We started to think seriously about packing for this trip just a couple days ago, which seems a bit crazy, considering the length and distance we are going. Sure, we’ve been researching each country, and planning our excursions, for months now. But for the task of determining what to take, and what not to take, we’ve had a very relaxed attitude. Maybe we’ve been too preoccupied with holiday festivities? Maybe it’s because we’ve done 4-months on a ship before? Who knows…we just hope this lackadaisical attitude doesn’t bite us in the bottom.

Like before, we’ve got lots of lists and we’re now checking them twice. We did take notes from the World Cruise and are using them now to hone our lists. One thing that we are doing differently from WC24 is that we are purchasing all of our toiletries and medicines here at home, instead of waiting until we get to California. Waiting and buying them before embarking worked great, and we would still recommend others to do it that way to save space for clothes and to minimize extra luggage fees.

However, we decided to utilize many of the items that we bought on the last long trip, for this long trip. Some examples: a fan, some meds (that haven’t expired yet), a small scale, and some organizing items. We’ll pack those reuse items, along with all consumables like shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, etc., into two extra suitcases that we’ll take on the airplane for a cost of $300. When it’s time to come home, we’ll use those mostly empty suitcases to get our souvenirs and gifts back home. We spent a fortune Fed Exing all of our souvenirs and gifts from the World Cruise, so the extra baggage fee will be a bargain.

We did consider using a luggage shipping service, Luggage Forward, for this trip and decided against it. You can’t ship liquids, supplements, vitamins, or medicines. You can’t utilize Apple Air Tags to track your bags. Those were deal breakers for us.

So, we’ll be traveling with 3 suitcases, each. Try not to judge!