PACKING

Packing for a World Cruise is very intimidating – especially if this is your first long cruise.

Things that you usually don’t have to deal with on shorter cruises (less than 30 days) include:

How to handle mail?
How to get prescription medicines
What to pack?
Where will I put everything?
How will I get all those bags to the ship?
Plus more –

I have put together a World Cruise FAQ that will answer many of these questions HERE

More details about packing HERE

I try to keep these up to date – please send any suggestions or corrections to connect@theinsidecabin.com

EARLY BOOKING BENEFITS

If you plan on taking a World Cruise – take advantage of booking early – which means by June 1st of the previous year – so for the 2025 World Cruise, this means book by June 3rd, 2024 – More HERE

Here were the Early Booking benefits for 2024

LUGGAGE FORWARD

Since we are in a Signature Suite – we were allowed to ship unlimited luggage in advance using Luggage Forward – which costs about $160 a bag if you pay for it yourself. Starting in 2025, there may no longer be unlimited luggage, so check the details first.

You must have your bags ready to go by Dec 15th; the next time you see your bags, they will be in your cabin. Nice.

We shipped seven bags and a box. The limit is 50 lbs per box, each measuring no more than 62 inches. We have found that the Home Depot Heavy Duty Large box is a nice size to ship in advance.

We enjoy participating in all the theme nights and costume parties, so we had two suitcases with nothing but formal wear and costumes.

WILL IT ALL FIT?

We buy suitcases that nest to fit many of them under the bed. For the rest, we will stow them along walls and accept having a tight fit in places. In the past, the ship would store extra suitcases outside your cabin. This is no longer an option – so don’t plan on this. You can find the dimensions of the typical HAL bed HERE

Try to avoid The Graveyard of Good Intentions – more  HERE – I finally quit bringing hardcover books – I never read them – but know yourself and avoid the graveyard!

Tell me in the comments how you deal with The Graveyard of Good Intentions!

VISAs

This cruise was very challenging regarding the number of required visas and the difficulty of getting them. Most countries will allow US Citizens to enter without a Visa, or a Visa can be granted on arrival. In other cases, the ship can get the necessary Visas on your behalf.

On the 2023 World Cruise – we only needed to get VISAs or ETAs for Australia and New Zealand in advance. The rest of our stops either didn’t require a Visa or HAL was able to get it for us. Not so for the 2024 World Cruise.

HAL recommends using CIBT – and if you choose to use them, start the process using the HAL CIBT Link to get a pretty nice discount.

I find that using VISA services that specialize in one particular country is the best way to go. Large companies that service many countries are sometimes unaware of tips and tricks.

I recommend that you call the VISA service before you commit to be sure you understand all the costs and limitations. This is also a chance to determine how easy it is to get them on the phone. If it’s hard to get ahold of people before they have your money – It won’t get better afterward.

Be on the lookout for extra charges for expedited service. This often means they will expedite your application inside their office and may have no power to expedite anything with the embassy.

Be very careful when looking for the country’s official Visa application site or their preferred provider. The best way to find this information is to start with the country’s embassy or consulate website and look for the tab “VISA SERVICES.” This will lead you to the official sites.   My 2024 World Cruise reference page HERE has all the correct links along with How-to Guides and videos.

If you can’t get your VISA service employees on the phone before you pay – keep looking.

Here are the Visas we were required to get for 2024.

China – This requires visiting a Chinese consulate twice – once to drop off your application and a second time to pick up your approved Visa. We found that  OASIS China Visa offered the best service for those not choosing to do it themselves.

After a few months, HAL rearranged our itinerary so we could take advantage of a Visa waiver program for people entering China in Shanghai and using approved tour guides. Passengers who didn’t want to go ashore didn’t need a Visa.

India – This eVisa is available online and is relatively simple to do yourself. The website is well established; most people get their Visas in less than a day. If you didn’t want to go ashore, you didn’t need a eVisa.

Vietnam – It was easy to get this $25 Visa on your own – or you could let HAL get it for $50. If you have a lot of OBC to spend, it may be worth letting HAL get this one for you.

Sri Lanka – A Transit Visa is required – which is free and very easy to get online. Be sure you are on the official Sri Lanka website – If they ask for money, you are on the wrong website or asking for a Tourist Visa instead of a Transit Visa.

Brazil – Getting a Brazil Visa was a significant source of last-minute stress for many. While we all knew this would be a requirement, we learned it would be obtainable online. We assumed, and HAL assumed incorrectly, that this would be pretty simple, like New Zealand or Australia.

Wrong

Brazil hired VFS Global to run the front-end process to validate the applications and forward them to Brazil for approval.

While simple enough in theory, the website turned out to be buggy and crashed frequently. The links they provided in emails were often broken. People with extensive website experience could navigate these pitfalls and muddle through. But for most folks used to very professional commerce websites, the site was a disaster and a significant source of frustration.

To make matters worse, the acceptable standards for the required documents were poorly defined and inconsistently administered. A document acceptable to one reviewer would be rejected by the next. This was bad enough, but what made it even worse was that it would take up to two weeks in some cases to learn that your document was unacceptable. I created a How to Get a Brazil Visa Guide, and if you read through it, you will understand the problem better. All the Visa services were also learning and couldn’t offer helpful insight.

We were all required to produce a 30-day transaction history from our banks showing we had at least $2000. After several weeks of frustration, HAL produced a declaration we could use instead of a financial statement where HAL certified that all passengers had enough money.

This visa was required for all passengers, and we were all told that we would be denied boarding if we didn’t get the visa before we left. After weeks of realizing this was unlikely for most passengers, HAL got authorization that people without Visas would be allowed to sail but may not be able to go ashore in Brazil. This is very much a work in progress, and HAL has until 10 January to get this figured out. More to come.

My next update will discuss the wonderful activities and theme nights on a Grand World Voyage.