Location: Bordeaux, France

This lesson will cover packing for a world cruise. As I approached this cruise, I searched the internet for cruise packing hints. I found a lot of help out there, but mostly dealing with one-week cruises.

Shoes

I’ve worn Rockport World Tour Classics for over a decade as my standard work/office shoe, and a few months before the cruise I wore them as I hiked increasing distances to “get in shape” for all the walking I anticipated doing as I visited each port.

It was a good plan, as these shoes have been great. But I should have brought a second pair.

• Reason One – if I blew out my walking shoes early in the cruise, I would have had a devil of a time finding good walking shoes that fit my US size 12 feet as the ship traveled thru Asia and Africa.
• Reason Two – it would be nice to rotate shoes most days to give a pair time to breathe, especially if a tour took us thru dirt, mud or water.

I brought a pair of exercise/running shoes for when I walked laps and used the gym, so I did have emergency backup. But a second pair of walking shoes would have been good to have for a cruise that takes over 130 days.

My Rockports can be used when I wear a jacket for “informal” nights, but I now know how many cruise guests wear tuxedos on formal nights. I had a pair of tux-quality shoes made in Hong Kong – and they are great. If I cruise more than a week or two in the future, I will need to bring such shoes.

I already mentioned exercise shoes, but one thing I forgot were pool/beach shoes. I hate flip-flops, so I wore bed slippers to the pool when I played volleyball. I already own a pair of “slides” from when I played soccer (to wear to/from the pitch), I should have brought those with me.

So that breaks down to:

• Hiking / walking shoes (2)
• Fancy / Tux shoes
• Exercise shoes
• Pool shoes

Don’t forget to break them in before the cruise!

Socks

You can’t really talk about shoes without also talking about socks. You need some good, trustworthy hiking socks. I packed four pairs of Darn Tough hiking socks, and I recommend them highly.

If you have these you don’t really need exercise-specific socks, but you can bring some (I brought two pair). I also packed some brown and blue general calf-length compression socks for those days where it is cool enough to wear long trousers rather than shorts, or local custom demands such trousers. I like compression socks if I am going to do a lot of walking as I hate it when socks sag to my ankles.

Don’t forget black socks for the tux.