En route to Casablanca, Morocco. Arrive on 7-May.

More technology lessons I’ve learned during my world cruise.

Don’t bring an old mobile phone

Since I have family that lives in Europe, I’ve always owned a “world phone,” a phone that works outside the US. Yeah – it costs more, but when I visit Spain, I know the phone will work.

So, my original phone was five years old, but it worked fine… in California. Once I exposed it to more extreme environments (heat, humidity) and started taking a lot of pictures – taxing the processor, which increases heat – my phone started complaining. At the worst it shut down every time I tried to take a picture.

Thanks to the internet I was able to buy a new phone and mail it to Cape Town for me to pick up. <Note: The South Africa customs fees were higher than the cost of the phone.> But I should have upgraded my phone before going on a world cruise.

PS: My provider is Google Fi – I have had voice and data services in every port except Rarotonga (Cook Islands) and Namibia.

Study Electricity

The cruise ship has US 3-prong (NEMA 5) and Italian 3-prong power outlets (Type L). But there are not US sockets everywhere in the cabin. I need to use an Italian-US adapter to run my sleep apnea machine near the bed. The ship had the adapter, but this raises an issue.

On this cruise I have confidence I will be sleeping in my cabin or a hotel of a high standard – the hotel will also have adapters. But what about airports? What about when plans change (like happened on my Cambodia trip). I already owned a general European/Asian adapter, but it didn’t cover South East Asia and Africa. I should have done a little more work confirming which adapters I needed in each area of the world.

Sidenote: my sister bought me a travel power strip for my cabin, and it has been a great help.