A little bit of planning and a whole lot of prep

At one point in our cruising career (because we really do work hard at this!), we never left home without a detailed schedule for every day of our vacation. I could tell G what, where, when, why and how much for nearly every waking moment of a cruise. But in recent years, especially since we’ve started cruising for longer periods of time, we quite often leave home with plans still in progress, or change our minds mid-trip (as proof, I offer two of the past three seasons, which featured major changes made on the fly). While I initially felt conflicted about this, I’ll confess to feeling increasingly ambivalent about planning with each passing year.

This season, for obvious reasons, our planning has been even more sporadic. While we continued to make any fully refundable plans we could, we were hesitant to commit to things non-refundable. We got a bit braver (and more optimistic!) as time went on, but some travel details were locked in just recently and there will be still more plans made along the way. 

We never fully appreciated, until we spent a month in a condo in Hawaii last winter, just how forgiving vacation planning with Princess Cruises is. We keep an ample supply of Future Cruise Deposits (FCDs) on hand, and are able to reserve cruises for basically $100 (usually refundable) per person until final payment dates. With Princess’ Flexible EZ Air, we can even reserve flights with no payment and no commitment until 75 days pre-cruise. Contrast that with a condo stay in Hawaii: our down payment was 30%, flights had to be paid in full at time of booking and everything was non-refundable. For two people who like to change course mid-stream, that was a big (and scary) adjustment to make. 

For our cruises this year, August 1 was our first final payment date, and we were fairly confident by then that, armed with Princess Vacation Protection insurance, we were safe to begin making limited commitments. Though we could have saved about $100 by locking in non-refundable rates for our pre-cruise hotel, this just wasn’t the year for non-refundable, so we made a reservation that is fully refundable until tomorrow. One of the most recent things we’ve done was to book air from Melbourne to Honolulu on January 3. We intended to wait even longer to do that but the fare dropped $300 AUD one day and we decided to commit. And, as I’ve mentioned, we are still leaving home with parts of our plans in flux. C’est la vie (with a nod towards our stops in New Caledonia, which is part of French Polynesia). At least, c’est OUR vie!

So it’s probably easy to see why the details of actual excursion planning in ports took even more of a back seat. We each had a few things we really wanted to do on these cruises, and have some basic plans in place, but, unlike last year, when we had ten port days on every 12-day cruise for five cruises back to back (how did we ever do that, plus fly home and then return in the midst of it?), our pace is a little slower this year, and there will be more time to do research along the way. 

To aid us in that effort, we recently changed our cell phone carrier from AT&T to T-Mobile.  First, their monthly rate was about 1/3 of what we were paying with AT&T, but they also have a fantastic international plan included at no extra cost. We will have unlimited text and data in Australia and New Zealand and $.20 per minute calls, too, but who needs that when we can make phone calls for free over the internet? This will hugely simplify those things which, in the past, have been difficult when traveling internationally for extended periods of time. Maps, Uber, phone calls to excursion operators, bus and ferry schedules, last minute travel research, paying bills and checking on things at home...these will be no more difficult to complete overseas than in the US. It’s a whole new world for us!

To be fair, and give ourselves a little credit, our trip preparation (which is different than trip planning) is a perpetual effort, one that we started as soon as we returned home from Hawaii in March and before we even knew where we might be going. Our passports were due to expire in November, which means that they really weren’t going to be valid for travel after May, so one of the first things we did was renew them. We used the Passport Photo Booth app on our iPhones to take our new photos, and decided one morning on the spur of the moment to do just that, using an off-white wall in the foyer as a backdrop. We didn’t clean ourselves up at all- just took the photos and had them printed at Walgreens- and decided that our passport photos now look like we’ve just completed an overnight flight, which should make immigration checks easy, but slightly embarrassing.

A quick aside here...has anyone else noticed that they wish they now looked as good as the passport photo they hated from just 10 years ago? Please tell me I’m not alone in this. And then I look at the photo on my new passport and imagine that, 10 years from now, I’ll wish I looked that good. It’s really quite disturbing.  If I ever needed proof that time is marching on, my expired passports provide it. 

New passport numbers meant updating that information in our Global Entry and Princess Captains Circle accounts, and that was all completed in April. The replacement items we knew we needed for this year’s cruises, such as the first new over the door shoe rack in 15 years, were purchased by May. As always, I’ve been setting aside things like toiletries and formalwear since we returned home. And, after a bit of research, G solved the WiFi instability issue that plagued us last winter. We now run our furnace, sprinkler system, lights and security system through it; reliability is imperative. 

We switched into dedicated cruise prep mode around the fourth week of September, driven by those to-do lists that guide our preparation efforts every year.¹ Every day was busy and we accomplished quite a few things, but, honestly, it’s been more relaxed than it ever has around here just before a cruise. When I mentioned to G that was likely because we had not undertaken any major projects this summer, he replied, “YOU were the major project this summer!” Point taken.

But relaxed is a good thing, because I’ve been kept fairly busy attending the boys’ sports events. In addition to their beloved basketball, they’ve branched out a bit this year with McGuy playing tackle football and McGee running cross country. I love that they’re developing unique interests but didn’t fully appreciate that it meant that I’d be attending multiple games and meets every week. No matter; I love watching them compete! We squeezed in our traditional farewell dinner at Sweet Tomatoes three full weeks ahead of time, while I was staying with them one weekend in September. Their busy schedules wouldn’t otherwise allow for it, but aren’t I so very fortunate that they still want to make it work?

I predict we’ll be literally seeing eye to eye by the time I return home, 

just further proof of time’s onward march. 

We started getting more ambitious about packing just a couple of weeks ago. Mostly we were trying to determine how many suitcases we’d be taking with us. I put together an itinerary calendar for our cabin wall...

If I mentioned that this cruise season seems short, would you strain a muscle rolling your eyes?

I thought so. 

Never mind. ;-)

...and, while I was doing that, looked up seasonal temperature averages for the ports we’ll be visiting. I think it’s safe to say it will be warmer than it was for us last fall in the Mediterranean (hallelujah!), but we’re still going to see some fairly disparate temps. In general, it will be in the 80sF in Queensland, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji, the 70s in Sydney and the North Island of New Zealand, and the 60s further south, with temps warming from our arrival in October to our departure in January. We’ll leave behind a few pieces of cold weather clothes we packed last year and add in a few more quick-dry shorts and Ts, which will be perfect for our stay in Hawaii, where our access to a washer and dryer will be more limited this year.

While Delta, our carrier from home to Sydney, allows each coach class passenger to check two bags for free, Jetstar, which we’ll be flying from Melbourne to Honolulu, is not so lenient. They charge by weight (the luggage, not the passengers, thank God), and so we’ve decided to check just three bags between us. As a result, we’re leaving behind some beach toys and scuba fins and wetsuits, but I am squeezing in my own mask and snorkel. After all, it’s the Great Barrier Reef; hopefully, there will be at least one opportunity to stick my head underwater!  And so far we’ve managed to keep in both Swimways Papasan beach floats. We’ll see if they make it through the final weigh in tonight. 

Fortunately, shopping-wise, cruising out of Sydney is not a bit like cruising out of Papeete. We’re taking just enough toiletries to get us started, and have already scoped out the closest stores to Circular Quay, the transportation hub in Sydney Harbour where the Golden Princess will be berthed. Turnaround days will probably be a mix of sightseeing and re-stocking, and that’s fine with us. We’ve already spent over a week in Sydney in the past, and won’t be feeling the pressure to see and do it all. (Seriously, when have we ever felt the pressure to see and do it all?)

And, finally, I am thrilled to report that there is not one single package of Hebrew National 97% fat free hot dogs remaining in our freezer this year, simply because we never purchased any this summer. We have finally learned that lesson. G ate hot dogs just one time, at a Fourth of July BBQ, and we’ve decided that’s the right way to do it. Enjoy hot dogs once, and only away from home (think of the calories saved if we could just grasp that concept with ice cream!). We have already cleaned out and shut down the refrigerator, and took advantage of its near-empty state on a recent rainy day to clean under and behind it, too. All that’s left for tomorrow morning is to close up the suitcases, shut off the water, turn off some breakers at the box, disconnect the car batteries and set out the last of the trash. 

Fingers crossed for a healthy, and injury- (and shipwreck-) free cruising season that won’t have us ricocheting across the ocean as we did last year. Because one 26 hour travel day will be quite enough!

Life is good. :-)

¹ A partial list of cruise prep to do's:

• Notify credit card companies and bank (for ATM card) that we’ll be out of the country.
• Verify all credit card and ATM card PIN numbers.
• Change auto insurance to comprehensive coverage only.
• Calculate and mail estimated tax payment for Q4 (despite my accounting background, I abhor doing taxes and hate this one with a passion!).
• Kiss and make up after arguing while doing taxes. 
• Vacuum and wipe out all furnace ducts and vent covers.
• Start up furnace and pray.
• Shut off gas fireplace.
• Turn gas fireplace on again, because it got damn cold outside.
• Shut off gas fireplace again. 
• Print Christmas card mailing labels for us and Mom.
• Put Christmas card in envelopes and give to Martha to mail in December.
• Print hard copies of all reservations- flights, hotels, excursions and cruise (including cruise invoices showing On Board Credits)- because I don’t quite trust the electronic confirmations and tickets on our iDevices. 
• Change all online financial passwords.
• Backup laptops onto hard drives and take hard drives to safe deposit box. 
• Take valuable and sentimental jewelry to safe deposit box and promise myself that next summer I really will wear it (I do this every. single. year. but never follow through).
• Get passports and Australian currency left over from 2006 Transpacific cruise from safe deposit box.
• Dig out scuba certification cards just in case we decide to scuba dive
• Clean up perennial beds in yard.
• Saw down tree in yard that looks like it might fall down while we are away.
• Honor every Garbage Day Eve by purging yard and basement and garage trash.
• Clean house completely about a week before leaving and do a light touch up after the suitcases are packed.
• Scrub garbage disposal well to eliminate odors while away. 
• Really well. 
• Dispose of vacuum cleaner bags in upstairs and downstairs canister vacs. Clean their filters. Replace with new bags. 
• Clean out bag-less rechargeable vacuum.
• Lubricate and empty shredder.
• Fill up cars and put gas stabilizer in tanks.
• Clean the deck.
• Bring suitcases up from basement and open them on deck to air out. Vacuum still more sand out of them, leftover from beautiful beaches of cruise seasons past.
• Reminisce together about all those beautiful beaches of cruise seasons past. 
• Purchase and mail all Q4 birthday cards early, because of course I did. 
• Tweak security system. Test iPhone apps that control furnace, security webcams and lights. 
• Update all apps and operating system on iDevices.
• Foster house plants out to friends.
• Leave laptops and household keys with friends. 
• Give mail key and storage tub to friends.
• Distribute cruise calendar to friends and family. 
• Promise neighbors they will be the first to know if we unexpectedly return home early.
• Apologize again for stirring up the neighborhood when we did just that last year. 
• Really promise. 
• Finally, work on cruise beautification efforts, including hair cut, hair color, give self a mani/pedi and apply Sally Hansen Nail Strips in Frock Star (because it is nice to know that some things just never, ever change!).
• Unplug all unneccessary lights and appliances.
• Watch as much football as time allows, trying to get our fix before we leave.