You want to pack as lightly as possible when packing for a cruise. Although cruise ships have shops where you can purchase the small things you may forget, you may still feel uneasy if you forget something when you’re out at sea.

That’s why it’s crucial to be prepared and know what your cruise ship does and doesn’t provide and what you are and aren’t allowed to bring onboard. Many people preparing for a cruise ask themselves: do cruise ships have irons?

If you’re packing for your upcoming cruise and you have this question in mind, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to learn whether or not cruise ships have irons or whether you should add one to your packing list. Moreover, you’ll also learn what other miscellaneous items you should pack for your cruise.

Do Cruise Ships Have Irons?

It may surprise you, but unlike a hotel room, cruise ships do not have irons in guest cabins for passenger use. This is because clothing irons are considered a fire hazard, and many items considered a high fire hazard are not supplied on cruise ships. For this reason, there usually aren’t ironing boards either.

Not only do cruise ships not supply irons, but you aren’t even allowed to bring your own travel iron onboard, no matter how small and portable it is. The same goes for clothes steamers and dryers as far as most cruise lines are concerned.

However, this doesn’t mean that there’s zero chance of you being able to de-wrinkle your clothes during your stay, nor does this mean that there aren’t any irons onboard cruise ships at all.

Do cruise ships have irons? Yes. While passengers aren’t allowed to bring and possess irons in their cabin onboard during a cruise, you may still be able to find an iron onboard.

Ship Laundry Rooms

Some ships have self-service laundry rooms onboard passenger decks for guests’ use. These laundromats have everything you need to clean and treat your clothes – washers, dryers, detergents, and sometimes even irons.

Some of these cruises offer complimentary laundry facilities. In others, you might be subject to a small fee. Cruise lines that offer self-service laundry facilities and irons include:

• Carnival Cruise Line
• Cunard
• Princess Cruises
• Viking Cruises

Housekeeping Steward

If your cruise ship doesn’t have laundry facilities, or if those laundry facilities don’t have irons, all is not lost. Usually, room stewards have access to irons for their housekeeping duties—for example, Norwegian Cruise Line loans guests irons upon request for a limited amount of time. Guests can use these irons in their stateroom or suite.

Most cruise lines also offer a valet service for a fee. This means guests can leave a small bag of dirty clothes that will be sent off to the laundry facilities at the bottom of the ship. The crew will make sure the clothing is returned cleaned and pressed.

Now that you know the answer to whether cruise ships have irons, you may reconsider whether wearing wrinkled clothing on vacation is all that bad. Luckily, you don’t have to resort to wrinkled clothing.

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of tracking down an iron while you’re trying to enjoy your cruise, there are a few alternatives that you may want to consider to ensure that you do nothing but relax during your vacation. Let’s take a look.

How to Keep Your Clothes From Wrinkling on a Cruise Ship

Wrinkled clothes on vacation are the worst, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. There are various ways to prevent wrinkled clothes on a cruise ship that don’t require you to have an iron at all. With these simple tips, you’ll be able to keep your clothes wrinkle-free throughout your trip.

Pack Your Clothes Wisely

The easiest way to avoid wrinkled clothes on your cruise is to avoid bringing clothes that wrinkle easily. Wrinkle-resistant clothing is hassle-free and worry-free.

Various companies offer travel clothing for this purpose, such as REI Co-op and Anatomie. However, you don’t need to choose travel clothing specifically. Instead, focus on the types of fabric you select and lean towards comfortable materials that don’t wrinkle as easily. These fabrics may include:

• Polyester
• Nylon
• Acrylic
• Cotton or linen blends

Pre-prepare Your Clothes

Another way to prevent your clothes from wrinkling on your cruise is to iron or steam them at home beforehand. Make sure your clothes are completely dry before packing if you choose to steam them. You also want to ensure they’re packed correctly so they won’t shift around in your suitcase.

Wrinkle Release Spray

It would be worth packing some wrinkle release spray, which you can use onboard to spray on your clothes. The spray will not just remove the creases, but also have them smelling fresh.

Hang Clothes in the Shower

Another easy way to ensure your clothes are not wrinkled is to hang them in the cabin bathroom while you shower. You can pack some magnetic hooks that will easily stick to the wall.

Consider Your Voyage

When packing your clothes for your cruise, make sure you keep in mind your entire journey. If your cruise’s departing destination is your town of residence, there’s less of a chance that your clothes will wrinkle before your cruise starts.

However, people often must take a flight to their cruise’s departing destination. If this is the case for you, you must keep this in mind when packing. Planes are unforgiving when it comes to luggage, so pack wisely.

Choose a hard-shell suitcase to protect your clothes and other belongings. Another thing to remember is not to overpack and risk wrinkling your clothes. Instead, pack your extra clothes in a carry-on if you need one.

If you can pack all of your clothes in a carry-on, you gain much more control over the state of your clothes and can more effectively prevent them from wrinkling before beginning your cruise.

Read Also: Do Cruise Ships Provide Towels?

Finally, once you make it on board, you should first unpack and hang your clothes in your cabin! You don’t want to ruin all of your hard work by having your clothes wrinkle throughout your cruise.

Recap: Irons and Ironing Boards on Cruise Ships

To recap, while cruise ships may have clothing irons and ironing boards, you won’t find them in your cabin, as irons are a fire hazard. However, you may be able to borrow one from a housekeeper or locate one in your cruise ship’s laundry facility. You can also take advantage of the laundry service offered on the ship.

So, while you should consider your iron one of the things to leave at home before embarking on your cruise, that doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck with wrinkled clothing!

When packing for your first cruise, you might be uncertain about what you can and can’t bring. What is included in your cabin? What is allowed onboard, and what is prohibited? What can you find in the cruise ship’s onboard shops?

One question many first-time cruise passengers have is, do cruise ships provide towels? Towels take up a lot of space in your limited luggage, so you don’t want to pack some just to find that there will be fresh towels in your cabin waiting for you when you embark.

If you’re wondering whether you should pack a towel or gain extra space, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, you’ll learn whether cruise ships provide towels and how you can ensure that you always have a way to dry off during your trip.

Do Cruise Ships Provide Towels?

In general, cruise ships provide all of the towels you need. This means that you don’t only get bath, hand, and face towels for your cabin, but you’ll also be provided with beach towels for both swimming in the pool and swimming on your beach day excursions offshore.

Towels will be handed out to you when embarking on a port if requested. However, you are responsible for bringing the towel back onboard; if you don’t, you may be subject to a towel fee. For example, on a Royal Caribbean cruise, this unreturned towel fee is $25. For Carnival Cruise Line, it’s $24.95.

How Often Do You Get Fresh Towels?

Cruise ships provide you with fresh towels as often as you’d like. You can get fresh towels daily by placing your dirty ones in a pile. The housekeepers will replace them when they clean your room.

The same goes for a beach towel. You can hand in your wet or dirty towels for fresh ones as often as you’d like. However, suppose you want to be environmentally conscious and minimize the amount of laundry that needs to be done on the ship. In that case, you might consider using fewer towels and only seeking replacements when necessary.

Can You Purchase Towels On a Cruise Ship?

Sometimes, it’s nice just to have your own towel. So if you don’t want to grab a new towel every day, the question may not be “do cruise ships provide towels,” but whether or not you can buy a towel on your cruise ship.

For the most part, many cruise ships do sell towels in their shops. Carnival Cruise Line, for example, sells towels for $24.95 USD. The only issue is that the towel you purchase on a cruise ship may not be up to your standard.

If, by chance, your cruise ship does not sell towels, you have other options. One fun idea is to purchase souvenir towels at the different ports your ship stops at, starting with the port of call.

There are several benefits to doing this: You don’t have to worry about packing towels, you get your own towel to use, and you get a fun souvenir to keep!

Other Towel Tips to Know

As mentioned, you must return your beach towels if you bring them ashore on your excursions, or else you may be subject to a towel fee. However, there are a few other essential towel tips to know.

If you do want to save your towel to use again, you’ll want to hang it to dry. However, it is prohibited to hang your towel off of your balcony. Not only will it likely just blow away, but it can also become a fire hazard. Make sure to hang them in your bathroom or cabin.

Chances are you’ll want to hang your towel off your chair while you lounge at the pool. If this is the case, you’ll want to secure it somehow. You can do so with towel clips that will prevent your towel from blowing away.

These clips are a great way to identify your towel, as cruise ship towels are often only one color for everyone, making it easy to lose track of yours.

While towel clips are a great tool to have, they’re mainly used to identify your towel on your lounge chair, not to keep your lounge chair. You don’t want to get too comfortable with towel clips.

Read Also: Cruise Ship Laundry – What You Need to Know

This means that if you plan on being away from your chair for a long time – say, to get lunch – you should remove your towel to allow others to sit. Limited lounge chairs are on the deck, and being a chair hog will not give you a good reputation on your ship.

Conclusion: You Can Leave Your Towel at Home

To conclude, do cruise ships provide towels? Yes, they do. On your cruise, you’ll have access to all the bath towels, washcloths, hand towels, and beach towels you need. You can even bring a beach towel with you on your beach day shore excursion!

So pack light for your cruise vacation, and make sure to use this extra room for souvenirs from the ports you’ll be stopping at!

Packing for a cruise can be stressful, especially when you don’t know what to expect. For example, it’s difficult to gauge how many articles of clothing you should bring, and it can be even more confusing if you’re unfamiliar with how cruise ship laundry works.

Well, you’ve come to the right place to eliminate this confusion. This article explains everything you need to know about cruise ship laundry to help you pack and prepare for your upcoming trip.

Can You Do Laundry on a Cruise Ship?

Many cruise ships have self-service laundry facilities on each deck, including washing machines, dryers, ironing and detergent. Passengers can also use the ship’s valet laundry services for a fee, which includes washing, pressing and dry cleaning. Alternatively, guests can hand wash and dry within their cabin.

Wash and Press Services or Dry Cleaning

The first option is the cruise ship’s wash and press service and dry cleaning. Most cruise ships offer this service for a fee. The prices for this service vary by the cruise line as well as the article of clothing.

How it works is you put your dirty clothes in a laundry bag (that the ship supplies) for housekeeping to take when they clean your stateroom. You can often find the price list for this service hung up in the cabin closet. You should receive your clean clothes either at the end of the day or the next day.

For example, Royal Caribbean charges a fixed price of $34.99 per laundry bag for wash and fold laundry service, allowing you to fit as much as possible into the bag.

The benefit of this service is that you don’t have to spend any time on vacation doing laundry, which is the last thing most people want to be doing.

However, this can be expensive. For example, Carnival Cruise Line charges $5 to wash and press a single shirt. While some cruise lines offer promotional rates if you’re part of their loyalty program, the service is generally quite pricey and best reserved if you have a formal outfit that you need to be pressed.

There can often be unlimited laundry for guests booked in a suite or at one of the highest loyalty levels. World Cruises can also be found to include these services due to the length of the voyage.

Moreover, cruise ships generally do not assume liability for damaged or lost clothing, so you’ll be using these services at your own risk.

Self-Service Laundry

Self-service laundry is a much more affordable option offered by some cruise ships. The laundry facilities on a cruise ship are similar to a laundromat and work the same way.

On some ships, there can be a laundry facility on each deck. Each one will include several washers, dryers, irons, ironing boards and laundry detergent machines.

You’ll usually be charged by the load for these laundry rooms, using change or swiping your room card. For example, on Disney Cruise Line, you just swipe your Key to the World card. However, on higher-end luxury lines, self-service laundry is often complementary. Cunard is one of the cruise lines that offer complimentary laundry service.

You have to be careful when using the self-service laundry facilities as thousands of passengers are onboard and the washing machines are limited.

Try not to leave your clothes unattended too long, and if you are planning on returning once the washing is complete, make sure you return on time. When the self-service laundry rooms are busy, you might find another guest has already taken your wet clothes out of the washer and dumped them on the side.

Handwash Clothes in the Cabin

It might be better to stay away from the often busy laundry rooms onboard and, instead, get hands-on in the cabin. Passengers can use the sink in the room to handwash clothes.

With the sink being small, depending on the ship and type of cabin, using the shower to wash the clothes can also be a good option.

When it comes to drying the clothes in the cabin, cruise lines do not allow clothes to be put out on the balcony to dry. Also, many passengers may be in an inside or ocean-view room. Almost all cruise ships have a retractable clothesline in the shower, meaning the wet clothes can be hung on to dry.

There is even a way to get your clothes wrinkle-free in the cabin. You can look at getting a crease release spray, which won’t only take out the wrinkles, but also have your clothes smelling fresh.

And just in case you were thinking about it, cruise lines don’t allow guests to bring a clothes steamer onboard.

Can You Bring Your Own Laundry Detergent on a Cruise Ship?

Cruise ships do not have any restrictions on small liquids so that you can bring your own laundry detergent/washing powder and fabric softener. This is a great option if you’re allergic to specific detergents.

That said, this is an option if you want to wash only a couple of articles of clothing. It isn’t very efficient if you need to do your entire family’s laundry, and you may be better off using a self-service option.

Can You Bring an Iron on a Cruise?

The last thing to note about cruise ship laundry is that cabins do not come with irons, and you’re prohibited from bringing your own iron or steamer onboard. The reason is that irons are a fire hazard, and cruise ships try to minimize fire hazards as much as possible.

The good news is that some cruise lines offer irons in their laundry rooms, such as Cunard. For others, you can request an iron from guest services or housekeeping.

How to Iron Clothes on a Cruise?

There are several ways to iron clothes on a cruise ship, including using the ship’s valet laundry service, the provided self-service facilities and even your own way in the cabin.

the easiest is to get your clothes perfectly pressed using the ship’s laundry service, which will cost a fee unless you’re on a world cruise. You can leave your clothes with the laundry service card for your stateroom attendant to take away. Ships have dedicated staff at the bottom decks of the vessel, that use large pressing machines.

Another way is using the ship’s self-service facilities, which often include a pull-down ironing board and iron. These rooms are specially built, in case of a fire.

If doing your own clothes washing in the stateroom, you can hang the clothes in the bathroom using magnetic hooks while you take a shower. The steam will help get all those wrinkles out. Another solution is packing anti-crease spray.

Carnival Cruise Line Laundry Services

Each cruise line may offer slightly different options when it comes to cruise ship laundry. Carnival Cruise Line has self-service launderettes and valet service.

The self-service facilities are on each stateroom deck and each room includes two to three washers, two to three dryers and just a single ironing board with iron.

The price for using the self-service laundry is $3.50 per washer load and $3.50 per dryer load. There is also a vending machine where you can purchase detergent and softeners at $2.00 per box.

Carnival’s valet service is available on every ship in the fleet. Guests just need to make sure the clothes are handed in by 9:00 AM to make sure they are returned by 5:00 PM the following day. There is an express option with clothes coming back completed at 5:00 PM on the same day.

Read Also: Are Carnival Cruises All Inclusive?

There can be specials on some sailings depending on the cruise length. For a wash and fold service on the same day, the typical price is $15.00 for one standard bag size of laundry. A press-only service for 12 items can cost $20.00.

It is important to know that the new Excel-class ships, including the Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Jubilee, do not have washers or dryers in the self-service launderettes.

Royal Caribbean Laundry Services

You might be surprised to know that Royal Caribbean does not have any self-service laundry facilities. The cruise line also does not provide any irons.

Instead, passengers will have to use the cruise line’s valet service, which is not included in the price of the cruise. There are special offers when it comes to cruise ship laundry, such as $34.99 for a small bag (provided by Royal Caribbean) of laundry. This will include the clothing being washed and folded.

The price list per item will be found near the provided laundry bag, in the closet. For a wash and press, typical prices start from $1.99 for underwear and socks, $3.40 for t-shirts, all the way to $8.99 for a dress.

Norwegian Cruise Line Laundry Services

NCL doesn’t have any self-service laundry facilities onboard its ships. However, the cruise line does offer a valet service to guests for a fee. This includes washing, ironing and dry cleaning, starting from approximately $1.95 for small things such as underwear and socks all the way up to $20.00 for more important dress clothing.

For guests that are part of Norwegian’s Latitudes loyalty program, the valet service is a lot more beneficial. Gold members will get a 50% discount on one laundry bag (paper laundry bag provided by the cruise line). Platinum, Platinum Plus, and Ambassador members can have a free bag of laundry.

Alternatives to Cruise Ship Laundry

As mentioned, if you don’t want to pay to do your laundry on your cruise, you can also bring your own detergent and wash your clothes in your cabin. However, depending on your cruise length, you may want to pack enough clothes not to worry about laundry.

Many guests tend to overpack for their cruise anyway and don’t wear much of what they pack. If you pack with intention and plan out your outfits for each day, you can spend less time worrying about your clothes and more time enjoying your vacation.

Wrap-Up: Several Options for Cruise Ship Laundry

To recap, here are your options when it comes to cruise ship laundry:

• Wash and press or dry cleaning service
• Self-service laundry
• Washing your clothes in your cabin
• Packing enough in your suitcase not to have to do laundry

The option you choose depends on several factors, such as how light you want to pack for your vacation or whether or not you want to spend time doing laundry. Either way, check with your specific cruise line to ensure you know what laundry services are available to you if you need them.