Packing suggestions - 14 nights

[HAM]

Help! Going on first 14 nite cruise and could use helpfull hints from cruise

vets out there. Do you use ships laundry, recycle outfits, bring tons of

clothes? I would prefer to travel light; appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

George

[LisaB19]

A lot depends on what you do on sea days and when in port. Except for dinner, I pretty much am in a bathing suit with a cover up. On excursions, since they usually involve the water, it's the bathing suit and shorts and a t-shirt. Other than washing out the suits and some underwear, we didn't need to do laundry during our 14 day cruise. You can do a lot of mixing and matching for dinnerwear and cut down on what you have to take. No one remembers what you wore the night before anyway!

Lisa

[NorCalCruiseGuy]

Help! Going on first 14 nite cruise and could use helpfull hints from cruise

vets out there. Do you use ships laundry, recycle outfits, bring tons of

clothes? I would prefer to travel light; appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

George

 

Wear slacks with sport coat and tie on a semi-formal night, then use those slacks and a casual shirt for casual night.

 

I take one formal shirt and have it laundered onboard rather than taking three.

 

Using the ship's laundry service is very easy and not much more expenseive than laundry and dry cleaning services on land.

 

I find I usually take more daytime shorts, t-shirts and polo shirts than clothes for evening wear.

 

Hope these thoughts help. Let me knoow if you have specific quesitons.

[kitty9]

You recycle clothes, you mix and match and you use the laundry/dry cleaning facilities. With luggage limitations it's not worth it to overpack, so if you can keep to a particular color palate, using basics and neutrals, you can mix and match clothes to look different every evening. For the men neutral color slacks and different color shirts can mix easily with each other. I have a 33 day cruise coming up next year, with at least 7 formal nights and 12 informal, so packing for that will be a challenge. But, I plan on only two large suitcases and one carry on for that trip.

[lkb125]

Help! Going on first 14 nite cruise and could use helpfull hints from cruise

vets out there. Do you use ships laundry, recycle outfits, bring tons of

clothes? I would prefer to travel light; appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

George

 

We each travel with 1 22inch rollaboard, I send things to the laundry and I recycle outfits, my husband rents a tux. Traveling light is such a joy and we usually spend ten day or so pre or post cruise when we do the transatlantic cruises. I hope this helps you. Lorelle

[lkb125]

We each travel with 1 22inch rollaboard, I send things to the laundry and I recycle outfits, my husband rents a tux. Traveling light is such a joy and we usually spend ten day or so pre or post cruise when we do the transatlantic cruises. I hope this helps you. Lorelle

 

with the 22 inch bag we have a small tote bag like the airline people use. I usually put cosmetics, medicines and other sundries. Lorelle

[Bemidji Ty]

We like to travel lite as well. When we go on longer cruises (10 to 14 days), we just figure the laundry as part of the vacation cost. It really isn't that much when compared to other on-board costs. Like a bar bill.

[MEcruzr]

I pick one basic color (for day wear) to start... navy. Then I mix and match bottoms and tops based on navy (pastels, white, red, khaki). For formal, I bring a long black skirt or pants, one pair of strappy black high heels and a couple of fancy tops. A good rule for packing... "When in doubt, leave it out." ;) Also... cut back on the toiletries you bring. Use travel sizes. These pack into shoes, purses, etc. very easily and you don't have to bring the leftovers home! And remember, if you need to... use the ship's laundry. It's worth it.

 

MECruzr

[Pontius Navigator]

Using the ship's laundry service is very easy and not much more expenseive than laundry and dry cleaning services on land.

 

We had the luxury of a drive-cruise so had no baggage limits. As we had sufficient clothing I did not check Constellation laundry prices (there is no self-service laundry). However an Australian passenger, on the last day, said she had balked at the laundry charges that she considered too expensive.

 

I agree you could budget for laundry as part of the holiday costs. It may also be a cultural thing with US passengers used to using professional cleaners. Certainly in UK professional laundry services are rarely used, dry cleaning excepted.

 

One thing where you may save more weight is shoes. Mrs PN had enough shoes for one pair per day with a couple of spares on a 14 day trip!

 

You could manage with a pair of walking shoes on the flight in, pool foot wear, a carefully chosen dress pair and a spare!

[raudacruise]

Some suggestions

 

1. You can get Space Bags at walmart. Socks, undies, stuff that you can put into and suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner. Depending on your destination, T-shirts, shorts, whatever. You can even sit on them since the spickot is one-way. On our last cruise we used them and put our dirty laundery in and the stateroom attendant used the vacuum to again save space. Keep in mind, this only saves space - not weight. And airlines are ratching up charging for excess baggage.

 

2. Wear something on your trip to your embarkation port that you might want to wear on the ship. I also wear the jacket/pants I will be using for informal nights (without the dress shirt and tie of course). Stuff the jacket into the overhead.

 

3. Pressing on the ship is 1/2 the price of laundry. $1.50 to get a shirt pressed is pretty good (stuff them into the Space Bag for that price).

 

4. Rent-tux is an option. I've had good/bad results here.

 

5. You can reuse evening wear (after all you are only going to be wearing it 4 hours or so). Pack some Bounce/Freebreeze (or not depending on how you feel).

 

On the next to last day they normally have a "fill the bag" laundry thing where whatever you can stuff into the bag gets done for about $25. Its a paper bag, not big. Sort of the size Office Max stuffs into newspapers for 15% off. We've never done it.

[lola's mom]

Where you going?? Makes a big difference ...

[HAM]

Thanks everyone for your ideas so far; keep them coming. Hey Bemidji Ty,

you are right about the costs as per the bar bills. I have kept the printouts

they give you, over the years, and I am ready to wallpaper a small room.

Finally, MEcruzr, I love the idea of strappy black high heels! (For the MWW,

not me.)

 

 

George

[HAM]

Lolas Mom, we are off to the Panama Canal, San Diego to Fort Lauderdale.

[raudacruise]

Lolas Mom, we are off to the Panama Canal, San Diego to Fort Lauderdale.

 

We did the reverse on Infinity in April. You will not be disappointed.

[HAM]

Raudacruise,

We look forward to the cruise thanks for the endorsement. We like the beach any suggestions for any ports?

 

HAM

[raudacruise]

Raudacruise,

We look forward to the cruise thanks for the endorsement. We like the beach any suggestions for any ports?

 

HAM

 

Not sure what your itineray is so can only give general suggestions. We also snorkel.

 

In Aruba we went to De Palm Island. Its really just a short boat ride out after getting out of town. Very nice beach and opportunity to snorkle where you don't have to get on/off boat. Instead they have stairs to go down into the water and see a lot of fish. Some controversy about this place about environmental impact.

 

In Cabo St. Luis you at least want to take a boat ride around the point. Best snorkelling is around Pelican rock but again, depends on when you are going to be there. Several hotel beaches available when you port.

 

Acapulco, really no beaches unless you go to an island (can't remember the name but remember seeing posts that it was very dirty). Go see the divers instead. We did a boat trip and saw the divers from pretty close and they swam out to us.

 

We also have done the other way, only difference was we stopped in St. Thomas vs. Aruba before going to FLL. LOTS of great beaches in St. Thomas or St. Johns.

[bobbyleduck]

This is what I took for our cruise aboard Infinity, the one that George was on, last March.

 

Cruise List-14 Day Panama Canal

Toiletries

Toothbrush *

Toothpaste *

Comb *

Razor *

Shampoo *

Body Bath Cleaner *

Sunscreen *

Q-Tips *

Aspirin *

Earplugs *

Nail clippers *

Tweezers *

Cepacol lozenges *

Mending kit - buttons *

 

Clothing

Tuxedo (Works (Jacket/Pants/Cummerbund/ Studs/BowTie/White Shirt), Extra White shirt, Extra Cummerbund/Tie) *

Jacket *

Pants 4 *

Shorts 4 *

Swimsuits 2 *

Shirts Dress 3, Casual 9 *

Handkerchiefs 4 *

Underwear - 14*

T-Shirts - 14 *

Socks 14 pair white, 3 dark *

Hats 2 *

Shoes 2 (Dress/Sneakers) *

Water Shoes *

 

Misc

Trip Log w/pen *

Cash *

Passport *

Wallet (contents)/Moneybelt *

Ticket information *

Glasses/Reading Glasses (2)/Sun Glasses (2)*

Eye Mask *

Ice Bag *

Water protected bag *

Playing Cards *

Clothespins *

Personal fans 2 *

Digital Camera/Batteries & Charger/Memory Disks/Under-Water Camera *

4 pound bag of pistachios * In carry on backpack

 

All of this required 1 - 29" light weight suitcase and one backpack as carry on. I used large, 2 1/2 gallon, zip top plastic bags and squeezed the air out (not official space bags, but worked quite well) to reduce space. The large bag weighed in at 45 pounds (5 pounds to spare).

 

Never had to do laundry.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

[lola's mom]

We are heading into colder climates -- and though the clothes are bulkier, you don't sweat them out so easily.:)

 

There are no washers and dryers - which I think is a rip-off for such a long cruise. At the risk of sounding tacky, I plan to pack some things that I will throw away after using ... like unders. They are not worth the cost of the laundry service. I have a fine collection of ratty PJs - again to be tossed. My husband is going fishing ... and he is bringing some jeans that should have been tossed years ago -- and shirts as well. We don't throw away clothes as a general rule, but we will sacrifice a few things this time.

 

Mix and match is always good ... a nice pair of dress black pants or dress khakis will serve you well. My DH takes a blazer, a couple dress shirts and a couple nice pairs of dress pants and ties. On the casual nights, he wears a sweater over the shirts (he looks cute, too!).

 

For a trip to the tropics -- I'd say you'll be paying for some laundry, and I am sure we will too.

 

We pack a box (flat) in our large suitcase and fill it with stuff to mail home --- when in the US, that is.

[kehlx2]

Lolas Mom, we are off to the Panama Canal, San Diego to Fort Lauderdale.

 

Lucky you--you can pack lightweight things--warm weather--we are going to Alaska that ends in San Diego--so 14 days--Alaska--OR--CA & then 3 days in San Diego after--makes it interesting to pack--I will pack dress things as mix/match.

[Irishwhiskey]

We spend about a week getting ready to pack our bags.We try to purchase small containers of toiletries and use plastic bottles where possible.You can fill up a small bag with just shoes.We bring lightweight shoes when we can.Between the both of us we might have 9 or 10 pair of shoes.If you are going overseas you'll have to keep luggage weight in mind. We rent a tux along with the shoes.I'm not a fan of the onboard laundry.If your not careful some of you clothes could come back a size smaller! We mix our clothes in each others suitcase just in case one of the bags is late our missplaced for a day.At least you'll have something to ware.Some of the clothes we take don't come home with us.But the one thing that we always do after we are finished packing is we take all three bags and unload them.There are many clothes that we bring and don't ever use.Many times we came home with pants,shirts etc,that never got touched.So we started to inventory what we would bring and then actually used.It sounds a like a waste of time but it stopped us from overpacking

[pcur]

Help! Going on first 14 nite cruise and could use helpfull hints from cruise

vets out there. Do you use ships laundry, recycle outfits, bring tons of

clothes? I would prefer to travel light; appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

George

 

OK, mea culpa for not reading the other replies, so my bad if this is a duplicate.

 

We just returned a few months ago from a 12-night European cruise, with 2 nights before, 5 nights after, AND EasyJet's uber-strict luggage requirements, AND we rented a SmartCar!!!!!

 

http://www.carpages.co.uk/go.asp?session=2@8@31034@1381013@64

 

So, packing light was survival to us.

 

Knits are best, and multiple pairs of black pants. Keep the color coordinating to no more than three colors, so the mixing and matching is stretched to the max. Black, tan, and white may be boring, but it's super great for recycling.

 

Take a week's supply of undies, socks, and nighties. Then, send them out for cleaning.

 

Formal nights were one beige chiffon lightweight pants outfit (with the pants doubling for the above color mixing), and a crepe skirt for another formal night. The third was the ubiquitous black pants with a dressy sparkly top.

 

Again, knits, knits, knits. They don't wrinkle and take up less room.

 

A lightweight windbreaker or raincoat. You can always layer under for more warmth.

 

White and black tanks or shells to wear under.

 

I was a little dressier than usual during the day, because I recycled my evening dinner tops and jackets for day use, too. Knits, remember?

 

Shoes: these are the kiss of death to luggage weight. One pair of lightweight black evening sandals; one beige evening sandals; day walking sandals; day walking shoes for cold/rainy weather.

 

Travel sizes of ALL cosmetics. WalMart sells great travel containers. Dole out 2 weeks worth. Get a travel hair dryer.

[Texed]

We take the closet. :cool:

[amagar]

My husband read this idea on one of these board and now follows it:

 

He takes all of the underwear and socks that are on the verge of needing to be thrown out. After wearing them on board, he tosses them out. Creates a little more room to carry some goodies on the trip home. And it keeps me from nagging him about throwing stuff out at home....