Idle Friday night thoughts

While I have at least 139 days aboard cruise ships none of my previous ones have totalled more than 21 days so the planning for this one will have to be a lot more detailed. Things like trying to pack for 49 days and where there is likely to be a variety of weather conditions will mean planning to do some laundry on board - the Grand Princess has coin-operated laundries on the ship and they will likely offer a bag full at a set price.

Also unlike NCL where I have top Platinum rewards levels I only have two short cruises on Princess - a seven day to Alaska and a five day Pacific coastal so very few on board perks.

I have only set foot in South American once before and that was last year when on my 2nd Panama Canal cruise we stopped at Cartagena, Columbia so my lack of Spanish wasn't much of a factor.

Also on my previous cruises using US $$$ has never been a problem but some of the SA countries  - Brazil and Chile - aren't big fans of the greenback so I will need to figure out having some local currency to use - fortunately living downtown in a big metro area the foreign currency exchanges and major bank branches are close at hand so that should alleviate some of that concern.

A great tool for cruisers is the web site - www.cruisecritic.com - I joined a number of years ago and have almost 6000 posts to my credit - what usually happens is someone on a cruise will start a thread for their cruise and once a few people are on board a meet and greet on the ship is planned - the cruise lines see value in these types of meetings and once about 25 or more people have indicated their participation the organizer contacts the ship and a room or bar is offered for the meet and greet - this is how I have meet several of the people who I cruise with now.

This cruise has a very active thread with some 200 or so people wanting to attend the M & G's and since it is a three part cruise we will have three of them. While we sometimes meet for a sail away drinks most M & G's are held on the first sea day.

Generally among the group will be people who have done some or part of the itinerary previously and thus are a good source of information. That is the case with this cruise - every time i have posed a question I have gotten a good answer.

Well it is just about bed time so it's time to sign off for the evening.

As always Cheers!