Closing In

The planning has been going on for so long that it’s hard to believe that the actual trip is now less than a month away. Things are going into suitcases, so we need to play the game of figuring out what we need here before we leave, what we will need for the couple of days prior to boarding, and what we can ship with Luggage Forward. We’re generally light packers, so the feeling of packing so much stuff into suitcases is foreign. Not only is it six months of clothes for four people, it’s the school supplies and consumables. We are allocating a day in Miami to grabbing any last-minute things we want to take with us, so we don’t need to get everything now, but we’ll have most of it.

Luggage Forward won’t take any rechargeable batteries, so anything of that nature we need to make sure we bring ourselves when we fly back. I wanted to ship back some blades for my razor as well, as these are not allowed on board aircraft. I use a safety razor as I don’t like buying expensive cartridges that just put more plastic into landfills. That means having a supply of double-edged razor blades. I called Oceania to make sure that these are allowed on board, but the person I spoke with did not know. I’m not sure he really knew what a safety razor is. He said to be sure I should take a picture of what I use and send that to an Oceania email address he gave me. I did that…and no response. So I guess I’ll just use shaving cartridges for the duration of the trip. Not the end of the world, but kind of a bummer that Oceania couldn’t give me a clear answer about what I can bring aboard.

We (well, Elizabeth really) are working through the logistics of unenrolling the boys from their schools and enrolling them in our home school (Allison International School, founded 2024!). I’m winding things down at work, and oh yeah, it’s almost Christmas so we have all that that entails. Come December 26th all the holiday decorations come down and the house gets prepped for our house sitters. January 3rd we’re on our way to Miami!Read more