Update
Well, it's the last week-ish until we depart! Lots of things left to do still:
- Finish FE Gifts (they are evil and I can't wait to be done!)
- Put finishing touches on Tea Exchange gift
- Print out GTY list for people
- Fill up medications so I have enough for the trip
- Reserve transportation from home to airport (will be done this Thursday)
- Print out maps
- Return library book
- Pack
Though, we did cross of a few of the last remaining things from our list, PLUS added some more plans for in ports:
- We set up international usage for our time in ports. We have Verizon and it's basically, if you turn the phone on while in the country, we will be charged $10 in Europe for 24 hours of that service. We are planning on using it in Halifax for sure ($5 a day for Canada) and possibly on all days pre-cruise. We shall find out for sure after the trip
- Rich ordered the Foreign currency (details below). Since I put him in charge of that planning, it was up to him if he wanted to order money before hand or use the ATMs when we get there. Since it's his first time to Europe, he wanted to order ahead of time. It is fun having a wad of foreign bank notes, they feel like play money! But they are not.
- We added onto Halifax, where we will be visiting the public garden for a free tour, then walking back to the cruise terminal via the waterfront with stops at the Maritime Museum.
- Also added a bit to Saint John, we are still trying to finalize what we will be doing for this port and Sydney.
- I WAS ABLE TO GET A PALO BRUNCH RESERVATION!! It was when DCL was compiling lists for people with private brunch reservations, which opened up slots for us lowly people I'm pretty dang excited. It's on our last day at sea: Sept. 19th!
- So our Palo reservations are not on the dates I wanted, so I am going to try and change them onboard to our preferred dates.
- I called DCL ahead of time to add a few requests to our reservation:
- A nice and patient serving team. I specified this because we had a bad experience last cruise with the team treating us differently because we didn't interact much. I have rather severe anxiety and sometimes I just can't people. So, needing a team that can deal with that. I suggested possibly servers that are good with kids that have Autism (since I have similar aspects when it comes to socialization).
- That we have the cabin attendant service our cabin once a day instead of twice. I made it clear we definitely want the evening turn down but we do not need the morning because it causes too much stress for me. When I have panic attacks or just get overwhelmed with all the people interaction, I need a safe place to decompress and having the room attendant in that space when I need it makes things much worse. This is something we also discovered on our last trip. Last trip wasn't all roses and daisies.
- Also added onboard credit, which is outlined a bit below.
Rich went out and got a luggage scale since Norwegian has a check in bag weight of 44lbs (20kg) and the carryon AND personal item must not weigh more then 22lbs (10kg). Since we have premier class, we will be able to have 2 check in bags at 44lbs each BUT we don't have Premium Flex ticket, which would increase hand baggage weight to 33lbs (15kg). SO ... I have to really keep an eye on the weight for our hand baggage (carry on + personal item).
Also, Rich did end up with a budget and I'm sharing how much we've planned on bringing for the trip. All USD totals for foreign currency was based on our credit union's fees and exchange rate at the time:
England: We have planned £420. This includes pre-cruise and the port of Portland. The largest chunk is for tea at the Ritz.
USD cost = $566.96
Ireland: 50 Euro. We have prepaid for our tours and such so we are just budgeting for a small souvenir for ourselves and my Mother (she's very proud of our Irish heritage).
USD cost = $60.50
Canada: $60CAD. This includes cab rides, snacks and maybe some maple syrup! Not huge spenders here since we live in MN and Canada isn't horribly far from us if we have a huge craving for authentic Canadian maple syrup
USD cost = $48.85
United States: $175. Of course, we don't need to order currency for here BUT these are expenses for while in the states during travel. This includes all transportation via Lyft (home to airport, LGA to JFK, cruise terminal to LGA) and food for at the airport.
Onboard: We have been saving Disney Gift Cards from holidays and birthdays, over the past 1.8 years ... and we have $465 added to our account! We know $120 of that will be taken for Palo for our two reservations, but after that ... who knows!? We plan on watching lots of movies at the theater (popcorn fill ups), fancy special drink during sail away party (saving the cups!), occasional alcohol like a drink of the day or wine during dinner (not huge drinkers and not every day but this is a special trip!), and at least $100 in pins lol. We love collecting pins, especially from DCL. Oh, also plan to get some WBTA and 20th anniversary specific merchandise. Nothing huge but at least a hat for Richard and pin for me.
Extra Funds: Whatever extra funds we get between now and the cruise will most likely be put towards a deposit for future booking and/or more OBC.
Rich has been working lots of side jobs to help cover costs, in fact, he's out on one now.
While these totals might be small for most that go on Disney cruises, these amounts are not small for us. We have been saving for almost 2 years to pay for all of this, none of it is on a credit card, all debit. Due to health reasons, I haven't been able to work since December 2017 and we've had to save on just Rich's income. Through moving, Rich being laid off, and moving again, I think saving the above for expenditures is a great feat of budgeting and keeping to that budget.
I am proud of both of us for being able to endure what we have since May 2017 (when we first booked) until now.
I also feel incredibly blessed/grateful to be able to be where we are now and still be able to afford a lovely apartment, running clean water and a full fridge. I am just so thankful to be able to have everything that I do and be able to take part in such a grand adventure.
Thank you for following along.
I will try to update again just before we leave and possibly small updates during travel day
I plan to bring a notebook to record our trip so that I can create a full on Trip Report afterwards.
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