Cruis­ing is such a great thing to do. Shoot, what’s not to love about it? All that won­der­ful leisure fun, get­ting taken care of by all those peo­ple, going to cool places. Damn skippy!

One of the things I really like about cruis­ing is telling peo­ple neat stuff to make their cruis­ing expe­ri­ence bet­ter. Now, I know, it’s pretty hard to improve on some­thing that is so intrin­si­cally great to begin with, but, I do what I can. And, it’s not a bad lifestyle (giggle).

So, here’s another install­ment of my life’s work – shar­ing the fun and delight of cruis­ing to the Caribbean. In this instance, I’m shar­ing a few tips about how to smooth the process of cruis­ing, and get a bit more bang for your buck. Of course, to be per­fectly hon­est (and we all want more of that, right?) I share this infor­ma­tion in hopes that you will be curi­ous enough, and enter­tained enough, to go to my web­site and buy one of my books about cruis­ing. Gasp! Did I just let the cat out of the bag? Shucks. Ah well, can’t un-ring the bell, can ya’?

Yep, the sim­ple truth is that I write arti­cles, give speeches and do inter­views so that peo­ple will learn about my life’s work and want more of it. And there is always more of it, I’m happy to say. And the good news for all of you folks read­ing this arti­cle is that a lot of what I cre­ate is actu­ally free.

In fact, if you go to our web­site at www.dothecaribbean.com, you can get a free copy of our lat­est e-book enti­tled “The Best Darn Cruis­ing Tips EVER!”. You’ll find 60 of the most use­ful tips and sug­ges­tions any­where about every aspect of cruis­ing. The e-book is free, but you can order a printed copy also (for $7.95) in case you just want to have every­thing all bun­dled together in a nice com­pact booklet.

In the com­ing weeks and months, I’ll be com­plet­ing a few more books, putting the fin­ish­ing touches on some videos about cruis­ing, and (my real pas­sion of the moment) launch­ing a user-generated web­site that dis­plays the most sen­su­ous scenes of the Caribbean. Ooooh, now THAT is going to be fun, fun fun. Stay tuned. You’re not gonna want to miss that one.

But, on with the busi­ness at hand. Here are some use­ful and rel­e­vant tips and ideas that you can use for your next cruise. In the inter­est of space and the amount of time you have to read online arti­cles, I’ve only included 11 tips here. But, by all means, go to my site and pick up the other 50+ when you down­load the afore­men­tioned e-book. The cri­te­ria used for which tips to present in this arti­cle were 1) how easy the infor­ma­tion was to explain in a few short para­graphs; 2) how use­ful it is to some­one who doesn’t know much about the art and sci­ence of cruis­ing; and, 3) tips that pay off (you’ll know what I mean after you’ve used these lit­tle jew­els on board a ship).

Tip #1:Take Care Of Your Cabin Steward.

One of your best friends on the cruise will be the per­son that picks up your dirty clothes, hangs up your wet tow­els, straight­ens up you messy van­ity and turns down your bed every night — your Cabin Stew­ard He, or she, will do an excel­lent job of mak­ing up your cabin twice a day, and some­times more often if needed. This is the per­son who will also han­dle any spe­cial requests you have, like if you need an extra pil­low. I make it a point to get to know my stew­ard and on the very first day, make sure I tip him (or her) an extra $20. Yes, I know the daily gra­tu­ity that gets added to my account does cover the cabin staff, but, make no mis­take. These guys, who do an excel­lent job any­way, can add a nice extra dimen­sion to your jour­ney. For exam­ple, I like to keep my ice buck­ets full and some­times I even ded­i­cate my sink or a cooler to hold­ing our beer, which a happy Cabin Stew­ard will keep cov­ered in ice for all day long.

My gen­eros­ity is always under­stood and rewarded. I’ve been delighted to find extra tow­els, robes, choco­late hors d’oeuvres and even a bot­tle of wine. One other point, my favorite way to com­mu­ni­cate with my stew­ard (if I don’t bump into him/her in the hall­way) is to place a Post-It note on the mir­ror over the van­ity. It always works.

Tip #2: Copies Are A Good Thing

Make copies of all the impor­tant travel doc­u­ments that you take (driver’s license, pass­port, credit card, etc.) and keep them in a safe place on your per­son while you are trav­el­ing and in your cabin once you get on board. If any­thing hap­pens, you will have all infor­ma­tion you need, and the purser’s office will be bet­ter able to help you.

While you’re at it, print out the cruise info you expect to use the most (such as direc­tions, phone num­bers, etc), on a col­ored piece of paper. That way it stands out from the var­i­ous other pieces of paper you’ll have in your cruise documents.

Tip #3: Elec­tric­ity Is A Really Good Thing.

Each cabin has only one elec­tri­cal out­let, which is located right next to the desk/vanity.

And it has only two plugs. If you’re like us and you want to use your com­puter, charge your cam­era, lis­ten to music and use a hair dryer while some­one is tak­ing a shower… well, you get the pic­ture. Bring a power strip or surge pro­tec­tor. You may also find it use­ful to being an 8-ft exten­sion cord, that way, you have elec­tric­ity any­where you want it in the cabin.

Tip #4: Pre­pare Your Stomach.

For about a week before leav­ing, eat at least one serv­ing of yogurt every day, or take aci­dophilus sup­ple­ments. It helps to build up the good bac­te­ria that your diges­tive track needs to deal with any lit­tle bugs or impu­ri­ties that you pick up. Some of the best food you’ll find will be in small local estab­lish­ments, or even road­side venues. The chow is really good in these places, and authen­ti­cally spiced. But, the san­i­ta­tion require­ments in the Caribbean are not the same as in the US. Also, the nor­mal diet for locals is dif­fer­ent than what you may be used to. Your stom­ach may not be used to it all. The yogurt is an easy and effec­tive way to build up your diges­tive bal­ance and immunity.

Tip #5: Freshen Your Luggage

If your travel time to the ship is more than 24 hours, put fab­ric soft­ener sheets between your gar­ments to keep every­thing in your suite case smelling fresh. This is par­tic­u­larly nice with gar­ments or acces­sories that are not reg­u­larly laun­dered, such as sweaters or jack­ets. You may want to cut one in half and place each half in your shoes. You’ll be even more appre­cia­tive on your return home, since your lug­gage will be packed with soiled clothes, some of which may even be damp.

Tip #6: Bring Bungee Cords

Bungee cords are one of the most use­ful items you can take and for rea­sons other than you might first think. They are easy to pack, take up vir­tu­ally no room at all, and can even be use­ful in keep­ing your bags lashed together as you maneu­ver onto the ship.

But here’s the really cool part. One thing you’ll find when you get to your cabin is that there are never enough places to hang things — like a shirt, or hat, or cam­era case. Most cab­ins have two or three hooks and that’s about it. While a hook is only big enough to hold one hat or other sim­i­lar item, it is big enough to hold two or three bungee cords. What’s more, there are lots of places through out the cabin that can accom­mo­date one end of a bungee cord but would never work as a hang­ing place, such as a lamp or the edge of your mir­ror. Just hang the bungee cord from any suit­able place and – voila! – you have a hook that is sturdy enough to hold any­thing you’ve got.

They also make a great clothes­line. Some bath­rooms have a retractable clothes line in the shower, but not all. Your bungee cord can be strung across the open­ing of your shower, or between a cou­ple of towel bars. Be cre­ative, you’ll find sev­eral places that work.

And finally, one of the main irri­ta­tions of being up on the deck when the ship is under­way (as is the case with Sea Days) is the 20 knot winds that you have to deal with. When you get up from your seat to hit the bar or take a break, It’s not unusual at all to see a pool towel or shirt or hat go sail­ing over the edge of the ship. If you have a bungee cord with you, you can eas­ily strap every­thing to your chair.

Tip #7: Bring Extra Clothes Hangers

There are often not enough clothes hang­ers in your cabin, and those that are there can be a pain in the butt to use. They’re usu­ally the kind that has a lit­tle peg which slips into a metal ring which is per­ma­nently attached to the clothes bar in the closet. So be sure to pack enough extras to han­dle all of your impor­tant hang-up clothes, so you have enough and you don’t have to mess around with the ones in the closet.

And speak­ing of clothes hang­ers, you can buy INFLATABLE clothes hang­ers (that’s right, inflat­able coat hang­ers. Who’da thunk it?) from Amazon.com (click the “Apparel” tag” on the web­site). They take up no space at all, are totally easy to inflate and are sturdy enough to hold shirts and coats. They are also great for elim­i­nat­ing those pesky bulges that you get on the shoul­ders of your shirts. You might need to get a cou­ple of sets so you can keep one set for trav­el­ing and use the other in your home closet.

Tip #8: Check With Your Insur­ance Com­pany (auto and medical)

If some­thing hap­pens and you are required to get any kind of med­ical treat­ment while you are cruis­ing, there is a really good chance that you will have to pay for the treat­ment and get reim­bursed later. So, find out before you go if your health insur­ance will pay for such treat­ments, and what kind of doc­u­men­ta­tion you’ll need to file a claim with your com­pany. This is one of those times where you may want to inquire into travel insur­ance, espe­cially if you are trav­el­ing with a con­di­tion that ele­vates the risk (such as older trav­el­ers, preg­nancy, or some other pre-existing con­di­tion). Get very clear infor­ma­tion from your com­pany about the doc­u­men­ta­tion you need from the ship or port, because once you leave where the treat­ment is deliv­ered, there is vir­tu­ally no chance you will ever get med­ical records sent to you with­out hir­ing an attor­ney. If you have a pre-existing con­di­tion, you’ll get bet­ter treat­ment if you pro­vide the med­ical staff with your med­ical history.

In the same vein, check your cov­er­age with your auto insur­ance com­pany. You may find that you don’t need any addi­tional cov­er­age, which can save you a lot if you decide to rent a car or scooter. Keep in mind, how­ever, many rental com­pa­nies require you to make good on any dam­ages when you return the vehi­cle, so if you are using your per­sonal insur­ance you will have to pay for the dam­ages and get reim­bursed. That lit­tle fact is one of the major incen­tives the rental com­pa­nies use to sell you the insur­ance. Unfor­tu­nately, even though they are blood-suckers for try­ing to manip­u­late you, it is often less has­sle to go ahead and buy the local insur­ance. But, get a pro­fes­sional opin­ion from your agent.

Tip #9: A Can Of Air Freshener

Espe­cially if you are trav­el­ing on one of the older ships, it’s a really good idea to pack a can of your favorite air fresh­ener. I pre­fer the types that kill odors as opposed to those that just scent the air (i.e., Lysol, because it not only deodor­izes the room if needed but also san­i­tizes sur­faces). In the small con­fines of a stan­dard cabin, any unpleas­ant odor can be sti­fling and the room ven­ti­la­tion sys­tem can take a while work.

Tip #10: Stay Out Of The Steam Baths.

Yes, we know, there isn’t any­thing quite like the sooth­ing and cleans­ing feel­ing of a steam bath to relax you or rid you of the after effects of a late night par­ty­ing. Even so, we NEVER use pub­lic steam baths. This isn’t a knock on any par­tic­u­lar cruise line, it’s a knock on pub­lic steam baths. A steam room is the absolute per­fect envi­ron­ment for all kinds of air­borne germs and bac­te­ria – hot, moist, sub­dued light­ing. Oh yeah, per­fect for that lit­tle cold bug or other mis­chie­vous virus that gets sneezed out of peo­ple. STAY AWAY FROM STEAM BATHS!

Tip # 11: Use Porters When You Leave The Terminal.

There are two really good rea­sons to use porters.

They carry your bags, in exchange for which you should tip them about $2 per bag with a min­i­mum of $5. This is espe­cially good if you have sev­eral bags and if you have a ways to go to get to your trans­porta­tion.
They have a spe­cial desk they go through at Cus­toms and so you don’t have to wait in the line. That alone is worth $5!

Alrighty, gang. That’s all you get here. If you want to find out why you should pack zip-loc bags, a first aid kit, walkie-talkies, trash bags and suc­tion cups you’ll have to go get your own free e-book. You’ll also get some great info about choos­ing travel agents, buy­ing trip insur­ance, pre­vent­ing sea­sick­ness and the per­fect way to get a wake-up call.

See ya in the Caribbean. Aaaaaarghh!!

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