G Ro Check In and Multitasker Review
Dec. 31st, 2018 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI recently traveled to Florida from December 21-30. It was a somewhat complicated trip: 3 nights 2 days doing Space Coast stuff, a Disney Cruise for 4 days including a day at Castaway Cay, and 3 days at Sarasota. I do laundry on vacation if possible to avoid having to bring an unwieldy amount of clothing, but it was cold (high 50s / low 60s) the first few days in Florida and in the 80s while on the cruise and in Sarasota, plus the need for swim / beach stuff. Add to that cruise clothing requirements and the whole thing seemed impossible to cram into a couple carryons.
I brought the G Ro Check In and the G Ro Multitasker, along with a backpack (DVC, so pretty simple but spacious), and A.’s new scooter bag, which has a lot more room than her previous scooter bag. Fortunately. Because she wanted to bring a really huge stuffie that she sleeps with, so that took up most of the space in her bag, leaving only a bit extra for some paper, colored pencils and, on the way home, souvenirs.
The Check In is kind of enormous. It opens like a suitcase, but has a front panel with a bunch of pockets that I haven’t figured out how to make good use out of, other than the one on the bottom which is great for shoes that you don’t want to leak sand all over the inside of the bag. The inside has zippered mesh and tie downs, but no other significant organization. I bought the eBags three pack, one in purple for me, and one in pink for A., and we used that to keep track of our stuff. That was convenient. We could just pull the biggest one with clothes out and plop it into a drawer and we were unpacked, mostly.
The Multitasker has multiple compartments for computers / electronic devices. That was nice, because I could put A.’s iPad in one, and my iPad and kindle in another one, and if I wasn’t too drugged up on Dramamine, I could usually lay hands on the right one on the first try. Half the bag is set up for clothes or whatever, and that was pretty handy, too. The heavy stuff I wouldn’t need on the flight basically went into the Multitasker, and I extracted A.’s iPad for the flight before putting it in the overhead. The stuff I needed for the flight went into the backpack (lunch, headphones, my cell, etc.). If you are thinking, but why bring stuff on the flight that you won’t need on the flight, well, Dear Reader, sometimes checked bags go missing for unpredictable periods of time, and that boat was going to leave when that boat left and I didn’t want to have absolutely nothing to wear in the meantime.
This luggage is pretty expensive. I doubt I would have bought it (much less all of it — I have the two backpacks, too, but haven’t used them yet), if the G Ro Carryon hadn’t been so freakishly amazing to use. I love the wheels. I love the durability. The zipper quality is excellent. And everything has a luggage strap, so you can stack things. That meant that arriving at the airport, A. rode her bag, and I rolled the Check In with the Multitasker parked on top, wearing the backpack. Yes, Dear Reader, about 80 pounds of crap that I could move at more than an amble with, altho I could not keep up with husband and the kids on scooters which is a Whole Other Rant. Once the Check In was, er, checked, the Multitasker was a dream to roll. I can’t wait to try it with one of the backpacks (with luggage strap!), but I will be waiting, because I’m also bringing the DVC bag on the next trip (Disney), so it will be the one after that they I try the Multitasker + backpack out on. One of these times, I’d like to try the Multitasker and Carryon Stacked, but it may never actually make sense to do that.
It’s always difficult to know whether to recommend something to another person. How about this: I buy new luggage like the stuff is disposable (I do not throw it away! Nor do I stow it unused in the basement. Many, many friends and relatives have gotten a decade or more out of luggage that I had lost interest in, and the rest went to Savers or similar). But the G Ro Carryon stopped me cold, until G Ro filled out the rest of their line. And I am really excited to travel with these bags again, which I am not sure I have been able to say about any luggage in a really long time. If you are searching for some ineffable Something that you can’t quite define, possibly the G Ro will do it for you.
The wheels are indescribably awesome. It is amaze balls to me that you can roll a loaded Check In with a loaded Multitasker on top (close to 70 pounds there total) in line without tilting. And you can hit a curb without noticeably slowing down when you walk with it tilted.
ETA: Links!
The eBags 3 pack I mentioned above. I bought two, and they nicely filled out to occupy the larger half of the Check In.
https://www.ebags.com/product/ebags/packing-cubes-3pc-set/13032
The Check In:
https://g-ro.com/products/check-in-classic
It would have helped if I remembered the expansion zipper. I remembered it when I was packing, and then closed it back up again and promptly forgot about it. There were some tears when I was packing up to leave Sarasota and I had totally forgotten about the expansion zipper. *sigh*
The Multitasker:
https://g-ro.com/products/multitasker-carbon-fiber-black-black
I brought the G Ro Check In and the G Ro Multitasker, along with a backpack (DVC, so pretty simple but spacious), and A.’s new scooter bag, which has a lot more room than her previous scooter bag. Fortunately. Because she wanted to bring a really huge stuffie that she sleeps with, so that took up most of the space in her bag, leaving only a bit extra for some paper, colored pencils and, on the way home, souvenirs.
The Check In is kind of enormous. It opens like a suitcase, but has a front panel with a bunch of pockets that I haven’t figured out how to make good use out of, other than the one on the bottom which is great for shoes that you don’t want to leak sand all over the inside of the bag. The inside has zippered mesh and tie downs, but no other significant organization. I bought the eBags three pack, one in purple for me, and one in pink for A., and we used that to keep track of our stuff. That was convenient. We could just pull the biggest one with clothes out and plop it into a drawer and we were unpacked, mostly.
The Multitasker has multiple compartments for computers / electronic devices. That was nice, because I could put A.’s iPad in one, and my iPad and kindle in another one, and if I wasn’t too drugged up on Dramamine, I could usually lay hands on the right one on the first try. Half the bag is set up for clothes or whatever, and that was pretty handy, too. The heavy stuff I wouldn’t need on the flight basically went into the Multitasker, and I extracted A.’s iPad for the flight before putting it in the overhead. The stuff I needed for the flight went into the backpack (lunch, headphones, my cell, etc.). If you are thinking, but why bring stuff on the flight that you won’t need on the flight, well, Dear Reader, sometimes checked bags go missing for unpredictable periods of time, and that boat was going to leave when that boat left and I didn’t want to have absolutely nothing to wear in the meantime.
This luggage is pretty expensive. I doubt I would have bought it (much less all of it — I have the two backpacks, too, but haven’t used them yet), if the G Ro Carryon hadn’t been so freakishly amazing to use. I love the wheels. I love the durability. The zipper quality is excellent. And everything has a luggage strap, so you can stack things. That meant that arriving at the airport, A. rode her bag, and I rolled the Check In with the Multitasker parked on top, wearing the backpack. Yes, Dear Reader, about 80 pounds of crap that I could move at more than an amble with, altho I could not keep up with husband and the kids on scooters which is a Whole Other Rant. Once the Check In was, er, checked, the Multitasker was a dream to roll. I can’t wait to try it with one of the backpacks (with luggage strap!), but I will be waiting, because I’m also bringing the DVC bag on the next trip (Disney), so it will be the one after that they I try the Multitasker + backpack out on. One of these times, I’d like to try the Multitasker and Carryon Stacked, but it may never actually make sense to do that.
It’s always difficult to know whether to recommend something to another person. How about this: I buy new luggage like the stuff is disposable (I do not throw it away! Nor do I stow it unused in the basement. Many, many friends and relatives have gotten a decade or more out of luggage that I had lost interest in, and the rest went to Savers or similar). But the G Ro Carryon stopped me cold, until G Ro filled out the rest of their line. And I am really excited to travel with these bags again, which I am not sure I have been able to say about any luggage in a really long time. If you are searching for some ineffable Something that you can’t quite define, possibly the G Ro will do it for you.
The wheels are indescribably awesome. It is amaze balls to me that you can roll a loaded Check In with a loaded Multitasker on top (close to 70 pounds there total) in line without tilting. And you can hit a curb without noticeably slowing down when you walk with it tilted.
ETA: Links!
The eBags 3 pack I mentioned above. I bought two, and they nicely filled out to occupy the larger half of the Check In.
https://www.ebags.com/product/ebags/packing-cubes-3pc-set/13032
The Check In:
https://g-ro.com/products/check-in-classic
It would have helped if I remembered the expansion zipper. I remembered it when I was packing, and then closed it back up again and promptly forgot about it. There were some tears when I was packing up to leave Sarasota and I had totally forgotten about the expansion zipper. *sigh*
The Multitasker:
https://g-ro.com/products/multitasker-carbon-fiber-black-black