Recommended Packing List for Cruise Ship Musicians

If you’re in the show band, chances are good you’ll have to play with a click track as some point, if not all the time. It sucks. Totally. But somewhere along the line the mucky-mucks at the top decided that they would rather pre-record music and hire only enough musicians to give the illusion of live music, and to make those musicians play along to a click, i.e. robots. Don’t get me started.

As much as it sucks, you’ll have to do it. Its not that hard, really, you just have to get used to it. And it’ll help to have good headphones – and not just any good headphones – good headphones with an OPEN-EAR design. This means that the headphone cups are not a closed or noise-cancelling design. See, if you have a closed-cup or noise-cancelling design, you’ll have to play with one cup on to hear the click, and one cup off to hear the band. You can get used to this, but an open-ear design allows outside sound to penetration the headphone cups, so that you can hear the band and hear the click with both headphones on. It is a big convenience.

These headphones are open-cup, as well as collapsible (good for travel!), and are also sennheiser, who makes respectable products. I would keep these as your stage pair, and have something else (buds, etc.) to use for personal use. You don’t want to crush your good pair on a camel ride in Morocco and be out-of-luck at the show that night.

Sidenote: you are not required to bring your own headphones on the gig, you would be provided some, but who knows what kind and what quality. I recommend bringing your own.

Luggage

Don’t bring a full-size hiking pack as your main luggage. I did that the first time and it ended up being really dumb. Your luggage will go into storage either in a storage room or, more likely, under your bunk in your cabin. Rectangular suitcases fit well in the rectangular spaces under beds, but hiking packs don’t as much. You can also fit more into a suitcase than a pack. Hiking packs are great for backpacking Europe or the rockies – times when you have to carry things long distances – but when you work on a ship there are only two times you’ll even see your luggage: your flight there and your flight back. (Also, backpacks are terrible on planes.) Believe me, get a suitcase.

I actually own 2 of nearly this same suitcase. I think having 2 of them is perfect. Perhaps you want to bring a big one and a little one, but I recommend just getting to medium sized ones like this 25″. After you live on the road for awhile, you grow tired of wearing the same 3 shirts and you want to expand a bit.

That said, if you can fit everything into one suitcase, all the better. There’s usually only enough room to fit two suitcases in the storage under the bottom bunk of a crew room (one for you, one for your roommate).

A nice, wheeled duffel bad might be cool, too.

Remember I said I brough 2 of the above 25″ suitcases? It’s manageable and convenient, but the wheels on most 25″ suitcases aren’t engineered to holding up two 25″ suitcases (usually I like to piggy-back my suitcases on top of each other on travel days, so as to roll them both along at once with one hand).

The wheels, as I found out, bow under the pressure of two suitcases. Yet, instead of changing the suitcase set-up, I suggest you bring a luggage cart. This one is great because it folds up nice and flat for storage in your room.

Once you get on the ship, you can also use this for rolling packages back home (I promise you’ll have to ship something at least once during your contract), and many other uses.

You’ll need a very good daypack. Spend some money on this – you’ll use it WAY more than your actual luggage. Every time you leave the ship you’ll want to bring with you beach stuff, or an extra coat, or a guide book, or something.

In general, you’ll want something that isnt too big – I’d say 30-40 liter capacity (2300 cubic inches). Waterproof would be a nice bonus, and a subtle internal frame wouldn’t hurt. If this all sounds a bit much – believe me – it won’t after you carry this thing all over 5 continents.

I recommend the Kelty Redwing Backpack. I own an older version of this Kelty backpack and it’s worked great for me and held up very well over time. In fact, my father liked my pack so much that he bought one himself. The main compartment is big enough for a beach towel, snorkel and mark, or maybe some extra layers if you plan on being off the ship after dark. The newer Redwings have a great organization system of zipped up pockets smaller compartments. The long side pockets are perfect for a bottle of sunscreen.

Hydration packs look really dorky, but you might find, as I did, that they are really nice to have when hiking in the 90 degree heat of Greece.

Personally, I use my Timbuk2 Messenger Bag, which is waterproof and cavernous and slick and it’s perfect. This should bag distribute the weight of your stuff in a way I find much more comfortable than regular backpacks. The weight rests much more on your frame than it does on the soft tissues of your upper back, and I find that I can carry my Timbuk2 much longer without fatigue. There is a detachable stabalizing strap that holds the bag to your body if you are bending over (a common problem with shoulder bags is that they fall in your face when you bend over). The Timbuk2 is a great bag.

This little electronic is so valuable on a ship, not just for convenience, but for safety. This is a flashlight, thermometer and alarm clock combination. I have bought this e-x-a-c-t clock THREE times. I would not travel without it. As I write this I can actually look across the room to see it. I found this clock at TJ Maxx each time I bought it, and I’m really glad to see it available on Amazon. Buy it! For real!

You’ll need a clock next to your bed, of course. None will be provided, and you’ll need to keep to a strict schedule on a ship. For that matter, you should really bring a watch. A clock radio doesn’t make any sense, though, as your cabin will likely be below decks with no reception. Also, a small clock like this one will fit in your small, cramped cabin.

Furthermore, you should always have a flashlight near your bunk for emergencies. More than likely, if there is an emergency on a ship, it’ll be at night. Maybe the ship will lose power, and how will you find your way out? The handy flashlight right next to your bed may help lead you and others to safety in a dangerous situation

And as if that wasn’t enough, the themometer on this clock is a nice feature. It’s nice to know the temperature in your cabin. (You’ll be surprised how cold it often is!)

Computer

I would recommend buying a laptop before you go. You can’t find computers with English keyboards and MS Word in English overseas, so don’t buy them there. (Although I’ve heard electronics are cheap in the Caribbean?)

Do you need a computer? No. Is it a nice luxury? Yes. And without rent or groceries or gas or car insurance to pay for, you’ll have the thing paid off in a month, so why not?

If you have a laptop you can access the internet wireless – that means you don’t have to hang out in the computer lab waiting for one to open up. That also mean you can write your emails (or blog posts?) offline and upload everything later, saving you tons of money on internet fees. (Yes, you have to pay for the internet on ships – typically $.10/minute for crew.)

I recommend getting one. Buy I don’t (DON’T) recommend buying one (or ANYTHING) and having it sent to the ship. I made that mistake once, and I lost my computer entirely.

If you get a mac, buy a USB to PC game pad controller and download the Snes9x emulator and some of the hundreds of games before you go. Better yet, buy two controllers and make friends when you get on the ship.

Camera

A camera is essential. I bought a 3 mega-pixel camera within the first week I was on a ship and used it daily. I recommend something small and travel-ready, like this Coolpix. Buy it before you go on the ship, because sales tax overseas is considerably higher than it is stateside (I bought mine in Helsinki and paid 24% sales tax!). You can get the sales tax back, but there’s a whole bunch of paperwork involved. Get it before you go so you can start taking pictures right away!

Check out the pictures I took while working on a cruise ship. They were all taken with a 3 mega-pixel Coolpix I bought in 2004 and still use.

This may be taking the packing list too far, but those of you who read my blog know that I have a folding bike and I use it constantly. There is no better way to see a new place than to see it on a bike, and a folding bike fits perfectly in a cruise ship lifestyle. Space is tight on a ship, and having a real bike is out of the question. But without any mode of personal transportation, you’ll have to get a taxi or shuttle to get around. That will either be really expensive, or limit you to seeing only where the shuttle takes you.

Get a folding bike! It’ll be worth the expense, and it’s more than likely you can sell it after your contract if you don’t want to keep it. Look for one that is $400 or more, because folding bikes cheaper than that end up falling apart. I would recommend you buy one when you get to your ship, even those you can get them to fit in a suitcase.

I WISH that I’d been so lucky as to have a folding bike when I worked on a ship in Europe. I could have biked around Rome! Croatia! Athens! What an experience that would have been!

Beach Wear

Dude, you basically live on the beach. Get some sandals. Shoes are worthless in the Bahamas.

I own a pair of these sandals in brown and they are supremely comfortable. They are comparable to Reefs, but I think they look better. Highly recommended!

Laundry Gear

You’ll want to do your own laundry on the ship. There is laundry service, but its expensive and I think all ships provide laundry machines for crew. If I remember correctly, the crew facilities are free.

Get a collapsible mesh laundry back like this before you go. Put this in the bottom of your closet, and go to the laundry when its full. At the end of your contract throw it out all together if you want.

Suntan Lotion

Dude, you basically live on the beach. Put some SPF on that.

I don’t mean to get all cosmetic on you guys, but you might find, like I have, that this is the best sunblock that you can find. As a cancer survivor, I’m a big proponent of wearing sunblock. Remember that cruise ships don’t go where it’s rainy. If they did, they wouldn’t get any guests. Cruise ships go where it’s sunny, and you should wear sunblock every time you go in the sun. Even if you want to get a tan.

This stuff does what it says. It block a wide spectrum, not just UVA, but also UVB rays. It rubs in quickly and has a nice, sheer, dry feel to it. Most sun blocks end up oily, even if they say they don’t and even if they are rubbed in. At the beach that can mean that all the sand will stick to you in that really uncomfortable way that sand is known to do. This stuff is much better and I use it all the time now.

Most likely, you’ll be alone on this gig. If you want to get sunscreen on your back and don’t have anyone to do it, get a can of spray sunscreen for the hard to reach places.