Cancun All Inclusive Packing List for 2024

For our anniversary this year, Ryan and I decided to go on our first child-free vacation. Since we were going without our daughter, I only was comfortable going for a long weekend. This worked out perfectly because we were able to use our Chase Sapphire card points to book our hotel and our Southwest card miles to book our flights, making the trip basically free for us! This is the same strategy we used to go to the Dominican Republic for free for our honeymoon!

What I Bought for our All Inclusive Trip

I was so excited to find waterproof Uno cards for us to play on this trip! Ryan and I love playing card games together, but we don't get to do that often with a little toddler around. I found a travel Uno card case to pack them in so the cardboard box wouldn't get ruined in the suitcase. I went ahead and got a matching travel card case for our favorite Monopoly card game as well, because we take that on every trip we go on. 

Like I mentioned in my All Inclusive Favorites post, we like to bring stainless steel tumblers for drinks and a stainless steel water bottle for water. For this trip I got tumbler cleaning tablets to make cleaning them easier, and a collapsible cut stand to our cups air dry faster but folds flat to pack. 

Since we're planning on some rest and relaxation on our child-free trip, I went ahead and got us his and hers beach pillows with cooling inserts (I decided to leave the inserts at home). This is extra, but since we live near Galveston beach, I knew we could use these for more than this trip. These turned out to be our favorite item for the trip! It made laying down on the beach chair SO much more comfortable, and they packed up so small that I want to take them on every trip. 

Another thing I'm SOO glad I brought was a small Turkish beach towel. Our resort only let us check out 2 towels per day, so it was nice that I had an extra that I could use as a blanket in the mornings before it warmed up, and Ryan could use as a blanket to cover his legs when he napped so he wouldn't burn. We used this so much on this trip that I added another to my Amazon cart while we were on the beach so that next time we can each have one. 

Ryan already has a waterproof travel wallet, but we keep it in our "cruise bag" that has all of our cruising essentials in it and stays packed for our cruises. I got a 2nd wallet in a new color because it's so cheap, so now we don't have to unpack our cruise bag just for the travel wallet, and can keep one in our "all inclusive" bag for future trips. I needed my own "travel wallet," but didn't want an actual wallet. Instead, I found this cute tumbler fanny pack that can hold my phone, room key, and money. I really like that is has a zipper to keep my money safe, but also an outside pocket to keep my phone easily accessible. It's also waterproof material so I don't have to worry about using it when I'm dripping wet. 

What I Packed for our All Inclusive Trip

Checked luggage

Since we were flying Southwest and knew we'd get a free checked bag, we decided to check one bag and then each take a small personal item onto the plane so we could be hands free in the airport and take full-sized sunscreen in the checked bag. This was just a quick trip for just the two of us, so we could fit all of our clothes into a hanging closet organizer which took up one half of the suitcase. 

The other half of the suitcase had my travel toiletry bag, travel hair tools bag, our all-inclusive bag, my husband's toiletry bag, and our sunglass box packed with his and hers sunglasses.

Carry on bags

My husband brought a carry-on backpack that had his Airpods, an airplane phone mount, a solar phone charger, my Kindle and an iPad, plus his swimsuit and sandals and sunglasses for the beach.

I wore a crossbody that had each of our passports, my Airpods, my phone, and a phone charger. I loved having our passports right on me so I didn't have to go digging for them in my bag, but they were more secure than just being in my pocket. 

In my carry on, I had a wet bag with my swimsuit, coverup, and sunglasses, the Turkish towel, the beach pillows, towel bands, and a sunscreen stick. 

Beach bag

For my carry-on bag/beach bag, I brought a baby Bogg Bag and I loved it! This is my first vacation with my Bogg Bag, and the baby size was perfect for just the 2 of us at the beach. I got a phone pouch for the outside of the bag, and it was perfect for putting my phone away while still having quick and easy access to it while at the airport. I added two little carabiner clips to the outside of my bag so that we had an easy way to hold on to our sunglasses and could quickly access them without scrounging around in my bag. I clipped a small waterproof speaker onto one of the shoulder straps and quietly played music for just the two of us until the beach bar opened and turned on their sound system (it was also great for listening to music while getting ready in the room). I got a little beach-themed paci holder to hang off of the shoulder straps, and because it has straps on the inside of each side of the pouch, it held both mine and my husband's Airpods perfectly. 

I got a divider tray that kept my water bottle upright in the bag on travel days and converted it to a little table tray at the beach and 10/10 loved it. On our first day, we got to the beach in the late afternoon so of course all the beach chairs with tables were taken, and the only available seating was a lounge bed. I loved being able to use the tray in my bag as a table and have a place for our drinks to sit flat so we could lay down on the lounge bed and not have to hold on to our drinks. 

On the second day, we played Uno at the beach and since the tray has raised sides and is a few inches lowered into the bag, it was the perfect place to play our cards without worrying about them flying away. When we weren't playing Uno, it was just another table by our chairs to keep our little beach table from being overcrowded. Also, when it's horizontal as a tray, it completely hides all the stuff in your bag so it was a good place to stash things. 

What to Wear in Cancun

Women's outfits

For the flight from Houston to Cancun, I wore a matching 2-peice spaghetti-strap set, my favorite water sandals, and a lightweight knit sweater. I was so comfortable and cozy on the plane, and after we landed I just threw my sweater in my carryon and felt great in the warm weather. Once we got to the resort, I changed into a bikini, coverup, and same sandals and wore those for the rest of the day. That night, I wore a maxi dress and espadrille heels.

  

For our one and only full day at the resort, I wore a two piece crop top and flowy pants set with my sandals to breakfast. After breakfast, I changed into a bikini, travel sun hat, same coverup, and water sandals and spent all day down at the beach. For dinner, I wore another maxi dress with the same espadrille heels. 

  

On our last day, I wore another matching 2-piece set for my travel outfit with my same sandals and knit sweater for the flight home. 

So, in total I packed 2 matching sets for travel outfits, 2 bikinis for daytime, 2 dresses for nighttime, 1 casual outfit for daytime, 1 swimsuit coverup, 1 sweater to layer with, 1 roll-up wide brim sunhat, 1 pair of waterproof sandals, 1 pair of heels, 1 strapless bra, and underwear. 

Men's Outfits

My husband packed essentially the same as me, but I don't have any additional photos of his outfits to model what he packed. For our flight there, he wore a Henley with shorts and tennis shoes, and then changed into a swimsuit and sandals at the hotel. For dinner, he wore the same shorts from our flight and a polo with his tennis shoes. 

For our full day there, he wore a swimsuit and short-sleeved UPF shirt with his sandals during the day, and the same shorts and tennis shoes plus another polo for dinner. We ate at a restaurant at the resort this night (rather than the buffet), and although they allowed him in wearing shorts, he did wish that he had pants to be a little dressier, so we ordered him some linen pants for vacation. 

Unfortunately for him, he didn't wear his UPF shirt into the hot tub, so his shoulders got burned by our last day. For the trip home, he wore a long-sleeved UPF shirt, the same shorts, and his tennis shoes. 

So, in total he packed 2 swimsuits, 2 UPF shirts (1 short-sleeved, 1 long-sleeved), 2 polos, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of tennis shoes, 1 pair of beach sandals, and underwear. 

Thoughts on our weekend getaway

It was a short trip, and we do wish we had one more full day at the beach, but we were happy to get back to our daughter. The nice thing about such a short trip was that we didn't need to pack much (and like I explained, a lot of this stays packed year-round), so there wasn't that much to unpack and we didn't have a ton of post-vacation laundry to get caught up on once we got home. What helped get us over the post-trip blues was that we actually have a 5-night cruise planned for next month, and we're brining our daughter along with us!

Cruise Port Days

The main event of your cruise will probably be your port day. While I love a good sea day, it's always great to get off the ship and venture around the port, even if I've been there before. 

The one thing to look into before your trip is whether your stops are pier ports or tender ports. A pier port is one where you just walk right off the ship, down a ramp, and onto the pier to walk into the port. If you've ever seen clips of people running back to catch their cruise before it sails away, this is at a pier port. The other type of stops are tender ports. These are ports where the water near the shore is too shallow for your ship to safely dock, so they'll drop the anchor down in the middle of the water, and then you'll get off your ship onto a tender boat and be tendered over to the port. The two things to be aware of is that, unlike a pier port where you can just get on or off the ship whenever you want, with a tender port you're completely dependent on the availability of a tender boat to get on or off the ship. This means that if there's a lot of people who suddenly had the collective thought to get on/off the ship at the same time, you'll be waiting around for a while as tender boats can only hold so many passengers at once. The other thing to be aware of is that because these boats are much smaller than your cruise ship, you'll feel the motion of the boat significantly more. If you're prone to get motion sickness, you'll definitely want to make sure you've taken medicine before you tender to/from the ship. 

You'll scan your room key as you get on and off the ship at each port, so the cruise can know who is on or off the ship, so make sure you bring your room key with you when you get off the ship. If you are doing an excursion, don't forget to bring your tickets with you. 

Most people opt to do an excursion at each port, but I don't think you absolutely have to. Regardless of which port you're at, they'll announce which deck of the ship you'll need to go to so you can get off. The exit deck for a pier port will be different than a tender port. If you have an excursion, they'll usually give you the tickets on your first day of the cruise, and the tickets will tell you if there's a meet up spot and time for your excursion. Some meet up spots will be in main gathering areas on your ship, like in the theater or a bar. If you meet up on the ship, a staff member will take everyone down to the exit deck together and help you get off the ship. Other excursions will have a meet-up point at the port, so you'll just get off the ship and look for someone holding a sign with your excursion name. And if you don't have an excursion, then you can get off the ship at any time.

What to wear for a cruise excursion 

If you're doing an excursion, what you wear will depend on what you're doing. Most excursions will involve being in/around the water. For those, I recommend you wear a one-piece swimsuit so you can zip-line or jump into a cenote without worrying about flashing a group of strangers. You'll want a fast-drying coverup that's easy to take on and off all day. I avoid flip-flops for excursions because you never know if what you'll be doing will make them going flying around, so instead I wear strapped waterproof sandals for excursions. For snorkeling or boating excursions, again I'd recommend either a one-piece swimsuit and UPF shirt, or a rash guard and water shoes. Bring a waterproof sunhat to keep from getting burned. 

For dry excursions, like ATV's, bus tours, or ruins visits, I wear something more comfortable like breathable tops and quick dry athletic shorts with comfortable sneakers. If you want to wear your hair up, I suggest you add a UPF hat to keep the sun off your face. 

If I'm not doing an excursion, I usually wear my beach shoes and a swimsuit under a coverup off ship and then I'll pack a wet bag with out underwear and a change of clothes in the wet bag in case we want to change out of our wet swimsuit. 

Whether I do an excursion or not, I always make sure to wear my Apple Watch that has a watch face that has both ship time (time zone of the city the cruise departed from) and local time on it so I don't miss my ship's departure time but can also make sure I know the local time. I just make sure to use it with a sporty watch band that is safe to use in the water and won't fall off my wrist easily. Make sure you plan to be back at your ship at least an hour before sail away time. Cruises do not wait for late passengers and will leave you unless you are on a cruise-sponsored excursion that has notified the ship that you're running behind.  

What to pack in your shore day bag

The most popular shore day bag is a beach bag, because duh. Personally, I prefer to use a beach bag with 2 shoulder straps like a backpack so that I can have my hands free, 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. I also make sure to have the UV index on my watch face so I can know if I need to reapply sunscreen more often than normal, and wear UV stickers to make sure I don't get burned. 

Any iPhone 7 or newer is waterproof, and basically any Android will be waterproof too, so you can take your phone with you anywhere and get really good pictures. If you're worried about holding onto your phone when you're in a swimsuit and don't have pockets, or if you want to swim around in the ocean, you can put your phone in a waterproof phone pouch and just wear it. 

It's a rite of passage for first-time cruisers (men particularly) to go into the ocean with their wallet in their pocket and then completely ruin the leather wallet and have all of their money soaked and the cards sticky from salt water. How you can avoid that is with a waterproof travel wallet. These zip up to keep money/cards from falling out and to keep it waterproof. It's perfect because all you need at port is your ID, your ship card, a credit card, and some cash for tipping/bartering/buying things from merchants on the beach, so you can leave everything else in a regular wallet in your stateroom safe that way if your wallet gets lost/stolen, you didn't just lose all the cash you brought for the trip and all of your credit cards. 

In my beach bag, I keep sun hat, sunglasses for everyone, sunscreen, and a reusable water bottle that I've filled up at a drink station on the ship before we got off. I also bring a solar phone charger so my phone won't die, headphones,  and my waterproof Kindle for entertainment on the beach. I'll either pack my sandscreen or baby powder to keep sand off my hands. The last thing I'll bring in my beach bag is actually a packable backpack. This takes up basically no room in my beach bag, but if we go shopping or just run out of room in our normal bag, we can have plenty of room to carry everything back on the ship in one load. 

For the water, I'll bring a small inflatable float that I can relax in the ocean if the waves are calm. We also decided to just buy and bring our own snorkel gear for checking out the fish near the beach because it doesn't take up that much space in our luggage, and we like to have our own gear that we're used to and know we like. I once had a really bad experience where the mask I rented had a crack in it, so water kept filling up in my goggles and I had to wait until someone else checked their set back in before I could get a new mask because they were all sold out. This also saves us money in the long run, because you can buy your own snorkel set for about the price of renting it once, so if you use your snorkel set just twice, you'll save money. 

The other bag we always bring is a waterproof dry bag for our towels. This is a great bag to throw wet towels and swimsuits in at the end of the day, or to keep electronics dry if it's raining. You can take ship towels off of the ship for free, but I prefer to bring our own camping towels. Even the largest camping towel (which is bigger than the ship towel) takes up less space in your bag so you can fit more towels into 1 bag and still have leftover room. And these towels are significantly lighter than ship towels, especially when wet. They are also a different color than the ship towels, so you can find your beach chair much easier if you're looking for an orange towel in a sea of blue towels. I also bring towel clips to keep our towels from flying away if we're not sitting in our chair.

If we're traveling with our daughter to the beach, we'll bring a beach bag just for her. Right now we keep a seashell collection purse, travel sandcastle toys, water shoes, sunglasses, sun hat, sunscreen applicator, and floatie packed for her. One weird thing I bring with us to the beach for her is a water bottle shower attachment. This can go on any plastic water bottle and spray water, which we've found is great if she gets her face covered in either sand or food. I also like to bring a sand-proof beach blanket to spread out so she can have a place to either play or nap. We would just use a baby tent to keep her shaded for naps. Obviously, all of this is in addition to the diapers (swim and dry), wipes, paci, change of clothes, and snacks that we brought ashore. 

If we're doing an excursion where you're snorkeling or on a boat all day, all I would bring is the dry bag for your towels and then a waterproof crossbody for your phone, wallet, sunscreen, and water bottle. Don't forget to put your sunglasses on a floating sunglass strap so that they don't go flying off your head, but they won't sink away if they do get knocked off. My sister lost a pair of RayBans while we were jet skiing on our first stop of the cruise and had to buy overpriced crappy sunglasses at a souvenir shop. 

If you're doing an excursion where you're visiting ruins or doing a tour, just know that it will be a lot of walking and it will probably be hot. Keep all your stuff in a lightweight backpack since you'll be carrying your bag all day. You'll probably want a neck fan, shirt fan, or handheld fan to keep you from overheating from all the walking in the humidity. Definitely make sure you fill up a water bottle with cold water from the ship before you leave for your excursion. There might be bugs really bad, so don't forget to pack bug repellant. The Caribbean can have quick storms pretty often, where it might rain every day but only for an hour. If a stop is looking like it might rain, I pack my travel rain jacket just in case.

What not to pack in your excursion bag

This is a heavily-debated topic between cruisers, so here's my hot take: I don't recommend you take your passport off of the ship. The recommendation for bringing your passport with you to shore is if there's a medical emergency and you won't be returning to the ship, or you get to the port too late and miss your ship, then you'll have your passport with you and can easily fly out of the country to either go home or meet up with the ship at the next stop. Both of these things do happen probably just about every cruising, but it still feels like a rare occurrence to me. 

Why I don't bring my passport off the ship is because I believe, statistically, that I'm much more likely to lose my passport on shore than I am not getting back on the ship. When I studied abroad in Sprain and my mom came to visit me, her passport didn't make it out of Barcelona. We don't know if she was pickpocketed, if she sat it down and forgot about it, or if it just fell out. She ended up having to go halfway across the country to Madrid where the embassy is and get an emergency passport. That was very, expensive to pay for an emergency passport and spend the money getting to another city to get to the embassy. It also took up a whole day off of her trip and added a lot of stress for her. To me, it's just not worth it. I do have a scanned copy of our passports saved in a Goggle drive that I've made available offline, just in case.

Another thing I don't bring ashore is my engagement ring or wedding band. I'll wear a travel wedding ring instead. Most ports are safe, but you don't want to make yourself an easy target by flashing a rock worth several thousand dollars. But I mostly swap out my rings just because I don't want to lose them! I've actually fallen in the water and lost one of my travel rings, and I was SO grateful that it wasn't my real ring. I'll just keep my real ring in the safe back on the ship so I know I'm going home with it at the end of the trip. 

One last port don't is don't bring anything back on the ship that you're not supposed to. Some cruise lines have drug dogs hanging around the gangway to make sure no drugs are snuck in. The ship will have you go through a quick security process when you get back on, where you walk through a metal detector and your belongings go through an x-ray machine. You can't bring fresh fruit, food, or your margarita back with you. If you bought alcohol or some cigars on your trip, they will hold them for you until the last day of your cruise. Depending on the country you're on and your ship, you might not be able to bring seashells or sand back on. 

Cruise Embarkation Day

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. 

10 Things to NOT Pack for A Cruise

It can be really easy to overpack for your first cruise because you don't know exactly what you'll be doing and what you'll need. There's a lot of generic "cruise packing" lists going around, and I wanted to share my thoughts on some of these as someone who has been cruising since jr. high and is planning her 9th cruise:

Related: Cruise packing favorites

Laundry soap

You'll see a lot of packing lists recommending you bring a small thing of travel laundry soap for your cruise so you can do a load of laundry in your sink. I'm convinced that anyone who includes this on a packing list has never actually used it. Cruise bathrooms are small and the sinks are not deep at all, so I don't think you'd be able to actually wash your clothes and get all the soap out. Instead, bring a Tide To Go pen to spot-treat stains. You also likely won't even need to wash your clothes on your trip, unless it's longer than a week cruise.  If you really need to do a load of laundry, the ship will usually have a wash and fold service for about $30.

Clothes line

Another thing I see recommended a lot is a clothes line to air dry swimsuits and wet clothes in your room. While this is a great idea, and even I air-dry my clothes on a clothes line on cruises, you don't need to bring your own. The shower in your bathroom will have what looks like a little bell, but is a retractable clothes line. 

The only time I would recommend you spend your hard-earned dollars and take up precious packing space in a suitcase by buying and bringing your own clothes line is if you have a balcony cabin and only 1 swimsuit. If you only have 1 swimsuit, then the wind and sun from being outside will dry your only swimsuit fast enough for you to wear each day. But, if you bring at least 2 swimsuits, yours will dry in plenty of time on the shower clothes line. Personally, I prefer to bring a swimsuit per day on my cruise, because it's my main "outfit" each day. 

Hidden document or money holders

Unless you're traveling to Europe, you just won't need an under the clothes document holder or a money belt. First of all, these are actually really impractical to use. My dad took a money belt on our first cruise, and it seemed like his money would go everywhere when he'd try to pay for something. I've also seen people struggle to get their passports out from their under-the-shirt document holder, and it's not a pretty sight watching them fish that out from under their shirt, half flashing everyone as they do.

I don't get off the ship with my passport because I personally feel that at each stop I'll have a larger risk of losing my passport somewhere at the port than missing the ship or having some other emergency where I'm stuck at the port without a passport. I do have a scanned copy of our passports saved in a Goggle drive that I've made available offline, just in case. 

Instead, I recommend a waterproof travel wallet. These zip up to keep money/cards from falling out and to keep it waterproof. It's perfect because all you need at port is your ID, your ship card, a credit card, and some cash for tipping/bartering/buying things from merchants on the beach, so you can leave everything else in a regular wallet in your stateroom safe. If your wallet gets lost/stolen, then you didn't just lose all the cash you brought for the trip and all of your credit cards. Or, if you need a safe place to store your passports or other large items, you can get a crossbody bag that keeps your stuff right on you so it can't get lost/stolen, but is much easier to access.

A ton of shoes

If you're just going to the Caribbean, then you actually only need 3 kinds of shoes: closed-toed shoes (like sneakers) for on-board activities like basketball and the ropes course, and for shore excursions like parasailing and horseback riding; sandals/water shoes for the beach, and heels or dress shoes for dinner. That's it! 

One of my favorite packing tips for cruises are Pasion Footwear shoes! You might have seen them on Shark Tank, but they are sandals that can convert to heels, and the heels are interchangeable. So, I just wear them as sandals around the ship during the day, and then I have the 3" espadrille heels for most dinner nights,  and 4" rhinestone heels for formal night. 

Black tie formal wear

Formal night is a lot less "formal" than you'd expect if your only experience with a cruise is Titanic. You don't need to rent a tux or bring a ballgown for formal night. On our first cruise, I wore a prom dress and felt way overdressed. Most people wear suits and cocktail dresses for formal night. 

Printed out deck plans

There is no need to print out and laminate the deck plans before your cruise. At each elevator there will be a display of the ship showing what is on that particular deck, plus a list of what is on each floor. The deck numbers in the elevator will also have the main stops listed out by each deck. And, your cruise will have an app that will have detailed deck plans, so there's no need to carry printed plans around with you.

Binoculars

The only cruise that you might need this is Alaska. Every other cruise, these probably won't be used.

Camera

Unless you're really into photography, it's just easier to stick with your phone. Remember, some days you'll be getting off the ship at 7am and not returning until 3pm, so you'll be stuck carrying it around (and watching to make sure it's not lost or stolen) all day. Plus with a camera you'll need to bring extra cords to charge it and other accessories that will eat up space on the tiny desk you have in your room. 

Any iPhone 7 or newer is waterproof, and basically any Android will be waterproof too, so you can take your phone with you anywhere and get really good pictures. If you're worried about holding onto your phone when you're in a swimsuit and don't have pockets, or if you want to swim around in the ocean, you can put your phone in a waterproof phone pouch and just wear it. 

Same goes for a digital clock or night light, even if you're in an interior cabin. Instead, I would bring a good smart watch. Not only will this also will this have the time and a built-in flashlight, but you can use it all day long. I add our daily activities and itinerary to my calendar, and then my watch lets me know what's up next and where. It's also really helpful if you're traveling through time zones on your cruise. Ship time is always the time zone of where you embarked for your cruise on day 1, but your phone will likely switch over to local time when you get there. There's always someone on each cruise that gets in a bind because they don't realize that the time on their phone is different than ship time. With a smart watch, you can have 2 clocks on one watch face, one for local time and one for ship time, and it will keep you on time all day.

Guidebooks

Maybe if you're going to Europe and you don't have an excursion or tour planned, this might come in handy. Other than that, I don't think you would need this. Many of the ports are not in the main city in the country, so a lot of the recommendations might not be geographically feasible for this trip.

Physical books

Not only are books heavy for you to carry and keep up with all day, but cruises are often wet. Kids splash in the pool, it inevitably rains intermittently, the deck is often wet from being recently cleaned, the waves will spray water towards the beach, drinks get spilled... you get it. There's just too many chances for your book to get ruined. I only bring a waterproof Kindle with me and it's great because it's lightweight to carry and I don't have to worry about it getting wet. I just make sure to pre-download 2-3 books before my trip so I don't have to worry about trying to connect my Kindle to the ship wi-fi and waiting forever for the book to download. 

What's in my Travel Hair Bag

Something that has become very handy for all of our short and longer trips has been keeping all of my hair supplies ready to be packed at a moment's notice. Just like my toiletry bag, I've found that buying travel-specific items that stay packed at all times has really helped make sure that I never forget anything, and also saves time when I go to pack, because this step is already done. 

Related: What's in my travel toiletry bag

Double duty hair tools bag

I found the perfect hair tools travel bag to use for this! It not only holds your hot tools, but it comes wrapped in a heat-protectant mat. You can just unwrap the mat and have a place to put your straightener or curler! It has a lot of storage so it can hold more than just your hair tools in it. 

2-in-1 straightener and curler

I used to travel with both a straightener and a separate curler, and it took up a lot of room in the bag and was very heavy. I was super excited to find a hot tool that can both straighten and curl your hair! I got the grande size because my hair goes below my shoulder blade. I do think it straightens better than it curls, but for the space-saving it gives me, I make it work. 

Heat protectant spray

I keep a good mini heat protectant spray with my straightener. I used to keep this in my toiletry bag, but now that I have a dedicated hair tools bag, it has been so nice to keep all of my hairstyling products together in one place. This has also cleared up a little bit of room in my toiletry bag, so now I can find what I need in both bags faster.

Hair clips

I keep a claw clip in my hair bag to make styling my hair easier. The clip can hold a lot of hair, making it really easy to section out my hair for styling. The clips came in a pack of 2, so I threw the extra one in my toiletry bag to help keep my hair out of my face when I'm washing it. 

I also have a small set of alligator clips so that I can keep my hair out of my face to do my makeup without messing up my hair. 

Hair brush

It's basic, but a hair brush is obviously needed in my hair tools bag. I like having a dedicated travel hair brush so that I don't have to worry about if I leave this one behind in a hotel room.

Hair towel

I prefer to air dry my hair, so I don't pack a blow-dryer when I travel. Instead, I pack a microfiber hair towel to dry my hair. It's so much lighter on my head than a hotel towel, and it doesn't fall down. I always make sure to pack one that is not white because one time I had left my white hair towel in the bathroom and housekeeping mistook it for a normal towel and it was gone forever. 

What's in my Travel Toiletry Bag

One of my biggest travel packing hacks is to keep your toiletry bag always packed! It saves you so much time from having to pack and unpack your toiletries after each trip, and it guarantees that you never forget anything. Yes, it is more expensive to have 2 of most things; but, you can just throw 1-2 things off this list into your cart every month and have a fully-stocked toiletry bag for your next trip. Then, all you have to do is remember to buy any refills as you run out.

Oral care

I'd start with buying oral care, because most other basic toiletries are offered by hotels. A cheap way to do this is to ask your dentist for a toothbrush/toothpaste at your next visit. Toothbrush and toothpaste companies are always giving them samples to hand out as freebies! If you have a trip coming up before your next dentist appointment, then you can easily find travel toothbrush kits that comes with a folding toothbrush and toothbrush cover, toothpaste, and mouthwash for less than $10. 

Basic haircare 

Next get a travel hairbrush, hair ties, and bobby pins. These usually aren't offered by hotels, and it's good to keep several stashed in your bag because it's easy to forget to put them back after your trip, so your stash will likely dwindle each trip. I prefer to pack a smaller hairbrush because it takes up less space. I also keep just a cotton hairband in my toiletry bag. This is great for keeping my hair out of my face when I'm washing my face, doing my makeup, or just traveling on a windy day. 

On the other end of the "hair" spectrum, they make mini travel razors that are perfect to keep in your bag! The handle is much smaller so it can fit in your toiletry bag easier, and it comes with a case so your razor blades aren't just exposed out in your bag. I also keep a mini tweezer in my toiletry bag, which I've used more than I expected!

Related: What's in my travel hair care bag

Personal hygiene

Basically all hotels will offer cheap shampoo and body wash, but most don't offer conditioner. Because of this, I pack a travel shampoo, conditioner, and body wash set. I specifically use the Sol de Janeiro brand when on vacation because it smells like vacation in a bottle! My husband loves the smell, and I always get compliments when I wear this. If you're worried about your liquids spilling, you can cover them with silicone leak-protecting covers.

For deodorant, I strongly recommend that you not only get the travel sized to save space, but that you get roll-on deodorant specifically for traveling. Toiletry bags get smashed around in your bag, and time and time again I've had stick deodorants break on me, so I've switched to roll-on to keep that from happening. 

Skin care 

At the very minimum, I keep a makeup removing cloth in my toiletry bag. All you do is add water to remove your makeup, so you don't have to worry about makeup removing wipes drying out or running out. While I can't say that it removes ALL of your makeup, it does a really good job for just requiring water. 

To actually clean my skin, I keep a small travel-sized set of cleanser and moisturizer in my bag. It feels sooo nice after a long day of traveling to wash the travel grime off your face and put on a nice moisturizer. For daytime, I also keep a travel-sized SPF moisturizer to wear every day. Even if you're not planning on being out under the sun all day and don't need to lather on the sunscreen, you're likely to be outside more often when you travel than when you're not at home, so a little SPF will keep you from being pink at the end of the day. I also keep a lip moisturizer always packed.

I've recently added blemish patches into my toiletry bag. Sometimes the stress and poor air quality of travel will make my skin break out, and these are great to throw on before bed so that you're blemish free for the next day.

Miscellaneous 

This isn't exactly a toiletry, but I always keep a silicone "bra" in my toiletry bag, just to make sure it's packed! I usually travel in a sports bra because it is the comfiest option, and really comes in handy when I find myself running between gates to catch a connecting flight. But, I've been stuck in a situation where it was a mostly chill trip so the sports bra was perfect for most days, we had one day where I needed a strapless or thing-strapped top/dress and only had a sports bra. A silicone bra is very easy to pack and works with basically any top.

All-Inclusive Packing Must Haves for 2024

I made my cruise packing favorites post, so now I wanted to talk about what I pack with an all-inclusive resort in mind! Packing for an all-inclusive versus a cruise isn't much different for me, because I tend to go to the same types of places for both. But, on a cruise I'm anticipating being on a boat all day for a few days, and being away from my room for an extended period of time on port days, so what I pack is centered on those factors. At an all-inclusive, I'm betting that I'll always be within a few minutes of my room, and that my room will be a bigger size to work with than a cruise. 

Insulated Cups

For me, the biggest difference between an all-inclusive and a cruise is that "pace yourself" is not a concept that I consider when it comes to my drinks. So, I need something that will keep me from always asking for a refill either because I ran out of my drink or my drink got too hot. For bottled or canned beers, my favorite is the BruMate Hopsulator Trio. I love that it fits both drinks and it is the easiest koozie I've ever used for a canned beer because the beers just slide right out without you having to twist the lid off to remove. It's also great that it has a wide non-slid bottom to help your drink not spill over so easily, and it's indented on the sides to make it more comfortable to hold. These won my husband over when he was able to take a beach nap and wake up to a still-cold beer that wasn't sweating all over the table. 

A lot of resorts are going straw free, or are only offering paper straws or weird candy straws, all which aren't great options, so I prefer to bring a cup that has a straw built in rather than try to keep up with a reusable straw. While the Hopsulator trio comes with a lid so you can actually turn your koozie into a sealed cup (which we have done for many years), the problem with using it for mixed drinks is that it doesn't hold all that much so you have to get a lot of refills. That's why we've added the Brumate Era cups into our packing list. We got the 30 ounces which is a good-sized drink, and it's completely leak-proof which is always great. 

Yes, the resort will have cups so you technically don't have to bring your own, but I personally think it's a much better experience. Their cups won't have a lid so you'll risk your drink spilling and if it's a sweet drink, you might spend all day fighting bugs to stay out of your drink. When you're in the pool or ocean, you'll inevitably end up with water in your cup if there's not a lid. Personally I think it's preferred by the waitstaff because it's less often that they have to come by for refills, there's no empty cups that are left behind for them to pick up at the end of the day, and it's less dishwashing they have to do. It feels like a win-win for me. More and more people are BYOC their all-inclusive stays.

Insulated Water Bottle

Okay, you have to drink something non-alcoholic on your trip, too! Your hotel will probably leave water bottles in your room daily (remember, it's all free here so raid that mini bar). Personally, I prefer to keep mine in my insulated straw bottle. I don't feel comfortable using ice in foreign countries, so I just pop the plastic water bottles in the fridge for a few hours to chill them, and then pour them into my insulated drink to keep them cold all day. I love my water bottle because it has a straw to make it easy to drink while you're reclined on a beach lounger, but it still doesn't spill if I toss it into my beach bag.

Hangover Remedies

I always pack two things when I know I'm going to be doing a lot of drinking and being out in the sun all day: hangover prevention pills for before I drink and liquid IV for after I drink. These two help out a LOT more than you'd think! Don't forget that being in the sun dehydrates you, and drinking dehydrates you, so if you're not careful then you can get in a bad shape really easily!

Travel Sun Hat

Normal sun hats are a pain to travel with because you have to carefully revolve all of your belongings around the whole hat, or have it dangle from a bag, or have to wear it through the airport. I have two travel sun hats that I absolutely love because I can pack them up really small, and being crumpled doesn't bother them one bit. I have the more traditional straw hat that is perfect for days when all I want to do is park in a chair and read while I stay dry, and then I have a sporty sun hat that is made to get wet so it's perfect to wear if I'm spending all day floating in the ocean or the pool. 

One thing about these though, is they both are open on the top, so if you have thin or light hair, you will want to put your hair in a top not to keep your scalp extra protected. I have thick hair, so I actually like the open tops so I can have my hair in any style and it works great. Oh, and these make great gifts for the family member that is hard to buy for. 

Solar Phone Chargers

I won't go down to the beach without a solar phone charger. It's so nice that you can charge up your phone and then just sit this out by your chair when it's dead, and then it's good to go again! The one I have comes with the cords built in, so this is all I have to remember to bring. And, it can do wireless charging too! Lastly, it has a flashlight so if you're coming back to your room after watching the sunset, you can have a little light to help you find your way back. 

Beach Shoes

Flip flops and strappy sandals will technically work, but there's better options. I prefer beach sandals instead. The ones I wear have a small platform to keep your feet from being buried in the sand, which is how most people tear their sandals when walking on the beach because the sand will weigh down their shoe and as they pull their leg to get their foot unburied, the shoe rips. Other shoes can also easily get ripped away from your feet by the current of the waves if you get in the water. And barefoot is a no-go because you'll burn your feet on the sand, and sometimes the shores will have sharp shells that can cut your feet. Beach sandals are made to go in the water so you can wear them straight from the pool to the beach to the ocean, and then because these are so cute I just wear them all day and to dinner as well. 

Towel Clips

There is nothing worse than burning your calves on a hot lounge chair because your towel doesn't cover the whole chair since half of it is draped over the back to keep the towel in place. Well, I guess maybe your towel blowing away and landing in the water leaving you without a towel might be worse. So, I bring towel clips. We actually just have a little vacation bag that we keep our Brumates and towel clips together so that we can always remember to bring them both!

Pool Float

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is just float in the water and chill with a drink in my hand. You can bring inflatable pool floats that don't take up a lot of room, but allow you to relax in the pool without having to sit or stand the whole time. Depending on how calm the ocean is near your resort, you can chill in these out there too. You just need to be paying more attention if you're floating in the ocean, because the tide can take you away without you even noticing. My husband prefers to stand instead of float, so he'll just keep an arm on my float to keep me nearby. 

I've also taken a whale tail float to sit on in the water. These are for when you don't necessarily want to be reclining, but you don't want to be sitting either. It's great for situations when you're with several people and you want to be involved in the conversation, but still sitting down. 

Sunscreen

I saved the most important for last. Even if you want to get a vacation tan, still wear sunscreen! Trust me when I say that even with sunscreen, you probably won't re-apply it often enough so you'll still get a tan. But I once had an entire vacation ruined because I got a second-degree sunburn on day 1 and will never forget how miserable I was with bubbling and peeling skin (use cool tea bags if this happens to you). 

I really recommend you do your first layer with sunscreen lotion, and then you can follow up with the spray if you're covered in sand and can't re-apply with lotion. I recommend starting with lotion (per my derm) because the breeze off the ocean usually will blow away of lot of the spray sunscreen, leaving you with basically no coverage. Starting off with the lotion at least gives you a good base layer of protection. I also use sunscreen stickers that change color to let me know when to reapply so I won't burn. 

Resort Wear

Lastly, I pack a swimsuit for each day, a coverup, comfy outfits for the day and a dinner outfit for each night. That's basically it! If we're planning on doing anything on the trip, I might pack more outfit. But mostly, I just live in bikinis and coverups for my trip, which makes for easy packing because like a true millennial I overpack on the drinkware.