Some helpful packing tips are as follows:

• Stick to a neutral palette, so you can mix and match…accessory with splashes of color and jewelry.
• Take things you can wear more than once…a dressy sweater can be worn on one of your travel days with jeans and on a formal night, too.
• Black is your friend…whether clothes or shoes!!
• If you are taking a suit or a dressy dress, fold and place on the top of your suitcase, layered with tissue paper…this almost eliminate all those deep creases and wrinkles.
• Pack some extra hangers…never enough in the cabin.
• If you choose to use soft luggage, the duffel bag style, you can get more in them and they can be tucked aways easily under your berth.
• Leave your hair dryers at home, they are supplied in all bathrooms.
• Don’t need to bring beach towels, they are provided by the cruise line.
• Do you enjoy a cocktail in your cabin while getting ready for dinner?? Bring a new, unopened plastic bottle of your favorite “Spirits of Frumente” (this was actually a term for a shot of bourbon…a medical order that was used in many nursing homes 30 years ago as a medication for sleep!! How many of you remember that??)  All cruise lines discourage this, as alcohol sales is a huge source of income aboard.  However I have never seen any confiscated in when luggage is processed through the scanners at the pier.
• Bring along an extra canvas bag to use as an extra carry-on for your trip home for all of you shoppers to take home your vacation souvenirs.
• Bring an extra zip lock bag for any wet laundry you have for your trip home.
• Bring along your favorite coffee mug…coffee is free and plentiful…to wake you up and keep you awake for those early morning conference session!!
• Pack a warm jogging suit for layering in the conference rooms…and bring along a set of your favorite scrubs for our first conference day.
• Pack things in zip lock bags. You can buy super size ones now. They are easily inspected through and if TSA does inspect your luggage you won’t find your belongings looking like the remains of hurricane Catrina.

Do YOU have some packing tips to share???

Please pass share them with US.

I am looking forward to seeing you soon…aboard the Carnival Liberty.

Enthusiastically…

Barb Herrera RNE

]]> http://www.cesatsea.com/some-helpful-packing-tips/feed/ http://www.cesatsea.com/19th-annual-neonatal-perinatal-conference-cruise/ http://www.cesatsea.com/19th-annual-neonatal-perinatal-conference-cruise/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:08:04 +0000 cesatsea http://www.cesatsea.com/?p=1702 Information Coming Soon ]]> http://www.cesatsea.com/19th-annual-neonatal-perinatal-conference-cruise/feed/ http://www.cesatsea.com/in-other-news/ http://www.cesatsea.com/in-other-news/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:30:33 +0000 admin http://www.cesatsea.com/?p=442 Hello to all of you. It’s very exciting for me to be doing my first blog. Last week was a week when many of us are shown appreciation both as mothers and nurses. Were celebrated last week and appropriately so. But I’m wondering about the other 51 weeks. Are you loving and nurturing yourself….putting “YOU” at the top of the list and not at the bottom. Focusing on getting my own needs met is something very new to me. I’ve come to the realization that I have not been responsible for loving and taking care of myself. Ouch…that hurts!! Me admitting that I haven’t been irresponsible to nurture myself. The word responsible means….having the ability to respond to a need…We all have the ability but…Are we making it a priority? Are your needs getting met? Do you even know what your needs are? You may think this sounds a little selfish….but I believe far too many of us suffer from “FNS” …Florence Nightingale Syndrome. We have been called and trained to serve…our families and our patients…and in this process have forgotten to nurture ourselves. We have somehow arrived at the bottom of the list, rarely or never getting our own basic needs met. I am reminded of the little blurb that all of the airlines give us, just before a plane departs, “If the oxygen mask drops down…put the mask over your nose and mouth, before trying to help others!” I need to remind my self at the beginning of every day…to make time for MY needs. Just in case, you’ve forgotten what they are…Mazlow’s Hierarchy of needs is a great place to start! It’s amazing what an improvement we can make in our quality of life…if we get the proper rest, nutrition and put that oxygen mask on and breathe. I hope those of you that have heard my presentation, “Nurturing the Nurturer Within” and received our goody bag of ” Barb’s Favorite Things” are making baby steps toward little positive changes in your life and really loving yourselves. I too, am on this journey myself…and have taken more “15 minute bubble baths with my new discovery of the “high water bath” It’s amazing to me how 15 minutes seem to pass away in seconds when I’m working at the hospital… but 15 minutes in a relaxing hot tub is a great escape. I have also committed to…and having success at eating 3 meals a day at regular times…7am-8am, 12:30 and 6:30. I am surprised at how the desire to snack in between meals has totally disappeared. What have you been doing to nurture yourself, since January? Are you using and enjoying all the goodies?

Can you encourage others…or do you need some encouragement? What are your own personal goals in this area…? What’s working and what’s not working. .We are on this journey together…I’d love to hear from you!!

Enthusiastically,

Barb