Cruise Shopping at Dollar Tree
Cruising can be expensive… so we try an save money where we can! Here are some items for cruise shopping at Dollar Tree or your local dollar store.
There are lots of items you need to bring with you on a cruise to make your life comfortable. Items like toiletries, medications, organizational items, etc.
Toiletries
Most cruise ships provide shampoo and body wash in the bathroom… but that is all. Dollar Tree has travel size shampoo, conditioner and body wash… and if you’re driving they have $1 full-size bottles too. Also things like deodorants, hair get or hairspray, lotion and razors. And this is a great place to get a new toothbrush for the trip along with toothpaste, mouthwash and flossers!
Sunscreen
There are perfect size bottles of sunscreen with both 30 and 50 SPF. These are small enough to pack if flying!!! And remember to buy lots f you are going to the Caribbean, that sun can be brutal!
They also have aloe gel in case you get a sunburn…
Medications
You can build an entire and fantastic first-aid kit from the Dollar Tree!!! There are band-aids galore, first-aid cream, antiseptics, etc. And small bottles of every oral medication you can think of… acetaminophen, ibuprofen, cold medicine, allergy medicine, stomach medicine, antiacids… you get the picture. Don’t go to the drug store for these when you can save serious bucks here!
I like to get one of the large 7-day pill boxes and fill one box with each medication labeled so I don’t forget what’s in each one. This is easier than carrying seven different bottles along. I also recommend getting cough drops, etc as these items can be very expensive on the ship! Trust me, I found this out the hard way…
This is also a great place to get hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes!!!
Organizational Items
You have a small cabin and lots of stuff… so you may want a few organizational items to make the most of your small space. I like to get pop-up hampers or laundry bags for our dirty clothes. Clothespins for hanging wet swimsuits on the shower line. Towel clips for your beach towel. And many more useful items for $1.
PS – these little mesh lingerie bags are perfect for collecting seashells! You can put them in the bag and rinse the sand off of them and they will dry quickly!
And don’t forget your quart and gallon sized zip-lock bags! Thes have a multitude of uses!!!
Packing items
If you are flying you will need to have all of your liquids fit the TSA rules. You can find small plastic bottles that are perfect for this. We also like to but shower caps which are 8 for $1. Why shower caps you ask? Well to put over your shoes to keep the dirty shoes separated from the clean clothes.
BAGS!
There are so many amazing bags here! They have tote bags perfect for going to the beach, small purse-style bags that have a long strap that can go across your body to take into port and cute reusable shopping bags. We buy this shopping bags for making our room steward a gift bag and always pack one in case we get a bit carried away while shopping in port…
Lights in all shapes and sizes…
If you have an interior cabin, they are pitch black at night! Soo you may want a night light. You can find the traditional plug-in style…
Or these battery operated tea lights that put off a small amount of light and don’t take up one of your valuable plugs…
And finally, glow sticks. Crack one each night for light OR grab a few if your ship will be having a glow party or white night!!!
Cups
If you are like me, I like to bring my own cup as I drink a LOT of water and those little bitty cups provided just don’t cut it for me. Dollar Tree has a wide variety of cups that work great for cold drinks or thermals for coffee.
Flip-Flops
Now, these are not available all year long, but if you are cruising in the Spring or Summer, you can grab some flippy flops for $1. And they have a wide variety to choose from!
Keep in Touch
If you are not on a ship that has an app where you can connect with your shipmates, or you just decide to go offline, you still need to communicate. You can pick up magnetic dry erase boards and markers, post-it notes, Sharpie markers and highlighters.
Door Decorations
The seasonal area at the front of the store has some great items for making inexpensive door decorations. In the summer there are great beach-themed items, red, white & blue for Fourth of July, etc. We like to cruise on Easter week since the kids are out of school so we create Easter-themed decorations. This is a great idea for any time of the year. There are always themed items in this area.
Sunglasses!!!
Where else can you get a pair of sunglasses for $1??? And these aren’t crap either. There are some good looking glasses here! Especially for kids, they have some really cute ones. AND they have these fantastic straps that connect to the arms of your glasses so you can hang them around your neck! Genious for kids!!!
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Thanks,
Alisa
EECC Travels
16 Responses
Going on our first cruise in December! Will be using these ideas for the trip!
Hope you have a wonderful first cruise!
We are going on our first cruise next April on a Western Caribbean Cruise and will be flying to Orlando. So I will be doing some shopping at Dollar Tree.
A first cruise is so exciting!!! Hope you have a wonderful time!
Our first cruise in May with our best friends. Can’t wait. I appreciate all you first trip tips and dollar tree items. Thank you so much.
PS we also live in Louisiana. (Shreveport).
I was excited to see you guys are from Louisiana. We are NOLA people but transferred over to Houston a few years ago. I’m so happy we found your videos and your site. We have been on several cruises before but you have tips I would have never thought of!
Hey Traci! We love NOLA and go a few times a year just to eat! There is just something special about the food there… it is just better than Alexandria! I am glad you found us. We just love cruising!!
hi alias we are going on the breeze for our first time cruise in October thank you so much for all the info big help. you guys are pretty cool.
Thanks Rick! I hope you have a wonderful first cruise!! The Breeze is a beautiful ship so you chose well for your first one 😉
We have watched a lot of your cruise tips, packing videos. Our first cruise was awesome thanks to them. We have been on several since, and refer back to the videos every time. My husband said y’all need to join us on our next cruise out of Baltimore late March of 2020.
I however just wanted to thank y’all for all the tips!
Thank You so much for the great tips and we will be using them on our first cruise to the Bahamas . I’m a travel agent too and my family have been following your videos and posts and my daughter says that your family and ours is identical in so many ways. lol. Maybe one day we will all meet on a cruise. Thank You again for sharing.
Leann King from Missouri
I just found this site last night and was up pretty late. We are going on our 4th cruise next week and I really appreciate your insight and tips. I have thought of some of the tips your shared, but have never compiled an organized list, which I love that you have done this for us! Thank you. I really like the idea of the gift bag for the room steward. It actually worked out that the dining room server we had on our first cruise in 2015 will be on our cruise next week. That was a huge reason for booking this particular cruise. He was phenomenal! When would you give the steward the goody bag? The first day? or at the end? I kind of think if given the first day, it would evoke a better relationship and experience for us and let him know that we do appreciate him. I know they work very hard and we have had exceptional room stewards and not so excellent ones and it did make a difference in our overall experience. So, we do want to treat the staff exceptionally well. I also have a question about extra tipping our particular service members at the end of the cruise. What is a typical or customary low, mid and high range tip amount. I have never been schooled on this and want to do right by them and not insult them. (if that makes sense). Thank you again for your time you put into these videos and tips for future cruisers. The first cruise was very intimidating, and I have been creating a cruise list/box for the items I know we will need/want. I do have another tip… We learned this the first cruise; at the Dive-In Movies, they have complimentary popcorn. The salt in the shakers on deck have moisture in them and it doesn’t come out well for flavoring the very unflavored popcorn. My daughter and I are popcorn lovers, especially with a good movie. We use a butter flavored popcorn salt at home and that is the first thing on our cruise list each year as a necessity not to forget. We have SAVOROL BUTTER FLAVORED POPCORN SEASONING AND MIGHTY POP PREMIUM POPCORN SEASONING SALT. We find these at Sam’s Club or BJ’s membership club or Amazon has it. If you like good tasting popcorn with your movie, you’ll be glad you brought a little shaker of this.
Thanks again for your insight and tips, they are invaluable!
Are all walls on the ships metal? Great idea about magnetic hanging/clips for light weight items:)
Most are metal but not all. I played around with a hook on our last cruise to see where all it would stick… it will most places.
Going on first cruise with my husband in September. Excited! Have enjoyed watching your videos. Y’all should book the cruise too. Carnival Valor September 28th.
We are senior citizens and have been on 4 cruises previously! But…always with our big wonderful family! Not this time…
For our 50th wedding anniversary they surprised us with our 5th cruise! Just us! Kinda nervous but excited! I am headed to the Dollar Tree today after reading your great tips! Thank You!