The Things To Do At Home Before You Depart for Your Cruise Vacation – A Mega Checklist

Just take a moment and gaze at the featured image above this post. Is that not just one of the most amazing things we will ever see live in our lives? Endless blue and nothing on the horizon as far as the eye can see. To me, sail away, from the back of the ship and watching land fade into nothingness is the ultimate stress relief and knowing I now have days upon days of relaxation ahead of me. Simply amazing right?

Unless…

You happen to have forgotten something important thousands of miles away at home and now out on the open sea you have no way of fixing whatever that is.

This post got me thinking due to a SouthernLiving.com post that recommends we always take a real picture of our oven before we depart on a trip because that way if you have to think something like “did I really turn off the oven” you can look at your phone and say – YES – PHEW – I am good.

Personally I have never left the oven on or checked it before I go, but that does not mean I do not have a rather long checklist to verify to make sure the start to my cruise vacation is as stress free as I want it to be. Let me share this list with you and see if you do the same.

Water. Of the first things I do before I walk out the door is go down to the closet that holds all my water bits and first shut off the pump and next flip the lever to shut off the water to the house. After all, if a pipe were to fail with the pump on it would pump water into the house until the basement became a swimming pool. No thanks!

Alarms and cams. I have an alarm system and setting it is always on my checklist including a separate motion sensing camera I only active inside when I am gone. The later alerts me via e-mail instantly if it senses movement or sound. Most reassuring. Plus I make sure all my cams inside and outside my home have the latest firmware updates so they don’t update while I am gone and perhaps go off-line due to updates.

Check computers for remote access. I proactively make sure all my bills are paid in full before I depart but if something pops up I make sure of a number of technology bits are set. I run all windows updates then set them NOT to update for 30 days to avoid a forced reboot. Then check my remote access software so if I need to do something all my banks will still think I am at home doing whatever and not trigger fraud alerts or holds. Lastly I run a fresh backup of critical files on my external USB drive and that goes into a fire safe.

HVAC. I set my heating / cooling to a level I would never like but the house is just fine with to save some cash. I do this via my app in my phone but I confirm it is set with the wall control before I leave. I also set the fan to circulate and turn down my water heater to vacation setting and try to remember to turn it back up the day I arrive back home to avoid a cold shower day 2 at home.

Power off stuff. After I pull out of my garage I turn off the power to the garage door and this does two things. It, in effect, locks the door so it can not be forced open. Second, no matter how much you try to guess my outside code it will never open with power off. I also power off printers and many other power using items that will not need to be up and running like on a normal day at home.

Check all my doors and windows are locked. Much like the oven idea that started all this nothing makes me sweat like the idea I have forgotten to lock something. By taking 2 minutes and checking every room before I go I can sail without that feeling of did I….

Set a few lights on timers. Is too old school and does not make a difference? To me having lights coming on and off does just maybe dissuade someone from thinking I am not at home.

Glasses and Medications. This is so important because so much of travel is visual. If everything on your trip is blurry you are going to be so disappointed. And medications? While you maybe could get a refill wherever you are going who wants that stress when you could be doing other things!

3x Check for passports, phone and wallet. We all know we will not be allowed to board the ship without your passport that is valid for MORE than 6 months (for most sailings). I have once got to the airport without my phone and it almost killed me rushing home and making the luggage check-in with my literally 1 minute to spare. Oh and no wallet is no fun so I check over and over and over then am good!

And that is everything that I think matters to make sure my cruise vacation is as relaxing and fun as it can be without that nagging worry that something at home is not quite right. What do you think of my list and is there anything you do that I should be doing too? – René