So what are your tricks for hand washing in your cabin and getting your clothes dry?

[Hlitner]

Still amazed to read some of the posts.  DW would quickly answer that she is on vacation (when not home) and there is no way she (or me) is going to be spending time washing things, worrying how to hang them to dry, etc.  That is why the Cruise Gods made commercial laundries which exist on all cruise ships :).  We routinely travel for up to 3 weeks without doing any laundry (we simply pack what we need for that time period and we do believe in overpacking).  For cruises or trips longer then 3 weeks (we just returned from 10 weeks in Mexico), we still pack for about 2-3 weeks and simply send out laundry.  Some cruisers really get carried away with doing their own laundry.  We once helped another poster here on CC by giving her detailed instructions on how to get a Laundromat in Civitavecchia, Italy (the port for Rome).  When in that port, instead of spending a day enjoying Italy, this lady spent her day dragging their laundry from the ship into town (Civitavecchia), walking a few blocks to a Laundromat, and then spending several hours sitting while her laundry was washing and drying!   That is just not our way of spending a cruise day! We know others who have done the same thing in other ports.

 

Do commercial laundries ruin some clothes.  Sure!  And so do most folks....from time to time.  But consider that if you are paying a few hundred dollars a day to be on a vacation how much it is costing you (in terms of the value of time) to be doing your own laundry.  Giving up a day in Rome, or even part of a relaxing sea day, to do laundry is just not our idea of making the best use of our vacation time.

 

Hank 

[slidergirl]

Like Hank, I've had some wonderful landromat experiences on land trips.  Had a great conversation with a couple in Pisa.... I wouldn't do a laundromat trip on a cruise, though.  

I always do laundry when I travel.  90% of the time, it's just a quick 5 minute addition to my nightly bathroom routine.  I travel with lightweight, easy-dry clothes when I can.  I carry the detergent leaves that I got from REI (smaller than a TicTac box).  I have a clothesline that suctions to a wall (no magnets needed).   From a safari tent in Kenya to the St. Regis Bahia beach, I've just made laundry a part of my routine.   Solo traveling on multiple modes of transportation makes it imperative to be able to handle my own luggage.  I don't feel that I'm missing out on anything by doing carry on.    

 

Oh - I did that train trip from Seattle to LA last Spring - it was sooooo relaxing and the scenery was just amazing.  My own roomette was my cocoon to watch the world go by.  And, the food was surprisingly good.  And, the people I met at the dining table (you are put with others) were so diverse (a medical marijuana grower, parents coming back from dropping off kid at school, Germans traveling the West...).  

[MicCanberra]

14 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Still amazed to read some of the posts.  DW would quickly answer that she is on vacation (when not home) and there is no way she (or me) is going to be spending time washing things, worrying how to hang them to dry, etc.  That is why the Cruise Gods made commercial laundries which exist on all cruise ships :).  We routinely travel for up to 3 weeks without doing any laundry (we simply pack what we need for that time period and we do believe in overpacking).  For cruises or trips longer then 3 weeks (we just returned from 10 weeks in Mexico), we still pack for about 2-3 weeks and simply send out laundry.  Some cruisers really get carried away with doing their own laundry.  We once helped another poster here on CC by giving her detailed instructions on how to get a Laundromat in Civitavecchia, Italy (the port for Rome).  When in that port, instead of spending a day enjoying Italy, this lady spent her day dragging their laundry from the ship into town (Civitavecchia), walking a few blocks to a Laundromat, and then spending several hours sitting while her laundry was washing and drying!   That is just not our way of spending a cruise day! We know others who have done the same thing in other ports.

 

Do commercial laundries ruin some clothes.  Sure!  And so do most folks....from time to time.  But consider that if you are paying a few hundred dollars a day to be on a vacation how much it is costing you (in terms of the value of time) to be doing your own laundry.  Giving up a day in Rome, or even part of a relaxing sea day, to do laundry is just not our idea of making the best use of our vacation time.

 

Hank 

I take your point and totally agree with spending time in a laundromat.

What we do is a small amount of time (no more than 5 minutes) of our smalls often when washing and changing for dinner. The larger items go to the ship's laundry.

[Kmkub]

We use the clothesline in the shower.

[momofmeg]

I have done this on cruises longer than 7 days for underwear. I pick up some packets of Tide to Go and hang them in the shower. of course is you use the shower you have to take them down and replace  when you are done if they have not dried.  I have also used the hairdryer to help them dry faster or even spread them out on the balcony when I am in the room for a hour or 2 in the daytime.

 Fortunately they usually run a deal for a bag of clothing laundered for $20-25 we can use on longer cruises. They are not pressed for you though. Once though the laundry service was overwhelmed on a Celebrity 12 day cruise by their Elite members (who got 2 bags laundered free) and you could not get anything laundered for any price except on the first day after embarking and the last  day before disembarking. I was thankful I had plenty of Tide to go and clothing that easily dried. Anyway that has deterred me from taking longer cruises on Celebrity.

[SRF]

Certain things dry faster.

 

Duluth Trading Company Buck Naked underwear dries VERY fast.

 

Also, there are travel clothes from Travel Smith and Magellan that dry quickly.

 

I carry a small bottle of Woolite to wash.  

[MicCanberra]

I find the clothes I take, no particular brands are all light weight easy drying materials except for my jeans.

[cruizergal70]

Is there some reason folks are ignoring the self serve laundry or the ship's laundry services?

[Nebr.cruiser]

1 hour ago, cruizergal70 said:

Is there some reason folks are ignoring the self serve laundry or the ship's laundry services?

If a ship has self serve laundry and we are on a longer cruise I will use it.  But I still do some undies by hand as I don't bring enough for, let's say 18 days without washing. 

 

We've used the stuff the bag special a few times too.  That seems to have gotten quite pricey now.  And to me the prices for sending things out individually is ridiculous.

[iancal]

We use the ships self serve laundry,we send things out in the bag, we do some by hand.

 

Thing is, when we are on a cruise it is usually part of a two month land trip.   Not really a vacation from work so to speak.  We only travel with carry on so we are used to to getting our laundry done one way or another.  We pack for six or seven days max no matter how long we plan to travel.

 

The key thing for us is to travel with the right travel clothing.  Easy care.  Layered. Light weight.

[lisiamc]

4 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

Is there some reason folks are ignoring the self serve laundry or the ship's laundry services?

 

When I’ve used the ships laundry, they’ve boiled my clothes and beaten them with a stick, as far as I can tell.  They’re never the same again.  So if there’s no self-service laundrette on the ship, I’ll hand-wash things in the sink.  If I roll them in a pool towel, stand on them to squeeze out the water, then hang the hangers in front of the air conditioner vent from the little magnetic hooks we bring with us, they dry overnight.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

9 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

Is there some reason folks are ignoring the self serve laundry or the ship's laundry services?

 

Not all cruise lines have self serve laundries. When they do we use them.

 

Ship's laundry prices can be expensive. We do send some items to the laundry regardless of whether there are self serve laundries or not, typically DH's dress shirts, and anything that needs serious ironing.

[MicCanberra]

13 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

Is there some reason folks are ignoring the self serve laundry or the ship's laundry services?

Some lines do not have the self service laundries.

My wife doesn't want some of her clothes ruined by the industrial washers that the ship's laundry uses, so we do the smalls nearly every night and send the hardier clothes to the ship's laundry.

 

[gooch47]

Someone mentioned putting things on the lamp in the room.  The bulb generated heat.  Wouldn't that be a fire hazard?

[iancal]

I really do not see what the big deal is.  We just returned from 2 months in SE Asia and Australia.  We only do carry-on.  Sometimes we use a hotel laundry, sometimes we send it out.  Sometimes we simply hand wash something at night-a shirt, some underwear.  It takes me all of five minutes.  I use whatever is there.  Shampoo, body wash, hand soap whatever.   Absolutely no interest by me or DW in packing along pouches of laundry detergent.  We have been doing it this way for years.  The trick to getting them dry is to start by packing clothes with the right material and hanging them in the right place.   Certainly not rocket science.

 

This trip I packed four collared shirts and wore one.  I never did wear one of the four packed shirts so next trip I will take one less.  Most often if I rinse a shirt out at night it is dry in the morning.  Same with DW.   

 

I think some people imagine that they will be toiling away, sweating their brow, as though they were washing clothing on a washboard or beating against a rock in the river.   Not the case for us.  Moreover, we often do a shirt or underwear at night even if we do not need to since it takes no time whatsoever.

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by iancal

[SRF]

5 hours ago, gooch47 said:

Someone mentioned putting things on the lamp in the room.  The bulb generated heat.  Wouldn't that be a fire hazard?

 

Possibly, I would not do this.

 

I just hang things around the room, and they dry pretty quickly.

 

And has been mentioned, choosing wisely helps a LOT.

[snichols23]

On 5/19/2017 at 11:38 AM, slyster said:

I'm glad you asked this question. I was thinking of doing this for my 9 night cruise in September. Is there a type of detergent or soap you use when hand washing? (I don't ever hand wash at home). Also, any tricks on how not to let the clothes become really wrinkled? (I sort of imagine wringing them out and see a lot of wrinkles).

Get detergent that is sold n camping in travel departments. Works great

[clo]

On 3/15/2019 at 9:04 PM, SPacificbound said:

I only hand wash bras and undies, the rest goes to the ship laundry. I have a close line I made out of bungee cords that I can adjust to many configurations.

Re bungees, now THAT'S a slick idea!

[clo]

On 3/22/2019 at 6:22 PM, lisiamc said:

If I roll them in a pool towel, stand on them to squeeze out the water,

Mother taught me the roll in the towel.  Lay them out correctly, fold the sides, top and bottom in/over and roll.  She didn't teach me the stand on 🙂  But I'll be doing that.  Thanks.

[navybankerteacher]

On 3/22/2019 at 9:22 PM, lisiamc said:

 

When I’ve used the ships laundry, they’ve boiled my clothes and beaten them with a stick, as far as I can tell.  They’re never the same again.  So if there’s no self-service laundrette on the ship, I’ll hand-wash things in the sink.  If I roll them in a pool towel, stand on them to squeeze out the water, then hang the hangers in front of the air conditioner vent from the little magnetic hooks we bring with us, they dry overnight.  

I’ve hear this complaint before and wonder —- we regularly use the ship’s “stuff the bag” program.  It is amazing how much you can get in the bag - and not having to spend time washing, and hanging, and living with the hanging drying clothing is worth the actually fairly reasonable charge.  We have never had clothes damaged (I think that is just some more cruise myth - like always winning in the casino, or buying a ring for $50 at St. Thomas and having it appraised for $500 at home) - or course we do not send silk blouses or things like that out - nor would we at home.

[lenquixote66]

4 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

I’ve hear this complaint before and wonder —- we regularly use the ship’s “stuff the bag” program.  It is amazing how much you can get in the bag - and not having to spend time washing, and hanging, and living with the hanging drying clothing is worth the actually fairly reasonable charge.  We have never had clothes damaged (I think that is just some more cruise myth - like always winning in the casino, or buying a ring for $50 at St. Thomas and having it appraised for $500 at home) - or course we do not send silk blouses or things like that out - nor would we at home.

I almost always win in cruise casinos.

[clo]

4 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

like always winning in the casino

I read on another thread about a cruiser who did Oceania RTW and their laundry came back on hangers and the other things were folded and wrapped in tissue paper.

[clo]

2 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

almost always

LOL 🙂

[navybankerteacher]

Just now, lenquixote66 said:

I almost always win in cruise casinos.

Perhaps if you have only gone to a cruise ship casino three times and managed to come out ahead twice, I migh buy that.  But if you are telling me that you have gone many times and “almost always win”, I do not believe you.  The more times you go, the more certain it is that you will lose. The reality of the casino business is that the house wins —-period.

[lenquixote66]

1 minute ago, navybankerteacher said:

Perhaps if you have only gone to a cruise ship casino three times and managed to come out ahead twice, I migh buy that.  But if you are telling me that you have gone many times and “almost always win”, I do not believe you.  The more times you go, the more certain it is that you will lose. The reality of the casino business is that the house wins —-period.

I only lost on 2 cruises and won on 22.I win in NY and CT casinos as well.If I am up $500 or more I quit whether it is day one on a cruise or the first hour in a land casino.