Cruise passengers told to wipe down 7 key areas in their cabins before unpacking

When you board a cruise, it's natural to want to ditch your bags and head straight to the pool or buffet, and get the holiday started as soon as possible.

However, insiders have suggested that before you head out, you should get settled in your cabin properly. That includes doing a quick sweep of the "high traffic areas" which previous passengers may have been touching, which may not fall into the crew's list of deep cleaning priorities.

Unpacking your bags, getting your bearings and joining the safety drills before the ship sails are all on most people's radars already, but according to industry experts, there are approximately seven items that you may want to sanitise before you can truly settle in.

When sharing their advice on the first things to do when you board a cruise, the team at Cruise Critic explained: "We're not suggesting that your cabin steward isn't doing a proper job at cleaning your room. But a little extra precaution never hurt anyone, and it will just take a few minutes to sanitise (or re-sanitise) certain areas of your cabin."

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The seven "high-traffic areas" in your cabin which you may want to check are the "doorknob, deadbolt, TV remote, light switches, bathroom faucets, thermostat, safe keypad", as well as other items you think might have been picked up a lot by previous passengers. (We know, it's not nice to think someone else has been in the room before you but of course that's the reality!). The experts added: "If you want to go the extra mile, rewash the bar glasses if your cabin has them."

Before the ship sails off, you may also want to check your phone, or you may end up facing some hefty bills when you get home. In fact, there's a costly mistake which quite a lot of passengers make with their phones onboard the ship.

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You may not be getting any signal at sea, but that doesn't mean that data roaming charges won't apply. Most people assume that because they are unable to connect to the internet unless they opt for a cruise line's Wi-Fi package, then their phone won't be incurring data charges. However, even at sea your phone may intermittently connect to maritime networks and satellites - and you'll be hit with the fees that come alongside this.

Opting for a Wi-Fi package can be an easy way to avoid these types of costs, but of course these can be quite expensive. If you're sticking to a budget or you're quite happy to ditch your social media feeds and emails for a few days, then one of the easiest ways to avoid the potentially high costs is to switch off data roaming, or at least put your phone on airplane mode.

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