We’re going on a cruise! Bud and I are taking a five-day Carnival cruise to the Caribbean for our 16-year anniversary. Our anniversary is actually in June, but May is a cheaper time to cruise. It’s just the two of us, no kids, so I’m packing all the pretty things I own. Let’s pack together.
What you’ll get from this post
- What I pack for daytime, port days and excursions
- Swimsuits, cover-ups, and why I bring swim shorts for snorkeling
- My dinner dress lineup and how I pick dresses for dancing
- Jewelry, shoes, and a travel jewelry organizer that ends the tangles
- The practical extras: cash for tips, passports, medicine and a travel perfume bottle
How I think about cruise packing
Honestly, on a cruise I feel like we’re mostly in bathing suits and cover-ups all day until we get dressed for dinner. I bring enough real clothes just in case, and I may not use them all. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Tops, jeans and shorts
- Camis: a black cami and a white cami. Both are really flowy.
- Tank tops: a flowy blue tank, one I’ll wear on the drive down, one for the drive home, and another flowy tank to wear at a port of call with ripped jeans.
- Jeans: my most comfortable pair, Jessica Simpson from Kohl’s.
- Athletic shorts: good for an excursion day.
- Flowy shorts: cute and flirty. Honestly, if I wore just these shorts all week, I’d be happy.
Swimsuits and cover-ups
This is a romantic getaway, so I’m stepping it up. I don’t normally wear bikinis. I’m usually in a tankini with little swim shorts. For this trip I’m bringing:
- A bikini with black bottoms, from SHEIN
- Blue bottoms that match well with the tops
- A black bathing suit
- Swim shorts, because I feel way more comfortable in them for activities like snorkeling
For cover-ups:
- A chiffon romper cover-up with an open back
- A cover-up from Target I bought a couple years ago
- A tube-top cover-up from SHEIN
- A wraparound sarong. You can tie it as high as you want, so you can show no belly or just a little strip.
My dinner dresses
You don’t have to wear dresses every night, but I love the chance to. Dancing is one of my favorite things to do, especially on a cruise, so I pick dresses that move.
- A tie-neck dress from Zulily, bought just for this trip. It’s super flowy, great for dancing, and the fabric isn’t cotton, so it should breathe well in the heat.
- An off-the-shoulder dress. So perfect for a cruise, very flowy, great for dancing and for hiding the after-dinner pooch.
- A short cheetah-print dress, I think from SHEIN. It’s fitted on top and loose where you need it to be loose.
- A white long-sleeve romper. A fun party outfit, and the shorts make it comfortable to dance in. I’m just not sure I’m feeling long sleeves on a summer cruise.
- A backup skirt in a blush rose color, also from SHEIN, with a slit that’s fun to dance in. I can tuck the black cami in and pull it out a little.
Jewelry and the organizer that saved me
I already planned out what to wear with each dress:
- Hoops
- Earrings Bud bought me on last year’s anniversary trip, which will be fun with the red dress
- A pair that makes a lot of noise right by your ear, which is really annoying. I’m going to hot glue them down so they sit flat.
- Sparkly earrings for the white romper
- Several bracelets to choose from
- Three necklaces: a sparkly gem, a choker, and one I can lengthen and layer
I used to toss all my jewelry in a baggie and have a mess every time. Now I have a travel jewelry organizer that Leilani from the Living With Eve YouTube channel gifted me. Necklaces wrap around one part and tuck in so they don’t tangle, earrings go in another section, and rings or studs fit in the bottom.
Shoes and bags
- Flip-flops: what I’ll mostly wear
- Heels: one pair for dressing up
- Shiny flats: I’ll probably wear these some nights even with dresses, since flats are way more comfortable than heels
- A beach bag: for the pool and for getting off the boat at ports
- Two pairs of sunglasses, in case I lose one
- Sunscreen and a hat
Hair, perfume and nails
I’m bringing my hair dryer, curling iron and flat iron (which is currently at my sister’s house, so I need to get it back).
I also found a cool travel perfume bottle. Here’s how it works:
- Take the top off your perfume so you can see the little tube.
- Stick the travel bottle onto the tube.
- Push down, and it sprays into the travel bottle.
Now you only take a little perfume and don’t risk spilling the whole bottle. It’s especially handy if you’re flying and your perfume is bigger than the liquid you can carry on.
I’m also packing one nail polish for my toes and one for my fingers. I’ll hopefully paint them before we leave, but things chip, so I want backups.
The practical stuff
- Cash, including lots of ones for tipping
- Passports, since we’re going international
- Carnival luggage tags and boarding passes
- Makeup and normal toiletries. The ship provides pool towels, so we don’t pack those.
- Snorkeling gear for beach days at port
- Medicine like ibuprofen and Sudafed, so we don’t pay the high prices at the ship’s stores
- Our daily vitamins and supplements
Key takeaways
- On a cruise you’ll live in swimsuits and cover-ups, so pack plenty of those.
- Bring swim shorts if you’ll snorkel or do active excursions.
- Pick flowy dinner dresses you can dance in.
- A travel jewelry organizer keeps necklaces from tangling.
- Pack cash for tips, your passport, and basic medicine so you don’t pay ship prices.
Things we mentioned
- 5 days of dresses on a cruise: what I actually wore each night
Planning your own getaway? Come hang out with our crew on YouTube. Subscribe to The Johnson Crew on YouTube.
FAQ
What should I pack for a 5-day Caribbean cruise?
Swimsuits, cover-ups, a few tops and shorts for port days, dresses for dinner, flip-flops plus one dressier pair, sunscreen, a hat, cash for tips, passports and basic medicine.
When is it cheaper to cruise?
For us, May was cheaper than June, so we cruised a few weeks before our June anniversary.
Do cruise ships provide towels?
Our ship provided pool towels, so we didn’t pack any.
Should I bring medicine on a cruise?
Yes. We pack things like ibuprofen and Sudafed so we don’t have to pay the high prices at the ship’s stores.
More from our crew
- 🏼5 Days of Dresses on A Cruise! ️
- Epic Anniversary Trip to Mexico
- Packing for Family Beach Vacation 2022: Packing for 4 Kids
Full transcript
We're going on a cruise okay today I am ready to pack up my clothes for our anniversary cruise to the Caribbean I cannot wait let's pack together okay so here is pretty much everything except for my unmentionables um but let's go through each day it's a five-day Cruise so I'm gonna share with you all the different pretty things that I'm gonna be packing up honestly on a cruise I feel like we're normally in just like bathing suits and cover-ups all day until we get dressed for dinner this
So I don't know I'm bringing enough stuff just in case there's some other reason that we need to put on real clothes may or may not use all this stuff but you know better to have and not need the need and not have right okay so I've got this um black Cami and a white Cami that's inside out see it's like really flowy I love this one then I have this tank top here this blue tank top is also pretty flowy and then this one I think I'll set out to wear on the way down happy I like this one a lot
And then this one I'll probably wear on our drive back home and then I also have this flowy tank top that I like to wear might wear like out on one of the ports of calls one of those days with my ripped up jeans these are like my most comfortable pairs of jeans they are Jessica Simpson from Kohl's very comfortable and then I also have these like athletic pear shorts which will also be good for an Excursion day and then these pretty flowy shorts that are really cute
And flirty looking okay not sure how I'm gonna match all these up honestly like if I end up wearing just these shorts all week long I'd be happy with that but I like to have some options so let me just preface this by saying that this is a romantic getaway for us it's just us no kids and so I want to be sexy on this trip so I don't normally wear bikinis I am normally in a tankini with like little bathing suit shorts for my bottoms
But this trip I you know I want to be sexy so I've got one with black bottoms two oh this is cute this is from I think Sheehan Sheen however you say that company name you know what I'm talking about super cute I also have these blue bottoms that match well with these and then I've got a black bathing suit so I'm going to bring some bathing suit shorts as well because I like to wear these when we go and do activities like snorkeling I just feel way more comfortable
Okay then we've got cover-ups it's like a chiffon type material and it's a romper so it's a little shorts and it's got like an open back which is really pretty and I've got this cover up this is from Target I believe just a couple years ago and then this other cover-up is from shiam it's like a tube top okay and then with this wrap around skirt what are they called sarong laugh if that's not the right word very flowy very pretty and really just like you can wear this up as high as you want
So you could have like no belly showing or just like a little bit little strip now on to my favorite part the dresses so you don't have to wear dresses every night but I really like the opportunity to wear dresses so that's what I'll be doing this one I got from Zoo Lily just for this trip I'm so excited about it it's like a tie up around your neck and it's super flowy like great for dancing you hear that like it's it's a really nice material it's not cotton it feels like it would Breathe really
Well if it's hot super excited about this one okay I love this one I feel like it's so perfect for a cruise it like hangs off the shoulder and this like goes around your arm here very flowy great for like hiding the after dinner Pooch right great for dancing dancing is like one of my favorite things to do especially on a cruise this one is short which I don't feel like I have many of those and it's got this cheetah pattern but it's nice it like is fitting up here
But then again flows and is loose in the place where you need it to be loose so I like this one a lot I think I got this one from Sheehan as well so it's a spaghetti strap top um and it's like a nice soft material not cotton I can't decide if I want to wear this one because it has long sleeves but I do really like it such a like fun party outfit uh the Romper it's got the shorts so it's really comfortable to dance around in I'm just not sure if I am feeling this on a summer cruise
But we'll see my other option that I'm bringing just in case I don't want to wear this white one is this skirt see it has this nice slit here for being like flowy and like fun to dance in with the black Cami that I already showed you that I'm packing I could easily tuck that in and kind of pull it out just a little bit it's like a nice blush rose color I'm not sure if you can tell on the camera but this is also from Sheen
Okay let's look at the jewelry that I'm going to be packing I have already kind of pre-thought out what I want to wear with each dress I've got these hoops and then my husband bought these for me last year on our anniversary trip and they would be really fun with that Red Dress these and these are fun um funny story these really make a lot of noise when you wear them which is really annoying because it's right by your ear obviously so I am going to get some hot glue
And glue this down so it just sits down and hopefully it stays and then I've got these pretty sparkly earrings for that white romper and then I'm just bringing several different bracelets to choose from and then I'm going to be bringing just these three necklaces this one is like a sparkly Gem and then this one is just like a choker and you know you could make it a little bit longer and pair it with another one of these we'll see so those are my options
And then I have this awesome travel jewelry organizer that shout out to Leilani over at living with Eve YouTube channel she actually gifted this to me you can put your let me just show you okay you can put your necklaces around this part and then tuck the rest in here and it keeps them from getting tangled because I was just taking all my jewelry in a baggie and had a mess every time so that's solving that and then I can just put my earrings in here
And then if you had like Rings or like studded earrings you could put those down in here or you can put them on here handy little organizer for shoes I'm mostly going to be wearing my flip-flops but I like to have a pair of heels for dressing up and then I'll probably wear these a couple of the nights even with my dresses it's just way more comfortable to be on Flats than in heels and you know they're shiny and pretty it works so I'll also be bringing a beach bag this is nice to take down to the pool with you
And also so getting off the boat for excursions you know Ports O'Call and I'm going to be bringing I'm going to bring two pairs of sunglasses the other pair still in my van just in case I don't know why I lose one it'd be nice to have two and then some sunscreen and a hat I'll also be bringing my hair dryer and curling iron and a flat iron which is currently at my sister's house need to get that back from her and then I wanted to show you this cool travel perfume bottle
And what you do is you just take the top off of your perfume and see how it has that little tube at the top you'll just stick this onto the tube okay and then you push down this is hard to do on the bed and it sprays into this tube and that way you can just take a little bit of your perfume not worry about like spilling this whole thing or something and especially if you're flying and your perfume is bigger than the amount of liquid you can take on the plane there you go this is pretty sweet I'm excited about it I'm also going to be taking this nail polish for my toes
And this for my fingers I'll hopefully do this before I leave but you know things get chipped so I want to be able to have some backups we're also bringing some cash in case you want to purchase things that we need cash for and then lots of ones for tipping and then we need our passports since we're going International and then we've got our luggage tags from Carnival and these are our boarding passes yeah so we're all set I'm also going to be taking my makeup
And like your normal toiletries the cruise ship does provide like pool towels and things like that so we're good to go on that and then we're also going to be packing our snorkeling gear that we have to use when we get off the boat and go to a beach and then I always like to pack some medicine like ibuprofen Sudafed just in case something is bothering us we have what we need on hand I don't have don't have to pay like the exorbitant prices of the stores that are on the ship
And then we'll also pack our vitamins and supplements that we take on a daily basis let's pack all this up thank you