11 Overrated & Underrated Cruise Tips!

there's so much Cruise advice out there but today I wanted to talk about the cruise advice that is overrated and even the stuff that's underrated up next [Music] hey everyone it's Matt from Royal caribbeanblog.com I certainly share a lot of cruise advice here on our YouTube channel and across the internet more than likely you're going to run into quite a bit of cruise advice whether it comes from a friend someone you know or just some of a blog or video out there there's a lot to take in and over the years I've heard plenty of it myself but today I wanted to share the bits of cruise advice that really stand out as being either overrated or underrated what do I mean by this well essentially the overrated tips are things that either get repeated a lot or just simply sound good but are in practice not that great and then of course there's the cruise ship advice that actually you might hear a lot but you really should focus on much more than you might even think anyway let's go through some of these and I'm gonna rely on you to keep me honest on this one so let me know in the comments below the video if I missed any really important overrated or underrated Cruise advice number one under 80 Cruise advice packing your bathing suit in your carry-on so embarkation day when you get on board your cruise ship on that first day it's one of the best times to take advantage of the pool deck and the reason being is that a lot of other people just simply don't have their bathing suits on them and even if they do they might be busy doing other things on board because the cruise ship pool deck and the activities on the pool deck can get very busy later in the cruise this is one of the best times to take advantage of being out there but more importantly I would argue is that there's a little bit of downtime on embarkation day you get on board the ship you get your food and then you're kind of sitting around waiting because of course your staterooms may not be ready for a little bit and even after that once you get into your cabins well there's still a little bit of down time until you actually Sail Away inevitably I feel like a lot of people end up just kind of Meandering around exploring the ship certainly but it's one of the best times to enjoy the pool deck without much of a line in fact if you're really interested in the water slides or the Flow Rider or any of those other pool deck attractions the lines are always the least up here on embarkation day so I think it's very underrated to bring your bathing suit with your carry-on because clearly even though this device has been out there for a while people aren't doing it take advantage next on my list is a bit of overrated Cruise advice and that is not to over pack and I kind of went through this on my own recently on my latest Cruise a lot of people will tell you don't over pack for your cruise take what you think you're gonna need put half of it and then use that or something along those lines and the idea of not over packing makes a lot of sense when you think about it at home and the idea that you don't want to bring more than you really need in fact when you go in your first Royal Caribbean cruise or cruising in general you might be tempted to pack a lot of extra things and that just means a lot of heft and whatnot especially if you're flying that could also mean extra fees for luggage and all that and I totally understand that but here's the reality of things it's better to over pack than underpack in the sense of needing to have extra clothes when I went to Norway I was like I'm in an underpack purposefully because I want to be as Nimble as I can being in Europe I don't want to be lugging around luggage all that much and I want to be as efficient as I can I'm gonna take this advice to heart and I pretty much regretted it almost off the bat within about a day or two I was starting to ration my clothing as if it was food and I was starving it was like I gotta make this last and while I was able to do laundry certainly ultimately I decided it was just not worthwhile and certainly I understand the impetus for not overpacking but here's the reality I'd much rather or have an extra pair of shoes or a couple of outfits I don't wear then having to constantly be worried about am I gonna have a clean shirt for tomorrow which was the situation in Norway and you might argue well Matt not only did you underpack you way under packed there is gonna be a happy medium between the two of over packing and underpacking I really don't think over packing is a big deal now should you pack a 1920 steamer type trunk to take a ton of stuff with you no I think you need to be realistic about what you need to bring with you but the idea that you need to really be like cruising with a carry-on piece of lug or something like that I think it's just overrated Cruise advice bring what you think you might need and if you have a couple of extra clothes that you don't use on your cruise not the end of the world next on my list also for overrated Cruise advice is to bring your own drinks on board and this might seem a little confusing as to why I put this on my overrated bit of cruise advice but bringing your own drinks on board isn't something that real cribbon allows you to do you can bring up to 12 bottles or cans or whatever of non-alcoholic drinks and embarkation day and up to two bottles of wine line per stay room now while there's no denying it will save you money the reason why it made my list for overrated is the sherpa effect that you have on embarkation day it's a bit of a hassle to bring all that stuff with you and because you have to keep it in your carry-on lugs bring it up to your room it just gets more cumbersome than it's worth now I am also a big proponent of Royal Caribbean's drink packages because I just like the convenience of them I get it it costs money bring your own drinks doesn't cost money but it's obviously going to be a very limited amount now if you can make it work especially like a three night cruise okay that's a whole different story but on a seven night cruise you're gonna run out of it at some point right especially if you're sharing with other people on board and so that's why I feel like overall I'd prefer to just invest in a drink package because I think it's going to be just more convenient and less hassle for bringing on board the ship maybe you disagree with him on this one but I have it on my list some underrated Cruise advice something I talk about all the time which is using a travel agent to book a cruise I just can't convey in words how important it is to use a travel agent because it it's not about just booking a cruise anybody can book a cruise it's really not that difficult the value in a good travel agent is everything that happens between when you book your cruise and when you actually go on your cruise you're gonna have questions concerns Royal Caribbean might even screw something up it's so important and helpful to have a good travel agent that costs you nothing extra to use and helps you all along the way whether it's your first cruise or your fifth or your 500th cruise there are always issues that come up I still have questions and issues that come up and so I love that I can just simply text my travel agent and ask them that question rather than have to deal with it on your own certainly I can pick up the phone and be able to maybe get an answer but it's just so much easier to let someone else do it especially if it costs you nothing extra to do it now a lot of people will say oh man if you book through a travel agent you can't change your own reservation I want to be in charge of my own reservation and I'd argue that is overrated being able to change your own reservation totally overrated because what that really means is you cannot call A Royal Caribbean directly and change your ship or your sale date or your cabin or add somebody in there which is true except those things are boring and cumbersome and take time let someone else deal with that you get to focus on the fun things like booking your drink packages shore excursions Wi-Fi anything in the cruise planner that's all still on you but the boring mundane tasks that is still on the travel agent a bit of overrated Cruise advice is don't book a cabin near an elevator this is advice I've read every now and then and it kind of made sense until you actually stay in a cabin near an elevator I'm gonna tell you it's actually a really good idea to book a cabin near an elevator now I suspect this piece of advice may either come from one of two reasons one it was based on really old cruise ship advice in which the noise muffling of the elevator Lobby was not as good as it is today or number two it's about foot traffic and basically that if you're near an elevator Lobby there's more foot traffic nearby and that can be louder again I think all this advice is rooted in the old school method of cruising in which ships were not that efficient with noise muffling now that's going to say that if you go into Royal Caribbean cruise ship today they're soundproof because they're not but I really think the convenience of staying near an elevator Lobby for your cabin is better than picking a cab all the way at the end of the hallway especially on a Royal Caribbean's newer ships certainly number one the rooms are sufficiently far away from the elevator you're not gonna be hearing the dings from the elevator and will you hear foot traffic you can hear foot traffic at any given time with any room that you might have at the end of the day it's really dependent on the people walking by rather than just constantly being an issue I would argue having said in many cabins near the elevator lobbies that is not so much of an issue of being woken up or disturbed by people walking by your cabin occasionally somebody just walk by and they are allowed and boisterous but again that has happened no matter where the location of my cabin is it's not constant it's pretty quick and it's never been a real issue to the point that I said oh boy I regret booking this cabin but more importantly I think it's more useful to book your cabin near the cruise ship elevators because of the convenience of being close by on roller means Oasis and Quantum clashes especially and I suspect this will apply to the icon class as well the distance when you book room all the way at the end of the hallway is really long now not to sound like the laziest person on Earth because well maybe I am but that distance is a while and it really makes getting back and forth to your cabin especially if you just need to run back to your room to get something a real hassle having a room near your elevator Lobby is actually more advantageous than you might think and it's the reason why when I book a cabin I always ask for a cabin near an elevator as opposed to all the way at the end of the ship certainly if you're on a vision or a Radiance cloud ship that distance really isn't so bad but all things being equal I do think the advice of not booking a cabin near an elevator is totally overrated speaking of totally overrated Cruise advice and that is buying the key I have tried the key so many times and every single time I come to the conclusion the benefits sound better than they really are and that's the reason why the key is overrated if you read the policy of what the key includes it sounds really good but the reality is many of the benefits are just simply not worthwhile because they either sound better than they really are or they're simply not that useful because you can get them on your own you can get an early check-in time with the key but you can only check your timeline your own as long as you get a check-in time right when the check-in window opens at 45 days you get an arbarkation Day lunch in chops you can buy your own chops grilled lunch on embarkation day you get internet included with the key you can buy the internet as well on your own and it will be cheaper by the way than the key overall package you get signature activity Reserve times at the water slides of the rock wall or the Flowrider which is all true except for the fact they're almost always at inconvenient times like around dinner or early morning to be fair I think there are a couple of perks that are worthwhile in the key like priority tendering and the ability to drop off your carry-on luggage on embarkation day going back to that tip earlier about being able to bring drinks on board you could drop that off over there which is really nice but those two perks are very limited in when you'll actually be able to use them because because let's remember tendering is very rare these days and that embarkation day perk is good for us just a couple of hours then your cabin's ready so I just don't recommend the key it sounds better than it is it's gonna cost you more and you have to buy for the entire duration of your cruise and that's why things overrated another piece of overrated Cruise advice is bringing an over-the-door shoe organizer now we've done tips about some inside cabin hacks and ways to maximize your storage space on the royal green cruise ship here's the reality the over-the-door shoe organizer which is aimed at going like a dollar store you buy one of these shoe organizers you put it on your bathroom door in your cabin or even your main door allows you to have more storage space for things like hats and shoes and jewelry and whatnot but in 2023 I just don't think this holds up very well storage space in your cabin on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship at least has gotten a whole lot better than it used to be you know five ten years ago and for this reason I just think it's not worthwhile because I think that there's plenty of storage space on board now if you're on one of these older ships specifically the vision the radiance and maybe even the voyage glass ships I get it there can be a more limited space than say Harmony of the Seas or Odyssey of the Seas but even when I've used this on older ships like Mariner of the Seas I just find it's not as practical or useful as it makes it out to be certainly it is nice to be able to put some things in there but unless you're maybe sharing a room with like three other people and you're all bringing tons of clothing because you over pack them listen to my earlier tip okay you might have an argument there but I think more often than not this piece of cruise packing advice is totally overrated speaking of packing advice here's an undergraded Cruise tip and that is bringing a laundry hamper again when we started looking at some Cruise cabin hack tips one of the more intriguing tips was to bring a laundry hamper with you to keep your dirty laundry organized and I thought about I said this seems like a silly one because who cares whether it's in a pile or in a laundry hamper but the reality is it really made it a lot better it was just nice having not just this pile of mountain of clothes but an organized pile of mountain clothes in the laundry hamper it kept it from Just overflowing and it was really a good quality of life hack for your cruise cabin so bringing a laundry hamper especially if you can buy a really cheap one at a dollar store or Amazon is a really good idea let's go back to overrated Cruise advice and that is buying an expensive camera or really any camera for your cruise now this basic encounter intuitive is you want to record those memories of your cruise but I'm going to bet you that you have a fairly decent smartphone on you whether it's an iPhone or an Android as long as you have a smartphone with a camera that was built in the last I don't know three or five years it is going to be good enough for your photos now obviously see if you are a professional photographer this device does not applied to you I'm talking to the moms the dads the cousins the aunts and the grandpas out there because you want to capture the family moments I do that as well your phone is going to do a good enough job when you consider the fact the photos you're going to be capturing are going to be shared primarily on social media or maybe texting each other but you're not creating giant prints for murals or things you're gonna put on your wall you're taking nice photos you're going to share with your friends and family probably on Facebook and that's the end of it you don't need to spend a lot of money writing money on an external camera when your phone camera is certainly good enough while a DSLR camera will have better quality and more depth of field than certainly an iPhone camera for that matter but I feel like for most people again taking family photos here I am here's everybody smiling with their bathing suits on you know what the phone camera is good enough because you're not creating prints from it you're just sharing it online so for that reason and I don't really think inexpensive cameras worthwhile heck I don't even bring my expensive camera anymore I just rely on my iPhone because the photos are good enough because I'm using them for online Productions I'm not creating photo prints or blowing up until giant resolutions so I think given the fact the advances of iPhone cameras in the last you know three five years and the fact of what you're using it for I just don't think it's worthwhile to buy an expensive camera for your cruise and lastly my bit of overrated underrated Cruise advice we're gonna go with an underrated piece of cruise advice and that is buying Outlet adapters so when I went to Europe I bought a European Cruise adapter because of course I'm going to Europe I need to be able to plug my stuff in and that was great and certainly in Europe that's really helpful right but having Outlet adapters on your cruise ship is even more helpful because even on Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ships the amount of outlets just never is enough you're always going to need more Outlets to plug in all your different devices your iPhone your laptop your hair dryer all those things and there are limited Outlets that are there I'm a really big fan of USB outlet extenders because remember you can't bring a power strip on board but you can bring USB hubs on be able to extend the outlets that are there and I've generally had pretty good luck in fact I've never had any of them ever confiscated for the ones that I brought and it really makes such a big difference so that way you don't play the game of okay which device can I unplug so I can plug this other device in for 10 more minutes it's just not a fun thing so buying Outlet adapters is worth every penny and even though it's on a lot of pieces of cruise advice it's worth it every single time not enough people to us I'm gonna say it is underrated so there you go there's my list of I don't know 10 or so underrated and overrated pieces of cruise advice let me know in the comments again which ones did I miss what things do you think should be on this list let me know in the comments below while you're down below our video hit the like button subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications that way YouTube lets you don't have a brand new video to share this has been Matt from royalcaribbeanblog.com and we'll talk again real soon

Channel: Royal Caribbean Blog

Views: 254,422

Keywords: overrated cruise experiences, overated cruise ship, why cruises are overrated, cruise tips, bad cruise ship passengers, bad cruise ships, bad cruise passengers, overrated cruise

Id: zLm9kci1fqU

Length: 16min 30sec (990 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 01 2023