Things I do before I cruise
Do you have any strange habits or rituals that you go through before cruising? I certainly do and here are some of them.
Wash the car
I don’t know why but I always like to wash my car and vacuum out the inside before I go on a cruise. It’s become a ritual. Even our next door neighbour sees me and it prompts her to ask if we are going away again. The answer is usually yes but not always.
Lindsey thinks it’s very strange behaviour. She finds it particularly funny when the local pigeons take revenge on my nice clean car.
Do the online check
As you are no doubt aware most cruise companies now operate an online check in procedure. Its a job for me to do a week or so before we cruise.
At one point, post covid, this was quite stressful however it has now become much easier. . Thankfully the days of uploading covid test results declaring yourself free from coughs and colds have now gone. I guess the biggest decision to make now is whether to upload new photographs or use old ones.
Have you noticed that some cruise lines store your information from previous cruises and others you have to start from scratch each time.
Check the paperwork
This is a very important thing to do and I must do it ten times before every cruise.
First of all check the requirements for the cruise company you are travelling with. Print off any required tickets, boarding passes, luggage labels, health declarations, inoculation information, Visas, ESTA forms ETIAS (coming soon) and of course passports and check the expiry date.
If you are a frequent traveller to the EU from the UK you can only spend 90 days per each calendar year without addition Visa paperwork.
I would advise some of these checks should be made at the time of booking your cruise as obtaining government paperwork can take some time.
Check your insurance.
We have annual insurance. Depending where we plan to travel in the next 12 months we take out different coverage. The places your insurance covers you for are not always very clear. Most standard worldwide insurance excludes the USA & Canada unless otherwise stated. European cover sometimes covers parts of North Africa. Sometimes European cover does not include Spain.
Just be careful you have chosen the correct cover for the places you are visiting.
Another very important thing to check is that you have Cruise Cover included.
If you are buying single trip insurance buy it when you purchase your holiday that way if something unfortunate happens in advance of your cruise you are still covered this is more important if you are paying your cruise off on monthly payments in advance.
Plan your packing.
Do a little research into the possible weather conditions you can expect on your cruise. Unfortunately the weather is never predictable but be sure to cover most possibilities. This will depend on where you are cruising what time of year it is and if there are any dress code requirements on the particular cruise line you are travelling with.
It’s not just formal wear there could be themed nights you would like to get involved with or not it’s your choice. The best place to check for this information is the cruise companies website itself.
If you are flying you need to be aware of the weight restrictions for luggage. On some cruise lines there are restrictions on the number of luggage items you can bring with others there are no restrictions.
When you do your packing it is VERY IMPORTANT to make sure you have the following in your hand luggage:
Tickets/boarding documents
Other relevant paperwork such as insurance
Passports
Medication
My final routine for the morning of a cruise is as follows:- get up, wash and shave, take the Dax (our dog) for a long walk. Come home and cook breakfast, we usually have a treat of a fried breakfast when we go on holiday. Pack up the car with the dogs bits and pieces. Lindsey & and I usually drop the dog off together for his holiday. Come home pack up the car go around the house turning everything off and check the security of the house. In the meantime Lindsey has a list of things that she does so hopefully we get finished at about the same so we can jump into our car and head off to our cruise. Let the holiday begin!
