RCCL Europe Cruise and packing light with kids

[calenita]

THRILLED about going on RCCL cruise to Mediterranean in November. Less thrilled about luggage! Our children are DD 13, DS 12 and DS8. It is a 12 night cruise and I want to pack light since we are doing a post-cruise in Barcelona. Just wondered what others do to pack light with children when you need to take dressier clothes for the formal nights. Any hints for me - Mom - would also work! I want us each to have one bag and one carry on and that is it!

[3GR8Sons]

Does RCCL have self service laundry? I love the self service laundry on Princess and it lets us pack less stuff. We travel with SIL and she and I don't mind waiting on the balcony while the laundry gets done. The men hang with the kids. SIL and I relax on balcony with a drink (and no kids).

 

Are your kids slobs? If they are not they might be able to wear their dinner clothes more than one time. My 14, 12 year old can usually wear dinner clothes more than one night. My 9 year old and niece and nephew are all slobs. :cool:

 

Do they have dress shoes that can be worn with their more casual outfits? We were able to get our kids dress shoes that could be worn with a suit or with khakis so they needed fewer shoes.

[Benjismum]

We tend to take one suit for DS 12 with a selection of different ties, and just a couple of different shirts (which can be laundered) for a different look.

 

Similarly DD 13 takes perhaps one formal dress, but several fancy/glittery tops which can be paired with the same pair of slinky material black trousers or skirt. She also just takes one or two pairs of dress sandals and just changes her toe nail polish.

 

Hope this helps.

[CeleBrat]

We just got back from the MEd, and although our kids are smaller (ages 5 and 8), here's what we do:

 

1--Pack 3 pairs of pants and make DS wear them on more than one night. We also used those same pants (later in the week) to wear ashore for church visits.

2--Pack several skirts for DD that she also wore more than once for dinner, and to those churches as well.

3--No dressy shoes for DD. She wore sandals, even to dinner.

4--I purchased a lot of spandex blend blouses and tops that took up very little room in the suitcase and didn't wrinkle.

5--It's too late for you, but we booked NCL for our Med cruise because of their "Dress-Up-Or-Not" option for dinner. We did not have to bring any formal wear at all....aahhhhhh.

 

CeleBrat

[SelectSys]

THRILLED about going on RCCL cruise to Mediterranean in November. Less thrilled about luggage! Our children are DD 13, DS 12 and DS8. It is a 12 night cruise and I want to pack light since we are doing a post-cruise in Barcelona. Just wondered what others do to pack light with children when you need to take dressier clothes for the formal nights. Any hints for me - Mom - would also work! I want us each to have one bag and one carry on and that is it!

 

Our family has achieved this goal on all of our trips including the Brilliance of the Seas out of Barcelona for 12 nights. Our rule is one good sized rolling duffel per person and a day pack as a carry on. So far we haven't had a problem with space and having rolling bags and day packs makes it easy to get through airports, train stations, etc.

 

Realize that men/boys can rent formalwear on board to save even more space if this is an issue.

[SelectSys]

Does RCCL have self service laundry?

 

No, it is something I wish they would have on board.

[calenita]

Our family has achieved this goal on all of our trips including the Brilliance of the Seas out of Barcelona for 12 nights. Our rule is one good sized rolling duffel per person and a day pack as a carry on. So far we haven't had a problem with space and having rolling bags and day packs makes it easy to get through airports, train stations, etc.

 

Realize that men/boys can rent formalwear on board to save even more space if this is an issue.

 

That is the ship we are on. Do they have a laundry special onboard or anything? On NCL they had the self-serve laundry which I used and also a "fill a sack" of laundry for $20 towards the end of the cruise. That would help. DS8 is messy bless his heart!

[SelectSys]

That is the ship we are on. Do they have a laundry special onboard or anything? On NCL they had the self-serve laundry which I used and also a "fill a sack" of laundry for $20 towards the end of the cruise. That would help. DS8 is messy bless his heart!

 

If they did I don't remember it as we rarely use ship board laundry. I would suggest asking this specific question for BoS out of Barcelona on the main RCCL board. I am sure someone would be able to tell you.

[3GR8Sons]

That is the ship we are on. Do they have a laundry special onboard or anything? On NCL they had the self-serve laundry which I used and also a "fill a sack" of laundry for $20 towards the end of the cruise. That would help. DS8 is messy bless his heart!

 

If you wind up having to pay someone to do laundry and pay someone to rent multiple sets of formalwear it's probably cheaper to just check another bag.

[calenita]

I just don't want to be lugging a lot of stuff around. Lots of mix and match stuff for me and just convincing the kids they can re-wear something if it is not dirty. We are staying post-cruise in Barcelona and I want to keep it simple. We will be gone about 2 1/2 weeks total so that would be a LOT of clothes without doing laundry - plus I don't know if we have 18 pairs of underwear each! I did read somewhere they have the fill your bag special, so we will use that for socks, underwear, t-shirts etc. Should work well.

[calenita]

It's time to PACK! I'm making the packing lists for the boys. Should I make them pack a suit jacket? I just don't want to take anything we really don't need. They are 12 and 8. I have asked them to pack two church shirts and two church pants for the formal nights. Plus ties. They will also have their church shoes. The other nights people are going to have to enjoy seeing them in jeans/sports pants in the dining room I do believe. I've asked for a small table for our family of five so I don't think we will be offending anyone else in the dining room - at least not at our table!!!

I'm doing lots of mix and match for myself but did buy a great skirt and shimmery top for formal night - will probably wear the same each formal night.

Debbi

[jilllofalltrades]

We have 2 boys, 10 and 15. We usually do the 7-8 day cruises. For that I pack their navy blazers, 1 pair of khaki dress pants and two shirts with ties for the two formal nights. 2 pair of docker style pants and two shirts that can be worn in 4 different combinations work for the rest of the dinners. I then pack 4 swimsuits with matching t shirts rolled up in gallon size baggies. Toss the boys a pack in the morning and theyre off to play. The sets can be worn twice and then the wet suit goes back in the baggy for the trip home. A couple pair of shorts and undies complete the packing. We usually buy a couple of t shirts as souvineers. Packing is done, simple and compact.