Going on a cruise is definitely different than going to a hotel. The biggest difference is that at a hotel, guests check in and check out throughout the week, so it's a steady trickle of the hotel turning over rooms. On a cruise, everyone is checking in at the same time, which is a really large influx of people all trying to get on a ship, explore the ship, and get settled into their vacation all at once. I wanted to share my tips for the first day of your cruise, plus what to pack in your carry-on for embarkation day.
To make your cruise embarkation go smooth, about a month before your cruise (give or take, the cruise line will send you an email) you can go online and check-in to your cruise like you would a plane. Just like a plane, this will give you a boarding pass and a boarding time. They'll also make your luggage tags available. Unlike a plane, the cruise won't print your boarding pass or luggage tag ahead of time, so you'll want to take care of that before you leave for your tip.
Assume you'll have crappy internet at the cruise terminal because everyone will be on their phones trying to load their documents. Some people prefer to print their boarding passes, some prefer to screenshot them, but I prefer to save them to my Google drive and make it available offline so that both Ryan and I have access to them. Either way, just make sure you don't need internet to access them or you're going to be stuck there for a while.
Before your cruise, you can print off your cruise luggage tags with your room number on them, and your luggage will all be delivered to your room that first day. I recommend getting luggage tag holders for your luggage tags so the paper tags aren't ripped off and your bag isn't delayed. The luggage tags are short and fat for Carnival, but long and skinny for Royal Caribbean, so you'll need either Carnival-specific luggage tags holders or Royal Caribbean-specific luggage tag holders (most other cruises will fit one of these shapes).
You'll also want to download your cruise's app before your trip, called the Carnival Hub for Carnival or the Royal Caribbean app for Royal Caribbean, but each cruise line will have their own. Even if you got the internet package, I would also recommend you download and Spotify or Apple Music playlists so you can have music at the port, and download any shows/movies to your phone/iPad or books to your Kindle ahead of time because the ship wi-fi might not be as fast as what you have at home.
What to expect for your cruise embarkation
Your cruise embarkation will be more similar to boarding a plane than checking in to a hotel. You'll either park if you drove in to the port or you'll get a ride if you flew in. Once you get to the cruise terminal, there will be porters there who can help you drop off your checked luggage, or you can drop off your checked luggage yourself, or you can carry on your checked luggage. The porters are free, but it's suggested you tip them $2 for large/heavy bags and $1 for smaller/lighter bags. Checked bags on a cruise are a little different than a plane. There's no weight or liquid amount limit, so you can bring a 60 pound bag with your full-sized shampoo bottles from home and be perfectly fine. Similar to TSA, your carry-on will go through security. The only real restrictions for a cruise checked bag is that any drinks (1 bottle wine per person over 21, case of soda or water per person) need to be in your carryon, and any other alcohol or potential fire hazard (
power strips are a no-no, but
outlet extenders or
outlet adapters are okay,
steamers are also banned) will be confiscated. Your bags are usually delivered later in that afternoon, but sometimes they aren't delivered until that evening so I recommend you have everything you need to get you through the first evening in your carry-on bag (more on that below).
Once you get rid of your bags, it's time for the security clearance. Before your cruise, you'll be able to choose your boarding time. For our 2023 Carnival cruise out of Galveston, we ended up showing up about 30 minutes after our boarding time. They still let us on, but they had 2 security lines- 1 for people who were within their boarding window, which was a very short line; and 1 for people who were either too early or too late, which was a much longer line. Security is like TSA pre-check where your carry-on bags go through an x-ray machine and you go through a metal detector where you'll have to remove anything that would set the metal detector off, but hats, shoes, and jackets didn't need to be removed.
After you're through security, you start the boarding process. This is a little different than most planes. You go into a giant room and get in line to check-in. Depending on the crowd, this can take 15 minutes to an hour, so be prepared for both. The only thing you
need to check in is your boarding pass and your ID's. If your trip begins and ends in the US, you can travel with a birth certificate + driver's license for adults, and just birth certificate for kids. However, I
really recommend you cruise with a passport because it makes this process much faster, and disembarkation day is significantly faster as well. I suggest you just wear a
crossbody bag with your phone and ID's to make it really easy and fast to find what you need to board. They'll take a picture of each person in your group for identification purposes, similar to what I've had happen at a doctor's office. Every time you get on and off the ship at each port, this photo will pop up as you get on/off the ship, so if you care about how you look in the photo then be aware of what you look like on that first day.
Now you finally get to walk onto the ship. Your room likely won't be ready when you get on the ship, so you'll have to find something to do until your room is ready (remember, your suitcase may or may not be at your room by the time your room is ready), and they usually will announce overhead when the rooms are ready. You'll usually get on the ship at one of their main levels where there's shopping, the excursion office, and guest services so you can go straight to one of thee if you need it. Most people go up to the top decks to change into swimsuits (or they boarded wearing their swimsuit) and get in the pool, claim a beach chair and get a drink while waiting for the ship to sail off, or head to the buffet to get the first of many free meals.
What to pack in your cruise carry-on
Two thoughts on your cruise carry-on situation: 2 straps and lightweight. I think of a cruise carry-on bag more like a flight "personal item" bag. Usually people bring either a purse, beach bag, or a backpack. I personally prefer to keep my phone, wallet, and important items in a crossbody bag, and then bring a
backpack as our carry-on. I like a backpack just so I can be hands free to hold a drink and a plate of food in my hands without worrying about a bag falling down my arm, and so I don't have to keep shifting a bag from one arm to the other to keep my arms from tiring out as we walk around to explore the ship.
In the backpack, we keep a
wet bag with
swimsuits for everyone (and then put our underwear in the wetbag once we change) and a
coverup for going into the buffet in my swimsuit,
sunglasses for everyone,
sunscreen, and
reusable straws for the day (cruises no longer use plastic straws, so they either have paper or candy straws). I'll also pack a small makeup and hair bag in case I have to do touch-ups for dinner in the event our checked luggage doesn't arrive before our dining time. The dress code for the main dining room on the first night is always casual, so you can probably wear what you wore to board the ship to dinner that first day as long as you didn't wear sweats or just a swimsuit and coverup to board. If you bring a laptop or iPad with you, you'll probably want it in your carry-on bag just to keep it safe. I also bring a
wireless charger since I won't really have access to an outlet until my room is ready,
headphones, and my
waterproof Kindle so I can start enjoying being on vacation. My carry-on backpack has a drink holder, so I'll pack my
reusable water bottle and fill it up at a drink station once I get on board.
The last thing I bring are 2 bottles of wine in my carry-on bag. You get 1 bottle of
only wine or champagne per person over 21 in your room. I bring shelf-temperature bottles but don't cool them until I get into my room so I'm not stressing over my wine's temperature fluctuating too much and ruining. I do pack the bottles in a
wine carrier to keep them from clanking in my bag, but if you're worried about the bottles breaking then you can always put them in a
travel wine protector bag. You can bring the wines with you to dinner and have wine with your meal for a small corkage fee, or you can enjoy your wine in your room for free. Personally, I just prefer to save my wine for the evenings on our balcony. I personally bring a wine bottle with a screw-off lid so I don't have to worry about a
corkscrew and then pack
silicone wine glasses to drink out of.
If you chose to bring a case of soda or water on board, you'll also have to carry it on, so keep that in mind when packing your carry-on bag.
Tips for cruise embarkation day
Remember the app I told you to download before your trip? Now is the time to use it. Every person, no matter how many times they've cruised, must do a muster drill for each cruise. You can do the muster drill from the cruise app. It will have a little video or instructions on what to do in an emergency, and then will tell you where on the ship is your muster location. In the event of an emergency, this is where you will report to. Your app will tell you whether or not you'll need to bring a lifejacket from your room to the muster location. At the muster location, they will check you off the list as completing your muster drill. All cruise passengers, even kids, must complete the muster drill before the ship can sail away. The cruise likely won't allow you to buy anything (even drinks) on the ship until you complete your muster drill, and they'll announce your name if you're the one person holding up the ship sailing away from the port, so get it done early on embarkation day.
If you have kids, this is the day to check out the kids club and get them registered. All kids, even babies too young for the free drop-off kids club, should be registered so that you have full access the whole trip. They'll get a wristband that will have their muster station location on them, so if there's an emergency the kids club will have your kids meet up with you at the muster location, and you don't have to go find them.
The buffet, pool bar, and any pool-adjacent snack places are the most packed on embarkation day. If you can, explore the ship a little to find a lesser-crowded area to get something to eat or drink without the long line. Almost all places on the ship will let you take your food or drinks to go, so you can still carry your food and drinks up to the pool bar.
Everything on your cruise will be charged back to your room, so your room key will be your only form of payment on the ship. But, you don't get your room key until your room is ready (it will be left right outside your room door when the room is ready). Since you can't use your credit card to buy a drink (assuming you didn't get the drink package), you'll need your boarding pass with your room number so they can charge your drink back to your room until you get your room key.
I use the ships sailing-away horn to remind me to put my phone in airplane mode. If you have the internet package, your texts and apps will still work. But, once you get far enough away from the port, your phone will enter into roaming and will really be expensive. Your cruise app might also require your phone to be in airplane mode to work, and the ship internet might only work in airplane mode as well.
If you're worried about seasickness, take your
motion sickness medicine or put on your
motion sickness patch (don't do both, they'll fight each other and make you more sick) before the ship sails away. These usually take 30-60 minutes to kick in, so you'll want to make sure it's in your system before your ship starts moving.
