ONE WEEK BEFORE YOUR CRUISE...10 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO!!!

hey everyone this is Jamie and I'm Sharon and we are sharing it see what's up everybody hey yeah we're about a week away from an amazing eight day cruise on the carnival horizon Sharon I've sent around talking today about all the last-minute things that we need to make sure that we have on lock and load before we head onto the ship to make sure we have an amazing smooth cruise we're going to share some of those things with you guys next all right so if you guys are anything like us you book your cruise months and months ago you've been getting excited making your plans doing some research getting everything lined up and then boom you're a week away from getting on the cruise you're like oh my god I'm a little overwhelmed right now there's a lot of things coming at me pretty quickly and I'm not sure if I'm ready to go well we're talking today here's about 10 things that you need to make sure you have locked and loaded for when you get on that cruise ship and to go have an amazing smooth cruise experience alright so the first thing we're gonna talk about is packing that's very important that you have everything you need when you get on that ship so a lot of you have probably or hopefully have maybe set a few things out maybe a few weeks a few months ahead of time kind of somewhat prepared although this last week is very crucial that you have all your things laid out lined up ready to go in that suitcase so a few things we do is we look online kind of check the weather in the ports we're gonna be going to make sure that we're bringing proper clothing for those you know the the weather and the time another thing is we plan on whenever excursions we're gonna be taking what kind of clothing we need for that if we're gonna be taking an ATV excursion you know we need or something where we're gonna need our tennis shoes versus flip-flops those kind of things just make sure you have all the proper clothing and shoes that you're going to need for your excursions so basically we get all those together you want to have them all together maybe put in your packing cubes if you use packing cubes and how I'm all ready to go so that maybe a couple days before you can get them all put in the luggage clothes the luggage up and be ready to go another thing is kind of plan whether you're going to be taking checked luggage and a carry-on or just carry-on only and and kind of go from there and plan accordingly to what type of luggage you're going to be bringing on with you as well all right now the next thing that you need to worry about making sure that you have on lock and load our plans for excursions now you're going to see a lot of fun ports you want to make sure that all the things you have planned go nice and smooth for you you may have booked some excursions through the cruise ship and those ones are pretty easy to maneuver you've already booked them they're gonna keep you in line they're gonna tell you where to go where to meet probably get two tickets to your cabin and such and if you have any questions you can always inquire once you get on the ship at the excursion desk now if you book to scourgings off of the ship these are times when you really want to make sure that these reservations and plans are you know written in stone contact the company ahead of time make sure you have a way to contact them once you get their phone or email make sure you bring all your documents that you print it out showing your reservations any deposit you may have already paid know where you have to meet when you get there maybe talk a little bit about the time as in the local time versus the cruise ship time and is there a difference that you want to be aware of and make sure you go over all that stuff that way you know when you get into port if there's a delay or there's any issues you know how to reach the people how to make alternate arrangements and not what you don't miss out on any money or amazing memories you can make on those excursions so plan those excursions accordingly all right the next thing we're going to talk about is something we call on the ship and this is everything you're going to need to get on that ship to board the ship as well as everything you will need throughout the week on the ship so to get on the ship first thing you're gonna need a couple things hopefully you've already completed your online check-in so you're happy it's very important yeah so you'll have all those printed documents that you will be brain so the main thing you're gonna need to get on that ship is you're going to need your identification whether it be your passport or whether you're traveling with a driver's license and a birth certificate and also your boarding pass so those are the cup two things that are very important that you're gonna need to get on that ship another thing as we're talking about passports an ID I just want to mention a little tip here is something we do is we take a picture of our passport we then we email it to ourselves so we always have it in our email so if something should happen and we don't have a our passport on us we do have a copy of it in our email that we can get to if ever need be another thing is once you're on the ship you're going to need maybe we bring copies of all of the things we've purchased whether it's the specialty dining we've purchased a spa treatment the drink package maybe purchase water for our stateroom any of those things we bring our receipts with us so that we have them available in case there is some kind of issue that arises where we don't receive them it's a lot easier to handle things when you have your receipt you have documentation that you actually did purchase it so those are a few things that we bring as far as we call on the ship that we like to have handy and ready to go and make sure all that stuff is in your carry-on as well all right the next couple things that you need to be concerned with and that you need to have lockdown really have to do with travel now if you live in a port city and you can drive to the port congratulations and we are jealous of you because we don't get to do that often most folks have to fly in and quite often you're flying in the night before which means you have a hotel reservation as well so you need to make sure of a couple things you have all your plans to get to the airport are you parking your own car at the airport or do you have a ride you're getting your flight do you have arrangements to make dinner while you're traveling eat while you're traveling once you get to the port city what are you doing from there do you have a ride to get to to your hotel or something of that nature then you also have to do that in Reverse for the way back and think about that too so making your travel arrangements to and from airports and such in the port city what things you pretty much have to have planned out you may need to take taxi ride uber rides you're going to need to you know make arrangements for that and have that stuff organized as well and then besides that you're going to want to make sure you have arrangements to get to the port the morning of the cruise so maybe you're staying at a hotel where they have a shuttle well that works out well but what time does that shuttle run how many people are probably going to be trying to get on that shuttle what if you try to get on it's already full and you got to wait for the next 140 minutes later a lot of factors involved there and do you have a back-up plan same time once you get off the ship what are you going to be doing getting the taxi do you have a flight ready what time is your flight do you have time to tour the city before you go to the airport do you have to get off the ship early to get to the airport there's a lot of factors involved as far as travel to and from the port city and then travel locally once you get there so make sure you give that a lot of thought and have a game plan for that so there's no surprises and you don't get caught stuck with you and your luggage on a curb somewhere with no ride all right another thing let's talk about money sure your cruise is paid off but you're still gonna need a little bit of money for a few things you may want to pick up around the ship off the ship or whatever so you're gonna want to go the bank and get a little cash now I will say I'm gonna link a video maybe in the description below maybe a card up above to a video I made a couple months back it was on I call it my budget envelope stuffing video and that is where I kind of it's something we do where we put money in some envelopes we label them for our port days and it kind of keeps us on track with our spending for our budget while we're in port and it's it's a really good way to kind of stay on track and and keep track of what you're spending so you don't overspend and that you'd have enough for everything you want to do so now let's get back to the money you're gonna want to go to the bank and get a lot of small bills because you are gonna need small bills if you're going off into port and also they come in very handy for tipping maybe you order room service maybe the porters at the airport Porter's at the cruise floor that take your luggage things like that you're gonna want to throw a couple dollars to them so those are some reasons you're going to need some small bills I would highly recommend you know maybe some 20s also a lot of tens fives and ones ones and five especially come in very handy also when you're shopping in the ports they don't always have a lot of change so that's what another reason it's good to have some small bills when you're shopping in the ports of these small vendors also now let's talk about once you're getting on the ship as far as what is going to get paid for on your some cruise lines called a sail ensign account other cruise lines have other names for it but it is how you pay for anything you purchase on the ship so this is most people will link their credit card to that you can also do a cash account so if you're going to do a cash account then you're going to want to go to guest services and put some cash on your account so you're gonna want to bring cash for that accordingly you know and that you can bring some larger bills if you like it's easier to keep track of but however you want to do it but bring some cash to put on your account if you are going to link a credit card to your account I would suggest doing a credit card versus a debit card sometimes the debit cards they do put holds on them and there may still be a hold once you return home and it takes a couple days to get taken off of there so if you may need some of those funds then you may want to link a credit card instead because it doesn't they don't put the same holes on the credit card as they do the debit card so that's just a little tip so anyways make sure you go to the bank get your cash plan your finances accordingly for how you're going to be doing your spending on your cruise and you should be all set alright so Sharon mentioned a credit card speaking of those credit cards one thing you also want to do is make sure that you contact your bank to let them know they're gonna be traveling because when they start seeing some bills coming from across the country and different Caribbean islands and things that know they might have a tendency to lock that thing down on you a little bit take it from us first-hand experience a cruise we took on the Vista one of us who he will remain nameless may have forgotten to contact the bank in all the excitement of the cruise and when they try to use the card at a machine in a hotel lobby let's just say she gone after that so we lost that card and luckily we had a backup make sure that you contact your bank let them know when you're traveling you can do it with a phone call you can do in a person if you got free time on your hands or just go online and the most banking institutions have a way we can go on fill out some travel information that way they know where you're going where you might be staying for the night you know maybe you're gonna fly into one town you're going to drive to another to get the ship levan all those details and that way you don't get any surprises and make sure you have a way to that they can contact you in case there is an emergency or a fraud alert so you can deal with it right away and take care of things before your card gets cancelled locked in or something like that so contact the bank let her know what's up whether it's your credit card or your debit card and that way you get no surprises all right now another thing is if you have pets make sure you've made your arrangements for your dinner Lusine these are right now so whether you are taking your pets to a kennel to be watched maybe you have a friend or family that you're gonna take them to their house whether you have someone coming to your house whatever the case is make sure you've made those arrangements prior to and you kind of confirm them just a couple of days before because you never know someone may cancel forget to tell you and then you're left leaving for your crews and you're wondering what am I gonna do with my pets so make sure you confirm that a couple days before and you have a place for those little guys to go yeah it's so it's something where you never think he might but what if you forget all about that little pet til the morning up you're like oh my gosh so great great tip on that one child so make sure you have your pet sitters all lined up all right one more thing that you need to make sure that you have arrangements for is your mail now depending on where you live you have all kinds of different you know mailbox situations out there sometimes you might have a locked mailbox and maybe it's not so much you have to worry about but if you're somewhere rural where you have one at the end of your driveway or something that's not secure you're gonna want to make sure you put a hold on that mail you can go down to the post office and do it directly you can agree to grab probably a postcard fill it out and drop it off for them to hold the mail some places you can probably do it online as well and that way they'll hold it while you're gone and deliver everything all at once cuz you don't want a lot of your personal mail who knows what's going to be in there you know bills with your information and stuff like that somebody knows you're out of town it's pretty easy to grab some mail out of your mailbox so make sure you're securing yourself protect yourself and put a hold on that mail you don't really think much about it but it could be pretty important while you're on vacation sharing we cover a lot of things is there anything else that people need to worry about a week out from their cruise basically you want to just go through and go over everything make sure you have everything in order whether it's a checklist you have whether it's list you actually handwrite out whether it's unless you do on the computer on your phone but make sure you have some type of little list to go through check things off make sure everything's in order another thing is make sure you purchase your sunscreen if you're going to a warm weather destiny oh yes and make sure you have all your medication that you need prescription medication in particular that's very important all ready to go to pack in your carry-on it is very important to put that in your carry-on because sometimes your luggage doesn't get to your stateroom in a timely manner it may not get there till later in the evening and if it's a medication that you maybe need it's a special time you're supposed to take it you need to have that on hand so all your medication like I said especially prescription medication make sure they get packed in your carry-on very important so other than that just go through your list make sure you have everything checked off everything is ready to go and you're gonna have a great cruise hey I just thought of one more thing people can do before they go on their cruise what's that come back and see us again we sure appreciate you watching the video thanks for your time and checking things out I hope you enjoyed it hope you maybe learned a little something and if you want to see a little bit more of the content that we're making keep a lookout for Sharon and see videos you can subscribe on YouTube hit the like button because we always appreciate it a thumbs up if there's a thumbs down let us know why and make sure you hit the bell so you can get notified when we draw up new videos we're gonna have a lot of videos coming up from the horizon and a lot of cruises after that and if you're free on Monday nights come check us out on our Monday night live show we just chat a little bit about cruising talk to a lot of regulars come on in and say hi let us know where you saw things and if you saw us on this video and one last thing that's really important we'd like to make sure that you guys know from both of us remember when he or Sharon at sea happy cruises [Music]

Channel: Sharon at Sea

Views: 181,475

Rating: 4.9023485 out of 5

Keywords: CRUISE TIPS, CRUISE PREP, WHAT TO DO BEFORE A CRUISE, PRE CRUISE, CARNIVAL CRUISE, ROYAL CARIBBEAN, NCL, PRINCESS CRUISES, ONLINE CHECKIN, CRUISE PACKING, CRUISE CHECK LIST, SHARON AT SEA TRAVEL, SHARON AT SEA

Id: e30oQjyJ-xU

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 20 2019