Lighten The Luggage-leave At Home!

[xz3k3x]

Walmart has a fish scale for $5 in the sporting good section that works great. It weighs up to 50lbs. If you hit the 50lbs mark chances are you are to heavy. I packed it for my alaskan cruise and it works great.

[Senoj84]

I will be cutting back on the things I bring as well. I might just cut back on the outfits and rotate my clothes or either wash them on board. This year I will have to put more clothes in my carry on just to fit my formal wear in my 1 suitcase.

[sandyj55]

We are going on a 12 day cruise to Italy and Croatia and are spending a few days in Rome. With American's 50 # weight limit, I will have to leave more than one item behind! :eek: So far I have chosen my formal outfit with sequins, but I think I will still have to be much more selective.

I hope my husband will have a few extra pounds of his weight limit left.

Last year someone mentioned buying a scale. I think it was from Radio Shack. Does anyone know about that?

 

 

I just got a scale last week at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It hooks in the handle and you pull it up and it weighs you bag. Mine was about 2 pounds off but close enough to be able stay within the legal weights.

[adh27]

Someone mentioned this site on another board and I loved it. If you need help packing lighter check out http://www.onebag.com :)

[tnvoldude]

Walmart has a fish scale for $5 in the sporting good section that works great. It weighs up to 50lbs. If you hit the 50lbs mark chances are you are to heavy. I packed it for my alaskan cruise and it works great.

 

I bought a digital scale at WalMart about 3 years ago after I was ripped off by a curbside check-in attendant at FLL. Said my bag was "heavy" just by picking it up and told me $10 would take care of it. The fishing department carries the digital scale and it goes up to 55#. I was at Delta counter at Knoxville airport one week ago and if a bag was 1 # over the limit, there was an extra charge of $80. I usually keep my big bags at 48# just to be safe and that is normally what shows when I check in. It has been so worth the $17.95 that I paid for it and of course I carry in on the trips so I can weigh before getting off of the ship.

[KCcruisin07]

I love our scale too. Our bags weighed 48 and 50# going to Italy. (My husband gave me part of his space.) On the way back, he was fully packed, I looked in the closet, and our laundry bag was still there (full)!:eek: I ended up rearranging his bag a little and squeezing the rest into mine, but staying under the limit. (Insider secret: throw some stuff away!)

[neeliec]

We (DH & I) don't have to fly to our embarkation port, so it's tempting to bring lots of "stuff" for an 18 day cruise. But I'm REALLY trying to limit us to 2 checked bags each plus 2 carry-ons.

 

Some friends went on a 14 day last year and had TWELVE bags between the 2 of them!

[pmfan]

We (DH & I) don't have to fly to our embarkation port, so it's tempting to bring lots of "stuff" for an 18 day cruise. But I'm REALLY trying to limit us to 2 checked bags each plus 2 carry-ons.

 

Some friends went on a 14 day last year and had TWELVE bags between the 2 of them!

 

OMG :eek: 12 bags!!!

[JRarey]

First thing I do is only bring 3 pairs of shoes.

1. Evening strappy sandals that will go with both formal outfits and also pants and dresses I wear the other evenings at dinner.

2. Tennis shoes - to wear on the excursions- I choose keds because they are lighter weight and smaller than my other tennis shoes.

3. Sandals --neutral color to wear with shorts or out by the pool.

 

2 Swim suits and 1 cover up that goes with both suits

3 pairs of Shorts - White, tan, and maybe another color.

3 to 5 Tank tops - to wear over swim suit on excursions and with shorts during the day. I usually bring white, tan and black.

2 pair of evening pants- black and white pair

3 nicer tops to wear to the bars or show, and even dinner on non-formal nights.

1 lightweight dress that can change appearance by what belt, jewelry etc I wear.

1 pair Capri's- I choose white or black so everything will go with it.

 

Undies and bras. Choose your bras according to what you are going to be wearing. Black and white, maybe one special one for that surprise for DH;)

 

Jewelry, accessories- I pack specific jewelry and accessories that go with the outfits I am wearing. I don't bring all my jewelry.

 

I don't bring a hair dryer, there is one in the room. I do bring the over the door thingy so i can pack my favorite hair conditioners, yes I bring more than one because I have thick, curly hair that sun, sea, and salt wreck havoc on. Hair care products are my largest weight items. (you curly hair girls know what I mean about NEEDING THESE THINGS)

 

Makeup- I choose only one look and stay with it. I dont bring blue shadows, bronze shadows etc. I go for the neutrals and wear them daily adding extra liner and mascara for formal nights. A few lipsticks and glosses is all you need.

 

My formal wear must go with the one pair of dress shoes I am bringing. I try not to choose anything that has tons or tulle or netting that takes a bunch of room. I love beaded dresses but they do add weight, so I choose a short beaded length if i want to go beaded.

 

I can go one bag and be gone 10 days in the Caribbean with this packing list.

 

Dont forget the tide stick and woolite wipes if you are packing light. Nothing is worse than staining the one pair of white Capri's you brought and no way of getting it out.

 

Hope this helps some of you. I know my DH really appreciates it when I pack lighter and it does make traveling much easier on both of us.

 

Jan

[simplelife]

I've heard the HAL toiletries are good, so i'm leaving behind the showel gel and shampoo.

[nothriver]

The last two hotels we've been in had doors that didn't accomodate the over the door shoe hanger, so I ditched it and have since lost it. I still carry my mesh collapsable laundry hamper, I love it, and I also travel with a power strip. I'm divorced with two kids and between DS15 and I we have 2 phones, an ipod charger, a psp charger and a camera charger. It is extra weight but I love to have all the chargers all in one place and be able to charge all at once. I actually left it behind last trip and subsuquently left my phone charger in the hotel.

 

Shoes is a big one, I usually do black and white for my clothes so I can get by with just one or two pairs of black shoes.

 

With clothes I try to find multiple uses for each and every item. I want everthing to mix and match. Pants or skirts hopefully I can wear twice and maybe even 3 times with different tops.

 

Last trip I cleaned out my toiletries bag and reduced it by 3#! How does all that stuff accumulate in there! My dad has a toilitries bag that is almost as big as my suitcase, he carries a full pharmacy of OTC meds, full size everything - shaving cream, toothpaste, medications. I'm way to lazy to haul all that stuff around all the time! I have trave size everything and some things I move to snack size ziplocs to eliminate bottles.

[luvtosee]

My husband and I just returned from Alaska. We had a wonderful time! With a little careful planning, we managed one checked bag each with my husband taking a second bag with just a few things. We wanted to be able to have plenty of room for those purchased items, so he checked a second bag. We flew Delta to Vancouver, B.C. With Delta, you can check two bags each for free if you are flying international (out of the country), provided none of them are over 50 lbs. There is an $80 fee for over weight limit. We ended our trip in Anchorage, AK. Delta's website says that the second checked bag (for each person) would be $25.00 (flying within the U.S.), which is less than paying for over weight bags. However, we checked in on the curb, and the Delta rep did not charge us the $25 fee for the second checked bag.

 

We each took a pair of tennis shoes (my husband wore his), and a pair of dress shoes. I wore black sandals traveling to, but wore my tennis shoes travelling home. My one pair of dress shoes were black strappy shoes and went with anything from a dress to a pair of jeans. It is a wetter than usual summer in Alaska, but our tennis shoes did not get very wet, and dried quickly. Did not wish we had bought anything other than these.

 

I packed make-up for one look, adding eye liner for evening. Didn't miss a thing.

 

We took our Denali North Face jackets and waterproof wind jackets and were very comfortable. Leave heavy coats at home. We wore a long or short sleeve polo, North Face jacket, and then windbreaker.

 

My husband took two pairs of kaki's, three pairs of jeans (one of which he travelled in) and a dinner jacket and tie, along with two dress shirts and several polos (both short and long sleeved). I took one dress, one pants suit, three jeans, one white pants, one black pants, and several tops to match. We never missed having anything else. We did buy a couple of Alaska tshirts and wore them once for fun! We ate dinner in Chops and Portifinos, the dining room and in one of the ports.

 

I took my diamond earrings and my pearl necklace and earrings, a couple of bangles and one pair of gold hoops. If I had taken other jewlery, I would never have worn them.

 

On the last evening of the cruise, we were packed and back out enjoying ourselves without having to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to pack or what to throw away. On the cruisetour, we packed what we wanted in one suitcase and stored the other two on the bus. Made for plenty of room in our hotel room. We had a four day cruisetour.

 

Hope you all have a great cruise!

[vacation_junkie]

I would leave my hubby home before I'd leave my shoes. lol:rolleyes:

 

I second that....:D

[BroncosFan2010]

I go online to search for free samples. Walmart.com has great free samples. I request shampoo and conditioner all year long. Then I pack the single packets for the cruise. It is soooo much lighter than a bottle of shampoo and conditioner. And, best of all, when I have used the sample, I throw the paper package away! Even less weight. I pack one for each day, plus a few extra in case I shower more than once.

[zeppekitty]

We cruise often and have always overpacked. I started keeping a list of what I packed. After the cruise I crossed off the list what I actually wore. Less than half! Now I use the list every time we cruise and finally stopped packing stuff I just don't need.

[Red Rox]

[quote name='KCcruisin07']I went to Radio Shack, and they didn't have the scale. Now I can order online.

[/quote]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=blue]KCcruisin07, I hope you're still monitoring this thread. Your post made me laugh, because we have to have the worst Radio Shack in the world here in Sedona!:eek:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#0000ff]I haven't noticed many others from Sedona on the CC boards. I guess I haven't hit the right forums. We love it here. Leaving next week though for our next cruise! Yippee![/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]