Top Cruise Accessories on Amazon
You’ll find tons of cruise accessories out there, from key card lanyards to selfie sticks. Many are bogus. But a handful of items can truly improve your vacation and should be included on your cruise essentials list (updated in 2021).
We have our own opinions on which cruise products are the most helpful. For this post, however, we’ll rely on Amazon’s sophisticated platform to show us these “must have” cruise products.
Below you’ll find the Top 10 Cruise Accessories on Amazon. For a more complete list, check out this great list showing what to pack for a cruise.
#10 | Waterproof Phone Pouch
Cruise ship life has changed a bit. You’ll need to rely on your phone more than you’d have liked or hoped for. New rules and regulations make your device more important than ever. You’ll need it for your muster drill, getting on and off the ship, making reservations and even cabin entry on some ships. This must have cruise item keeps your phone handy and dry. You can use it while in the pouch, so your phone also stays germ free as an added bonus!
It also functions while underwater! So, you can get a turtle-selfie. It’s a real thing. Look it up.
“It’s a bit frustrating how often the cruise ship requires phone use. This item is essential. It lets me quickly access my iphone whenever needed. I love the quick-release clasp. It’s super easy to detach and use when required. I’d recommend this to anyone cruising.”
#9 | Oh Ship Cruise Gift Cards
Oh ship… You’re going on a cruise! These funny cruise cards are the best way to gift a cruise. These cards are funny, cute and incredibly high quality.
You’ve spent a lot of time and money planning for this cruise. You want to gift it properly. These are ideal for anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, and any other special occasion. You’re guaranteed to get some laughs, hugs and maybe a few tears of joy.
“These cruise gift cards are so cute. The paper is thick and the printing is high quality. I LOVE the design. I surprised my husband with a cruise for our anniversary. I even mailed it to our own home. The look on his face when he opened it was the best thing I’ve seen all year. It’ll be our first cruise after the lockdown!”
#8 | Cruise Luggage Tags
Use Cruise Luggage Tags to assure your bags show up to your cruise cabin. After booking, the cruise line will send you an “etag.” You’ll be required to print this out and attach it to your luggage. Instructions suggest using a stapler to affix your etag. We say, why leave it to chance?
Your waterproof, heavy-duty luggage tags will guarantee safe arrival of your stuff. Don’t be the guy shopping at the cruise gift store for your week’s worth of clothes. Give your etags a reliable, comfortable home with these popular cruise accessories. Make sure they’re fitted for your cruise line! Here are our favorite cruise luggage tags for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Princess, Celebrity and Holland America.
“Thrilled with these sturdy tags. Plastic is a good weight, and it is very durable. So much more happier using these than trying to tape or staple the paper tag to my luggage. It gives me piece of mind, and that is a treasure.”
#7 | Collapsible Travel Tote Bag
Your Collapsible Tote Bag is the one travel necessity that you don’t realize that you need until you sail. You’ll be coming and going from your Cruise Cabin throughout the day. Whether heading to the pool, buffet, game-room, or exploring your cruise ports, you’ll to have stuff you’ll need! Easily carry towels, hats, glasses, phones, water, snacks, wallets, and more.
Typically, travel tote bags are bulky and expensive. Luggage space will be extremely limited and the last thing you’ll want is a big bag taking up a valuable section of your cruise cabin. This transportable tote bag collapses to easily fit in your purse or pocket. Once unfolded, it fits everything that you’ll need no matter where you are on or off the ship.
Other common uses for cruisers: pool-side tote; laundry bag for your cruise cabin; shopping bag for port purchases; beach bag for towels, water, lotions, etc. The versatility, flexible, convenience and low price make this one of the most purchased cruise accessories on Amazon. Use the button below to get yours asap.
“When I bought this, I had no idea how much I’d rely on it throughout my cruise. We literally used it every day of the cruise. It came in most helpful at port with all of our snacks and beach stuff. Would recommend to anyone with a cruise.”
#6 | Cruise Cabin Power Strip (Non Surge)
In this day and age of iphones, itoothbrushers, ithis and ithat, extra outlets are a MUST. Most cruise cabins will offer one main outlet. That’s only two plugs at a time. If you’re like us, that’s about three too few.
This is a convenient solution. It won’t take up much space in your luggage and will offer an extra three normal outlets and two USB plugs. It’s also great for traveling through airports. While there’s a big line to use the limited kiosk, you can roll up and be the hero with this device!
IMPORTANT: make sure that the power strip you bring is NON SURGE PROTECTED like the one linked to here. Otherwise, it’s likely your cruise cop will bring you below decks. And trust you-me, you don’t want to go below decks.
“Most cruise ship outlets are in quirky places and cannot accommodate more than 2 devices charging at any time. And with most of today’s electronics needing USB ports to charge, this travel size power block is exactly what’s needed. Definitely recommended for your cruise accessories packing list.”
#5 | Cruise Hacks Ebook
Cruising is a very complicated type of vacation. There’s a hundred decisions you have to make along the way, including: when to book, cabin choice, ship placement, what to bring, how much to spend, and much more.
The Cruise Hacks Ebook is the best source for tips, tricks and advice to make the most of your vacation. It’s the most popular cruising ebook on Amazon and one of our favorite Cruise Accessories. There are a couple pieces of advice that saved us hundreds on our last sailing.
“Doesn’t matter if you’ve cruised 100 times – guaranteed you’ll find a nugget of new info you can use on your next cruise. This is the comprehensive cruiser’s bible! Everything from timing your booking for max discounts to packing with a purpose, this guide has it. Thanks for putting this together!”
#4 | Cruise Cabin Hanging Organizer
Your sea-home will be smaller than a Kardashian closet. You and your shipmate will be sharing 100 square feet with minimal storage and limited closet space. That’s why this is one of our favorite cruise accessories.
The key is to use vertical space to your advantage. With your hanging organizer, you’ll have 15 pockets of vertical storage for lotions, bathings suits, sandals, hats and more. It assembles easily over-the-door and will help keep your sanity during your vacation.
IMPORTANT: make sure that your hanging organizer is FIRE RETARDANT like the one shown here. Cruise lines have strict policies. If it’s not fire retardant, they’ll likely just confiscate it. But, the time it takes them to do that you could be spending at the Lido Bar. Don’t take that risk – just get this one.
“3 girls sharing one cabin made this gem a real necessity. The organizer was well made and arrived on time! Would definitely buy it again!”
#3 | Travel Night Light
This essential cruise item is purchased most often by women for their husbands! Without it, a mid-night trip to your cruise cabin bathroom is a dangerous mission. Think “bull in china shop” scenario.
Made by cruisers for cruisers, this travel night light has a magnetic base to stick to any stateroom wall. It also rotates 360 degrees to face any cabin hallway, bathroom or floor. We haven’t had a stubbed toe since ’94.
“We bought this cute, little travel nightlight to take on our cruise and it worked perfectly. We loved it so much we bought another couple for our garage and shed when we got back home.“
#2 | Towel Bands
Towel clips have officially been replaced as one of the hottest cruise accessories. It took 2021 years to come up with this “much better mouse trap” but we’re glad it’s finally here. Towel Bands are the better solution to keeping your cruise ship towel from flying off your pool chair.
When compared to towel clips, these bands are much easier to pack, lighter, and more flexible (quite literally) with all types of deck chairs. You’ll secure your towel while also creating an easy way to recognize your lounger in a sea of others. They can also be used on car seats, boat chairs, and other places that towel clips fail to work.
“The real benefit was that my clothes didn’t wrinkle at all while packed in the cubes. Even one of my companions asked me how I kept my shirts so crisp. These things hold a ton, made packing a breeze, and allowed me to go the entire time without once steaming or ironing a thing. I’m completely converted.”
#1 | Cruise Lanyard
This is the most popular of all cruise accessories on Amazon. Cruise Lanyards offer the most convenient way to store your cruise key card and other valuables. The waterproof pouch assures that your money, cards, and other documents are protected. For a complete guide on cruise lanyard features, check out this great post!
If you’ve ever lost your cruise key, you know what a pain it is to get another. And, losing it in port can truly lead to a nightmare. Don’t let it happen to you. Grab this inexpensive, cruise necessity and you’ll never lose your stuff while onboard again.
“Just right for our upcoming cruise. Holds the cruise card and any other important items (like a drivers’ license) hands-free style. It’s just the right length and without the card holder it is a great lanyard for other events.”
Bonus | Cruise Staff “Thank You” Cards
Can we hear a collective “Awwww?” This should really be at the top of our list of Cruise Accessories.
Everyone knows how hard the crew works. Most are from India, the Philippines, or some other far away place where things aren’s as easy. Many work long hours to send money back home to support loved ones. While we’re double-fisting Pina Coladas and booking Spa Packages, they’re folding our towels into adorable animals to provide us with an extra smile.
Let’s return a tiny bit of that happiness to our crew. These “thank you” cards are the perfect way to do that.
Whether you include an extra few dollars or just a personalized note, your gesture will be heart-felt.
“I didn’t expect such a reaction from our steward. Frankie welled up with tears holding our card. It took only a couple minutes to do but had such a big impact.”
Bonus | Key Card Phone Wallet
We love cruise lanyards. BUT, this new must have cruise item might have us finally replacing our trusty lanyard set. It’s a tiny accessory that gets added directly to your iPhone, Android or other. Your ship key card will fit perfectly and you’ll never lose your ID since it’s attached to your sacred device. Accessing your sail and sign card has never been easier than with this new cruise item!
“We’ve used lanyards for years. They worked great.We saw this item and thought we’d give it a try. They are a game-changer. It’s incredibly easy and convenient to grab your cruise card throughout the day. We’ll never go back to lanyards.”
Bonus | Travel Shampoo Bottles
We all want to look good on our cruise. That’s easier said than done on a cruise. The soaps and shampoos in your bathroom are similar to those you’ll find at a bus terminal restroom. Easily bring along all of your liquid essentials with these handy travel bottles. We take moisturizers, baby shampoo, and fancy conditioners amongst other toiletries. The bottles are TSA approved and perfectly sized for our bathroom essentials. They also come with convenient carabiner clips to snap onto any accessory.
“It ain’t easy looking this spectacular. These little squeeze bottles are great for taking all of my beauty items. I spent too much on my shampoos and conditioners to leave them on shore. Fortunately, now I don’t have to!”
Bonus | Cruise Door Decorations
Cruise Door Decorations are a really fun way to customize that otherwise boring cruise cabin you’ll call “home” for the week. In the endless sea of monotone stateroom doors, yours will stand out like a shining beacon on a hill.
This serves two main purposes; one selfish and one selfless. How, you ask? Well, the selfish benefit is that you’ll easily find your room with your unique cruise door decorations summoning you home. After a long day at the Lido Bar, this can be a very valuable feature.
The gesture is also selfless in that it brightens up the long slog down wavy hallways for other cruise passengers. We like to customize ours with personal details and we’ve made tons of new shipmates this way!
“What a great idea these are! We used to bring a roll of scotch tape with us on our cruise to hang our door decorations. Every day, we’d swap out our decor with a new one… each time, finding the tape and going through the whole process. This makes it super easy to add and easily swap out cruise door decorations. And, they look way cuter than with tape!
BONUS | Beach / Poolside Safe
We’ve been there before. You’re poolside on the Lido deck and the sun is blazing. You need a quick dip in the pool, but your hubby isn’t around to watch your stuff. Do you leave your wallet, iPhone, kindle, and other valuables in your shoe? That could potentially ruin your vacation.
Instead, lock your stuff securely in your travel safe. You can latch it to your pool or beach chair and take that long-awaited dip. Dunk underwater for as long as you’d like, knowing your valuables are protected.
It doubles as extra protection in your cruise cabin. Use this instead of your cruise cabin safe and you’ll be assured you’re the only one with access to your goodies. The peace of mind this provides makes it one of the most popular cruise accessories on Amazon!
“We purchased this box safe to take on a cruise to lock our personal belongings in while in the ocean. It worked great! We were able to lock it to the lounge chairs and feel safe playing in the ocean without someone taking our cash and phones. It is large enough to hold multiple devices at a time. Great purchase!”
Bonus | Cabin Door Decoration – Porthole Sticker
Looking for a last minute gag-gift for your favorite cruiser? This is it.
This is a “must have” for anyone who matches the following criteria:
- Cruising but can only afford an “Inside Cabin.”
- Thinks about their upcoming cruise constantly while at work.
- Needs a reminder on the refrigerator to keep that Lido Deck diet going.
- Has trouble remembering their cruise cabin door number (this is a great way to find your cabin!
- Gets seasick in windowless places.
Your guaranteed laughs when giving this Cruise Porthole Sticker to the cruising fan in your life!
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“My wife said that she’d only agree to another cruise if I upgraded to at least an oceanview room. I handed her this and told her we’re on. We had a good laugh, and the sticker is now on my fridge.”
Bonus | Cruise Nails – “Nauti Nail” Polish Strips
Looking for a last minute, fun gift for your favorite cruiser? This is it.
Are you ready to step up the level of excitement for your cruise? If so, this is an essential cruise product.
The red, white, and blue design is Carnival Cruise themed, but fun for any cruise ship be it Carnival or other.
If you don’t like extra attention, this is NOT the product for you. When wearing your cruise nails, you’re guaranteed at least 14 smiles and minimum three “hey, I love your nails” comments.
These truly are a great way to build anticipation and excitement for your upcoming vacation. And, a wonderful way to show off and meet other cruisers when flashing your nauti-nails around the ship.
“My daughters and I wore our cruise nails on the Carnival Breeze last month. We got more compliments than I could count and met a lot of great people. I’ll never cruise again without my nauti nails!”
Above, you’ll find the most popular cruise accessories on Amazon. If you found these helpful, make sure to check out our piece, Cruise Cabin Essentials – 9 items to Cruise in Comfort.
If you decide to purchase any of these items, let us know in the comments below. And if you have a favorite cruise accessory that you don’t see included, please let us know that as well!
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