Heidi BucoloEvery cruise packing list tells you what to bring, but far fewer tell you what you’ll wish you hadn’t. If you’re wondering what not to pack for a cruise, the answer usually isn’t a rulebook. It’s a list of things you’ll regret hauling across two flights and a cruise terminal, only to carry them home unused.
After 100+ cruises across more than 15 cruise lines, we’ve packed plenty of it — and we’ve watched a lot of boarding lines. The same items get confiscated. The same gear gets unpacked on day one and never touched again. These 15 items show up on nearly every cruiser’s packing regret list, usually because a creator recommended them without ever saying who they were for. While we agree with 10 of them, we still pack the other five on every single sailing.
1. Beach and Pool Towels
This is a common first-time cruiser mistake, and the easiest to fix.
Your ship, no matter which cruise line you’re sailing, gives you towels. Pool towels are typically stacked by the pool deck, near the gangway on port days, and often waiting in your cabin on arrival. They’re free to use throughout your sailing, and you can trade them in for dry ones whenever you want.
The one thing to know is that many mainstream cruise lines now track them. You’ll swipe your card or sign them out, and if you don’t return them, a charge lands on your final bill. So, just be sure to hand them back in and not forget them at your beach excursion.
2. A Hair Dryer
Much like a hotel room, there’s a hair dryer in all cruise cabins regardless of the stateroom category. Now, it isn’t a great hair dryer — most are underpowered, wall-mounted, and slower than what you have at home. That’s why people sometimes pack their own. But high-wattage appliances, like Dyson hair dryers and Airwraps, draw more power than a cruise cabin outlet is built to handle and can cause the circuits to overload.
Some cruise lines will actually confiscate them at security. If your hair truly requires more than the ship provides, check your cruise line’s policy before you pack it.
3. Your Entire Medicine Cabinet
We’re not telling you to skip the over-the-counter medications completely. We bring a small kit on every sailing and suggest you do the same. The ship’s shop charges a premium for first aid items and motion sickness meds.
The regret isn’t bringing the medications. It’s bringing all of it. You don’t need the full bottle; you only need enough to get you through the sailing. Pack pain reliever, an antihistamine, something for an upset stomach, and motion sickness relief if you’re prone to it. For prescription meds, be sure to pack enough for a few additional days just in case there are any delays getting home.
4. Power Strips, Irons, and Steamers
Every boarding day, we watch someone hand over items they bought specifically for this trip. It’s the most preventable regret on the list, because it isn’t a judgment call. It’s published policy. Certain items are prohibited on cruises, primarily for safety reasons.
Power strips with surge protection are one of the most confiscated items. People buy them because cruise cabins have too few outlets, which is a valid reason. However, the surge protection is the problem — it’s a fire risk on a ship’s electrical system, and it’s banned across essentially every line. A non-surge, cruise-approved outlet adapter does the same job.
Irons and clothes steamers are out for the same reason: exposed heating elements. It doesn’t matter if it’s travel-sized or not; it’s still not allowed. (See item 15 for what we bring instead.) All cruise ships offer laundry service, some have self-service laundry rooms, and some have both.
5. Food and Drink That Isn’t Allowed
This one costs not only space but money, because if you’ve packed something that’s not allowed you’ll end up throwing it out in the cruise terminal on embarkation day.
Every cruise line has its allowance list, and every line’s is different. When it comes to bringing alcohol, most lines permit a bottle of wine or champagne per adult at embarkation (two per cabin), usually with an associated corkage fee. Most do not permit hard liquor. Most do not permit homemade or perishable food either. When it comes to non-alcoholic beverages, like soda or sports drinks, many cruise lines (but not all of them) allow up to 12 cans or cartons but prohibit plastic and glass containers.
Further, duty-free liquor you buy in port gets taken at the gangway and held until the last night of the sailing. So the bottle you bought to enjoy on the cruise, you can’t actually drink on the cruise.
6. Too Many Shoes — Especially New Ones
Shoes are likely the heaviest, bulkiest thing per unit in almost any suitcase. Most people bring too many, and I was definitely a culprit for many years. For a 7-day sailing, three to four pairs will cover almost any destination: something comfortable you can walk miles in, something casual, and something that works for dinner. If you’re sailing somewhere with rugged terrain, swap accordingly. I tend to pack two daytime appropriate and two nighttime appropriate pairs.
Do not bring brand-new shoes. Break them in at home, or bring the pair you already trust. The last thing you want are blisters ruining your trip.
7. Expensive Jewelry
The ring you’ve worn for years can accidentally slide off in the surf while swimming or snorkeling. Salt water and chlorine are hard on gold and silver, and sunscreen dulls both. Trust us on this one: Don’s original wedding band is floating somewhere in the depths of CocoCay!
Yes, there is a safe in all cruise cabins. These safes are fine for a passport and a wallet, or perhaps your wedding rings when you’re going snorkeling. But leave the expensive necklaces and watches at home. Bring only the pieces you’d be fine losing.
And if you do use the safe, do not forget anything in it at the end of your sailing. There’s no guarantee you’ll ever get it back if you do.
8. A Full Suit or a Formal Gown
The advice you’ll usually see is “skip formal night, nobody dresses up anymore”. While that might be true for some, many cruisers still enjoy these fancy cruise evenings. It’s fun to get dressed up and enjoy a nice dinner. The regret here is packing the tuxedo or suit and the gown — bulky, heavy, single-use items you’ll wear once.
Most cruise lines now have one optional formal night on a seven-night sailing, and “formal” has drifted a long way toward cocktail attire. A blazer and khakis for men and a cocktail dress for women are perfectly suitable. That’s what we bring now.
9. A Workout Outfit for Every Day
We’re here to set the record straight before you pack: you are not going to the gym as often as you think during your cruise. Between late nights at the bar or casino and early morning departures for shore excursions, you might end up skipping your workout more than you do at home.
However, most ships have a walking track, a sport court, and other active amenities for exercise. There’s always the stairs instead of the elevator as well. So, just because you might not end up at the fitness center doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pack at least a couple gym outfits to burn off some of the extra cruise calories. You don’t need seven, though, you need two or three maximum.
10. A Night Light
This one has changed for us in recent years, but it’s still on so many packing lists. Interior cruise cabins with no windows are famously dark. Even balcony cabins have blackout curtains. For years, we considered a small night light a reasonable thing to pack.
But many newer ships now have motion-sensor floor lighting that handles the 2 AM bathroom trip. And even on older ships, leaving the bathroom light on (with the door shut) still does the trick. So, we no longer pack a night light for a cruise.
What Not to Pack for a Cruise: The 5 Exceptions We Still Bring
Here’s where we part ways with others’ regret lists.
The next five items appear on those lists constantly, and we understand why — plenty of people bought them because a video told them to and they never touched them. But just because they are useless to some doesn’t mean they can’t be beneficial to others.
Here are the 5 exceptions we still bring and why.
11. A Laptop
Almost every regret list tells you to leave it, and for most cruisers that’s absolutely correct. The WiFi is expensive, the connection can be inconsistent even with Starlink, and “I’ll catch up on email” during the week probably isn’t going to happen.
Who it’s actually for: people who work while they travel. We’re creating content on every sailing, so our laptops come with us every time. If your laptop has a job to do, bring it. If it’s coming along on the theory that you might use it, you won’t.
12. Magnetic Hooks
The classic influencer packing item, and a definite regret for anyone who brings them without a plan just because social media told them to. Cruise cabin walls are metal, so the magnetic hooks come in handy if you have things you’d like to hang.
Who it’s actually for: anyone wanting to hang items like hats, wet swimsuits, rain jackets, or day bags. Cabin storage runs out fast, so this helps to free up closet space. We never cruise without them.
If you’re a carry-on only type of traveler or booked in a suite, you may not need them.
13. An Over-the-Door Shoe Organizer
This is probably the most controversial item on this list. It shows up on every cruise hacks video and every regret list, often in the same week. While most argue that it’s unnecessary, we still use ours every trip. As long as the walls are magnetic, we hang it with hooks on a cabin wall instead of over the bathroom door.
Who it’s actually for: cruisers who pack their own toiletries and want to free up valuable counter space or those cruising with more than two people in a cabin. It’s valuable for storing items like sunscreen, sunglasses, medications, charging cords, and everything else that otherwise clutters the desk and bathroom vanity.
Sailing solo or in a suite? You don’t need it.
14. Hand Soap and Shower Toiletries
Most ships don’t have liquid hand soap in the cruise cabins. Many also have all-in-one dispensers in the shower — one product for hair and body. If you aren’t particular, you can leave the bottles home. However, if you’d prefer shampoo, conditioner, and body wash or you’d rather not use bar soap to wash your hands all week, then you’ll want to pack your own.
Who it’s actually for: anyone who is particular. If shampoo that isn’t yours will bother you for seven days, bring travel bottles and seal them in a ziploc bag so they don’t leak.
15. Wrinkle Release Spray
As previously mentioned, irons and steamers are banned. That’s exactly why wrinkle release spray earns its place on our cruise packing list. Everything in your bag has been rolled, folded, compressed, and tossed around in a suitcase during your travels to the cruise port. Even if you use packing cubes, there’s bound to be wrinkles.
Hang the garment in the bathroom, spray it, and let the shower steam finish the job. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done. If you’re really concerned, most cruise lines also offer pressing services. Some even have ship-approved irons in the self-service laundry areas.
Who it’s actually for: anyone who wants to look their best and doesn’t want wrinkled clothes.
The Bottom Line
Knowing what not to pack for a cruise is as valuable as knowing what to bring, and most packing regret comes from bringing something because you might need it, or because someone on the internet said to, without ever asking whether it applies to you.
Leave the towels, the hair dryer, the expensive jewelry, and the iron. Bring the meds, the shoes, and the formal wear — just less of them. And when a packing list tells you an item is a waste, decide whether it’s actually a waste for you before you leave it behind.
Comments
What’s the one thing you regret packing on a cruise? What do you bring that everyone tells you to leave home? Drop us an anchor below to share what you used to bring on a cruise but no longer do and what items you still swear by.
