Packing for a trip can be a stressful endeavor. We’ve all been there one week before our departure date - trying to streamline the excessive number of vacation outfits we’ve saved on Pinterest to a reasonable number that will fit in our suitcase. Not to mention, finding the time in our busy lives to do laundry to ensure everyone in our family arrives to the vacation destination with undergarments and sleepwear. On departure day, you also might check your carry-on obsessively on the way to the airport to verify that you have necessary identification to board the plane.
In addition to the usual suspects you’d pack for any trip, there are some unique items that you might consider including in your luggage when vacationing with Disney Cruise Line. You’re probably thinking - ugh, more to pack and buy for a Disney cruise! No worries. More than likely, you have most of the items we’re featuring on today’s blog post in your house already.
Tumblers
Unlike other cruise lines, Disney offers unlimited soda and water at its restaurants and pool decks. Unfortunately, the cups provided at the beverage station on Deck 9 of the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder and the beverage stations on Deck 11 of the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy are very small. They’re comparable to kiddie-sized cups. After you fill the cup with ice, there isn’t much room left for water or soft drinks. Although they’re miniature, it’s still difficult to walk from the pool deck to your stateroom carrying five cups of any size.
For this reason, we recommend bringing a tumbler from home with you. If you’re anything like us, I’m sure that you have at least 10 tumblers in your kitchen cabinets right now. Pack one per adult. The kids don’t seem to mind the small cups because they’re usually in the vicinity of the pool deck for refills. Adults, on the other hand, prefer to have at least 30 ounces on hand at any given moment. I like to fill my tumbler with water throughout the day to get my minimum intake of H2O. I may know people who imbibe liquids of a less hydrating variety during the day, and the tumbler is a convenient way to enjoy those liquids by the pool, on the veranda or strolling around the ship :)
One-third of my personal tumbler stash. If you’re like me, your kitchen cabinets are stocked with these refillable cups. Pack one per adult for your Disney Cruise.
If you forget, the shops on board carry Disney Cruise Line-branded tumblers and cups. But at about $30 per tumbler, bring your tumbler from home and save that money for another souvenir.
Towel Holders
Disney Cruise Line never runs out of clean towels by the ship pools and upon disembarking at ports of call. No need to bring beach towels from home. Why would you want to wash and dry those on vacation anyway? Because the Disney towels are all white and non-descript, it can be difficult to identify on which lounge chair you placed your towel.
We recommend packing towel clips to add some flair to your Disney-provided towel. Why waste precious time scanning the pool deck for the space you left an hour ago while you stood in line for the slide? A bold, bright and colorful towel deck will let you get back to your afternoon nap quicker! Amazon has a large assortment of fun, tropical-themed towel clips on its site. If you’re more practical, use large, sturdy chip clips from home. Or borrow some jumbo binder clips from the office. An additional bonus to using towel clips: when it gets windy, your towel won’t fly away!
How cute are these flip-flop towel clips? At the time of this blog post, you can buy them on Amazon for $14.98.
Lanyards
Lanyards are not an item regularly associated with vacation; rather they connote a stale office environment where people check in and out with badges. NOT the case on a Disney Cruise. Your lanyard holds your stateroom card which serves as door key, charging mechanism, reminder of your dining rotation and table number, and identification to get off and on the ship at port. Using a lanyard is the easiest way to ensure that you don’t lose that all-important key card.
For the budget-conscious, you can pack the same lanyard that you use for work. If you don’t want to bring work vibes on the cruise (totally understandable), Dollar Tree and similar stores sell vacation-worthy lanyards for, you guessed it, only $1. And they even carry lanyards featuring Disney characters like princesses, Mickey Mouse and Avengers.
Don’t forget to pack a lanyard to keep your stateroom key card close by. You need it to buy adult drinks like this rum and ginger beer!
After you cruise with Disney for the first time, you become a Silver member of Castaway Club and will receive a Disney lanyard at check-in for future cruises.
Door Magnets
Disney Cruise Line passengers engage in a fun tradition of using magnets to distinguish their staterooms from others and lend their doors some personality. Shops like Etsy offer ready-made magnets featuring beloved Disney characters and themes. Or you can customize magnets with family member names, the date, ship and itinerary of your cruise, and much, much more. But magnets are not limited to Disney. On many a stateroom door, you’ll see fellow guests showing their hometown pride with local sports team and university magnets.
We could easily find our stateroom on the Disney Wonder, thanks to our ready-made and custom door magnets.
If you are lucky enough to sail Concierge on the Fantasy or Dream, those stateroom doors are wooden, preventing you from participating in the magnet tradition. On all ships, Disney prohibits guests from affixing items to stateroom doors using tape or adhesive of any kind as this can damage the doors’ finish.
Dry Erase Board
Finally, don’t forget to pack a dry erase board. Make it magnetic, too. Say what?
Sounds crazy, but this is an essential item for families. As we noted in previous blogs, kids adore vacationing on Disney ships because of the freedom they receive. When they’re not obliged to eat dinner with family, they’re dishing alley-oops on the basketball court or playing four-square with their new friends in the Oceaneer Club. It can drive the fun out of a parent’s vacation walking every deck of the ship to find her kid.
Great example of a dry erase board to use to communicate with your kids while on board.
Disney does provide two free channels for families to stay in touch. There are “Wave Phones” in every stateroom allowing guests to call and text each other onboard and at Castaway Cay. They look like old-school cell phones or 1990s remote land lines. I have to admit, I still don’t understand how to use the Wave Phones. Plus there is a hefty fee if your kid loses one. And my kids lose everything.
The Navigator App also enables text-like messaging between members in your travel party on board the ship. This is an awesome feature and very user-friendly. On our last cruise, I communicated with my husband and in-laws via the App frequently. However, if your kids don’t have mobile phones, you can’t message them via the Navigator App. My children have iPods, and we couldn’t get the Navigator App to work between my iPhone and their iPods.
So, what would work? Back to the magnetic, dry-erase board. Stick it on your stateroom door, and your kids can inform you where they are and when they intend to return to the stateroom … if you can read their handwriting, that is!