Shipping Luggage

[ecozad]

My family and I will be heading to Disney World and stay at POR 9/9 - 9/17. We are flying Frontier Airlines which seems to have pretty steep baggage fees, especially for all that I need to bring having a toddler and a five year old. I am wanting to ship all of our things: toiletries, diapers, wipes, snacks, shoes, clothes, etc... I know that the recommended way to ship is UPS, and I believe I have found the correct address and know how to address the actual shipping label, but I am wondering if people generally use a UPS store or customer center to ship? I thought I had previously read that it was cheaper to use the customer center and today my MIL called the UPS store and they told her $83 for 23lbs!!! So, I looked online at the customer center and saw that you can't actually go there to ship packages. Is this correct? Any information would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[DisBuckMan]

You can get your package ready to go, print out a shipping label online, and give the package to any UPS driver.

One thing to remember...size of the box can run up a pretty good bill. UPS uses "dimensional weight" above certain dimensions, which can tack on quite a bit.

 

[A2DisneyMom]

My family and I will be heading to Disney World and stay at POR 9/9 - 9/17. We are flying Frontier Airlines which seems to have pretty steep baggage fees, especially for all that I need to bring having a toddler and a five year old. I am wanting to ship all of our things: toiletries, diapers, wipes, snacks, shoes, clothes, etc... I know that the recommended way to ship is UPS, and I believe I have found the correct address and know how to address the actual shipping label, but I am wondering if people generally use a UPS store or customer center to ship? I thought I had previously read that it was cheaper to use the customer center and today my MIL called the UPS store and they told her $83 for 23lbs!!! So, I looked online at the customer center and saw that you can't actually go there to ship packages. Is this correct? Any information would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

We just did! To All Star Movies by FedEx. I just checked the tracking and the luggage arrived today. We arrive tomorrow. We shipped using our company's deeply discounted FedEx ground rate. It really would not have been cost-effective otherwise. But, truly, convenience has a value too! And every dime I can deny Spirit airlines is worth a dollar to me, but I digress.

We're at All Star Movies one night and then will be transferring over to Boardwalk Villas for 7. Original plan was to pack an overnight bag and have the luggage delivered straight to BWV. But the BWV convention center Saturday hours made that logistically difficult. So to ASMo the luggage went, with plans for a Disney resort transfer Saturday.

Happy to share my experience once it's all said and done!

 

[AngiTN]

You may find it cheaper to have Amazon deliver many of those items vs. shipping them. Worth pricing out, especially if you have Prime Shipping.

As for shipping things UPS, if it's the place you go to pick up a package then you can ship out from there too. There may be some UPS centers that don't have counters but if they didn't have a counter then you'd not be able to pick up either. UPS website should be able to tell you where a UPS counter is (not one of their retail stores) My office is directly across the street from the UPS facility here and I ship things in and out of there all the time.

 

[scrapquitler]

My family and I will be heading to Disney World and stay at POR 9/9 - 9/17. We are flying Frontier Airlines which seems to have pretty steep baggage fees, especially for all that I need to bring having a toddler and a five year old. I am wanting to ship all of our things: toiletries, diapers, wipes, snacks, shoes, clothes, etc... I know that the recommended way to ship is UPS, and I believe I have found the correct address and know how to address the actual shipping label, but I am wondering if people generally use a UPS store or customer center to ship? I thought I had previously read that it was cheaper to use the customer center and today my MIL called the UPS store and they told her $83 for 23lbs!!! So, I looked online at the customer center and saw that you can't actually go there to ship packages. Is this correct? Any information would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

There's a UPS store that contracts with them here in my town, maybe your town has one, too.

Honestly, if they are going to charge you $83 for 23 lbs, it's probably easier and cheaper to just pay the luggage fees.
And if you do the UPS thing...you'll have to figure out how to ship stuff back home from WDW, how much hassle will that be?? And that $83 to ship your 23 lbs of stuff to Florida is also going to cost you to ship it home.

 

[BarbieGal457]

I can't speak to UPS shipping of things, but I've flown Frontier to Disney several times before, and will be flying them again in October for our trip. A checked bag, if you purchase it before you get to the airport, is $25 each way. If you can fit all that into a checked bag, that's a total of $50 over a total of $83 to ship it there, and like others have said, the additional cost/time spent figuring out how to get it back home. I don't know if the fees are different when flying out of other cities but that's what they are flying from Philadelphia. We actually don't even take carry-ons when flying Frontier because I refuse to give them $30 each way for me to take a carry-on, when I can check luggage for less.

Can you pack the children's items into one bag, or spread it between yours & your partner's, therefore you only have to manage 3 checked bags and you avoid an extra $83+ (and time lost on vacation trying to ship it home)?

 

[ecozad]

Thanks y'all.... I have everything that I need to ship (besides our clothes) already at home in a box. I got on our scale and weighed it last night; it's roughly 25lbs. I think I am going to save myself the hassle of UPS and just check the bags, as it seems it will be cheaper. I see that pre-checking the bags online is like $30, so I will just do that.

BarbieGal457: This will be our first time flying Frontier. I have always flown Southwest; however, we were initially planning to drive (12 hrs) and then I decided I would rather fly and deal with my MIL for an hr and 45 minutes, instead of being in car with her for 12 hrs. So, I found flights through Frontier for like $75/per person. My concern is some of the reviews I have read people have complained about flights being delayed or outright cancelled quite often. What has been your experience? We are flying from New Orleans.

 

[BarbieGal457]

For me, yes, it would get boring or at least redundant. However, I'm an adult that often travels alone. With Children I think you'll be fine. I just wouldn't do those days all in a row.

Thanks y'all.... I have everything that I need to ship (besides our clothes) already at home in a box. I got on our scale and weighed it last night; it's roughly 25lbs. I think I am going to save myself the hassle of UPS and just check the bags, as it seems it will be cheaper. I see that pre-checking the bags online is like $30, so I will just do that.

BarbieGal457: This will be our first time flying Frontier. I have always flown Southwest; however, we were initially planning to drive (12 hrs) and then I decided I would rather fly and deal with my MIL for an hr and 45 minutes, instead of being in car with her for 12 hrs. So, I found flights through Frontier for like $75/per person. My concern is some of the reviews I have read people have complained about flights being delayed or outright cancelled quite often. What has been your experience? We are flying from New Orleans.

I totally understand your worries! My dad worked for TWA for decades and always says about how I shouldn't fly cheaper airlines because they don't have contracts with other airlines to put you on their flights if delayed or canceled and such. We've only flown Frontier to Tampa & Orlando, and this will be our third round-trip flight with them. Personally I have always had good experiences. Sure it's no frills, but I buy small snacks for the plane (our flight is about 2h20). I try my hardest to avoid bringing a carry-on solely because I don't want to pay for a checked bag and a carry-on, and since our flights are comparable lengths I think you may be able to do that too.

Luckily we've never experienced a cancellation, and only a delay once going from Tampa home to Philly due to horrible rain here. We got flights for last December for $68 a person, and this trip for $100 a person and personally I couldn't justify spending $400+ a person on American (flight prices seemed to shoot up dramatically, usually we pay like $250) when we could yes, assume some risk based on the fact they have less flights daily, but save so much in the end while having had good experiences with them in the past. I wonder if we see more of the complaints about delays/cancellations just solely on the fact they have fewer flights a day, so if it gets delayed or cancelled it's a bigger deal to some because they may have to wait longer until the next flight instead of just an hour or two. I wouldn't use Frontier for longer flights because of this, but for a pretty short flight for us I'm willing to take the risk. My boyfriend and I also do not have children so if we get delayed I imagine it's less of a hassle and expense for us than it would be for a family.

 

[ecozad]

I agree! I used to fly Southwest when my youngest was under two and could fly for free because I was traveling to and from St. Louis to see a specialist for him and was also nursing and was able to pick wherever I wanted to sit, which allowed me to have more privacy and also allowed me to choose a less populated area of the plane so that hopefully I would disrupt as little people as possible with the sounds of a baby when flying. At the time, I was able to pay about $280 per round trip.

I would not have spent anything near that amount to fly to Disney when, although it might not be ideal, we could easily drive. I had figured, though, with flights only around $75/person, it would almost be equal to the amount we would be paying in gas. I also figured if, God forbid, the flight be cancelled, we could still jump into our car and make it to Disney within about 10 or so hours (takes us about 2.5 hrs to get to the airport). Hopefully that doesn't happen. Definitely cannot beat the price, especially since we are not looking for frills, just a quick way to get to our destination.

I thought you could carry on a personal item for each person, such as a backpack - is that correct?