Packing for a cruise is its own kind of puzzle — limited cabin storage, formal nights, port excursions, and souvenir hauls all competing for suitcase real estate. Royal Caribbean recently asked its community on Facebook for their best packing tips, and the post drew more than 70 responses in under 24 hours. The most useful advice wasn't about which items to pack or skip, but rather how to pack more thoughtfully from the start.
Several veteran cruisers swear by a pre-packing spreadsheet, customized by trip length, so nothing gets forgotten and every checked-off item is confirmed in the bag. Equally popular: loading a small carry-on with a bathing suit and a change of clothes so you can hit the pool the moment you board, without waiting for your checked luggage to arrive at the cabin. For figuring out how much clothing to actually bring, one commenter offered a simple formula — divide the total number of travel days by three to get the number of bottoms, shoes, and similar items to pack.
Inside the cabin, organization is everything. Packing cubes earn high marks not just for compression, but for keeping clothes sorted in drawers without fully unpacking. For travelers with larger bags, leaving hanging garments on their hangers makes settling into the stateroom nearly effortless. Those with smaller bags can roll clothes instead of folding them — knits especially — to fit more in while reducing wrinkles, which matters since irons and steamers aren't permitted onboard.
A few tips address the often-overlooked back half of the trip. A folding mesh laundry hamper keeps dirty clothes corralled in the closet and makes repacking fast at the end of the voyage — two-packs run under $10 at major retailers. For longer sailings of a week or more, several cruisers recommend paying for onboard laundry service so you can pack half as much clothing. And tucking an empty duffel bag into your luggage before departure means souvenirs never have to fight for space on the way home.
This roundup of tips originally appeared on Royal Caribbean Blog.
