Poll: Do you pack extra clothes or do laundry?

[Mickeyhugger]

Another experienced DCL'r question..

Would you rather pack more and live w/the space shortage, or deal w/the inconvenience of waiting for a washer/dryer?

When we did our first cruise, DH did not even have any drawer space. (A real sweetheart, he told DD and I he'd just use his suitcase.) But it was such a hassle for him.

Last year, we packed less, but ended up waiting much of the day for a washer/dryer. (It was hard to plan any activities that day.)

I'd almost forgotten about it until I read the 'tips' suggestion to do laundry at crack of dawn because the washers/dryers are always full. It brought back the memory of the inconvenience.

I think I'd rather promise DH a foot massage every night for a week than deal w/the laundry problem again. And folks, believe me, I DON'T take more than we need. I just want clean underwear for all of us every day and clean T-shirts. We'll wear shorts 2 or 3 times before washing.

Share your experiences?

 

[disneybride96]

NO WAY am I doing laundry on a cruise!

 

[gonna go cruising]

On both of our cruises we didnt have to do laundry and we definitely took too much clothing. I cannot see using precious time doing laundry. Just bring plenty of undies and dinnerwear and wing it with the rest. Usually you stay in your swimsuit in the really warm weather, so a few swimsuits, shorts, tshirts and you are ready. Plus the fact you can always visit the gift shops for Tshirts.

 

[wide awake]

I did laundry three times during the cruise...it wasn't bad, I went in early, and had a good time talking to others. I refuse to wear anything more than once, and I can't stand a huge amount of dirty clothes, so for me the only laundry question was how often I would be in there. If you get in there early, before 6, and are prepared, it is sort of fun. I know that sounds silly, but really it was...we all shared the iron and ironing board, I helped some of the men with washer/dryer settings, and we all talked about what a good time we were having on the cruise.

 

[Jeanny]

I'm an early riser, and noticed the laundry room was empty on deck 7 every morning when I walked by to go up to deck 9. I did my laundry on Thursday morning around 5:30am and I didn't see anyone in the hall at all. Someone had left their laundry in one of the dryers.. they must have been tired, went to bed and just left it to dry.

The only mistake I made was when I put the quarters in for the washer, I pushed the buttons for the dryer.. duh!!! Half hour to wash, half hour to dry and I was ready for my last three days! and still had room in my luggage for all of our souveniers.

 

[MrsPete]

I don't see laundry as a very big deal. Throw it in, come back 30 minutes later, move it, come back 45 minutes later . . . easier than dealing with an overcrowded cabin, in my opinion!

Changing the subject slightly: I always take a roll of quarters and some laundry detergent EVEN IF I don't plan to do laundry. If a child happens to throw up or have a touch of "bad tummy", it's nice to be able to wash the clothes properly right away.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

NO way in H-E-double Hockey Sticks am I doing laundry on vacation. I'd rather go "indian" than spend any time even worrying about laundry.

 

[aprilgail2]

I am going to do it the last day...I can not stand to put dirty clothes in my suitcase! The thought of putting clean clothes in there for the next trip after it was filled with dirty ones for the prior trip grosses me out...I would rather go home wit ha nice suitcase of clean clothes!

 

[MarkLem]

We spent 5 days at WDW before the 7 day western, so we ended up doing laundry one morning, no wait at all about 9:00 am. Threw it in, went about th eship doing our thing, came back, threw it in a dryer, folded. ALl in all, about 1/2 hour of our time in the laundry room total, no big deal, and we had some much needed clean clothes.

 

[clh2]

Absolutely did 2 or 3 loads of clothes (If me memory serves me correctly, the 3rd load was due to a spill of some sort!)

Go early in the morning, and when you move things into the dryers, put in twice the number of quarters...then you'll have 75 minutes or so to go get breakfast!

DH does most of the laundry at home, so it wasn't too big of a deal for me to do it on the ship. I would rather have hiim handle the bulk of it 50 weeks a year, and me do it on vacation! Yes, he is a sweetie!!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I regularly do laundry when staying at a Disney (or Marriott) Vacation Club resort with a private washer and dryer. It's convenient, and it's easy to do a load early while showering or late in the evening. If you leave your clean underwear in the dryer overnight, nobody cares.

But on the ship, the last thing I want to do is worry about running back and forth to a laundry room, and checking my watch to see when it's time to put things into a dryer or to remove them.

 

[kapica3]

I never, never, under any circumstances do laundry on vacation. There is plenty of time to play around with mundane, Disney-time-stealing tasks at home. I always take twice the amount of everything I may need, always go home with unused items. I just don't want any kind of "work" to break my "vacation spell". That is just me. My husband on the other hand...... cannot understand why I need so much stuff on vacation.

I'm just a little nuts, I even iron underwear and socks for vacation (at home I don't even iron regular clothes, just shake the wrinkles out as best as I can). But on vacation - I like us all to feel special. When I pack I even make little packets of outfits by folding everything together for that day. So I'll fold the T-Shirt in with the shorts and integrate the underthings and socks in the little "sandwich" so as to save vacation time, I just hand each family member a "packet" of clothes each morning and thats it. No deciding, no arguing, no "work" on vacation.

I take big black trash bags for the dirty laundry and place it in there before it goes back in and "contaminates" the suitcases.

 

[3princesses]

No laundry for us on vacation either. We had plenty of storage for the five of us in a cat. 4. We had even been to WDW for 7 days before and had "Park" clothes with us.

 

[webray]

We over packed...won't do it again. It was so easy to just send the laundry out.

Next cruise..pack very little and send it out every couple of days, or every day.

 

[minniemouse1]

I did laundry on our last cruise. I have 2 dd's 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 and I thought I packed more than enough clothes but I did bring supplies to wash clothes if needed. We ended up changing the girls alot especially on excursion days because it was so hot and humid. Also the change of clothes before dinner. They did wear a few dresses over but not many because they are messy eaters and didn't really like the bibsters I brought along.
I did laundry while we were all in our room one night getting ready for dinner. I takes a while to get everyone ready so I threw a load in and then a 1/2 our later or so I went and changed it to the dryer. I did think that one cycle on the dryer was not enough and ended up running it again so I picked up the clothes after we ate. When I got there the dryer had 1 min left! It worked out well for us and we needed the clean clothes!

 

[jlp651]

if you really need to do it...

send it out-have the ship do it-it will be worth the $$$

havent gone yet but thats just my opinion

 

[NJ Cruisers]

No laundry for us. I want to enjoy every minute of the cruise and doing laundry is not part of the plan.

The DCL rooms are HUGE compared to other cruise lines and we had plenty of room to store everything. We leave some things in the suitcases - sweaters, jeans, some of the underwear - and just pull it out if/when we need it.

Diane

 

[bostonlass]

I'm not doing laundry at all either. Does anyone know how much to have the ship do it for you? Waking up at 5:30am on my vacation is not in my plans.

 

[bengals01]

never have on 15 cruises and never will, just walking by there you get hot, i cant believe how warm it is in there

 

[glindamood]

I do both - pack extra AND do laundry. I hate all the extra work when I get home, makes me feel worse than just the adjustment of work, cooking, cleaning etc. It doesn't bother me that much and if I take a look before leaving for breakfast and there is an empty machine it washes while I eat and I can read/relax whatever while it dries. I also don't sweat it if I can't get a machine knowing that I don't have to.