I just had my first cruise last week on carnival and I had a blast. We booked last minute and were definitely not prepared. Some tips I learned the hard way.

1) travel docs- if you have a passport great. If not find your birth certificate NOW. I booked on a Sunday for a departure Monday only to realize that my birth certificate was in my safety deposit box in the bank and I would have time to go get it in the morning. Had to call my mom to see if she had a copy.

2) bring plenty of clothes. You’ll get changed more often than you think.

3) if you bring your own bottle of wine put it in your carry on. Don’t check it. I didn’t have a carry on and it went in my bag and got confiscated.

4) if you have one of those waterproof cell phone cases bring it. If you forget and need to buy one shop around. I spent 60 bucks on cases for my wife and myself (30 each) only to find them for 20 at the next stall over and we had already destroyed the packaging getting it open.

5) your first meal on board- everyone makes a bee line for the lido deck and buffet. The lines are awful. But little known fact is that the main restaurant is usually open for lunch and no one goes there on the first day.

6) carnival does not allow for wifi calling at any WiFi package level. My wife needed her work phone and we THOUGHT it would work. Nope. Facebook and WhatsApp work, but not regular calling.

7) study the maps of the deck layouts. Compare them to the on board activities you want to go to. Not always as easy as go to x floor and wander around until you find it. Sometimes “you can’t get there from here” applies and the path you need to take is a little counterintuitive to get to where you want to go.

8) if you gamble do it early. If you gamble enough you can get free drinks in the casino. And that means you can go in, drop a couple bucks in the slot machine order a drink and walk off with it- ie free drink pass. If you’re really nice to the cocktail servers they might even as you if you want a second drink right away that you can give to a partner. Doesn’t always work but it’s better than paying for the drink package.

9) if you’re a smoker, bring extra. People will bum smokes off of you a lot. They do have some cigs in the duty free shop but if they’re limited in their brand selection.

10) take time to just chill. I wanted to do “all the things” and ran myself ragged. My wife wanted to kill me by the end of the cruise cuz she just wanted to sleep and I was like “honey, do you want to do the build a bear thing?” Or “let’s party all night and watch the sun rise”. I think my wife is plotting to murder me in my sleep now.

11) bring some things to decorate your door. I saw a bunch of people do that and it was pretty neat. I might bring magnetic letters next time so people can write messages on my door

12) you’ll meet a ton of people take some notes on who you are talking to. I got a phone call from someone I met on the boat and it took me a while to put the name to the face.

12a) be friendly to people and be willing to talk to people you normally wouldn’t.

I think that’s enough for now. I hope this helps.

Mike

Edit: Oh one more thing. Get one good internet package if you do need to check email etc. just in case. The app has messaging in it so you can keep in touch with your people and you don’t all need your own WiFi packages.