How light can you pack?

[cruising cockroach]

We have a 2 month trip next year with a 27 night (the cruiseco says 28) cruise near the beginning.  

 

8 nts (1 overnight flight) travel before the cruise, 27 nts on ship, and 23 nights off ship after (inc 2 overnight flights).  Weather will be warm and tropical or sub-tropical.  Only need a light layer + light shell at most.

 

Our status for booking 2 cruises gives us complimentary laundry on the ship.  My wife is hoping to pack into a rolling carry-on.   I'm sure I could too.

[Bizmark'sMom]

2 weeks in France and Germany last November with 1 carry on and a messenger bag.  I did laundry a few times and never felt like I needed more options.

[SPacificbound]

Ten years go I spent 7 weeks in Europe with a 26" suitcase. Since then I just take what I want to take. Some of our trips have been cold  and wet places and hot and steamy places. I want to have what I need to be comfortable.

[pris993]

I take just the opposite approach.. we take what we  want and  pay luggage fees if necessary.. after all we are on vacation... after paying 1000s for a cruise and  airfare what is the difference of a few more dollars. 

[cruising cockroach]

It's not fees but what's really needed and reduce the luggage train post-cruise. My wife has been tracking (via Excel) what she packs for what kind and length of travel, weather/climate we'll likely encounter and makes and keeps note on what she wears most often or less often, or infrequently or not at all.  Trying to eliminate the latter two.   I have to do the same.

 

For the cruise, the "formal" is an all-white-garb affair.  Thankfully, we live near a naval base and there's lot of that stuff in the thrift stores.  One had 2 pairs of white dress shoes (looks like they've never been used) in my size but $20 was waaaay too much.

[Sailor_Sally]

I could easily do the trip with a slightly larger bag .

[OCruisers]

34 minutes ago, pris993 said:

I take just the opposite approach.. we take what we  want and  pay luggage fees if necessary.. after all we are on vacation... after paying 1000s for a cruise and  airfare what is the difference of a few more dollars. 

 

[KroozNut]

Forget all of that, and lay out all of the things you THINK you want to take. After that, put half of it away. That will be what you want to pack..

[OCruisers]

Absolutely agree!   While we make an effort not to over pack, we take want we want and have no problem if that means paying more for extra luggage. 

[OCruisers]

13 minutes ago, OCruisers said:

 

Yes!  So agree with pris993! 

Edited November 10, 2018 by OCruisers

[Sailor_Sally]

It is not the paying airline fees that make me pack light. It is dragging the luggage  around post cruise when you add on a land stay especially if trains or small airlines are involved.

[OCruisers]

13 minutes ago, Sailor_Sally said:

It is not the paying airline fees that make me pack light. It is dragging the luggage  around post cruise when you add on a land stay especially if trains or small airlines are involved.

 

Good Point!  There are certainly times when having less luggage is so so so much easier!

[CruiseGal999]

2 hours ago, cruising cockroach said:

We have a 2 month trip next year with a 27 night (the cruiseco says 28) cruise near the beginning.  

 

8 nts (1 overnight flight) travel before the cruise, 27 nts on ship, and 23 nights off ship after (inc 2 overnight flights).  Weather will be warm and tropical or sub-tropical.  Only need a light layer + light shell at most.

 

Our status for booking 2 cruises gives us complimentary laundry on the ship.  My wife is hoping to pack into a rolling carry-on.   I'm sure I could too.

 

That would be so impressive.  I thought I was doing great with a 22 day trip (2 cruises = B2B totalled 20 days with a hotel stay before & after cruises) with a 20" rolling duffel bag and a large beach bag.  I had warm clothes for the predicted cold/rainy weather and lighter clothes for the weather as it warmed up again.  I wound up packing up ALL of my sweaters/long jeans/etc. and shipped them home from Boston when in port.  Post Office was 3 blocks from where the shuttle bus dropped us off.  One box with a flat fee of $18 ... SO worth the time & $.  

[jlp20]

With all the other crap I bring, I couldn't. Possible, yes. I have read one cruise where there was a three day delay in laundry turn around. Consider one of my standbys, 22" jellyroll bag that folds into itself. Less than 2oz and about 1/4" thick. No matter what, we always seem to bring back more than what we start with. One thing we DON'T NEED is another bag.

[crystalspin]

9 hours ago, cruising cockroach said:

Weather will be warm and tropical or sub-tropical.  Only need a light layer + light shell at most.

CC: you have the advantage of consistent warm weather. I'm three weeks and a day from leaving for 5 days in Barcelona where it will be in the 50's (except for Montserrat which will be in the 40s!) -- then on to a 14-day transatlantic stopping at three Canary Islands (in the low 70s) then to Nassau (80F) and on to Tampa FL (where we will only get on a plane for home). 

 

I just checked and SURPRISE! our airline allows 22lb COMBINED weight of carryon suitcase and "personal item" aka daypack per person. Our previous "record" was a 26-day transatlantic+Med cruise with a 20-lb rolling bag and an UNWEIGHED daypack apiece.

 

On the other hand, I feel like I've been training for this day, for years! We have IT Luggage carryons which weigh only 3.6lbs empty. This makes a tremendous difference in what you can pack, clothes-wise. Keeping the daypacks' weight down with netbook, Kindle, tablet, chargers, and a full med-kit is going to be the stickler.

 

I still think we can do it! We just have to get to BCN -- I was already planning to check ONE bag from Tampa to LAX, due to purchases at Barcelona's Christmas Markets!

[K32682]

My record was a 6 week work assignment in Africa with a rolling carry-on bag and an expandable lap-top bag that qualified as a personal item.  The bigger issue was working around the liquid requirement rather than insufficient clothing.  

 

My cruise record was one rolling-carry on for a 7 day Alaska cruise.

[calliopecruiser]

You could, but what are the advantages to doing so?  I am planning a 3 week trip to Italy and my intention is to go with just a carry on and my regular sized knapsack.......I know I will have some regrets (I tend to spill things regularly on my clothing), but I believe there will be advantages to doing that, including my plans for frequent bus and train travel where large luggage can be a bother and safety concern.  What advantage will traveling with carry-ons only give to you?

[Go-Bucks!]

I did a 2 week European trip, visiting 4 countries, and riding trains the entire time with a 22" carry on and a small backpack because I had to schlep that suitcase myself, on and off many trains, over cobblestone streets and up and down thousands of steps, but......I take a decent amount of clothes and other items on a cruise. I usually take one 29" suitcase and a small carry on. I don't have to haul it around so no need to have just a small bag.

[Essiesmom]

The freedom not to have to wrestle the larger bag into the car and out of it at the airport/port.  Don't have to drag it across Piazzale Roma and up/down the one bridge to out hotel, along with a rolling carryon and wearing a backpack.  that was the trip that taught us that no matter how long the trip, we will only do a rollaboard and backpack.  We don't travel with anything that can't be hand washed if necessary.  If we were to do a trip that required heavier clothing, such as Antarctica, we would probably take one larger bag extra that we would share.  It's not about the extra fees, although we like avoiding those.  It's the hassle.  EM

[iancal]

We do a fair amount of extended travel.  Usually two trips a year, anywhere from  6-12 weeks each.  Plus some short ones in between.  Longest was six months.  These are typically independent land trips and we often snag last minute cruises as a break if we are close to a port.  We have been doing this for the past six years...since retirement.  Leaving again in Jan. for two months.

 

We only travel with  a 20" carry on roller each.   This has nothing to do with baggage fees and everything to do with convenience and the fact that this is what we can easily physically handle.  Lifting on to train platforms/storage, lifting on to small boat in SE Asia, sometimes a flight or two of stairs to get to our b&b or family run hotel.  Pulling along cobblestones or broken sidewalks.  We saw enough people struggling with luggage that they could not physically handle to persuade us that this was, for us, the way to go.  We try and keep the weight down to 8 kg but sometimes it gets a little heavier.  I am to the point where I have room for some of DW's things if a little space is required.

 

We stopped doing formal nights on cruises a long time ago.  They lost their lustre for us. We go casual.   We have no intention of packing clothes for a long trip that will only be worn a few hours for two or three nights.   We buy clothes with travel in mind.  Easy care fabrics.  When we return home we take note of anything we did not use very often or anything that we wished we had packed and take note of it.   It was easy for us.  We started with that size of bag and only took what would fit vs starting with what we thought we needed to take.  Certainly not for everyone but we like it.  It can become challenging.  Our trip to South and Central America included a 14 day cruise around the horn (some colder days) the the balance of the six weeks were mostly in Panama and Costa Rica. and warm parts of SA. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by iancal

[Shorex]

There's no prize for "packing light." It's not an accomplishment. I pack what I want for the parameters of the trip I'm taking.

[evandbob]

21 days with a 21" piece of luggage.  Laundry perk is a wonderful thing!

[evandbob]

18 minutes ago, Shorex said:

There's no prize for "packing light." It's not an accomplishment. I pack what I want for the parameters of the trip I'm taking.

Agreed. But packing light usually indicates that a cruiser has learned from previous sailings what is needed and what is not, that's all.  

An Alaskan or Nordic cruise will obviously require more than a Caribbean one.  I had to use one 28" (instead of a 21") piece of luggage for ours.

 

[iancal]

Our prize for packing light is that it is very easy for us each to physically handle our luggage under all travel situations.

 

It started as a 'prize', now it has become a necessity.  We don't go from airport-hotel-cruise ship and back.  There is always a fair amount of pre, post, and inbetweens.

Edited November 10, 2018 by iancal

[calliopecruiser]

21 minutes ago, iancal said:

Our prize for packing light is that it is very easy for us each to physically handle our luggage under all travel situations.

I've always felt, since I was a teenager, that you should be able to deal with your own luggage - and if you were willing to do that, you could pack as much as you want.  If you find you can't, then pack less.  But "packing less" isn't a virtue in those cases, it's a necessity; two different things.  When I was 16, I packed an oversized hockey duffel for a 6 week trip and would carry it on my shoulders like a backpack!  That was long before luggage had wheels.