A reminder for anyone who flies...

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I just throw it in during pool day/afternoon. Most (maybe all?) Disney resorts have laundry. Many are near the pools. I'd rather do that than wait at MCO or lose luggage. Those are lessons learned the hard way.

Because you have extra time. Like I said most don't they are busy with you know going to the theme parks or their plans can't be firmed up in that they know in advance they will be at the pool for this amount of time on this day. I mean what usage is doing pool time too early in your vacation when you don't even have that much clothes to wash just to save from doing checked luggage.

I'm glad you'd rather do whatever than checked luggage at MCO but that's you and your personal groove you'd found. Rarely is it as easy as just telling someone so what just do laundry.

 

[RoseGold]

I'm glad you'd rather do whatever than checked luggage at MCO but that's you and your personal groove you'd found. Rarely is it as easy as just telling someone so what just do laundry.

Great, you wait at MCO or track down your lost bag, I'll do laundry. I can only tell you what I would do, which is kind of the point of a message board. Disney in particular is easy for this, because laundry is so easy. This is not a normal feature at hotels, so I think it's neat Disney has it. Even Swolphin have laundry.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

During the summer airports in Europe had luggage sitting for almost a week, waiting to get sorted.

Some pax said they had 3 days of meds in their carryon and checked the rest. Good idea to carry all your meds. Pill bottles take a lot of space. You can buy 2" by 1" zip lock bags. Either one med per bag or have an am and pm bag, one for each day. Pack an extra 3《or more) days just in case. A bag of Tylenol and any other drugs you might need

I found the travel sized bottles worked well to pack ibuprofen with us. I had a bottle from ages and ages ago that my mom gave me and then I ended up getting another one just before we left for WDW/USO in May because my mom had an extra one. Instead of packing a more bulky bottle I just packed 2 of those and just brought 1 with me in our park bag.

If you have a lot of pills and/or vitamins they have some really neat travel containers these days, I don't have that need yet but I've seen many of them available to purchase.

I will say this was on one of our cruise FB pages I have joined and the remark from many Americans was "you can get that many at once?!" The person was going on a world cruise so they needed quite the stock of meds



Now I still wouldn't put any of this in checked luggage but that is quite a lot of stuff for sure.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Great, you wait at MCO or track down your lost bag, I'll do laundry. I can only tell you what I would do, which is kind of the point of a message board. Disney in particular is easy for this, because laundry is so easy. This is not a normal feature at hotels, so I think it's neat Disney has it. Even Swolphin have laundry.

I'm not sure why you're hostile here. You have your system that works, okay, no one is debating that. You commented to someone else to just do laundry and they responded back as did I why that isn't as workable to many for a theme park. It works for you, but no one was debating that part, it was discussing options for other people which even in your response to me above you're like "well you wait or track down your lost luggage" was if my choice (or anyone else willing to check luggage into MCO) is wrong and yours is right. No one was debating laundry facilities as I clearly said Disney has facilities. Any presupposed lack of facilities wasn't the point.

FWIW at MCO we haven't had issues really. There can be and certainly any bad experience anywhere will have someone trying to find ways to not experience that again so I understand why you have found your system and stuck with it

 

[sam_gordon]

So you do laundry. I'd much rather do a load of laundry than wait an hour at MCO or worse.

Great, you wait at MCO or track down your lost bag, I'll do laundry. I can only tell you what I would do, which is kind of the point of a message board. Disney in particular is easy for this, because laundry is so easy. This is not a normal feature at hotels, so I think it's neat Disney has it. Even Swolphin have laundry.

In all my trips, there was one time I've waited more than 30 min for luggage. It happened to be at MCO, but it also was 20+ years ago. MANY hotels we've stayed have had laundry facilities on site. BUT, as I said earlier, I don't want to take the time out of vacation to do laundry. I don't want to have to worry about someone else using the machines when I want to use them.

Now, when we stayed DVC (by renting points, we're not owners), having laundry in the ROOM was nice.

If you want to limit how much you take and not worry about checked luggage, no one is saying you shouldn't. But just understand there are others who can't pack as "well" as you can and need to check a bag. I will say there is also a benefit in not worrying about lugging a carry on through security, around airports, and hoping there is space in the overhead of the planes. Or dropping your carryon at the end of the jetway and having to wait for it all to be lugged back up to the jetway at your stop/destination (because the plane is too small to support carry ons).

 

[Marrila]

Great, you wait at MCO or track down your lost bag, I'll do laundry. I can only tell you what I would do, which is kind of the point of a message board. Disney in particular is easy for this, because laundry is so easy. This is not a normal feature at hotels, so I think it's neat Disney has it. Even Swolphin have laundry.

I can assure you, I'm not steamed, waiting. I'm excited about my vacation.
I make a ladies room stop before I get to the escalator to luggage claim. My Towncar driver is waiting for me. Luggage appears quickly, driver grabs bag and I'm sitting in the back seat on my way to my resort. Easy peasy.
I respect your commitment to carryons, but they don't work for me. I'm short, and I would never expect flight attendants or fellow passengers to schlep my luggage up and down from the overhead.

 

[Genie+]

We normally get free checkin luggage to MCO so we pack our free carryon with essentials/can’t lose and all else in checkin along with an AirTag. Never had luggage lost and the carousel waits are much better in recent years. 30 mins used to be normal but closer to 15 minutes now. For now this works fine for us.

 

[Lewisc]

I found the travel sized bottles worked well to pack ibuprofen with us. I had a bottle from ages and ages ago that my mom gave me and then I ended up getting another one just before we left for WDW/USO in May because my mom had an extra one. Instead of packing a more bulky bottle I just packed 2 of those and just brought 1 with me in our park bag.

If you have a lot of pills and/or vitamins they have some really neat travel containers these days, I don't have that need yet but I've seen many of them available to purchase.

The mini-zip lock bags, generally available 2" by 3" maybe smaller, is absolutely the most efficient way. All those fancy travel pill travel containers take far more space.

No reason to have such a heated debate over checked luggage, carry on luggage and laundry. Some guests are happy with resort shampoo and conditioner. Some use their own products. 3-1-1 bag might not be enough.
Some people don't mind re wearing sweaty clothing. Others like to put on clean cloths every day. Some people wear rain friendly footwear such as Crocs. Others like to wear traditional sneakers. Sneakers may take 2 days to dry after a thunderstorm. Extra shoes and sweaters can fill up a carryon bag.
People dragging kids through an airport might want to minimize the luggage they carry.

At a minimum. Essential items like medicine must be in your carryon. Same with expensive electronics like iPads. Extra brick type batteries have to be in your carryon. Same with cameras, expensive jewelry etc.

Laundry can be a big help EVEN IF YOU NEVER USE IT. Having laundry available means you don't have to pack for the worse case scenario. Sometimes, heat and rain, guests might want to change clothing twice, or even 3 times in a day. Having a viable plan B avoids having to pack for worse case. Pretty sure laundry is 24/7. Works if at least one person wakes up, or goest to sleep, an hour before (or after) everyone else. Laundry doesn't even require using a machine. Bring some "quick dry stuff" Rinse in the sink then hang up to dry.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Laundry can be a big help EVEN IF YOU NEVER USE IT. Having laundry available means you don't have to pack for the worse case scenario. Sometimes, heat and rain, guests might want to change clothing twice, or even 3 times in a day. Having a viable plan B avoids having to pack for worse case. Pretty sure laundry is 24/7. Works if at least one person wakes up, or goest to sleep, an hour before (or after) everyone else. Laundry doesn't even require using a machine. Bring some "quick dry stuff" Rinse in the sink then hang up to dry.

I don't think anyone was saying having laundry facilities on site isn't an amenity to see as nice to have. The conversation was "I do laundry so I don't check a bag" vs "I don't do laundry on my wdw vacation". TBH on my WDW trip I'm in the parks from when I wake up to when I go to sleep, I literally don't have time but someone else may. Who knew this would spawn into this type of conversation.

I'm sure we can all tell people the ins and outs of washing clothes but the tips and tricks are probably not going to help someone who doesn't want to underpack to the point of not having a checked bag and do washing of clothes (whether in a sink or machine) while they are traveling. I mentioned on another thread about our cruise and a person gave me a great link to some dissolving detergent sheets because the cruise from what I saw had powder available. That tip was really helpful but only because I was already talking about the possibility of washing clothes because I knew I would have time. I don't have time on a theme park trip, we go hard, we are commandos and for that trip I'm okay checking a bag but I def. understand someone who doesn't. It's basically like people who refuse to cook on vacation, totally understandable but doesn't bother everyone

The mini-zip lock bags, generally available 2" by 3" maybe smaller, is absolutely the most efficient way. All those fancy travel pill travel containers take far more space.

The travel pill containers are good for separating out and I've seen very small ones in any case it was just a passing comment. In my day to day life which spills over to travel I carry a baggie with tums and my travel bottle of ibuprofen but tums tablets are much bigger in size than others although I do actually get a new bag when I travel because tums has a lot of dust so to speak. . My aunt is autistic and it would be a recipe for disaster just dumping things, same with my mother-in-law who has various pills. The more you take the more you may find separating out being better and containers are much more compact than before.

This was one I saw my mom eyeing for my aunt (well it's very similar) but she needs something with the days of the week labeled. This one below says each container is 0.59 inches high and 1.57 inches wide and comes with 6 so 6 total would be 3 1/2 inches by 1.57 inches. If you don't need all 6 reduce that number.








This is actually the bottles I take


They are about 2 1/2 inches tall by 0.75 inches wide they provide more protection for the pills and when shoved in my purse or travel bag or park bag. From what I can find mini zip locks are about twice that width to more than twice the width so two bottles equals one bag to two and a half bottles equaling one bag. Now I have about 24 or so tablets in each travel container so you might be getting more than 50 or so tablets in a baggie but I really don't need that many in one container. If I did I would have just brought the 100 tablet container it came with and saved some plastic. But I can understand how baggies work for someone.

 

[VandVsmama]

The great thing about travel is you can do it however you want.

So for everybody who would PREFER to check their luggage, then go ahead and do that!

If the thought of the airline losing your luggage makes you break out in hives, then don't check your luggage!

Tomay-toe, tomah-toe. Do or do not. I think that the OP's post was a good reminder to be sure to pack a few essentials in your carry on bag if you DO check your luggage.

 

[Cheburashka]

I take the middle road. I typically get complimentary checked bags when I fly, so I put my travel necessities & valuables (medications, basic toiletries, glasses, one change of clothes, swimsuit, electronics, documents, money, etc.) into my carry-on bag. Then I pack a check-in bag filled with several changes of clothes and shoes and other items. When cruising I like to decorate the stateroom with magnets, stuffed animals, knickknacks, etc., so the decorations go in my checked bag. No way could I fit all of those items into a carry-on bag, but I like to have them on my cruise, to create a home away from home feeling onboard. I also like having lots of different outfits to choose from and not having to do laundry on my vacation. The check-in bag also has room for souvenirs from the trip. There's a lot of good reasons to check a bag imo. But because I have the basics in my carry-on, it won't ruin the cruise if my check-in bag doesn't make it in time.

 

[crazylady]

I don't think anyone was saying having laundry facilities on site isn't an amenity to see as nice to have. The conversation was "I do laundry so I don't check a bag" vs "I don't do laundry on my wdw vacation". TBH on my WDW trip I'm in the parks from when I wake up to when I go to sleep, I literally don't have time but someone else may. Who knew this would spawn into this type of conversation.

I'm sure we can all tell people the ins and outs of washing clothes but the tips and tricks are probably not going to help someone who doesn't want to underpack to the point of not having a checked bag and do washing of clothes (whether in a sink or machine) while they are traveling. I mentioned on another thread about our cruise and a person gave me a great link to some dissolving detergent sheets because the cruise from what I saw had powder available. That tip was really helpful but only because I was already talking about the possibility of washing clothes because I knew I would have time. I don't have time on a theme park trip, we go hard, we are commandos and for that trip I'm okay checking a bag but I def. understand someone who doesn't. It's basically like people who refuse to cook on vacation, totally understandable but doesn't bother everyone


The travel pill containers are good for separating out and I've seen very small ones in any case it was just a passing comment. In my day to day life which spills over to travel I carry a baggie with tums and my travel bottle of ibuprofen but tums tablets are much bigger in size than others although I do actually get a new bag when I travel because tums has a lot of dust so to speak. . My aunt is autistic and it would be a recipe for disaster just dumping things, same with my mother-in-law who has various pills. The more you take the more you may find separating out being better and containers are much more compact than before.

This was one I saw my mom eyeing for my aunt (well it's very similar) but she needs something with the days of the week labeled. This one below says each container is 0.59 inches high and 1.57 inches wide and comes with 6 so 6 total would be 3 1/2 inches by 1.57 inches. If you don't need all 6 reduce that number.
View attachment 713273







This is actually the bottles I take
View attachment 713277

They are about 2 1/2 inches tall by 0.75 inches wide they provide more protection for the pills and when shoved in my purse or travel bag or park bag. From what I can find mini zip locks are about twice that width to more than twice the width so two bottles equals one bag to two and a half bottles equaling one bag. Now I have about 24 or so tablets in each travel container so you might be getting more than 50 or so tablets in a baggie but I really don't need that many in one container. If I did I would have just brought the 100 tablet container it came with and saved some plastic. But I can understand how baggies work for someone.

This is actually one of my favorite pill cases. it does come with days of the week stickers so you can label the boxes. I like it because it doesn't open up accidentally like some pill boxes.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This is actually one of my favorite pill cases. it does come with days of the week stickers so you can label the boxes. I like it because it doesn't open up accidentally like some pill boxes.

Oooh that's good!

 

[Disturbia]

NEVER put anything in checked luggage that you will NEED (ie: medication/equipment) within the first 24-36 hours. Sorry, that's just not being smart.

No need to be sorry. We are seasoned travelers and have multiple overseas trips under our belt as well so we pack medication (esp. allergy meds, inhalers and AuviQ) and a change of clothes for any overnight delay. I was just posting what I read about other travelers and I can sympathize with them.

For so long we (as domestic travelers) didn’t have to think about delays and we were getting complacent, but flights are still a mess so we need to stay vigilant.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Regarding holding flights....

TL: DR...Yes, they will hold planes for the last flight of the day.

Keep in mind, this was over 40 years ago. So things probably changed.

I was in college in Milwaukee...about 1980. I was flying down to Savannah-Hilton Head to meet my family for Easter. Fly down Thursday, and fly back on Monday.
Due to classes, I had to take a late flight. Even then, it was a 2 PM flight to from Milwaukee to Chicago with an hour layover in O'Hare followed by a 4 PM flight to Atlanta (arriving at 6:30 ET ) and continuing on to Savannah (arriving at 9:30 ET). No plane change in Atlanta, just a continuation.

There was a driving rain storm all up and down the East which extended all the way to Wisconsin/Illinois. Our plane was nearly an hour late taking off. So we didn't get to Chicago until nearly 4. Fortunately, the two gates were literally next door. So I made my flight to Atlanta/Savannah. Fairly easily, because the plane didn't take off until about 4:30.

However, I still didn't have enough time to eat. So I was hungry when we took off for Atlanta. Very limited food service on the flight. At least I had time to get off the plane in Atlanta and hit up McDonald's or something.

Wrong. Plane arrived in Atlanta about 7:30, ET, about the time it was supposed to take off to Savannah. I was famished. But they wouldn't let us off the plane to get food.

And here's the clincher. Since it was the last flight of the day, they waited around a several hours to allow those on connecting flights to make their flights to Savannah/Hilton Head. Their rationale...They held the flight in Chicago for us, so they should hold the flight for those flying into Atlanta.

Still, no food.

We didn't take off until nearly 11 PM. And by the time we got to Savannah, it was after midnight. On Friday.

Good Friday. A day of fasting.

I couldn't convince my parents that it was still Thursday in Milwaukee. I had to go with no food until breakfast later that morning, and limited food that day.

So yes, they will hold the plane for the last flight of the day.

 

[Disturbia]

Regarding holding flights....

TL: DR...Yes, they will hold planes for the last flight of the day.

Keep in mind, this was over 40 years ago. So things probably changed.

I was in college in Milwaukee...about 1980. I was flying down to Savannah-Hilton Head to meet my family for Easter. Fly down Thursday, and fly back on Monday.
Due to classes, I had to take a late flight. Even then, it was a 2 PM flight to from Milwaukee to Chicago with an hour layover in O'Hare followed by a 4 PM flight to Atlanta (arriving at 6:30 ET ) and continuing on to Savannah (arriving at 9:30 ET). No plane change in Atlanta, just a continuation.

There was a driving rain storm all up and down the East which extended all the way to Wisconsin/Illinois. Our plane was nearly an hour late taking off. So we didn't get to Chicago until nearly 4. Fortunately, the two gates were literally next door. So I made my flight to Atlanta/Savannah. Fairly easily, because the plane didn't take off until about 4:30.

However, I still didn't have enough time to eat. So I was hungry when we took off for Atlanta. Very limited food service on the flight. At least I had time to get off the plane in Atlanta and hit up McDonald's or something.

Wrong. Plane arrived in Atlanta about 7:30, ET, about the time it was supposed to take off to Savannah. I was famished. But they wouldn't let us off the plane to get food.

And here's the clincher. Since it was the last flight of the day, they waited around a several hours to allow those on connecting flights to make their flights to Savannah/Hilton Head. Their rationale...They held the flight in Chicago for us, so they should hold the flight for those flying into Atlanta.

Still, no food.

We didn't take off until nearly 11 PM. And by the time we got to Savannah, it was after midnight. On Friday.

Good Friday. A day of fasting.

I couldn't convince my parents that it was still Thursday in Milwaukee. I had to go with no food until breakfast later that morning, and limited food that day.

So yes, they will hold the plane for the last flight of the day.

Wow. We’ve experienced similar things with international travel. I make sure everyone has eaten before we get on a flight and we have snacks in our carryon.

Our MCO flight was delayed for 4 hours (we sat on the runway for over 2 hrs). They have to serve water and allow you back in the airport to get food if they do that now. We didn’t get off; they kept miscounting (double counting the people who got off) for 45 mins. It was a mess. We had 3 kids and sitting in a hot airplane (one lap child) was miserable (we purchase water and keep it with us thanks to our international flight disasters). Kids were getting antsy and asking for more water. They didn’t serve water until well into that delay. Thankfully it was a 3 hour flight.

 

[sam_gordon]

Regarding holding flights....

TL: DR...Yes, they will hold planes for the last flight of the day.

Keep in mind, this was over 40 years ago. So things probably changed.

I was in college in Milwaukee...about 1980. I was flying down to Savannah-Hilton Head to meet my family for Easter. Fly down Thursday, and fly back on Monday.
Due to classes, I had to take a late flight. Even then, it was a 2 PM flight to from Milwaukee to Chicago with an hour layover in O'Hare followed by a 4 PM flight to Atlanta (arriving at 6:30 ET ) and continuing on to Savannah (arriving at 9:30 ET). No plane change in Atlanta, just a continuation.

There was a driving rain storm all up and down the East which extended all the way to Wisconsin/Illinois. Our plane was nearly an hour late taking off. So we didn't get to Chicago until nearly 4. Fortunately, the two gates were literally next door. So I made my flight to Atlanta/Savannah. Fairly easily, because the plane didn't take off until about 4:30.

However, I still didn't have enough time to eat. So I was hungry when we took off for Atlanta. Very limited food service on the flight. At least I had time to get off the plane in Atlanta and hit up McDonald's or something.

Wrong. Plane arrived in Atlanta about 7:30, ET, about the time it was supposed to take off to Savannah. I was famished. But they wouldn't let us off the plane to get food.

And here's the clincher. Since it was the last flight of the day, they waited around a several hours to allow those on connecting flights to make their flights to Savannah/Hilton Head. Their rationale...They held the flight in Chicago for us, so they should hold the flight for those flying into Atlanta.

Still, no food.

We didn't take off until nearly 11 PM. And by the time we got to Savannah, it was after midnight. On Friday.

Good Friday. A day of fasting.

I couldn't convince my parents that it was still Thursday in Milwaukee. I had to go with no food until breakfast later that morning, and limited food that day.

So yes, they will hold the plane for the last flight of the day.

Not a single flight was held Friday night. Holding flights 15-30 minutes would have meant 100(?) people make their connections and get to their destinations. Instead, they had to put those people up in a hotel. So no, they (American at least) will NOT hold planes for the last flight of the day.

And no, I don't think you can take what happened 40+ years ago and equate it to what happens today. Heck, I remember flying 40 years ago and getting waffles on the flight (morning flight), and it was a 2 hour flight. Now you're lucky to get a drink and cookies.

 

[FCDub]

What happened once 42 years ago has literally no bearing on how the airline industry operates now lol

 

[KrazeeK120]

Definitely a good tip. I always pack a change of clothes and essentials in my carry-on and never needed them…until this past August.

We had a weather delay in Orlando and missed our connecting flight in Atlanta (Delta). It was the last flight of the night to anywhere close to our home. They gave us a hotel (thank goodness). I realized I forgot extra underwear for myself…oops…but not the end of the world. We had fresh clothes otherwise, as well as our medication. We’d also carried on our son’s booster seat, so we were able to easily take a taxi to the hotel.

Really glad I had packed the way I did. Hope it never happens again, but I’ll be ready if it does!

 

[Lumpy1106]

TL : DR the whole thread, but SG didn't have to even say the airline - American is TERRIBLE with connections! Here's another tip if you get stuck; the airline is obligated to get you where you need to go, but you don't have to take what they give you. If you find another way to get there you prefer, have that info in hand when you talk to customer service. For example, American messed up our trip from DEN to LAX - they were late getting us to our connection in PHX. We could have gotten on the plane to PHX, but we knew we were going to miss the connection and get stuck there overnight. American was booking everyone standby on the first flight the next morning (6a!) where they were then standby onto the connection - they might have even gotten stuck again if that flight was over booked (and it probably was). We weren't doing that. We found a (MUCH more expensive but not our problem) direct flight from DEN to LGB (close enough) that departed at a much more reasonable 9a - and we had seats, not standby. We presented customer service with this option and they were happy to accommodate - one less unhappy flyer to have to sort out for them. American still had to buy us dinner and breakfast and put us up in a hotel like everyone else - but we got to sleep in and got home with a lot less stress.