Minimalist packing thread!

[PHamrick]

We are going to be gone a total of 10 days (Wednesday through Saturday) and will be going to Universal Studios and the Kennedy Space Center before our cruise. There will be two adults and two kids (5 & 7) I know we will be bringing things back, so I want to take the absolute minimum of clothes and necessities with us. Aside from some "essentials" (costumes for my daughter, FE gifts, whatever), how little have you or would you pack for this amount of time?

I know to go with a color scheme so you only bring one pair of shoes that matches everything and you can mix and match things into new combinations. But I'm looking for experience in exactly how little you would pack. Two pairs of shorts? How many t-shirts? Two pairs of pants for my husband for dinner? Let me have your specifics!!!

 

[mmouse37]

What is the minimalist word you speak of???? LOL

Sorry, couldn't resist. We usually go away for 2 weeks with parks either before or after and we still only take one suitcase each and I still think I overpack.

MJ

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

We are going to be gone a total of 10 days (Wednesday through Saturday) and will be going to Universal Studios and the Kennedy Space Center before our cruise. There will be two adults and two kids (5 & 7) I know we will be bringing things back, so I want to take the absolute minimum of clothes and necessities with us. Aside from some "essentials" (costumes for my daughter, FE gifts, whatever), how little have you or would you pack for this amount of time?

I know to go with a color scheme so you only bring one pair of shoes that matches everything and you can mix and match things into new combinations. But I'm looking for experience in exactly how little you would pack. Two pairs of shorts? How many t-shirts? Two pairs of pants for my husband for dinner? Let me have your specifics!!!

My wife cut back on our last cruise, 4 nights on the Wonder and she only took 8 pairs of shoes.

From a guy standpoint for a 7 night, I take:

1 suit
1 slack
3 dress shirts
2 undershirts
4 tie/vests
(We dress up for dinner every night, just our thing, we're weird)
2 board shorts
2 walking shorts
7 t-shirts
7 socks

Probably doesn't help but thought I'd share anyway.

 

[carnationkila]

Are you planning to check out the laundry facilities on DCL? We will be doing a two week B to B. I will pack for 4-5 days and do laundry once during each cruise.

 

[DahliaRW]

I agree on the laundry thing. Check out when you can feasibly do laundry and plan around that (for how many days of clothes you need). For daytime, pack 2-3 bottoms you can pair with multiple shirts (one pair of pants, 2 shorts, assuming it'll be warm). Then however many shirts you need to get through days between laundry (I'd say 4-5 probably is sufficient). For the kids, I do tend to pack 4-5 full outfits, because they are messy, but their clothes take less space. I pack one pair of PJs for adults, 2 for kids. Sufficient socks and underwear (they're small) to get through between laundry plus an extra. For formal night, I packed a small black dress (it was actually a columbia dress, so not really formal) that I dressed up with a scarf and jewelry. For semi-formal, I packed a black skirt and nice-ish top I dressed up with jewelry (and I wore the skirt other times on the trip - we were in Europe for 2 1/2 weeks prior to sailing). Dressy clothes for your dh, I'd pack a pair of slacks and a button down shirt he can wear for semi-formal, and then a tie that goes with it (and jacket if you want) for formal night. Definitely go as minimal as you can on shoes. They take up a lot of room. For me, I pack a pair of walking shoes, a pair of sandals (something like tevas that take up little room), and a pair of dressy sandals or flats that are small and take up little room. It's harder for guys, since you need dress shoes to go with slacks and then tennis shoes or sandals.

Princess dress wise, a space bag that you roll to get the air out can save you a ton of room in your luggage. I also always pack a duffel bag in one of the suitcases that we can expand into if we have too many souvenirs. In that case, I pack laundry in the duffel and souvenirs (which tend to be a bit more fragile) in the suitcases.

As a family of 5, we did a 3 1/2 week vacation to Europe + cruise for some of us and continued land trip for others with one carry on suitcase (that met Europe carry on guidelines, so smaller than the US) and a backpack apiece. Kids included, they hauled their own luggage. I did expand into the duffel during the cruise with all the FEs and souvenirs.

 

[phinz]

On our last 12-day trip we packed a travel/carry on bag with the first 3 days and the cruise bag got clothes for 4 days. We sent laundry out on the 3rd day onboard, had it back by the 4th day and had clothes enough for the rest of the trip. Pack half of what you think you'll need and send the laundry out halfway through.

We have an expandable bag if need be that we pack into a corner of the one checked bag for souvenirs.

On a 12-day I take:

6 Tshirts, plus the one I wear the first day
3 pairs of shorts plus the pair I wear the first day (Oftentimes this turns out to be a pair of convertible pants, which have legs you can zip off, since we tend to travel in the winter). Shorts are acceptable in the MDRs, as are TShirts, so I don't bother with pants.
6 pairs of underwear plus the pair I wear the first day. I have some underwear that can be washed in a sink and dry pretty quickly if need be.
Maybe a pair of swim trunks if I plan on going to the Rainforest Room. If not, I don't bother because I don't like public pools and the chances of me getting into the water at CC are slim to none.
Flip Flops, which I wear on board. I bring a nicer pair than my daily flip flops because they look a bit dressier.
Running/Walking shoes, which I wear at the parks and when I'm doing laps on the Promenade or I wouldn't bother. I prefer barefoot over flip flops over confining shoes. I'd go barefoot everywhere if it was allowed.
3 pairs of synthetic athletic socks since they dry quickly and don't get smelly as easily
4-port plug-in USB hub and attendant charging plugs
Macbook Air
One book. No more. There are books available on board if I actually finish my current read.
Journal and several pens
CPAP
3-4 Disney Aloha shirts to wear to dinner and drinks because I like to get a touch dressed up, but not much. I don't bother with formal night unless I'm going to Remy that night.
6-pack of the highest gravity beer I can find. The last two cruises have been Oskar Blues Ten Fidy.
My DCL beer mug

If going to Remy or Palo:

Dress shirt, though I have been known to wear an Aloha shirt, in lieu of a dress shirt and tie, with my tux or suit.
One undershirt
Suit
Tie
Dress shoes

That's about it. A shorter trip would see me paring that down to about half the amount of clothes, but our trips tend to be at least 9-10 days, and sometimes longer.

 

[krisinparis]

We do Int'l carry-on plus backpack per person. They key as others have stated is to plan when you will do laundry and make sure your outfits color-coordinate so you can mix and match. Since you are going to be in warm-weather areas you should have any easier time packing. Like the previous poster, we did a 3 week trip to Europe last summer (1 week land 2 week cruise) and managed to carry-on all of our luggage. Key for us was limiting the amount of shoes. Everyone got to bring a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of flip-flops and a pair of shoes to wear on formal/ semi-formal nights. My son had a pair of dark gray Vans that he wore on semi-formal/ formal night and they actually looked really cute with his dress slacks and a tie. My did the FE and my stuff took up 1/2 of a suitcase. I used that same space to bring back the things I was gifted. I did have to leave a few bulky items behind- I left a note for our stateroom gift telling him he was welcome to keep the items if he could use them.

 

[lorimay]

I fail miserably on every cruise, so I will be no help to you!
I bring way too much every time, my husband loves my shoe suitcase the most......NOT!

Good luck and have wonderful time!!

 

[Sir William]

My wife cut back on our last cruise, 4 nights on the Wonder and she only took 8 pairs of shoes.

From a guy standpoint for a 7 night, I take:

1 suit
1 slack
3 dress shirts
2 undershirts
4 tie/vests
(We dress up for dinner every night, just our thing, we're weird)
2 board shorts
2 walking shorts
7 t-shirts
7 socks

Probably doesn't help but thought I'd share anyway.

My packing list is pretty similar. We did a 7-day cruise with a week at WDW before that last March, and just completed a 7-day with an unexpected 4 day stay in San Juan due to the snow storm that hit the east coast. We did laundry at the resort before the cruise in March, and DW did a quick load of laundry on the ship when we learned we would not be flying home as scheduled.

I try to wear everything, except underwear, at least 2-3 times before even thinking about doing laundry. My exception is to take a couple of spare shirts. No one is going to notice, or if they do, they won't care because they are doing much the same.

1 tux with 2 shirts, 2 ties, a vest and cumberbund (we get dressed up on both formal and semi-formal nights. I could get by with fewer shirts and ties.
2 pair khaki pants and 2 polo or aloha shirts for casual dinner (I alternate them)
2-3 pair walking shorts (or pants when in Europe)
4-6 shirts (combination of polo, aloha and t-shirt depending on the cruise and planned activities)
1 pair sandals
1 pair walking shoes (for dinner)
1 pair dress shoes (for tux)
Underwear and socks for each day of the trip
1 swimsuit (mine dries quickly)

Outerwear, such as a fleece or windbreaker, depends on our planned activities ashore and anticipated weather (and weather at home)

 

[TandLMommy28]

I just can't do it. The humidity down there makes me want to change my clothes 2-3 times a day. So... as much as I strive to be minimalist in most of my normal life, I am a terrible over-packer when I head to Florida!

 

[deanimal]

I love the freedom of packing light! Our last cruise was a little crazy: five nights in Edmonton to visit family (minus 25 Celsius) then a Bahamas cruise out of Miami (hot and humid) and then a week in Orlando in January (mild for us, but lows near freezing a couple of nights, pleasant afternoons but cool evenings). Plus gifts for a FE group of 20 cabins which took a whole bag. And we still managed with only carry-on luggage. Some of my methods are:

Decide how dressy you want to be. We felt perfectly comfortable on formal night with me in a dressy sun dress and him in nice slacks, dress shirt and tie. It lightened our load considerably but I know that going all out for formal night is a big deal for some and worth it.
Pick a simple colour scheme. (We do all blue, grey, tan and black. Boring, but easy to mix and match. If you can't live without colour, bring scarves!)
Plan your packing around laundry. I knew we'd have access to laundry facilities and planned to wash every five days.
Bring sandals that are comfy enough for walking all day but nice enough to wear with a dress. That plus one pair of comfy shoes for the parks was all I needed.
My husband brought mostly khaki's and polo shirts instead of his usual jeans and T's. Still comfy but more versatile.
I don't wear a lot of dresses, but I found they worked better than shorts or skirts. A cotton dress easily doubles and a swim cover up.
Go low maintenance. Minimize your beauty products and decant large bottles into travel size containers if you can't live without them. If you're a makeup person, pick a couple of looks and only bring what you need. I've never understood the need for a huge makeup bag with every colour of the rainbow for a short trip!
If you're a reader put some books on a tablet or E-reader. You can even get magazines this way.

That's all I can think of right now. I went into a bit more detail on my packing for my last cruise in a blog post I wrote.
https://exploredreamdiscoveries.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/the-three-trips-in-one-packing-challenge/
Happy travels!

 

[izzinmac]

My wife cut back on our last cruise, 4 nights on the Wonder and she only took 8 pairs of shoes.

From a guy standpoint for a 7 night, I take:

1 suit
1 slack
3 dress shirts
2 undershirts
4 tie/vests
(We dress up for dinner every night, just our thing, we're weird)
2 board shorts
2 walking shorts
7 t-shirts
7 socks

Probably doesn't help but thought I'd share anyway.

Going Commando?

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Going Commando?

To quote Jerry Seinfeld, "The only thing separating you from is a thin layer of gaberdine"

 

[tvguy]

2 adults, 2 adult sized kids. Everyone had a carry on, and we had 2 large hard sided suitcases total for a 7 day.
Mix and match. 1 formal outfit each for the ladies, 1 suit each for the gents.

I think one place many folks on these boards over pack is having a different pair of dress shoes every night, and packing more than one swim suit per person. Rinse them out and if they are still damp, use the blow dryer to finish drying them.

 

[Sir William]

Going Commando?

I sometimes fantasize about just taking two changes of clothes in a backpack. I would wear one outfit, then wash it in the sink and let it dry while I wear the second one. Better yet, wearing a swimsuit at the pool during the day would keep the clothes cleaner so I wouldn't have to wash them as often. Going commando would cut down even more on the daily washing!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I sometimes fantasize about just taking two changes of clothes in a backpack. I would wear one outfit, then wash it in the sink and let it dry while I wear the second one. Better yet, wearing a swimsuit at the pool during the day would keep the clothes cleaner so I wouldn't have to wash them as often. Going commando would cut down even more on the daily washing!

I have a couple pairs of "hybrid" shorts that are perfect for cruises. They look like nice walking/golfing shorts but are made out of board short material so they dry in about 20 minutes when I swim with them. Going commando makes it infinitely better!