One month to go. I now have airline reservations (I gave myself a birthday gift of flying first class) and I have been gathering all the "gear" and clothing I have deemed necessary for the trip. I discovered my KTN (Known Traveler Number) had expired and hopefully the renewal will come through before I get to the TSA security line on.
I noticed, that although the cruise brochure brags about the biggest in class cabins, there is no mention of closet space and no indication on the deck plan...
...the cruise brochure comments there is enough room under the bunk for a nineteen inch suitcase. That appears to imply I should plan on living out of my suitcase. The trip is twice as long as our longest trip to Disney and I got by there thanks to having a washer and dryer in our room. The ship board diagram does show a laundry three decks up big enough for a washer and dryer.
One washer and dryer / (180 passengers x ten days) = time to rethink my packing plans
Duluth Trading Company to the rescue with a sale on their Flexipidition travel pants that are comfortable, loaded with pockets, can be washed in th sink and will hang dry overnight, their AKHG travel vest with even more pockets, backpack, and canvas carry-on bag. All of which will substantially reduces the number and bulk of clothing items I will need to take. I was looking askance at the size of my CPAP machine and its accoutrements when I received an text offering a baseball-sized travel CPAP on sale. Of course, even on sale none of this is cheap, but this has me thinking of future adventures. (There is a National Geographic small ship cruise of Morocco and Spain that looks fascinating and I just received a brochure on a similar cruise to Iceland that might be affordable.)
In the meantime, I have slowly been clearing out Mona's closets, making some long postponed changes around the house (walk-in tub/whirlpool, induction cooktop, etc. (According to information I have received, this spate of changes are typical men's grief patterns so I may comment more about that in subsequent blogs.)