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WC Words of Wisdom Please


mysty
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We will hopefully be taking our first WC ever in 2016 with SS. We would greatly appreciate any helpful tips related to this adventure. For example, what should we include on our packing list that might not be obvious? What issues should we consider that could come up on a WC that would not normally occur on a shorter cruise?

 

In particular, how far in advance do the air arrangements become available?

 

Thanks in advance for your generous attention!

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We would greatly appreciate any helpful tips related to this adventure. For example, what should we include on our packing list that might not be obvious? What issues should we consider that could come up on a WC that would not normally occur on a shorter cruise?

 

Very good suggestion and detail offered by Silver Spectre. While we have never done a World Cruise, we did our longest cruise earlier this year. It was 26 days on the Silver Cloud. Things worked well for us. Previously, our two longest cruises had been 14 and 15 days. Longer can work, but it is not like packing one suitcase and jumping on the airplane.

 

Over the years, I have read many of the details posted by Keith on the Crystal website about his many, many WC trips. One of Keith's key points is to . . . start planning EARLY!! Lots of things to research and consider. Part of it is packing. BUT, you will have lots of various port stops and options to consider for your shore excursions. Personally, I like to read up, ask questions about these many potential. For me, just looking at the cruise excursions options on the ship a few days ahead is not satisfactory for me. I don't like to just walk around the main port for an hour or two. I want to maximize the key, best potentials. Much depends on what each traveler seeks and values.

 

On prescriptions, as one example, you will need to make the proper advance arrangements to insure an adequate supply while being gone so long. Banking, bills, payments, etc.?? For me, I could do the checking of accounts and much of that work on my laptop from the ship using the Internet.

 

On the ship, it is nice that they have options both on the self-serve laundry machines, plus the staff that can do these services so well. The Butlers are a big plus in being very creative and helpful in solving issues that you may have forgotten to consider in advance.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean combo sailing over 26 days that started in Barbados, here is the link below to that live/blog. Lots of great visuals from this amazing Brazil river and these various Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.) that we experienced. Check it out at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 23,881 views for these postings.

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Thanks so much for your input Terry! I am the planner in the family and I started making lists almost as soon as we booked. I know there will be challenges and I wanted to make sure that I researched as many as possible to avoid problems. Appreciate you taking the time to respond.

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While not on Silversea I have taken 7 World Cruises and one partial one.

 

There is now a section on Cruise Critic that is about World Cruises so be sure to check that out as some of this information has already been covered.

 

Clothes. Remember it's a long time on the ship so take more clothing so you don't get bored with what you are wearing. Also, the itinerary will help to drive what you need to bring in terms of the temperature. Makes lists of what you will need. As part of how we do this we look up historical temperature highs and lows in the places we are visiting as input to the type of clothing we might need.

 

Bills. Be sure that you can pay all of your bills automatically and any you can't that you can pay on line. That includes your credit cards.

 

Medicines/Toiletries. Start making lists of what you will need. It's never too early. Figure out how much you use of a product each month (eg., even toothpaste) so you can figure out how much to bring with you. We like to bring enough items so we don't have to waste time in port looking for it also knowing that the products we use might not be available. For over the counter medicines bring items to cover various issues from stomach bugs to colds.

 

Passport. Make sure you have a lot of blank visa pages. Silversea will advise but I would have a good 25 blank visa pages.

 

Ports. Start researching what you might want to do in each port. We don't try to plan something for every port because after awhile it would seem like work so there are ports that we just enjoy on our own or even some that we skip. We look at the entire itinerary and prioritize what we want to do.

 

Airline Tickets. I would purchase them when you are ready to lock them in. We do that sooner rather than later.

 

These are just some initial thoughts.

 

The key though is not to wait till the last few months but to start now.

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My experience and plan, exactly. I have already started the lists: MEDS, in-case MEDS, list of papers to stop and when, talk to the bank, ( the bank mgr should be your new best friend, they come in handy occasionally), inform credit card companies, plan for adequate back up funds in the bank for 4 months, chargers for electronic equipment, power strip, toiletries, clothes, dress codes, etc. as Keith says, you need more clothes than usual due to changing weather conditions, locales and boredom. One thing NOT to worry about is...nobody is really going to keep count of what you wore when and how many times you wore it! We are leaving Sunday for a few weeks. Shipped a bag to Copenhagen so we do not need to carry cruise clothes until we get to the ship. All packed and ready to go yesterday. SS will be shipping 2 bags for you, 1each. That gives you the freedom of 4 or 5 accompanying you without luggage penalty. But look at it this way, if you can afford a WC, luggage fees are not a priority. Hope this is helpful. I am open to queries. You are going to love it!

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WOW! Thanks so much Keith1010! These are awesome suggestions! Looking at historical highs and lows for ports is brilliant! I have edited our packing lists several times since we booked but this suggestion should really help! I really appreciate your taking the time to respond. And I will scoot over to the World Cruising thread! :)

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Thanks duct tape! There are so many household issues to consider. We can have our mail held (for a fee). We will be hiring a house sitter to come in a few times a week to check on things. Debating about turning the water off. The furnace can be set to a vacation setting. Not sure what else needs doing. We have never been away for this length of time. But we are definitely keen on giving it a go. :)

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mysty, I am not sure if you can do this in your area but in the USA what we do is we temporarily forward our mail to our daughter's home so she could go through it if there was something important. We do a temporary move.

 

Since you plan to have a house sitter check on the house this is what we did.. We would have our neighbor go inside our house once a week and run the water and flush toilets and check on things if it got very cold such as drip the faucets. They also ran our cars each week. Some people who don't have their cars run would either disconnect their car battery or put it on one of those devices that keeps it charged.

 

Keith

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Keith,

Car charger is called a "trickle charger ". I just purchased one to try when I go on my next cruise. No one can drive my car as its a six speed, so every time I come back the battery is completely dead.

I did a lot of research before purchase.

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mysty, I am not sure if you can do this in your area but in the USA what we do is we temporarily forward our mail to our daughter's home so she could go through it if there was something important. We do a temporary move.

 

Since you plan to have a house sitter check on the house this is what we did.. We would have our neighbor go inside our house once a week and run the water and flush toilets and check on things if it got very cold such as drip the faucets. They also ran our cars each week. Some people who don't have their cars run would either disconnect their car battery or put it on one of those devices that keeps it charged.

 

Keith

Once again Keith, this is excellent advice! I did not even think about the car! Is it better to leave the water on and have someone check a couple of times a week or should we turn it right off? Mixed messages on the web about this issue so I'm just not sure. As far as the mail issue goes, neither child lives very close to home and I'm not sure if that is an option for us. Something to consider for sure! Thanks so very much Keith!

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Keith,

Car charger is called a "trickle charger ". I just purchased one to try when I go on my next cruise. No one can drive my car as its a six speed, so every time I come back the battery is completely dead.

I did a lot of research before purchase.

Thanks Spinnaker2! I have never heard of a "trickle charger" but it sounds like just the ticket! Are they available from hardware stores or are they a special order item from car dealers? Really appreciate your taking the time to add this gem! :)

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We unplug everything except the refrigerator and freezer even though we have a whole house surge protector. We have lights on timers and we notify the police to do a dark house check. We back up our computer hard drives and put the external drive as well as other valuables in the safe deposit box at the bank. We turn off the water to the washing machine and turn off the propane to the dryer. We also turn off the hot water heater. Better safe than sorry.

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Emtbsam, thanks so much! These are excellent suggestions! We have not left our house unoccupied for this length of time before so I really appreciate your input. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

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mysty

 

if home security is a concern for you you might wish to consider installing some ip cameras. This means that you can view your home live from an app on a mobile phone, ipad or pc and if anyone moves past the camera the image is uploaded to something like photobucket for you to have a glance at once a day. They can also store videos for later study if need be. We have them over our UK homes and they are very reassuring.

 

Jeff

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Hi

 

Our insurance co. Demand that if it is unoccupied for more than 30 days that the temp is cemp above 8 degrees or the system drained. We get a plumber to come the dsy we leave snd return a day before we return. We too have a webcam watching various doors.

 

Joe 90

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Once again Keith, this is excellent advice! I did not even think about the car! Is it better to leave the water on and have someone check a couple of times a week or should we turn it right off? Mixed messages on the web about this issue so I'm just not sure. As far as the mail issue goes, neither child lives very close to home and I'm not sure if that is an option for us. Something to consider for sure! Thanks so very much Keith!

 

You are very welcome.

 

There is no "right" answer to this question. Everyone has a different opinion and if you ask 10 plumbers you will get different answers as well. Before we made our decision the first time around I asked different plumbers, searched the web, and asked some friends who had done world cruises and they all had different approaches.

 

While there is some risk, we prefer to leave our water on.

 

I have gas water heaters and I lower them to vacation mode.

 

I leave the cabinets underneath each of our sinks that are along exterior walls of the home open.

 

We do turn off the water to the washing machine.

 

I have a neighbor flush the toilets also run the water from each sink faucet once per week.

 

For us this works. If it is going to be very cold at night there are two faucets that we have the neighbor drip.

 

On a different note, we do unplug most electrical items including washing machine and dryer. While I have a household surge protector I just think it is wise and many appliances drain electricity anyway even when they are plugged in.

 

We have satellite TV and I cancel that service while we are away (a temporary cancellation with a start and end date).

 

I leave phone service and internet service on.

 

Again, on the water issue ask 100 people and some will turn it off and others leave it on.

 

Keith

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spinnaker2, you are correct. The name of that device is a trickle charger. Thanks for providing this name.

 

Keith

 

 

I recommend you spend a little more and consider a smart rather than a trickle charger. You can leave them connected permanently without fear of damaging the battery or car accessories and indeed less chance of a fire. I use ctek chargers.

 

Some cars are also fitted with odd batteries. My one has two and an Absorbent Glass Mat Battery in the trunk for everything other than the starter.

 

The smart chargers can deal with every battery in every condition and even ressurect desulphated batteries or deeply discharged batteries that would otherwise be dumped and replaced - and bring them back to perfect.

 

http://smartercharger.com/

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Jeff, Joe 90, Keith, you gentlemen are awesome! Thanks so very much for taking the time to respond. Jeff, thanks for the camera suggestion and the smart charger tip. Joe 90 thanks for the insurance stand on an unoccupied house. Keith, thanks so much for the additional details on how to prepare the house to be unattended. I sincerely appreciated your words of wisdom!

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My experience and plan, exactly. I have already started the lists: MEDS, in-case MEDS, list of papers to stop and when, talk to the bank, ( the bank mgr should be your new best friend, they come in handy occasionally), inform credit card companies, plan for adequate back up funds in the bank for 4 months, chargers for electronic equipment, power strip, toiletries, clothes, dress codes, etc. as Keith says, you need more clothes than usual due to changing weather conditions, locales and boredom. One thing NOT to worry about is...nobody is really going to keep count of what you wore when and how many times you wore it! We are leaving Sunday for a few weeks. Shipped a bag to Copenhagen so we do not need to carry cruise clothes until we get to the ship. All packed and ready to go yesterday. SS will be shipping 2 bags for you, 1each. That gives you the freedom of 4 or 5 accompanying you without luggage penalty. But look at it this way, if you can afford a WC, luggage fees are not a priority. Hope this is helpful. I am open to queries. You are going to love it!

Sorry duct tape! For some reason I did not see this post until this morning. I am kind of worried about the clothes issue. We are in a veranda suite and the closet does not look very big. We had lots of room in it for our 2 week cruise a few years ago, but I'm not sure if it will accommodate 4 months worth. I have been making lists like crazy since we book. I read reviews of ports and then edit my clothing list. Ha Ha! Thanks for all your words of wisdom. I really appreciate your input!

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There is enough room in the closet. It may be cramped but it will work. I use a folding shoe bag over the door. It also helps to use a flat basket with a short lip to hold make-up on the station at the foot of the bed. The drawers are fairly useless for that purpose. You get a little sea motion going and the stuff rolling around in the drawer will wake you! If you get pedicures, bring your own color. Touch-ups are better than repeated pedicures, my opinion. I will post as I think of things. Planning is part of the fun.

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There is enough room in the closet. It may be cramped but it will work. I use a folding shoe bag over the door. It also helps to use a flat basket with a short lip to hold make-up on the station at the foot of the bed. The drawers are fairly useless for that purpose. You get a little sea motion going and the stuff rolling around in the drawer will wake you! If you get pedicures, bring your own color. Touch-ups are better than repeated pedicures, my opinion. I will post as I think of things. Planning is part of the fun.

I absolutely agree that planning is part of the fun! Thanks so much for your awesome suggestions! I look forward to more of your very helpful gems! I got some clothes hangers made from recycled paper (very strong but thin) to use because I wasn't sure there would be enough wooden ones in the closet. If I remember correctly, the drawer space in the closet is enough for undies and such but not much else. I am going to pack mostly warm weather clothing with some fleece for colder weather. About 60% warm weather and 40% for cold. Thoughts? Thanks again duct tape!

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