You're listening to the CruiseTipsTV Unplugged podcast.
Today we're sharing 10 tips to maximize your Cruise Cabin on day 1.
Welcome to CruiseTipsTV Unplugged.
I'm your host Sherry, and we invite you to join our Cruise Loving family
as we travel the world creating Cruise videos and vlogs.
In this podcast, we talk tips, tactics, and strategies to help you
make every Cruise your dream Cruise.
So we're going to maximize our Cruise Cabin.
Taking our Cruise Cabin to the max.
To the next level.
Yes, we are.
But first I want to do a disclaimer to anyone who's like, um...
On day 1, I'm going to the bar and I'm going to maximize a nap.
I respect you.
I totally get it.
But no way.
Somebody's going to go to the bar and take a nap.
No, no.
No, they would do those things like maybe in that order.
Okay.
They're not, they don't care about maximizing their Cruise Cabin.
Bar and then nap.
Bar and then nap.
And they're like, I...
You really want me to like make a science out of maximizing my Cruise Cabin?
No, I'm done.
I just don't relax.
It's my vacation.
But for some people, there's like a science to this.
And you know, you want to get to your vacation and so...
Get a going.
So there's some things that kind of help you get there.
So get the workout of the way first.
That's a good way of looking at it.
Yeah.
Get the prep out of the way.
Get the prep out of the way.
So yeah, so you know, okay, let's back up a little bit.
You board the ship, right?
You've done the exhausting travel that it takes to get to your Cruise.
So you're boarding the ship first.
Imagine that, Mr. Cruise.
You board the ship first.
And board the ship.
Head to the bar.
Yeah, take a nap.
Yes.
So you get on the ship.
You get on the ship.
And as soon as you can, because you can't always just go straight to your room.
Right.
Right.
As soon as you can, you go straight to your room and then you start prepping.
Yeah.
And usually, why do you feel so compelled to go straight to your room?
Well, I think most people don't.
Right.
But why do we feel compelled to go to our room?
Usually because we're lugging stuff around.
Exactly.
So once your cabin's ready, if you're anything like us, you might be eager to like get to
your room and drop off whatever luggage you might have brought with you.
Now, just remember, folks, when you go on a cruise, there's this whole porter situation
when you pull up, you're supposed to be able to drop off your bags and walk onto the ship
with nothing.
But some people take a backpack or one small rolling suitcase.
So you're then sort of thinking, okay, I need to drop that sucker.
You're off.
So it becomes more of a priority to get to your cabin.
You also sometimes need to freshen up a little bit.
Oh, yeah.
And that's, you know, going to your room, first off, is going to be a good place to freshen
up.
When you say freshen up, do you mean like apply powder to your nose or like other things?
I don't mean that.
I mean, maybe, you know, maybe you do.
But what I mean is like, you just feel like you have travel grime on you.
And I literally like to wash my face and hands.
Okay.
I love it.
So when I go to the room after I take all the stuff I'm lugging around off, I wash my
face.
That's your freshen up.
And my hands.
And definitely your hands, right?
No, no, no, no, battering your nose.
Okay.
I don't even comb my hair.
I just wash my face and hands.
This is great.
You know what?
It's so true that your, it's, it's true.
And you also, you know, your cruise cabin is going to be your home for that week.
And it's nice to go see it.
It's exciting for me.
Even after 40 cruisers or so, did I say cruisers?
I met cruisers even after 40 cruises or so.
There's a thrill of walking into your cabin for that first time.
And I can't remember a single time when I've not felt this like just whoosh of excitement
when I open that door.
Well, if it's an inside cabin, you might, you might not feel that.
You might not feel the wish.
Some people do.
And we certainly have, especially when we've, you know, waited maybe a year to go on a,
on a cruise.
Okay.
All right.
I digress.
Let's get to the list.
Let's talk about 10 things you can do to maximize your cruise cabin on day one.
Again, this doesn't have to be like a, you know, one of those things that takes hours
to do.
This is all stuff that you could probably do in what five, 10 minutes Mr. Cruise tips
TV?
Most of it?
Sure.
I'll point out it doesn't have to be immediate.
You could hit the bar, take a nap, get up.
Yeah.
And it's still be day one.
Where are you napping on a lounge chair by the pool?
You never know.
All right.
So let's, let's get granular here.
So the first thing you're probably going to do when you walk in the door, like right
away when you walk in the door these days, because it's 20, 20, 30 folks.
If you're listening to this in the future, oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Yes, when you first walk into your room, you actually have to pop some kind of a card
into the slot, right?
That's literally the first thing you have to do to power your room is put either your
room card or your Costco card or some kind of ID card to get power to your room.
So you're saying that's a universal standard now?
No, but it's pretty close.
It's becoming one.
So carnival royal Caribbean.
Maybe princess.
Maybe Norwegian.
Yeah.
I think most of the new ships.
Yeah, it's common.
So the first thing you do when you open that door and you're getting ready to prepare
your cabin is you put your cruise card into the slot that turns the power on and thus
the air conditioning, which a lot of people are like, oh, bring me the AC.
Now sometimes your room steward will have already done this, right?
They're like super customer service oriented.
They want to make sure that the air is on and they're going to leave some kind of a
card in there and then come tell you later, hey, FYI.
You need to put something in here, but word of the wise, it doesn't have to be a room
card.
It can be any old thing.
It can be your, like I said, your library card, your Costco card.
Just stick some kind of a card in there to hold the space.
Now, of course, if you want to be energy efficient, you can take it out when you leave
and go to dinner or leave your state room, but a lot of people just leave the card in
the whole week.
So I think that's the idea.
I think that you are supposed to take it out when you leave.
Yeah.
Probably the idea was you're going to use your cruise card and you would need your cruise
card when you're out and about so you would take it with you.
Yeah, exactly.
I think the problem is that some people, in some cases it shuts off the air conditioning
and then they come back to a warmer room and that's just not cool.
So again, let's not spend too much time on that, but after you've done that, step number
one, pop that card into the card slot, right?
You're probably going to peep out your room.
Take a look around, give yourself a little tour.
You're going to check and make sure the pillows look good, make sure you have enough towels.
You're going to go out on your balcony and see what the view is like.
Usually that's where I go.
I like beeline for the balcony and check things out.
So do that.
Explore it.
Enjoy it.
Right?
So pop your card in the slot, get that power turned on, get the AC turned on, and then
take a look around.
Enjoy.
Take every little detail in and enjoy this moment.
You are on a cruise, people.
So exciting.
All right.
Number three, Mr. Cruise of Stevie.
Number three tip is to check out how the air conditioner and the heating system work.
So it's a good idea to pop over to the little thermostat on the wall.
Usually there is one.
Maybe on some of these newer ships too, they're controlled by iPads and remotes.
There's all kinds of fancy stuff coming up, but go check out your AC and your heat.
Make sure it's comfortably set for you and just kind of make note of where it is, right?
Usually it's pretty simple.
Yeah.
So you have the little red arrow and the little blue arrow and you press one of those.
Yeah.
Have we ever used the red, the heat on a cruise?
No.
Maybe Alaska?
I doubt it.
Yeah.
It's usually in that neutral or air conditioning position, isn't it?
Yes.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Interesting.
All right.
Step number four, and this again, this might be the germaphobe in us, and this is optional.
You do not have to do this, but it's something that a lot of us do.
Those of us who've been cruising for a while, you're going to wipe down your cabin with
some kind of a Lysol wipe or disinfectant wipe.
Disinfectant wipe.
The different types of surfaces that you might want to consider would be like your remote
control, the front door, the balcony door, both sides of the balcony door.
Maybe wipe down the surface of your desk.
Some people will also go into the restroom and wipe down the toilet handles, things like
that.
And your room attendant has cleaned the room, but if you're feeling a little extra germaphobe,
you could do something like that.
We've done this on most of our cruises.
I'd say Mr. Cruise seems to be, you know, it's funny though, with the first cruise back
from the pandemic, when you would think people were like, oh my goodness, I'm so afraid of
germs now, I think that was the one cruise where I didn't even wipe anything down.
I was like, the room attendant, the cruise, they are probably so over vigilant at this
point about making sure that we're like healthy, that of any time that I don't need to do it,
it's now.
Well, I think at that time they were.
I do think they probably backed off a little bit on their ownness of that.
Right.
Like the between cruise thoroughness.
Yeah.
I think they were at a point there, they were disinfecting hardcore between cruises, but
you have to wonder if that's still a thing.
I'm sure they're still doing it.
I'm sure they're still clean, but it was crazy.
Those first couple of cruises back.
Yeah.
Crazy good.
Definitely, crazy good.
They were like fumigating the rooms.
There was some kind of a little machine they would take in there.
That's crazy.
Okay.
Back to 2023.
So you've wiped down your room with Lysol wipes, maybe, maybe not.
Maybe you're not into that.
Step number five, and this again, this may be the cruise tips TV family's preference, but
we usually set up a charging station at this point.
Set out a USB hub or some kind of a non-search power strip, plug it into the wall, and start
charging up your phones, your devices.
Just kind of get everything plugged in so that maybe after that long day of travel,
you can get things ready for filming your sail away, taking some still photos up on deck,
whatever it may be.
Yeah.
This is key because a lot of times you've come off of a long flight and your phone is
going to need a charge.
You don't want it to be dead during sail away.
Oh, yeah.
So you come back to the room, plug your phone in, then you go down to the bar, right?
Then you take a nap.
Take a nap.
And your phone is charged and you're ready for sail away.
Ready to rock and roll.
You've got to take some photos.
It's sail away.
Capture that sunset, right?
And even though we don't want to admit it, guys, sometimes our phones these days are needed
more than they used to be QR code menus, even though paper menus are kind of making
their way back.
So you'll QR code menus and you probably will use your phone more than you used to.
Let's just be honest, maybe completing your e-master drill on your phone.
There's reasons you used it for check-in.
So yeah, get things set up, get your charging station set up, get things charging.
And then it's time for tip number six, which is to check out your safe.
Most cruise lines, gosh, I mean, I'm going to say probably every single cruise cabin these
days has some kind of a safe.
So you check it out so you see how small it is and that you can't actually fit anything
in it but your phone, right?
Wait, no, it's maybe your password.
Why are we checking out the safe?
Check it out the safe.
Is it a key card safe?
Is it a numerical get to know your safe?
Okay.
Find out what type of a safe it is.
And this is also another time when maybe you're looking at the safe and you're like, I don't
really know how this works.
Maybe the instructions aren't clear.
This would be a good time to ask your room attendant or your cabin attendant.
What the heck?
How does it say fork, right?
But more importantly, get your valuables into the safe.
For us, usually on day one, that looks like dropping our passports in there.
Maybe like you said, you really can't fit much in there.
Your laptop is not going to fit in the safe.
But maybe you'll pop in the phone that someone in your party isn't using.
Maybe just one of you is using a phone so the other person's phone goes in there.
Maybe you brought some valuable jewelry, which we don't recommend, but you could.
But again, your passports, maybe some cash, whatever you have that's valuable, you're
going to drop in there.
This is where you keep your diamonds, your rubies, your-
Right.
My tans and I-
Gold doubloons.
My gold doubloons.
Right.
No, the safe, I mean, in all honesty, they're not that complicated.
There's typically two kinds.
You have the push button and then you have the credit card stripped kind of safe where
you have to use some kind of credit card or something with a reader strip on the back
of it to lock the safe.
I can't stand those kind, by the way.
I prefer the push button.
Yeah, why?
You use the safe.
I usually am like, honey, open the safe.
The reason is you have to remember what card you used and make sure you have it at all
times.
I mean, if you use a code, you're always going to have that code in your brain unless you
forget it, wherever you go, right?
You're not going to leave your code at the bar.
Right?
Yeah, totally.
That's funny.
Haven't we used weird cards though?
Again, Costco card comes to mind and I'm talking about like make Costco members.
Yeah, that's-
Anything with a strip on, even your driver's license has a strip on it.
It typically works.
It typically works, but not always.
Sometimes it doesn't.
And I find that frustrating.
I'd rather have the punch code safe any day.
Yes, absolutely.
But fair to say, this is something we do, right?
We always check out the safe, right?
When we're orienting with our room.
I don't know if it's fair to say I check it out.
Why is it with you?
Yeah, I'm just being real here.
I put this stuff in.
That's about it.
Okay.
Close it up.
You know, if I see that it's a, you know, one of those magnetic strip ones, I may grown
and complain about it.
Yeah, because you don't complete an analysis.
I don't-
I'd rather have a brief orientation with the safe.
Okay, fair.
All right.
So we talked a little bit earlier about our cabin attendant.
We could call them a number of the state room steward, cabin attendant, whatever you
want to call them.
The wonderful human being who's going to take care of you for the entire week, who's
going to make it so that you don't want to go home on day seven of your cruise, day
five, day four.
That human being who pamper you, makes your bed, changes your towels, and cleaves your
room one to two times a day, they're going to come by and they're going to say, hello,
Miss Sherry.
How are you today?
And they introduce themselves and they're going to ask you, is there anything I can
do for you?
And this is where you have to kind of think about it.
Hmm.
Is there anything you can do for me?
Yes, I need this, that or the other thing.
What might some of those things be?
Mr. Cruz, excuse me.
Well, before you go too far, keep in mind that it's an incredibly busy day for these
people.
Day one is so slammed.
So if you need something, make sure it's something you really do need, not something
you just...
What if I really need ice or a drink?
No, no, they don't...
They don't bring you drinks.
I know, I know.
That was funny though.
That was really funny.
A day one, jump.
Or a drink.
Um, yeah.
I would say something like when you have time, can you bring me some ice?
That's very kind.
Yes, I think we every single time we greet our room steward, we always make mention of
the fact that we recognize that that day is cray cray for them.
We'll say something like, hello, thank you so much for coming by.
Oh my goodness, I know that today is so busy for you.
You must be so tired.
What time did you get up this morning?
Have a conversation with them and say, okay, if you have a chance later, can we have some
ice?
Maybe we, you know, I noticed that we need a few extra towels, whatever.
And a bigger save.
A bigger save.
Because you know, I brought my laptop.
Lord knows why.
I need to be safe in there.
But yeah.
Yeah, you be polite and just understand, even if you do need something and you have to ask
for something, do it as nicely as possible.
Yeah.
Because they really are slammed that day.
They really are.
And by the time you get on, you get on the ship, they've already been working like crazy.
Yeah, probably since 5 a.m. that day, maybe even earlier.
True.
So that leads me, Mr. Cruise, who's to be toward number 8 tip, which goes back to the room
store.
And this is optional.
This is an interesting one too, because this is something with cruising that I'm seeing
changing a lot.
But our next tip is to scope out your mini fridge, right?
Or cooler.
So you can see that it's not big enough.
It's not big enough to put your laptop in.
To have anything.
Right.
No, stop it.
So the reason I bring this up is because some cruise lines, not very many though, some
of them still have a mini bar setup where they have four charge items in said mini fridge.
And that will be something that maybe you want to use your cooler slash fridge for the
week, maybe to put water sodas in.
At that moment, you would need to ask your room store, hey, can have this emptied.
Get that out of there.
Get it out of there.
But you wouldn't say it like that.
But it's actually really rare these days.
I'm finding that I haven't been on a cruise in two years with anything that's been in
the mini fridge.
Yeah.
It's not empty.
Not since the pandemic.
I know.
Yeah.
Maybe it's related.
Possibly.
Yeah.
Or maybe it's just another way of work.
Well, I don't know.
Is that a big money maker for them, you think?
They have in the mini bar and it might be more trouble than it's worth.
That's exactly what I was thinking is that they then have to man it, staff it, send people
around to monitor it, do counts on it, replenish it.
Like what is that worth it?
And with most people buying drink packages these days, like you, they just say get it
out of there.
That is so mean.
You're going to make people think I'm a diva.
No.
You would ask nicely.
I would.
I would.
Actually, what we usually do is just put it out on the counter.
You can do that too.
If it's not one of those locked mini fridges, you can take everything out and put it on
the counter and tell your room's stirred, hey, if it's okay, we'd like to use our cooler
slash mini fridge.
But not an issue anymore.
Not so much anyway.
Maybe on higher end cruises or something.
Yeah.
All right.
So, so having the mini fridge cleared out, you're doing that for a reason.
And that is because you might want to use that little fridge throughout the week to keep
bottles of water cold.
You might want to pop some, you know, canned soda in there if you have it.
And you might be dehydrated from traveling, like you said, long flight, time to hydrate.
So at this point too, one of the tips that we have for people on that first day is if
you have the drink package, or even if you don't have the drink package, stock up on
some water, you guys, bottled water, get it in your refrigerator.
This is, it's important to stay hydrated.
It's a huge part of our health.
And it's definitely something that if you do it on day one, you'll be so glad on day
two that you wake up and have a couple of nice cold bottles in there.
So if you have the drink package, grab a few extra bottles while you're out and about
pop them in your fridge to chill.
Okay.
Mr. Chris of TV, number nine.
Once you get your luggage, and I say once you get your luggage, because you never really
know how long it's going to take.
Although I am amazed at how fast these staff members are getting luggage to the cabins these
days.
Like I don't even think I can't remember a cruise that we've been on where the luggage
came after like 2 p.m.
lately.
It's been good lately.
It's been good.
But my point is once you get your luggage, there's a few things you can do now.
This is a game changer.
Like once the luggage comes, you can potentially unpack all your stuff, right?
You can potentially do a lot of different things.
So let's talk about those things.
Now this is where some of you are like, I'm going back to, I'm at the bar and I'm taking
a nap and Sherry, please don't tell me what to do on day one.
That's your thing.
And I get it.
Sometimes on day one, all I can do is like survive.
So I feel you.
But if you want to take control and you want to have a plan, here's what I would do.
And take your luggage, unpack your stuff, take your packing cubes out of your suitcase,
pop them in the drawers, hang stuff up, and then get things into your bathroom.
So like move your shampoo and conditioner into the shower, use the shelves in the bathroom
to get your stuff in the bathroom, maybe then go to your closet, set up your little pop-up
hamper that you bought in our Amazon store, and then set up your little desk area.
A lot of people use the desk for like, maybe they put their makeup in there because they
know there's a vanity mirror by the desk and they think, oh, maybe I can actually like
see you when I'm putting my makeup on.
So maybe put your makeup in there and any other like laptop or iPad or whatever tech
stuff you have.
You can pop over there by the desk.
I keep my makeup in the safe.
Oh, mercy.
You're nothing but trouble.
So set up the desk.
And unpack.
Unpack.
Get stuff into the shower and bathroom where it belongs.
So you're getting settled.
Getting settled.
Unpacking.
Yeah.
So you can head down to the bar.
So you can head down to the bar and then come back and take a nap.
Oh, so you can actually go down a muster is where you need.
Oh, gosh, if you haven't already.
But what else you got on that list?
What else?
Well, you're pretty much to the end here.
If you've unpacked, now you're basically taking your pop up travel hamper and you're sticking
it in the closet to put all your dirty clothes in through the week.
And then you're doing the last thing, which is tip number 10, you're putting your luggage
under the bed, which is one of those things only you only do on a cruise ship.
Have you ever gone Mr. Cruise of CV to a hotel and slid your luggage under the bed?
That true question.
Have you?
I've never put my suitcase.
I don't think you can.
They're like, you know, essentially blocked off.
Yeah, most of them, they have those big bases.
You can't get anything under the bed.
It is a weird cruise phenomenon that typically speaking, underneath your cruise bed is nothing.
Not a day now.
Slide your suitcases under there because your state room is probably smaller than the typical
hotel room.
And you don't have to look at your suitcases for the rest of the week.
And now and then, though, I think that there are like comforters, extra comforters or something
under the bed.
Am I wrong?
Yeah, they put them in like a plastic container, like a plastic cover, maybe some extra pillows
and they sometimes you'll find them in the closet.
But there's still plenty of room for your suitcases.
Yeah, almost always.
Again, I've never been on a cruise where there was no room under the suit, under the,
excuse me, under the bed for your suitcases.
That rounds out the list, Mr. Cruise of CV.
That is what you need to do to get your room settled.
Again, it's really all about fun and rest.
But if you'd like to structure some organization into your day one, there you go, friends.
That is how to maximize your cruise cabin on day one.
Go book a cruise, go have some fun, and until next time, we'll see you on the high seas.
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