Bringing goodies home

[Florida2012]

We have a bit of an issue.

When we go to DLP we end up bringing half the park home, which is never a problem as we usually drive, but not really possible for WDW!!!

Does anyone else have this shopaholic problem?? (it's her not me honest!! )

If so, how do you overcome this? At the minute we're honestly contemplating leaving our clothes in Florida for extra space!!!

Cheers
Matt

 

[taylor91]

We usually pack as light as possible knowing that I can buy a lot of the things i'll need a lot cheaper in Florida. Don't worry though, most times it does involve sitting on the case to shut it when coming home Never been over the limit though even though my case did bow out a bit

 

[orangetiggs]

We pack very light and have washers and dryers in room so just wash everything. We also have twins who are two so have their cases which helps us! As i can fit all our bits in one case and have three left for shopping!

 

[Disneymad]

We pack light, basically with about 4-5 days worth of clothes on the basis that we'll be wearing a lot of the stuff we'll be buying.

If we have items that are nearing the end of their life, all the better - I've taken out old trainers that I've worn for a couple of days and then just chucked them away once I'd bought new ones for example.

 

[2Tiggies]

I have always left some clothing in Florida. I also never bring back toiletries (we take half used products with and leave them behind).

With that said, we have always benefited from the old 2 bag per person policy on US flights until our last trip. We did very little shopping, but we really struggled with our one bag per person

this year I am thinking of just pre paying for an extra bag as clearly we are incapable of sticking within out allowance

 

[VailaTigger]

We are considering getting a squishy bag and squeezing that in our cases on the way out, and just paying in advance for one extra bag on the way home... It's about £30 I believe if you do it in advance with Virgin Atlantic.

I try not to buy too much, or anything too big, but still struggle with space on the way home!

 

[2Tiggies]

We are considering getting a squishy bag and squeezing that in our cases on the way out, and just paying in advance for one extra bag on the way home... It's about £30 I believe if you do it in advance with Virgin Atlantic.

I try not to buy too much, or anything too big, but still struggle with space on the way home!

Yeah, we always packed a bag into a bag as you don't need all the space on the way out.

Another contributing problem is the copious quantities of candy that seem to come back from the Halloween parties at the time of the year you are going

 

[starrysky]

I normally try and pack light but it never happens.

Every year its a struggle to get stuff back and last year that meant buying two of the sports bags that were on offer. Lucky for me and DH we had only taken small bags as hand luggage so we could use the sports bags as carry on.

This year we have agreed that as we have a washer and dryer in the room this time we will be super light on the packing. Though DH forgets that just means MORE SHOPPING

We do normally buy stuff super cheap if we can and we can get stuff in the end of summer sales and that way we don't feel so bad leaving it behind. I do put it clean in a laundry bag and leave a note asking for it to go to good will.

 

[tony64]

We always take a case inside a case each and come home with them all full. We pay in advance for the second bag each but it's worth it.

 

[Florida2012]

Oh joy, we're not as "weird" as I thought!! Lol

The extra bag sounds like a cracking idea, didn't realise Virgin did that!!! However, due to the time of year we MAY have to make it an extra 2 bags (one for gifts and one for candy as "2Tiggies" rightly points out! Lol)

Cheers for your help!

 

[loobzuk]

sorry - dreaded double post. I seem to having lots of problems with this site recently - it's taking ages to do anything

 

[loobzuk]

if it's space (as opposed to weight) I can recommend pack mate bags. They're like the ones you get that you need a vaccuum cleaner to suck the air out but with the packing ones you roll them to release the air. It squishes everything down remarkably and leaves lots more space in your suitcase. It's also useful if you have a leak of anything on the way out as nothing gets spoilt. We bought ours from QVC but I've seen them in Boots (compression bags under their own label) and in Lakeland.

I remember one year doing check in at DTD and one of our cases was overweight (as were many other peoples). As our other cases were underweight we just had to move some stuff from one case to another. We opened the heavy case, lifted out the bags of clothes, took out a couple of books and put them into another case, zipped them both up and were good to go. Meanwhile the people next to us were scattering dirty washing all over the tarmac trying to take out enough stuff to balance up their cases. I might just have had a slightly smug look on my face at that point

 

[starrysky]

I agree with the compression bags, I bought a really cute decorative pillow (it says "never grow up") at AKL last trip and I would not have got it home with out one of those bags.
They are also great for getting home those must have plush toys as well.

One word of caution I forgot to add in my last post. We take one of those hand scales to weigh our cases so we know how much they weigh and we dont have to do the whole shifting stuff at the check in desk. Just don't put it in your hand luggage as I did. When we went through securting they thought the spring inside it was a corkscrew and the hook part looked like well a hook. I had just thrown it in my bag at the last minute and had no idea it would cause a problem. So now we make sure it goes into one of the checked bags.

 

[Florida2012]

Yeah we are veteran RyanScare fliers, so we've always made sure we have our travel scales. (as they are terrible if you go over on luggage!) Didn't realise they were that picky about it being in the hand luggage, did you cause a " security lock down"? Lol

Loving the compression bags, was looking at the vac ones, hadn't thought you could get ones where you didn't need to bring the dyson as well!

Certainly feeling a lot happier about buying more bits now!!

Cheers

 

[~Piglet~]

The extra bag sounds like a cracking idea, didn't realise Virgin did that!!! However, due to the time of year we MAY have to make it an extra 2 bags (one for gifts and one for candy as "2Tiggies" rightly points out! Lol)

I am thinking the same thing - so looking forward to seeing everywhere decked out for Halloween

Last trip we still had the old allowance of 2 x 26kg with VA (which was handy as we had all our wedding stuff too). This year it's 1 x 26kg per person so we will definitely be paying for extra baggage. I have a large holdall that that folds up small which we bought in Walmart last time for something like $7, we will be taking that back over with us

 

[orangetiggs]

Its 23kg a person not 26kg

32£ for one bag and then £72 for the extra bag after tou oay for the first one

 

[Kath2003]

We travel out there with just hand luggage. Sometimes on the way home we need to check a bag. We take bags within bags so that we can do this if we need to. But in all honesty - we think very carefully about what we need to buy. We go with set ideas - e.g. this year, I need a new pair of trainers, so I will wear my old, worn out pair out there. These can then be recycled once I'm able to pick up a new pair, so there's no extra luggage. Same with new clothes - if we need new shorts, we don't take any with us.

We, like others, take 3-4 days worth of clothes with the expectation that we will buy a t-shirt or two and then do some laundry half way through the vacation. We also wear the "chunky" stuff on the plane (jackets, sneakers etc.) so that in our bags there's the very basics. We don't travel in either direction with toiletries (buy out there - it's no more expensive, and we buy only what we need for our stay) and look carefully at what the hotel room includes (e.g. we always book somewhere with a hairdrier so we don't need to take one). We buy a book or two at the airport and donate them somewhere before we leave. Typically, our hand luggage weighs 5-7kg each, and we have never found this to be inadequate.

 

[starrysky]

Yeah we are veteran RyanScare fliers, so we've always made sure we have our travel scales. (as they are terrible if you go over on luggage!) Didn't realise they were that picky about it being in the hand luggage, did you cause a " security lock down"? Lol

Loving the compression bags, was looking at the vac ones, hadn't thought you could get ones where you didn't need to bring the dyson as well!

Certainly feeling a lot happier about buying more bits now!!

Cheers

Thankfully not but he did unpack all the stuff out my hand luggage and swab my bag. Gave me a stern talking to about what you can and can't take in hand baggage. It was one of those, Is this your bag moments
The scales are pretty good though and close to what the ones in the aiport say that the bags weigh give or take 1lb.

I have learnt my lesson now even DH asks if the scales are in my checked bags now he was so mortified when it happened.

 

[~Piglet~]

32£ for one bag and then £72 for the extra bag after tou oay for the first one

Were you typing in a hurry?

You're right it is 23kgs not 26! I was thinking of our 46kg allowance last time and put 26 instead of 23

 

[kitcat1]

I have a great idea, instead of worrying and paying loads for more kg of luggage, get a box and post in back to the UK, it may be cheaper and will be much easier!

Cath