Does anyone make it on a 7 day cruise with 1 bag?

[westjones]

Next year we are going on a 7 day cruise (next week we are on a 3 day).

I am beginning to pack and I am being very careful about what we are taking. Since we don't have to worry about 'formal' nights on the 3 night it does help.

We are flying and we are trying to keep it to one bag each (for our family of 4). DH and I are talking about next year. We drove for last year's 7 day cruise, so luggage wasn't an issue.

So I am wondering, is it possible to pack for a 7 day cruise using just one bag? I know I am in the minority here, but I wish they would offer a 'casual' dining rotation and a 'formal' dining rotation so that those who want to get all dressed up can enjoy that part of the cruise; but for those of us who prefer to pack light and don't really care so much about formal attire could dress more casually (maybe make early dining casual and late dining formal).

Anyway, has anyone managed a 7day on just one bag per person?

Thanks!
DJ

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

since your a woman (and women can pack) you should be able to cruise with 1 bag each if the bags are large (ie very large) i almost mean like a military duffle bag for clothes that there is no wrinkle worry and 1 LARGE suitcase for the formal stuff. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm i guess its possible but i would also bring a small carryon bag with some clothes incase luggage gets lost. better safe then sorry. and PLEASE dont laugh at my idea. im ex military who had to pack for the first gulf war. i hope this helps
john

 

[Grumpy's Mom]

I have two disney princesses also, but they are probably older than yours - 13 and 17 when we sail. The 17 year old could probably get by with half a bag - bikinis, etc . However, the other one usually needs to bring half her closet with her, plus every kind of makeup and color of nailpolish known to women.

We are sailing on the 12/20 so have a double dilemma of needing some warmer clothes just in case.

I am going to limit everyone to one bag (the girls have the large LLBean duffles), and we will have one extralong suit bag that will carry everyone's formal clothing. I am more concerned with getting it all into a rental car than anything else!!

Have a great time!!

 

[jgalecpa]

ABSOLUTELY!

I went to europe last year for 4 weeks and only took a single bag. They have laundries everywhere, even on the ship.

The most common overpacked item is the item that takes up the most space: Shoes.

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Hi westjones.

Does anyone make it on a 7 day cruise with 1 bag?

Being divorced I don't have any...

 

[PMelhorn]

LAUGH!

 

[BelievesinMagic]

FYI - Remember if you are flying, a lot of major airlines are enforcing the 50lb wt. limit per bag rule. I have a very large suitcase that I was planning to take, but have to now take 2. When we came back from Vegas 2 weeks ago our friends who flew United had to pay $25 for each bag. No exceptions. They had one bag each that weighed in around 55-60lbs per bag after the souvenirs.

 

[WeRHappy]

Believes... are you sure it's 50 pounds per bag or per person??! I thought our travel agent told us it was per person.. hmmm


LOL BD.... glad to hear you have no baggage problems...

 

[alexturner74]

The weight limit is per bag, and every airline is a little different on the restrictions. Some are 50 lb, whereas others are 75 lb, and the fees vary as well. Check with your airline for specifics.

 

[Grumpy's Mom]

BD, my DH, unfortunately, would delight in telling you all the places he has been with his one bag -- are you sure you can't sail on the 12/20 Magic with us??

 

[joanb]

Yes, It can be done with careful planning. For example shoes..find a nice black pair that can be worn to dinner, where tennis shoes(they take up roon in suitcase) and pack sandels and flipflops. Take Black pants for several dinners and match with several tops for a new look each night. I only took one formal dress-not full lengh-cocktail like dress and wore it both foraml nights-no one notices except you. that should help with dinner wear. Oh, yes we rented tuxes therefore cuttting down on clothing need our our men.

 

[Surfergirl]

The rule in our family when we travel is: Each person can have 1 carryon(backpack) for immediate items, and one rolling suitcase. this applies to the kids too. You have to be able to look after your own luggage and this has been a godsend in large busy airports. We also bring laundry soap and dryer sheets .

 

[mmouse37]

We are a family of 5 with 3 teens ages 15, 18 and 19. We also tell them each of us is allowed one small carryon and a rolling suitcase or rolling duffel. We have always been able to manage and my teen girls also pack enough shoes to make Imelda Marcos jealous, plus all the make-up and flat irons, etc.

It definately can be done. I always pack one long formal dress and a pant suite for formal/semi formal and hubby brings one dark suite with different ties/shirts for the formal/semi formal.

We had a group of 13 for our cruise in January and even our room hosts commented that is was great to see only 12 pieces of luggage for 13 of us!!!

MJ

 

[kmc33]

Does anyone make it on a 7 day cruise with 1 bag?

I'll bet the guy that's not going to wear any pants will make it!

 

[MarkRG]

As a vet of multiple 7 day cruises, I can say you can easily do it on one bag each. it's a bit of work to whittle it down to what you're really going to wear as it is all too easy to overpack. What I would say on the matter is to keep in mind clothing is in easy availablility everywhere, both on the ship and in ports. So, bringing 'just in case' clothes is redundant.

 

[Kabuli1]

We brought way too much with us on our 7-Day! DD (17) and my niece had about 20 pr of shoes between them. Next time I will definitely eliminate many many shoes! Yes, 1 bag each is sufficient, unless you're bringing your own snorkel equipment and then you almost have to have an additional duffle for that - snorkeling stuff for three adults takes up alot of space!

Karyn

 

[MarkRG]

A small tip on that - almost anyplace that rents equipment does rent just flippers alone- we don't bring any, just to avoid the bulk of packing them.

 

[HundredAcreWoods]

We did.

The key was using the laundry facilities on the ship and packing a little less than we needed.

Book a room close to a laundry room so you are not dragging your dirty clothes to far.

We always buy clothes on the ship. I like the polo shirts and my wife and step-daughter can usually find something too.

This way the bag is almost full going out and "stuffed" full on the way back.

 

[westjones]

Do duffle bags really hold more than suitcases? How do you carry them? My kids need 'wheels' to pull their suitcases, they can't carry anything that heavy (and to be honest, I prefer pulling too).

Thanks for all the responses. I do feel encouraged now. I am going to 'rethink' what we are taking and really work on taking things off of the list.

DJ

 

[jrabbit]

Some people think that you need 3 sets of clothes per day per person: morning/excursion, dinner and after dinner clothes. This is way to much clothes to bring!

For the guys in our group this is how we cut down on the amount of clothes (or shirts at least). For formal/semi formal nights we wore dress shirts and ties along with slacks. For the rest of the evening dinners we wore polo shirts and slacks (for 7 nights guys should be able to get by with 3 pairs of pants - wear them 2 or 3 times). Since we were already in polo shirts for most dinners, we didn't change afterwards and continued wearing them. Since we had wore them only in the evenings for a short period of time, we wore the same shirts again on one of the mornings. So that cut down on the number of shirts that was needed by about 1/2! Same can go with shorts, if you start wearing them in the evening, re-wearing them the next morning isn't too bad. Limit shoes to 1 pair each of dress shoes, tennis shoes/sneakers, and a nice pair of sandals. Airport hint: if you don't want the TSA to go through most of your bags by hand, pack all of your shoes in one bag - shoes seem to trigger hand searches of checked luggage, and then hopefully only that bag gets searched manually.

Bring extra hangers for your room, there are not enough in there for all of the clothes you will bring.

THere are a couple of things that can throw the shirt rotation schedule off: July/August/Sept heat and humidity and if you spend a lot of time in the clubs in the evenings dancing and getting smokey.

For females, I don't have a clue how to cut down on the amount of clothes, shoes, accessories, other paraphanalia, etc except by Executive Decree and by making them carry ALL of their own stuff