What To Pack For Your Trip to Carnival

From my friend Fleur and her Carnival Obsession group started on Facebook...do not feel you need to carry EVERYthing on this list (I for one will never take extra feathers, after paying several hundred USD for a costume I am not helping decorate it, that's what I paid the band for!), but make sure anything you see and want/need -- or haven't thought of -- that will ensure a great carnival experience is packed so you are ready to rock and roll as soon as you step off the plane at Piarco!

Things to pack on your Carnival trip

Time to get serious I need to start to get my stuff together for Trinidad Carnival.

Things to pack on your Carnival trip

The Carnival Diva Edition

Make up kit (maybe a little extensive)

Foundations

Translucent Powder

Bronzing Powder

Eye Shadow Base

Concealer

Water Proof Gel Eyeliner

Liner pencils

Eye Shadows 

Powder Blushes

Lipstick Color

Lip Liner Pencil

Lip Gloss

False Eyelashes (bring the drama)

Eyelash Adhesive

Eyelash curler

Concealer brush

Gems

Spirit gum

Face Glitter

Glitter adhesive (you can use clear eyelash glue Duo is a great brand )

Water proof mascara  

Q-tips

Brush cleaner

Makeup remover

Oil blotting sheets

Toiletries

Shampoo/conditioner

Lotion

Baby oil

Sun block (the strong stuff I don’t care if you black or white)

Epsom salts (to soak your feet after the jammin')

Razors

Shaving cream

Contact lenses paraphernalia

Nail clippers

Nail fill

Body wash

Deodorant

Toothpaste

Sunglasses

Tweezers

Band-Aids

Allergy kit, if needed

Feminine hygiene products

Prescription medicines

Birth control

Condoms

Vitamins

Wet wipes

Health boosters such as Airborne

Hair

Shampoo/conditioner

Weave glue

Wig cap

Head tie

Silk scarf

Boddy pins

Hair ties

Brush

Comb

Gel

Hair products

Mas players list/ Costume repair kit

Glue gun

Glue stick

Safety pins

Velcro tape

Double sided tape

Needle and thread

Mas boots

Innersoles

2/3 pairs Mas tights low rise (dancer tights) 

Extra Sequins and feathers

Capezio Ultra Soft Tights (comes in plus sizes); $10 - $15 at Amazon

Technology Packing List

cell phone

iPod(s) or other player’s

digital camera and memory card

video recorder

laptop, netbook, iPad, kindle...

GPS

For all the above: batteries, chargers, cords!

Unlocked gsm phone

Kodak EasyShare C183 digital camera, available at Walmart.com etc.

Miscellaneous

Maps of the area

Reputable taxi services

Notebook/journal

Guidebooks--buy the best! It's a small investment, compared to the cost of your vacation.

Ziploc bags Use for toiletries, makeup  wet swimsuits,  

Binoculars

***Tickets to the fetes

Feel Free to add

I will add:

an itinerary of where you plan to go morning, noon, and night each day...and an outfit selection plan for each so you know what to pack!

Also, copies of important documents such as passports, licenses, flight itinerary, guesthouse/hotel contact information, and a HARD COPY of contact information for people you plan to link with at the carnival as well as all the contacts in your phone in case the phone is lost or stolen...should email yourself a scanned copy of everything so worst case, if your luggage disappears you still have access to major paperwork!

Let your banks know which country you will be in and what dates BEFORE you leave so that they don't suspect fraud and freeze your account if they see charges racking up in a foreign country all of a sudden!

A memory card for your camera with the MAXIMUM gigabytes of memory!  Don't want to run out of memory far from a computer!

Carnival 2015 updates to the list:

5 Hour Energy (1 or 2 cases)

Gel mask (can be refrigerated or kept in a small cooler of daily ice in your room to sleep with and eliminate puffy eyes if, like me, your eyes get puffy when short on sleep! Not at all sexy for your fete pics and you don't want to be hiding out behind sunglasses 24/7 after your first day of extended Trini-style partying!)

A couple handheld wave-able versions of your nationality's FLAG so you can jump and wave and represent where you are from for carnival!

TRINIDAD CARNIVAL 2015 UPDATE (TAKEN FROM ANGELAPANAMA.COM):
Bug Spray & Sunblock [2015: CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS IS CARRIED BY MOSQUITOES!]
The mosquitos in the Caribbean are trained assassins. They laugh at your mediocre bug spray & then they eat you alive. This is the method that worked for me and Paco and saved us from the usual “eaten alive by flying ninja assassins” scenario:
Step (1) Apply an oil or lotion based bug repellant
Step (2) Apply spray bug repellant [ENSURE IT CONTAINS DEET]
Step (3) Apply Sport SunScreen Spray (sport being the key word)
Step (4) Bug repellent bracelets on the wrist and ankle

Seems extreme, I know. Maybe you are one of the lucky people that mosquitos don’t bother.Even if they don’t bother you, don’t skip the sunblock. I have a friend that never learns and always spends the week after carnival peeling and looking like he has leprosy.

Jouvert
(1) Draw string backpack - Your jouvert band may or may not give you a backpack, come prepared.

(2) Zip lock bag for your important ish. Nothing worse than having to run from the water hose cause you have your cell in your pocket.

(3) Baby oil – gone are the days of having blue skin after jouvert , Cover yourself in baby oil and the paint will fall right off. Now I am not a fan of carrying around open containers of baby oil. I feel like they are bombs waiting to explode all over my ish. So I buy the travel size for each jouvert. I don’t open it until I arrive at the jouvert & then I dump it.