Our South Pacific Story

I like to take a lot of thin white coat hangers as you never get enough in your stateroom. I just leave them on the ship when we leave. I like to take some battery-powered stick on lights for the inside of closets, the inside of your room safe, and the inside of the bathroom (the light switch is on the outside so you awaken your spouse when you turn on the light at night). Take a small flashlight or head light for emergencies and for looking under the bed. I take at least a dozen plastic clothespins and a good string for a second clothesline (you usually have a clothesline in the shower already). The thin white coat hangers are useful for drying clothes also. You cannot take a clothes iron on a cruise ship; they X-ray the luggage and it will be confiscated. Irons are available in the launderette. Take some stickers or pictures and double-sided tape to decorate your cabin door (seasonal theme or your favorite sports team?). Stateroom cabin walls are metal covered with vinyl. Some really strong magnets are great for hanging papers, clothes to dry, daily activity schedules, and if strong enough for anchoring clothes lines. You always get a cotton bathrobe so you don't need to bring one. You will have a combination room safe. The cruise ship lends you a beach towel to take if you go to a beach. Take good sunscreen and insect repellant and pack them in plastic boxes or Nalgene bottles. Take extra glasses and sunglasses. A copy of your vision prescription has been a Godsend to travelers on several of our trips and could come in handy in some ports such as Hong Kong where glasses are inexpensive. There is a large lending library of books and DVD's on all cruise ships we use. I like to have my insulated travel mug. I rip a lot of videos to my computer with Handbrake to view on my iPad. You move videos on & off of your iPad through iTunes. We like to have downloaded many books to our iPods and Kindles for sea days. In much of the developing world you bring your own toilet paper with you to public toilets so we carry a lot of small packs of tissues. On most cruise ship shore excursions you can leave your backpack on the bus when you get off to visit sites but you should verify this before leaving ship at the shore excursion desk. Susan carries her own dual voltage curling iron. You might swap photos with other travelers by using an SD card or usb stick so carry a few cheap ones. One of the most important things not to forget is to take some photo copies of your passport picture page. Because you use the photocopy of your passport rather than the actual passport (which the ship holds for you) you may still need your driver's license or other government issued ID at some money exchanges etc or if you have marked your credit cards CID. On this cruise we brought our own snorkeling fins, masks, and snorkels and Susan brought an inflatable Mae West life jacket. Extra camera batteries are nice and we bring a small Nalgene bottle from REI of laundry detergent. At some point we will start bringing hair clippers so Susan can keep my hair trimmed. Don’t forget this is a sunny itinerary and you need sunscreen, insect repellant, hats, and bathing suit coverups.

Be sure and take some Band-Aids. Carry medication for a common cold, for gastroenteritis, for cuts & scrapes. Carry several types of antibiotics. I like to have some Augmentin, Cipro, cephazolin, and some doxycycline. Take some handkerchiefs when visiting malaria prevalent areas we choose to take mefloquin but some people have bad dreams on it. We didn’t take it for this cruise but on the island of Tahiti only we took ALL precautions to prevent mosquito bites as Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, and Zika had recently been prevalent with up to ten percent of the island population infected within the past year! We have learned to get medical evaluation of infectious diseases in the area the disease it was acquired as so very many local physicians and pharmacists know exactly what is prevalent in that area and it's treatment. I would rather have invasive or surgical care back in first world countries. Know what your health insurance will cover over seas. We were only in Honolulu and Bora Bora overnight so this advice really didn’t apply on this cruise since usually these diseases have a week or two between inoculation and symptoms. If you become ill after returning home, be sure your physician knows where you have traveled and what diseases are in those areas that are not prevalent where you live. Don’t forget that 100% DEET strongly stains nylon clothing!!! Oceania and Holland America have excellent physicians onboard. Take some laxative as you will be less active on a cruise than at home. Seasickness medication would be a good idea as would cough drops, ear drops, &: eye drops.

On this trip we carried Susan’s D90 camera with Nikon 18-200mm lens, my heavier Nikon D7100 camera with Sigma 18-250mm lens, my waterproof Olympus TG-4 camera, and our iPhones. The iPhones are really good cameras and since they have plastic camera lenses, they don’t fog when going from air conditioned staterooms onto the veranda in warm humid climates. I frequently use my Sigma 10-20mm and take the wide angle shots while Susan takes the normal and zoomed views. Using different lenses give us the chance to capture different views and particularly the 10-20mm lens allows me to capture buildings or rooms in their entirety without having to get too far back from the subject. We certainly do discard more of the wide angle pictures. The 18-200 is good for standing at a distance and capturing shots of people without being so very obvious. We have given up using lens filters as Aperture can simulate any of them. I occasionally use a circular polarizer when at higher latitudes. But on this trip so near the equator we didn’t even consider bringing it although we spoke with travelers who did get some good water shots and near sunup or sundown shots with such a filter. It is becoming very common for people to carry digital SLR cameras and so people around the world are becoming less shy of these but I will say that iPhones are everywhere and people around the world are becoming so used to cell phones that you frequently get better people pictures with your cell phone. In most of the world we use neck or wrist straps but in some parts of the world (particularly Brazil) it is dangerous to use a strap as we have seen several people hurt by the straps when their cameras were stolen. We saw a lady dragged over a city block by a thief in Santarem because she had her camera strap around her wrist. She sustained damage to her wrist. She was lucky that her strap finally broke. We had been warned that camera theft was so common that it was dangerous to use the straps. We carry plastic bags with us for two reasons. When we take our cameras out of air-conditioned rooms in plastic bags and allow them to warm up in the bag, they don't fog up from the outside humidity. The plastic bags come in handy if it rains. We import our pictures daily to Apple Aperture and quickly discard (reject) the out of focus or poorly-exposed ones. Then we next pick the best of any particular shot. Be sure all of your cameras are set to the exact same time to the second. Aperture handles the Nikon Raw files so much more seamlessly than the Photoshop or Lightroom we used to use. The most common adjustment we make in Aperture is white balance. Many light fixtures that in the past were incandescent now have the energy efficient fluorescent bulbs and need white balance changes made. Apple has stopped supporting Aperture and we will convert to Lightroom 6 for our next cruise though sadly.

Both phone service and WiFi are available onboard at a cost. The phone service acts as a roaming service. We have Verizon and we have Verizon activate the SIM card for our iPhones for the countries we visit before we leave the United States. Verizon gives us the rates for the various countries and we keep them in mind. We use texts and I think Verizon's charge is 50 cents each to send and 5 cents to receive when out of the country. We seldom use our phones but carry them with us off the ship for emergency calls and for the cameras and the files we keep on them like our insurance cards, passport copies, driver’s licenses, and travel documents. The cruise lines give you a local number to call their port agent in each port. We seldom turn on our cellular data for foreign roaming. Verizon's texts come through Wi-Fi so logging on to Wi-Fi often gets these texts. We vary as far as how we use the ships Wi-Fi services. You can buy so many minutes through your computer or iPad. We got free internet on this cruise with Nautica as a promotion. On some cruises we make sure we visit coffee houses or McDonalds when we are in port. Cruise ship internet gets better every year. We had very good service on this cruise on Nautica. On our fall 2014 month-long cruise on the Statendam we never used the ship's internet service. I believe we bought 350 minutes total this cruise. On this cruise we carried two MacBooks (laptops), an iPad, and our iPhones. This allowed Susan to type her story and me to edit pictures in Apple Aperture at the same time. Sometimes Susan doesn’t take her MacBook but uses a keyboard to type her story on the iPad. We connected by Wi-Fi with our iPhones on shore but free Wi-Fi is rarely found outside North America. Be sure to bring the chargers you need!

We take only appliances that will run on either voltage and since we are from the US we use small plastic adapters that turn 220v plugs to 110v. I carry a couple splitter cubes. We have seen people have power strips confiscated on cruise ships so don't take them. Holland America was definitely confiscating power strips on this particular cruise. Some plugs only work when the stateroom lights are on or a room key card is in a slot in the room but that wasn’t the case on this cruise. The Nautica and Holland America ships have a shaver 110/220v plug in the bathroom. You don't need to take a voltage converter. Be sure and bring battery chargers for any appliance that needs one. Most modern chargers will run on both 110v & 220v but check before you come. There are hair dryers in Holland America and Oceania ships. On the Amsterdam we had a built in one in the bathroom and a good hand held portable 220v one for use out in the cabin. There is a wake up function for the phone so you don't need an alarm clock. At the makeup desk there is one 110v and one 220v receptacle.

We have special travel socks and underwear such as those by Exofficio or Magellan that we can wash out daily and need very few pairs. These usually dry within a half day if washed in the room, thoroughly rung out, rolled up inside of towels, and hung up to dry in the stateroom. These dry more quickly inside than outside on the veranda. We also have travel shirts and pants (long & short versions of each) that dry this quickly when hand washed in the room. We carry a small Nalgene bottle (from REI) of concentrated washing detergent for this and I pack this Nalgene Bottle inside a waterproof box or Nalgene water bottle to avoid the consequences of a leak in route. There were good laundromat services on the Amsterdam but be advised that these are closed if there is an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the ship. Cruise ships offer laundry services at a charge. We have culled the clothes we take over the years to be those with the most wrinkle resistance and to dry the quickest. In many parts of the world, we really appreciate the secure zipping pockets of our travel clothes (safari type clothing). Don't forget your hat for sun protection. The more years we travel the more we find we can take less and less clothes with us on our trips. Oceania has no formal nights but I find my blue blazer appreciated at times. Holland America has one formal night a week but a suit is fine as very few formal clothes are seen on those nights. Some cruise ships are cold so be warned. Even if you don't plan to swim, take a bathing suit as the hot tubs and saunas are wonderful and you might need to work on your tan.

We like suitcases that will compress enough to keep under the bed so they don't take up room in the stateroom. We often carry a thin gym bag in case we buy items that will require another suitcase on the way home. On every cruise we take there are passengers whose luggage did not arrive on the airline and they are stuck without their luggage. We put a couple changes of clothing in our carry on luggage and we almost always go a day or two early so any tardy luggage has a chance to catch up with us. On the flight to catch our cruise I label each luggage item with our final destination for the flight (hotel name) because luggage could get mixed up on the shuttle from the airport (this has happened). When flying through remote third world airports we often choose to pack our clothes in plastic bags inside our suitcases as we have had our clothes soaked with rain or covered in dust in the past. Susan & I mix our clothes in each other's suitcases in case only one suitcase doesn't make the airline flight. I use Nalgene water bottles and plastic waterproof boxes to pack my fragile or liquid items.

We have found that having a couple hundred dollars each in one and 5-dollar bills (or euros in parts of the world) opens up so many possibilities to get us good service, pay porters, and buy trinkets. We find out immediately upon entering a country how to tip and who. The US dollar is still king. We split up our credit and debit cards so if we are robbed we can continue our trips. One of the most important thing not to forget is to take some photo copies of your passport picture page. Because you use the photocopy of your passport rather than the actual passport (which the ship holds for you) you may still need your driver's license or other government issued ID at some money exchanges etc or if you have marked your credit cards CID. I have records of credit card numbers and the international phone number for the card. We know which ones have foreign transaction fees. Before we leave on our trip we call the credit card company and let them know which days we will be in each country so they will allow the transactions. We still have cards frozen by the banks when we withdraw large amounts out of the country or make large purchases. This problem is easy to resolve by logging in to the card's web page and checking messages. Keep up with your plane tickets and any vouchers you carry with you. In Europe and Japan in particular be sure your credit cards have been upgraded to Smart Cards that carry the computer chip.
On this trip the only foreign currency we needed was Polynesian Francs and New Zealand dollars. Just be sure to exchange them back to dollars at an international airport upon return.

We are good at figuring out and using public transportation and Susan is great at bargaining to get the best rates. In developed cities the Hop-On Hop-Off trolleys are a very cost effective option for orientation to a city. We used these in San Diego and Honolulu. We used open tour buses in American Samoa and the Cook Islands. A ship as large as the Amsterdam attracts all manor of tour company representatives and taxis at the port gates to deal with as well as local visitor center representatives. If you take a taxi, agree on a fee in advance in almost all parts of the world and understand where to catch taxis back. Have the port address with you.

We love our travel agent Dianne Blackburn at Gateway Travel in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She usually follows our progress when we fly and has even called ahead and rebooked flights when she knows we won't make connections. We call her from all over the world if there is a problem. We have used her for over 20 years and feel she consistently gets us the best deals. Susan takes whatever deals she can find to her and Dianne tries to get a better deal. Even when we book a cruise etc we make sure Dianne gets credit with the Cruise Line. We usually study possible cruise possibilities while on cruises and take advantage of the specials given for booking our next cruise while on board.
You will invariably have tour guides you will want to tip on your trip so be sure and plan to have some money for them. We frequently carry items from home to give to especially good guides. We especially like to give baseball hats of our favorite local sports teams.

The Amsterdam was clearly the most assessable cruise ship for disabled people on which we have traveled. Isles were wider and steps rare. Elevator doors closed slowly and there were spaces in the showrooms and dining rooms for wheelchairs and walkers. Shore excursions listed how many steps and how many obstacles would be encountered. Some are clearly listed as not suitable for wheel chairs etc. Because to the age of passengers carried on these long cruises, the cruise lines are very sensitive to these issues. There really is not a reason to keep on cruising!!!