Luggage question

[jrmende63]

hope this does not seem like a dumb question,:confused: BUT........

Do you have to bring hard sided luggage? I have some cloth soft -sided luggage that is monogramed. I also have a bright orange and gray duffle like bag but bigger than a duffle bag. My thought is if I have luggage that is not like everyone elses then maybe I can find it faster? If I buy anything breakable, I have a hard -sided carry on that I am taking so it can go into the carry on. What do you all think about soft- sided or cloth luggage? I am flying cross country to Vancouver if that makes a difference.

Thanks, Julie

Off to Alaska VERY soon!:D

[Shelley9962]

It made it so much easier on our cruise to have brightly colored luggage --one daughter had hot pink, the other a purple check and mine is a tapestry. I wish one of our suitcases was hardsided for the reasons you said, but we did mostly okay... things just got a bit dinged up.

 

Enjoy Alaska... that was my first cruise.. 20 years ago!

[SeaW]

I don't know if there is a rule on this or not but I see no reason why you could not take soft sided luggage.

[jw4jg1mg2eg1]

Last year, AVON had a set of like 5 different size bags...each of which were a bright color. I bought them for my daughter & we had no problems at all taking them on or finding them.

[Barkingowl]

I took a duffel bag on my last cruise, but then again I haul my luggage on & off myself.

[VentureMan_2000]

It is very rare to see hard sided luggage... vary rare indeed.

 

You really want to take advantage of luggage with wheels. I bought a $180 set of decent luggage at Mervyns for $60 on sale with additional discounts. Just watch for the sales.

 

I purchased red luggage. maybe only 5%-10% of luggage is red.

[jrmende63]

Thanks all! I think I will take my soft -sided luggage! My carry on does have wheels.I just did not want anyone to think I was dumb for taking a bright orange duffle like bag! Julie

[jrmende63]

It made it so much easier on our cruise to have brightly colored luggage --one daughter had hot pink, the other a purple check and mine is a tapestry. I wish one of our suitcases was hardsided for the reasons you said, but we did mostly okay... things just got a bit dinged up.

 

Enjoy Alaska... that was my first cruise.. 20 years ago!

Shelley...Alaska is my first cruise too! We are soo excited! It will be here before I know it..then I will have wonderful memories!

[Boatdrill]

Soft-sided luggage is fine, and very, very common. Most everyone uses it, but unfortunately, it is the most likely to be damaged.

 

Also, most brands of soft-sided luggage have side pockets on the outside with zipper closures. If your's has this feature, buy a small lock for the zippers, so onboard baggage handlers can't unzip the side pocket and slip their hand in and feel what's in there, and take it.

 

You'd be (sadly) surprised at how many bags come off Carnival's ships with the zippered pockets unzipped...with just enough room to get one's hand in and out quickly.

[jrmende63]

Soft-sided luggage is fine, and very, very common. Most everyone uses it, but unfortunately, it is the most likely to be damaged.

 

Also, most brands of soft-sided luggage have side pockets on the outside with zipper closures. If your's has this feature, buy a small lock for the zippers, so onboard baggage handlers can't unzip the side pocket and slip their hand in and feel what's in there, and take it.

 

You'd be (sadly) surprised at how many bags come off Carnival's ships with the zippered pockets unzipped...with just enough room to get one's hand in and out quickly.

Thanks for the tip. I will be buying cable ties to lock the luggage. I wish I could only carry the carry on...but i don't think I can fit 7 days of clothes x2 for hubby and me and the makeup/ jewelery bags into the one carry on. or even TWO carry ons!

[zqvol]

hope this does not seem like a dumb question,:confused: BUT........

Do you have to bring hard sided luggage? I have some cloth soft -sided luggage that is monogramed. I also have a bright orange and gray duffle like bag but bigger than a duffle bag. My thought is if I have luggage that is not like everyone elses then maybe I can find it faster? If I buy anything breakable, I have a hard -sided carry on that I am taking so it can go into the carry on. What do you all think about soft- sided or cloth luggage? I am flying cross country to Vancouver if that makes a difference.

Thanks, Julie

Off to Alaska VERY soon!:D

No you do not have to bring hard sided luggage. It all gets thrown around just like at any airport.

[zqvol]

Soft-sided luggage is fine, and very, very common. Most everyone uses it, but unfortunately, it is the most likely to be damaged.

 

Also, most brands of soft-sided luggage have side pockets on the outside with zipper closures. If your's has this feature, buy a small lock for the zippers, so onboard baggage handlers can't unzip the side pocket and slip their hand in and feel what's in there, and take it.

 

You'd be (sadly) surprised at how many bags come off Carnival's ships with the zippered pockets unzipped...with just enough room to get one's hand in and out quickly.

Locks are a waste of time. Keys or so common that locking is like inviting to open something. If you really want to seal your luggage go to the home improvement store and get cable ties. They will seal it up and can't be unlocked.

[Cotton]

Shelley - Venture is correct - you won't see many pieces of hard luggage; probably only a few still use it. Almost all luggage sold these days is softside.

 

And - don't worry about your orange dufflebag. You'll be amazed at all the bright colors of things folks put on their luggage to make it stand out in the sea of black bags.

 

Venture - When I bought new luggage a few years ago, I thought Aha, I'll be able to find my luggage now. Red is what I chose, and the last coupla cruises, there have been so many red bags, I now have a really wide red & white polkadot ribbon glued down the side seams. Pretty? No, but it helps.:D

[bulldogmom]

It is very rare to see hard-sided luggage. Soft sided will be okay. Ours is soft sided (of course there is some metal in it to keep it from collapsing completely) but other than that it is just your standard "American Tourister" luggage.

We just got new luggage and it is black (we haven't actually used it to travel with yet) but the luggage we've had up until now has been red which used to make it easy to spot. It seems like the last two times we travelled though, everyone had red luggae!! I'm going to tie a brightly colored piece of cloth around the handles of our luggage this time since it is black, that will give it a little something that is different from everyone else's. Like one poster said before if you are in the market for luggage just look for sales. I got a 5-piece set of American Tourister brand luggage for like $100 and it has wheels (if I could recommend anything it would be to get wheels, they make travelling so much easier).

Have fun and happy travelling!

[jimc_usa]

Thanks for the tip. I will be buying cable ties to lock the luggage. I wish I could only carry the carry on...but i don't think I can fit 7 days of clothes x2 for hubby and me and the makeup/ jewelery bags into the one carry on. or even TWO carry ons!

 

The TSA will require your luggage be unlocked and they must be able to open your luggage and check it if they need to. So any cable ties will be cut off anyway!!!

I have fairly inexpensive luggage ($20.00 from a flea market) and I travel every other week. Sure it get banged around and beat up, but that's to be expected. It is soft sided front and back but hard around the perimeter.

It has two wheels and I pull it along behind me. This suitcase 7 months old and will probably last 12 months with a little bit of luck!

[PADutchman]

Somebody said walmart bags and tape with a cooler on the side works fine. :D

[zqvol]

The TSA will require your luggage be unlocked and they must be able to open your luggage and check it if they need to. So any cable ties will be cut off anyway!!!

I have fairly inexpensive luggage ($20.00 from a flea market) and I travel every other week. Sure it get banged around and beat up, but that's to be expected. It is soft sided front and back but hard around the perimeter.

It has two wheels and I pull it along behind me. This suitcase 7 months old and will probably last 12 months with a little bit of luck!

Put the cable ties on right before turning the luggage in at the port, not before flying.

[Jeanie821]

The TSA will require your luggage be unlocked and they must be able to open your luggage and check it if they need to. So any cable ties will be cut off anyway!!!...

 

I plan to invest on some TSA-approved locks. They can be opened by an agent equipped with a special code or tool, then re-locked.

[Cotton]

I plan to invest on some TSA-approved locks. They can be opened by an agent equipped with a special code or tool, then re-locked.

 

Jeanie, before you spend $$ on the TSA locks, you should read some of the threads on here about how the airport folks cut locks off - TSA approved or not.

 

Lots of stories on how the agents just didn't want to take the time or spend the energy to locate the TSA key, and cut them off anyway.:eek:

[cruzzza]

I lucked up on getting hard sided luggage for a wedding present. I have a large and a medium sized suitcase in the old Samsonite plain style. Our first cruise when we flew to FLL, we happened to be sitting right above the baggage handlers loading the plane. We watched the bags come on and were surprised at really how much abuse they do take. Then we saw our bags. We both smiled at each other and said how glad we were that we had hardsided bags! It didn't even seem to phase our suitcases. We do have a scratch or two on them, but they (and the contents) have held up amazingly well. If I ever have to replace them, though, I dread the cost! It's very hard to find hardsided luggage now that is even close to our price range.

[caprcorn28]

Jeanie, before you spend $$ on the TSA locks, you should read some of the threads on here about how the airport folks cut locks off - TSA approved or not.

 

Lots of stories on how the agents just didn't want to take the time or spend the energy to locate the TSA key, and cut them off anyway.:eek:

 

Yep! Too many stories about them getting cut off!!! Just use some zip ties on your luggage once you get to the port! They are cheap!!

[NancAngel]

2 cruises ago, thanks to info on this board we went to the dollar store, went out and picked up a pkg of 4 bath scrubbies bright orange put one on each bags. my 15 yr old last year was horrified but when it came time to disembark he spotted our bags right away and said "that was a smart thing to do mom"..lol so the brighter the better

enjoy your cruise I hope someday we will be able to get around to taking an alaskan crusie, but right now they give me time off in feb i'm go somewhere warm..lol

[Jeanie821]

Jeanie, before you spend $$ on the TSA locks, you should read some of the threads on here about how the airport folks cut locks off - TSA approved or not.

 

Lots of stories on how the agents just didn't want to take the time or spend the energy to locate the TSA key, and cut them off anyway.:eek:

 

I guess I'll be using plastic ties to secure my luggage. I forgot just how stupid TSA can be! :rolleyes: Not exactly the brain trust...