Week before you start working on a cruise ship

So you got a job on board, congrats! But you have so many questions about what you need now to pack before you go ahead and fly to your first ship. It’s a scary moment, but take a moment to chill, you are about to embark on an adventure of a life time!

Let’s start off talking about the living quarters quickly. Depending on the ship your assigned, and your role you will either get a single room, or a double room (bunk beds) which you will share with your roomie. For IT, on the bigger ships, you will be given a single room (referred to as single share). Don’t let this fool you, they are still tiny! So you need to pack with this in mind.

During the recruitment process, you will have been given some guidelines about the things you need. This is rather useful but below are a list of things I wish I had considered.

What bag do I take?
As space is a premium in your room, I would highly recommend a soft suitcase, that you can compress. The one I have looks every much like a duffel bag but with a hard back and wheels. This allows you to compact it meaning it takes up less space when it’s empty. A lot of crew members take two suitcases, but I found a backpack and a suitcase to be ample room.

Uniform
This is provided on ship for you – It does come out your first pay check and costs about $100 dollars in total. They have a tailor on board that can make any adjustments needed. Depending on the role you will be given:

• Formal Blazer (x 1)
• Formal Trousers (x 2)
• White shirt (x 7)
• Black, non slip, shoes (x 1)
• Tie (x 1)

You can have as many of the above as you want, just remember you pay for it. The numbers are what I personally recommend. The shoes are optional and to be honest, I would source a pair yourself locally. The shoes on board killed my feet and were uncomfortable so I ended up buying my own pair off the internet and got them delivered.

Pack for the climate
You would have thought this is common sense. Maybe, but being English we have a tendency to pack everything for all weather conditions! You don’t need to do this, depending on where you go. So I was based in the Caribbean, why did I pack three different hoodies? It’s never cold, I knew that, but for some reason I decided three hoodies was the right number. Wrong, one would have been plenty for that odd windy night at sea.

Personal time clothing
In crew areas and at shore, you can wear anything you want, within reason. I usually wore shorts, flip flops and a tee shirt. I wore this to the crew bars, the crew mess, at ports – Pretty much everywhere. There is a catch though, you can’t wear informal clothing in guest areas. You have to be formal. Going out to a guest restaurant to eat, formal wear. Going to see a show, formal wear. Formal wear is usually smart shoes, nice shirt and trousers for a guy (no jeans) and smart dresses for girls. Think business attire. Some crew members like to dress up in suites but this wasn’t really my thing.

I didn’t really take too much smart attire, this is something I would take more of if I joined a ship again. For most formal events I needed to attend, I wore my formal uniform.

During the day, the rules are a little more relaxed. At 1900hrs, you had to switch into formal wear on your shift before entering guest areas. Formal uniform was a tie and blazer – You didn’t need to wear this during the day, trousers and shirt was acceptable.

Home Comforts
Depending where you are in the world, you can usually get everything you need at ports or via Amazon. Some things you may struggle with! If you have a preferred brand of toothpaste, or shower gel for example, I would pack a few of these. The onboard crew shop supplies you with essentials but it’s usually cheaper to get them at a port.

Personally, the only things I missed were Cadbury’s chocolate and Yorkshire tea! I ended up getting a friend in England to post me some over as I couldn’t source them locally. Other than that, everything I needed I got locally.

Technology
Being a bit of a geek, I packed a fair few electronics. Essentials would include, travel adapter plugs (US to UK plugs), mobile phone, a laptop and a hard drive filled with movies! I would also recommend taking a GoPro or waterproof camera.

Do keep in mind, electronics are usually cheaper in the USA than in Europe – So you may be better off buying some equipment when you get there.

Sun tan lotion
Yes, this is another obvious one if you are destined for a warm climate! I found it slightly cheaper to buy in the UK compared to at ports. Don’t forget to apply it, else you will look like the picture below.

Summary
That’s basically all of the essentials. Just remember, the things you forgot to pack, you can order from Amazon and get them delivered to the ship!

Now’s a great time to relax.

Enjoy your own bed. Enjoy being with your friends. Enjoy your local pub. Enjoy your car. Enjoy your free space. Take a day to go visit your family as you’re going to be gone for 6 months!