Packing- how many suitcases?

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

2 checked 2 carry on ..

[iancal]

Every time we come back from a trip we look for those items that we took and never used or took and used very infrequently. They don't make it into our bag on the next trip.

 

This, along with simply using smaller luggage, has greatly aided our attempt to make our bags more travel 'manageable'.

[griffy116]

In the beginning, we would pack multiple outfits per day, all the red-carpet glam wear for formal night and every gadget mentioned on cruise critic. You name it, we carried it, from duct tape to over the door hangers to post it notes, nightlights, bungee cords, all sorts of clips, etc, etc., etc. We found that we were hauling home more clothes and items that we never used. We're older, more experienced and now hate lugging the luggage more than anything. We look at the itinerary to decide what to carry but nothing goes in the suitcase that doesn't do double duty. That includes shoes, and every piece of mix/match clothes. We carry travel sizes of over-the-counter meds which we have actually found to be really useful (bandaids, pepto, ibuprofen, cold symptom meds). We don't miss out on formal night. For a 7-day, I carry one pair of dress slacks and two dressy tops. My flats are dressy but can be worn with casual nights too. We carry zip-locks of every size. They take no room; air can be pushed out for underwear and to hold anything that is damp like a swimsuit. We use them for the dirty clothes and even for shoes. Most everything can be put into a zip lock and the air squished out. We leave all leftover toiletries on the ship which makes room for the gifts we take home with us for ourselves and friends.

[pris993]

I am a notorious overpacker, but am trying to get better! How many suitcases would you take for a 5 night cruise + 1 night pre-cruise for 2 adults? I can't seem to get down to less than 2 wheeled carry-ons and 1 suitcase! Help! :-)

 

We are overpackers too, it is hard to cut back. In our case, we were use to being able to take 2 suitecases each up to 70 lbs, on international flights, now the limit is 1 up to 50 lbs.

 

What we do on any trip, now is figure the first and last night of a cruise - is the same outfit, if we are flying. Then we simply plan for formal nights and casual nights. Daytime is easy, take enough outfits assuming you will wear more than once.

 

We just returned from a 14 night cruise, plus 5 additional nights spent in Europe. We took 1 suitecase each, plus 2 carryons and 1 purse. We were under the 50 lbs limit. We were on a HAL cruise and even had 4 formal nights. So we are doing a lot better.

 

We have cut back on shoes, wore 1 day time walking shoe, no tennis.

 

We buy toiletries when we arrive in our embarcation port, so not to add weight.

 

Good luck.