Ahoy Mates!

I’m in the midst of packing for our family vacation which will take us on a cruise to the Caribbean. Packing for a cruise is most definitely different from packing for a family camping trip, which is where my packing experience lies. There are four of us, and each one of us has two suitcases, which at first glance seems like enough. That is, until you start getting all the piles of clothing together. Mountains of clothing.

I have spent the last two weeks ensuring all the necessary outfits are color coordinated, appropriate for the right occasion (yes there are occasions on board), and properly ironed and cleaned. It has been no easy task. I also have been trying to make sure that once the clothes are placed in the appropriate piles, they are not removed from said pile. Unfortunately this has failed twice. I am not sure why my son feels the need to wear THAT shirt instead of one of the many he has in his closet. So the shirt goes back in the laundry and then makes its way back to the pile for packing. When one camps, one doesn’t care what shirt they have on, except that it had better be warm and who cares if it has wrinkles?

Then there’s the shoe suitcase. Everyone knows which shoes he or she has to take, but until we leave, some of those shoes have gone in and out of the suitcases several times. I just know will get to the boat and someone will proclaim there’s only one shoe instead of two in the damn suitcase. Why can’t they just wear the one pair of shoes they intend on leaving behind? I do. If we were going camping, we’d simply wear the one pair of hiking boots we own, and not take them off until we got back home again. Simple!

My favorite suitcase to pack is the one that is filled with all the extras. You know the one that has the meds that we *might* need at sea. The one that has several tubes of hair gel in it, because one hair gel is never enough. And why would I think that for just one week we could all share one flavor shampoo? So the little bag is now bursting at the seams, and I couldn’t slip one tablet of Tylenol in it if my life depended on it. If we were going camping, this bag would not even be mentioned. No one has headaches or cares about dirty hair while living in the woods, much less if their hair is well gelled.

So while I am excited about our first family cruise, packing for it stinks. I must admit though, that unpacking from a cruise should have much less odor than unpacking from camping. It better!