So, with only a few short weeks until I next set sail, I was wondering what I could blog about for CruiseMiss.

More thoughts about my recent Arcadia ship visit?  The 3 Cunard Queen’s Jubilee tribute? Why I love cruising so much?  None seemed to quite give me the inspiration I needed.  I couldn’t work out why. Every time I started writing I became easily distracted and my thoughts wandered.  Starting to waffle on about the Arcadia visit had me daydreaming about arriving at the cruise terminal for my forthcoming cruise and I lost my train of thought.  Describing the 3 Queens in port just made me drift off, picturing the 3 other ships that will be lining up in the port when I depart.  Putting my thoughts down about why I love cruising so much just led to more daydreaming and writers block. And the more I thought about what to write, the more I started thinking about my imminent cruise and all the things I still have to do.  That’s when it started.  I’m not sure if it was blind panic, sheer disorganised chaos or the realisation of just how little time I’ve got left to get everything ready! It was staring me in the face… I should blog about pre-cruise stress!!!

I’m sure I’m not the only one to suffer it.  I’ve no idea why it should be stressful, preparing for something so brilliant and exciting, but it is.  It might not be the same kind of stress you get in the office when you hear the sound of deadlines whooshing by, but it is a kind of stress all the same.

My wife suffers it too.  Her realisation that she needs another new wardrobe to take is stress personified.  She doesn’t enjoy shopping. I enjoy it less. Especially when it’s shopping WITH her, FOR her! And even less so when it’s last minute and when she can’t find a single thing to go with her newest top in a shop the size of a high street! I start enthusiastically enough, happy to point out things that look nice. But after about 45 minutes and the first 8 item session with her trying things on, I start to struggle.  I’m sure it’s the same for most guys and probably not much different to normal clothes shopping, but when it is for a cruise and her requirements are so exacting for what garments she needs to find, it seems so much more tiresome and STRESSFUL!

Then there’s the passports.  I know where they are. I know they’ve been in the same spot since the last cruise. I know they are in date.  There was 4 years left on mine last year. I’m pretty sure there will still be 3 years left this year. So why must I obsess over them and keep checking them every few days?!

And then at silly o’clock in the morning I wake up in a sweat, sitting bolt upright in bed….oh my god! I haven’t done the online check-in yet or printed all the docs! No, no, it was just a bad dream I did do that weeks ago. Probably just after checking the passports for the thousandth time!

It goes on and on and the nearer the cruise gets the more intense the stress seems to get.  The latest thing to stress about is not getting ill before we go. The slightest sniff is bird flu, the littlest gurgle in the stomach is norovirus and heaven forbid I should get a headache!!!

Someone, please tell me all this is normal?!  I have experienced it all 3 times before and I can only think that I get so stressed because I love going on the cruise so much and want everything to be perfect.  Which it will be. If I don’t give myself an ulcer before we board!

I know that once I step on-board the stress will soon be dumped overboard and left on the dockside.  Following a nice early check-in there’ll be a leisurely, relaxed buffet lunch and a bit of a wander around the ship whilst waiting for the cabins to become available.  As soon as they are I will be heading straight there so I can dump the hand luggage along with any remaining stress, which will immediately vanish as I collapse in a satisfied heap onto that mega comfortable Queen size bed!

Join us www.facebook.com/cruisemiss

Author: Scott