A neighbor just gave a GREAT packing idea!!!!!!

[LAMPSKIES]

O.K., the last two cruises we are arranging suitcases for all our necessities and not everything seems to fit. We have 3 days at WDW and a 7 nighter right after. all this with mysels DW and TWO DD's 13 and 11. The things that seemed to take up the most space in the luggage............shoes!!!! DD11 has a shoe fettish (we call her Imelda Marcos) 13 pairs last trip. My neighbor says, "we pack one of our suitcases with shoes and toiletries only!" What a great idea!!!! Anyone else do this?

 

[CGC33A]

Just hope that one bag doesn't get lost/stolen/forgotten etc.

 

[DMS_cruisers04]

No, but we I do pack the shoes last, when possible, that way they fill in all the little empty spaces and 'unusable' spots.
We've also started using space saver bags. Worked great on our Sept trip, except I didn't use paper or dry cleaner bags, so some things were a bit wrinkled.

And tell 'Imelda' to cut back. Why do women need to take so many shoes?

Ok, good ahead, flame me for that one.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Got insurance if it gets lost or stolen....DD's would LOVE that! I don't think they would let me forget it.......everyone is responsible for 2 bags.............

 

[pghmike]

I have the same problem with DW, who has passed that gene on to DD (aged 5). We did a 4 day in October and my DS (age 3) and I each had 3 pairs of shoes -- "dress" shoes, sneakers and sandals. DW had 11 pairs of shoes (mostly sandals) and DD had 9 pairs.

Toiletries are the same -- she has her own carryon for hair stuff, makeup, curling iron, etc. etc. etc. I have comb, razor, shave cream, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste. All of her cosmetics must be carried on. Both plane rides. By me.

We spread things out among our checked bags so that if any single bag is lost or delayed, we could still survive. Life is much simpler now that both kids are potty trained.

We went to Target and bought a couple boxes of the largest Zip-loc bags that they had (2 gal. I think) and packed our clothes in them. You can squeeze the air out of the bags and pack more efficiently. Dirt from the soles of the shoes aren't a problem because the bags protect the clothes. You have to be careful, though, because you can get alot more in the bags and you could go over the airline weight limits.

 

[TootyJane]

Originally posted by LAMPSKIES
O.K., the last two cruises we are arranging suitcases for all our necessities and not everything seems to fit. .... My neighbor says, "we pack one of our suitcases with shoes and toiletries only!" What a great idea!!!! Anyone else do this?

We actually did this on our cruise this last August and will do it from now on. We also used a large rolling duffle bag for all of our snorkeling equipment. It was the only bag inspected as I suspect it looked weird going through the x-ray machine!

 

[ldb1030]

Yep! Did this last cruise! Had one suitcase full of just shoes!

 

[Griggle]

Yup! We did just that for our 4 days at WDW and our 3 days on board.

I packed one (big) bag with everyone's clothes for WDW, another (big) bag with everyone's clothes for the cruise and the third bag was toiletries and shoes and hats and any other misc objects that were going both places.

We rented a car so the cruise suitcase stayed in the trunk while we were in WDW and while on the cruise, the WDW suitcase stayed in the trunk in the lot. The shoe bag got to go both places. Worked out perfectly.

 

[my3kids]

We did just that last trip. One bag with shoes...lots of shoes....

 

[Cruisin]

pghmike: 26 pairs of shoes for a 4 day cruise!!!!! wow.what a lot of shoes. At least you guys had the best dressed feet on the ship

My daughter also has a shoe fetish but she has to carry whatever she wants to bring, so she has learned to limit herself.
Sometimes she will have 6-8 pairs of shoes sitting by the door.

Wouldn't putting all of the shoes in one bag make the bag kind of heavy

 

[denise5374]

We do it that way all the time.....another reason is so that your dirty shoes aren't touching the clean clothes, especially my DHs sneakers!!! eeewwww

 

[Cherylbug]

I've done this also. A woman can never have too many pairs of shoes.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

We're packing all "dress clothes" for formal dining in garment bags, this way we don't have to even open those at WDW.

 

[3MinnieMom]

We went to Universal Studios/IOA for 3 days prior to our 11/8/03 Disney cruise. All 5 of us packed for the Universal-part of our trip into one suitcase (all the other suitcases were packed for the cruise). We had a carry-on with toiletries. This made the 1st part of our vacation so much easier. We brought several laundry bags (one just for US/IOA) - we repacked the laundry bag full of dirty clothes back into the one suitcase, and we just kept it packed like that in the closet of our DCL cabin for the duration of our 7-day cruise. Fortunately, we didn't need any "dressy" clothes for Universal Studios!

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Oh yes, part two to her story was that once on the ship and shoes were put under beds they used the "empty shoe suitcase for laundry".

 

[ChattyKathy]

when we pack too,...use the large ziplocs...You can put in one bag an outfit and mark the top of it with a sharpie... I do that all the time when Alysssa (DD-11) goes to camp in the summer.
She also has a shoe fetish! LOL (grrrrrrls! ) No wonder my dad was insane with 3 of us in the house plus mom!!
Anyways, in light of what she wants to pack, I always try to persuade her into taking one pair of white sandals so that will match everything... But it doesnt work out, we always end up with an extra satchel just for the shoes. The guys in our house use the dress shoes and tennis shoes...no sandals, they leave those behind so that we ( me and dd) have room. One good thing thou, in the summer mos, at least sandals can be flattened (sort of) when packed and you can stick them in the sides of cases or on the tops. No problemo!!!




Kathy

 

[mmouse37]

Shoes......you want to talk about shoes......check out this pic of my daughters' cabin they shared with 2 friends.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/50699182/57726760txYpVs

There are even more shoes than shown as some were lined up out of the view of the picture. The room steward thought they were storing shoes for the whole family in their cabin!!!!

We, I mean they...always pack just a shoe bag. Hubby says fine as long as he doesn't have to carry it!!!

MJ

 

[jrabbit]

With airport security the way it is now days we pack all of our shoes in one suitcase. That one always gets opened. The others with our clothes never get opened. It seemed to us that whatever bag had 1 or more shoes in it got opened for a manual inspection. So like I said earlier, we just put all of the shoes in one bag and have not had any problems since we started doing that.

 

[Grumbo]

Sorry but anyone that needs to take 11 pair shoes on a vacation probably needs help with this footwear fetish
I cannot possibly imagine how ONE PERSON would need those especially when others in the group are going to bring footwear as well.
Heck pair of Nikes, sandals and dress shoes for dinner. (and if my wife would let me I'd wear the sandals with my suit but she'd kill me so I guess I HAVE to bring the dress shoes) is all you need

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[DumboFan]

I never would have thought to leave the WDW suitcase in the rental! Thanks, Griggle! Guess I'm just not used to having a car there. My only worry would be having the car stolen while we're cruising. Not gonna happen, right?

As for shoes, my DD (almost 6) is making me proud! She must have 6 pairs of sneakers, alone! A girl can never have too many shoes ~ you never know when you're going to need a different pair.

I don't pack a lot of shoes, though. Too much to carry. Firmly believe that you need 2 pairs of sneakers on vacation (one to wear, one to dry). Guess I've gotten caught in too many August storms at WDW!