Pre-planning your cruise

With so much available to do on a cruise, spontaneity is definitely part of the fun. There are, however, a few things that you'll want to do ahead of time but don't view them as chores! Rather, they can be a fun opportunity to tailor your cruise to your personal tastes and schedule.

So, what should you be doing now that will help ensure a great vacation? Let's walk through the highlights.

1. Complete your check-in

Cruise lines have online portals that will help you manage your cruise. Whether you booked your cruise directly on the cruise line's website or not, you should register with them. If you aren't a fan of doing things online, we recommend giving the cruise line a call and chatting with a representative that can help you do the basics to prepare for the cruise. If you're calling, read through the rest of this section so you have an idea of the information you should gather before calling.

The first thing that the cruise line will want is your personal information. You will be able to finalize the names of the people cruising, provide your home address, contact information, and an emergency contact. The latter is very important. In the very unlikely even that something happens during the cruise, the ship needs to know who they can reach out to for information and to plan next steps. The emergency contact should not be someone that is with you on the cruise and they should ideally be aware of your medical history.

Your travel documentation is also usually requested. Providing your passport or other travel documentation will speed up your check-in during embarkation. Cruise lines usually request flight information in order to understand when you can be expected to arrive and if you need an early debarkation time when you reach your destination port.

Setting up an expense account is what will allow you to charge expenses to your room while onboard. When you board, you will be given a card or a wristband that is your sole form of currency on board. That card or band is tied to the expense account that you set up. Most people attach a credit card to the expense account but once on board, you can often also provide cash as pre-payment. Beware of using a debit card as a hold is often placed on funds and can take quite a while to release following the cruise. When you're setting up the account, you can indicate who can use the account (for example, you might want your partner to use the same credit card but might want the kids to use an account pre-paid with a certain amount of cash). The cruise line website will make this a simple process and you can make changes through the on board guest services if necessary.

Depending on your room selection, you may need to provide your bedding preference. For example, rooms might have the option of having two twin beds or a king bed configuration. Select what's right for you!

Finally, some lines as you to pre-select a dining option. This dining option usually applies to your evening meal in one of the main dining rooms. Again, the website for your cruise line will have details about the options available to you, but if there is a choice, it's important to specify it as soon as possible since some options might fill up you will be wait-listed. If your cruise line doesn't ask about this option, don't worry - you're all set!

2. Flights

If you aren't flying to your cruise, you can skip this section.

Not everyone is lucky enough to live within driving distance of a port, so flying is a common option. Getting the best price on a flight isn't the purpose of this article, so we'll leave that to others to address. That said, there are a couple cruise-specific things that are worth mentioning.

A ship will not delay its departure for late guests. For that reason, it's important to leave buffer time when you fly to your cruise. We strongly recommend flying in the day prior to your cruise's departure. This approach leaves time to account for delays or closures and makes embarkation day much less stressful. The only downside is that you'll likely need to book a hotel room for a night but this is a worthwhile price to pay for peace of mind.

In the same vein, if you must make a connection to get to your destination, try to do the connection in a place that weather is less likely to impact inbound or outbound flights. For example, choose Atlanta rather than Chicago if flying in February.

Finally, on your way home, leave ample time to debark the ship, get to the airport, and make your way to your gate. Especially for a first-time cruiser, it's better to have time lounging at the airport gate than to be making a mad scramble to make your flight. For ports that aren't subject to extreme weather at the time of year of your cruise, flights after noon are likely safe. If the likelihood of extreme weather is high, it's possible your ship may be delayed getting to port, so it's advisable to do later flights in the early evening. Examples of weather that you might face include hurricanes in the port of Miami or extreme fog in Galveston. Do some research on the likelihood of these conditions being present when you cruise.

3. Parking

If you aren't driving to the port city, you can skip this section.

As with flying, we advise arriving at the home port city a day prior to the cruise. You will incur the cost of a hotel room for the night, but you'll have peace of mind that you won't be stuck in traffic as your ship pulls away from port. Additionally, some hotels near the larger ports will allow guests to leave their vehicles parked for the duration of their cruise as part of the hotel stay. This is a hugely convenient perk and most hotels that offer this also offer shuttles to the port directly from the hotel.

If parking your car at the hotel isn't an option, you'll be able to quickly find many parking options at and around the cruise port. Search Google with "cruise port parking <city name>" where <city name> is the port you are sailing from. For example "cruise port parking Miami". The results should quickly give you a few options to consider. Book your parking early to ensure a spot.

3. Excursions

We wanted to mention excursions quickly here just to make it clear that this is something that you should be considering as soon as you've booked your cruise. This is the really fun part of cruise planning and we'll dedicate our next article entirely to this topic!