On 99.9% of my cruises, I no longer take a camera, certainly a camera like this with
a big lens.
The reason I've got it on this particular trip is I'm on an expedition cruise.
We're going to be seeing polar bears, which we did see way off in the distance, and you
need this camera.
I do not take cameras to take pictures anymore, I literally only take my mobile phone, because
that does the job.
Which got me thinking a little bit more about, what do I pack and not pack, because I realised,
I also take a dramatically smaller suitcase than I used to take when I first started cruising.
I'm Gary Bembridge and I'm here to make it fun and easy to discover, plan, and enjoy
incredible cruise vacations, and I'm going to talk about four things.
What I've stopped packing, and I think you should stop packing.
What I pack differently to do the same job, but it's new things.
Thirdly, things that I've always packed and still pack.
And fourthly, things that people tell you to pack but I don't think you should pack,
and I certainly don't pack.
I'll come back to the camera a little bit later, but let's talk about things that I
do not pack anymore, and that is really around clothes.
I've dramatically reduced the amount of clothes I bring, and particularly smart clothes.
When I first started cruising on things like Cunard, you had to bring a tuxedo, you had
to bring a jacket and tie, you had to bring long sleeve shirts, you had to bring smart
shoes.
Ladies, the equivalent.
Even on lines like Cunard, which is the most dressy of all cruise lines, they don't have
formal night, they have gala nights.
And they encourage you to dress up, but you can pretty much get away with a suit.
I hardly ever take a jacket on any of my cruises, even really smart cruises.
And dress code has changed dramatically and it's becoming much more of a suggested rather
than something that's really strict.
So clothes, dramatically reduced, and certainly formal clothes.
Just smart casual is the most I take.
Of course, the other thing that we don't need to take so much anymore, though it depends
on which region you're on, is your vaccine certificates and COVID tests, that kind of
stuff.
Although there are a couple of regions which I believe still needs them, based on what
people are telling me.
More Patience
One thing that I do though nowadays pack much more than I ever used to pack before is patience,
patience, patience, and a good sense of humour.
Cruises have changed dramatically and they have a reputation for being a little bit more
rowdy, a little bit more crazy.
They're certainly full these days, and the way that people just act and behave is very
different to before.
So you do do need to bring much more patience, much more sense of humour, and just be ready
to go with the flow.
Things have changed quite a lot, and particularly also as I'm seeing more and more families
are cruising on all lines, not just the traditional family lines like Norwegian, Royal Caribbean,
MSC.
I'm seeing loads of kids on Holland America, on Seabourn, and so you just need to get used
to and adapt to that as well.
So you need to pack a lot of that.
I want to talk now about things that I pack differently to before, and let me come back
to the whole thing around cameras.
Now, when I first started cruising, you would take a mobile phone perhaps with you but it'd
be switched off.
You didn't have Apps, you didn't have Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi was crazy expensive.
But that has changed.
The mobile phone has become an absolute essential for cruising, whether we like it or not.
And there's a couple of things that it's fundamental for.
First of all, I already mentioned it is my prime camera.
I take all my photographs with it.
In fact, even more nowadays I use my mobile phone to even video, because it takes such
good video.
In fact, this video I'm making is actually being recorded on my phone.
Secondly, most cruise lines now have an app that you need to check in online.
You look at the daily program, you look at your account, you need to book dining, entertainment,
whatever, so you need the app and a mobile phone.
The third thing that I do is I store all my important documentation.
So I set up a Dropbox on there and I set it to be available offline, and I put things
like my travel insurance.
I always travel with travel insurance, always pack that.
I put, actually, my vaccine records.
I put a copy of my passport in there.
And any important document that I think I might need, I keep a copy of that on Dropbox,
which is available offline.
Also, my phone is really important for me to stay in touch, and particularly with my
mother.
My mother doesn't have a mobile phone.
She only uses a landline.
My mother is poorly sighted and I have to call her on a landline, and I like to call
her as often as I can.
So I actually put Skype and I put some credit on Skype, and it means that I can actually
phone her landline.
So that becomes really, really important to be able to stay in touch with her because
she doesn't see me on social media or whatever.
The mobile phone also is, of course, it's the alarm, it's the nightlight, and it's replaced
all those things that I used to bring along and pack.
Now, of course, because I make videos, camera equipment is important, but I used to take
these big cameras and I used to have to take tripods and that stuff.
Now I basically use my mobile phone, as I mentioned, and I use tiny little cameras.
So I use this one, for example, which is a Sony RX100 VII, which is a tiny little camera.
It has a really good lens.
Really good in low light, I use that.
I take this tiny little thing, which is a DJI Osmo Pocket, which has got a built-in
gimbal stabiliser, and I use that a lot as well.
So basically, I take cameras along with me, but they are higher quality.
They shoot in 4K, not just high definition, and they're tiny and discreet.
One of the other things I pack is the Insta360 X3, which enables me to take drone-like stuff.
Because I can't pack a drone anymore, so it lets me create those kinds of effects.
But also, it's really good fun for posting on social media and really cool funky kind
of stuff.
So it's all about bringing small cameras.
These cameras take up less space than my old camera used to take.
Apple AirTags are also something that I never used to pack and now bring along because the
technology is available.
This I put in my suitcase, I put in my rucksack, and it helps me track where my case is.
These have proved absolutely invaluable, particularly when I'm changing flights to perhaps join
a cruise, I can check that the bag is making it all the way.
And it really helped me once when I came back from a cruise where my suitcase didn't appear
at all, and I used this and discovered they'd put it on the wrong belt, and it was actually
in the hall.
Another thing that's really important for me is I take my iPad with me, and that's because
I can connect to Wi-Fi.
I'm a bit of a geek and I like to watch my Star Trek or whatever, and with great Wi-Fi,
I can now download those and keep up to date with shows that are really, really important
to me.
So I download stuff on Netflix, download stuff on Amazon Prime, and I can keep up with the
shows that I like as my evening entertainment.
That's become really, really important for me.
Next, I want to talk about things that I've always travelled with, and I still take these,
and I think they're really important that everyone should think about.
First of all, I like to take a home pleasure.
And everyone does.
So Mark, my partner, likes to take his own pillow.
He's really fussy about his pillow.
For me, it is these Bluetooth speakers.
I love listening to music.
I love listening to music all the time, and I bring these along with me.
That's my home pleasure.
Other people bring things like their favourite tea bags or fluffy toys or whatever, but bring
something that you'd love bringing and love having it.
It's going to make it feel more homely.
Of course, then, there are medical things.
So I bring along my prescription stuff, but always importantly, I bring it also in the
original prescription bottle.
That means that if I get any hassles with immigration or customs or whatever, they can
see that it's all right and proper.
I basically bring along a month's supply even if I'm going on a week-long cruise.
For me, the other medical thing is a spare pair of glasses.
I can't read anything without those.
So I bring that because that's a count in the medical area.
So anything that's important from a medical perspective, which brings me on to my all-time
favourite thing, which is my first aid kit.
Now, it's just this little bag here, but there's some really, really important things that
I bring in here that I strongly recommend.
One of the most important and most undervalued ones is the tooth repair kit.
So, a tooth repair kit.
If a crown falls out or a filling falls out, it gives you a chance to just patch it up
until you can see an emergency dentist or until you can get home.
Because on cruise ships, they do not have any dentists, any type of dentistry at all.
And this has helped me a couple of times, when a tooth cracked, I was able to patch
it up until we got to Key West and saw an emergency dentist.
It's happened to Mark, my partner, and I've even lent it to friends on a cruise.
Plasters, Band-Aids are really important.
That's helped me so many times.
When I was on the Alaska trip, I actually put my hand into my toiletry bag and I cut
my finger open really bad.
I was able to plaster it up.
Even on this cruise, I've slightly dented myself and dinged myself taking off my boots
from going on a hike.
So plasters are really important.
Then I bring along some basic medications, like Imodium.
Antidiarrheals are really important, because on cruise ships, you can't buy things like
Imodium in the cruise shop.
You have to go to the medical centre because it's a trigger for a couple of things.
It's a trigger for norovirus, and it's also a trigger potentially for COVID.
So I bring these along.
Of course, then your headache pill.
For me, it's paracetamol, Tylenol, whatever it is.
The other thing that I bring, of course, is seasick medication.
I'm a big fan of Dramamine.
In the UK, Stugeron 15.
But I always bring that as insurance.
Touch wood, I have never been sea sick, so I bring that along just to make sure.
I also bring along Melatonin, because particularly when I'm changing lots of time zones, melatonin
is the thing that helps you get back into a sleep zone.
I also bring along hand gel.
Really helpful, a good way of helping prevent things like norovirus, particularly when you're
out and touring, like when I was in Egypt recently.
Just a way of you handling notes and stuff, dirty notes and stuff, that's something really,
really helpful.
Then I also bring along a couple of bits and pieces like Savlon, if I've grazed myself,
Bonjela for mouth ulcers.
Something that I find helpful.
And then two other really important items, one of which is sun cream.
I always bring sun cream with me and also mosquito repellent.
And that's really important.
That's really saved me quite a few times as well.
So those are the key things I have in my particular first aid kit.
I'm sure you'll have other things.
So I always keep a list, a note of things that I use at home, and then I pack those
in the kit.
I'm obsessed with light and noise when I'm sleeping, so I always bring eye shades and,
basically, earplugs.
I strongly recommend that you bring those, because you never know what sort of cabin
you're going to get.
You never know what the situation's going to be, and this is a real, real lifesaver.
Of course, then, the thing I always brought, I have this bag of adapters with US adapters,
Euro adapters, and multi-USB adapters so I can charge everything up.
And lots of all the cables and stuff.
That's kind of an obvious one.
Also what I bring is US dollars in small denominations so that I can then use those to tip crew or
when I'm out and about.
US dollars I bring because no matter which line you're on, no matter where in the world
you are, US dollars is always an easy currency, and a lot of the crew come from countries
where the US dollar is their prime currency or very easy to exchange.
And obviously, of course, travel with my passport, all those basic things that you need.
I mentioned I was going to talk about a whole bunch of things that people tell you to bring
that I never pack.
I'm not one of these people, despite all of my cruises, who bring a lot of the cruise
paraphernalia.
So I don't bring a lanyard, for example, but I know a lot of people love those.
I don't bring clips for clipping towels on the pool deck or closing the lights.
I've got my eye shades to do that.
door decorations.
I don't bring over-the-door holders, which a lot of people like to sort out stuff, and
I know a lot of people love those and they find those really, really helpful.
I basically just have my own little system in the cupboards.
So I don't bring a lot of that kind of stuff.
I know a lot of people really do like those.
So if that's important to you, make sure that you pack those.
The other thing I don't do, because I don't drink alcohol, but I strongly recommend if
you do drink alcohol is check what your allowance is and bring that with you.
Some cruise lines, you can bring multiple bottles of wine.
Some you can only bring one per person, but you may as well bring it along because drinks
are getting more and more expensive on board.
So I would strongly recommend it.
I don't do it, but I would strongly recommend that you do.
And the other thing that I never bring, and I always check, is anything on the banned
list.
Every single cruise line has a banned list.
And I get loads of people sending me messages around, for example, extension cords.
You can't bring those with surge protectors because of the way the system on ships work.
You can't, as I mentioned earlier, bring drones.
You can't bring anything that looks like a weapon.
In some cases, you can't even bring remote controlled toys for the kids.
So always check the banned list.
It's easy to find.
Just put in your cruise line, banned list, and you will find it there.
So don't bring any of that kind of stuff.
Is there anything that you used to pack for a cruise that you don't pack?
Why don't you let everybody know by leaving a comment?
But while you think about that, and before you do that, why don't you watch this video
where I do talk about the biggest mistakes that people make when packing for a cruise.
See you over there.