Plans are still progressing along, as is the countdown until we leave on this cruise, only 22 days to go before we head out to Los Angeles. We will begin the packing process next week. The packing lists are all completed to capture what we want to try and take, the next step being to assemble all of the items together, and determine what will fit into the one large and one carry-on bag we are each taking.
Seems like there is a lot of electronic stuff on our lists, we need all of the gadgets and gizmos to make the trip more like being at home. At a minimum, we will be taking the following items of the electronic variety.
- DSLR Camera, Lenses, Flash and accessories like battery chargers, remote shutter release, etc
- Sony Waterproof Camera – Stephanie’s new Camera (and charger)
- Old Sony DSC-P1 Digital Camera & Waterproof Housing (and charger)
- HD Video Camera (and charger)
- Ipod for music in the room and on the balcony (yea! no charger!)
- Ipod Speakers – Small compact rechargeable system from I-Home (and charger)
- Ipad – Stephanie’s ebook reader, and of course the charger
- Kindle – My poor man’s ebook reader, and of course the charger
- MacBook Pro Laptop – Main Blogging device for these posts (and charger), plus mouse
- 1 TB Passport portable Hard Drive for video and digital picture back-ups
- Plug Adapters so we can charge multiple items at one time in the cabin, there is only one outlet
- GPS for driving in Hawaii
- And lastly, almost forgot about the two Cell Phones with their chargers.
Looking over the list makes me wonder if we will need another suitcase just for all of the battery chargers. Fortunately, I have been able to modify one of the power cords plugs so that it will fit into several of the separate small chargers that hold the batteries for various devices. One day, maybe there will just be a universal charger that can be used on all electronic devices, that would certainly save space and resources to make them all the same, but not today….
We did find out that you can use the Apple iPhone charger to charge the Kindle, we just need to take the separate USB cords, so that saves us a lot of space (just kidding, the chargers are about an inch square). We could charge them all off of the computer, but that would require a charging schedule to get them all “filled up”.
Now for the list of entertainment items that are not electronic:
- Playing Cards – probably will have them on the ship, but cards seem to be less available than in the past, so we always take one deck with us.
Wow, that’s a short list.
I have gone ahead and modified my “Ultimate” guidebooks that we purchased for the 4 Hawaiian Island stops, physically removing sections from the bound book to minimize the space and weight. I learned this trick while going on European trips, it was really easy with any Rick Steves’ guidebooks, they were easy to “unbind”, probably because they were cheap. The Ultimate guides I have are much better bound, so unfortunately, the first one was sort of experimental, and did not go well. However, when I finally realized I could carefully cut out the required sections with a small pocket knife, the results were better on the next three modifications. Although the section I removed is more intact, maintaining some actual “binding”, there was more overall damage to the outside cover binding. One good thing is that with any of the guide books, I can temporarily reassemble them afterward using a rubber band, and keep them intact for a future trip. No use destroying new books each time, unless they just get too old by the time we re-visit those locations. Overall, this exercise consolidated the four books into one about the size of the thickest one was originally. When you can only visit one or two areas of an island, you certainly don’t need the entire book.
This week we also laminated a couple of copies of our passport. This should work well when we go to any areas where there is the possibility of being in a wet location. It is always recommended to have a copy with you for identification purposes, and to maintain a spare copy in the event the original is lost. Since we are on a ship for the duration of the trip, we won’t have to worry about physically carrying our passports with us as we travel form one location to another, as is the case on a “land” trip.
We cashed in our Princess Visa points for an additional $300 shipboard credits. These mainly came from charging the trip to the Visa, since you get double points for any Princess related charges. We also purchased some Casino Credits, only for the purpose of using them as cash reserves on the trip. Best benefit is that you carry less cash, and get to charge them on the Princess Visa for double points. Since they are not “cash”, it is handled just like any other charge. We may do some additional casino credits as we get closer to the trip, but needed the initial charges to round out the points on Princess Visa that we cashed in for shipboard credit. Now our balance for shipboard credits stands at $850, which will help offset the daily tips and some of the excursions we have reserved. I am sure we will find a way to spend them over the 28 day cruise duration.