Your cruise ship cabin is your "home away from home", but there are a few important housekeeping tasks you should do to make ensure a great sailing.
Because you're going to be living in your stateroom for a week or more, I think it's important to take care of a few potential issues up front. Moreover, you'll get it out of the way quicker so you can enjoy your time on the ship.
While cruise cabins come in different categories, sizes, and prices, there are a core set of steps I do on every cruise I take, regardless of the room I'm in.
I think knocking them out quickly on embarkation day as soon as I walk in is the best approach, and that way I get to relaxing quicker.
Here's my list of 15 things everyone should do when they get to their cabin on a cruise.
Adjust Thermostat
If I'm being honest, the first thing I do after I open the door to my cabin is check the room's thermostat setting.
You have control in your room to set the air conditioning or heat level. On newer Royal Caribbean ships, you can pick the actual temperature, whereas older ships have a slider.
In warmer months, I find it critical to set the thermostat to the coldest temperature simply because anything less and the room feels too hot. This is especially true if you have a balcony room where the sun radiating in heats the cabin more quickly than an inside room.
It's not uncommon for the room to be too hot or too cold when you get in, so I adjust it when I walk in. Making it as cold as possible is my secret to sleeping better on a cruise ship.
Inspect the Cabin
I think you'll naturally do this, but scan the room visually to ensure it's what you're expecting.
You'll want to identify any cleanliness or maintenance issues early. Royal Caribbean has a team of maintenance workers that live on the cruise ship. They can be dispatched to deal with issues, large or small.
To be fair, there's a good chance everything will work as you expect, but it's good to take a good "once over" to look through and verify it's all functional and clean.
If there are any issues, pick up the stateroom phone and dial the Maintenance or Housekeeping extension. Your phone should have a dedicated quick dial button for it.
Unpack Essentials
Unpacking may seem trivial, but I find unpacking a necessary evil so that I'm not living out of a suitcase for the duration of my cruise.
While I have lived out of my suitcase, when I take the time to unpack, I feel far more liberated from clutter in the room. Plus, it's always so much easier to find my stuff if I actually put it away.
There are drawers, closets, and hangers in your room and you can use all of them. I think you'll be impressed by how much storage space there is on Royal Caribbean's newer cruise ships.
One tip is to try to keep your clothes away from the life jackets that are probably in your closet. The life jackets have a tendency to smell a little bit, and that odor could get onto nearby clothes.
Hang Formal Wear
Speaking of unpacking, you'll want to use the hangers in the closet to get your formal clothes out from the suitcase.
Every Royal Caribbean cruise has at least one formal night, although these days the cruise line calls it "Dress Your Best". It's the same difference, really.
Plus, there are other themed nights, like Red night, White Night, or Caribbean night. If you brought special clothing for these evenings, you'll want to get it unfolded to reduce creases.
There are usually more than enough hangers in your closet, but ask your room attendant if you need more.
"How do I know what the themed nights will be on my cruise?"
Royal Caribbean doesn't communicate theme nights in advance for some reason, but one easy way to figure out the themed nights is to refer to a past Cruise Compass.
Also, the Royal Caribbean app will eventually update a few days before your cruise begins with the information, but if you want to buy something fun, a Cruise Compass will get you more time to work with.
Store your luggage under your bed
There's just enough space under your bed to fit most luggage, and it's my favorite cruise tip for reducing clutter.
Unless you have more luggage than our message board moderator Lovetocruise2002, you should be able to fit them under the bed. Stacking luggage inside each other works for most people.
You could alternatively put your luggage in the closet, but under the bed is out of sight. And that's probably the least utilized amount of space in your cabin.
Decorate Your Door
Did you know a lot of cruisers bring decorations with them for their cabin door to celebrate that they're on vacation?
You'll need to plan ahead to do this, but you can bring signs, magnets, pictures, and just about anything else to put on your door. Just make sure you don't use any tape or other adhesives. Magnets work well to hold everything up.
Some ideas for your door decorations include your names, a sign celebrating a special occasion, battery powered Christmas lights, a whiteboard, or anything else creative.
Secure Important Documents
Once in your stateroom, I'll put my passports and travel papers into the safe.
The safe is usually hidden in a closet or drawer, and you just have to set a four digit code to open and close it.
I'll put my passports, car keys, wallet, cash, and any other valuables in there. I always put my wallet in there, and then just carry my SeaPass card and a little bit of cash for tipping or the casino. It's very liberating to not have my wallet on me.
The safe usually is big enough for small electronics too, but I rarely put mine in there.
Check Your Balcony or Window
Just like inside your cabin, verify your balcony or window is as you'd expect it.
Ensure doors easily open and close, and the locks function properly.
If you have a balcony, make sure the chair and table are there and it too works as you want.
In my experience, there's rarely ever a problem, but now is the time to take care of it because you'll probably want to enjoy it for sailaway when the ship departs your homeport.
If you booked connecting balconies, double check the balcony divider is open, and if it's not, ask your stateroom attendant to open it for you.
Test Outlets
Another step in the inspection process of your cabin is that the outlets all work.
I cannot recall a time when an outlet didn't work, but you never know. The last thing you'd want to do is later be ready for sleep only to realize you can't charge your phone.
Check the Bathroom
If there's one place that I've had the most maintenance issues, it's the bathroom.
When I sailed on Serenade of the Seas in a tiny inside cabin, the toilet didn't work for the first few hours of the cruise. As I went to the hallway to find my cabin attendant, there was already a crew member there working on the issue.
My checklist in the bathroom of things to check includes:
- Verify the toilet flushes
- Verify there is hot water
- Verify the sink works
- Verify the shower door/curtain works
If you have more than 340 points in Crown and Anchor Society, you're supposed to get upgraded toiletries in the room. I'd say 75% of the time they're there, so it's something to check.
Set Up Sleep Preferences
Every cruise ship cabin has the choice of splitting the bed that's in there into two beds.
You can specify this on your cruise reservation, but sometimes that request doesn't get fulfilled. Or you might have changed your mind.
You don't have to do anything yourself, because the cabin attendant can arrange this for you.
Likewise, if you have a couch that turns into a bed, you can let the cabin attendant know if they should leave the sofa bed in "sleep mode" all day. My kids prefer it this way when they cruise so they can lounge or nap easier.
Introduce Yourself to Your Cabin Attendant
I've mentioned the cabin attendant throughout this article, and they're going to be a great asset during your sailing.
Cabin attendants aren't available when you first get to your room, but right around 3pm or so, they should start to filter in and introduce themselves.
Usually they will come to you and knock on your door to introduce themselves. They'll ask how everything is in the room and what preferences you might have.
They're responsible for many cabins on your deck, so they may get busy with other rooms. Nonetheless, you'll want to make sure you talk to them on the first day.
One important question they will have for you is what time of day you want your cabin cleaned.
Royal Caribbean offers the choice of morning or evening service for cabins for balcony rooms or lower categories. Junior Suites and higher rooms get twice a day cleaning, so there's nothing to decide.
It's a bit controversial, but some cruisers will actually tip their cabin attendant on the first day as a kind of "thank you for everything you're about to do", but I don't prescribe to that theory.
I prefer to wait until the end of the sailing to tip my cabin attendant, almost always on the final morning.
If you ever have any issues or concerns about your stateroom, this is the crew member to talk to.
Your cabin attendant usually gives you their card, which has their phone number on it. Keep that handy for any issues that may arise. I place it on the mirror of the vanity in the room so it's easy to find. Plus, it has their name on it so you can remember their name.
Check your loyalty offers
Did you know that if you've cruised at least once you have special discounts and offers?
There's a sheet that will be left on the desk in your cabin with a list of all the discounts and deals you can take advantage of.
There's no coupon or anything to bring with you, it's just a reminder of what you have available. Basically, you need to remember to ask the crew member to activate it when ordering.
As an example, there are discounts on beer, spa treatments, photo packages, and more.
Put drinks in the fridge
Royal Caribbean lets you bring up to 12 bottles of water or any non-alcoholic beverage on the cruise, so put them in the fridge.
Plus, if you're a Diamond, Diamond Plus, or Pinnacle Club member, you might have opted in to get complimentary bottles of water or soft drinks. By default, these are left out on your vanity and they're not cold.
You can put them in the fridge (it's more of a cooler, but I digress) so they're chilled. Plus, it clears up clutter on your desk or around the room.
Finish your muster drill
If by the point you got into your cabin you have not completed the ship's safety drill, now is the time to get it done.
I prefer to knock out the eMuster when I first board the ship but "I'm on a cruise!" drinks wait for no one. But you need to do it before the ship sails away, so get it done now.
The drill consists of three parts. The first two, watching a lifejacket safety video and listening to the emergency horn, can be done via the Royal Caribbean app. You can actually do these two steps even before you're on the ship the morning of embarkation day. We usually do it on the drive to the cruise terminal.
The final step is to go to your muster station to check-in. On the back of the cabin door is a sign indicating where your muster station is. It's also located within the "Safety" section of the Royal Caribbean app.
