Laundry??? Really?

[jeankeri]

I like to do laundry when the stuff starts getting musty smelling. When you get caught in a downpour in the parks nothing dries quite right and all your luggage gets funky with dirty laundry. If it wasn't for the humidity, I wouldn't plan on doing laundry.

 

[Sammy]

This is how it adds up for my family of 5 for a 10-day vacation. This is assuming we do not wear any piece of clothing twice....pretty reasonable if its hot and humid (who wants to wear sweaty clothing more than once??!! LOL!):

5 people x 1 outfit per day x 10 days = 50 outfits
5 people x 2 pair jammies each = 10 jammies
5 people x 2 swimsuits each = 10 swimsuits

50 outfits + 10 jammies + 10 swimsuits = 70 outfits/jammies/swimsuits to pack

Heck yeah....we do laundry!!!

I usually pack enough for 5 days, then do a load of laundry in the middle. We used to just plan it around a pool-day at the resort, but since owning DVC, it's great to just throw a load in any time I want!

 

[CleveRocks]

Another WDW laundry veteran here. We planned to do laundry for our last trip to CBR with our 5 year old and 2.5 year old, and it worked out very nicely.

One night while my wife and daughter slept early, my 5 year old son and I went to our village's quiet pool (there are laundry facilities at each one) around 9:00 p.m. He helped me put in 2 loads at one time, then we swam, then changed them to dryers, then we went back to the room for him to go to bed, and by the time I got him all squared away it was time for me to get the clothes from the dryers. Not bad at all, especially since the girls went to sleep early, it gave my son and me something to do together, and believe me we had the quiet pool all to ourselves. On top of that, we got to see some of IllumiNations while sitting on the steps of the shallow end of the pool (Trinidad North).

Doing this helped us pack a lot lighter -- we normally BADLY overpack, and this helped us not do so.

About 12 years ago I had an 11-day business trip that took me from Philadelphia to St. Louis to San Antonio and then back. I was alone, but I knew that 11 days was too long for me. I called ahead to my St. Louis hotel and was informed they had self-serve laundry on-premises. On my last night there, I looked for them and found they didn't exist. Nice. I flew to San Antonio the next afternoon, and had a day-and-a-half there before business resumed (better to have an extra day to play than fly back to Philly for an overnight and then head right back to the airport to fly to Texas the next morning). My downtown hotel also had no laundry facilities, and there was NO WAY I was going to spend something like $3.00 EACH to wash underwear and so on, so I asked and learned there was a laundromat about a mile away. I guess I was too young or stubborn to think of getting a cab, so I walked it. My choices to carry my laundry were my one big suitcase (NOT a roller bag!) and look like a tourist, or two trash bags and look like a slob. Being a city boy, I knew better than to make my appearance shout "tourist" when walking through some of the not-so-nice parts of a downtown/inner-city area. I was fine with being the only non-English-speaker hanging around the laundromat, but walking around with a couple trash bags was a humbling experience.

 

[michygoomy]

Cute story, CleveRocks.

Sammy--your numbers line right up with mine, except you forgot the 100 socks!

We planned on doing laundry this trip. 10 days, 5 people, it just seemed like a necessity. The boys waste t-shirts swimming at the pool, and we waste a lot of socks when it rains. And don't even get me started on the baby....

DH did it on our resort morning while DD took a pirate cruise. He didn't have any complaints.

 

[PartyOf5]

As others have mentioned, it's actually quite convenient to do laundry at Disney. I usually do mine early a.m. or in the afternoon while we are swimming/having lunch by the pool. I can't stand having dirty clothes around. I've also had some great conversations with other Disney guests from around the country/world.

 

[Corinne]

I don't think I can be converted... I'd have to be gone a month before I'd think about doing laundry on a trip. So, what about you?

Like you, I never, ever would consider doing laundry on vacation! It is vacation! Then we became DVC members! We have a stackable w/d in our unit, and can I tell ya, it is sweet to go home with ALL clean clothes and NO laundry!

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Since the 4 of us travel from NY to FL in a Chevy Cavalier, I try and pack lightly. I will bring 1/2 of what I packed last time too! So, I did laundry once while I was there last time and will probably do it twice next time. It only takes about an hour and I did it while the rest of the family was in the pool. I threw in the laundry, went out to join them for a dip, got out about 20 minutes later and I walked in as the washer was finishing up. Threw the clothes in the dryer, grabbed a snack to give the kidlets by the pool, jumped back in the pool for about half hour and only had 2 minutes to wait for the dryer when I walked in. Very simple and painless.

 

[JFrey4240]

I do laundry once during our stay--less to pack and you can wear what you want without worrying if you're going to run out of shirts. I usually do a couple loads at once very early in the morning when no one is around. Super easy!

 

[minnie61650]

I come accross so many posts on this board that invarably turn into threads about doing laundry. I have never even considered doing laundry while on vacation. Do that many people really do laundry at their hotels??? Is it just a strange DIS phenomenon, or does this happen everywhere? I don't think I can be converted... I'd have to be gone a month before I'd think about doing laundry on a trip. So, what about you?

Maybe I should've made this a poll...

I am 56 years old and travel several times a year for pleasure.
I have only done laundry a handful of times while on vacation and those were times we stayed at a beach resort for an extended period time. Things tend to get very sandy when being at beach. If I need laundry done I will send out it out.

Of course if I am staying more than two weeks at one of my vacation homes I will do some laundry.

Other than that I am on vacation!

 

[dixiedizfan]

My main reason is so I won't have tons of laundry to do when we get back home. On our last trip when I did laundry at POFQ the laundry room was packed. More people do laundry on vacation than you realize!

 

[dyna]

Depends on the trip sometimes I don't sometimes I have no choice. If DH and I travelin on Dyna or Christine laundry is a must every other day as we can only pack 2 changes of clothes.

Disney has very very nice laundry facilities I'd rather keep laundry done up there than bring home a bunch of laundry.

When we go to our condo in FL we always do laundry almost daily as the washer and dryer is right there in our condo.

About the smelly luandry issue. I used a couple of DH's old army laundry bags for dirty laundry when traveling they are cloth and can breathe which does help a lot even then when it's hot and sweaty in disney the laundry can get pretty stinky.

If I'm not gonna do laundry at disney we at least take out a bag of laundry to the van mid week makes a tad bit more room in room and gets the smelly laundry out of room. When I take it to van spray it heavily with lysol and fabreez which there again is a big help.

 

[johnsonet]

Even on a 3 or 4-night stay I have done laundry. I LOVE it!! I like to have fresh, clean clothes at all times. We don't wear anything more than once without washing it in the machine (except for bathing suits and maybe cover-ups). Laundry is now part of my Disney trip routine - I buy a small container of soap and take my dryer sheets in a ZipLoc bag. I'll even take tons of quarters so I don't have to rely on a change machine that may be out of order. The AKL laundry room is great and, as pointed out earlier, very convenient. Most of the friends I travel with tease me about it but my SIL and I LOVE to go home w/ suitcases of clean clothes.
It's an obsession - some people bring Lysol wipes, some people bring hot plates into their rooms, I do laundry!

 

[Evil Queen]

We drive, so the less clothes we pack the more room to bring "goodies" back.

So yes, I find myself needing to do laundry once. We stay at values, so while son is in pool, I throw in a load, let it go through the wash/dry cycles. By then DS10 is ready to get out of the pool. I'm not big on pools (I rarely use mine at home) so this helps the time pass for me.

 

[tribus121]

We will be going for 10 days in september and plan on doing laundry on both of our off days .I dont realy mind doing laundry ( My DW hates doing it ) there is no way we could pack for 11 days ( Driving to Bangor ME the day before we leave ) and still have some room for the extras that we will get while we are away .

 

[dzneelvr]

We stay 11-12 days and its essential to do laundry at least once so we don't waste suitcase space on clothes when we could be filling it with WDW goodies It is so convenient to do laundry at the ASMo, I have no issue with it at all I get my breakfast, enjoy it poolside while sunning and the laundry is happily buzzing nearby. I have a tip for less dryer cycles--just bring thin clothes hangers and you can hang shirts up in the room to dry overnight; reserve the cycle for your shorts, undies, etc.We'll be enjoying WDW come Thursday

 

[mickeyfan2]

I come accross so many posts on this board that invarably turn into threads about doing laundry. I have never even considered doing laundry while on vacation. Do that many people really do laundry at their hotels??? Is it just a strange DIS phenomenon, or does this happen everywhere? I don't think I can be converted... I'd have to be gone a month before I'd think about doing laundry on a trip. So, what about you?

Maybe I should've made this a poll...

Yes we always do at the 1/2 way point. Our last vacation was 14 days and we did laundry. To me 7 days of clothes is enough. I would not want to carry that much clothes and have that much of dirty clothes when I got back. I guess if we wore you clothes for 5 days each then we could go for a month.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I usually end up buying a shirt or two there, so between that and packing enough, there's no need!

I am one who would never wear any clothes that had not been washed first. They make me itchy and they have a smell.

 

[ducklite]

I've done laundry on non-WDW vacations as well.

DH and I are going away for nine days this fall, and I'm pretty sure we'll spend 90 minutes one day in a laundrymat in Lake Placid. It beats packing double. And because we need everything from cooler weather trail walking clothes to semi-formal dining clothes it's not pretty trying to pack to begin with.

Anne

 

[DaisyD]

I always do laundry mid trip. Since we are gone 14 days or so I always need more clothes! I do pack enough for all days but we always end up wanting our favorites clean. I just packed 12 pair of shorts for my trip tomorrow. I know that mid trip I am going to want the first 6 pair I just used clean again because I like them better. I also like sort of starting fresh. There is nothing like starting the day with all my clothes clean and ready to go again. I know I'm wierd.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

I just wanted to use this smiley. Carry on!