What Did You Never Take Out Of Your Suitcase??

[Bsan1221]

I never touched all the shoes I brought.....

[mommabean]

I didn't take out most of my sweaters. Unfortunately I took my hat, gloves and scarf up on the glacier when I went dog sledding. I stuffed the gloves in my pocket, wore the hat and tied the scarf loosely and was hotter than you know what. Meanwhile, the mushers wore shorts, t-shirts and glacier boots in the 72 degree weather on the glacier. HOTTTT it was. Who would have guessed?

 

The coldest place was on the sports deck while the ship was moving. I needed my jacket out there.

 

This was all last week - June 12th Serenade sailing.

[BelleReve]

Didn't need a cardigan I brought. Did fine with a lightweight windbreaker. We missed a lot of the early seating dinners by spending so much time in port, so I would have made do with less dressy clothes that didn't wear, and brought 1-2 more casual tops to go with jeans and navy twill pants.

[cpal]

I Was On The June 12th Serenade And Also Did Dog Sledding. Went With My 18 Year Old Daughter So She Wouldn't Have To Go Alone. What An Awesome Experience.

 

Wonderful Cruise . . . . Hubbard Glacier Is Unbelieveable. Everyone Thinks Our Pics Are Fake.

 

How Do We Top Alaska? Thinking Of Hawaii, But Now We Think We Should Do Alaska And Go Further North Or Later In The Year For Better Wildlife.

[akh40]

What did you use those for?/

 

Thanks

 

Kendy, I wore my flip flops everywhere on our cruise to Alaska, they're just comfortable for me and easy to slip on. I wore tennis shoes for excursions, and dressy shoes for dinner. But I can't live without my flip flops for everything else! I tend to always be hot, rather than cold, and flip flops help me feel cool!:)

 

Amanda

[kendy]

Thanks Amanda, Now I got it.

[BlessedAgain]

Ditto long underwear and bug spray.

 

I must be the odd man out...or should I say woman. I live in Florida but had bought "Kuddle duds" at the end of the season. I wore these many times during our trip even though the weather was beautiful at the beginning of June. When you are out on the deck at 4 A.m. it's cold! And the wind proof pants were invaluable also. My ear muffs and gloves kept me comfortable while glacier viewing. These are all little items that can take up very little space and will definetely be going with me on my next trip to Alaska.

 

What won't make the trip is the over the door rack, flashlight, insulated coffee mugs, dressy outfits for non-formal dinners, a sports coat for my DH, clothes pins, suction hooks, and a blender.........what was I thinking!! (You just can't believe everything you read on these boards.) :rolleyes:

[mommabean]

cpal,

 

I told my husband the same thing about the Hubbard Glacier pics...they look fake. We think it looks like they put a poster behind us and took a picture. K-mart style. Only a nicer background. :)

 

We went dog sledding at 11:45am. When did you go?

[bayofbiscay]

Definately the umbrella.It was so warm recently on Oceana.

[mandrews2u]

Wow, these post really helped, we are sailing in less than 3 weeks and my hubby is already nagging me about overpacking, so if I bring the following, will I have everything as far as clothing end pof things covered??

 

2 pairs of black slacks

5 blouses,

2 or 3 jeans

5 tee shirts

1 shorts

bathsuit ( just in case & flipflops)

1 pair tennis shoes,

1 pair of dress shoes

1 raincoat

1 sweatshirt

1 medium weight jacket for glacier

1 pair gloves

1 umbrella

1 long black skirt

1 black dress with either shall or matching jacket?

Robe for balcony ( no cover on it, sounds chilly)

 

 

How formal are formal nights on alaska Cruise, same as Carribean Cruise, my husband hates the formal nights. Hates the whole Suite thing.Could he do nice sports coat instead?????

[cpal]

We went did sledding at 9:30 (they picked us up at port 8:45). We were fortunate and I think they added some earlier times that day since they hadn't flown for two days. We missed it in Skagway and couldn't believe we woke up to glorious sunshine in Juneau. Anyway, it was an awesome experience.

[CruiseIsGood]

Robe for balcony ( no cover on it, sounds chilly)

 

If you have a suite, you should already get robes in the room. What ship are you on? Carnival now provides robes to all oceanview and above.

[mandrews2u]

We are on the Carnival Spirit, the 5th deck aft balcony, I just read on a posting a few days ago that they are open it's not a suite, it is just a regular balcony cabin. It would great of they provided robes, less to pack,ha,ha

[BelleReve]

In 2002 had a balconey, and Carnival provided robes. On our June 8th trip this past month, we had a regular cabin, and wasn't sure about the robe, (TA wasn't sure either) Anyway, we had a robe, so I would safely say everyone gets a robe.

[ejhall]

Didn't use and wouldn't take again: umbrella, extra socks, extra sneakers, Wrinkle Release, Fabreeze, exercise clothes (didn't have time!)

 

Didn't use, but would take again: first aid kit, extra small flash light, travel TP rolls (don't want to get caught on a excursion without TP!), small roll of duck tape

 

Did take and was glad I did: sunglasses, bathing suit and coverup (gotta love the T-Pool on Infinity, used it 5 days out of 7!), gloves and ear muffs (for glacier viewing), rain coat w/hood that is also wind breaker, one of those pale blue flat nightlights for the bathroom (so you can see at night w/o using the light), wire ties for luggage zippers :) (for the flight home)

 

Didn't take and had to buy: hat with brim (to help with the sun glare), cold medicine (got a cold the last two days of the cruise, yuck)

 

Hope this helps!

[BelleReve]

EJ your post reminded me - started with sinusitis last day of the trip, when I got home my dr mentioned if I'd used Afrin nasal spray on the onset, it would have helped. I was lucky that it came at the end.

[tee_wrecks]

Hello, my name is Bill and I'm an overpacker.

 

Shoe organizer-unpacked it but the hooks wouldn't fit ofer the bathroom door. Hung it in the closet and barely utilized it.

 

2nd swimsuit-For some reason the hot tubs near the Lotus Spa of the Dawn were closed about 80% of the cruise.

 

DW's rain jacket-Weather was only bad 1 day and she stayed inside most of the time that day.

 

Formal wear-After much gnashing of teeth and being flamed by cruise traditionalists on this board we brought the formal wear but once on the ship we opted out of the formal dinners for several reasons not the least of which is we were on our anniversary trip and preferred to spend our time with each other, not at a table with a bunch of strangers.

 

Other than that I used just about everything I brought and DW wore everything she brought....once.

 

I should say that some items we used sparingly. I only wore my shorts once and my sweats and flip flops were primarily used going between the chalet and hot tub on the land portion of our vacation. I also brought 2 pair of jeans and could have gotten by with 1, 2 flannel shirts where one would have sufficed. I also brought 3 t shirts and ended up with 7 after purchasing 1 in just about every stop we made.

 

As for photo gear, I took a tripod and while I used it a couple of times I would have been better served taking a monopod which would have saved about 10 pounds.

[Time2sail]

Wow, these post really helped, we are sailing in less than 3 weeks and my hubby is already nagging me about overpacking, so if I bring the following, will I have everything as far as clothing end pof things covered??

 

2 pairs of black slacks

5 blouses,

2 or 3 jeans

5 tee shirts

1 shorts

bathsuit ( just in case & flipflops)

1 pair tennis shoes,

1 pair of dress shoes

1 raincoat

1 sweatshirt

1 medium weight jacket for glacier

 

 

.

1 pair gloves

1 umbrella

1 long black skirt

1 black dress with either shall or matching jacket?

Robe for balcony ( no cover on it, sounds chilly)

 

 

How formal are formal nights on alaska Cruise, same as Carribean Cruise, my husband hates the formal nights. Hates the whole Suite thing.Could he do nice sports coat instead?????

 

A sports coat with tie would be fine on most ships; but some require a dark suit or tux for formal nights for the dining room. What does your dress code suggest?

[mommabean]

I took wrinkle release. Never used it.

 

I took a monopod. Never used it.

 

Extension cord. Never used it. And I still used the laptop computer and charged 2 digital and one video battery along with cell phone with no trouble using only 2 outlets.

 

I took the cheapest lightweight closet hanger style shoe rack from Target. I used the heck out of it and it's the best thing I ever took on a cruise. I hate shoe clutter on the floor and it also held other little things. Wraps/pashminas, evening bags, gloves (which I never needed) - just any little thing that you don't want buried under other things in a drawer. This shoe bag was so thin and lightweight that it slipped in the side of my suitcase after I packed.

[mandrews2u]

The dress code suggest Dark Suit or tux for men and cocktail dress for women

[gg3]

Never used bungee - Diamond balcony doors slide, so no restraint needed to keep open. Never ate the snack food we brought - what were we thinking ?? Never drank the bottled water we took- Diamond water wonderful. Never used my hand lotions or shampoo - Lotus Spa items furnished in the bath was very nice. Never wore 1/3 of my outer wear clothes because in the Alaskan cooler climate, my clothes never got sweaty or even dirty, so I rewore most jeans and jogging suits and flannel shirts. Never needed extra hooks - ours would not fit over the doors. Did not need extra hangers - Diamond furnished at least 25 and you could get more I am sure.

[mandrews2u]

I was wondering what the bungee cord was for, anyone know if we need it for balcony door on Carnival Spirit? also on a list I read was duck tape, what purpose is this used for? Several people listed it so obviously it was needed.

[sandybeachy]

Our cruise sails July 24th - what weight jacket did you bring?

[CruiseIsGood]

The bungee cord is to keep your balcony door open on Carnival. It's not really needed in Alaska. Unless you really want your door open.

[phdiva]

I never travel without a nearly used roll of duct tape ... it has saved me from wardrobe malfunctions on multiple occasions.

 

Seriously, one of the first things I do when I arrive at my cabin is to tape up a copy of the floorplan of the ship, our itinerary, the list of food options (locations and times), and other reference material (e.g., a map of where we're going). <<Granted, scotch tape would give a neater look, but I'm not so compulsive that I need to pack TWO rolls of tape.>> BF thought I was absolutely insane the first time I did this, but he quickly realized the benefits of having the info in plain sight in one convenient location.