Mail Call!

[Playtennis]

We are going on an 85 day cruise and it just struck us. What do we do with the mail??!! We don't have any relatives close by so...do we burden a friend with piles of (mostly) junk mail??

And what about things we haven't thought about for a vacation that exceeds - by a long shot - our normal vacations??

If I had hair, I'd be tearing it out now!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[colombiangirl]

Go on the USPS website and suspend your delivery. I do it every time we go on vacation.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Forums mobile app

[LHT28]

Do you not have a neighbour or a friend checking on your house ??

Like grass cutting

Our Insurance requires a physical check of the house every 72 hours in case something goes wrong ...water leak. gas leak, fire

[Mura]

I agree with Columbiagirl about suspending delivery with USPS, but bear in mind you're going to need a truck when you pick it all up!

 

Lyn's point is well taken as well! Ah, the complications of LONG vacations!

 

I know what you mean about mostly junk mail ...

[colombiangirl]

Actually, you don't have to pick it up. Your mail carrier will drop it all off on the day you reinstate your mail service.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Forums mobile app

[Pet Nit Noy]

We are going on an 85 day cruise and it just struck us. What do we do with the mail??!! We don't have any relatives close by so...do we burden a friend with piles of (mostly) junk mail??

 

Yes, ask friends to do this but minimize the burden.

 

Rather than asking the USPS to hold the mail, select the category for a temporary change of address. That means your mail will be delivered to your friends' address for the duration of the trip. They won't have to drive to your house, at least for this chore.

 

Take your friends out for a truly memorable dinner before you leave for your cruise and do it again afterwards.

 

Give your friend authority to throw out every catalog, flier, etc. You set the criteria and make your friends believe you have confidence in their judgment!

 

And what about things we haven't thought about for a vacation that exceeds - by a long shot - our normal vacations??

 

Before the first round the world cruise, there was an amazingly active roll call that discussed lots of the issues involved in an extended vacation. Is your roll call having equivalent conversations? What are your fellow cruisers saying about what else they're doing for the protracted vacation? If there's no thread about these issues, start the conversation.

[sitraveler]

WOW.

 

USPS will only hold mail for 30 days.

 

You should have your mail sent to someone who will review it and contact you for anything important.

[njhorseman]

USPS will hold mail for a maximum of 30 days. When you're going to be away longer than that they require you to have your mail forwarded. We are fortunate to have our son and daughter-in-law living nearby and we forward the mail to them.

[Playtennis]

Go on the USPS website and suspend your delivery. I do it every time we go on vacation.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Forums mobile app

 

 

 

Suspending mail doesn't work for holds over 30'days.

We will, if there's no other way, have it forwarded to a friend.

But I'm also trying to find out what other challenges that I haven't thought about.

Thanks for the replies.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[drkitkat123]

Just tell oceania and regent to stop sending you mail. Other than brochures from oceania and regent we get very little mail now!

[Playtennis]

Just tell oceania and regent to stop sending you mail. Other than brochures from oceania and regent we get very little mail now!

 

 

 

LOL. A perfect solution if only I could stop the bills that way!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Playtennis]

Yes, ask friends to do this but minimize the burden.

 

Rather than asking the USPS to hold the mail, select the category for a temporary change of address. That means your mail will be delivered to your friends' address for the duration of the trip. They won't have to drive to your house, at least for this chore.

 

Take your friends out for a truly memorable dinner before you leave for your cruise and do it again afterwards.

 

Give your friend authority to throw out every catalog, flier, etc. You set the criteria and make your friends believe you have confidence in their judgment!

 

 

 

Before the first round the world cruise, there was an amazingly active roll call that discussed lots of the issues involved in an extended vacation. Is your roll call having equivalent conversations? What are your fellow cruisers saying about what else they're doing for the protracted vacation? If there's no thread about these issues, start the conversation.

 

Thanks to all who made suggestions!

Pet Nit Noy, You've made some great suggestions and I do like the one about asking the question about "what to do to prepare for an extended vacation" I will do that ASAP. Unfortunately at this point there are only two of us who have signed up for the full 85-day cruise. You don't, by any chance, have the title of that thread on the world cruise dialogue? I will do searches for it.

 

Keith

[travelglobetrotter]

Thanks to all who made suggestions!

Pet Nit Noy, You've made some great suggestions and I do like the one about asking the question about "what to do to prepare for an extended vacation" I will do that ASAP.

 

 

I'm currently receiving forwarded mail for my daughter, whose trip is not quite as long as yours. Only first class mail is being forwarded, which reduces the amount being saved for her return. We have taken trips lasting between 30 and 40 days, and out local post office manager OK d our hold mail request asking for more than 30 days. We love the longer cruises, and wish you a wonderful voyage. Marlene

[Pet Nit Noy]

Thanks to all who made suggestions! Pet Nit Noy, You've made some great suggestions and I do like the one about asking the question about "what to do to prepare for an extended vacation" I will do that ASAP. Unfortunately at this point there are only two of us who have signed up for the full 85-day cruise. You don't, by any chance, have the title of that thread on the world cruise dialogue? I will do searches for it.

 

Sorry, I don't know the title of that thread, but there are more recent/upcoming RTW cruises. I'd start by jumping on those roll calls and see what folks are saying. Some of the participants may be able to point you to the first RTW thread.

 

I can tell you what my husband and I do as snowbirds. (We divide our time evenly between two destinations.) In both places, we've hired someone to come into our home weekly. Each is familiar with home maintenance/construction. In one place, the fellow is the manager of the condo and we pay him for these private services. In the other place, the fellow is a contractor who provides this service for clients who have used him for other construction jobs. Some weekly jobs: turn the water back on and let it flow through every faucet, flush every commode, and run the disposal for a few minutes.

 

In one home, we have tankless/on-demand hot water so we don't need to turn off the water or drain the hot water heater. In the other home, we have a conventional hot water heater so we turn off the water, but we do not drain the tank; the weekly use prevents the problems that come with dis-use. You will want someone to start your car and let it run for 15 minutes every week or, you can take the battery out of the car entirely. Both approaches have their pros and cons. Do you have a friend, relative who could benefit from using a spare car for 85 days? If you have confidence in their driving skills, consider letting them drive you car in your absence.

 

That's all I can think of now.

Edited September 5, 2017 by Pet Nit Noy

[Playtennis]

Pet Nit Not,

Hadn't though about the cars and water heater draining. For the car I have a dribble charger and a gas additive that will keep the gas useable for a long time.

Thanks again.

Keith

[Bobocasey]

If you live in a cooler climate might want to turn off all the water to the house and drain the pipes then leave one pipe open because there will still be water in the pipe and it wont freeze and burst. (plummer told me that) Also turn off the water to your refrigerator. not just at the refrigerator but at the pipe. Also if you have a humidifier on your furnace turn off the humidifier and the water to it. Last year we went on vacation and luckily had turned off the water to the house and drained the pipes but the did not shut the valve to the water line to refrigerator, ice make broke and the stored water in the refrigerator and line spilled out onto the floor. About 4 gallons. If the water to the entire house hadn't been turned off my house would have flooded. Luckily me neighbor who checks our house happened to find it the day it happened.

[cbb]

here is a boatload of info: ATW15, ATW16 (because ATW15 was burned out by Insignia fire)

 

then do a "search" within the thread for whatever you want to know. There is info on prescriptions, mail, insurance, medical stuff, shots, visas, etc!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=113622931

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2091056&highlight=atw+2016

 

my ATW16 posting thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2295322&highlight=rtw16

 

Wayne's thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2305998&highlight=waynetor

 

have a great time!!! BTW...we sent our mail to our child who had access to bank accounts, POA, etc. Worked out fine. Also TURN OFF WATER TO WHOLE HOUSE!!!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I have a whole list since we're snowbirds too. Turning off the water is great advice. Also most electrical breakers, although if travelling in summer, leaving the A/C on at a fairly high temperature will help prevent dampness and mold problems. And we do not have anyone checking our place in Florida, although our son checks our place up north.

 

As for bills, I would hope that you have or will have automated most of these so they are either fully automated, or at least set up to pay electronically. Start now to study your paper mail for bills that aren't paperless and take steps to set up electronic notifications and payment for them. I have a system of reminders set up in my email so I don't miss any of these payments.

 

Have a great 85 days!

[cbb]

yeah, automatic bill pay is a no brainer if you travel lots. (Or even if you don't.....one less thing to remember!!!)

 

we kept our house thermostat turned to about 55-60 in winter, 80 for summer and it worked fine.

[Playtennis]

CBB

First, thank you very much for the links to the ATW cruises. I will look through those for ideas of how to prep the house. I am also interested in how the individual cruisers researched and decided on private or ship's excursions for all those ports. It's taking forever with just our 44 ports! Also, i would imagine that you all had a whopper of a Meet & Greet to exchange ideas about excursions that you had room for others to join!

BTW, I noticed your interest in WWII history which you enhanced by visiting all of the sites you could at Pearl Harbor, etc. In Baltimore, there is a well maintained WWII Liberty Ship, the S.S. John W. Brownthat does 3 or so trips in Baltimore Harbor. I've been on it twice. During both sailing they had reenacts playing the part of President & Elenor Roosevelt, Abbott & Costello, McQuire Sisters- that sang 40s songs accompanied by a wonderful Jimmy Dorsey era band. There were lots of memorabilia collectors dressed up in WWII uniforms, - allies and Germany - showing off a phenomenal amount of their collections. There was a wreath laying ceremony in the outer harbor.

One of the highlights of the trip was having the ship go to General Quarters because we were under attack by a Japanese Zero. Fortunately it was chased away by the pompom guns and fly-bys by a B25 & a Corsair.

Here's the link to the organizations website: http://www.ssjohnwbrown.org

I do hope that they still have sailing days!

[cbb]

playtennis--

 

yes I am the history lover and the ATW16 folks put up with me! We did ship's excursions for those places we had never been to before and also were worried about getting back to the ship in a timely fashion or about personal safety--hence shorex!

 

The ATW16 WWII shorex were wonderful and we took as many as we could. I used to teach high school seniors a semester class on WWII so that is my great interest (but also love the Civil War and the '60s!)

 

I've not ever really had a bad shorex with O and never had the experiences that others have had with the people in their bus or van not returning in a timely fashion.

 

If we had been to a port or were ready to just walk then we took the "free shuttles" O offered which took us into town and arranged to pick us up at certain locations which was greatly appreciated. We could grab lunch in town, find a neat place for a drink, or just wander.

 

We are circumnavigating Australia on Regatta in December/Jan and there are 2 WWII shorex we are taking: Alotau PNG, and Port Moresby, PNG. We are taking advantage of our travel partners and hitching rides with them in their rental car for many of the ports (thanks Jennie, Peter, Bruce & Cathi!) or wandering on our own!!!

 

In April-May we're on Nautica and going Mumbai-Rome and are taking shorex in the UAE ports...let them take care of security!

 

really interested in your liberty ship excursions and will definitely look into the next time we visit. We had an ATW16 experience similar to your description as a gift from O; it was on the USS Missouri and we had the 40s music, the young women & men dressed in 40s clothing, and it was a pretty extraordinary evening. Captain & General Manager were in their Hawaiian shirts!!! It was awesome!