I'll openly admit it: packing is an art I haven't yet perfected. Oh, I do pretty well on shorter trips (less than a month), but, somehow, when packing for longer trips, small misjudgments in packing get magnified. A lot.
Last year I took too many clothes. There was good reason for it: I was convinced I would become bored wearing the same things over and over again. This strategy worked well in theory, but fell apart in practice. I still wore the same things over and over again, and other things almost not at all. I am not a fashionista, and packing extra didn't change that. I have no trouble wearing the same clothes twice each cruise, and since there's an entirely new set of passengers on the ship every 10 days, and we get free laundry and dry cleaning, I really need just five days worth of clothes. In theory. Like I said, I'm still working on this packing thing.
I'm taking almost the same shoes as last year: 3 pairs of sandals (one dress; one for in port that can be used in the water; one for everyday on the ship) and the sneakers I wear to fly. I am leaving behind a fourth pair of sandals from last year and substituting a pair of closed-toe flats, just in case we do a special meal on board that begins in the galley while it's operating during dinner hours and for which sandals can't be worn. Shoes I have down; five pairs are more than enough for the winter.
Last year I replaced drugstore items as needed at Walgreens or Publix within walking distance of the ship, and so took just enough of those items to get me started. The reality is that prices at Walgreens are almost double what I pay for the same items at home, and, good grief, that's irritating! South Florida is expensive; the area around Port Everglades is particularly so. The stores within walking distance of the world's largest cruise ship port know that they have a very large, very captive audience of cruise ship passengers and crew, not to mention the crew on all the freighters that pass through. Any smugness I'd felt about packing so thoughtfully and efficiently was completely erased by paying such ridiculous prices in Fort Lauderdale. So this year I'm packing going to start by packing a three to four month supply of most toiletries.
Since, on a cruise, we shower from two to four times daily, a three to four month supply of toiletries weighs a lot. In my case, it weighs about 18 pounds. Yikes! The good news is that, in using them up, I'll have space and weight capacity to bring home all the paperwork we inevitably collect over the winter. The bad news is I'll still have to buy a couple of things (a large bottle of mouthwash and nail polish remover) in Fort Lauderdale, and will have to haul all this stuff to the Noordam and back.
So this year: fewer clothes, the same number of shoes, even more toiletries, and, of course, all our snorkel gear and beach toys and a kite and beach bags and a cooler. At least until we weigh the suitcases tomorrow night. And then I might have to modify this strategy. I'm limited to 100 pounds of checked baggage, and all that extra toothpaste, shampoo and moisturizer (not to mention reading glasses, sun glasses, electronics and charging cords) just might have thrown me over.
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| 18 pounds of toiletries in 2.5 gallon bags |
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| My packing room (a spare bedroom) G uses most of the rest of the house as his. |
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| 3 pairs of sunglasses with readers (I 'll lose at least two pairs in the ocean); 2 pairs of reading glasses (because they're never where I need them) and my prescription glasses. (Not to mention 2 pairs of contacts and all the contact lens paraphenalia). What a PITA. Betty Davis was right: "Getting old is not for sissies"! |