By: Rachel Mork
If you're not sure what to pack for a cruise with the family, relax. This packing checklist will get you set for your best vacation yet. Just follow this list, add extras as is tailored to your specific cruise, and have sail away!
Items to Pack for a Family Cruise:
- Airline and Cruise Tickets: Or appropriate paperwork confirming reservations, if needed. Make sure you have both an electronic and a paper copy, even if it means scanning it and emailing it to yourself.
- Proof of Vaccinations: This is necessary if you are docking at certain foreign islands or countries.
- Personal Identification Papers: This may include passports, birth certificates, and drivers licenses. Bring your auto insurance papers in case you rent a car while at a port of call destination. Also bring along prescriptions, doctor's notes regarding specific prescriptions or illnesses, and your doctor's contact information in case of sickness or health complications while on the cruise.
- Credit Cards: You'll want to alert your credit card companies that you will be traveling outside of the United States before you leave.
- Emergency Contact Numbers: Imagine an emergency occurs while you are on the cruise. Bring all the numbers you might possibly need.
- Sunscreen, Visors, Sunhats and Skin Care Items: You'll want plenty of sunscreen plus some kind of skin repair lotion in case of sunburn. Don't wait to buy it on the cruise; it'll cost more and may be a foreign kind of sunscreen that may irritate sensitive skin.
- Electronics and Accompanying Batteries, Chargers, and Replacement Equipment: Go through your collection of cell phones, cameras, cam corders, laptops and the like. Identify exactly what you will need to keep each item going and pack accordingly.
- Clothing for Every Possible Weather Condition: Pack more than you think you will need, especially for the kids.
- Kids Medical Kit: Fill a little kit with all kinds of medications your child might need including anti-nausea medication, anti-diarrhea medication, Benadryl, pain killers, triple antibiotic cream, auri-dry to prevent earaches or swimmer's ear, and any other medication you can imagine your child possibly needing.
- Travel Pillows and Blankets: Help your kids stay comfortable throughout the flight and cruise.
- Approved Snacks: Check the restrictions of your airline, but pack something approved for the flight. You never know when there might be a delay, and a snack may help your child be patient.
