CRUISING MUST HAVES

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new cruising and crafting content. 

There aren't many things I think are requirements for cruising. With only paperwork, a passport, medications, a clean pair of undies, and some deodorant anyone could survive on a cruise. (But you’ll probably be more comfortable with more.)

But there are a couple things that I think are requirements:

A plastic sleeve to hold the cruise ship luggage tag. I've been through a couple and the ones with the grommets at the top last much longer. We primarily sail Princess and these fit our tags perfectly.

And the next necessity is a set of packing cubes. We only travel with one suitcase between the two of us so it is important that we fit as much into that suitcase as possible. We wouldn't be able to do it without these packing cubes. You'd be surprised at how much you can fit in these things. They even make it easy for unpacking. Actually, it's more like not unpacking - we just unzip them, fold back the top, and leave them in the drawers. Super duper easy and convenient. We've used the eBags brand for quite a while and they haven't had as much as a rip or broken zipper. Easy to wash and easy to use!

We use multiple sizes and we each have our own colors (me-pink, hubby-green). They have a ton of colors and sizes to choose from.

Looking for more cruising information? 

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Capilano Suspension Bridge, Vancouver, Canada

It's Wanderlust Wednesday! Today we're talking about the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver.

If you're scared of heights, the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Canada is probably not somewhere you want to spend much time. Why?

It's 450 feet across.

 It's 230 feet off the ground.

And it moves. And shakes and shimmies. 

If you are afraid of heights you really won't want to make your way to the Cliffwalk. It clings to the cliff walls.

But even more heart-pounding are the places where it juts out from the cliff walls.

 Don't look down. It's a long way to the bottom.

 But if you can manage it, it will be an exhilarating visit!

How to Make a Remote Control Holder - Tutorial Tuesday

I am not a TV person. Never was and probably never will be. But hubby? He grew up on it. And now he's growing old on it. Watches it every single day. Hour upon hour upon hour. From seven in the morning to eleven at night you can find him in his rocking chair with the TV on. Know anyone like that?

Today's tutorial is for those excessive TV watchers as well as those seldom TV watchers.

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Looking for more storage ideas? Check out these projects!

You can find the step-by-step how to tutorial for this homemade fabric remote control organizer right here:

Seattle Mariners Baseball

Hubby loves his baseball. Like, really loves it. He is so full of joy each summer when we get him to a Seattle Mariners game. We've been several years in a row and he is always talking about things as firsts. First game, first time watching a certain other team, first daytime game, and today was another first.

It was the first time he's been in the stadium when they've closed the roof. Usually the weather has been pretty good for baseball. Just look how beautiful it was yesterday.

But today it started raining during the game, so they started closing the retractable roof. First time hubby watched it happen! I tried to take a video of it, but it moved sooo slow I just waited until it was completely closed and then snapped a picture.

And food was another thing. He likes trying everything they have to offer. I just have to not think about what we're paying and let him have it.

Jalapeno cheese dog

Philly Cheesesteak

$2 special on Cracker Jacks

Just look at all the food venues. Here's a link to the list in Google docs. It'll take him a lifetime to get to all of them. 

Golden Princess to Alaska - Disembarkation Day

In the past we’ve gotten to and from Vancouver a variety of ways. Some years we drive our own car, sometimes we fly, sometimes we take Amtrak, and just a few weeks back we used a rental car. While we don’t necessarily like riding a bus for a few hours, today it should have worked out best to use the Princess transfer from Vancouver to the Seattle airport.

Since we were making no stops in Canada before crossing the US border we were able to be on the coach that collected our luggage and sealed it in the compartment under the bus. It was nice not to have to pick it up in the cruise terminal. We also didn’t have to go through Canadian customs at the port because as part of this program (I think it is called Direct to Bus or Direct to US?) we had already filled out our customs form and turned it into Princess a few days prior.

Here is a copy of the disembarkation times for the different groups in case you’re interested. And if you’d like to see the log of the cruise, you can find that here.

Boy, I'm thankful we weren't flying out today. In the past the bus ride always has had us in Seattle by 1:00 in the afternoon, even on a bad day. On a good day we could be there by noon. Neither one of those things would even come close to what we experienced today. While we disembarked the ship close to our scheduled time of 8:30 am, we were taken into the terminal to wait in a line. For a full hour. Only six or seven chairs available for more than 60 people. Did I mention we had to wait at least an hour?

If that was our only delay we still could have made good time to Seattle. But we ran into an even bigger delay at the border. How big of a delay? We're talking a good two and a half hours. Just waiting for our turn. Here's something to know if you're taking the cruise line transportation to the US - scheduled bus services, like Greyhound or the Bolt Bus or Quick Shuttle get priority. So even though you might be the second bus in line you might wind up being the seventh bus to get processed. Yeah, so there was that. 1:00 in Seattle? Nope. How about 2:00 or 3:00? Nope and nope. Let's try closer to 4:00. That's seven and a half hours from the time we walked off the ship instead of the four hours we are used to. Ugh. Next time no more bus. We're going back to Amtrak.

Actually, we would have done Amtrak today but hubby has a Mariner’s baseball game tonight. He’s a big baseball guy and he likes it when he can get a game in when we go to Alaska. So if we have to move mountains to make it happen, we will. Just wish we could have moved the bus faster!

So goodbye to Alaska for the year (or at least for now) and hello to Seattle. Mariners, that is.