If you want to buy a frugal cruise, go to vacationstogo.com and check their offers. I’ve been using them for years. For our tenth anniversary (three years ago) I got us a 7 day Caribbean cruise in a balcony stateroom for under $1000.
There are discounts for former guests, seniors, and certain professions as well. Customer service is decent and we’ve never had a bad trip. They even offer flight and hotel packages if you need that service.
By the looks of his car I think it was vintage C&C 
Birthdays are hardly a secret. In the year between either of your 64th and 65th birthdays expect to be contacted by dozens of companies and agents trying to sell you something Medicare related. Sometimes just selling advice and handholding, other times products.
More often it’s advice and hand holding that by amazing coincidence, leads directly to their product catalog, and nobody else’s.
But yeah, irritating. FWIW I’ve never heard anything about Medicare sales being illegal. Including cold calling in person. Is that something local to your state?
Pssst, here’s the plan - we’ll break into Atamasama’s house & head straight for the bathroom counter; I have it on good advice (his own) that he’s away so I know we’ll be able to make a clean get away! 
A little B & E with a superhero?
No thanks.
Not making that mistake again.
Superman or Batman?
That’s what you get for pairing up with a superhero that’s not bright enough to wear their underwear on the inside of their outfit!
It’s the upstairs bathroom connected to the main bedroom. I appreciate it.
Me too! Actually it’s in two small bags. They’re very handy. I’ve been doing that for probably around 20 years.
The downside is that it has to actually be put into your luggage or it’s not very useful…
I have an overnight bag that’s always packed with everything. Two days clothes, swimsuit, all toiletries, eye glasses, chargers, cash, passport, etc. Only thing I add is my tablet and away I go for an overnight or two.
I have established checklists for larger trips. One for cruises and one for air travel. Sections for stuff to do a few days prior, like check the suitcase isn’t low on decongestant or toothpaste vs trip duration. Then stuff to do the day prior, like set out the clothes, with a complete inventory of what to bring based on trip duration, climate, and mission. Then a day prior section for relatively last minute things I can’t stow or do ahead of time. Like reload weekly pill dispensers, fresh beard trim, etc. And last of all a “Day of / Get out the door” checklist with everything from sunglasses to empty the dishwasher and take out the trash.
All of which works to almost eliminate last minute frenzy and “What did I forget?”. It also mostly eliminates not having something when you get there. Check each item off as you do it or put it into the suitcase(s), and when they’re all checked off, you know you’re ready.
It happens I’m leaving on a 2-week expedition type cruise on Friday. The checklist has 180 items on it. Many are inapplicable to an expedition but stem from the more typical drinking, dining, & sunning cruise, and there are also expedition-specific things added, like a wetsuit & hiking boots.
As of now, ~48 hours before departure I’m ahead of my usual pace and there’s about 10 things left for day prior = Thu and 15 last minute out the door things for Fri afternoon. All else is done and more importantly, known to be done.
That’s waaay overkill for someone who travels rarely. But if you’re gone a couple weeks a month like I am on at least one, if not two trips each month, doing it right every time gets easy. As long as you write down what you did rightly and add what you did wrongly to your checklist for next time.
Or it may not be. My husband just inherited a six-figure sum. Lots of it will be used for my benefit, because we live together, but I wouldn’t dream of placing restrictions of how he spends it. I voiced my opinion, but made it clear that it’s 100% up to him. He has already identified what I think is a stupid waste of money, but I said go for it: you only get one life.
Where did you get this crazy idea about checklists? 
'Tis a bit of humour there. Other professions, notably the medical profession, have been encouraging the use of checklists that have long been ubiquitous in the business of driving airliners. The surgeon and author Atul Gawande even wrote a whole book about it, called “The Checklist Manifesto”.
No it’s Medicare rules. They can’t visit unless invited, not supposed to call you unless you’ve already joined their plan.
Cool. Thank you.
For whatever reason I mostly avoided the marketing onslaught when I turned 65. There’s always a flurry of spam, texts, and snail mail again at renewal time, but not nearly what many people report as their turning-65 experience.
FWIW, so far I’ve been real happy w my choices and intend to re-up the same way if they’re offered again next year. Good luck as you and Hubs navigate the transition.
One of my first uses of AI was to draft checklists of admin protocol for grant received, grant submitted, report submitted - for my own personal use. Because there are so many steps I always forget one.
I hate checklists for To-Dos. I love them for How-Tos.
Kinda hoped that link would go to a definition of “dopp kit,” rather than an Amazon page to buy one.
Sorry, here you go:
Oh! A shit kit.
I hover over links to see where they go before I click them. If I had a hate on for links to Amazon used as an example of a product, I wouldn’t click on one.
There are also browser extensions you can add to enable highlight and right-click on anything and google it. Which gives you a definition, or at least explanation, of damned near anything that can be expressed in text.
Word. I’ve been harassed by AARP for twenty years (I ignore it because I’m not a retired person. Just like I don’t do podcasts because I don’t have an iPod).
Why do you ever take it out?
I do a number of annual events. Everything I need (mostly gear) is on that list. As I pack things, that line becomes edited to strikeout text. When I get near the end of the list, anything that’s not struck out gets highlighted so that I can easily see the couple of things left that are needed.
Depending upon the event; time of year, location, altitude (ChapStik or something similar), there are common things that one might not remember - sunscreen, wool socks, the winter (insulated) work gloves, headlamps, tools; etc. that one will be unhappy without. Saved my arse a bunch o’ times those lists have.