We leave on this adventure tomorrow, and we are just about ready to go.
We did our packing last night and were surprised that we got near to our desired weight of 40 pounds per suitcase on the first attempt. My suitcase weighed 39.4 pounds and Stephanie’s suitcase weighed 41.2 pounds. It was not easy, we really had to think about how much clothing we needed. Knowing we have the ability to do laundry for free in the laundromat on the ship really helps, but also takes time and washer/dryer availability.
Any trip that has extreme differences in temperature also adds a level of difficulty to pack for. It will be over 90 degrees in Buenos Aires for the first three days before we head south to colder temperatures. We have to have enough warm weather clothes, i.e. shorts, for the first three days and then transition to colder weather clothes when we head south to Ushuaia to board our ship.
In addition, we needed to pack so that the colder weather clothes were on the bottom, and the warmer weather clothes we need first were on top. We did do some cross packing, mainly trying to cover the first three warm days. If we have an issue with our luggage, hopefully any missing luggage will arrive before we need any of the colder weather clothes. If not, we will have to do some shopping in Ushuaia, but I doubt there will be anything cold weather related available in the stores in Buenos Aires since it is still mid summer.
We know we still need to add a few last minute items to our suitcases, hopefully it will only add a couple of pounds more weight. The reality of our situation on packing is that we take a lot of gear that is not clothing. Mainly, there is equipment for photography, but also the gloves, goggles, and waterproof backpack we need for the expedition cruise added some weight. Since this is a once in a lifetime trip, we just want to capture it as well as we can in photos and videos, so we are taking some extra photo gear on this trip.
We booked this cruise as a “Guaranty” rate for the lowest cabin category, a Nordic 2 (N2) cabin. I have been checking the MyViking website daily to see if we have been assigned a cabin, and this morning, I saw that we had been assigned a cabin. We were both pleasantly surprised to find out it was three cabin classifications better than we had reserved. We were not expecting anything better because we had gotten such a great rate on the initial cabin, so it was really a surprise. We are now in a Deluxe Nordic 2 (DN2) and almost in the middle of the ship, and fairly close to a laundromat. It gives us a few included perks, but many of the perks you normally get for the cabin rate had to be made more than 7 days out from departure, and that date has already passed, so some of the advantages of an earlier booking of that room category are no longer available this close to the trip. Those lost benefits are mainly for the early opening shore excursions and restaurants reservation times. I went online and tried, but there was a message indicating no changes could be made to these reservations this close to the departure date. Oh well, at least the cabin will be a little better, mainly in its location, the size is the same.
Tonight was Mass night, so we got a little bit of a distraction from travel preparation by going to Mass with my mom.
We ate dinner in and just relaxed knowing tomorrow would be a long travel day.