65 Days Until We Leave for RTW Trip

Earlier this week, I logged into my Delta account, and it reminded me I had 70 days until my trip. After 10 years of dreaming, 5 years of saving, 1 year of planning, I can’t believe we are Round-the-World bound in 2 months. Holy guacamole, batman, my to-do list for RTW trip is a mile long!

My To-Do List

In the next week, my to-do list looks like this:

Book My Seats

Call all the other airlines besides Delta, which includes China Airlines, New Alitalia, KLM, Aeroflot, and SAS to get our seats. Delta cannot access these other airlines plane plans, so I have to call them directly to book seats on three different record locators (confirmation numbers.) I imagine that’s almost five hours of phone work. While I’m on the phone, I need to find out if they have WiFi and what it costs. I also want to find out what kind of inflight entertainment they have and whether we can get gluten-free and vegetarian meals.

Find WiFi

Another thing I want to determine this week is whether there is a WiFi provider that has a pass we can buy that’s good for 30 days on multiple airlines and multiple devices. I think I’m dreaming, but certainly, if anyone knows of such a thing, please let me know.

Get Homework

Next on the list for this week is to confirm with my daughter’s school if there is anything else we need to do to take her out for the month. We’ve worked with her teachers and come up with assignments. Her math teacher wants her to do longitude and latitude problems and determine the fractional position of where we are on the earth by perimeter. Meaning, are we 1/2 from where we were, 2/3rds complete, 1/4 away from home, etc? In addition, she’ll be running math problems around currency and exchange rates. For her writing, she’ll be composing about the history and sites, and if we are lucky, she’ll Skype to her class from the Acropolis with a history lesson!

Buy Adapters

This week is also about the start of the many purchases we will make. We have many items on the list to buy; cameras, adapters, jackets, shoes, batteries, Imodium, and a first aid kit. After much review, I did buy two adapter kits, which we’ll pair with two three-plug adapters, so we can plug in 6 items without needing six adapter kits. Here’s the adapter kits we bought.

Pick Cameras

As for cameras, I am trying to decide between the Nikon COOLPIX S2700 16 MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Zoom and 720p HD Video (Black) or the Canon PowerShot A2500 16MP Digital Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD (Red). If you have a recommendation between the two, please advise. Fortunately, both cameras have rechargeable lithiums, so the only batteries we need are for our watches–which I purchased today. More on watches and cell phones in my next posts.

2019 Update: I have since used both cameras and replaced them with just my Google Pixel 3 with Google Fi, a fantastic option.

Clothing Decisions

The only other items I really need to buy are the pants, jackets and shoes we will wear. These items are so crucial, and I figure all three will be on sale in March. I am looking at the Lands End Featherweight Down jacket. I think this one is the ticket, as it crunches into a ball and is good for 0 degree temps. It’s super affordable, too!

Next up is shoes, which I am finding quite a challenge. I’ll blog about that in its own entry. Thus, my to-do list for RTW trip continues.