what are the mistakes that first-time cruisers make and what can be done to
kind of avoid them so thinking back to your first cruise and like what things
what things were kind of mistakes one thing that I feel so bad when I see
people do it because I feel I'm empathetic I empathize with them I feel
so embarrassed for them is when they try to use their credit card or cash on the
ship somewhere oh because you use your sail and sign card and so first time
cruisers they don't necessarily know that maybe they haven't watched our
video about that where we explain how it works and it's just so embarrassing I
can't bear to watch it hurts to watch when someone's at the bar and they take
all their credit card or a wad of cash just like no oh I mean no one ever gives
you a hard time about it they're totally lovely about it and they explain it
quite nicely they understand for first-timers it's just hard to watch the
only place where you really want to use cash on the ship is if you're tipping a
performer so like somebody is singing in the piano bar or maybe you want to buy a
comedians DVD after a comedy show those things are cash transactions because
those people aren't plugged into the system because if that's sort of a
private transaction but other than that you use your card everywhere another
classic one is when people use wear the lifejacket to the safety briefing yeah
you don't need to wear your life jacket to the safety brief you don't need to
wear your life jacket at all yeah unless it's an emergency
yeah I mean check quickly to make sure you got the right number for the number
of people in your cabin and then just kind of forget they exist really unless
something horrific happens the thing is the safety briefing it's hot it's
crowded you don't want an extra layer of
clothing on for that you don't like the padding and stuff takes up space and
it's like bright orange so nothing says I'm a first-time Cruiser like showing up
in your personal floatation device at the safety briefing again I just I feel
for them I don't want to be that person it's just so embarrassing because
once you're there you can't really leave to go take it back so you're stuck with
it um another classic one which I feel much less sympathy for is not getting
back to the ship on time yes oh they tell you over and over again
what time you need to be back on the ship at mm-hmm and there's always some
there's almost always somebody who's late your name gets announced
Mercedes I think was the name on this sailing in Ensenada
Mercedes please call guest services at seven seven seven seven because they haven't
come back to the ship on time so this ship might be late
they might get left behind they could be running on the pier
we got pier runner videos in Ketchikan and Bahamas and some other places
because it's a little funny Mazatlan and so I feel for them a little bit but also
you had so many opportunities to know the time that it really is I do kind of
point and laugh sometimes yeah I feel a little bad but not that bad sorry not sorry yeah just you know get
back to the ship on time and like especially if you're a first-time
Cruiser maybe stick to the carnival excursions rather than doing your own
thing or booking something privately yeah just until you get a little bit
more comfortable with how everything works so you know where to look for the
information don't take risks on your first cruise would probably be my advice
and if you check out the other videos you'll know that we did post a video in
regards to would the ship leave you if you are on a Carnival excursion whether
or on an excursion that you booked on your own outside of Carnival mm-hmm so
check out those videos it will give you the answers to those questions
yeah and for the record the ship will leave you if you're not on a Carnival
excursion yes if you are not on a Carnival excursion they will leave you yes at your own
cost yeah you know so and you may or may not be able to rejoin the ship later in
the journey depending on regulations and timing and stuff so and it's all at your
own cost so just yeah just don't carnival excursions only yeah the one the one
exception to that is in mahogany Bay Daniel Johnston's is very
professional yes they're quite good so I would trust them but other than that
yeah another a classic first time cruiser mistake is I think to overpack
people pack so much stuff I've done that too yes well I mean and not to call you out but
even on this trip you were thinking about bringing a first aid kit shampoo
conditioner you don't need those they're on the ship, they're on the ship yes and so people pack tons of stuff they pack
like disinfectant and shampoo and soap and all this and so it really you know
over packing I think is a classic first time cruiser mistake now you might have
reasons for wanting to pack more than the average person you might have a
medical condition or you might have concerns about health and safety or
cleanliness or whatever but I would say to try and pack as little as possible you really
for for any cruise I think you don't need more than a carry-on now of course
I've done like 28 days in Europe with just a carry-on so I might be a little
unusual there but generally speaking I think you can travel fairly light for a
cruise you don't need to bring snacks people are like what snacks should I bring none
don't bring any there's food food free food on the ship yeah in my any hour of
the day don't waste an opportunity to eat ship
food cuz it's good and it was a generally free so like you know the most
exciting time on a cruise ship is where I'm hungry there's so much selection
some people kind of under dress I still fall victim to this sometimes I do yes like
we went to Mexico in in May it should be hot but at nighttime it's cold so I need
the pants and a sweater or something for being on you know out on the deck at
night so under dressing can definitely be a thing and there can also be
check in issues where maybe people didn't complete their online check-in
before coming or they didn't bring their passport maybe they forgot it they don't
have a passport and you don't necessarily need a passport I think
American driver's licenses will work but we recommend passports because
everyone recognizes them they don't vary from state to state and they work
everywhere so check in issues we've got a tutorial video up on our channel about
how to do your online check-in it's not particularly hard but we walk you
through it and so if you complete your online check-in and just bring the
boarding pass and your passport then you're pretty good and the signs and
stuff is pretty intuitive but that's the one of the first time cruiser
mistakes is they don't do the check-in or they do it they don't bring the
printout or they don't bring their passport or they forget it or it's
buried at the bottom of their bag when they get to the port show up to the
port ready to go have your your boarding pass printed and your and your passport
they have them in your hand you know that you can just automatically hand it
to the to the agent boarding pass into the picture page of the passport hand it
over it'll go that's how you make it go as fast as possible faster for you
faster for the people behind you please do that everyone appreciates it and you
benefit as well now Carnival has begun accepting mobile
check-in at some ports but I don't know how fully fluid that process is yet so
you can do it but I would still recommend having the paper printout as a
backup just because it could go faster so are there any
other kind of first-time Cruiser mistakes that you can think of things that
you see people doing and do you remember yourself on your first cruise well for example if
you're in a line up and you're on your phone pay attention to the people
ahead of you you know cuz the people ahead of you will move and you're sitting
there looking at your phone not moving you're now delaying the people not only
yourself but you're delaying the people behind you and now people want to go
around you because you're not moving yeah you've become a pilon you're a cone pay
attention to your surroundings at all times yes yeah that's it that's a good
idea where you're walking down and you have to stop to check your phone you're
stopped to do something off to the side don't just stop dead where you are and
kneel down and go through your bag or whatever because if people behind you
are not expecting you to come to a sudden stop yeah so if you have to come
to a stop move off to the side so that you're not blocking anybody else oh I
just thought of another thing first time cruisers they think all the photo all the
photos are mandatory so like you're going through check-in and they've got
the backdrop of the ship yeah you can pose for that that photos not free
that's gonna be you know like when you pay for it it's going to be eleven thirteen dollars minimum is
like the cheapest you could get it yeah and you're against a backdrop you're
gonna be on the ship you can take your own photos on the ship you're you know a
lot of the ports you'll have opportunities with the ship behind you
to take your own photos and those aren't mandatory and it just delays the
boarding process in my opinion cuz I don't generally do that so you can just
bypass it they say over here for your photo you can say no thank you and just
go ahead if you want don't feel that that's mandatory and it's not just
boarding the ship it's on the ship they got the big towel elephant or you know
you're getting off at a port and they've got like the the wheel and they take
your picture they got it with like a you know somebody in a costume
those those aren't mandatory you can absolutely skip them and save time doing
that I think is sometimes a first time cruiser foible