If you're reading this blog, that's a great step in the right direction. It has nothing to do with my blog per se, but rather that you're doing you're research. People on this cruise did various levels of research prior to the cruise, almost none to over-the-top. I recommend landing somewhere in the middle but the more the better.
Planning a world cruise is bigger than just the travel, it's "being away" from your life for 4 months. Here's a list of what I did or wish I had done in planning our world cruise. It's in two. parts: the "being away" recommendations and the preparation to travel recommendations. Please note that planning and selecting excursions is in a separate blog scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
Being Away (in no particular order).
Obviously, everyone's living situation is different. These are some things we did that are fairly general regardless of everyone's unique lifestyle:
Internet on the ship is hit or miss. Don't plan on always being able to access accounts, bills or email. If it's critical, have a backup plan.
Pay bills in advance thru April if you can. If you don't know the amount, you can usually make a deposit and simply have a credit balance
Prescription drugs normally only supply up to 90 days. Call your Healthcare provider for a "Travel Exception" to get an extra 30 day supply.
Turn off your water either at the street or with the water company. Even a small leak can do major damage if someone's only checking your house weekly or biweekly.
We left cases of bottled water in the house so if water was needed, there was some available.
Your home owners insurance may require you to have your home checked monthly to maintain coverage. Ours does. Our house sitters sent an email to our agent every time they checked the house
If you don't plan to rent cars in ports, you can suspend collision. It saved us about $40/month. Check with your insurance agent.
Travel preparation:
There are several things I wish I had known and/or would do differently:
We booked through Princess directly. I wouldn't recommend that. Until Princess has dedicated WC trained agents, it's not worth it. Within 30 days of booking, you can switch to a different travel agent of your choice. Costco had GREAT incentives, like a roughly 9% store credit depending on room category. Other agencies also had incentives and provided better assistance with issues. Princess agents were fine for standard issues, they were untrained/clueless with anything unique to a world cruise.
Visas - this year's trip required 3, AUSTRALIA, NZ and Sri Lanka. Australia and NZ have installable apps for an ETA (electronic travel authorization) and sri lanka has a website. The first 2 cost about $30 each. Sri lanka was free. Don't pay Princess's third party to get them for you. Big rip off.
Cruise Critic and Facebook both have pages dedicated to the 2024 and 2025 cruises (as well as most cruises). I highly recommend subscribing to them. You'll hear a lot of complaints and to an extent, they're actually helpful. Ignore the chronic complainers. You'll figure out quickly who they are. Mostly you'll hear good hints and tips.
I recommend trip insurance. We saw at least 2 life flights off the ship and other medical evacuations in port. We also know of 2 people who left the ship for a week (and returned) due to a death in the family. At that time, covid protocols were changing daily as well and you could have been quarantined off the ship. We went with the Travel Guard plan via AIG, the mid-level program, which cost about 5% of the total cruise cost. Well worth it.
Register with the state dept so you get notifications of issues that may impact your excursion choices. The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) is a free service for U.S. citizens and nationals who are traveling or living abroad. STEP allows you to enter information about trips abroad so that the Department of State, via our embassies and consulates, can better assist you in an emergency. Due to unrest in Israel for example, we booked our excursion thru Princess. There were some protests and roads blocked making it difficult to return to the ship on time. If you're on a princess excursion, they won't leave without you.
Make a list of who you want to buy things for and keep track of it. As we purchased gifts, I wrote their name on it (or on a sticky note) and the $ amount spent and took a picture it. I filed the pics in a cruise gift folder on my phone so it was easy to reference. Especially helpful if you're trying to make sure you're equitable between kids or grandkids. (Pics at bottom)
Plan to purchase lots of gifts in Thailand, Malaysia and sri lanka. By far the lowest prices of the entire cruise.
Plan to purchase elephant and camel print shirts and pants to wear on the remainder of the cruise. Quite fun!! But the point is you won't need as many outfits the latter half of the cruise as you'll be rotating in new clothes.
If you'll want logo'd hats, shirts, coats etc with 2024 World Cruise, go to the gift shop immediately. They sell out of normal sizes quickly. If you're XXL when you start the cruise, no rush.
The time changes will be more difficult to manage than you think....especially when we cross the international dateline. Your phone's time may update, it may not. If you're coordinating important meetings with folks back home, have a backup up plan.
You'll be on the cruise for many holidays and events including but not limited to Easter, passover, valentines day, st Patrick's day, superbowl, Mardi gras, Australian Open etc etc etc. Feel free to bring door decorations, football jerseys to wear, beads, and anything else that will make the event more festive for you.
Finally, things you'll WANT or NEED for your cruise are:
multiplug extension cord (no surge protector), there's only 1 outlet in our entire room.
Multi outlet USB charging device
Zip lock bags (we always take some snack food and fruit ashore if the country doesn't have restrictions).
laundry pods and dryer sheets, even if you're elite status. Laundry service takes a solid week.
heavy duty magnets for everything (hanging cloths, important papers etc),
medicine - bring a generous supply of OTC products like anti inflamatories, pain relievers, anti diarriah, decongetents, expectorants and alike. Bring ace bandages, bandaids and any support products like ankle braces if youve needed them in the past. You'll be walking around 15000 steps a day on uneven pavement with people who are contagious with whatever and don't self-isolate. What could go wrong? 😉 Also, the infirmary charges $50 just to take your blood pressure (so bring that if you have hypertension) and they've run out of medicine between ports. A friend of ours even brought a tooth repair kit and I used it when my tooth cracked.
over the door pocket style shoe caddie for storing everything from cosmetics to your medallion at night
Night light
Collapsible laundry bin
Compression packing cubes (trust me on that one)
Extra empty suit case or duffle for souvenirs.
Playing cards/board games
Bring something that reminds you of home, perhaps your favorite coffee mug. I have a Yeti coffee thermos that keeps my morning coffee hot for hours. It also keeps my cold drinks cold. It's also environmentally friendly.
I will update this as I think of more but I'm going to publish this now. Have a great day.
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