What makes best luggage

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I have done this as well although my straps were a bright orange.  Really helped and always worked except once.  One bag arrived on the baggage carousel minus its strap.  The bag was still locked (this was pre-TSA), so no one had been in the suitcase.  How it came loose, I have always wondered.  

 

Somebody forgot their suspenders! 😄

[rkacruiser]

22 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Somebody forgot their suspenders! 😄

 

😁  I got a chuckle out of your comment! 

 

The strap would probably have been easier to use as a belt with a very unusual and large plastic buckle.  

[57redbird]

On 10/6/2020 at 10:32 PM, ldubs said:

"I want to find my luggage easily"

 

We use these bright yellow luggage straps with our last names spelled our in big bold letters.   We can see them a mile away.   Of course, if you all adopt this then there will be a sea of luggage with bright yellow straps and we will have to go to plan B.  Haha

 

We have these as well --- took them to our local cleaners & had them sew them to our rolling duffels....work like a charm!

 

[ldubs]

6 hours ago, 57redbird said:

We have these as well --- took them to our local cleaners & had them sew them to our rolling duffels....work like a charm!

 

That is a great idea.  Needs to go on the "tips" list.   

[Sailin Gal]

I’m still a two-wheel fan.  We have both, but after some rough pavement chewed up the wheels on my big  2 wheel Samsonite, we replaced them ourselves with inline skate wheels.  It was very easy and inexpensive, and I havent found a surface yet that they don’t roll well on.

[rkacruiser]

14 hours ago, Sailin Gal said:

but after some rough pavement chewed up the wheels on my big  2 wheel Samsonite,

 

A very good post because the wheels on my hard sided American Touristers got so damaged that trying to pull them was more of a chore than it was worth.  They got replaced.  

[neebster]

The wife and I use soft-sided luggage with 2 wheels. Just our personal choice, but has worked well for a number of years. Basic black, but we tie orange surveyor's ribbon on the handles. Easy to spot, and the ribbon is available in different colors.

[BoozinCroozin]

We bought the full size 4 spinner large luggage last year when sails (pun intended) came around. We have yet to use them. After our first cruise, we will know if we need the full size moving forward. My gut is saying yes because we prefer to have our own snorkeling gear. The fins are quite large and would never fit in a carryon. But, we can do one big one and carryons for the rest maybe when we know more.

 

As for brands, in most cases, they all come from the same 2-3 factories in China. That $500 suitcase is the same as the $50 suitcase. We went with Amazon's cheap warranty (I think it was $4) for 5-year guarantee. Because the cost of shipping back, they will just credit the account for the original purchase price. 

[iancal]

Two good roller skate like wheels,  good zippers, lightweight (and not because the tags say so),, good extender handles, and well balanced...does not fall forward when full and placed upright.

 

I believe that requirements change based on the type of travel one does.

Edited April 4, 2021 by iancal

[Crew News]

Whatever bag you purchase, modify it with large stickers, or other colorful attachments,  that you can spot among thousands of other similar bags in the disembarkation baggage terminal/

 

To be safe against anything inside being crushed choose hard-sided luggage.  Your luggage will be sitting in the ship luggage trolleys for several hours and they may be under five or six heavy bags as seen below:

 

[57redbird]

16 hours ago, Crew News said:

Whatever bag you purchase, modify it with large stickers, or other colorful attachments,  that you can spot among thousands of other similar bags in the disembarkation baggage terminal/

 

To be safe against anything inside being crushed choose hard-sided luggage.  Your luggage will be sitting in the ship luggage trolleys for several hours and they may be under five or six heavy bags as seen below:

 

+ when it rains, like it did in San Diego before embarkation, hopefully your belongings will stay dry ---- I hung my sneakers on the line in the bathroom for a couple of days.

[rkacruiser]

21 hours ago, 57redbird said:

+ when it rains, like it did in San Diego before embarkation, hopefully your belongings will stay dry ---- I hung my sneakers on the line in the bathroom for a couple of days.

 

Rain is the enemy of soft-sided luggage.  My traveling companion and I had a rainy layover in ATL en route to our flight to Amsterdam.  Her luggage was soaked.  One of my bags was damp while the other one was just "OK".  We had much clothing hanging around the bathroom and room at the hotel during our Amsterdam visit.

 

I was irritated at Delta/KLM.  Better protection for luggage sitting between flights for several hours should have been provided.  We opened our bags on the floor of baggage claim before we left the airport to determine the situation.  She wanted to get "out of there", but I insisted that we file a claim (or attempt to do so) at the KLM baggage office.  Didn't do us any good, though.  Not a great way to begin our visit to Amsterdam.  

[travelingman]

23 hours ago, 57redbird said:

+ when it rains, like it did in San Diego before embarkation, hopefully your belongings will stay dry ---- I hung my sneakers on the line in the bathroom for a couple of days.

 

I read somewhere a year or two ago that someone with soft-sided luggage say they use a trash bag to pack their clothes in and they were dry when the suitcase got wet one time.  Not sure how they accomplished the packing going in the open end of the trash bag.  But guess always possible.

 

Stan

[rkacruiser]

On 4/27/2021 at 6:04 PM, travelingman said:

a trash bag to pack their clothes

 

There have been many suggestions over the years about using trash bags, the plastic dry cleaning bags to pack clothes.   I have not tried trash bags, but the suggestions about using the dry cleaners bags to keep clothes wrinkle free, etc.  Well, they don't work for me.  I unpack my tux coat and it has more wrinkles than it ever did without the plastic bag over it.  

[LynnTTT]

We have 24" TravelPro two wheelers which we bought in 2011. Been on several cruises, but also independent travel and group travel trains, planes and busses to: Mexico/England/Ireland/Scotland/France (3x)/Spain(2x)/Morocco/Egypt/China/Germany. Austria/Hungary/Czech Rep/Bratislava/India/Cambodia/Thailand/Vietnam.  Not even counting the cruises, but travel to and fro these cases get tossed around at the airports. The cases are battered but fine. We can travel for six weeks with no problem  This Fall we'll do France by train and plane, train three locations in Italy and return by cruise from Rome.  No plans to replace yet.

[ChangeOrder]

On 3/27/2020 at 9:10 AM, PORT ROYAL said:

 

Briggs & Reily - Lifetime no quibble repair guarantee - 

And they have a sale on now.

Yes! After years of always replacing garbage pieces from other brands, I spent money once on great luggage with lifetime replacement guarantee. 

[Reina del Mar]

We have lined our soft sided cases with black bags (rubbish bags) before now, in case of rain during lay overs. Useful as laundry bags on the return leg if we are away for extended periods, with no laundry facilities.

 

Have used all manner of cases and bags over the years. Hard sided, soft sided, two wheels, four wheels but my personal favourite was huge sports’ bag on two wheels...simply because they were lighter than cases and I could stuff extra ‘things’ in on the way home. Sadly, they are now too worn and we do not feel confident they would hold up with everything we take.

 

Can’t buy them in GB but next time we’re in USA, we’ll be off to the Reebok Outlet shop !

[rkacruiser]

21 minutes ago, Reina del Mar said:

We have lined our soft sided cases with black bags (rubbish bags) before now, in case of rain during lay overs

 

I have used the plastic coverings over clothes that I pick-up from a dry cleaner.  Did not care for them; not sure how effective they might be anyway.  

[iancal]

Our experience is that luggage is somewhat like mattresses.  There is always a 50-70 percent off sale.

 

We had occasion to visit a luggage repair store. One that did work for the airlines.  The owner also told us that quality varies between the big name brands. 

 

Some  make products specifically to sell to dept. stores that  market with 50 percent or more discounts and to the so called factory outlet stores.

 

The other thing we discovered when shopping for a light weight international carry on roller was that the luggage labels are meaningless.

 

Some weights are not displayed on the label or are in fine print.  Carry on is a meaningless term  unless the exterior measurements fit with the airline regs.   A fair few did not when we measured them.

Edited July 27, 2021 by iancal

[BklynBoy8]

We like Samsonite as luggage company.

 

It mostly depends on the number of days you are sailing.

 

I take a wheel type of bag, suitor and a number of carry ons.

[Ilovesailaway]

Look to the real pros.... flight crews almost all have a soft sided 2 wheel carry on with a smaller personal bag that clips to the carry on.

If that gives you enough space it is the way to go.

[RGEDad]

For cruising I have two important considerations - Not yet discussed

Both having to deal with storage of the bags in the Cabin. 

• The largest bag must be able to fit under the bed - typically 13 Inches MAX
• The smaller bags must be able to nest inside the larger bags - I have two sets of three where the smallest fits into the middle, and the middle fits into the largest. We never take all 6, but the configuration packed does vary depending on the cruise length & temperature range.

Our bags always fit under the bed and out of the way.

All are softer side/expandable with four larger being 4 wheel spinners and two smaller just 2 wheels, the four smallest are deemed carry-on legal. The Middle size not so much when expanded and stuffed to the gills.

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, RGEDad said:

For cruising I have two important considerations - Not yet discussed

Both having to deal with storage of the bags in the Cabin. 

• The largest bag must be able to fit under the bed - typically 13 Inches MAX
• The smaller bags must be able to nest inside the larger bags - I have two sets of three where the smallest fits into the middle, and the middle fits into the largest. We never take all 6, but the configuration packed does vary depending on the cruise length & temperature range.

Our bags always fit under the bed and out of the way.

All are softer side/expandable with four larger being 4 wheel spinners and two smaller just 2 wheels, the four smallest are deemed carry-on legal. The Middle size not so much when expanded and stuffed to the gills.

If the bags are left open,while nested, the stack of nested bags should fit under most cruise ship beds without an issue.

[ldubs]

On 11/11/2021 at 9:04 PM, RGEDad said:

For cruising I have two important considerations - Not yet discussed

Both having to deal with storage of the bags in the Cabin. 

• The largest bag must be able to fit under the bed - typically 13 Inches MAX
• The smaller bags must be able to nest inside the larger bags - I have two sets of three where the smallest fits into the middle, and the middle fits into the largest. We never take all 6, but the configuration packed does vary depending on the cruise length & temperature range.

Our bags always fit under the bed and out of the way.

All are softer side/expandable with four larger being 4 wheel spinners and two smaller just 2 wheels, the four smallest are deemed carry-on legal. The Middle size not so much when expanded and stuffed to the gills.

 

On 11/11/2021 at 10:32 PM, Crew News said:

If the bags are left open,while nested, the stack of nested bags should fit under most cruise ship beds without an issue.

 

Good point.  Under bed storage makes life a lot easier.   

[WanderingRN84]

I travel for work and had to replace my soft sided travel pro after 2 years as the sides and back structure broke down and eventually the telescoping handle would not come out. I suggest hard luggage for checked but I’ve had no issues with soft sided for carry on. And I echo others’ advice, spinner wheels make the chore of lugging luggage obsolete as you glide your luggage through the long walks of terminals. 

Edited November 21, 2021 by RNEquus