Packing for 8 people, 12 nights?

[dlin2011]

Western Caribbean next summer with some time at universal. 6 of the 8 are kids ages 7-15. Any tips on what/how to pack without packing way too much? Or just find all the porters? highly likely!

Packing cubes best? Each person pack their own? Share bigger suit cases as to not have too many to drag around?

Packing light, for sure.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Western Caribbean next summer with some time at universal. 6 of the 8 are kids ages 7-15. Any tips on what/how to pack without packing way too much? Or just find all the porters? highly likely!

Packing cubes best? Each person pack their own? Share bigger suit cases as to not have too many to drag around?

Packing light, for sure.

Biggest tip I can give you is - cross pack. That is, have at least one outfit for each person in each suitcase. In case one goes missing, everyone will still have something to wear.

Whether for a 7 night or 28 night trip, we pack the same. You can wear the same shirt more than once. You can do laundry onboard. I'm sure you don't wear the clothes at home only once, so why not on a vacation? No one will remember that you wore those shorts, or that blouse 3 days ago.

 

[dlin2011]

Laundry may be my only option. I’d love to not have to worry about it though.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Laundry may be my only option. I’d love to not have to worry about it though.

Well, you can send the laundry out. Don't have to use the self serve laundry.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Western Caribbean next summer with some time at universal. 6 of the 8 are kids ages 7-15. Any tips on what/how to pack without packing way too much? Or just find all the porters? highly likely!

Packing cubes best? Each person pack their own? Share bigger suit cases as to not have too many to drag around?

Packing light, for sure.

Are you flying or driving?

We did a two week trip this past Feb/March and we had multiple legs of the trip so I had separate suitcases for each part (travel day, WDW, Disney Cruise, Universal, travel day) and when one was done we just left those in our van. That was packing for five, though, not eight (and I thought that was challenging)!

I like to use the large ziploc bags for each of the kids. Pack daily outfits, pjs, socks underwear. Like @PrincessShmoo mentioned, we then divide up the ziploc bags in the suitcases so it's not just one suitcase per person, it's more like family suitcase(s) for each part of the trip. We did not do any laundry on that trip. My dh thought I was crazy to pack so much, but for me I would rather pack the clothes than have to do laundry on vacation-and the cost of having it sent out is significant in my opinion. Having one suitcase going as a "hamper" under the bed works really well on the cruise.

I can't imagine organizing that many checked bags if you are flying! eek..that would give me major anxiety. I love the comfort of being able to bring as many suitcases, etc as we can fit in our vehicle!

Enjoy your cruise!!

-Kelly

 

[Lisa F]

Biggest tip I can give you is - cross pack. That is, have at least one outfit for each person in each suitcase. In case one goes missing, everyone will still have something to wear.

^^^ This

I just travel with the kiddo but only pack half of our stuff in one bag (together) and half in the other in case one gets lost and the other doesn't.

I would pack for the cruise and then wear some of your casual cruise clothing at Universal then do laundry when you get on the ship- I bet laundry is less crowded early on. plan it when you're planning to be around doing cruise stuff so it's minimally invasive on your vacation.

 

[lklgoodman]

I've used packing cubes for our last 3 cruises. I can get so much more packed in our luggage by using them. Plan outfits so you don't need to bring so many extras. I used to bring different dress shoes for different outfits. Took 9 pairs of shoes once. Now I only bring a pair of tennis shoes, 1 pair of dressy shoes, and watershoes or flip flops. No need to bring a different outfit for each evening, you'll only have it on for a few hours. I bring 1 skirt with a couple of tops, do the same with capris and several tops. 1 nice dress for semi and formal night. We don't get pics taken so doesn"t matter to me if we wear same thing for both. I do all the packing for myself and my dd, if I let her do it she'd pack all candy and toys, and she's 11 yrs old. I also put 1/2 of each of our things in each suitcase. Dh does his own.

 

[Dug720]

One big advantage to using “cubes” is you can separate your clothes into “land” and “sea” and not touch the “sea” while on land and vice-versa. It’ll definitely help with packing up to transition.

 

[Sun_soakin]

We are a family of 6, kids same age range. I always pack super light b/c I dislike schleping tons of stuff around and I don’t like to check bags. One carry on each, and we roll b/c IME I can fit more that way than w/ cubes.
Usually I avoid doing laundry by rewearing things. This last trip was 3 weeks, so we did laundry a couple times and it wasn’t a big deal. We were traveling abroad w/ the med cruise in the middle and I just didn’t bother w/ pirate night stuff or suit for DH (he brought a sport coat which was more useful on the trip). I was really happy we were traveling light

 

[stinkerella]

We split things between suitcases and pack things that aren’t easily replaced in the ship’s shops in our carry-ons. We pack multiple tops with each bottom. I also pack color coded laundry bags so we can sort lights from darks as we put things in the hamper suitcase. One less thing to do after the trip.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Limit the size of the one piece of luggage. For example: one carry-on per person period. We only have one carry-on per person and survived 2 days at DL and 14 days EBPC. Hard for the airlines to loose your carry-on.

 

[at227]

We have traveled with a party of 5 for 15 night cruise + 3 days at disneyland where 4 of the 5 were women including teenagers. We each had a carry on and a bigger suitcase + 1 garment bag. We put all Disneyland clothes in carry on. The rest was in the big suitcases. We spend most time by the pool so only brought 2 additional pairs of shorts/tops for the cruise portion as we lived in bathing suits and cover ups which can be rinsed/cleaned easily in the sink. At dinner we never repeated outfits, we only repeated skirts/pants not more than twice with different tops. We did not do any laundry or use packing cubes, so it's possible with some smart packing. The only tough part of all that luggage was packing the car to and from the airport at our home airport.

 

[dlin2011]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I think we’ll have to practice packing when folding laundry sometime easy dresses or leggings and tees for the girls! Boys can probably go easy as well. DS pretty much lives in basketball shorts and tees. That and something nicer for dinner should be good. Maybe my problem will be all the extra stuff I want/need to bring.

Are you flying or driving?

Flying!

Limit the size of the one piece of luggage. For example: one carry-on per person period. We only have one carry-on per person and survived 2 days at DL and 14 days EBPC. Hard for the airlines to loose your carry-on.

I was thinking just one carryon each and we can probably fit everything, splitting some things up in case of disappearing suitcase. I worry about finding overhead bin space for them all though. And can the 7yr old reliably get herself to the gate pulling it?

 

[Dug720]

Maybe my problem will be all the extra stuff I want/need to bring

Want would be your key word. Only pack what you truly NEED. As others have said - mix and match! Skirts and pants/shorts can be worn more than once for sure! Ditto tops you only put on for dinner and a show.

 

[CPME]

I think the main huge tip is pack outfits and not just a random mix of clothes. As a rule I pack a day outfit per day per person for a week and about 3 or 4 evening outfits per person, and then shoes that go with each outfit (obviously most shoes will go with multiple outfits). This way you know you've got enough, know that things will match and you're not taking any clothes just to give them a holiday and bring them back home again unworn 2 weeks later. If we're away more than a week we take the exact same amount of clothes and we either have to wear items twice or do a laundry load. I did laundry on our last 12 night Baltic cruise (underwear can't be re-worn, obviously!) and it wasn't as bad as I expected actually and saved us a lot of luggage. We travel a lot and as a family of 5 we've never taken more than 2 cases between us. If we get there and find out we've missed something, either we do without it or we buy it again if we absolutely need it but we've rarely had to do that.

 

[Bonnie1222]

I saw someone mention Ziploc bags, and my apologies if I missed where somewhere mentioned these

I use the Ziploc space bags - you can squeeze out the air and they do make a difference. I am a horrible packer - I always bring way too much. Even after I take things out I still have too much and my suitcase is always packed tight. We bought the space bags and I still bring the same amount, but I have room to put things I would normally put in my carry on. DH bought them at Walmart, but I know they sell them on Amazon too. Best part is you just roll them to remove the air - no vacuum needed.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

And can the 7yr old reliably get herself to the gate pulling it?

My grand nephews and grand niece (7, 5, and 4 yo) all have backpacks for their clothes instead of cumbersome roll-ons. Get her a backpack for clothing, not school books. It should be one open space, not divided into areas (books, laptop, supplies). Just open and pack as you would for a suitcase, zip it, put it on her and she's ready to move through the airport without hitting others with a wild carry-on.

 

[Travel60]

I disagree with the outfits thing. I go mix and match: Pick a color scheme white/khaki/navy is my summer go to; black is winter. Doesn't have to be the same for everyone unless they share clothes. Point is every top should go with every bottom. Three bottoms each (shorts, skirts, leggings, pants), one shirt per day mostly casual tees but maybe two nicer collared (for males) or nicer fabric (for females). One "nicer" dress for formal and semi-formal nights for ladies; the nicer collared shirt will work for men. One light sweater or jacket (dining rooms can be chilly and a third piece dresses up outfit a bit) Two swimsuits, one cover-up, 3 pair shoes: 1 dressier sandal, 1 flip flop, 1 walking shoes or sneaker. Workout clothes if you will truly do that. Remember you will wear one outfit on. We typically wear something the first time to dinner and then the next day for whatever activities we can't do in swimsuit.

I used to be a terrible packer... Now I can go anywhere with one roller bag or at most, one medium checked bag

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I think flying is actually easier for packing, because I feel a much stronger need to limit items to only the absolute necessities. We drove to our cruise and I had way too much. It's easy to keep throwing things in when you have lots of room.

I agree w/ 1 carry-on per person and 1 backpack each. We did a trip recently (not Disney related) for a week, with 2 carry-ons for 4 people. It was actually really lucky we decided to do that because our flights were all messed up, we ended up re-routed, getting a standby flight ... if we had checked bags, I'm sure they never would have made it to our destination when we did. With lots of carry-ons, they may offer to take them at the gate and put them underneath, and then you retrieve them from the jetway as you exit the plane.

 

[DietCokeMommy]

I feel your pain, my family is only 4 people but I'm already strategizing and planning my packing list for our 13 day trip in January with a hotel stay, then 7 night cruise, then 4 nights at a hotel. I like to use packing cubes and then just split things up between the suitcases. We'll probably take 3. Two for clothes and one for all the other stuff - shoes, snorkel equipment, FE stuff, etc. Everyone has their own cube color. Also, if you have younger girls (I have an almost 3 year old) then dresses are awesome to pack because they're a full outfit. I pack of lot of casual cotton dresses from Old Navy or Carters. I pack mix and match stuff for my son - shorts are khaki, navy, or gray and all of his shirts match with them. I do roll things into outfits and put them in the cubes, because that way he can just pull out a roll and put it on. But we usually need to do laundry on our longer trips. Depending on the ages of your kids they may get more re-wear out of things than mine do. My kids are almost 3 and 5 and pretty much only get one use out of each outfit, especially once they eat dinner in it. But I'd imagine older kids can rewear stuff, especially things like shorts.

Oh and my other tip is to segregate out things if you can. For example we have a single night hotel stay before the cruise. So I'm going to put one outfit, PJs, and swim stuff together for that one night for me and the two kids in one cube. DH is on his own, lol. Then everything else in our suitcases can stay packed for the cruise.