DCL Tip: Pack Your Bags

Excited about your upcoming vacation with the Disney Cruise Line? What will you pack? What will the weather be like? Will it be hot, will it be cold? Will you encounter 50-degree temperature swings? With so much to consider While packing your bags, here’s my packing tip – pack a few more bags in your bags. Yes, pack additional bags in your bags, specifically a primary pack, a secondary pack, and several “handy packs.”

Primary Pack

Your primary pack should be a medium-sized backpack. Not small but not meant to haul all either. This pack will hold items for a day especially when your luggage isn’t available like during embarkation and debarkation. For long shore excursions, your primary pack needs to hold jackets, food, drinks, cameras, and anything else while away from your ship. I went with the Borealis day pack from The North Face through Zappos.

The North Face makes some great quality gear, and you’ll pay for that. However, during the summer months, watch clearances at Zappos. They’ll be clearing inventory to make way for new back to school gear. So if you don’t mind last year’s model, you can easily get lower prices. Even better prices are had by being bold with colors. There’ve been even steeper discounts on the more exuberant-colored packs. That’s how I ended up with my Borealis pack in tofino blue plaid.

The Borealis has a capacity of 29 liters and offers up two expandable side pockets for bottled drinks. What’s also useful is the external bungee cord that can quickly cinch down jackets.

Secondary Pack

Once on-board, you won’t need everything in your primary pack and can unburden yourself. But yet, you’ll need some carrying capacity, and that’s why you need a smaller, lighter secondary pack. My suggestion is a single strapped backpack aka a monopack. This monopack is from Eddie Bauer, but unfortunately, it’s now sold out. If you’re lucky, you may be able to find one in a brick and mortar store like REI.

Small and light yet tough, this Eddie Bauer mono can hold light jackets, a DSLR, a camcorder, and comes with an external bottle holder. Sure, you can always run back to your stateroom to grab a jacket for a family member, but it’s just easier to have that jacket available. And while on the Disney Wonder, you’ll never know when you’ll need your camera for a shot with Mickey or Goofy or to capture that fleeting moment of Alaskan wildlife.

“Handy Packs”

My last bag tip is to bring along several zip lock bags, the quart and gallon sized ones. They’ll come in handy. If you have an excursion that’ll make you miss a meal, grab some food from Goofy’s Galley or Pinocchio’s Pizzeria and bring it along in your sealed zip lock bags. That’s what we did while fishing with with Captain Jerry. Slices of pizza, sandwiches, and paninis while on the Pacific Ocean is a simple but amazing meal. Don’t let your litter spoil the natural beauty of Alaska by re-using your zip locks for trash. There are many more uses for the zip locks…as long as you have them.

No matter what you’ll definitely have an enjoyable, memorable stay on your Disney cruise. But having an extra bag (or three) will make things just a bit easier.