Duke | Life's a Game

Last weekend’s Caribbean cruise with my brother and friends left me with some lessons in packing, a boatload (ha ha) of memories, and a few supremely entertaining photos.

For Future Me and anyone else planning and packing for a cruise, here’s a list of items you won’t remember to bring but might turn out to be critical (by some hedonistic criteria):

Water and drinks – Only lemonade and iced tea are provided. If you want anything to drink besides ship tap water without paying exorbitant fees, bring it with you.
Alcohol – Ditto. Carnival allows each person to bring one bottle of wine onto the ship; everything else is confiscated UNLESS you’re sneaky. Contact Robin Tan for tips on how to be sneaky.
Cash – Always good to have. Especially if you like to gamble. (Please gamble responsibly.)
Point-and-shoot camera – Cell phones don’t work on a ship for ordinary people on ordinary budgets, so there’s no reason to carry one around. Bring a dedicated camera for higher-quality memories.
Walkie-talkies – How else are you going to coordinate that 19th group outing to the 24-hour pizza buffet on Lido deck?
Games – There’s always time for games. Too much time.
Speakers – Just in case you want to listen to something besides that old dude singing karaoke.
Gym clothes – You’ll need to work out hard to power through that fourth appetizer at dinner.

On to the photos: The best of the bunch are simply too awesome for public consumption and will be left to the imagination out of respect for the subjects’ careers and dignity, but here are a few solid runners-up.