My family and I are going on a cruise which will be all sea days. I was wondering what might be some fun games to bring along. The ability to be small/fit in a suitcase without taking up too much room is important for this. A deck of normal playing cards is certainly going but anything else you’d recommend?
Depending on everyone’s sense of humor, Cards Against Humanity might be something you would enjoy.
Exploding Kittens card game.
My family always likes Boggle.
My family has spent hours playing Quiddler and we aren’t even close to being tired of it.
It’s a card game that’s sort of a cross between Scrabble and Uno. You’re dealt a hand of cards with letters, and you use the cards to make words and score points. But before you start making words, there’s a phase of the game where players draw from the deck and attempt to substitute more useful letters for the ones in their hand. Great fun for word nerds.
The only caveat is, you gotta bring a Scrabble-type reference dictionary or something similar, so you can convince your opponents that “xi” is a real word.
I am interested!
(E-Bay link) 3-Spot and L-Game are two of my favorites.
L-Game is a positional game where you try to force your opponent to lose by their hot having a legal move.
3-Spot is an interesting bit of position play and counting. You win if you reach a certain score, unless your opponent has reached a benchmark score, in which case you try to force them to go over the 2nd benchmark score for you to win.
Yahtzee. Five dice, a pad of paper and a pencil.
I used to have (well, maybe still do if I can find it) a pocket chess set. It could also be used for checkers. I likewise have a Travel Scrabble set, which is small enough to pack in a carry-on.
One deck of cards is fine (Gin Rummy, or even Crazy Eights) but two would be better. Double solitaire, contract bridge, then.
Anyway, have a great trip!
Farkle is another dice game to consider.
What about dominos? Too big? Too heavy?
Phase 10. A rummy-type card game that becomes addictive.
And Travel Blokus.
Cribbage board
Mille Bournes
One Night Werewolf. Maybe 20 cards and an app on your phone. It’s Mafia without the need for a player to be moderator.
Does this need an internet connection? The ship charges a lot for that and not sure everyone will have access.
Also my first cruise so not certain how reliable that connection will be.
No. It’s just pre-recorded scenarios based on the cards you use. The narrator voice is awesome.
Catch Phrase is good for a group of 4 or more.
The app game Heads Up is very fun and can entertain a group for hours. You just need one phone with the app, and it can be for all ages.
It’s only two player but Jaipur travels well as the box is about 5x7x1.
Splendor is also great but the box is oversized. You could probably fit the chips and cards into something way smaller or I see travel boxes on Etsy made for just that purpose.
Could be easily disturbed if the sea gets choppy.
There’s a word-guessing phone app that seems popular with teenagers (and maybe others, but I only know teens). You only need one phone for a group of any size. One player holds the phone against their forehead (so everyone else can see it, but that person can’t), and there’s a word on it, and everyone else gives clues. If the person who’s up guesses the word, they flip the phone downwards, and it switches to a new word, and if they give up, they flip the phone upwards. You try to get as many of the words as you can before time runs out, and then pass it off to the next player. It’s not really good as a competition (everyone needs to cooperate for it to work), but it’s fun.
Though I don’t know if it needs Internet access to work, or if it has a bunch of word lists stored on the device.
“Apples to Apples” is essentially the same game, only G-rated. CAH can be hilarious with the right group, but it is very vulgar and NC-17, and isn’t a game that most people would be comfortable playing with their kids, their in-laws, etc.