Getting Ready for Next Trip

Boy what a month!  

As we prepare for our next voyage I thought I should touch base with you all.

Earlier this month Bernie had shoulder surgery and even though all went well he will be travelling with a sling and good pain pills.

Therefore I will be transporting the bags.  So needless to say we are limiting our luggage to one bag each and a carry on knapsack.

This will also help as we travel around Italy, getting on trains, finding Airbnb, and taking flights within Europe.  

So stay tuned here for further posts about our new trip.

One Bag - Is It Possible

We have been discussing suitcases!  Yeah I could think of so much more important things but hey suitcases has been an ongoing topic.

We are gone for five weeks.  11 days are on a cruise ship, the rest is travelling thru Italy and Portugal with one wedding.

I have never have been one to pack a ton of stuff but this trip is unique.  

So I have put my foot down and insisted all we can bring is our one suitcase each (which will have to weigh less that 20kg because of plane restrictions).  We will each have a knapsack which can be attached to the bag.

Can it be done?  One thing is we will not be doing formal nights, nor will we dine in the dining room that often.  We will bring one pair of nice pants and a few nice tops to be worn at night.  

We will save all the dressing up for our trip in January on the Royal.

Can we do it?  Stay tuned.....

Train Travel Booked - Finally

You may remember me writing about my frustrations with booking train travel in Italy - read about it here.

Over the weekend I finally got around to booking the train trips but again it was a little bit of game playing on both parts.

I always recommend searching booking sites but also to go to the source and check there too and for us it was better to book directly with Trenitalia.

First was the trip from the port to Lucca.  That was easy and we got tickets on the 10:45 train.

Next was the trip from Lucca to Venice.  The two for one was still offered.  However the first class train was just a little bit more so went with that.  But when I searched for one person the price was lower per person than when I searched for two people, per person.

So I then had to book it as two separate tickets to get the lower price.

So make sure when you are searching take note of the price for one person and then what the price is for two.  Is it more to book per person when you book two tickets?  Or is it better to book two separate tickets?

300,000 Views

Wow my blog just rolled past the 300,000 views today! 

When I started this blog it was to replace my journaling I did in a book. To share with my Mom and other family members and friends what and where we were and to show why we loved to travel. 

To show why we gave up so much throughout the year to save money so we could travel. 

Most times I love doing it.  I love writing and sharing helpful information that can hopefully add to someone's trip.  Some times it is a chore.  Especially when we are travelling and we are busy and I need to catch up before I get too far behind.  Sometimes just trying to get a signal can be challenging. Here I am sitting on the floor near the door in order to get a strong enough signal from the wifi.  Note this doesn't happen often but I guess this cabin was just a bit further away from the router.  

Today I find the blog is so helpful for others who use it as a resource now for learning about places, tours, ships, and Princess. I love where it has gone and all the great connections with people it has brought me. 

Every cruise we go on we hear "are you Vickie, I follow your blog".  And trust me although it feels awkward at first we love meeting you and we love learning about you and how you enjoyed the blog. What has been fun is meeting these people and then they appear in the blog that day and then they have become very good friends and we sail together again later.

We leave again soon for another big adventure. I hope you will follow along.

Packing Tips with Ebags

I had watched a video of a women who travels every day of the year almost and all she uses is a carry on suitcase and uses ebags.  Well I was so intrigued that I had to buy some of these bags.  You can find them at ebags.com.

How I use them is by packing like minded items together in one bag.  

So in the attached video link I am packing all my cool weather clothes.  But I also pack together items like underwear/socks/bras, workout clothes, and even the clothes I will need in Fort Lauderdale for the two night pre cruise.  This allows me to just pull out the ebag and use that instead of searching throughout my entire bag for the items I need.

Check it out 

You tube video on ebag packing

My Must Haves To Take On A Cruise

So many people ask me all the time what are some of the items you take on a cruise?

Or they see pictures of our cabin and see an item or two in the picture and ask about it.

So even though I have an album of pictures of those special items on my facebook page Cruising With Princess Cruiseline with Vickie I decided to do a short video on my Youtube channel to share it for anyone who wants to learn more about the items.

This also gave me the opportunity to explain why we take each item.

Hope you enjoy.