Mental Packing

I'm less than a week away from my cruise, but instead of doing any "real" packing, I've only been able to accomplish "mental" packing. I can visualize all the things I want to take, but I haven't actually put a single thing in my suitcase. Luckily I still have a few days until crunch time, but I always seem to wait until the last minute. I'm super organized with everything else in life but when it comes to packing - I just wish all of my stuff could be shipped to my destination without ever having to pack it!

Maybe I'll put something in my suitcase tomorrow:)

Overpacking for a Cruise

I have been packing this week for my upcoming cruise (I fly to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow and the ship leaves on Friday) to the Caribbean. As I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, my hope was to not overpack for this trip. I went into the packing process determined that I would succeed.

Well, I'm sad to admit that I failed. Do I really need four pairs of heels (red, black, nude and blue), two pairs of comfortable Sketchers, one pair of water shoes and two pairs of flip flops for a five day cruise? I think not. But somehow, all of these items are tucked inside of my suitcase.

Do I also need three bathing suits, two cover-ups, five pairs of shorts, two pairs of jeans, seven dresses and numerous tops? Just writing these numbers out on this blog makes me uncomfortable. I should go home and lighten the load, but I somehow doubt that will happen. As usual, I will come home next week and realize that I only wore a third of what I packed. I will accept my overpacking once again and will strive to do better next time.

But maybe, just maybe, I will remove a few of the dresses and shoes from my suitcase tonight.

In an effort to be hopeful for my future packing skills, here are links to several sites online that provide tips for packing. Maybe one day I will take their advice!

http://www.ehow.com/how_5189_avoid-overpacking.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Pack-Without-Overpacking

Mary's Upcoming Cruise

Hello!

I'm officially under the 2 week mark from SAIL-AWAY, April 3rd. I'll be going on the Caribbean Princess with my parents and my Aunt Jo Marie. This will be my 9th Princess cruise - how exciting!

 

We're flying to San Juan and then going to St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, St.Lucia and Barbados. Something to know about me... I LOVE sunshine. It is the best feeling in the world to be laying on deck of a cruise ship with beautiful 80 degree weather and a nice breeze. I'm READY! 

Stephanie's Top Five Items to Pack

I will be leaving on my next cruise in a little over a week and I am so incredibly excited. This adventure will be shared with my mom, best pal Jenny, my Aunt Janet and our family friend Cyndi. We will be sailing on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas. Our itinerary is below for your reference:



I am going to start packing this weekend and I will most likely do a post next week that will deal with my ongoing goal to not overpack (a goal that I have yet to achieve). But for now, I wanted to share my "top five items to pack for a cruise" that I simply can't leave home without.

1.) Joy Mangano's My Little Steamer

Royal Caribbean (and most cruise lines) does not allow irons since they areconsidered a fire hazard. Plus, I hate ironing. I am not ashamed to admit that I have not ironed anything in several years. Steaming is my preferred way to remove pesky wrinkles from my clothing. Joy Mangano created a portable/easy to use steamer and it is sold on HSN. This steamer works incredibly well and I absolutely love it. Joy created a "mini" version of the steamer that I also purchased and it is the perfect size to travel with. I take this mini steamer with me on all cruises and it truly is a handy item to have tucked away in your suitcase to steam your pretty dress for formal night!

Edited to add: Based on Mary's recent cruise, she informed me that she took the steamer and filled the water up to the line...and things didn't go very well. My advice for everyone is this: Please only fill the steamer up patricianly with the water. I usually only fill my steamer up to about an inch below the water line in the container. Think of it like filling a pot on the stove to the tip top. You can definitely do it, but when you do, the water is most likely going to boil over. Please steam at your own risk.

2.) Joy Mangano's Pack A Weigh Digital Portable Luggage Scale



I'm not obsessed with HSN. I promise. But, Joy Mangano does sell some handy products on this channel (I especially love her Huggable Hangers). As I alluded to earlier in this post, I have a tendency to overpack. This flaw also means that my luggage can easily go over the various airline weight limits. This portable luggage scale has been a lifesaver, especially when traveling overseas. I highly recommend this handy tool which will help keep you from paying additional fees due to heavy luggage.

3.) Surge Protector



I travel with quite a few items that require a plug-in outlet. These items include my hair dryer, flat iron, curling iron, the My Little Steamer, camera chargers, etc. That's quite a few items for one person...but the cabins are small and I always travel with a friend/family member who will also have a lot of items that they will need to plug-in. I learned early on after my first cruise that RCCL's cabins only have places to plug-in up to four items. That simply won't suffice! I have traveled with a surge protector on every cruise since and this easily solved the problem of not having enough outlets.

4.) Panasonic Lumix Camera



A cruise simply isn't complete without photos to remember the trip by. I realized several years ago that a camera with a 3x optical zoom just wouldn't do. However, I wanted the camera to be small enough to still fit in my purse. My needs were met when I discovered Panasonic's Lumix Camera. It has a powerful 12x optical zoom while still being small enough to easily fit in my purse. It's a compact camera with the power/zoom that is usually only found in much larger cameras.

5.) Address Labels



No, I don't take address labels with me for the purposes of mailing letters (though they will work great for that purpose as well). I was with my family once at the airport and we were all filling out about a dozen of the Delta luggage tags with our names and mailing address to help identify our luggage in the event that it was lost by the airline. We then had to fill out multiple cruise line luggage tags at the port. My mom said, "Wouldn't it be easier if we just had our address labels with us to put on all of these tags instead of handwriting our info over and over?" We made a mental note of this and we began traveling with address labels for every trip since then. It is such a time-saver and I definitely recommend taking address labels with you on your future trips as well.

Until next time, happy sailing!

Welcome!

Welcome to the first entry of our little travel blog! We are happy that you have taken the time to stop by. This blog will feature the musings of two friends that love to cruise the world. Topics will include stories from our various cruise adventures, our unique perspectives on the various cruise lines and cruise/travel tips that we have learned throughout the years.  In addition, you can join in as we plan future cruises and we would love to discuss your upcoming travels as well. We also plan to have other exciting features on this blog that you will learn about in the days to come.

To officially kick things off, here is some background information from your two cruising gals...Mary and Stephanie:

Mary: Hello! I'm super excited to be creating this blog with Stephanie. We have worked together for about 5 years, and it's always fun to share our cruise experiences with each other. Why not create a blog to share with everyone? I've completed 12 cruises and I'm about to go on my 13th in April. My favorite cruise line is Princess (8 total cruises), but I've also sailed Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. I first got into cruising in 1992. I was lucky enough to go on a family vacation to the Caribbean on the Star Princess. At the time, I was in 6th grade. That first cruise was life changing in several ways. First, I decided I wanted to learn Spanish since I met so many people who spoke Spanish. Second, I was determined to become a Cruise Director "when I grew up" - which didn't happen but it was fun researching it for career day. Third, I knew that I wanted to cruise to as many places as possible. Thank you for letting us share our cruise adventures with you here on this blog.

Stephanie: Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie and I am a twenty-something Georgia native. I love to travel and my absolute favorite form of travel is cruising. I have completed 10 cruises (and they were all on Royal Caribbean ships). My first cruise adventure was on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas. This cruise was a high school graduation gift and I traveled with my mom, grandmother, aunts and cousin. It only took this one cruise for me to fall in love with cruising on Royal Caribbean ships. Since that fateful cruise in 2002, our cruise travels have taken us all through the Caribbean, Italy, Greece, Turkey, France, Monaco, Sicily and Egypt. I have two cruises planned this year: the Caribbean in March and Hawaii in September. I will share all of our plans with you in upcoming posts.

For now, welcome to our blog! We are excited about sharing our upcoming cruise plans, adventure recaps and other fun cruise related topics with you.