There are those things, mostly daily household chores, which go away when you sail on any ship that owned/operated by someone else. So I am not speaking about family sailboats, houseboats, or any of the ‘work for a living” type of ocean travel. And yes, I do mean to exclude you Navy types – your experience is not exactly the same as a cruise ship passenger. I don’t have to cook, clean, do dishes, vacuum, shop, etc. Not having those chores can free up an amazing amount of time. (Ok, to be fair, there are a number of things on that list that I don’t do at home either. Just saying…)
But anyway – I am not including laundry on the list for a number of reasons. First – if a trip doesn’t exceed your suitcase space, laundry isn’t an issue. Second, if you don’t mind paying a lot, you don’t have to worry about laundry. Third, if free laundry is included – also not a problem. Fourth – if hand washing is a favorite thing, then there really isn’t a problem either. Five – and this seems to apply to significant number of passengers – if you spend all day everyday in your swim suit there really isn’t much need for laundry.
All of this takes me to the last option. On this particular cruise line, I get one bag of “wash & fold” per cruise. The plastic bag isn’t all that big, but it is better than a flimsy paper bag. I have also gotten extremely good at rolling, stuffing, and smashing down. How else would I mange 4 shirts, five pairs of long pants, six support tanks, socks and more than a week’s worth of underwear leaving enough room at the top of the top of the bag to tie it shut. Hint, you don’t pick it up by the top of the bag. Then there is the challenge of filling out the laundry slip which seems to cover swimsuits, pjs, underwear, shorts, socks, t-shirts….
Timing is also everything – managing so that I will be ok till the end of the cruise without too much hand washing. The last is important since there is NO clothes line in the bathroom.. None, nada, nothing other than hanging things over the shower door. It is humid. So even if we were in a port, drying something on the balcony isn’t an option. Moving? Eh, I am not interested in either littering the ocean or watching clothing blow away.
Thinking about it – reading books, talking to friends, drinking coffee, and stitching are all MUCH more interesting.
Part 3/4 of the Happy Haunting mini-SAL. Still need to complete all the backstitching.
and obviously, this is another Barbara Ana – dreaming of Butterflies started today (because I really didn’t want to work on the Halloween Countdown)
On our last cruise, the laundry bags were so small and flimsy that they fell apart if you tried to put in more than two shirts. The friendly receptionist gave us some extra bags and told us to double bag.
The more I hear about your Quantum of the Seas, the more I like it.
The Solarium Bistro more than makes up for the poor and frequent tendering.