LUGGAGE
A couple tips on luggage
Weight limits, most airlines put a limit of 50 pounds on luggage, be carful you do not go over you could take up to $100 hit or have to take stuff out at the ticket counter and put in in a backpack, here is a great inexpensive luggage scale , ($8 on amazon) use it before you go and take it with you so that you can weigh your luggage on return. if you have room for more weight in your bags on your way take some water bottles(one 16oz water bottle weighs 1lb), they are great to have for taking off the ship.
your luggage can affect the overall cost of your air travel, the extra charge of some Airlines for luggage could make a low price on the initial ticket not as much of a savings. so when booking airline tickets be aware of luggage charges so you can plan that into your ticket price. There have been several times we have flown out on Spirit or American because of schedule or better price (each taking one bag) and flown back with Southwest with an extra bag or two since they let you each take two bags free.
Bringing back more than you went with, seems like there is always someone you need to bring a t-shirt back for, like your kids, or babysitters, neighbors that watch your house while you are gone, etc..
a couple years ago we ended up buying a collapsible luggage/duffel bag on the ship that folds up really small, we throw that in our suitcase, a lot of times we will use that to just stuff all our dirty laundry in. and on our way home we have extra room in our luggage for souvenirs and stuff (t-shirts for kids). i found a similar one for a better price, and it packs into its own pocket ends up 9″x9″x1″.
Carry on luggage, It is a good idea to take a carry on if you have anything that is really important to you, or at least each take a backpack and fill them, my wife likes to pack her swimsuit in there because it’s not as easy for her to find one she likes if her luggage was to get lost, we also pack underwear, and a change of clothes , and things that are not as easy to replace if luggage is lost, we usually take backpacks on the airplane anyway, that way we can keep phones, tablets, charger cords (multi port chargers come in real handy in airports and on the ship), you will want to take extra battery powered Chargers (pic below), headphones, neck pillows (we like the polystyrene filled/little beads they are easier to shape to a comfortable position) and a sweater, and or light blanket in case it gets really cold which on planes it usually is a little chilly.
Backpacks, one thing we have found really useful is some of the new backpacks that are able to be stuffed into a small sack built into it, a lot of times when we get off in Port we will take our swim fins in small snorkel bag/backpacks, then throw in one of those stuff sack backpacks, if we end up getting t-shirts, souvenirs or something we can fill the extra backpack. we have ended up over the years making these our main backpacks for all our travel, there are little bit cheaper versions but this one is better quality
Good Inexpensive luggage, luggage sets can get pretty expensive but there is some good stuff out there that is good and affordable, we recently had to get a couple luggage sets and were abel to try them out on our last trip and both performed very well. both 3 pc sets were under $110.00 and had great reveiws on amazon (i buy alot of stuff on amazon 🙂 )
first set was American Tourister Pop Plus Suitcase, $110-$150, 3 Piece Set, the more traditional cloth but with the new castor wheels, american tourister is made by Samsonite and has a 10 yr warrenty, seem to be great quality. alot of sets you find the larger piece is 28″ this has 29/25/21 so if you want to maximise the space you get this is ideal.
the next set was Merax Travelhouse 3 Piece Set, the newer plastic shell style, with a 28″/24″/20″
Approx. Dimension(including wheels): Approx. 20inch 22″ x 14″ x 9″ , 24inch 26″x18″ x 12″ , 28inch 30″ x 21″ x 13″, we got the yellow it is nice and easy to pick your luggage out at the airport, overall i think the cloth ones will end up lasting longer but these do have a 2 yr warranty.
Luggage tags. Make sure you have good luggage tags with your name and address on them in case your luggage gets lost, at the airport they have ones that hold on with a little stretchy string, if I have to use those I will put two on.
When you check in online for your ship you will usually be able to print off your luggage tags, after you print those off and fold them properly run clear packing tape over them it will make them a lot stronger and less likely to get torn, on our way home on our last Cruise we had one of our bags get the luggage tag (the Royal Caribbean one with our disembark number) ripped off of it, so it ended up costing us an extra half hour to hour tracking it down, we did end up finding it and it wasn’t a big problem but it would have made life a lot easier if we had used something like this luggage tag holder for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, This one for Carnival, Princess, Norwegian.
we have some now and they work great.
when planning transportation don’t forget you have luggage, when renting a car or getting a taxi/Uber plan for luggage. most car rental sites in the description of the car they will give you an idea of the luggage each size of car will handle
if there are just 2 of you with a couple bags, about anything will work. but if you travel with others or kids just remember you can fit 5 people into a prius but you might only get a couple big suitcases in.