When we booked the Princess World Cruise back in May 2014, January 20, 2016, seemed like a lifetime away. But the weeks, months and almost two years have gone by and we're now down to 43 days to go....
I don't like traveling to a city the day of embarkation, so we're booked at the LAX Hilton for the evening of January 19th. If any luggage is lost, at least there's an extra day to find it.
We've never been to the Far East and we're really looking forward to some of the ports we'll be visiting, e.g., Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore.
We're also making one stop in Mangalore, India. This has been my only pet peeve of the entire preparations so far. We had to get a Visa for Australia - easy peasy - a few clicks on the website, payment of $28 US for the two of us and we've got our Visas. No such luck with India. We don't live in San Francisco, which is the closest city with an Indian Embassy, so we had to use Capitol Visa (1-800-727-8472). Very nice helpful people who answered numerous questions during numerous telephone calls. We had to fill out a 2-page application form, a disclaimer form, provide new Visa photos ($17 pp), copy of our driver's licenses, birth certificates and marriage certificate and pay $240 for the Visas, $14.00 for a money order for the consulate fee, $239.00 for Capitol Visa's fee, $38 for Fedex to ship back our passports and $21.24 in miscellaneous fees for a total of $552.24 for a 10-hour stay in India. Granted, the Visa is good for ten years but we have no plans to return to India.
I wish India would adopt Russia's Visa requirements. If you're on a Princess excursion, there's no need for a Visa. If you're planning to visit Russia on your own, then you have to go through Russia's entire process (which, by the way, I started a couple of years back when we were on another cruise) until I figured out the exclusion if we stay with a Princess excursion. So much easier.
Aside from being sure we have all the Visas (Princess will acquire the other Visas necessary during our cruise and charge our onboard account), the really big job has been to determine what I have called "mass quantities" we will need during our 111-day voyage. Mass quantities are toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, dental floss, make-up, body wash, soaps, hair gel, etc., etc. I'm fine with Princess's soaps and shampoos for a couple of weeks, but I must have my creature comforts.
So, earlier in the year, I started marking our various "mass quantities" with the date to see how long each will last. I then made a list of those "mass quantities" and determined how many of each item I will need. This was also very important when it came to medications and vitamins. For example, Michael and I take two Vitamin C capsules a day which means we will need 444 capsules over the course of the cruise. This helps to determine how many bottles I'm going to need.
We've been putting aside all the "mass quantities" and will ship about three boxes down to Michael's brother, who lives in Los Angeles, who will be bringing us to the Pacific Princess on January 20th. Three boxes delivered by UPS is less than the cost of additional luggage and I won't need to worry about "lost luggage" the day of our sailing.
Michael also brought down two suitcases with all our evening clothes to Los Angeles last week and left them at his brother's so I don't have to worry about our "fancy" stuff getting lost the day before we leave. We expect to have one additional large suitcase with daytime and exercise clothing and swimwear and a carry on which will contain my evening and day shoes and dance shoes and some undergarments. Michael suggested many years that my carry-on luggage should contain those items not easily replaced. I've followed his advice for over twenty years.
