30 days away! Tips please!

Hi all! My husband and I are setting sail on our first cruise to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in one month. Very excited but a bit overwhelmed making sure I have everything in order before we leave!

Any tips or suggestions when you're about one month away from the cruise? Thanks so much in advance!

Jessica

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I always inventory th clothes I want to bring and see if I need anything else like shorts, shirts, socks et cetera. Also if you have a pet make sure to find a good home beforehand. I completley forgot to find a place for my dog on a 3 week trip to Europe until 3 days before. Luckily I could find a place but you just never know. Also check out deck plans so you feel you know the boat before you board to make the wandering around the first day feel a little easier.

Make a checklist of things to do BEFORE you leave....like call your credit card companies and tell them where you'll be!

Stop the mail and paper.

Pay bills.

Turn off water, if no one will be in the house.

Make sure you have all of the appropriate ID's you'll need!

Be sure you have the necessary documents.

Depending on length of trip make arrangements to pay any bills. We have everything set up to either draft our checking account or charge a credit card. Make sure all incoming money goes to the appropriate account

Seems you'll be sailing on Crown Princess! Love that ship! :)

A good thing to do is check out the Deck Plans now and become familiar with where your cabin and other places you'll be going frequently are located.

Expect to have a WONDERFUL time! :D

LuLu

I leave a "last minute" list taped to my front door the night before we leave. Its the only way that I get any decent sleep the night before vacation. I need to empty my head onto paper to avoid running through my plan all night long. It includes things that need to be done to the house, things we need to bring into the car etc and includes a double document check ( me and my hubby each go through docs).

When we drive to the port I also have a list in the car of what needs to be brought to the ship.

You can also go on your cruise line's website and check out the FAQs. Besides finding out a lot of info about the ship and your cruise, many of them will also give you an idea of things to take and things NOT to take.

As for our to do lists, they often involve getting prescriptions filled, hair cuts, putting in a stop on mail delivery (if you get newspapers, you can stopped that too, but our neighbor will have us collect his and keep until they get back home).

Decide on how you're getting to the airport or port (if you live close). Park one of your cars in the driveway, put lights on timers, decide if you want to turn off your water, toss out perishables in your fridge if you're going to be gone for a long while (not really a problem if you're just going to be gone for a few days, but our last four cruises have been either two-week ones or a week one paired with other travel so we were gone a total of 18 days).

I also give a copy of our itinerary and contact info to that same neighbor and a couple of relatives.

Check carefully all that you will be taking with you.

Be sure to verify flight times and hotels.

Notify credit card and atm card banks about your travel plans.

Have a wonderful time.

Keith

Hi all! My husband and I are setting sail on our first cruise to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in one month. Very excited but a bit overwhelmed making sure I have everything in order before we leave!

 

Any tips or suggestions when you're about one month away from the cruise? Thanks so much in advance!

 

Jessica

 

 

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When you are getting your documents in order, put scanned copies of all vouchers, passes, excursion details, copies of passports, drivers licenses etc onto your phones, laptops if you are taking them, and tablets. If you loose the hard copies, you at least have a way to access them if you need to. A copy of your passport on your electrical devices could be a tremendous help should your passport be lost or stolen.

Put bright reflective duct tape on your luggage. We discovered that when we did this, we spotted them right away when coming off a baggage carousel and when looking through the sea of bags when disembarking.

Get spare batteries for your cameras! If you are in places where flash is not allowed, you can still take photos but that extra processing in the camera really chews through the batteries. We were touring the Vatican and would have been VERY disappointed when our camera battery died half way through.

Also, when taking photos is darker areas without flash, hold the camera as steady as you can. It takes extra time for the camera to adjust the the lower light needed and you don't want a big well lit blur. Also with the pictures you are taking, each evening write down the picture run numbers. While the pics of course will be in order when you get home, it's better to know that pictures 150-287 were on a certain day. You will see so many awesome things, you can forget exactly what you saw where without some reference. You can also take a picture of your Princess Patter port guides as a reference point as well.

Pre-load contact information for your cruise ship, as well as emergency port contacts into your phone. Our last cruise, one traveler missed the ship and the traveler knew exactly who to contact at the port in order to figure out what they needed to do next.

We just came off a 12 day cruise around Italy so I've got tons more tips or things that worked great and things that didn't if you're interested. Also, if you've got any questions, just ask.

Happy Anniversary and Happy Cruising!

Make a checklist of things to do BEFORE you leave....like call your credit card companies and tell them where you'll be!

Stop the mail and paper.

Pay bills.

Turn off water, if no one will be in the house.

Make sure you have all of the appropriate ID's you'll need!

Depending on where you live, I advise that you do not "stop the paper and mail." Better to have a trusted friend or neighbor pick them up than broadcast to delivery persons (who may not be your long term "regular" carrier) that you will be away from home for X days.

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One useful tip I've found here or somewhere else...always put on the first photo taken on a memory card your contact info. I would make a sign with my cell number and email address. If the camera goes missing (assuming whoever finds it can turn it on), they can track you down.

Don't forget that if you're on a ship with self-service laundries (Carnival, Princess, Cunard), there's usually an iron or two in the laundry rooms. You can't take them, of course, as they're attached to the ironing boards, but if you must have ironed clothes...

Before you leave the ship in any port, double check your watch against the ship's time (sometimes the ship isn't always on local time and your cell phone will end up reverting to local time). And always bring the copy of the ship's newsletter which will have the port agent's contact info and always the time to be back on board.

Totally agree on making copies of all documentation. We e-mail them to ourselves so that they are easily available for us, but not for just anyone. We put contact info on our phone.

Take over-the-counter meds. Nothing worse than having an upset stomach or headache in the middle of the night and ship shops closed. You'd have to wait until you could get off and go shopping at the next port. You can usually get most of these in travel-ish sizes at the Dollar Store. Include BAND-AIDS and over the counter cold med.

Zip lock bags. We pack using ALL sizes and we carry a few spare ones. They come in handy.

Take some small bills and put them in the desk drawer to pay the tip to the ones that bring you room service. Saves you scrambling around the cabin, especially if you do like us and have room service bring our coffee as our wake-up call in the mornings.

Take small bills to tip the porters at the port.

Take a few plastic clothes pins. They can be used to hang up a swimsuit or underwear to dry after hand-washing in the sink. They can also be used to secure your towel to the lounge so it isn't flapping in the wind.

Go to the port city a day early to avoid getting delayed by any weather that might cancel or delay a flight. Book a hotel room. Some of the hotels offer free breakfast, shuttle and even park 'n cruise rates. By staying one night you get the park 'n cruise rate. The money you save by not parking at the port pretty much pays for the one-night stay in the hotel and you're rested, no stress to board the ship.

Tape a list on the door you'll be going out as you leave your house. Double check to make sure you have all your documents, last minute toiletries, etc. We know a couple that forget one of their suitcases sitting in their bedroom at home in their haste to get going. We always sit our suitcases, bunched together by the door the night before we leave.

Don't use "his and hers" suitcases; try to split each persons clothing between the two...that way if the airline loses one, you both have a few things instead of one person with all of his or her stuff and the other one with nothing. This happened to me, luckily the airline managed to locate it and deliver to my hotel the morning of sailing. Stressed me out though!

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Going on the Crown Princess? Congrats!! Such a wonderful ship!! You will love it. Enjoy!

Ok, so 30 days out? This is when I start getting my stuff together. I get our suitcases out and start pulling things out of the closet. I try on everything I pack to make sure it fits because we travel in winter and therefore we are packing warm weather clothes that we haven't worn in a while. I mean you want to hope they fit, but you never know!

So My husband and I both have a large roller but for long vacations we cross-pack. Which is the method of some of my stuff going in his and his going in mine. Just in case.

Everything gets washed and then packed after tried on.

This is also when I get my carry on bag and put it with my suitcases so that everything is in a safe place. I put my passports and stuff in there and I add to that bag as I go when I print my documents for the cruise. That way there's no question about where it is.