What's your 'must pack' cruise tip?

[jrapps]

I have read that the laundry rooms are not open on the Dream (at least on the first cruise). Does anyone know if travel irons are OK to take onboard?

I think for the foreseeable future, "wrinkle-free" shirts should be on our packing list.

 

[jmclester]

Thank you. Was afraid of that. Fire hazard.

 

[Girl of the South]

I find that the Downy Wrinkle Release Spray works pretty well, along with hanging the garment in the shower room. I spray it and then pull it to pull out the wrinkles and let it dry.

 

[HiStitch626]

Um swimming trunks. I'm sitting in hotel before we embark and just noticed I didn't pack mine.

They have some reasonably priced swim trunks available for purchase onboard.

 

[Calantha]

Battery operated tea lights for those 3 AM wake ups to use the bathroom And anywhere else you need a little bit of light when you have no plug.

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

I tie a ribbon through the holes on the shoe organizer (taking out the over-the-door rods) and then just hang it on one of the hooks. This is my biggest must-have, I agree with the OP!

 

[Sjm9911]

Something to mark the outsdie of your door so late night you can find it easy. I usally bring something so i can hold open the balcony door, probably not allowed , but nice to have freash air in the cabin ( this depends where you are). Always pack the swimsuits in a back pack and hit the pool/ hot tubs while everyone else is waiting for there luggage on day 1. Im paranoid, so flashlight and multi tool for just in case stuff. My brother was on a bad cruise a few times. Light comes in handy. As someone else said, zip locks. For food , phone, etc. Pro tip, if going to a place with fish, like a calm snorkoling beach area, take some cheerios from the breakast station. Now feed the fish.
Disclamer i have Never sailed on a disney ship yet.

 

[ahain]

Something to mark the outsdie of your door so late night you can find it easy. I usally bring something so i can hold open the balcony door, probably not allowed , but nice to have freash air in the cabin ( this depends where you are)..............

I have heard that leaving your balcony door open messes with the air conditioning - not only for your cabin but also for other cabins in the same A/C zone, so not a good idea.

 

[Sjm9911]

I have heard that leaving your balcony door open messes with the air conditioning - not only for your cabin but also for other cabins in the same A/C zone, so not a good idea.

If you have the ac on , maybe. It does create a suction. So you will not be able to open the cabin door easily. I can't see it doing anything else to others ac if its off. It cant pull through the fan enough to make a diffrence. The workers hold them open all the time. Thats where the idea came from. They left there rope thing on the door.

 

[AquaDame]

Pro tip, if going to a place with fish, like a calm snorkoling beach area, take some cheerios from the breakast station. Now feed the fish.

While this isn't going to hurt the fish if its a sometimes food, if everyone did this it wouldn't be very good for them... please let the fish eat their normal diet!

 

[Sjm9911]

While this isn't going to hurt the fish if its a sometimes food, if everyone did this it wouldn't be very good for them... please let the fish eat their normal diet!

A few cheerios, even if done by all the tourists will not be an ecological disaster. ( thats if there are enough cheerios to go around) Some even feed them to their fish as a treat. People going to see the fish are probably a much worse problem for them and there environment then a snack.

 

[Girl of the South]

I have heard the same about the A/C and experienced it first hand. The A/C is not JUST for your cabin but for an entire bank of cabins. If you need fresh air, sleep on the balcony!! Hey, that might be really nice . . . ???

 

[AquaDame]

A few cheerios, even if done by all the tourists will not be an ecological disaster. ( thats if there are enough cheerios to go around) Some even feed them to their fish as a treat. People going to see the fish are probably a much worse problem for them and there environment then a snack.

I don't wish to derail the thread but studies have been done on this. I agree that we're already harming the environment by being there in the first place, so its important to reduce our impact where we can and not just add more on top. I've never fed fish when snorkeling and promise I always get a good show without having to resort to bribery. Fish in captivity as pets are a totally different thing... they're already totally dependent on us.

https://www.scielo.br/j/bn/a/L6YNfqHHLYtqcmn58dBjj5R/?lang=en

 

[Sjm9911]

I have heard the same about the A/C and experienced it first hand. The A/C is not JUST for your cabin but for an entire bank of cabins. If you need fresh air, sleep on the balcony!! Hey, that might be really nice . . . ???

They probably tell everyone that, they dont want the ac on and the door open, waste on energy.

I don't wish to derail the thread but studies have been done on this. I agree that we're already harming the environment by being there in the first place, so its important to reduce our impact where we can and not just add more on top. I've never fed fish when snorkeling and promise I always get a good show without having to resort to bribery. Fish in captivity as pets are a totally different thing... they're already totally dependent on us.

https://www.scielo.br/j/bn/a/L6YNfqHHLYtqcmn58dBjj5R/?lang=en

Im not going to argue, its what i do, you and others can do as they wish. Your artical even states that the tourism industry does it, and it makes the fish dependent on food from others, so I'm eaither helping the conditioned fish or hurting the non conditioned fish. Eaither way its like a 50 / 50 shot whatever you do. Feed or don't. I'm done , keep to the cruise stuff. If you want to discuss further, pm me. Im civil

 

[DisneyConvert]

lots of good recommendations . . .
* I like 4 ~ 5 Tide pods for 7+ day cruises (pack less but do laundry every ~3 days; if I have spares they are appreciated by others).
* no-name Android tablet downloaded with lots of non-Disney movies and TV shows so I am can watch what I want.
* the outlet/USB splitter usually does not get confiscated
* mostly empty shampoo bottle to fill up with H20 shampoo.
* RickSteve (or some other reputable) guidebook with maps for our self-guided walking tours.

 

[DIS_MIKE]

I have heard that leaving your balcony door open messes with the air conditioning - not only for your cabin but also for other cabins in the same A/C zone, so not a good idea.

I was completely unaware of this up until a few years ago when I made a thread about it. On certain nights I would have my verandah door cracked a bit to get some sea air and hear the waves crashing against the ship. It definitely will create a suction if you open your main door. It probably does make sense that it puts stress on the AC system although I always had mine off if I had the balcony door open.

 

[sethschroeder]

I have heard the same about the A/C and experienced it first hand. The A/C is not JUST for your cabin but for an entire bank of cabins. If you need fresh air, sleep on the balcony!! Hey, that might be really nice . . . ???

What I don't understand is it has been repeated over and over I feel that each cabins airflow is completely separated from other cabins.

So what is it do we have the AC unit or not? Am I getting air from the other cabins or not? Can I turn off the AC completely or not?

This is something I have thought about but was not going to start a thread over.

 

[Sjm9911]

Here a cut and paste from a cruise blog about ac. This is probably where the rumor started.

"Air conditioning In Balcony Cabins
If you are in your balcony cabin and are wondering where your air conditioning isn’t working it may be because you have your balcony cabin door open. On many cruise ships, the air conditioning in the cabin actually turns off when the door is open.


This is a power-saving feature. There is little point in the air conditioning blowing cold air into the cabin if hot air is coming in through the balcony door. It makes sense really, you wouldn’t have the air conditioning on and doors open at home!

Some cruise ship cabins do have a ‘fast chill’ button which can be used to bring the temperature down fast. I found one of these buttons on Saga’s Spirit of Discovery but didn’t try it out."

ACs will have dampers in them, so thats how your room cools to temperature. There is no way it effects other cabins.

 

[hrhdhd]

This is a post from Chengkp75 from Cruise Critic, explaining the AC/open balcony doors thing.

"There are two different AC systems in use on the ship. One is like a window AC unit at home, that merely takes the cabin air and cools it while recirculating it back to the cabin. This is what is controlled by the cabin thermostat, and by the balcony door interlock, if fitted. This system is designed to recirculate 80% of the cabin's volume each hour.

The second AC system is the one that is affected by the balcony door being open, and that affects the cabins around yours when you leave the door open. This system is not controllable from the cabin, and can not be shut off. This system is designed to bring fresh air into the cabin, about 20% of the volume per hour, and is balanced by the bathroom exhaust vent, which removes about 20% per hour. This system takes outside fresh air, cools it in a large air handler (in those big white spaces down the middle of most cabin decks), and supplies this air to all of the cabins in a particular fire zone (between those pesky doors in the passageway) for one or two decks, meaning one fan and cooler handles 30-50 cabins. Now, this air is sent to the cabin at a higher pressure than normal HVAC systems, for one reason. This "overpressures" the cabins, forcing any leakage at the door to go out into the passageway, not the other way around. This prevents any possible smoke ingress to your cabin in an emergency.

Now, what happens when you open your balcony door? You replace the 2" diameter bathroom vent and the 3/4" x 3' crack under the door that maintains the pressure balance in the cabin with a 3' x 6' opening to outside. This immediately drops the cabin pressure to atmospheric, and the fresh air supply AC system sends all of the air to your cabin trying to rebuild the over pressure. This means that the other cabins lose much of their supply of fresh air (cooled), and also their overpressure safety feature, and now air is drawn back into their cabins from under the door, from the passageway (warmer). Therefore, the other cabins in the zone lose some of their AC capacity, and start getting warmer air supplied to the cabin.

How can you tell if this is happening? Real simple. I used to do it daily when I worked on cruise ships. You walk down the passageway and listen for the air whistling under a door. 99 times out of 100, I would find the balcony door open in that cabin. Also, if it is your cabin with the door open, when you open the door to the passageway, you will create a wind tunnel that blows everything out of your cabin. It doesn't do this when the balcony door is closed, so the door being open obviously has an effect on the AC balance in other areas than your cabin.

Your humble opinion may think it is BS, but I've worked on ships for 42 years as an engineer, 35 as Chief Engineer, and I have intimate knowledge of shipboard AC systems. Yes, there is a proven effect on others from having your balcony door open, and I've had to deal with it constantly over the years I worked cruise ships, when we would get whole banks of cabins complaining about their AC."

 

[sethschroeder]

This is a post from Chengkp75 from Cruise Critic, explaining the AC/open balcony doors thing.

"There are two different AC systems in use on the ship. One is like a window AC unit at home, that merely takes the cabin air and cools it while recirculating it back to the cabin. This is what is controlled by the cabin thermostat, and by the balcony door interlock, if fitted. This system is designed to recirculate 80% of the cabin's volume each hour.

The second AC system is the one that is affected by the balcony door being open, and that affects the cabins around yours when you leave the door open. This system is not controllable from the cabin, and can not be shut off. This system is designed to bring fresh air into the cabin, about 20% of the volume per hour, and is balanced by the bathroom exhaust vent, which removes about 20% per hour. This system takes outside fresh air, cools it in a large air handler (in those big white spaces down the middle of most cabin decks), and supplies this air to all of the cabins in a particular fire zone (between those pesky doors in the passageway) for one or two decks, meaning one fan and cooler handles 30-50 cabins. Now, this air is sent to the cabin at a higher pressure than normal HVAC systems, for one reason. This "overpressures" the cabins, forcing any leakage at the door to go out into the passageway, not the other way around. This prevents any possible smoke ingress to your cabin in an emergency.

Now, what happens when you open your balcony door? You replace the 2" diameter bathroom vent and the 3/4" x 3' crack under the door that maintains the pressure balance in the cabin with a 3' x 6' opening to outside. This immediately drops the cabin pressure to atmospheric, and the fresh air supply AC system sends all of the air to your cabin trying to rebuild the over pressure. This means that the other cabins lose much of their supply of fresh air (cooled), and also their overpressure safety feature, and now air is drawn back into their cabins from under the door, from the passageway (warmer). Therefore, the other cabins in the zone lose some of their AC capacity, and start getting warmer air supplied to the cabin.

How can you tell if this is happening? Real simple. I used to do it daily when I worked on cruise ships. You walk down the passageway and listen for the air whistling under a door. 99 times out of 100, I would find the balcony door open in that cabin. Also, if it is your cabin with the door open, when you open the door to the passageway, you will create a wind tunnel that blows everything out of your cabin. It doesn't do this when the balcony door is closed, so the door being open obviously has an effect on the AC balance in other areas than your cabin.

Your humble opinion may think it is BS, but I've worked on ships for 42 years as an engineer, 35 as Chief Engineer, and I have intimate knowledge of shipboard AC systems. Yes, there is a proven effect on others from having your balcony door open, and I've had to deal with it constantly over the years I worked cruise ships, when we would get whole banks of cabins complaining about their AC."

Makes a million times more sense then what I saw ever talked about before thank you.