Don Herman Article 10 of 13 in our Cruise Planning Guide — how to plan a cruise, one decision at a time.
You’ve picked your cabin, booked your excursions, and maybe even talked yourself into (or out of) the drink package. The cruise itself is locked in. But there’s one more stretch of planning between now and the ship’s horn sounding: the pre-cruise requirements. This is the paperwork-and-app stage of the trip, and it’s not glamorous, but getting it right early means embarkation day goes smoothly and nothing catches you off guard once you’re aboard.
Here’s everything we handle before we sail, in the order we handle it.
Confirm Your Passport and Visa Requirements
Start here, and start early. A passport is simply a must these days — just get it, if you don’t already have one.
The surprise for a lot of first-time cruisers is how often a passport is required even when the cruise doesn’t sound international. Cruises out of Seattle bound for Alaska are a perfect example: they sound like they’d stay entirely inside the U.S., but most of them call at Victoria or Vancouver, British Columbia along the way. That one Canadian port stop means you need a passport, full stop.
Visas are rarer for U.S. citizens, but they do come up. When they’re needed, you can sometimes get one on arrival — Egypt is a good example, where a visa-on-arrival is available at the port. One important warning here: we would not recommend trying to arrange an Egypt visa ahead of time online. There are a lot of scam sites out there happy to take your money and your passport details for a visa you could have gotten in person for less hassle and less risk.
The bottom line, and we’ll say it plainly because it matters: visas are your responsibility, not the cruise line’s. The cruise line can offer general advice, but if you get your visa situation wrong, they take no responsibility for it, and the realistic outcome is being denied boarding. It’s a completely avoidable problem if you check requirements early and don’t leave it to the last minute.
Complete Online Check-In in the App
A huge amount of what used to be handled by cruise-line phone banks has moved online. On Princess, some steps can now only be completed through the Princess app — there’s no calling in or handling it at the terminal instead.
Here’s what the app is actually collecting from you:
- A photo of your passport (the physical document, not just typed-in data)
- A personal photo of yourself, used for scanning you on and off the ship all week
- Your credit card information, for onboard incidentals and embarkation-related charges
- Emergency contact information
- A handful of other smaller details
The good news is the app walks you through it step-by-step, and it gives you a clear finish line — a green checkmark or similar signal — once everything required is entered and accepted. If you’ve been putting this off because it feels like a mountain of paperwork, know that there’s a visible “you’re done” moment waiting for you at the end of it.
Book Your Dining — And Coordinate It With the Show Times
Depending on the ship, you may need to set up both main dining room and specialty dining reservations through the app. Our sequencing tip: set up your specialty dining reservations first, then fill in the main dining room around them. It’s much easier to slot main dining nights into whatever’s left over once specialty dining is locked in, than to try to squeeze a specialty reservation into a schedule where the main dining room has already claimed the slot you wanted.
Specialty dining can sell out, and sometimes far out. We’ve had friends try to book a specialty restaurant as much as six months before a cruise and find nothing available. If that happens to you, don’t panic — see a maître d’ as soon as you board. Something has almost always opened up by then.
Here’s a detail worth building into your plan: coordinate your dinner time with the show time. On Princess there are two theater showtimes each night, typically 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. If there’s a show you really want to see, pick your dinner seating with that in mind so you’re not rushing out mid-course or missing curtain entirely. And if one particular night’s dinner time conflicts with a show you want to catch, you don’t have to redo your whole week’s schedule — a maître d’ can move your dinner time for all nights, or just that one. One more tip: the show-going crowd tends to arrive early for good seats, so build in a little buffer, even though honestly, there really aren’t many bad seats in the theater.
The app also handles a few smaller personalization details: your preferred bed configuration (together or separate), and on some ships, even pillow-type selection. And of course, it will ask about food allergies and dietary needs. One realistic caveat, though: the waitstaff will almost certainly ask you about this again at the table, regardless of what you entered in the app. Don’t take that as a sign the system didn’t work — think of it as a backstop, not a replacement for speaking up in person.
Pack Smart: Your List, Your Dress Code, and What to Leave Behind
Start Early and Pack for Your Destination
Our own habit: we start laying things out in a spare bedroom about one to two weeks before we leave. It sounds excessive, but it means nothing gets forgotten in the last-minute scramble, and we can see the whole trip’s wardrobe at a glance before it goes in the suitcase.
What you actually need depends entirely on where you’re going and when. Warm-weather, beachy itineraries call for shorts, t-shirts, and bathing suits. Cooler-climate itineraries call for long pants, sweaters, and a rain jacket. Simple as that sounds, it’s the single biggest factor in what belongs in your suitcase.
If you’d like something more detailed than “pack for the weather” to jog your memory on the smaller stuff, a few reputable sites publish full cruise packing checklists worth a look: Cruise Critic’s printable packing list is probably the most recognized name in the cruising community, and Cruzely’s 85-item printable checklist is a thorough, cruise-specific option if you want something exhaustive. Either one is a good starting point to check against your own list.
What to Wear: Smart Casual vs. Formal Night
This might be the single most-asked question we hear about cruising, and it causes a surprising amount of anxiety for something that turns out to be pretty relaxed in practice.
Most nights aboard fall under what Princess calls Smart Casual: for men, trousers and a collared shirt; for women, a dress, a skirt or trousers with a blouse, or any polished casual outfit. Then there are formal nights — Princess brands theirs “Dress to Impress” — where some guests go all out in tuxedos, dark suits, or evening gowns. Shorter cruises usually have one formal night; longer ones, like our own 21-night transatlantic on the Sun Princess, have more — ours has three.
Here’s the part that should put you at ease: formal is genuinely optional. We don’t go for full formal ourselves, and it has never once been a problem. On a formal night, we typically wear khaki pants with a dressier shirt and, sometimes, a nice vest. That’s it. People dress up as much or as little as they want, and everyone enjoys their evening their own way. We’ve even seen guests wear nice, “couture-type” jeans to a formal dinner, often paired with a casual sport jacket, and nobody blinked.
The only real rule to keep in mind for the main dining room and specialty restaurants: skip the swimsuits, t-shirts, and flip-flops. Save those for the buffet, where the dress code stays casual every night of the cruise — so if formal wear really isn’t your thing, you’re never actually locked out of a good meal.
What Not to Pack
Every cruise line maintains a list of prohibited and restricted items, and while the specifics vary a bit line to line, the categories are consistent across the industry:
- Fire hazards: irons, candles, incense, hot plates, coffee makers, kettles, and heating pads are banned outright on most ships. Fire is the single most dangerous hazard on a ship at sea, so cruise lines are strict about anything that generates heat or an open flame.
- Weapons and sharp objects: firearms, ammunition, fireworks, knives, and weapon replicas are not allowed. Most lines make an exception for small personal grooming items like nail clippers.
- Drugs and illegal substances: banned regardless of what’s legal at your departure port or destination, including marijuana and CBD products, even with a prescription.
- Extension cords and power strips without surge protection, along with most hand and power tools.
- Excess alcohol: most lines allow one bottle of wine or Champagne per stateroom on embarkation day; anything beyond that typically gets held by the ship and returned at the end of the cruise.
- Drones and remote-controlled devices, which can interfere with the ship’s own operations.
This list is a good general guide, but it’s not gospel for every line. Check your own cruise line’s specific prohibited-items page before you pack, since policies do shift and vary by line.
Your Pre-Cruise Checklist at a Glance
- Confirm your passport is valid, and check whether your itinerary requires a visa
- Complete online check-in in your cruise line’s app: passport photo, personal photo, payment info, emergency contact
- Book specialty dining first, then main dining around it — and pick dinner times with the show schedule in mind
- Note any dietary needs in the app, but plan to mention them again at the table
- Start packing early, and pack for your actual destination and season
- Bring a couple of dressier items for formal night, but don’t stress over it — formal is optional
- Check your cruise line’s prohibited-items list before you pack
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really need a passport for a cruise that doesn’t leave the country? Almost certainly, yes. Even cruises that sound domestic, like Seattle to Alaska, typically call at a foreign port such as Victoria or Vancouver, which requires a passport.
What if my visa situation gets complicated? Visas are your responsibility, not the cruise line’s. They can offer advice, but if something goes wrong, you — not the cruise line — bear the consequences, up to being denied boarding. Research your itinerary’s visa requirements early.
What does the cruise line app actually need from me? Typically a photo of your passport, a personal photo for boarding and disembarking, credit card information, and emergency contact details. You’ll get a clear confirmation, like a green checkmark, once everything is complete.
Should I book specialty dining or main dining first? Book specialty dining first, then fill in main dining room reservations around it. Specialty restaurants can sell out months in advance, so if you miss out, check with the maître d’ once you’re aboard.
Do I have to dress up on a cruise? No. Formal nights exist, but dressing for them is optional. The buffet stays casual every night, so you always have a relaxed option even on formal nights.
What is “smart casual” on a cruise? It’s the standard dress expectation for most evenings in the main dining room and specialty restaurants: trousers and a collared shirt for men, a dress or polished casual outfit for women. It’s a step up from t-shirts and shorts, but well short of formal wear.
Can I wear jeans in the dining room? Generally, yes, as long as they’re not ripped or overly casual. Nice jeans paired with a collared shirt or sport jacket are a common and accepted choice, even on formal nights.
What items can’t I bring on a cruise? The usual categories: fire hazards like irons and candles, weapons, illegal drugs, unprotected extension cords, drones, and alcohol beyond the one-bottle-per-stateroom allowance most lines permit on embarkation day. Always check your specific line’s current list before packing.
Next up in the guide: Article 11 — Embarkation Day Tips, where we’ll walk through the day you finally step aboard. Or catch up on Article 9 — Shore Excursions, or head back to the full Cruise Planning Guide to pick up wherever you left off.
