What is the lightest you have ever packed

[shops54]

Now that we are down to only two people (DH and me) it seems we should be able to pack very lightly. But I want to be properly dressed. I especially want to eliminate all the little "extras" - sticky notes, night lights, door hooks etc. What are your favorite "light packing" tips for a 7 day HAL cruise? Thanks -E

[Krazy Kruizers]

It has been years since we did a 7 day cruise on any line. But even then we did not pack light because of tuxedos, etc.

I have never carried Sticky Notes - Night lights - Door hooks -- Just curious - why do you need these things???

[u4ea]

Ah, no one will beat me on this. One small shoulder bag for a two week cruise.:eek: No problem, 1 shirt, jacket, tie for formal night, no packed shoes. In that case, traveling around Europe solo, it’s just to hard to deal with that “extra baggage.” And doing laundry is a great place to meet people.
Keeps it simple senorita. And there is my packing tip.;)KISS:cool:
Mark…

[RuthC]

What is the lightest you have ever packed
I've done a 35-day cruise on 1 suitcase more than once. The first time I had several full formals and several pairs of evening shoes, too.
I have cut back on the number of formals and wayyy back on the shoes now.

It may not be consided "light" packing, but it's not bad for that long a cruise.

[JimVrhovac]

Ruth does not know the meaning of the word LIGHT

Ruth & Jim

[CrystalWater]

Ruth does not know the meaning of the word LIGHT

Ruth & Jim

LOL You guys always crack me up. That is just so unreal! :eek:

[nurseblissful]

how long was the cruise you needed all that luggage for? that is amazing....:eek:

[Pam in CA]

The lightest I've packed has been one 25" suitcase for a 15-day cruise with 3 formal nights. This was before I got free laundry and dry-cleaning perks (on Princess) so I just packed light and did my laundry in the self-serve a couple of times. Generally, I pack for just 7 days and bring clothing that can mix and match, changing a look.

[CrystalWater]

how long was the cruise you needed all that luggage for? that is amazing....:eek:

It was probably a 3 day'er. You should see their 7 night cruises. hahahaha :D

[Charliesmom]

For years we went on vacations with one carry-on bag each and a shlep bag to hold all of the extras. It worked - but I had to, also. I washed out underpants and socks on a daily basis - usually by hand.

It was not until our South American cruise around the Horn on the Royal Princess in 2000 that we had a huge bag each. DH said we would need to have three seasons of clothing with us and we would need the room.

Now we travel with a huge bag each and two carry-ons. We probably could get by with less, but if there is a pre- or post-cruise stay, we need the extras if I am not going to be doing laundry all of the time.

Roberta

[shops54]

I guess I'm looking for that elusive balance between the freedom of having fewer things to be responsible for and the freedom of not having to spend valuable time in the laundry room. Any thoughts? Thanks - Eileen

[babyher]

Ruth does not know the meaning of the word LIGHT

Ruth & Jim


Jim,

By any chance are you married to Mrs. Thurston Howell III *LOL*

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger though, my DW can go suitcase for suitcase with yours :)

Now in fairness , how many of those bags are filled with slippers :)

[nurseblissful]

just have the laundry guys on the ship wash for you. they do a great job, it does not cost that much and you are on VACATION. enjoy your time. :) you get to do laundry when you get home. lauri

[DedeM]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=631522

^^ Great thread - I started it. :D

[O2B@C]

I guess I'm looking for that elusive balance between the freedom of having fewer things to be responsible for and the freedom of not having to spend valuable time in the laundry room. Any thoughts? Thanks - Eileen

Bring two or three patterned tops, each of which goes with each of two or three solid color bottoms (skirts or slacks), and all of which go with the same pair of shoes. That way you can vary your outfits without packing a lot. Wear your casual shoes (sneakers or whatever) and your warm outer layer onto the plane, so you won't have to pack those - they take a lot of room. Packing enough underwear for 7 nights doesn't take a lot of room, so don't force yourself to do laundry just to save on packing underwear. Use the HAL laundry service if you need it unexpectedly (e.g., a spill).

[JimVrhovac]

These were 7 day cruises

Ok so 4 med suitcases were filled with slippers - BUT THEY ARE A NECESSARY ITEM.....

These pictures do not show Wheelchair, Walker, Solar generator System and 7 extension cords.

Ruth & Jim

[tomc]

One carry-on.

[prescottbob]

Ahoy!

My darling Judy has never been familiar with those terms. Sorry, can't help.

Bon Voyage and Good Health!
Bob (right arm now longer after carrying DW's bags all these years):)

[babyher]

Back in my single days I was always able to get away with a single carry on.

Granted those weren't cruises , just plane trips to visit friends and family. No formal wear and where I was going I could always do laundry.


These days , I could never be so lucky :(.

[ekerr19]

Ruth does not know the meaning of the word LIGHT

Ruth & Jim

Hey Jim!!!

DH wants to know where you found pictures of OUR luggage, lol!!!:eek:

[RevNeal]

Now that we are down to only two people (DH and me) it seems we should be able to pack very lightly. But I want to be properly dressed. I especially want to eliminate all the little "extras" - sticky notes, night lights, door hooks etc. What are your favorite "light packing" tips for a 7 day HAL cruise? Thanks -E

My very first cruise (as an adult) was the lightest I had ever packed. It was a 7-day cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam taken in 1994 to celebrate the successful completion of my doctoral dissertation. It was also a "last minute" booking ... made about 10 days before sailing. I had one suitcase and a carry-on. I'm not entirely certain about totals, and I might have missed something in outlining the following, but this is about it:

1 black suite,
1 black clergy shirt
1 white dress shirt and a tie.
1 pair of dress slacks
1 pair of dockers
3 polo shirts
3 t-shirts
1 pair of shorts
1 swim suit
7 pair of underwear.
dress shoes
sandals
Personal toiletry items (like shaving stuff)

I wore slacks, button-down shirt, blue blazer, walking shoes on the plane. I wasn't into photography then, and while I did have a lap top I didn't take it with me (I wanted to REST from work, and there was no way to access the AOL or Compuserve networks [forerunners of the www] at that time from ship).

And that's about it. Oh, I'm sure something else was in that collection, but it can't have been much more. It all fit into a not-too-heavy bag and a carry-on.

[Team M&M]

mike and I have one carry on each, in it is a pair of dress pants, a pair of yoga or casual pants to work out or relax in, a pair of shorts and a bathing suit, sandals, runners and a dress pair of shoes 4 underthings, 2 prs of socks, 2 t-shirts and a knapsack in the carry on so we can buy things to bring back and still do carry on as you are allowed two items for carry on.

I work for an airline and travel often so we had to find what worked for us. We are going away this Sunday for a week and a half and that is what we are taking, I don't mind doing a load of laundry every five days or so, that means, one load on the trip and no schlepping a suitcase and carry ons... no chance of losing luggage along the way... on our last cruise we came back to our ship for lunch at our last port as we were not impressed with it and ended up deciding to stay on board, so, did a load of laudry then while everyone was out and actually came home with clean laundry... nice feeling.

I live to find the lightest way to pack :)

By the way, we wear layers on plane, t-shirt, long shirt, jacket, pants and runners.... and on the way home (if reasonable, as in, you are not travelling in crazy heat) that leaves more room in suitcases.

I hate having to pack runners, they just take up so much room, I can't go without my Columbia sandals... I would only take those if I could work out with them on....

Hope you find a way to pack yourself nice and light :)

[Solo Cruiser]

One 25" suitcase and a shoulder tote for a 17 day med and TA. This was really packing light for me since I took a 30" and a 25" and a shoulder tote for 7 days on my first cruise.

I aimed to pack everything this time in a 22" rollon and a shoulder tote but well... er... uh ... I didn't make it. About 2 weeks ago I went and bought myself a new 25" and I will be taking that and a rolling backpack for 7 days. SHEESH, I'm bad. :cool:

[shops54]

Team M@M - Do you mean that for a 7 day cruise you took the carry-on and a and extra knapsack that fit inside the carry-on along with all the clothes you needed including formal wear for the cruise? Let me see that carry-on!! Or did you mean you pack for a normal week with that? Maybe you don't do formal nights? Last year I packed a 24" and a carry-on. DH packed the 26 and a carry on. I'm hoping to pack a 22" and put some stuff in his if I need to. I bring a zippered beach bag that I can stuff if need be. I love the challenge to pack light.

[iancal]

For 7 days I use a 21" roller. DW has something slightly larger. Goal is to get to carryon. We took the same for a three week trip to Portugal and Spain this summer. Actually, the 21" is about the largest size that will fit on carryon...provided it goes in bottom first. Would like to get down to this for each of us. Will try this for our Jan. cruise.

[molly361]

For 7 days next year we are aiming for one 22 inch carryon (one for myself and one for DH) each since we are flying from the east coast to the west coast and do not want to check luggage. We have already decided this cruise to "skip" the formal nights-Plan on using laundry services maybe one time- might be a challenge to do this but we are giving it a shot!!!

[kelmac]

Lauren and I spent a month in Europe back in 2003; this included a 12 day Med cruise. Since we didn't want all that "cruise clothing" to slow us down during our land portion, we came up with this system:
--We packed a large bag with all second tier clothing -- stuff that was getting older, and things we could live without.(Old dark suit, old shoes....,) We arrived in BCN and spent a couple of days there before boarding our ship. At the end of the cruise we gave away, or trashed all of our cruise clothing and dumped the older cheap bag.
The last two weeks we travel mostly by rail with our two backpack type luggage bags. (weight = 18 pounds each)

We spent 53 days in Europe with these two bags back in the late 90's and they are perfect for that type of travel.:)

We used another strategy back in 2002 for our 14 day Baltic cruise. This time we brought all our standard cruise clothing and flew into London. We stayed at a smaller guest house and arranged for them to store our cruise bag for two weeks as we toured around England, Scotland and Ireland. We then headed back to London for a couple of additional days (same hotel), picking up our luggage and boarded a train out to Dover. Five weeks total, and our luggage never slowed us down.

Enjoy!
Kel

[iancal]

We will do exactly what you are doing Moli361. After extensive travel, we have found that the one downer to travel is luggage so we eliminate as much as possible. One 21" carryon roller each and one small carryon bag is our very near term goal...just need to get DW over that hump. You need to be careful though. In some airports such as LHR (at least this June when we passed thru in transit), passengers were only allowed item per person going thru security. An umbrella or a shop bag was counted as one item. Not sure if this is the usual rule or not because there was every sign of a security alert right down to the 1 1/2 lineups.

[DedeM]

Ladies: how do you fit everything into carry-ons since the liquid ban on airlines?

I really think I could manage with one carry on, but my @#$%^& toiletries take up so much room and I don't know how to scale back - even with tiny sizes in a quart sized baggie. I'd still have too many tiny bottles.

[muffin]

I think we tend to forget you can use the shampoos, soaps etc on the ship as supplied. If they do not provide your skin or hair with the "right stuff", take your 3 oz in a small plastic container or two. How much soap and shampoo canyu use in 7 days? Another thing we have done is get our cabbie to stop at a walgreens en route to the port where we quickly buy any items needed whcih are in bottles too big for planes. The giant economy size is not needed for a vacation trip. ( except perhaps sun screen!!) It is also wise to give a thought to just how much "medicine" you need to take . How often have you really used your saline for your dry nose, or antihistomine for your itchy ring finger? These items can often be bought on board if needed, and can always be purchased in most ports at a pharmacy. I have stopped taking all that stuff, and have yet to need it. When was the last time you really got a blister on a trip and needed an bandaid?
We can forget we are travelling in mainly countries with everything we could possibly want.

Cheers, and happy travelling

[Team M&M]

Team M@M - Do you mean that for a 7 day cruise you took the carry-on and a and extra knapsack that fit inside the carry-on along with all the clothes you needed including formal wear for the cruise? Let me see that carry-on!! Or did you mean you pack for a normal week with that? Maybe you don't do formal nights? Last year I packed a 24" and a carry-on. DH packed the 26 and a carry on. I'm hoping to pack a 22" and put some stuff in his if I need to. I bring a zippered beach bag that I can stuff if need be. I love the challenge to pack light.

Yes, that is exactly what I mean, however I realize I did not include I bring one long shirt,two t-shirts, a dress shirt and a shawl as well. I don't mind doing a load while on ship, so, that means less clothes to bring. I have a light easy to fold, black long skirt that I can wear with my shawl and top and my jacket I wear is black and I can also wear that with one of my t-shirts (they look dressy) with my dress pants or skirt. I mix and match. We find if you can find clothes made of polyester, a shirt can pretty much fit into a scruntched ball in your hand (not that you would pack like that, but, just to give you an idea as to how small they pack, and I find polyester hangs nicely on my body (which has more lumps and bumps to hide nowadays :))

I do find that when I take my runners, I could fit everything into my carry on, but, it becomes heavy, so, today as we are now on vacation, and I just had the carry on yest on the plane, it was TOO heavy, so, I have redistributed so I have my carry on, not full and my other bag not full, but, they are much easier to manage. with the airline I fly, I can have two carry on's, one that goes in compartment above and one that goes by my feet.

I have the smallest Hey's hardcase suitcase, they are as I recall 2.5 lbs which is great since the weight restriction on carry on is 22 lbs.

I bring my make up with me in my purse (not a huge fanatic of the stuff, so, only have the basics) and I bought a package of bottles from wal-mart for liquids, for me, I need to have, my hair gel (have curly hair that would FRIZZ out like crazy if I didn't have anything in it) face cream, shampoo - I like my own.... and that is it I think for liquids. We will buy a bottle of spf wherever we go and leave it if we don't use it.

must admit, feel a bit too light for this trip as we are leaving Vancouver in Oct.... might end up buying a sweatshirt... not sure my light long sleeve shirt under my windbreaker is going to be warm enough, but we will see. Sorry that was so long winded :)

[agabbymama]

I'm not quite as bad as Ruth, but for a 16 day vacation I will be taking my 29" suitcase with my 18" carry-on. The 18" sits on top of the 29" and has a strap to go over the handle. It actually is quite easy to handle that way. It's what I take on all my trips now, not just cruises.

I've tried two smaller suitcases with a carry-on, and another time a duffle with a carry-on. Too much luggage for one person to handle alone. I also tried taking older underwear and clothing and pitching it after wearing it. I have tried washing out in the sink, but the stuff never dried. I could never travel as light as Rick Steve's does. And I won't do laundry. Did that in Australia at some of the hotels, and it's a royal pain in the pituty to be doing laundy on vacation. And while others say the ship does laundry at a reasonable price, I don't send my clothes to the cleaners at home, so don't want that added expense on a vacation either.

For our 30 day trip to Italy, I did have 3 old Samonsite 26". One for him, one for me and one mixed, in case one of the others got lost, as well as two carry-ons. I think it was about the third night we decided to leave two of the big cases in the car and only lug one into the hotel with the carry-ons. Then maybe every 4th day had to lug them all in and switch dirty clothes and clean clothes. It worked out well.

[jhannah]

We always have one large bag to check and two carry-ons. Always the same, regardless of length of cruise. Sometimes, though. we'll expand one of the carry-ons and check it, too. Using the ship's laundry services is the key.

[Cruising-along]

I think we tend to forget you can use the shampoos, soaps etc on the ship as supplied. If they do not provide your skin or hair with the "right stuff", take your 3 oz in a small plastic container or two. How much soap and shampoo canyu use in 7 days? Another thing we have done is get our cabbie to stop at a walgreens en route to the port where we quickly buy any items needed whcih are in bottles too big for planes. The giant economy size is not needed for a vacation trip. ( except perhaps sun screen!!) It is also wise to give a thought to just how much "medicine" you need to take . How often have you really used your saline for your dry nose, or antihistomine for your itchy ring finger? These items can often be bought on board if needed, and can always be purchased in most ports at a pharmacy. I have stopped taking all that stuff, and have yet to need it. When was the last time you really got a blister on a trip and needed an bandaid?
We can forget we are travelling in mainly countries with everything we could possibly want.

Cheers, and happy travelling

All very true, Muffin :) And if you do get a blister (as I did on our cruise last week) you can get bandaids from the ship's doctor at no charge. ;)

[iancal]

I am very pleased about the crackdown on liquids etc. at airport security. DW's carry on shoulder bag used to be an incredible weight. Now that everything has been left behind (how could anyone live without it..not), the bag is much much lighter and easier to handle when we bring on our rollerboards as well.

[DedeM]

LOL bandaids don't take up room! :D

I'm really concerned with all my stupid bottles of stuff I love. Even when I pour them into tiny bottles, it's just too many tiny bottles. I'll have to find a way to be ruthless with my liquids I guess.

Or, just check a suitcase and stop obsessing. :D

[Cruising-along]

LOL bandaids don't take up room! :D
:D

DedeM you do have a point there! :D Guess my point was it's one less thing you have to think to pack. :) Good luck in figuring it out, you'll do fine whether you decide to be ruthless or check that bag. Have a great cruise!

[CrystalWater]

Ladies: how do you fit everything into carry-ons since the liquid ban on airlines?

I really think I could manage with one carry on, but my @#$%^& toiletries take up so much room and I don't know how to scale back - even with tiny sizes in a quart sized baggie. I'd still have too many tiny bottles.

No kidding! I have to use one of the small roll ons and check it with all the toiletries. There's not $#$$% way like you said! I guess some of us are just more high maintenance that others? :eek:

[gooselace]

LOL bandaids don't take up room! :D

I'm really concerned with all my stupid bottles of stuff I love. Even when I pour them into tiny bottles, it's just too many tiny bottles. I'll have to find a way to be ruthless with my liquids I guess.

Or, just check a suitcase and stop obsessing. :D

I always have a couple of bandaids in my handbag, along with wipes. My DH laughs at me, but on our trip to Chicago last week, he managed to get a finger caught on something at curbside check-in. It was bleeding, so he was really glad to see me pull out a antiseptic handiwipe and that bandaid!

I also carry sample 2-packs of aspirin or Tylenol, a couple of "Brush-ups", and several Theraflu (multi-symptom) Thin Strips, two chewable Immodium, and two chewable antacids. Take up almost no room, weigh next to nothing, but great to have when needed. Anyway, I don't use makeup so have space to spare.

[jrzebird]

My biggest packing problem seems to be my hair dryer and make up bag. The other stuff I have down to a minimum. Shoes are a problem, but I wear my heaviest (sneakers) and pack the dress shoes and sandals in outside pockets on the suitcase. I swear by the bags that you can pack stuff and squeeze out the air. I love them! I also buy a lot of Travelers clothes. They're easy to pack (they don't wrinkle), take up litte room, and are easy to mix and match. But I still end up with a hanging bag, 25 inch and 22 inch bags and a carry on for an 11 day cruise. I know, way too much. But heck, I don't have to fly so that's not a worry.

The lightest I ever traveled was a small carry on when I came back to the States for a visit when I was living in the Middle East. I didn't have to wait for luggage and flew through Customs! Of course, they couldn't believe a woman could come that far with just some jeans and make up!

[Susie51]

The lightest I've traveled is with 25" checked, 22" roll-on, and the tote that straps onto it. I have nine medicine bottles to take with me. Because of health issues, I need to change every item of clothing once a day for each day so I do laundry frequently.

I also pack a big bag with a zipper so that I can check it for the return trip. Oh, yes and cardboard boxes and bubble wrap to protect my purchases. the words "shipping it home" are not in my vocabulary.