After rising at 3am this morning and getting around to catch a 7am flight out of Dulles, we are safe and sound six hours North of San Francisco in the heart of the Redwood Forest area. We both are a little jet lagged and trying to stay awake for another hour or so but we may not make it.
We meet our local guide at 9am tomorrow morning and will spend the day exploring the local area. The weather is supposed to be in the mid 60's with partly cloudy sky so it should be a great day for taking pictures. We definitely will see the Redwoods, and hopefully some sea life and maybe an elk or two. I will post a few of our better pictures tomorrow night.
More to come tomorrow, our best to everyone!
Cheers!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Cabin Assigned and Bags Packed!!
Nine days to flying out to San Francisco, and all is right with the world! We got our cabin assignment the other day (down in the cheap seats =8^0), and we have finished packing our bags. We have three checked bags weighing 44, 44, and 30 pounds respectively, one carry on, and the camera bag.
The bills are on auto pay, the cats have seen the vet, and our granddaughter has been briefed. I think that this will be a very looooonnnnnggggg nine days! We are really excited about this cruise and are looking forward to seeing the islands, Australia, and New Zealand.
We have a very active roll call going with around 30 people and we all feel as though we have known each other for ever. We have private tours booked for most of the ports at prices considerably less than the ships tours.
My next post will most likely be from Eureka California, near the Redwood Forest.
Cheers!
Bill and Sharon
The bills are on auto pay, the cats have seen the vet, and our granddaughter has been briefed. I think that this will be a very looooonnnnnggggg nine days! We are really excited about this cruise and are looking forward to seeing the islands, Australia, and New Zealand.
We have a very active roll call going with around 30 people and we all feel as though we have known each other for ever. We have private tours booked for most of the ports at prices considerably less than the ships tours.
My next post will most likely be from Eureka California, near the Redwood Forest.
Cheers!
Bill and Sharon
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Baggage
We have had a "duh" moment. After weighing our regular bags, we found that typically they weigh around 10.5 pounds each. Then a week ago, the wife noticed my inline skate bag in the trunk of the car, which just happens to be a rolling duffel bag. So I emptied it out and weighed it, and it came in at a svelte 8.3 pounds! That means we can pack another 2 pounds of clothes!! Whoopie!!!
So we got to looking around, and found out we had two additional duffel bags, all of which weigh around 7-8 pounds, and they have become our primary checked luggage bags.
It is looking like we will be able to get by with three checked bags, one carry on bag, plus my camera bag, and still have room left over, yea, yea, yea!!!
So with 12 days to go before we fly out to San Francisco things are getting somewhat frantic, trying to ensure that we have the necessities. We plan on making a last minute shopping run to Ralph's which is right across the street from our hotel in LA to pick up our last minute things for the cruise. We are really getting excited and are really looking forward to seeing Australia and New Zealand.
Cheers!
So we got to looking around, and found out we had two additional duffel bags, all of which weigh around 7-8 pounds, and they have become our primary checked luggage bags.
It is looking like we will be able to get by with three checked bags, one carry on bag, plus my camera bag, and still have room left over, yea, yea, yea!!!
So with 12 days to go before we fly out to San Francisco things are getting somewhat frantic, trying to ensure that we have the necessities. We plan on making a last minute shopping run to Ralph's which is right across the street from our hotel in LA to pick up our last minute things for the cruise. We are really getting excited and are really looking forward to seeing Australia and New Zealand.
Cheers!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Where is my bed?
I came home this afternoon from teaching an inline skate class (thus the forum name "sk8teacher), wandered back to the bedroom and my bed was missing!
It had been replaced by this huge mound of clothes! Given the weight of our bags (right around 10.5 pounds each) that only gives us less than 40 pounds of clothes in each.
So my DW is frantically trying to figure out what to take. Me, I decide that discretion is probably the way to go so I walk across the hall to my home office and flip on my computer.
Not long after I hear a frustrated cry (I recently bought a scale for weighing luggage). What's the matter I ask nicely? "I am up to 85 pounds and I haven't packed my hair stuff, undies, socks, etc."
How are you weighing this stuff? I take a few things on hangers and hook the scale to them.
Now we all know that hangers are not that heavy, and I'm thinking that I know she had a lot of clothes out, but I really didn't think that she had 85 pounds of just clothes.
So off to the bedroom I go, and I say "show me how you are weighing your clothes". So she takes 4 or 5 things (mostly blouses), hooks them up to the scale and shows me the reading, "See it's 45 pounds"!!
Sweetheart (I say in my best, calmest, and most sincere voice), that's 4.5 pounds, not 45 pounds. You know those 5 gallon jugs of water that we have? Those weigh about 41 pounds, these clothes only weigh 4.5 pounds.
OH GOOD she says, NOW I CAN PACK MORE CLOTHES!!!!
Cheers,
It had been replaced by this huge mound of clothes! Given the weight of our bags (right around 10.5 pounds each) that only gives us less than 40 pounds of clothes in each.
So my DW is frantically trying to figure out what to take. Me, I decide that discretion is probably the way to go so I walk across the hall to my home office and flip on my computer.
Not long after I hear a frustrated cry (I recently bought a scale for weighing luggage). What's the matter I ask nicely? "I am up to 85 pounds and I haven't packed my hair stuff, undies, socks, etc."
How are you weighing this stuff? I take a few things on hangers and hook the scale to them.
Now we all know that hangers are not that heavy, and I'm thinking that I know she had a lot of clothes out, but I really didn't think that she had 85 pounds of just clothes.
So off to the bedroom I go, and I say "show me how you are weighing your clothes". So she takes 4 or 5 things (mostly blouses), hooks them up to the scale and shows me the reading, "See it's 45 pounds"!!
Sweetheart (I say in my best, calmest, and most sincere voice), that's 4.5 pounds, not 45 pounds. You know those 5 gallon jugs of water that we have? Those weigh about 41 pounds, these clothes only weigh 4.5 pounds.
OH GOOD she says, NOW I CAN PACK MORE CLOTHES!!!!
Cheers,
Monday, August 31, 2009
25 Days to go
25 days. Sounds like a long time doesn't it? We are starting to get serious about what we are going to pack, and how many suitcases it will take. We will be gone a total of 70 days, and going from fall temperatures to summer, back to fall and then winter, ACK!
So I figured that this time I would go ahead and buy a scale to weigh our baggage before we leave, and take with us for the return. We had bought some new luggage before our last cruise, and thought that it was fairly light. Well, my new luggage scale came in the mail today and I had to check out our luggage.
ACK! Our three large bags weigh 10.5, 10.3, and 10.3 pounds apiece. So it's bad enough that the airlines restrict you to #50 per bag, but in reality based on our bags weight, we get less than #40 pounds of clothes etc.
And because we are flying US Airways back to DC from LA, we cannot have more than 2 checked bags each because I absolutely refuse to pay $100 (ACK!!) for that third bag.
So now the search is on through our closets trying to find the lightest clothes that we have to help keep the weight down.
The good thing is I was able to convince Sharon to purchase the unlimited laundry package for the cruise. We may have to iron some things along the way, but at least we won't have to spend hours of our vacation in the laundry room. With the unlimited laundry, we can send out stuff daily if we want and it will be back within a couple of days at the most. That should help us cut down on the amount of clothes that we take.
We are pretty excited about our pre-cruise time in Northern CA., as I managed to find a highly recommended guide there that only charges $25 per hour. We have set up an all day private tour with her for the first full day that we are there, encompassing the redwood forest area, the beaches, and maybe even a moose sighting.
That's all for now, as the departure day approaches and we actually do some packing I will let everyone know just how we did.
Cheers!
So I figured that this time I would go ahead and buy a scale to weigh our baggage before we leave, and take with us for the return. We had bought some new luggage before our last cruise, and thought that it was fairly light. Well, my new luggage scale came in the mail today and I had to check out our luggage.
ACK! Our three large bags weigh 10.5, 10.3, and 10.3 pounds apiece. So it's bad enough that the airlines restrict you to #50 per bag, but in reality based on our bags weight, we get less than #40 pounds of clothes etc.
And because we are flying US Airways back to DC from LA, we cannot have more than 2 checked bags each because I absolutely refuse to pay $100 (ACK!!) for that third bag.
So now the search is on through our closets trying to find the lightest clothes that we have to help keep the weight down.
The good thing is I was able to convince Sharon to purchase the unlimited laundry package for the cruise. We may have to iron some things along the way, but at least we won't have to spend hours of our vacation in the laundry room. With the unlimited laundry, we can send out stuff daily if we want and it will be back within a couple of days at the most. That should help us cut down on the amount of clothes that we take.
We are pretty excited about our pre-cruise time in Northern CA., as I managed to find a highly recommended guide there that only charges $25 per hour. We have set up an all day private tour with her for the first full day that we are there, encompassing the redwood forest area, the beaches, and maybe even a moose sighting.
That's all for now, as the departure day approaches and we actually do some packing I will let everyone know just how we did.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Shore Tour Updates
With about six weeks to go, we have finalized more shore tours. All are either private tours or we will be using hop-on hop-off buses, or local transportation.
Added to our growing list we have tours scheduled for Nuka Hiva, Hobart, Moorea, Christchurch, Pago Pago, Suva Fiji, Nuka'alofa, Tonga, Apia Samoa, Napier, another tour on the second day in Bora-Bora, Papeete, and a Blue Mountain Tour in Sydney.
We are still looking for something in Kona, Honolulu, and Hilo but haven't firmed anything up as yet. Any suggestions from folks would be greatly appreciated!! We feel pretty good about our tours cost wise. We are under $100 per port day average for both of us. I think that's quite reasonable personally.
The wife is starting to talk about breaking out the luggage and "pre-packing" to see what we need to take. We are hoping to keep it down to two checked bags plus a carry-on or less if possible.
Cheers!
Added to our growing list we have tours scheduled for Nuka Hiva, Hobart, Moorea, Christchurch, Pago Pago, Suva Fiji, Nuka'alofa, Tonga, Apia Samoa, Napier, another tour on the second day in Bora-Bora, Papeete, and a Blue Mountain Tour in Sydney.
We are still looking for something in Kona, Honolulu, and Hilo but haven't firmed anything up as yet. Any suggestions from folks would be greatly appreciated!! We feel pretty good about our tours cost wise. We are under $100 per port day average for both of us. I think that's quite reasonable personally.
The wife is starting to talk about breaking out the luggage and "pre-packing" to see what we need to take. We are hoping to keep it down to two checked bags plus a carry-on or less if possible.
Cheers!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Just over two months to go!
A lot of folks on the Cruise Critic roll call have been working overtime trying to find private tours to save some money over what Holland America charges. So far we have done quite well, and have found a lot of tours, especially for the islands at much cheaper prices.
To date, Sharon and I have committed to tours on:
Bora Bora
Nuka Hiva
Cairns
Bay of Islands
Tauranga
Hobart
Morea
Christchurch
Pago Pago
Suva Fiji
Nuka alofa, Tonga
Apia Samoa
Dunedin NZ
In addition, we plan on using HoHo buses in Sydney, Aukland, and Brisbane, city buses in Melbourne. In Wellington a few of us will be going out to Zealandia Sanctuary.
There still are a few others working but not definite as yet. Hawaii is the next big port to worry about and I'm not sure just what we are going to do there.
We have however already started looking at what we are going to pack to try and keep baggage down to only three or four bags max. We will see if it really happens!
That's all for now,
Bill and Sharon
To date, Sharon and I have committed to tours on:
Bora Bora
Nuka Hiva
Cairns
Bay of Islands
Tauranga
Hobart
Morea
Christchurch
Pago Pago
Suva Fiji
Nuka alofa, Tonga
Apia Samoa
Dunedin NZ
In addition, we plan on using HoHo buses in Sydney, Aukland, and Brisbane, city buses in Melbourne. In Wellington a few of us will be going out to Zealandia Sanctuary.
There still are a few others working but not definite as yet. Hawaii is the next big port to worry about and I'm not sure just what we are going to do there.
We have however already started looking at what we are going to pack to try and keep baggage down to only three or four bags max. We will see if it really happens!
That's all for now,
Bill and Sharon
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