Flying to your cruise with carry-on baggage vs. transport baggage: Which is best?

Checking your cruise baggage with an airline generally is a scary proposition, particularly while you think about doable climate delays or missed connections that may separate you out of your baggage. The farther you must fly, the scarier it turns into.

However what are your choices? The apparent alternative for many cruisers who fly to their embarkation port is flying with solely carry-on baggage. Straightforward sufficient for a brief cruise within the Bahamas or Caribbean the place garments are skimpier and cruises comparatively quick. However what a few cooler local weather cruise or an extended crusing?

I not too long ago confronted an ideal storm of potential checked baggage points for flights to a transatlantic cruise on a Carnival Cruise Line ship — unpredictable fall climate, a home connection involving an airline change, adopted by a pair of European flights with a decent connection in an unfamiliar airport. That schedule left this firmly entrenched bag checker contemplating carry-on solely on a protracted cruise for the primary time.

When my aunt determined to hitch my husband and me on the cruise, the problem rose to a brand new stage. We would be managing our baggage and aiding her, which might be overwhelming.

Upon reflection, we determined that transport baggage to the cruise appeared like a much better alternative for her. She would nonetheless want a carry-on bag for our two nights precruise in Rome, however she might ship a 50-pound bag on to the cruise ship and have every little thing she wanted ready for her after we arrived.

Now we had the proper alternative to check these two baggage choices head-to-head. Which plan was simpler? Which one price much less? What have been the pitfalls of every possibility? Learn on for our outcomes as you resolve how mild to pack and the way greatest to get your baggage to your cruise ship with out incident.

Carry-on-only cruising: Prices and inconveniences

The very first thing to contemplate when flying with carry-on baggage is the utmost dimensions and weight of bags allowed on the airplane with you. Whereas few home carriers have weight restrictions on carry-on baggage or private gadgets, regional, low-cost and non-U.S. carriers can have weight allowances on each.

The usual carry-on measurement for home flights inside the U.S. is 22 x 14 x 9 inches. Private gadgets (purses, tote baggage, backpacks, briefcases and different small gadgets stowed beneath the seat in entrance of you) are sometimes capped round 18 x 14 x 8 inches.

International carriers are far pickier about what you convey on board the plane. Count on related carry-on baggage dimensions of 21.5 x 15 x 9.5 inches. Most private merchandise sizes may be as small as 15.5 x 11 x 4 inches — which is compact for a backpack. Weight limits fluctuate by air provider and even by seating class; our carry-on suitcases wanted to have a most weight of 26 kilos and our backpacks couldn’t weight greater than 4.4 kilos.

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Associated: Tips on how to cruise with only a carry-on

All these restrictions despatched me buying. My husband had a hard-side spinner that met our particular airline restrictions, however I didn’t. The backpack and various tote baggage I usually use as private gadgets have been all too giant. The digital camera backpack my husband usually makes use of was too small to be a helpful private merchandise on a visit when each inch of area was wanted for gadgets extra vital than digital camera lenses. I might additionally want extra packing cubes, so I might compress my belongings and pack probably the most garments into such small areas.

After three Amazon exchanges, I lastly discovered a backpack that met the airline measurement restrictions and my private necessities: a trolley strap, a water-bottle aspect pocket, a front-opening most important compartment, a padded laptop computer compartment and several other small exterior pockets. (Beware that the web listings aren’t at all times correct relating to bag dimensions.)

I spent $79 complete for 2 backpacks. The very best function throughout precise use was a vented bottom-opening zipper compartment supposed for sneakers, which was ultimate for stashing our quart baggage containing TSA-approved liquid merchandise. That easy accessibility was invaluable throughout our quick sprint by means of the Warsaw airport safety line on our tight connection.

For a carry-on spinner, I had a robust need to have a entrance fold-out compartment for electronics. I additionally needed an enlargement zipper, which could not be used on our flights to Europe, however would come in useful for squeezing within the two bottles of wine we have been allowed to convey on board our cruise. As soon as again within the U.S., our flights residence on Southwest had no weight restrictions and bigger measurement restrictions of 24 x 16 x10 inches, so the enlargement zipper meant we might convey again a couple of small souvenirs and one bottle of wine.

You may spend quite a bit on carry-on baggage, however I opted for an $89 knockoff on Amazon that had fabulous options that made it much more helpful on the journey than I had anticipated. For instance, the entrance electronics panel offers entry to the within contents of the suitcase, primarily making it a front-opening piece of bags when there is no area for the standard open-book format of most hard-shell spinners. That proved to be vital in our tiny lodge room in Rome’s historic metropolis heart.

For compression packing cubes, I opted for a six-piece set from COR Surf that gave us most area financial savings for under $23. I squeezed a raincoat and a jacket into every of the 2 medium baggage, 5 males’s shirts into one giant bag and eight of my shirts into one other.

For years, we have been fortunately cruising with our cosmetics, hair provides and first-aid provides packed in half of an affordable hanging shoe bag we connect to the stateroom wall with magnets. It was too giant for our carry-on baggage, so I changed it with two medium-sized journey toiletry baggage with 4 compartments that unfold and hold from a hook. Once more, Amazon to the rescue for $12 every.

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Touring with carry-ons solely, I additionally couldn’t convey full-size toiletries. Our native drugstore sells quite a lot of empty small bottles and jars for carrying liquids like hair merchandise, lotions and gels. I spent $7 on an assortment of these.

The entire I spent on new gadgets wanted to make flying to our cruise with solely carry-on baggage work was $203, however it could be straightforward to spend twice that. I do not really feel like I skimped on high quality, and all gadgets I purchased ought to have a helpful life in my cruise packing arsenal going ahead. If you have already got these things, your out-of-pocket price can be far much less.

With the airline weight restrictions, it was not possible to pack 18 days’ price of clothes in two carry-on suitcases and two backpacks. We needed to pare down our wardrobe to solely the necessities and plan to do laundry on board.

I am a reasonably small particular person, put on measurement 8 sneakers and have been touring with a compartment-style wardrobe of coordinating colours since earlier than there was a stylish identify for that. Even nonetheless, getting the fundamentals pared down was a problem.

It didn’t assist that climate on a transatlantic cruise may be fairly variable, which compelled me to pack layers I would not have wanted on a warm-weather cruise. Issues I missed have been a sweatshirt for cold days at sea, another pair of informal pants (I took three, two of which transformed to shorts) and multiple hat.

No less than our Carnival ship had a self-serve launderette. The machines have been full-size with a price of $3.50 per wash or dry. A field of laundry detergent giant sufficient for 2 masses was one other $2. (Subsequent time we’ll convey laundry detergent sheets.)

Self-serve laundry as soon as throughout a cruise is not an enormous deal, however needing to do laundry twice took away somewhat of the holiday leisure, particularly when the road to make use of the laundry amenities was lengthy and filled with cranky cruisers.

Many ships would not have this self-serve possibility, providing send-out laundry service solely with prices starting from per-piece pricing of $3 to $7 to discounted bulk by-the-bag costs or by-the-day packages. Our complete price for laundry was $16 for 2 masses, however on the same cruise with out self-service amenities or discounted packages, you could possibly probably spend a whole bunch in laundry charges.

Airline weight restrictions additionally compelled us to depart behind a couple of nonclothing gadgets we then had to purchase alongside the best way. These included additional hair spray and toothpaste, a room deodorizer and a corkscrew for our cabin. We simply discovered a corkscrew for 4.30 euros ($4.54) and a gel room deodorizer for two.20 euros ($2.35) in a market solely two blocks from our lodge in Rome. The shop additionally had a good number of wine, so we snagged a few bottles to tackle board, every within the six-euro vary, significantly lower than a cruise ship bottle.

We had sufficient toothpaste and hair spray to final a couple of days, so we waited to go purchasing for toiletries till Cartagena, Spain. Discovering a grocery store there required a little bit of a stroll, however we purchased toothpaste and hairspray (5.76 euros and three.49 euros, respectively, or $6.10 and $3.70), together with some Oreo-flavored Coke Zero. As a lot as I take pleasure in port buying, the necessity to spend time on the lookout for necessities like hair spray was a particular inconvenience when cities like Rome and Cartagena had so many wonderful methods to spend our restricted time.

Baggage transport: Prices and inconveniences

We used a complimentary voucher from Ship and Play for my aunt’s baggage to check the service for this story. The fee to ship a full-size 50-pound suitcase one-way from her residence in Texas to our cruise ship in Civitavecchia, Italy, was quoted as $244.99 for the cargo, plus a charge of $74.97. She added $2,000 in insurance coverage for $22.99, making the full $342.95.

As a result of transport on to a cruise ship requires the handle of the ship’s courier within the departure port, the transport order needed to be accomplished with a Ship and Play agent on the cellphone. That went easily, with the agent offering all mandatory directions, each verbally and through a follow-up e-mail. The transport label, customs varieties and stick-on pocket for the label have been despatched through mail.

A FedEx monitoring quantity was offered, however my aunt opted to position a monitoring system within the bag as nicely, including $24 to her price, for a complete of $366.95. When you’re a member of Clear, you will get 50% off your first cargo with accomplice firm Ship and Play.

Transport baggage internationally is pricier than it could be to a home embarkation port. A fast test of assorted cross-country costs to U.S. cruise ports confirmed base transport charges (earlier than the charges and insurance coverage) of $74.99 on Ship and Play and costs beginning at $99 on competing shipper Baggage Ahead.

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The primary inconvenience in transport baggage is planning for the cargo. It’s not a last-minute possibility. You need to enable sufficient time to obtain the transport label and packet out of your most well-liked shipper, to rearrange for the pickup (or drop-off) and for the bags to journey to its vacation spot.

When your cruise departure port is worldwide, the bags ship date should additionally enable sufficient time for the bag to clear customs as soon as it reaches the nation of departure. Ship and Play calculated all these variables after which gave my aunt choices for her pickup date, which have been a full two weeks earlier than the cruise. Her quoted value included deciding on the day FedEx would choose up the bags, however not a narrower time-frame on that day. Deciding on a two-hour window was obtainable for an additional cost. She might even have opted to drop off the bags at a certified shipper at no cost.

My aunt stated packing her most important baggage two weeks earlier than her cruise was a bit difficult. That is too far out to foretell the climate, so she needed to put together for all prospects with layers and a rain poncho (that she by no means used).

She additionally opted to ship her giant bag on to our ship as an alternative of to our precruise lodge. That meant she nonetheless needed to take a carry-on and a tote bag for clothes and issues she wanted for the times we spent in Rome earlier than the cruise. She stated she had a tough time deciding which gadgets to pack in every bag and located herself overthinking the method.

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If she had chosen to ship the bag to our lodge in Rome, she might have skipped the carry-on, however we’d have had the inconvenience of coping with the massive bag at our small lodge and on our journey to the ship.

Finally, my aunt’s bag arrived in her cabin on the ship round 4 p.m. with out her having to wrangle it into and out of a number of automobiles through the journey. After she packed her bag and handed it off to FedEx at her entrance door, she did not should elevate a finger till it got here time to unpack it on board — which added a contact of luxurious to her mainstream cruise.