The Power Strip You Packed Will Get Confiscated at the Gangway

Every major cruise line bans surge protected power strips. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, MSC, Celebrity, and Holland America all pull them at embarkation security. If one is in your bag, it is coming out of your bag.

The reason is fire. A surge protector has a little component inside that absorbs voltage spikes. That same component can overheat and arc. A cabin fire at sea is about the worst thing that can happen on a ship, so the lines do not take chances.

Here is where people get tripped up. They assume a plain power strip is fine because it has no surge protection. Sometimes it is. Often it is not. Royal Caribbean banned all of it in 2024, power strips, extension cords, and multi plug adapters, surge or no surge. Other lines allow a basic non surge strip on a good day and confiscate it on a bad one. That is a coin flip you do not want to run with your only charger.

You do not need the strip anyway. Most modern cabins already have two to four outlets plus USB ports at the desk and the nightstand. Older ships are tighter, but they usually have both an American and a European outlet, so a simple travel adapter with no surge protection turns that second outlet into usable space.

The thing that actually solves this is a small USB charging cube. One wall plug, several USB ports, both USB-C and USB-A. It charges your phones, your watch, and your tablet off a single outlet, and it is permitted on every line I book. No metal oxide anything inside. Nothing to confiscate.

So the plan is short. Leave the surge protector at home. Pack one multi port USB cube. Throw in a travel adapter if your ship is older. That covers a family of four and takes up less room than the strip you were going to bring.

If you are not sure how many outlets your specific cabin has, that is a detail I can check before you sail. If you want help sorting out the little stuff before it becomes a gangway problem, that is literally what we do.

Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Steve