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Planning for a world cruise!


ijkh
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For those of you addicted to World Cruises do you have to renew your passport each time even tho it is not expired just to get enough empty pages? Mine was 3 years from expiring but I had to renew because they require 46 blank pages. Just curious.

 

Who requires 46 blank pages (which is more than the regular US passport even has)? I just looked at my old passport that I used in 2014 - a total of 9 pages (or parts thereof) were used on the WV (and that included the full page China and India visas). Are you doing an overland excursion? I looked at your itinerary and I only saw a handful that might need a visa and/or where you will get your passport stamped. I have stamps from Australia, Vietnam. Singapore, Jordan, India, UK, and the UAE (and they were not all on separate pages).

 

As to haircuts...

 

I usually get my hair cut about once every two months. My original plan was to get my hair cut and get a pedicure in Sydney since I had spent a week there back in the 90s. As it turned out, I did not even see a beauty shop in my wandering around town so I had it done on the ship. My hair style is very basic so she did ok with the haircut although I had to comb it out later the way I like my hair (no stylist ever believes that I want my hair to have the same style I go in with only shorter - hmmm... maybe they don't like my style and are trying to make me more "current":confused:).

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Thanks Keith and Kathy for the hair advice. I like the idea of spending my first 5 weeks on board observing haircuts of officers, etc and approaching them as to who cuts their hair at the salon. I will be needing multiple cuts as I usually have it cut every 5-6 weeks. And like Kathi, even my own haircutter styles it very differently from the way I do it, but making me more current is hopeless!! Just ask my kids.

 

The Roadscholar "documents" tab for this trip, advises 46 blank passport pages, and tells you how to go about getting the new 52 page passport which I did a few months ago. My old passport had almost 3 years until expiration, but only about 6 blank pages. Getting the new "fat" one was pretty easy.

 

I just looked on the Cunard website and finally we are eligible for an "E-visa" for India. When they started the program it was only open to those arriving by air, but has recently been open to 3 cruise ports... YAY!

 

I am posting this in the middle of the night. too excited to sleep! I am leaving in an hour or two for the transpacific cruise on Celebrity from Vancouver to Japan. Once in Japan four of us are touring with a private company for a week or so. This cruise was in place prior to booking the World Cruise or I never would have added the expense and added pestering of my friends for additional doggy babysitting (I have two pups.)

 

As I was packing earlier Kathi's post of "ladies you can get by with a lot fewer clothes" was playing in my head. I am aware that I have to lug everything around Japan for a week. I have only one medium sized (24") suitcase and my purse, but it feels really heavy (tho under the 50 lbs.) Maybe I'm just weak and need to lift more??? ;)

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My friend and I will be doing our first WC on HAL in January. We've had some experience on longer cruises and land/cruise trips. We did 67 days this year around South America and to Antarctica which required clothing for the cold of Antarctica and the heat of the Amazon. We were able to ship two bags each, no size or weight limit, which allowed us both to fly to Fort Lauderdale with only backpacks. We have the same deal on shipping bags for the WC and plan on limiting ourselves to the shipped bags and our backpacks. I limit myself to a tux, a suit, and a blazer with slacks for Gala night clothing. We know from past experience we will not dress up for every Gala night. We'll stock up on OTC meds and toiletries in Fort Lauderdale and those will be carried aboard in plastic bags.

 

This past spring and early summer we did some back to back cruises combined to nothern Europe with a river cruise and some land travel followed by an 18 day cruise back to the states. The trip lasted over 90 days and we managed that with one bag each plus backpacks. Complementary laundry on HAL made that possible.

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  • 2 weeks later...
For those of you addicted to World Cruises do you have to renew your passport each time even tho it is not expired just to get enough empty pages? Mine was 3 years from expiring but I had to renew because they require 46 blank pages. Just curious.

We do it every 2 -3 years .

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  • 2 months later...
So for those who take 5, 10, 15 or more suitcases, what sort of cabin do you have? Where the (expletive deleted) do you put everything if you are confined to a Stateroom rather than a Suite :confused: ?!?

 

We had 8 bags for our 6 mos RTW ... we used duffels that collapse for odd sized things ... including shoes, snorkeling equipment, collapsible storage boxes, over the door hanging shoe caddies, and whatnot to keep us organized. The duffles were easily stored under the bed; as were the two smaller suitcases. Only two oversized bags that did not fit under the bed ... and Oceania stored those for us. Thanks to the storage boxes and whatnot, and thin throw-away hangers for closets, we had no trouble putting everything in the closets and cabinets ... and this was in a standard room, not a suite. We threw out or left behind enough that we came back with 6 bags.

 

Our 6-mos RTW included 200 pounds shipped to/from the ship courtesy of Oceania, so I simply refused to stress over what to take and what to leave behind. For shorter cruises, we don't travel with anywhere near the amount we took on the RTW.

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Our toiletries we pack in boxes.

 

Are the boxes part of the cruise line's unlimited shipping benefit for early bookings? And what do you use inside to prevent breakage? We will be on HAL's Grand Asia next September, and I am considering putting the toiletries in a small rolling bag to be shipped by HAL, rather than boxing them. Not secure enough?

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our "luggage forward' will NOT allow us to ship anything with alcohol, No medications even over the counter, or electronics, so I guess we will mostly be shipping clothes

 

 

"Our" being who? If this is HAL, I guess we spend some time in LA shopping for mouthwash, etc., etc. Looks like I will taking less clothes in our carryon and more medications. But toiletries like makeup, cleanser, moisturizer, etc. can still be shipped?

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Re: packing enough toiletries for a WC. I'd love to bring some of my favorite brands with me from home on the theory that I may not find exactly what I want in our embarkation city, but since we're flying to the port city, aren't I likely to have toothpaste and shampoo oozing from their containers into my neatly packed checked bags? My carry on will be filled with three months worth of our prescription meds, so toiletries would have to go in the checked luggage. Baggage compartments on planes aren't pressurized like the cabin is. Has anyone experienced catastrophic leakage? Or am I borrowing trouble?

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Re: packing enough toiletries for a WC. I'd love to bring some of my favorite brands with me from home on the theory that I may not find exactly what I want in our embarkation city, but since we're flying to the port city, aren't I likely to have toothpaste and shampoo oozing from their containers into my neatly packed checked bags? My carry on will be filled with three months worth of our prescription meds, so toiletries would have to go in the checked luggage. Baggage compartments on planes aren't pressurized like the cabin is. Has anyone experienced catastrophic leakage? Or am I borrowing trouble?

 

What I learned from the wonderful posters on the Caribbean-Cruising Fashonista thread is to take Glad Press N'Seal put a square over the opening of your shampoo/conditioner etc and then screw the top on tight. Last spring we flew to London, Trondheim, Stavanger, Edinburgh and home and nothing leaked or spilled. It can also be used to pack long pendants to keep the chains from tangling. As an extra precaution you can then place the containers in a ziplock bag. I also used it to wrap the wine we were taking for family before I placed them in the wine packs. That way if the bottle does break the press n'seal keeps it more contained in the wine pack. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful time! I'm only a little jealous!:D

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So for those who take 5, 10, 15 or more suitcases, what sort of cabin do you have? Where the (expletive deleted) do you put everything if you are confined to a Stateroom rather than a Suite :confused: ?!?

 

We typically take about 8 to 9 suitcases.

 

We actually keep some clothing in one suitcase under our bed if we are on a world cruise with a lot of different temperatures. We also keep another suitcase under the bed with extra medicines/toiletries, etc.

 

Other then that they will remove all the empty bags and store them for us.

 

Keith

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What I learned from the wonderful posters on the Caribbean-Cruising Fashonista thread is to take Glad Press N'Seal put a square over the opening of your shampoo/conditioner etc and then screw the top on tight. Last spring we flew to London, Trondheim, Stavanger, Edinburgh and home and nothing leaked or spilled. It can also be used to pack long pendants to keep the chains from tangling. As an extra precaution you can then place the containers in a ziplock bag. I also used it to wrap the wine we were taking for family before I placed them in the wine packs. That way if the bottle does break the press n'seal keeps it more contained in the wine pack. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful time! I'm only a little jealous!:D

 

Thanks for the tip about Press N Seal. I'd never heard tell us such a product. Thanks to Deec and Scrapnana for the ziplock suggestion too. Looks like if I seal it up well, I should be ok.

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Re: packing enough toiletries for a WC. I'd love to bring some of my favorite brands with me from home on the theory that I may not find exactly what I want in our embarkation city, but since we're flying to the port city, aren't I likely to have toothpaste and shampoo oozing from their containers into my neatly packed checked bags? My carry on will be filled with three months worth of our prescription meds, so toiletries would have to go in the checked luggage. Baggage compartments on planes aren't pressurized like the cabin is. Has anyone experienced catastrophic leakage? Or am I borrowing trouble?

 

Have not had an issue. But everything that could or be a problem we place in individual zip lock bags ... sometimes even using saran wrap ... then everything goes in bigger zip lock bags. Unless we have an overnight before or after a flight that requires travel size toiletries, we've always put everything in our checked bags.

 

I just checked out the recommended Glad mentioned by H2Omac3 ... will definitely use on our next trip.

Edited by h2so4
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Have not had an issue. But everything that could or be a problem we place in individual zip lock bags ... sometimes even using saran wrap ... then everything goes in bigger zip lock bags. Unless we have an overnight before or after a flight that requires travel size toiletries, we've always put everything in our checked bags.

 

I just checked out the recommended Glad mentioned by H2Omac3 ... will definitely use on our next trip.

 

Just to let you know I used the same squares through out our three week trip. There were 7 different flights, 2 ferry rides and a 5-day tour through Scotland. Plus 6 bottles of wine made it to Norway just fine . . .;p

 

By the way I have thoroughly enjoy both of your blogs! Thank you for letting me tag along!:D

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Just to let you know I used the same squares through out our three week trip. There were 7 different flights, 2 ferry rides and a 5-day tour through Scotland. Plus 6 bottles of wine made it to Norway just fine . . .;p

 

By the way I have thoroughly enjoy both of your blogs! Thank you for letting me tag along!:D

 

Hubby has this on his shopping list for next week! Sounds like a terrific product ... with the side benefit for travel use. Glad you enjoy the blogs.

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Just to let you know I used the same squares through out our three week trip. There were 7 different flights, 2 ferry rides and a 5-day tour through Scotland. Plus 6 bottles of wine made it to Norway just fine . . .;p

 

By the way I have thoroughly enjoy both of your blogs! Thank you for letting me tag along!:D

 

Will definitely be on the look out for those squares. Thanks for letting me know they worked for you. Norway is on our bucket list for a future cruise after we do the WC.

 

So glad you're enjoying RoundTheWorldWriter. Thanks!

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Have not had an issue. But everything that could or be a problem we place in individual zip lock bags ... sometimes even using saran wrap ... then everything goes in bigger zip lock bags. Unless we have an overnight before or after a flight that requires travel size toiletries, we've always put everything in our checked bags.

 

I just checked out the recommended Glad mentioned by H2Omac3 ... will definitely use on our next trip.

 

We use zip lock bags as well. In some cases one but for certain liquids we put items in one bag and then the bag in another one.

 

We put all of our toiletries in one suitcase to keep them from the clothing.

 

We have done this for several world cruises.

 

Keith

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We use zip lock bags as well. In some cases one but for certain liquids we put items in one bag and then the bag in another one.

 

We put all of our toiletries in one suitcase to keep them from the clothing.

 

We have done this for several world cruises.

 

Keith

 

A separate bag for toiletries is probably a luxury we can't afford. We plan on taking only 2 checked bags a piece. Since we're flying business, we get 2 for each of us free. The AA site says a 3rd bag is $150 each way. Kind of a lot to pay for the convenience of our own shampoo.

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A separate bag for toiletries is probably a luxury we can't afford. We plan on taking only 2 checked bags a piece. Since we're flying business, we get 2 for each of us free. The AA site says a 3rd bag is $150 each way. Kind of a lot to pay for the convenience of our own shampoo.

 

Oh I assumed you were doing a full world cruise.

 

Are you on for one segment of a world cruise.

 

I'm used to a full world cruise where the average couple is on board for around 100 days and probably takes six to eight pieces of luggage.

 

Keith

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