Packing for a Disney Cruise Land & Sea Trip Pt. I

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When it comes to packing for a Disney Cruise, there is no right or wrong way to do it. My family and I are headed out on a Disney Land and Sea trip very soon and we are so excited! A Disney land and sea trip simply means that we will be vacationing back-to-back at Walt Disney World and on a Disney Cruise.

Check out my post on How to Start Planning a Disney Cruise!

So what should you pack for a Disney Cruise and a Walt Disney World trip? I have put together some tips and and a list of things I recommend, for packing for a Disney Cruise and a Walt Disney World Vacation. Plus, if you sign up to receive my emails, I’ll send you my FREE Disney Cruise Packing List printable!

Here is Part I of a two part series of Packing for a Disney Cruise Land & Sea Trip:

Packing for a Disney Cruise: Just the Cruise

Kids Pirate Costume

On most Disney Cruise itineraries to the Caribbean or the Bahamas there is what they call a pirate night. On pirate night Disney provides you and your family with  bandanas and eye patches. These will be placed in your stateroom during the morning of Pirate Night. While most cruisers use what they are given in the stateroom, some cruisers don’t dress pirate-y at all and some go full on Pirate! So here is a super cute and affordable pirate costume your kiddos can use. It comes with a vest, sash, hook and eye patch. You will need to provide your own shirt and pants.

Clothes Pins

Why do you need clothes pins you ask? Well you don’t NEED them. But you sure will be glad you brought them when you are on the cruise.

You will be spending lots of time in and out of pools and the ocean. That means a lot of wet bathing suits. Having clothes pins on hand make it easier for you to hang your bathing suits on the rope in the bathrooms to dry.

Spare Card for Lights

On a Disney Cruise you need to insert a card into the light switch in order to turn on the light/electricity in your cabin. Most will use their cruise card, called “Key To The World” card. But why do that when you can just bring an extra card with you? You can use anything, I recommend a store rewards card. Pictured here is the one I’m using on my cruise. I’m a travel agent with Travelmation, specializing in Disney Destinations, so this is the card I use on my trips!

Lanyard

If this is your second Disney Cruise and up, Disney provides you with a lanyard for your cruise. If this is your first Disney Cruise, Disney does not provide you with a lanyard to hold your “Key to the World” cruise card. The lanyard helps you carry around your card easily. You will always need to have your card with you. It gets you on and off the ship and to other places on the ship as well.

Fish Extender and FE Gifts

A Fish Extender is something you hang on the fish shaped hook outside of your stateroom. It is also, usually up because the cruiser is part of a gift exchange of the same name, “Fish Extender”. I’ll be doing a post shortly about Fish Extender and my experience with the whole process. Until then, here is where I purchased mine on Etsy from KelCsKreations.

Reusable Water Bottles

It is true that all drinks, except alcohol and specialty drinks, are included on your Disney Cruise, both on the ship and on Cast Away Cay. But there is no easy way to have drinks with you in your room unless you bring on your own wine, beer or bottled water. So a great tip, is to bring your own reusable bottle so you can take it with you and/or keep drinks in your room fridge. Genius!

Door Magnets

This is once again not necessarily a NEED, but it sure is super cute and so fun! You can either Pinterest the mess out of this as a DIY project or you can order them online… Like I did!

I got these Mickey heads (above) from from GraysonTagsandMore.

I downloaded these above from MarvelousMommy.com and printed them from home!

The Mickey ears are meant to sit right above the round door piece where your stateroom number is. So cute!

Cruise Documents

Finally, last but definitely not least are your cruise documents. About a month or so (don’t hold me to this) you will receive a little booklet of your cruise documents and luggage tags. Flip through this book and bring this with you on your cruise. What if for some reason you didn’t get your documents or lost them? No worries. Not having this booklet will not prevent you from getting on your cruise. You can still download and print your cruise contract with the barcode online and bring that with you. The most important thing is that you bring proper identification with you on your cruise.

What surprised you most about what to bring with you on a Disney Cruise?