Carry on

[coolio111]

My family is taking carry on only.

At the port we can take our carry ons with us and not leave it with the porters?

Thanks

[Sunshine3601]

Yes, but why carry all of that?   

Cabins are usually ready between 1 and 1:30 pm.   If you board early you will have to keep all of that with you.   Plus elevators are very busy on day 1.

Make it easy on yourself and check in a bag or a 2.  We just carry our small backpacks onboard.  

[Another_Critic]

Yes.  You can take any size suitcase that fits thru the security scanner.  I personally carried on a 29" suitcase.

[smokeybandit]

You are allowed to carry on carry ons.

[Tlbecker1]

You can definitely do that just keep in mind that your room won’t be open until 1 at the earliest.  Dragging around luggage to lunch and your muster station with elevators won’t be a lot of fun.

[Fouremco]

6 minutes ago, coolio111 said:

My family is taking carry on only.

At the port we can take our carry ons with us and not leave it with the porters?

Thanks

We'd do the same thing if we could ever minimize our packing! No need to use the porters.

[SoloAlaska]

You can but do you want to is the question. My next cruise is carry on and backpack. Before leaving the hotel I put my daytime essentials in my backpack. My rolling bag I don’t feel like dragging around as I explore the ship.

[neverbeenhere]

We always carryon. Show up at 1:11pm, walk on, checkin at muster, head to stateroom. 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

8 hours ago, schooner_Drinker said:

Been on 24 since restart and got on every sailing with a carry on suitcase and a backpack each.

 

It really is no big deal

 

Once you get the art of packing cracked,

it makes the whole travel day (s) so much easier and self disembarkation is a breeze.

(yes 3 pairs of shoes, dive shoes and flip flops)

 

If you are flying, this is also a big plus 

No waiting for cases - and the biggy for us, if you have ever lost a case

You are not losing it when you carry it on.

 

We even do carry ons for International as well (plus backpack)

Saves many minutes at other end waiting for and hoping your suitcase comes out onto the conveyor 😎

1st through immigration and Passport control before the lines start getting backed up.

Nancy 🍷🍹

 

Agreed! I did a 10 day vacation - pre-cruise night in Anchorage, 7 night southbound Alaskan cruise, post-cruise night in Vancouver, night in Seattle - for a running group cruise (meaning I had running clothes and shoes, everyday clothes, AND clothes for dinner) in carry-on only. No regrets.

 

Even just taking a car service to the port like I'll do to Cape Liberty in a month I don't overpack and will likely be in carry-on only. The suitcase is wheeled and I can put my backpack on it. No huge deal taking it around.

[Engineroom Snipe]

We normally carry a personnel bag, one small roller suitcase (type that would fit in overhead airplane bin) each and one slightly larger bag (one bag that we share) that would require checked at airport (next size up from overhead bag.

 

When flying, there are many prohibited items in the passenger area that can be approved for checked bags.

 

They attach together and I can easily handle my personal, checked bag, and smaller roller bag as a unit (people always ask me where I got them because they move so well together). We bought them over fifteen years ago and they do not sell them anymore. Still in great shape but I had to replace two wheels on the larger suitcase because it bears the brunt of the weight when they are together as a unit.

 

I never had an issue with security.

 

One of the rare reasons I might not want to allow anyone to handle the bag is if we bring our formal clothing (normally on the longer cruises).

 

There are some cruisers who forget and pack beverages or other items that either break and leak or just leak (did not double wrap items in Zip Lock bags, etc). This can result on their liquids getting into your bag when they are stacked ten high between the loading zone and your room.

 

I have issues with my bags being severely misplaced on ships (not just wrong side of ship but wrong floor).  It is unusual but it happens.

 

Depending on the physical fitness of the cruisers, hoofing with a large load of baggage can be tiring on ports like Baltimore. They have a long switchback boarding ramp which can be challenging with a heavy load. You going from sea level to the 5th deck with no escalator or elevator. Many other ports will get you within one deck before you have to go to work.

Edited January 16 by Engineroom Snipe
clarify

[alfaeric]

10 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

We always carryon. Show up at 1:11pm, walk on, checkin at muster, head to stateroom. 

We do, too.  And have been for over a decade of cruising.  coolio, since you are airline carryon only, this will be super easy to do.  Carry off is just as easy.

 

And we still manage to overpack.

[Mum2Mercury]

12 hours ago, coolio111 said:

My family is taking carry on only.

At the port we can take our carry ons with us and not leave it with the porters?

Thanks

Yes, you can do this.  Boarding with a rolling carry-on and a backpack /tote bag has its pros and cons: 

 

- Zero chance of your luggage being lost or delayed; though, to tell the truth, if you hand your bags over to the porters, the chance is pretty close to zero anyway.  

- If you board earlier (and rooms aren't open yet), you'll have to roll your carry-on around until 1:00-1:30ish.  If you're inclined to board, eat lunch, find a shady spot and enjoy a drink, this isn't a big deal.  On the other hand, if you expect to be "on the move" or in the pool, it's more effort. 

- This isn't so hard for an individual or a couple ... harder if you have kids /more carry-ons.   

- If you like to carry on a 12-pack of sodas, you can attach the sodas to the top of a rolling carry-on, making it easy to carry them. 

 

Packing a carry-on only will impact your trip more on Disembarkation Day, when you can carry it off and walk straight to your car.  

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

2 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

There are some cruisers who forget and pack beverages or other items that either break and leak or just leak (did not double wrap items in Zip Lock bags, etc). This can result on their liquids getting into your bag when they are stacked ten high between the loading zone and your room.

 

 

Forgot should probably be in quotes there. 

 

If the offending bag can be identified, the owner should be held accountable for repair/cleaning/replacement of damaged items in others' bags. I know I was on another line once and couldn't help but overhear a loud discussion between a guest a couple of doors down from me and a couple of ship's officers - he had packed red wine in his checked bag and it busted, resulting in the damage of some other luggage; he was being informed that he would be responsible for the cleaning or replacement of damaged items and when he protested loudly, he was told that if he did not settle down he would be disembarked. He was trying to say it was someone else's bag and HI stuff had been damaged, but when they opened his bag the broken bottle evidence was all over the place. (I didn't see, but I heard "Then please explain how the broken bottle is in your bag...") I went out to explore my balcony, so I don't know if he ended up calming or if he was disembarked.

 

In the unlikely event that I check a bag, I use hard-sided luggage so it's less likely to have leakage or rain drip into it.

[SoloAlaska]

2 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

There are some cruisers who forget and pack beverages or other items that either break and leak or just leak (did not double wrap items in Zip Lock bags, etc). This can result on their liquids getting into your bag when they are stacked ten high between the loading zone and your room.

My go to checked luggage is fully waterproof. If it got covered in liquid I’d ask if it could just get washed down and I’d be happy since nothing inside would have been impacted. I use a very large pelican case.

[Engineroom Snipe]

Red wine would be the absolute fiasco. Hard cases are a good go-around on this problem.

[Mum2Mercury]

6 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

If the offending bag can be identified ...

"If" being the key word.  The staff doesn't want to mess with identifying the problem on their busiest day.  The owner of the bag would certainly grab the bag and throw it into his room shower.  I think it'd be pretty uncommon for the victim to know the author of his troubles.  

 

But bottles can break pretty easily.  I remember once in college a couple of us were headed to the beach for a weekend ... we were driving my hatchback car, so our bags were closer to us than they would've been in a trunk.  We started saying to each other, "Do you smell alcohol?"  We pulled over and found that the half-bottle of tequila I had packed in my duffel bag, padded by my clothes had broken!  No idea how it happened, but my clothes were soaked.  We rolled the windows down and drove SO CAREFULLY the rest of the way.  We knew that if the police pulled us over, we were sure they'd think we'd been drinking.  

[eem0924]

Last cruise we rolled on our luggage, just 21 inch suitcases, but the ramps to get on Wonder almost did me in.  Very difficult to get that suitcase up all those ramps.

 

Disembarking, we let RCCL take them off and one of our suitcases was missing.

 

We had to file a report and wait to see if someone else brought it back.

 

Next cruise in March, I will do the reverse.......let RCCL bring it on and I will carry if off (all downhill).

 

 

[Engineroom Snipe]

36 minutes ago, eem0924 said:

Last cruise we rolled on our luggage, just 21 inch suitcases, but the ramps to get on Wonder almost did me in.  Very difficult to get that suitcase up all those ramps.

 

Disembarking, we let RCCL take them off and one of our suitcases was missing.

 

We had to file a report and wait to see if someone else brought it back.

 

Next cruise in March, I will do the reverse.......let RCCL bring it on and I will carry if off (all downhill).

 

 

Gravity is a wonderful thing. Something to think about as we adapt our bodies to checks we cannot cash.

 

I previously stated that when going to Baltimore, we are going up five flights of switchbacks on the ramps with a heavy load if you bring all of your baggage.

 

It gets heavier with every turn!

 

I like your suggestion.

 

😉

[cruzsnooze]

I always take my full sized suitcase with me. Sometimes the porters /room steward don't get your luggage to your cabin until after dinner which doesn't work well for me.

[Engineroom Snipe]

17 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

I always take my full sized suitcase with me. Sometimes the porters /room steward don't get your luggage to your cabin until after dinner which doesn't work well for me.

So many variables to consider when "checking" baggage against having it with you at all times. I tend to want to have it with me at all times but somehow, the same bags have become heavier with time.

 

Then again, I must weigh the effort of keeping the bags with me against the time lost during my cruise trying to find them.

 

I understand your reasoning.

[loman]

1 hour ago, cruzsnooze said:

I always take my full sized suitcase with me. Sometimes the porters /room steward don't get your luggage to your cabin until after dinner which doesn't work well for me.

How does it fit through the scanner to get onto the ship ?

[Another_Critic]

1 minute ago, loman said:

How does it fit through the scanner to get onto the ship ?

 

Scanners can handle large "check in" suitcases.  I had plenty of room to spare putting my 29" large suitcase through the security scanner.

[cruiseguy1016]

We always get to the ship early. We carry on one small suitcase with bathing suits, meds, a change of clothes etc. Everything else gets checked. I think if we got to the ship after the cabins opened at 1:00. we'd carry on everything. I like to get the unpacking out of the way so we can start to enjoy our vacation.

[Morecruisesplz]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:35 PM, Tlbecker1 said:

You can definitely do that just keep in mind that your room won’t be open until 1 at the earliest.  Dragging around luggage to lunch and your muster station with elevators won’t be a lot of fun.

And you are making an already crowded Windjammer worse.

[Mum2Mercury]

3 hours ago, eem0924 said:

Last cruise we rolled on our luggage, just 21 inch suitcases, but the ramps to get on Wonder almost did me in.  Very difficult to get that suitcase up all those ramps.

One of the variables is definitely your own ability to manage your luggage.  

3 hours ago, eem0924 said:

Disembarking, we let RCCL take them off and one of our suitcases was missing.

Did you get it back?  I'm curious.

1 hour ago, cruzsnooze said:

I always take my full sized suitcase with me. Sometimes the porters /room steward don't get your luggage to your cabin until after dinner which doesn't work well for me.

We're always in the first non-suite /non-special boarding group, and our luggage always beats us to the hallway.  This might be different if you're boarding later.

1 hour ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Then again, I must weigh the effort of keeping the bags with me against the time lost during my cruise trying to find them.

Yep, pros and cons ... and your answer for Embarkation Day vs. Disembarkation Day may be different.

13 minutes ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

We always get to the ship early. We carry on one small suitcase with bathing suits, meds, a change of clothes etc. 

I don't see any point to carrying on swimsuits ... if you're going to get into the pools early, just wear your swimsuit (and a cover up).