I tell my travelers this is my formula for packing to take a cruise:

  1. A month before the cruise, put out the suitcase. Start to throw in things you want to take.
  2. Two weeks out, make sure the suitcase has only what you need...generally that means taking out half of what you threw in.
  3. A week out, pare down half of what remains. Now you're ready, and will only be overpacked by 50%.

Our suitcase just came out 30 minutes ago

What you see there are the items that live in the suitcase during the weeks we are (unfortunately) not on a cruise. The critical items:

  • Extension cord for our CPAP machines
  • Conditioner: Roxan doesn't like the NCL stuff
  • Lanyards, complete with Latitudes bling
  • Mardi Gras beads (how else will the folks from the Facebook group find me in Spinnaker for the sailaway party?)
  • Shot glasses for the exchange
  • Hiding ducks
  • Over the door shoe holder — we've not gotten much use out of it on previous trips because we pack so light. But this being an 11-day trip and us being in a suite, I think there may be some uses for it and it will be out of the way enough to not be more hassle than it's worth.
  • Magnetic hooks in a couple of sizes.

I'm guessing, since this is a longer trip and we have the train legs before and after the cruise, that we'll end up packing this suitcase, a soft-side NCL case we bought on the Jade last year, my large backpack (about 30% of that is my computer, tablet, gimbal, and other gear to post with during the trip, and I often pack my CPAP in the backpack instead of carrying it separately), and a couple of tote bags.

This is one of the advantages of the train, as well: we will pack the suitcase with the stuff we need on the ship and never touch it during the train legs. It gets locked in our bedroom before we leave and not opened until it's in our stateroom. Since we don't have an air leg, we don't have the suitcase Jenga we've had before. (TL;DR — shuffling the clothes from individual suitcases to where half of each person's stuff is in each suitcase. That way when the airline loses a bag, one of us isn't without our stuff.)

Although we're "behind" in the "pack it then pare it down" game, I think with this being our seventh cruise we're probably fairly accurate in the kit we need, so we can just do it once. It's a 17-day total trip, but we actually pack for about 5-6 days. Both being Platinum, we get two free bags of laundry a trip, so we'll use one probably on the first Sunday or Monday (clean the stuff we wore to get to the ship and on sailaway day), then about a week later. We'll probably need to use half-price day, too. We usually use both free days on a 7-day trip, so the extra four should mean we need one more day.

This time next Friday, we should be nearing here:

The New River Gorge is the scenic heart of the Cardinal—a stretch many riders rank among the finest on Amtrak. Loyd Lowry photo. (Originally seen on https://www.american-rails.com/cardguide26.html)

Oh, in case you missed it: here is why there's a roll of cheapo trash bags in the suitcase...I'll bet it's not what you think.