Week long cruises, do you do laundry?

[qa4ever]

Hi there,

Last year we did a three day dream cruise and barely had enough room to store all the clothes we brought. If we were on a week long cruise, I couldn't imagine having enough clean clothes for the week! Do people actually go the whole week without laundry, with a family of four in one small cruise room?

Thanks!

 

[ahain]

We have never done laundry. We bring enough undies to insure there will be enough to last the trip - we wear shirts once, we wear plants & shorts a couple of times.

 

[robbinh]

We are a family of 4. (DD - 18 and DS - 13) We make it the entire week without having to do laundry and still bring back a few clean clothes. When we unpack we use as much of the hanging space as possible. We even put multiple items on the same hanger. You can also ask your room steward for more hangers if you need them. My son just lives out of his suitcase. He is too busy to ever unpack.

 

[bumbershoot]

If we've had a week or two in Orlando first, yes.

We hang up a LOT of stuff, which frees up room in the drawers. We use little packing cubes for drawers, which seems to allow us to fit more in there. But we've always been able to fit things into the drawers and closet.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I have never done laundry on the ship and I've been on 4 cruises at least 12 days long.

 

[jlynch924]

We've done laundry on one of our four cruises. Wasn't a hassle at all, I think, because few people do it. The laundry room on our deck was a bit of a haul from our room, though. I'm planning on doing laundry on our 7-night coming up in December.

 

[stitchlovestink]

Nope! It is my vacation too.
I did one load on six cruises and that was because of illness....did not want to leave the clothing with that on it until we got home....that would have been super gross!!! But that is the exception,not the rule....

 

[NAB]

No and we only due 7 days. Count out underwear like other poster and a shirt for everyday shorts a few times. Really how dirty do you get sitting around all day...lol The dress up clothes get worn twice.
We are a family of four and take four suitcases one is a suit bag that holds a lot of my dd sundress two suits/dress shoes and some polo shirts. My husband and son share a suitcase since my son lives in sport shorts and t-shirts they don't take much room. I have on suit case that some of my husbands runs over in and my dd has her own middle size suit case. One carry on , kids have back packs which hold electronics and sweaters since we come from a cold place.

Use to carry extra clothes when they were little thinking about spills but never had any. Take the same suitcase as when they were small and this our our 10th one. No washing here.

 

[AAAG]

Yes we did laundry - but my kids are 2 and 5, so they spill food on their clothes daily, and wipe their grimy hands on my clothes
Also my 5 year old had a few toilet accidents, so we ran out of underwear earlier than anticipated.
I brought some of those laundry detergent pods and used those in the ship's laundrimat

 

[SailingScout]

We have done laundry on both our 4 and 7 nights. This is because of many reasons:
-not paying to check bags, so being limited to 2 carry on bags for 2 adults and a toddler
-my DH running daily=gross workout clothes
-getting sweaty/feeling less than fresh after spending so much time in the sun and walking at ports and not being able to wear clothes multiple times before washing
-Little kid....enough said!

Some of these factors will have changed for our upcoming PC cruise, plus we will have another kid, but I know we will definitely have to be washing clothes....even booked a room near the laundry room to try and minimize the pain a bit.

 

[hardis5]

I could not imagine packing enough to last a full week with 4 of us (one under 5). Between clothes worn for any port day (excursion), a change for dinner, dressier clothes for the formal/semi-formal nights, swim wear and pool deck clothing either wet or sweat through, I alone could not pack enough clothing (more so too cheap to pay the extra $ for an overweight suitcase). Doing laundry at least once allows us to cut the clothing needing to be brought to 1/2 of what we'd need otherwise which allows the DW more shoe room and space for pirate night paraphernalia.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

I agree with the person with the packing cubes & hanging clothes.. those are kind of amazing with organizing any suitcase. We usually don't do laundry on vacation unless we have work prior to the vacation portion of the trip. We really try not to do laundry though since it is our vacation.

 

[jetskigrl]

The only time I have done laundry on the ship was in Alaska. We had warm weather clothes (shorts and capris) that we wore in Vancouver and the first day on the ship. After that, I washed those and they got put away in the suitcase until the end of the cruise. We had two days in Vancouver before our cruise and then 4 days in Seattle and on the train after the cruise, so it made sense to wash the warm weather clothes in between. Otherwise, no, I wouldn't do laundry on the 7-night cruises.

 

[SoozCruise]

Yup, our family of four always does laundry once during a seven-day. We like to be able to pack fewer items and we don't mind setting a couple of hours aside to go back and forth to the laundry room. (My husband hangs out on our veranda with a timer!) Those detergent pods are the most marvelous things...

 

[Melissa S]

With a Mickey bar eating little one I always do laundry lol. The first cruise I didn't and the stains were so set in her clothes were destroyed. I pack two laundry pods and do laundry usually half way through the cruise when I have two hours free. Sea days are a nightmare to do laundry. Because I have to invest the time in washing DDs clothes we wash some of ours too so we can pack less clothes. With most airlines now charging to check in bags it's worth it for us to have less weight in our suitcases.

 

[SteelersLover]

I did laundry on my 7n Fantasy this past June. I hate traveling home with dirty clothes anyway and chose some down time (and I was not alone, that laundry room was hopping with folks) to clean up some clothes. Ive also been one 3n, 4n, and 5n and not done laundry on those trips.

 

[lds0191]

The only cruises I have not done laundry is the 3nt. I usually go the laundry room in the wee hours of the morning. If you go between lunch and dinner it is crazy busy. I hate to spend an entire day doing laundry when I get home from vacation so try to do one or two loads onboard.

 

[ForMyBoys]

Nope we don't. For a family of 5 we brought 5 suit cases (family of 5) and everyone had a backpack too. So yeah we brought a lot, but I like to relax on my vacation.

 

[baileyhouse]

I do laundry the last night of the cruise....after the 4 kids (10, 9, 7, 5) have gone to bed. The bags have to be packed and out of your stateroom before you go to bed....so I do a few loads, fold and I go home with clean laundry!!

 

[lisamarie12]

I did laundry on our last 7 day cruise. I did it twice, once early in the week and the second time on the last day so that I would go home with clean clothes. DH plans for us to do laundry this cruise also (not so sure that I do, but we will see). My plan is to bring enough undies for the whole week because they don't take a lot of space. I usually bring about 2-3 pairs of capris (as they can be worn more than once). Its the shirts that I am hesitant to re-wear, because I tend to spill. Honestly, I think what I am going to do is plan on re-wearing a couple of the dressy shirts and if they get dirty, then do laundry. Or I may just plan on wearing my evening shirts during the day as well and then that will reduce clothes. DH can re-wear his stuff, he does not spill things. And DD's clothes are so tiny they don't take up much space.