laptop "challenges"

While I ti annoying to use the laptop for me, I have been working off of it as long as my patience will endure because on the ship that will be my main connection. The start up time has been f o r e v e r. So I finally called the Costco Concierge (thank you Costco) and one of the problems was that McAfee and Norton (which  is our preferred anti virus) were having a unwinnable fight to the death, on the hard drive. So that got taken care of and made some improvements. Now there's an odd message that says that this laptop isn't configured for Norton. That doesn't make sense and sounds like an operating system issue. So we are doing a complete scan with Norton (since McAfee is long gone) and then go through the trouble shooting.

But the Costco concierge was terrific, unhurried, patient and with sparse directions.

web cam

Just checked. It works: http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/?shipCode=pa&utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PCE_3A&utm_content=e3

travel clinic

Good news today: Travel clinic called back. Can renew our typhoid immunization by picking up the pills and taking one every other day for a week. I have such awful reactions to typhoid shots that I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when they came out in oral form.

We will pick up malaria pills but may or may not use them.

Sunscreen and insect repellent as Zika it seems is everywhere (including in US btw!).

And an unexpected suggestion: we always carry “temple socks”. When you visit temples in SE Asia, you must take off your shoes. So we carry socks to wear on the tour. The travel nurse (there’s a special name for this field of nursing: emporiatrics  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_medicine) told us to put our shoes in large plastic bags so the bugs can’t crawl into them while we are touring. This was a new trick for us! We continue to learn.

I’m including a photo in this entry as I want to try it out in posting to see how it turns out on the blog.

Later phone call that said I must have the shot instead because of some of my meds. So got the shot. Not a big deal! Yeah! Yeah!

link to itinerary

http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.do?voyageCode=K703A

Medical issues

So I printed off health summaries for both of us from KP site. This has list of all our diagnoses, vaccinations, and medications. Also info on what to do when travelling given to us by KP.

easy as pie

Australian visa accomplished On Line and only $20! Yeah.

map of itinerary

Web cam; may need to refresh and sometimes is not available:
http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/?shipCode=pa&utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PCE_3A&utm_content=e3

Map of Itinerary:
http://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/cruise-destinations/world-cruises/Pacific_111DayWorldCruise(rtLA)017_R4.pdf

Pre-cruise check list

I'm starting a little late to reveal all the plans we have gone through in preparing for the cruise. But just today:

Locate the places T-mobile covers overseas on our plan. That was a godsend on the last cruise.

Found out T-mobile has a plan for when you are on a ship so will stop by local office later to get the skinny AND check on the ports NOT LISTED as being covered on our plan, places like Pago Pago American Samoa (which surprised me).

Printed out the itinerary and (for the 3rd time) prepared a copy for the travel clinic so they can check our records and see if we need to update any vaccinations and/or have malaria medication.

Finished application for Australian visa (can totally be done online now: Yeah) and double checked the other countries where a visa might be indicated. Hong Kong is OK but Sanya China requires a Chinese visa (not fun to get as we've done it before) BUT if you take a ship's tour there, you do not need to worry about a visa. Jordan (for Petra!) can do on the ship; same for a few other ports. We both have 10 yr India visas and we are still within the time line, so no problem there. And so on it goes. Most of our ports we do not require a visa. Like US, if you are a citizen of countries with reciprocal arrangements, you can usually stay for 30-90 days (differs among countries so don't assume) with out a visa.

Stock of business cards and a few other things you often forget are now in the luggage we have out to put things into so we don't forget.

Did a spell check on this entry and it is strange what happened. Some of the names were highlighted but not a quote mark instead of an apostrophe in I'm, so go figure.

So will keep you posted as I go along.