Black Sea &
Holy Lands
Cruise

We have already booked another long cruise on the MS Prinsendam !
I like to take a lot of thin white coat hangers as you never get enough in your stateroom. I just leave them on the ship when we leave. I like to take some battery-powered stick on lights for the inside of closets, the inside of your room safe, and the inside of the bathroom (the light switch is on the outside so you awaken your spouse when you turn on the light at night). Take a small flashlight or head light for emergencies and for looking under the bed. I take at least a dozen plastic clothes pins and a good string for a clothes line (you usually have a clothes line in the shower already). The thin white coat hangers are useful for drying clothes also. You can not take a clothes iron on a cruise ship; they X-ray the luggage and it will be confiscated. Irons are available in the launderette. Take some stickers or pictures and double sided tape to decorate your cabin door. Stateroom cabin walls are metal covered with vinyl. Some really strong magnets are great for hanging papers, clothes to dry, daily activity schedules, and if strong enough for anchoring clothes lines. You always get a terri robe so you don't need to bring one. You will have a combination room safe. The cruise ship lends you a beach towel to take if you go to a beach. Take good sun screen and insect repellant and pack them in plastic boxes or Nalgene bottles. Take extra glasses and sun glasses. A copy of your vision prescription has been a Godsend to travelers on several of our trips and could come in handy in some ports such as Hong Kong where glasses are inexpensive. There is a large lending library of books and DVD's on all cruise ships we use. I like to have my insulated travel mug. I rip a lot of videos to my computer with Handbrake to view on my iPad. You move videos on & off of your iPad through iTunes. In much of the developing world you bring your own toilet paper with you to public toilets so we carry a lot of small packs of tissues. On most cruise ship shore excursions you can leave your backpack on the bus when you get off to visit sites. Susan carries her own dual voltage curling iron. You might swap photos with other travelers by using an SD card or usb stick so carry a few cheap ones. One of the most important thing not to forget is to take some photo copies of your passport picture page. Because you use the photocopy of your passport rather than the actual passport (which the ship holds for you) you may still need your driver's license or other government issued ID at some money exchanges etc or if you have marked your credit cards CID.
Open seating turned out to be the best choice for dining for us but was very disappointing on this small ship compared to the larger Holland American ships as you are required to make dinner reservations by 4pm. We enjoyed our time on shore and could not plan in advance when we would be back and dressed for dinner. For this reason we had to eat in the Lido Dining Room (the buffet ) all nights except for three formal nights at sea. We did eat in the Pinnacle Gill once and really enjoyed it a lot. They do let you "drop in" the open seating part of the dining room at other times but you might be given a beeper to come when a place is available.
We thoroughly enjoyed the shows each night. What a great auditorium!
Disembarkation was very easy.
We felt the Holland America shore excursions were all great but on this trip only took 5 on this trip which is less than on some previous cruises.
In Russia you EITHER have to have an expensive VISA to go out on your own or have booked a tour (either a Holland America one or one you arranged online before the cruise). When you are on a tour the person is responsible for bringing you back.
We wore layers so we didn't have to pack or put up with heavy winter clothing. This worked out very well. We carried extra batteries, raincoats, and sometimes another layer with us to leave safely on the bus when on the tours. The raincoats were on & off & helped in Russia with the wind. We had large plastic bags for our cameras if we had to pack them into the backpack but never did.
More people wore suits than tuxedos on the formal nights.
The ships gym was excellent for the size of the ship but they didn't have good exercise classes like our Noordam & Veendam cruises did.
The only money changing we did was in Turkey as we spent so many days there. We did use a few Euros and I recommend always having 50cent Euro coins for pay toilets. I thought it funny that the dollar was preferred to the euro in Egypt, Israel, & Turkey. Don't think about using dollars or euros in Russia or Ukraine and don't try to use any left over rubels ANYWHERE else or trading them back for dollars.
Shopping in Turkey was great & our debit cards were accepted even at tiny kiosks.
Use the ships wake up call system. You constantly switch between time zones.. The ships system will have you up at the correct time.
It paid to have clothespins as we are light packers and wash clothes a lot. Polypro underwear dries a lot quicker and packs lighter than cotton. I washed my Patagonia polypro tee shirts and ExOfficio briefs every night and hung them in the shower.
Holland America has lots of washers & dryers. Most of the Holland America ships need quarters for these to wash & dry but on the Prinsendam the washers and dryers are free. The washers have detergent built in so you don't need to bring it. I do bring small bottles of laundry detergent for washing out underwear in the bathroom
Bring lots of good sunscreen.
We enjoyed our light weight Marmot raincoats & people with umbrellas did not fare as well.

Be sure and take some bandaids. Carry medication for a common cold, for gastroenteritis, for cuts & scrapes. Carry several types of antibiotics. I like to have some Augmentin, Cipro, cephazolin, and some doxycycline. Take some handkerchiefs When visiting malaria prevalent areas we choose to take mefloquin but some people have bad dreams on it. We have learned to get medical evaluation of infectious diseases in the area the disease it was acquired as so very many local physicians and pharmacists know exactly what is prevalent in that area and it's treatment. I would rather have invasive or surgical care back in first world countries. Know what your health insurance will cover over seas. Oceania and Holland America have excellent physicians onboard. Take some laxative as you will be less active on a cruise than at home. Sea sickness medication would be a good idea as would cough drops, ear drops, eye drops.

We took 4 cameras and they all had a place. Susan took pictures with her Nikon D90 with an AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3.5-6.5 G ED lens which was the most used camera and best choice. Pictures she took with it have "A" in the file name. She also used her Canon digital ELPH 12megapix tiny point and shoot in some locations. Pictures she took with it have "C" in the file name. I took pictures with my Nikon D90 and a Sigma EX 10-20mm 1:3.5 DC HSM lens. The wide angle shots really complemented Susan's ones. The pictures I took with that camera have a "B" in the file name. I also took my waterproof Olympus Stylus Tough 8100 14megpix point and shoot camera. On rainy days this really came in handy. Pictures taken with this camera have an "ST" in the file name. I imported the memory cards into Apple Apeture on my MacBook Air daily with backup to a folder of my Time Machine drive of each card. I then formatted the card in the camera to start fresh each day. We only shot RAW on the Nikons. Having the new Sandy Bridge I7 in the MacBook Air made handling RAW files quick & seamless. No long delays of processing or switching between files like on our quadcore Win7 machines at home. Wonder why Windows7 can't handle these files.

Both phone service and WiFi are available onboard at a cost. The phone service acts as a roaming service. We have Verizon and we have Verizon activate the SIM card for our iPhones for the countries we visit before we leave the United States. Verizon gives us the rates for the various countries and we keep them in mind. We use texts and I think Verizon's charge is 50 cents each to send and 5 cents to receive when out of the country. We seldom use our phones but carry them with us off the ship for emergency calls. The cruise lines give you a local number to call their port agent in each port. We seldom turn on our cellular data for foreign roaming. Verizon's texts come through WiFi so logging on to WiFi often gets these texts. We vary as far as how we use the ships WiFi services. You can buy so many minutes through your computer or iPad. We got free internet on this cruise with Nautica as a promotion. On some cruises we make sure we visit coffee houses or McDonalds when we are in port. Cruise ship internet gets better every year. We had very good service on this cruise on Nautica. On our fall month-long cruise on the Statendam we never used the ship's internet service.

We take only appliances that will run on either voltage and since we are from the US we use small plastic adapters that turn the 220v plugs to 110v. I carry a couple splitter cubes. We have seen people have power strips confiscated on cruise ships so don't take them. Some plugs only work when the stateroom lights are on or a room key card is in a slot in the room. The Nautica and Holland America ships have a shaver 110/220v plug in the bathroom. You don't need to take a voltage converter. Be sure and bring battery chargers for any appliance that needs one. Most modern chargers will run on both 110v & 220v but check before you come. There are hair dryers in Holland America and Oceania ships. On the Nautica we had a built in one in the bathroom and a good hand held portable 220v one for use out in the cabin. There is a wake up function for the phone so you don't need an alarm clock.

We have special travel socks and underwear such as those by Exofficio or Magellan that we can wash out daily and need very few pairs. These usually dry within a half day if washed in the room, thoroughly rung out, rolled up inside of towels, and hung up to dry in the stateroom. These dry more quickly inside than outside on the veranda. We also have travel shirts and pants (long & short versions of each) that dry this quickly when hand washed in the room. We carry a small Nalgene bottle (from REI) of concentrated washing detergent for this and I pack this Nalgene Bottle inside a waterproof box or Nalgene water bottle to avoid the consequences of a leak in route. There are usually laundromat services on cruise ships but be advised that these are closed if there is an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the ship. Cruise ships offer laundry services at a charge. We have culled the clothes we take over the years to be those with the most wrinkle resistance and to dry the quickest. In many parts of the world, we really appreciate the secure zipping pockets of our travel clothes (safari type clothing). Don't forget your hat for sun protection. The more years we travel the more we find we can take less and less clothes with us on our trips. Oceania has no formal nights but I find my blue blazer appreciated at times. Holland America has one formal night a week but a suit is fine as very few formal clothes are seen on those nights. Some cruise ships are cold so be warned. Even if you don't plan to swim, take a bathing suit as the hot tubs and saunas are wonderful and you might need to work on your tan.

We like suitcases that will compress enough to keep under the bed so they don't take up room in the stateroom. We often carry a thin gym bag in case we buy items that will require another suitcase on the way home. On every cruise we take there are passengers whose luggage did not arrive on the airline and they are stuck without their luggage. We put a couple changes of clothing in our carry on luggage and we almost always go a day or two early so any tardy luggage has a chance to catch up with us. On the flight to catch our cruise I label each luggage item with our final destination for the flight (hotel name) because luggage could get mixed up on the shuttle from the airport (this has happened). When flying through remote third world airports we often choose to pack our clothes in plastic bags inside our suitcases as we have had our clothes soaked with rain or covered in dust in the past. Susan & I mix our clothes in each other's suitcases in case only one suitcase doesn't make the airline flight. I use Nalgene water bottles and plastic waterproof boxes to pack my fragile or liquid items.

We have found that having a couple hundred dollars each in one and 5 dollar bills (or euros in parts of the world) opens up so many possibilities to get us good service, pay porters, and buy trinkets. We find out immediately upon entering a country how to tip and who. The US dollar is still king. We split up our credit and debit cards so if we are robbed we can continue our trips. One of the most important thing not to forget is to take some photo copies of your passport picture page. Because you use the photocopy of your passport rather than the actual passport (which the ship holds for you) you may still need your driver's license or other government issued ID at some money exchanges etc or if you have marked your credit cards CID. I have records of credit card numbers and the international phone number for the card. We know which ones have foreign transaction fees. Before we leave on our trip we call the credit card company and let them know which days we will be in each country so they will allow the transactions. We still have cards frozen by the banks when we withdraw large amounts out of the country or make large purchases. This problem is easy to resolve by logging in to the card's web page and checking messages. Keep up with your plane tickets and any vouchers you carry with you. In Europe and Japan in particular be sure your credit cards have been upgraded to Smart Cards that carry the computer chip.

We love our travel agent Dianne Blackburn at Gateway Travel in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She usually follows our progress when we fly and has even called ahead and rebooked flights when she knows we won't make connections. We call her from all over the world. We have used her for over 20 years and feel she consistently gets us the best deals. Susan takes whatever deals she can find to her and Dianne tries to get a better deal. Even when we book a cruise etc we make sure Dianne gets credit with the Cruise Line.