I, like many of my fellow cruisers who are up in our years, where hearing aids. I have discovered that this does impact both how I pack and my activities on board. For example, a number of excursions provide receivers to hear the tour guide, along with a cheap earbud to put in your ear. Since I wear hearing aids, I need to consider how I can best use these devices. Likewise, anyone uses hearing aids knows that they must carry extra supplies with them. Over the course of many cruises I have put together my “hearing aid kit”. This is nothing fancy – I use a box that I received with my hearing aids to store everything. It does make my life easier to have what I need in a single location. The items you carry will depend on the type of hearing aids you use. I wear a Receiver in Canal (RIC) hearing aid which has the main hearing aid behind the ear in a small electrical receiver in the year. If you wear a hearing aid that is entirely in the ear, you may need to adjust your kit accordingly
In the photograph above, you can see what I carry in my kit. I use a simple box, you can use any type of container that can be closed (keep in mind that many of these items are very small). You might consider a jewelry case or even a simple Ziploc bag. My kit contains the following items:
- Extra Batteries. The number batteries you will need to carry is entirely dependent on how much you get from each one. My batteries last me 5-7 days. To be safe, I generally carry one extra set of batteries for every three days of travel. Batteries are cheap and small. For a 7-day cruise, I carry at least 6 extra batteries.
- Wax Guards. My hearing aids have little white wax guards that need to be changed periodically. Normally, I only change them once a month, so I will change them just before the cruise. However, I carry extras in case one falls out (which happened to me when I was changing tips on an airplane) or they may get dirty for other reasons. Again these are small, so they don’t take up much space or weight. Mine come packaged six to a container, so I just pack a full container.
- Additional Tips. The small rubber tips in my hearing aids are very easy to lose. I have even, on occasion, torn one when removing it for cleaning. I actually carry a variety of tips in different sizes, and both open and closed configurations. Normally I wear a 7mm open tip, but have smaller ones that I use when my normal ones irritate my ears (a salty environment can cause such an irritation). I also have closed tips (7mm and 10mm) that I use when I’m in a noisy environment, such as an airplane. My hearing aids are connected to my iPhone, so the closed tips allow me to listen to music or book while blocking outside noise.
- Cleaning Tool. This is a tool that was provided with my hearing aid to facilitate cleaning them. It is basically a small brush with a long needle on the other end. Your hearing aids may have come with a different tool but you should have this with you as you will deftly need to clean your hearing aids while you are on the cruise.
- Pocket Case. I have a small pocket case (similar to an old coin purse) that I carry with me to protect my hearing aids when I take them out of my ear. The only reasons I remove my hearing aids are but I will be in water (e.g., swimming or rain) or when I am using one of my own earbuds. This avoids losing the hearing aid and keeps them clean at the same time.
- Dehumidifier Can. All manufacturers recommend that you store hearing aids in a dehumidifier can when not in use. Make sure to open the battery compartment. While on a cruise, this is especially important as you may be in humid environments and you definitely are in salty environments. Storing your aids in a dehumidifier also provide a location where you know you can find them (I have a bad habit of misplacing my aids when taking the out of my ears).
- Custom Ear Plugs. Before I wore hearing aids, my audiologists made a set of custom earplugs. I have found these to be extremely necessary when I am in loud environments, such as theaters or music venues. Unfortunately my hearing aids do not reduce the sound and is not always convenient to change the tip to honor my sound reduction tips.
- Audiologist Contact Card. Since I never know when I might need support, I carry the business card for my audiologist. In case of an emergency, I know hot to contact her.
- Storage box. In concert with my philosophy that items should be packed so they can be found, all this is packed in a storage box which packs easily into my bags. This box is no more than the sturdy packaging that my hearing aids came in. I find that this is sufficient. I pack this box in my carry-on bags.
- Comfortable Earbuds (optional). I find that the headsets provided by the excursion operator are very uncomfortable. I carry my own headset which fit my ears. Unfortunately, to use these I must remove my hearing aid. If it is not easy to remove your hearing aid, consider getting a compact over the ear headset. I have tried these and they seem to work very well.
Notify the cruise line that you have a hearing disability. Also check with the excursion desk when booking excursion to see if there special accommodations for you. What you need will be somewhat depend on the severity of your disability. I can hear pretty well without my hearing aids, by know others who cannot function without theirs. Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for assistance.
Since you are traveling in a salty environment which can damage your hearing aid, I highly suggest you stop by your audiologist for a deep cleaning following each cruise. This will prolong the life of your hearing aid. My audiologist provides this service free, but it is worth a small fee to clear the salt from the hearing aid.
If you wear hearing aids, please let me know in the comments section below what you do to make your cruising more comfortable, so I can update my posting and make it more relevant.
