5 Checks to Do Before You Leave Your Cruise Cabin for the Last Time

Disembarkation morning often feels rushed, and it’s surprisingly easy to leave things behind in your cabin.

Before you shut the door for the last time, take a minute to run through these quick checks. It could save you a lot of time, hassle and disappointment later.

#1. Check Every Plug Socket and Behind the TV

Phone chargers, adapters, and travel plugs are the most commonly forgotten items.

They’re often hidden behind furniture or plugged in low to the floor, so do a quick check of every socket you have been using before you go.

If you have packed your sunrise alarm clock, don’t forget to take it home again. It is easy to overlook it as part of the cabin’s fixtures and fittings.

#2. Open Every Drawer, Wardrobe, and Safe

It’s easy to miss something tucked behind the safe door or under the little mat on the safe floor. You should probably have a good idea of what you put in your safe, often passports, credit cards, purses, etc.

Make sure you have all those things with you before you leave.

Check in the top drawers and shelves. If you aren’t tall, it’s easy to miss something pushed to the back.

Make sure to check all compartments, including bedside tables and under the bed.

#3. Look in the Bathroom

Toiletry bags, razors, hairbrushes, and hanging organisers are often left behind.

Check the back of the bathroom door, too. Swimming things can easily be forgotten if they get mixed up with cruise line towels.

4. Check the Balcony (If You Have One)

People often leave shoes, books, and sometimes even sunglasses out there.

Don’t let your favourite sunglasses sail away without you…

5. Collect All Cruise Cards and Documents

Make sure you have your cruise card, passport, and any customs forms you might need to hand.

The last thing you want is to try to get off the ship only to find you have lost or packed your cruise card. You’ll need to go to reception to get another one!

If you are British, it is very easy to disembark a ship in Southampton, and not be asked to show your passport. Just imagine doing that, then realising only when you come to set off on your next cruise adventure. That doesn’t even bear thinking about!

Final Tip:

Before walking out, take one final, slow look around the cabin as if you’ve never seen it before. It’s amazing what you’ll spot when you stop rushing about.

I once left some professional cruise photos in the cabin onboard the Norwegian Spirit.

I rushed straight back to the cabin and asked the cabin steward about them, but he said he hadn’t seen them, and we never found them.

I tried contacting Norwegian after the cruise, but the timing wasn’t great. It was just as the Covid pandemic hit, and they had far more important things to worry about than my lost photos.

This photo is the only reminder I have of the professional photos – what a waste of money! I wonder where they went…?

Before You Go

Find out what else you should do once you have disembarked a ship here:

5 Things You Should Do on Embarkation Day – Straight After Boarding

Superstition says it is unlucky to rename a ship. Find out why, and how cruise lines rename ships anyway, here:

Is It Unlucky to Rename a Cruise Ship? (I Cruised on One With Five Names!)