I am so thankful I had no plans yesterday and I could really focus on my pre-cruise to-do list. What was on this list, you ask? I’ll tell you!
Do a deep clean of my apartment.
Who doesn’t love coming home from a vacation to a clean home? It’s one of my favorite things, so I love having a day before a vacation to deep clean my apartment. Yesterday, I ran the vacuum for about 90 minutes and then followed up by mopping the floors. I cleaned my bathroom and took care of any dishes in the sink. I even dusted my ceiling fan (it was getting disgusting) and wiped down all my tables. Before I leave today, I’ll make my bed and plump the couch pillows. It will be so nice to come home to!
Finalize my cruise book list.
Ahh, the cruise book list! It’s the most important pre-cruise to-do! I always bring way more books than I have the ability to read, but being without reading material on the cruise is a no-no! Here’s what I’m bringing:
- Victoria by Daisy Goodwin (I have about 100 pages left in this novel)
- What If It’s Us? by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silveri (I have about 50 pages left in this novel)
- Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (eeks, so excited to dive into this one!)
- Miss Me With That by Rachel Lindsey (a memoir from a former Bachelorette that was available for immediate download on Kindle)
- Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (a f/f romance; I adored this author’s first romance and hope this one is just as good!)
- Nora Goes Off Script by Anna Monaghan (a cute romance that came off my holds list on Libby!)
- Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis (another romance that was available for immediate download on Libby)
- An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena (gotta have a thriller option!)
So if we remove the two books I’m nearly finished with, that’s 6 books, which equals 1 book for each day of the cruise. I will probably only get through 3-4 of these, at most, but a girl’s gotta have options!
PACK!
The most important to-do, right? Yes, yes. Packing is always so stressful for me because I always get worried I’m going to forget something super important. And when you’re on a cruise ship, it’s not always easy to get those important items. (They have a gift shop where you can buy some things, but they’re always vastly overpriced.) I started with figuring out what I’ll wear to dinner every night and then what I’ll wear on my excursions, and then made a list of all the other items I’ll need, like toiletries and such. I hope I didn’t forget anything!
Clean the litter boxes and make a note for my pet sitter.
Last night, I cleaned the litter boxes and put in fresh, new litter so the girls can have a nice space to poop! It’s the little things. I also refilled their treat jars and made a note for my pet sitter. She’s a pro at this and has been checking on my girls since I got them, but I always like to put a reminder of how much to feed them, where to find certain items, etc. (I also leave their vet info, just in case!) I like my pet sitter to visit every day I’m gone, so she’ll be stopping by Monday-Friday this time.
Find my earplugs.
My mom and I both snore at night and the earplugs I bought for our last trip together helped me sleep wonderfully. It was truly amazing how much better I slept! My mom bought the same earplugs so we should be snoring soundly to our heart’s content without bothering the other person! Hopefully. I had to tear my apartment apart to find my earplugs, but eventually, I found them in the place I should have looked first! Of course!
Prep my scheduled posts.
I have three posts that will publish while I’m gone—I’m going to finish Nablopomo! I will have my annual birthday posts publishing on Monday, a currently post publishing on Tuesday, and then a Nablopomo wrap-up post for Wednesday. Can you believe we’re in the homestretch? I wanted to make sure to finish up this challenge strong!
And now, it’s time to snuggle into bed with my book and my cats and try to sleep. We’re hitting the road around 9am today (with a scheduled stop for breakfast!) and I can’t wait to finally get my birthday cruise started!
I’m so excited for you!
I always do a big clean before going on vacation because it’s so nice to come home to! I will be very excited to get your cruise updates!
Re: packing – do you have to fly to get to your cruise start? Probably not, I’m guessing. The biggest worry to me is forgetting some toiletries or sunscreen.
No flying required for us! We are able to drive to all of the cruise ports in Florida. This time, we sailed out of Port Canaveral, which is about 2 hours away for us. 🙂 So nice not to have to worry about flights!
I’m with you, I always like to come home to a clean house. Where are you going? I went to France in September, and I over and under packed. We spent time in the South of France, and I over packed for that, too many lightweight items, I only wore about 1/2 of them. Then we went to Paris, and I realized I didn’t have any sweaters or anything medium weight, so I had to do some shopping. What a problem to have, to need to buy clothes in Paris! HA!
I have never been on a cruise. I think about it sometimes, it might be fun to go to Alaska.
Coming home to a clean home is the BEST THING EVER.
An Alaskan cruise is definitely on my bucket list!
I hope you have a fabulous time and all that all your pre-planning pays off!
Yay!!!!! It’s a solid list, but then you get to CRUISE! I can’t wait to hear what you think of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow — I am really interested in reading it.
Ooh, how exciting! I can’t wait to hear all about it. Yes, you do need all those books. What if you start one and don’t like it? You don’t want to risk running out. You seem like a methodical person, so it’s unlikely you forgot anything. Enjoy!!!
So excited for you! Hope you have a lovely time!
I hope you have a fantastic time!
I am a HUGE fan of coming home to a clean house. I make a point of at least picking up the place before we leave, but it feels even better if I’ve gotten the floors done. It’s so nice to have a “clean slate” to unpack into upon arriving home.
Already looking forward to your recaps; I’ll be living vicariously through you!!
Have the best time on your cruise! I know how much you love cruising so am glad you are finally able to go on one!!
Have a lovely cruise. You’ll be so glad that your apartment is nice and clean when you get back! Look forward to hearing about your adventures
I LOVE coming home to a clean house, but it’s been harder since I met Mike, who is not very neat or organized. And it’s been EVEN harder since we moved into our house, which is just more space to get messy. I always get a little frazzled trying to clean before we leave! But we went out of town for Thanksgiving, and after a 12-hour drive back home, it was so incredible to return to a clean house. Totally worth it to get it done beforehand!
Ah, the pre-vacation to-do list is the highlight of vacation anticipation. 🙂 I hope you got it all done (but since I am commenting late, I assume you did).
I also like to clean up before going anywhere, so I can come home to a clean house.
Enjoy your birthday cruise and lots of un. I am sure you mentioned where you will be going but I can’t remember. Well I guess I should just keep reading.
I cannot WAIT to read about your cruise! The photos looked so awesome.
And, I need to go back to your Ireland posts, since I am going there in June! Presentation at a conference. I’m going to be crowdsourcing ideas in a coming-soon blog post but your recaps were so awesome that I know they’ll be a huge help. 🙂