Baggage

[Daisybelle]

It's the small details that haunt me really.

To carry on or to check our baggage. I'm leaning towards my daughter and I each having our own suitcase that is carry on approved rather than pay a fee to check our bags. We're staying 6 nights though. And one of us is a teenage girl. Has this been doable for anyone?

 

[Disney Dreams]

How about checking one bag and just viewing it as part of the cost of the airline ticket?

With the allowed size for carry-on, I find it too much hassle to mess with cramming it all in. If you coordinated daily outfits so you could wear the same jeans a few times, one pair of shoes , one sweatshirt, etc.... it is doable, I suppose.

But don't forget about leaving room for souvenirs on the way back.

- Dreams

 

[DahliaRW]

We did one checked bag for 7 people when we went for 7 nights. MIL and FIL had their own rolling suitcases. Each of our boys had a rolling duffel and backpack that held all of their stuff. Dh and I had 2 backpacks (one a diaper bag, one our stuff), a DSLR camera bag, and a rolling suitcase (that held all of our 1 1/2 y.o.s stuff). And we checked one bag that had our clothes in it. We packed enough clothes for roughly 1/2 the trip and I did laundry in the middle on our off day. It worked just fine. But, we would have had to check 2 bags if we weren't willing to do laundry. And overall, laundry cost me $8 to do at PPH, instead of the $40 total it would have cost to check another bag round trip.

 

[CrazyDuck]

Don't be "those people" who try and get around baggage fees by trying to stuff your monster carry on in the overhead compartment. IMO all your carry on bags should be able to fit under the seat in front of you, because you may not be the first ones on the plane... BTW just because it is "carry on approved" by the manufacturer doesn't mean it will fit in the overhead on every plane, especially on the smaller commuter planes. Just get a bigger suitcase (and expect to check it). Your clothes may only take up half the space but that's ok because you will have plenty of space for souvenirs!

 

[TheColtonsMom]

For the 3 of us we took 1 carry on & one personal item on the plane each. coltons backpack with his toys snacks & laptop & a bag with his blanket & pillow pet, our laptops in a laptop backpack, my purse filled with all meds etc , our camera bag and 1 bag with clothes & necessities for 1 night in case of lost luggage. All our other clothes were checked in one bag.

Don't think I could get away without at least 1 checked bag and when the girls were teenagers no way. We did ship most of our souvineers home instead of checking a 2nd bag though.

 

[wvnative]

I have on of those teenagers. She is incapable of packing light. haha

We fly SW so we don't have to pay for bags. If I end up using an airline that we have to pay for bags. we'll just take her bigger bag and only check the one bag.

 

[ironpig70]

With a wife and a preteen I feel your pain. If and when we fly I am going to check a bag. When I was a kid we flew to see family and what we found that worked well was to get a set of luggage where the suitcase nest into the others. Take the biggest one and the second biggest one(if the qualify as regular bags) and bag the "medium bag with clothes and put it into the large one, And check it as 1 bag. What this does is allows you on the return trip to fill a second bag with goodies.

 

[DahliaRW]

Just an FYI, but airline publish the rules for sizes of carryons on their websites. If you follow those yours will fit. And if it's a carryon and there isn't any room left in the overhead bins, as long as it's acceptable size they will gate check it for free.

 

[CMHusband]

It's the small details that haunt me really.

To carry on or to check our baggage. I'm leaning towards my daughter and I each having our own suitcase that is carry on approved rather than pay a fee to check our bags. We're staying 6 nights though. And one of us is a teenage girl. Has this been doable for anyone?

My 19 year old daughter just went to France and DLP. She was there 10 days and used carry on only. 1) Carry on suite case, 2) Big loose bag for under the seat, 3) laptop bag stuffed full, 4) kind of a shopping bag.

 

[Daisybelle]

Thank you all so much for your input! I really think it would be less stressful just to check one bag and then have a smaller carry on. It was starting to feel like algebra trying to make it work in my head to just have carry on suitcases! If it were just a few days that would be one thing.

Dahlia, I like your idea about just planning on doing laundry at the half way point. We wound up doing that last time anyway.

 

[cmwade77]

With proper planning, you should be able to do just a carryon and a personal item.

I have done 10 day trips to Disney World with a carryon and personal item (decent sized laptop bag with laptop in it)
I also had plenty of room for souvenirs coming back, but if I didn't, I would use flat rate boxes (put some flattened ones in the bottom of my suitcase, but you could probably get them from the front desk or get USPS to deliver them) to ship stuff back cheaply.

If it is becoming an issue, get space saver bags and when departing you can ask house keeping to bring up a vacuum with a hose (check with your hotel to make sure that they have one before depending on this) There now are also space saver bags that do not require a vacuum, but work better with one.

Please note that unless there is medical equipment involved, you are only allowed one carry on and one personal item per person.