise so many people say what they wished they had brought and they just didn't think about CU they did check the weather was the fact that they should have had something like warmer when they were on the cruise ship or even just for windy

18:24 days and often times I do talk about women but guys as well because there is air conditioning inside the cruise ships and even in the Caribbean it can get pretty cool in the theater and even like in the dining room and some of the public areas check your cruise planner for Port days and SE days you're going

18:41 to have a list of all of the different activities that you can do on your cruise planner and most Cruise Lines do have available a paper version if you want however this is all available on your app so you can look and plan for it now here are three unique items that you'll want to bring on a cruise one of

18:58 them is is magnetic Hooks and that is because most Cruise cabin walls are metal not all there's some older Holland America ships and some older Carnival ships that unfortunately don't have metal walls so don't hate me if I told you to bring magnet Hooks and they don't work most other cruise ships it is going

19:17 to work but what you can do is you can actually use those little hooks and you can add extra vertical storage in your cabin now you do want to make sure that you have the heavy duty hooks because this way you can hand hang backpacks and like heavier things a sweatshirt that kind of thing even a bathing suit to dry

19:34 all of that the other thing that you want to think about is either towel Clips or these days a lot of people will bring towel bands it gets very Breezy on the Leo deck so you definitely want something to hold your towels down oh and I guess I should have also mentioned but magnet clips now those magnet Clips

19:52 they work the same way as the hooks but you could use them to put any of the paperwork that you get maybe the daily schedules Maybe if you have sh Excursion tickets you can put them hanging on the wall so that you will not lose them and they will not clutter up the desk now by the way all of the items that I do

20:09 mention in this video as well as other Cruise Essentials I am going to leave them all linked Down Below in the description of the video it's right below the title so if you do need any of those things they will be there the weather can affect your itinerary now this is something about cruising well it

20:26 actually can be something good because if the weather is going to be stormy if there's going to be a hurricane for instance what the crews will do is they will have to rroo the ship to other ports now it is better than being somewhere like in an island where a hurricane is coming so this I still

20:44 think is a good thing but you do have to be prepared to be a little bit flexible when you go on a cruise there are sometimes unforeseen things that can happen but the most important thing is the captain will never bring the cruise ship to an area where the crew or the passengers or the vessel will not be

20:59 safe speaking of safe use the safe in your cruise ship cabin to keep all of your valuables now this can include your keys your wallet your credit card jewelry now some people say they put their medication in there so if that's something you think you should do definitely do that now your safe in your

21:18 cabin is really something that is very secure the cabin attendant cannot open it they would need the supervisor to be able to open it and that really would only happen in extreme cases ask your cabin attendant about laundry specials now sometimes Cruise Lines do have laundry specials Midway through a cruise

21:37 but if you do want that special a little bit earlier you can ask for that now that's certainly something that can be handy if you're on a longer Cruise or even if you're packing a little bit lighter do a little bit of research before just to find out if the cruise line does have one but I have used that

21:53 before and I've even come home with clean laundry ask your cabin attendant for some extras now your cabin attendant really is beyond housekeeping at a hotel now obviously be nice with what you're asking for and be reasonable but what I mean is you can ask for extra towels if your bed is a little bit like

22:11 uncomfortable or too firm you can ask for a mattress topper of some sort now ask for this ideally on the very first day because these things can go quickly you can even ask for a fan sometimes you can ask if you like your ice bucket filled daily and even if you need any clothing pressed you can ask your cabin

22:30 attendant that and obviously there is a cost to getting any laundry or items pressed but if you are in a little bit of a rush let them know and sometimes they can have that for you faster expect long lines at Guest Services on the first day of your cruise and the last day of your cruise and just you know

22:47 play it accordingly so something that you'll want to do is if you do need to go see Guest Services definitely go do that but there are times it's going to be quieter late at night they are open 24/7 so go l late at night after a show or go early morning before everybody else is there get familiar with cruise

23:04 lingo get familiar with cruise lingo before you go on a cruise ship you are going to use some nautical terms and so is everybody else so you're going to say deck instead of floor you're going to say cabin instead of room and you're going to notice that people say port or starboard instead of left and right and

23:22 forward and a instead of front and back and these are important things to know because when you are trying to navigate around the cruise ship these are things that you're going to want to be aware of expect a time change during your cruise now a lot of first-time Cruisers are surprised to find out that even if

23:39 they're going on a Caribbean cruise it's not uncommon to have a time change now oftentimes this is done like the first night of your cruise or even the second night of your cruise and that's done so that the ship time can match the island time when you arrive and this way when it is the same time on the ship as the

23:58 island time it does does prevent people from arriving back late to the ship and then missing the ship but either way you're going to want to keep an eye out for Island time because it can happen that maybe the ship time and the island time are different if that's the case something you can do is bring a simple

24:15 watch that just stays on the ship time and the other thing that you could do is make sure that you turn like your iPhone if you have a phone that automatically adjusts to the current time when you get to a port make sure that you adjust that manually fun things that you'll see and

24:31 find on cruise ships that you probably won't find many other places now one of these things is matching Cruise t-shirts a lot of people do this on cruises so if you think you might want to get matching fun cruise ship t-shirts husband and wife or maybe you're going as a group that's very common that's definitely

24:48 something fun to do and you will not be out of place especially if you wear that on embarcation day or maybe for a port day the other thing is especially on some Cruise Lines Cru cabin door decorations so people really go all out and decorate their cabin door the only thing I would say is don't decorate it

25:06 with anything very expensive unfortunately sometimes you know your items can be taken off a door it's not nice but sometimes it could happen so do watch don't bring anything that's super expensive and the other thing is Cruise Ducks now in particular if you are on Carnival if you are on Royal Caribbean

25:23 this is something that you're going to see a fair amount of on other cruise lines as well but cruising in Ducks is definitely something that is part of cruising today speaking of cruise lines not all cruise lines and not all cruise ships are the same now I think a lot of people know that if you're going to go

25:39 on a Holland America cruise it's not going to be the same as a Carnival Cruise or if you're going to go on a Celebrity Cruise it's not going to be the same as a Royal Caribbean cruise the vibe the energy the things to do are going to be different but did you know that cruise ships that are within the

25:54 same Fleet the same Cruise Line are going to be different will definitely that is something true so you do want to do your homework if you really want all the latest and greatest activities and things to do on a cruise ship you want to go with one of the newer cruise ships from the cruise line most of the time

26:12 because if you do go on even something like Princess Cruises as an example if you go on the Caribbean Princess or Crown Princess which are still nice cruise ships the newer more modern cruise ships that are part of the royal class or part of the new Sun princess and Star Princess cruise ships they are

26:30 going to be quite different be sure to fly in your cruise port at least one day before your cruise now I think it does surprise a lot of first timers that the cruise ship will not wait for you unfortunately and unlike a hotel that's still going to be there if your plane arrives late or even a resort in an

26:50 island the cruise ship does need to leave from the terminal and it will go and by the way while you can meet the Cru cruise ship often times at the next cruise port of call it is going to mean that you're probably going to miss at least 2 days of your vacation and you're not going to start off your cruise on

27:09 the right foot be sure to download The Cruise Line app now you'll want to make sure that this is downloaded for the time that you already arrive on the cruise ship and this is going to be gold for you during your cruise you're going to be able to check out most of the time the menus at the different restaurants

27:23 you're going to be able to check out the daily planner often times you also have a messaging app you can message other passengers so if you don't have your Wi-Fi turned on during your cruise you can use that and you can check your onboard account to make sure it's accurate now there are a couple of

27:39 things to do before you leave the cruise ship at all costs one of them is make sure that you do check your bill and if there is something that's wrong you have to deal with it on the cruise ship it's next to impossible to get refunds once you're off the cruise ship the other thing is pick up your photos or download

27:58 your photos if you got the photo package if you leave it till you get off the cruise ship it is also near impossible to be able to attain those photos after now I'm going to leave all of the information about the lifewell cruise ultimate Cruise planner in case that can be helpful as you plan your first cruise

28:14 down in the description below as well as the different items that I talked about in this video and other Cruise Essentials now after this video I'll also leave a playlist of the other cruising 101 videos that I know are going to help you as you plan your cruise but let me know any additional

28:30 questions that you have let me know in the comments below and if you have cruised before please share your additional tips as well I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did please do give it a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so

28:45 already I would love to have you here within the lifewell cruise Community bye for now and happy cruising