Thinking ahead..

[Mousehead35]

We're headed to the world in about a month and looking forward to doing some Christmas shopping while there. The only issue is that we will each only have one suitcase so space will be a little tough to pack our holiday treasures. We're thinking of either shipping home our dirty clothes or buying a fold up duffle bag that we can fill and check (paying the xtra bag fee) when we are ready to leave. Has anyone had any experience with either scenario?
Thanks!

[disneyfan328]

We have shipped items home from the resorts in the past. the gift shops at the hotel can normally find you a decent size box to ship things home in. We shipped home 2 the last trip and it was around 10.00 flat rate for each box and it took them about 5 days or so to arrive at our house. I am guessing you could do this with your dirty clothes or your purchases whichever you choose. I thought it worked out great! Since we are flying SW we will probably send an extra empty suitcase with us this time that way we have some room to bring things back!

[tinksmom02]

:blush: I spent a few hours on the DIsney website last weekend and bought a lot of souvenirs for the kiddos. Leaves more room for the stuff I want for myself!

What I'm going to *try* to do is to pack all of our stuff into one suitcase, and then nestle that suitcase in another. So that way I have to pay for two bags, but only on the return trip (does that make sense?). This works for us when we travel during hot September, but not sure yet what we'll have to pack for November. I might end up just paying for 2 suitcases both ways. Ugh.

Anyway, I guess it's up to you to decide if you want to waste valuable time searching for a box, stuffing a box, getting a box shipped, etc. or if you'd rather just pay the extra baggage fees...

[KathyMJ]

Disney often offers special deals when you spend a certain amount of money. The last few times I have been, they have had a GREAT rolling duffle bag for around $15 with a $25 or $30 purchase (something close to that) The bag is wonderful. It has a pull out handle like a suitcase and is carry on size. I put all of my goodies that I buy into that, and bring it on the plane. This way anything that is fragile doesn't get broken. On my recent trip to Disneyland, I packed the empty duffle in my suitcase and had it for the trip home :mickey:
I do LOVE my Disney shopping!!!

[emerzmom]

I think it depends on what you buy, where you buy, and if you are purchasing fragile items.
If you buy most of your items in one store then they will usually give you a good rate on shipping however they will not combine items from another store in on that shipping ( at least this has been my experience).
If you are buying fragile items have them shipped by Disney! They pack them nicely and they will replace your items if they arrive damaged.
I have found that if you are buying so much that you are choosing between an extra bag check and shipping home the bag check is cheaper and easier than having to go find a box, pack it, deal with shipping. Just pack a duffle in your bags to bring back full of Disney treasures.
I love Christmas gift shopping at the world. Have fun!
:mickey:
Julie

[faline]

What I'm going to *try* to do is to pack all of our stuff into one suitcase, and then nestle that suitcase in another. So that way I have to pay for two bags, but only on the return trip (does that make sense?). .

Keep in mind that airlines only allow your bags to weigh a certain amount - after that, you'll be charged an extra fee for the overweight bag.

[joonyer]

Keep in mind that airlines only allow your bags to weigh a certain amount - after that, you'll be charged an extra fee for the overweight bag.

Generally that weight is 50lbs. though, and that's a LOT of souvenirs. You can find out the extra baggage fee from the airline before you go. If you can ship the purchases home for less than the bag fee, then that's the way I would go. Otherwise you can get a lot of stuff in a big duffle and stay under the 50lb. limit.

[WDW&MK]

Just had an experience with this on our most recent trip. Thought I'd mention our experience so you don't plan on something and then be stuck.

We have used shipping before when we've purchased something large. The WDW shipping worked great BUT I found out that they have 2 kinds of shipping. The first is if you have all WDW merchandise and you then must supply all of the receipts and cannot use it to ship anything home that is not merch with receipt (this is Fedex and we just used it last year). The second shipping is Fedex where you pack your own box. You can ship whatever you want BUT when we tried to do that the Fedex system did not like how our address was listed under our credit card. DH even called the credit card company and the address is correct - it just was not showing up the same under the Fedex system - the CM said this happens ALL the time :mad:. We stayed at WL and they can only do a credit card transaction for Fedex - so they said if we wanted to ship we had to take our item to the CR and their convention center could do a cash transaction. We did not do that due to time constraints.

We ended up throwing everything in our suitcases instead - after much wasted time trying to get the shipping thing straightened out.

[disneyfan328]

We have shipped boxes home on both of our last trips and had no problems with anything. It didn't matter what was in the boxes, the gift shop always seemed to have them on hand, we boxed it up in our room, brought it out to the front desk, they taped it, labled it and up it was shipped. no problem. It took reallly no time at all.

[Patricia]

On one of my trips, a few years ago, I purchased a fold up Disney duffle bag that was the promotion for spending a certain amount.. The duffle was an extra 12.50 and I used it for our dirty clothes return trip. Because we had shared one large suitcase there was no extra charge on the airline for a second bag. I stuck all the new merchandise in the suitcase with our clean clothes. Now I fold that handy duffle up and take it with me on every trip.

[tinksmom02]

Keep in mind that airlines only allow your bags to weigh a certain amount - after that, you'll be charged an extra fee for the overweight bag.

Right, but we've done this on past trips. What I usually do is pack the smaller suitcase and then put it in the larger one. Then I have a whole entire suitcase for souvenirs on the way home. I've found that empty suitcases don't really add too much weight...But like i said, that's when we travel in the hotter months--shorts and T-shirts definitely weigh less than jeans and sweatshirts!