For those of you who have been through the audition process, especially Unifieds, what size luggage did you find you needed if traveling by plane? I have been trying to travel carry-on only recently, but looking at the lists of all the things one needs to bring to auditions, I can’t imagine it all fits in a carry-on. What size luggage did you take? Which items did you make sure to keep with you on the plane in case checked bags got lost?
Keep with you if you can (for girls) audition dress, tights and leo for dance call, shoes for both audition and dance call, book of music, make up, hair brush.
Our D actually picked out a really inexpensive audition dress at Old Navy so we bought 2 of them. It was nice to have the extra dress for things like Unifieds where she had auditions several days in a row. You would not necessarily have to have 2 of the same thing. Some kids like to take a couple of choices and decide once they get there what outfit they wish to wear. Doesn’t help with the luggage issue I know. But better to err on the side of having too much than to not have something you need.
There’s a Target within a couple blocks of the Palmer House if you forget anything.
We were the quintessential over packers for Chicago. Coming from CA in the middle of winter, we brought way too much winter gear thinking we’d need it. Honestly, we got off plane, right into cab, right to Palmer House, back into cab when done, back on plane. Everything we needed was right there. We could have left our coats at home. (Granted, if you’re gonna venture out to restaurants or the above mentioned Target, you’d need a layer or two! 
My daughter and I also travelled from California to the Chicago Unifieds and were there for five days, which included 10 auditions at the Palmer House, 2 on campus and an additional campus visit to a non-auditioned musical theatre program (at North Central College). Even with all this, we managed to fit all the gear into our two carryon roller cases plus a shoulder bag for me and a backpack for her. We wore our coats and boots onto the plane and she planned out her outfits, knowing we (that is, I) would be handwashing dancewear and dresses over the first couple of days. Having had the experience of losing luggage on other trips, I would say that if you are checking luggage, it is essential to pack your music, audition confirmation paperwork, and at least one outfit in your carryon. We also brought second copies of everything printable, which we packed separately from the first set. This may seem like overkill but I don’t regret it for one minute, and I have also seen a water spill make a binder’s worth of printouts illegible.
@SpchTchr57 I’m very impressed! Are we talking portable humidifier, personal steamer, curling/flat iron, portable speaker, etc., or is your D more low maintenance? Because just the clothes and shoes alone seem like they would be double what one would ordinarily need when traveling.
We used carryon sized lightweight backpacks- no checked luggage. No dragging rolling luggage thru sludge/snow. I pack super light. Arrived by plane to JFK with public transport for NYC Unifieds.
For day of bring a extra giant IKEA-type bag at the actual auditions to toss all coats/clothes/shoes/snacks and random things to drag your belongings around. My daughter and I split up a few times so she could run to next place and I had the pile to deal with including snow covered boots.
@elsacc Everyone has their special items …in our case the multiple (3 oz of course) bottles of hair care products it takes for natural curls not to frizz certainly took up more room than a flat iron. The speaker (which sounded great) was about palm-sized though. Perhaps there are travel-sized humidifiers as well. We figured that in her future as a performer, she will need to learn to live out of a suitcase at times.
We did our NYC Unifieds trip (6 total days) with our carry-ons and backpacks. Wore our snow stuff-jackets and boots on the plane. She had a steamer, speaker, 4 audition outfits + 3 dance outfits, 5 pairs of shoes, music, etc. plus regular clothing/personal items, a pillow AND all my stuff and we were able to fit it pretty easily. We travel quite a bit so used to packing for longer trips in small spaces.
Just make sure never to put her music book, one full set of dance clothes or dance shoes in checked baggage! Realistically, anything else could be replaced at Target. Also, two of my D’s auditions in Chicago weren’t at the Palmer House and involved four-block walks. We needed all of our snivel gear.
@Fotokat Can’t stress that enough! My D was this forum’s cautionary tale 3 years ago when she and her dad traveled to the LA Unifieds. Her luggage didn’t make it and her audition clothes/shoes were in her checked bag (fortunately her music was in her backpack). They made an 8:45 pm trip via taxi from the LAX airport hotel to the nearest Target for an audition dress, make-up etc. They raced around the store as the closing announcements played and the nice taxi driver circled the parking lot waiting for them. At 9am the next morning, still no bag and had to explain to the Emerson auditors why she was doing the dance call in bare feet (and wild unstraightened hair). Hoped maybe they would be charmed by the barefoot hippie chick from Austin. Alas Emerson declined…
I was blissfully unaware this was happening at the time, they decided to spare mom this particular audition stress.