Well after having little or no rain over the past 80 + days - a very long stretch here on the west coast the weather has finally turned wet and looks to stay that way in the short term.
Why you ask how does this relate to cruising - well as I like to spend a lot of my time out walking and biking I haven`t spend a lot of time working on the details of this cruise so I now have an excuse to stay indoors and work on the finer details of this cruise.
Sure I have the insurance, train and hotel and host of excursions booked but I am thinking more along the lines of what to pack, how much US$$$ to take with me - making sure that my bank and credit card companies as well as my cell provider know I will be far off in some distance ports. Also need to try and figure out just how much local currency I might need in each of the SA Ports - especially Brazil where I am told that US $$$ aren`t that welcomed.
I also need to start to get to know the ship that will be my home for 49 days.
While I have been on the Sun Princess back in 2000 it isn`t the same class of ship as the Grand - I did spend 5 days on the Golden doing a Coastal but that is hardly enough time to get to know a ship.
As one who gets antsy and not able to easily sit down and read a good book I need to figure out how the handle the 4 sea days after we leave Trinidad - not likely to be as much of a problem for the three days at the end as I figure I will be so tired I will just collapse in my cabin and rest up for the train ride home.
I am determined for this trip that my suitcase will be a lot lighter - at least at the start than on my Panama Cruise where even Amtrak said it was over the allowable limit.
Likely will break the cruise into 7 - 10 day intervals and plan for a laundry - either self service or through the ship during each of those periods.
I am going to try and keep it to three pieces of luggage - my very large maximum size main suitcase, a smaller one which will serve two purposes - it will have the heavy clothes that I will need for the train ride across America in the winter and can also we used for the around the Horn portion of the trip.
I will also use it for the dirty clothes and when it comes to laundry time use it to haul back and forth to the self-serve if I go that route.
I could actually start some of the packing now - the cool weather is here so the shorts won`t be needed anymore and my array of Hawaiian themed shirt are usually only worn on cruises so they could go in the suitcase now
My third piece will be my day pack - it will be used initially to carry my array of electronics and perhaps my beer and wine as well and then on port days the tools that I will need for that day.
I currently have friends on a 34 day South Pacific cruise who over dinner the other night sat with someone who has done this cruise and they say I should really enjoy it. Certainly hope they are right.
Which brings me to my next topic - just how to communicate with friends back home - will buy an internet package on the ship but it is slow and might not even be available in some areas. I do need to try and fine either free or low cost internet cafes in the SA Ports - my friends are using the photo site Shutterfly to keep in touch - he has been able to upload photos using the free Wi-Fi at Mcdonalds but I doubt that option is available in the SA Ports.
I do have a dedicated email address that I hope everyone will use when I am travelling that way I won`t waste a lot of time going to a number of my email addresses.
Well it`s just about supper time to time to log off and say have a great weekend.
Cheers
D
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