Royal Caribbean Just Added This Travel Essential to Its Prohibited Items List

Next time you take a Royal Caribbean cruise, you may want to leave those travel gadgets at home.

Royal Caribbean has quietly added power strips, multi-plug outlets and surge protectors to its “prohibited items” list.

Cruise lines have decided to ban the use of essential travel devices in the passenger cabins of older vessels, which are not equipped to support a larger number of power outlets to charge more than a few devices at a time.

If overloaded, power strips and extension cords may cause damage to the electrical system or create a fire hazard.

However, it’s unclear whether Royal Caribbean is actually enforcing this latest rule, even though the change has caused quite a stir online.

Frequent travelers and large families often find the ban difficult to adapt to. Many older ships don’t have many power outlets or USB ports in the cabin and are limited to one American-style outlet and one European-style outlet, according to The Street.

While many new cruise ships offer more power outlets and charging ports, the ban could prove inconvenient for travelers who bring important travel devices such as phones, razors, cameras, tablets, e-readers, hairdryers and portable chargers.

The current list of prohibited items can be viewed on the Royal Caribbean website here.