Cruising has changed a lot over the years, and so has the advice I give. Some of the things I used to swear by just don’t hold up anymore, whether because the cruise industry has shifted, ships have gotten better, or I’ve simply learned from experience. A few of these might surprise you.
I’m also sharing some tips from our Life Well Cruised community toward the end, because honestly, their collective wisdom is just as valuable as anything I’ve learned on the ships myself. Let’s get into it.
Cruise Tips I No Longer Follow
1. Bringing a Bottle of Wine on Embarkation Day
For a long time, I thought this was a smart move, especially if you weren’t planning to buy the drink package. Most cruise lines allow you to bring one bottle of wine per adult on embarkation day, so why not, right?
Well, here’s what changed my mind. We were on a Celebrity cruise, a short three-night sailing where the drink package felt too pricey for what we’d actually drink. So we brought our own bottle to the dining room and got hit with a corkage fee that, including the service charge, came to around $40. That stung.
Yes, you can avoid the fee by pouring your wine into a glass in your cabin before heading to dinner, but I didn’t do that. And when I thought it through, even on a cruise line where the corkage fee is a bit lower, I realized I might actually be better off just buying a bottle onboard. These days, I’m usually leaving the wine at the store.
If you’re weighing up the drink package decision, this post on reasons not to buy the drink package on a cruise might help you think it through.
2. Asking for a Cabin Upgrade at Guest Services
After the pandemic, when ships weren’t sailing full, this actually worked. I had friends who scored great cabin upgrades just by mentioning to guest services that something wasn’t quite right with their room. It was genuinely worth trying.
That ship has sailed, pun intended. Ships are sailing full these days, and walking up to guest services hoping for a complimentary upgrade just isn’t a realistic strategy anymore. Free cruise cabin upgrades have become much rarer, and that casual charm approach rarely pays off.
If you really want a better cabin, the smarter move now is to bid for a cruise upgrade before you board. Programs like Royal Caribbean’s RoyalUp, Celebrity’s MoveUp, and similar offerings from Norwegian, MSC, Princess, and Virgin Voyages let you name your price.
I’ve heard from many cruisers who’ve snagged a significantly nicer cabin for a fraction of what a direct upgrade would have cost.
3. Avoiding the Cruise Ship Buffet
I used to tell people to skip the buffet as much as possible and head to the main dining room for every meal. And I still love being served at dinner. But I’ve had a few experiences recently that genuinely changed my perspective on this.
On an Alaska cruise aboard Discovery Princess, we had a late port call in Victoria, British Columbia, arriving around 6 PM. There was no point sitting down to dinner at 4:30, so we went to the buffet around 5 and honestly, I was impressed. Garlic shrimp, prime rib, a great spread of choices.
On another occasion on MSC World America, we had an evening activity we wanted to catch, so we popped into the buffet early and they had lamb chops. Lamb chops!
Celebrity Apex is another one where the buffet genuinely wowed me. If you want to make the most of it, check out these cruise ship buffet tips before you sail. The buffet has come a long way on a lot of ships, and dismissing it outright means you might miss some really good food on the right night.
4. Wearing a Bathing Suit Under Your Clothes on Embarkation Day
This was advice I gave for years, and for families with young kids, I still think it makes sense. Boarding day on a cruise like Royal Caribbean, where there’s so much to do right away, is a great time to head to the pool while you wait for your cabin.
For me personally though, I’ve moved on from this phase. I can’t remember the last time I actually went swimming on embarkation day, which was about three years ago.
I still sometimes pack my bathing suit in my carry-on just in case, but I no longer plan my entire boarding day outfit around it. If you’re cruising with little ones, absolutely keep this tip. For the rest of us, it’s worth thinking about whether you’ll actually use it.
5. Towel Clips as the Only Option
I love towel clips. I have always loved towel clips. But I’ve made a switch that I think is worth mentioning. These days, I almost exclusively use towel bands, specifically some thin lightweight ones that pack down to almost nothing.
They do the job just as well as clips for keeping your towels secure on a breezy pool deck or beach day.
If clips are your thing, keep bringing them. The cruise essentials list has options for both. But if you’re looking to pack lighter, towel bands are worth considering as a swap.
6. Never Being Loyal to One Cruise Line
This is advice that a lot of cruise bloggers, myself included, have shared for years: play the field, try different lines, and you’ll get the best deals. There’s still truth in that, especially if there’s a specific itinerary you want that only one cruise line offers.
That said, loyalty programs have genuinely evolved. The Royal Caribbean Group now has a status match program across Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Silversea, so your earned status follows you between those three brands. There are also broader status match opportunities with MSC, Virgin Voyages, and others once you hit higher tiers.
I cruise most frequently with Princess now, largely because of the loyalty I’ve built up over the years. As an Elite member in their Captain’s Circle program, I get free laundry, and I cannot tell you how much I love that perk.
If you’re close to a meaningful tier on a cruise line you already enjoy sailing, it might actually be worth staying the course rather than spreading your sailings thin.
7. Skipping Cruise Ship Wi-Fi
Up until the pandemic, I rarely bought a Wi-Fi package on a cruise. In the early years of this blog, maybe a small package here and there, but that was it. Disconnecting felt like the whole point of a cruise vacation.
My thinking on this has changed. A friend recently shared a story that stuck with me. She was on a transatlantic sailing without any Wi-Fi and assumed, as many of us do, that text messages would come through in port.
Almost two days passed without a single message getting through, and when she finally got a small amount of internet, she found out her daughter had been in hospital. Her adult daughter had other support at home, but my friend felt terrible, and she told me she will never cruise again without some way for people to reach her.
Even a small Wi-Fi package gives you that peace of mind. You don’t need to be online constantly, but staying reachable matters more than we sometimes admit. Take a look at this guide on whether cruise ship Wi-Fi packages are worth it for a breakdown of what the major cruise lines offer, and these cruise Wi-Fi tips for ways to save on the cost.
8. Going to Art Auctions for Free Champagne
This one came directly from our Life Well Cruised Facebook community, and so many members said the same thing. If you genuinely love the art and you’ve purchased from these auctions before, this is not aimed at you.
For everyone else who was heading to the art auction purely for the free sparkling wine? Our community members are firmly in the “not worth it” camp now. The pressure, the time it takes, the sales tactics, it adds up to a lot of effort for a glass of bubbly you can get elsewhere on the ship with far less fanfare.
9. Taking Your Passport Off the Ship
Early in my travel advising days, I used to recommend that passengers take their passports with them when they got off the ship in port. The thinking was that you always needed it on hand.
These days, our passports go straight into the cabin safe when we board, and they stay there. I keep digital copies on my phone and email them to myself as a backup. My reasoning is simple: the risk of a passport getting lost, damaged, or stolen while I’m exploring a port is higher than the risk of missing the ship.
If something did happen and we were somehow separated from the vessel, the cruise line will typically retrieve your passport from the safe and leave it with the port agent.
What I do take off the ship is a photo ID and my cruise card. The pre-excursion checklist here covers everything worth having on you for a port day.
10. Cruising Without a Passport (If You Can Help It)
Several members of our Facebook group brought this up, and it’s a conversation worth having. If you’re American and sailing on a closed loop cruise, meaning it departs and returns to the same US port, a passport isn’t always legally required. A birth certificate and government ID may be accepted in many cases.
That said, travel requirements have gotten more complicated, and the consequences of getting it wrong are serious. Some cruisers have arrived at the cruise port and been denied boarding because their documentation didn’t meet the requirements for a specific port of call on the itinerary.
The risk simply isn’t worth it for anyone who travels with any regularity. For more on this, the reasons you could be denied boarding post covers exactly this scenario.
11. Always Booking Cruise Line Excursions
I used to say: book through the cruise line so you don’t miss the ship. And I’ll be honest, I’m still a cautious traveler. I still look at how long a tour runs and make sure I’m comfortable with the timeline before booking.
But I’ve shifted away from always defaulting to cruise line excursions. Too often you’re in a group of 50 people all heading to the same popular beach or tourist attraction. With so many ships in port at once these days, that can mean very crowded experiences at the most visited spots.
Third-party operators like Shore Excursions Group offer certain ship return guarantees, and they often allow for much smaller group sizes. That trade-off, a little more personal responsibility for a lot more flexibility, feels worth it to me now.
Bonus: The Over-the-Door Organizer Debate
This one is genuinely still split, even within our community. Some cruisers say the over-the-door organizer is completely unnecessary and just takes up luggage space. Others swear by it, especially families.
One smart tip I’ve seen is pre-packing the organizer at home with everything from medications to sunscreen to bug spray, folding it up in your luggage, and hanging it straight up in the bathroom on embarkation day.
Whether you need one really depends on your travel style, but for families especially, it’s hard to argue against the organization it brings. For cabin organization ideas, the cruise cabin hacks post has plenty of options with and without one.
Final Thoughts on Changing Tips
Cruise advice evolves because cruising itself evolves. The tips that made perfect sense five or ten years ago don’t always apply the same way today, and that’s okay. The best cruisers are the ones who keep learning and adapting.
What’s an outdated cruise tip you’ve stopped following? Share it in the comments below, I’d love to hear what’s changed for you too. Happy cruising!