Things to Take on a Cruise

In my normal blithe fashion, I approached this trip with an if-I-forget-to-pack-it-I-can-always-buy-it attitude. Hah. So this post serves both as a cautionary tale and as a list for me for next time.

This ship may cruise from the US, but it's a European ship and almost all of the electrical outlets (except for the two in your stateroom) are European. If you plan to spend extensive time on a laptop, say, writing SQL doc, you should bring an adapter. We have several, I just didn't think of it. We only found two US-style outlets onboard, and they were't in places you'd choose to sit for an extended period of time.

Sunglasses and sunscreen seem like an obvious item for the list, but I managed to forget them. While I could buy them onboard, my thrifty heart refuses to pay the vig. So I stay out of the sun and squint a lot.

Last, and most important for the aging population, I brought my daily meds (of course), but I did not bring a full pharmacopeia. Alka Seltzer--never leave home without it. At 3:00 am I woke with the worst heartburn EVER and when I rummaged through my toiletries bag I discovered there was no Alka Seltzer. So I dressed and toddled down to the promenade shops. They were, of course, all closed. So I went to the front desk and rousted the clerk from the back. No they didn't have antacids, but I might could get them from the vending machine in the medical area on deck one. But the vending machine only takes quarters. The desk clerk helpfully offered to change money to give me quarters, but I didn't have any cash,  just my seapass. Apparently the only transaction that can't be done on your seapass is getting quarters for the vending machine for medications.

I didn't want to go through getting quarters if they didn't even have antacids so before going to my room for cash, I headed to the the morgue, er, medical wing on deck 1. The bottom of the ship. There is a morgue, it's located next to the medical office. There I was, on deck 1 at 3:00 am next to the ship's morgue. If the zombie apocalypse was going to start on the ship I was surely poised to be its first victim. There were no zombies, but there were antacids and an Alka-Seltzer-like fizzy tablet, so I trooped back up to my room on deck 7 and got a couple of dollars to change for quarters, then back to deck 5 for change, then back to deck 1 for meds, then back to deck 7 to drop exhaustedly into bed while swearing never to forget the Alka Seltzer again!

Another entry in the pharmacopeia never to leave home without is colds meds--Dayquil, Nyquil, Chloraseptic, and cough drops. Dayquil and Nyquil can be found in the general store for ruinous prices, but Chloraseptic and cough drops arenot to be found. Zaga and Dan, of course, were fully prepared so I got Dayquil and Nyquil from them. Zaga also carries Oragel for tooth ache. I would add Alleve, heavy-duty pain meds, and Imodium just to cover all the bases.

Last, but not least, though it is ubiquitous throughout the ship, I would carry my own little refillable bottle of hand sanitizer hanging from my lanyard wth my seapass. On a floating petri dish there's no such thing as too much hand sanitizer.