How do you fit your cruise stuff into your bags?

[TiggerBouncy]

Follow me here for a moment....
Say you are coming from a cold area. So you are coming in jeans, warm shirt, jacket, etc.
You need 1+ bathing suits. probably at least 2.
You need a costume for pirates night. That may includes boots, a hat and other accessories. You will use these once.
You need a jacket, slacks, dress, whatever and a pair of nice shoes for Palo / Remy. You will use these once (or maybe twice if formal night is different).
If it's SWDAS, you need a costume for that (these can get big and expensive). You will use this once.
OH, Let's not forget the Fish Extenders. Or the Magnet group. Or the ornament group if it's a holiday cruise.

I mean, I need a room to sleep in, 2 rooms for my valet's and an extra storage room for my bags.

Seriously... how do you all do it?

 

[mevelandry]

I pack light (I try to leave unnecessary stuff at home) and I roll out my clothes. I fill the inside of my shoes with stuff and bring only sample format of toothpaste and beauty products. I bring only one bathing suite but dry it up in the shower (there's a clothing line).

I do not participate to groups.

 

[SteveMP]

I just remember that there is a laundry room on board as well as laundry service. So only need a couple pants and a couple dress shirts. We have large suitcases. If you really have trouble buy spacebags, then just get a bag to bring stuff home in.

 

[richmo]

Yeah, I hate packing for a cruise. I'd scrap all the costumes, fish extenders, etc. Formal night isn't even that anymore, so no suits/ties/etc. I'd just bring one pair of nice pants and a dress shirt, everything else casual.

 

[mmmears]

We travel with carryons only. We don’t do FE anymore. Carry travel size toiletries. And we don’t bring bulky items that can only be worn once.

 

[darnheather]

I double my costumes to be wearable on other days. For example either a black skirt or black jeans for pirate night. Either can be reworn.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Follow me here for a moment....
Say you are coming from a cold area. So you are coming in jeans, warm shirt, jacket, etc.
You need 1+ bathing suits. probably at least 2.
You need a costume for pirates night. That may includes boots, a hat and other accessories. You will use these once.
You need a jacket, slacks, dress, whatever and a pair of nice shoes for Palo / Remy. You will use these once (or maybe twice if formal night is different).
If it's SWDAS, you need a costume for that (these can get big and expensive). You will use this once.
OH, Let's not forget the Fish Extenders. Or the Magnet group. Or the ornament group if it's a holiday cruise.

I mean, I need a room to sleep in, 2 rooms for my valet's and an extra storage room for my bags.

Seriously... how do you all do it?

Pirate night costume - blouse that can be worn with other shorts/pants; short boots; foldable hat for DH.

Same clothes can be worn for Palo/Remy/formal night (one dress - or dress slacks with fancy top). Dress flats don't take much room.

Don't have to take/wear special costumes for any night, if you don't want to. So a Star Wars costume is not on my list.

Don't have to participate in FEs. But, small, packable gifts are nice, also. Magnets (pack flat and take about the same room as a book. Or recipe cards with favorite local foods. One reason I don't do Ornament exchanges.

 

[Pens Fan]

The more we travel (and the older I get), the less stuff I take. We don't do fish extenders, so that's a ton of space freed up, right there. We also don't dress up for the themed nights, so no need for costumes. If we plan on dressing more formally one night (often we don't), I pack my trusty black knit dress that rolls up nicely and takes very little space. I also have never felt the need for more than one bathing suit.

My weakness over the years has been shoes. I always thought I had to take just the perfect ones for whatever occasion. I'm over that, now. I find rolling clothes helps maximize space and keeps things less wrinkled. Packing cubes keep everything organized.

My husband and I both bring a lot of camera equipment, as photography is a passion for both of us. I'll gladly sacrifice extra clothing for a lens any day. But even with that, I find myself taking less each trip. I also found a fabulous camera bag that has lots of room for things I would normally carry in a day bag, eliminating the need for a second carry on bag.

 

[mcd2745]

A Caribbean cruise is pretty easy to pack for (particularly, if you're not wearing costumes for SWDAS and/or pirate night). It's mainly bathing suits, t-shirts, and shorts (I'll pack only one pair of long pants for Palo), sandals/flip-flops/slides, so that doesn't take much room.

Now, when we did Alaska a few months ago...that was tricky. Now you're talking hoodies, jeans, waterproof boots - all bulky/heavy items. Very difficult not to have a crap-ton of luggage for a family of 4.

 

[mmmears]

A Caribbean cruise is pretty easy to pack for (particularly, if you're not wearing costumes for SWDAS and/or pirate night). It's mainly bathing suits, t-shirts, and shorts (I'll pack only one pair of long pants for Palo), sandals/flip-flops/slides, so that doesn't take much room.

Now, when we did Alaska a few months ago...that was tricky. Now you're talking hoodies, jeans, waterproof boots - all bulky/heavy items. Very difficult not to have a crap-ton of luggage for a family of 4.

I totally agree. That one week trip in Alaska was much harder to pack for than much longer trips to more temperate climates. Some of us might have been wearing hiking boots on the plane for that one.

 

[FigmentSpark]

You forgot to add space in your suitcase to bring home the blanket and pillow from the room theme decorations package you purchased from the DCL 'in-room gifts and amenities' page, as well as those robes from the romance package, not to mention the hoodies and beach towels you'll buy on board.

But seriously... you're coming from a cold climate and you didn't think to wear those pirate boots on the plane? Well, stuff them with socks, underwear, bathingsuits and it'll help them keep their shape, as well as save space.

Oh, and the beds are high enough that suitcases will fit underneath, which is a real space saver.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

With the exception of a 4-night cruise, we've always taken advantage of the on-board laundry room. And when we've traveled with kids, we've usually found one suitcase per child to be good enough for the bulk of their cloths, and use their allotted second suitcase for the rest of our stuff. It also sometimes takes some creative packing to get everything to fit.

We did a two week cruise with one child and managed to pack regular cloths, bathing suits, diapers, snorkeling equipment, car seat (for the plane, with a cover that made it simple to stuff a few things in with the car seat), toys, DVD player, DVD movies, PC (with an external CD burner), cameras, pirate clothing, and formal wear (enough to have something a little different for three different formal nights on a 2 week cruise).

 

[iheartglaciers]

Instead of wearing a bulky jacket, I wear the packable lightweight down jackets from Uniqlo. They squish really small and don't take up a lot of space for the warmth! You can layer it with a sweatshirt for the travel part

 

[Charlies_Mommy]

pack light. I once had to pack ONE bag for 1.5 months in Africa. If I can do that, I think I can pack one bag for 7 nights on a cruise. really no problem.

 

[jrabbit]

wow, you're getting off easy - ever try to pack mens shoes, size 14: Tennis Shoes and Dress Shoes?!!! In a carryon - there is NO MORE ROOM!!! In a larger suitcase, there's about half of the space gone!

Thing to remember about coats - you wear them at home to the airport, get through security, then stuff them into your carryon (expanded after security), When boarding the plane, you might have to remove the coat to put the carry on in the overhead bin. After landing, put the coats back into the suitcase - or maybe even in your checked luggage (if any). When returning home, they go back into the carryon until you get to the airport, put it in your carryon until you get on the plane, wear it off when arriving at your home airport. whew - that was long winded

For Palo, men only need a dress shirt and tie - don't need the whole suit, Remy probably has different requirements.

For me, since I really don't need more "stuff" - no fish extender, ornament exchanges, etc.

And unless you're really into Pirates or Star Wars, the costume stays home as well.

 

[YawningDodo]

Well, to start with I resign myself to being cold on the walk between the car and the entrance to the airport. I'll probably still wear a very light jacket or a sweater (something appropriate for any chilly days/nights in the Caribbean), but I don't bring my winter jacket or any bulky sweaters. I routinely go outside in flipflops in the dead of Montana winter to run stuff out to the dumpster, etc., so it's not like it's a big deal if you're not going to linger outside.

I do plan to pack costumes for both Pirate Night and MDAS, which is what tipped me over to needing to actually check a bag for once in my life. Because I'm not there to enter any contests and I want to be comfortable, I'll keep the costumes relatively simple and lightweight (seriously, as someone who's done more serious cosplay...don't pull out all the stops for something you intend to wear all/half the day; you'll just get overheated and sore). For the pirate I use costume boot covers instead of real boots (they're just flat pleather that straps on with elastic, so they fold up), and the heavier shoes for my MDAS costume are getting worn on the plane if they don't fit easily in the bag (see a very apt comment above re: why wouldn't you if you're coming from somewhere cold anyway?). No hat for my pirate costume unless I wear the cheap, floppy tricorner one I got from a costume shop because it can squish without being destroyed (I'll probably skip even that because a bandanna will serve just as well, and be less hot). If you had a really nice, stiff pirate hat...again, wear it on the plane. But maybe that's just me that's fine with dressing as a pirate for air travel.

Then all the bottoms in my bag will be shorts -- the only full-length jeans I'll bring are the ones I wear for the flight, and if space is tight I'll wear my dress slacks instead and leave the jeans at home. Maybe a single sundress, depending on how much room I have, and one dress shirt. My dress shoes are strappy sandals, so while they're a nuisance to have to pack, they're only a minor nuisance. Door decorations are fairly minimal and take up less room than a shirt, and I'm not doing FE because like heck do I need to cart a bunch of random tchotchkes in both directions. I don't wear makeup when I'm not in costume, so before the trip I'll just take careful inventory so I'm only bringing the things I'll actually use on those nights (and again, I'm keeping the costumes simple, so no full face makeup anyhow).

I'm expecting to take just one checked bag and two carry-on bags, either of which would fit under the seat. Normally I'd make one of those a big carry-on, but the small planes out of Montana don't have room for larger carry-ons in their overhead bins and they do a gate-check system for carry-on luggage. Since I've got a 35 minute connection in Denver, I'm not going to take the gamble on how quickly they'll unload the "carry-on" luggage for pickup at the arrival gate there. I've managed that kind of turnaround in the past but man, it is not worth the stress.

 

[Dug720]

Follow me here for a moment....
Say you are coming from a cold area. So you are coming in jeans, warm shirt, jacket, etc.
You need 1+ bathing suits. probably at least 2.
You need a costume for pirates night. That may includes boots, a hat and other accessories. You will use these once.
You need a jacket, slacks, dress, whatever and a pair of nice shoes for Palo / Remy. You will use these once (or maybe twice if formal night is different).
If it's SWDAS, you need a costume for that (these can get big and expensive). You will use this once.
OH, Let's not forget the Fish Extenders. Or the Magnet group. Or the ornament group if it's a holiday cruise.

I mean, I need a room to sleep in, 2 rooms for my valet's and an extra storage room for my bags.

Seriously... how do you all do it?

Well, technically you don't NEED the costumes... Or the FE stuff. Participation in both of those is totally optional and voluntary.

 

[T & R]

We bring an extra empty suitcase that we usually fill junk we bought on excursions and on board. We fly American Airlines so when you have AA credit card you don't pay bag fees. As a family of 6 , we can bring up to 6 bags free (we usually only bring 3-4). I'd recommend getting the credit card for whatever airline you use so that you can check extra bags with no fees and get air miles for everything you buy throughout the year. Of course if you fly Southwest, no bag fees. We do not fly Southwest because they do not fly out of DFW in Dallas which is the airport most convenient for us.

 

[bumbershoot]

I don’t do customes or FE.

Bathing suits, coverups, flip flops, sunscreen. Cute dresses for each dinner and I shoot for one pair of shoes that works with them all. Maybe some shorts. Maybe running clothes. I’m done.

Dh and ds can work out their own clothes.

 

[Tasmen]

I pack. Evaluate. Pull things out. Re-pack. It's the only way that really worked for us. Also, I tried to bring things I knew I could wear more than once like certain shorts/jeans/pants. I also wore my winter stuff there and back so I didn't have to worry about packing my boots, etc.