TXNewlyweds

We too are looking forward to our first Viking Ocean, first transatlantic and first Christmas at sea.  We are booked on the Sky this December (2019) from Lisbon to Miami.  This will be a definite departure from our usual mega ship tropical cruise.   Really looking forward to the change of pace, but have no idea what to really expect.   

Any insight into what to pack would be greatly appreciated.    We're not quite sure what between the weather and what exactly is the Viking Ocean definition of "casual."  Any help from you seasoned Viking Ocean cruisers?

On 2/27/2019 at 6:54 AM, lisajltx said:

I don't know how much help this will be...I am booked on Regent Lisbon to Miami as well, but it will be over Thanksgiving.  Even though many fellow cruisers won't be American (and celebrate Thanksgiving), I still plan on wearing a beaded cocktail dress.  I just finished a cruise from Barcelona with an itinerary in the  Atlantic and it was quite warm, 60's and sunny.  You could get away with capris and short sleeve tops for sea days and Bermuda, but bring a jacket for outside.  It will be tropical the closer you get to Miami, so you may also want some shorts/tanks.

I have a navy blue indigo stretch velvet dress I've been thinking to take for Christmas dinner.  I know it's probably a bit dressy but it's Christmas afterall.   Living in the sub tropical south Texas -- 60's are winter for us 😂.   I'm thinking this trip will be a good chance for us to see if we can travel with only carry on luggage -- even though it will be our longest non-car trip.  I'm hoping by then I will have defined my style and paired things down to a fun, workable capsule travel wardrobe!

We just booked a transatlantic cruise on Viking Ocean -- Lisbon to Miami -- for December of this year.   This will be our longest cruise, our first on Viking Ocean, our first transatlantic and our first Christmas on a cruise ship.   Per the itinerary we'll be in Bermuda on Christmas Eve :-).

Looking for advice on weather, daytime cruise attire on Viking Ocean and dinner attire.   I know there are no formal nights, but we're thinking we'll dress a bit spiffier for Christmas dinner.  From what we've read they say Viking Ocean is a more casual ship, but it's hard to envision more casual than NCL or RCCL...   I'm thinking they might mean a different kind of casual???

Hopefully some of you have some experience to share...  TIA

Great picture! Merry Christmas!

Here’s a favorite pic of us from our cruise last week (snowing here now)

 

 

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I'm on that sailing as well....

We'll be there too. Seriously cannot wait!

Thanks everyone! Sometimes it strikes me as funny that I'm concerned about being over dressed... lol. Not going to worry about it anymore... On to worrying about how to pack. It will be our first fly in cruise. So far we've been able to drive so haven't dealt with any luggage limits...

Spaghetti strap is not traditionally a friend to the large of bust ;-) (it's nigh impossible to find a good strapless bra...)

 

I have an hourglass figure (extra "time") and find a knit sheath or a slight flare/a-line to work with my figure. With my large bust, empire waist rarely works - the line ends up midway through my boobs and I look pregnant as the dress or shirt flares at the boobs and never comes back in to my waist. For work, I have a couple knit Misook, St. John & Semplice. Pack great, throw on a cardigan or jacket, flexible if I gain or lose a few pounds ;-) I also have a few Eileen Fisher dresses (mostly a-line or shift) that I love. With my boobs, I tend to wear knits- easier to fit.

I'm a 36D -- not sure where that falls in the "large bust" range. I'm 56 but never had kids so the "girls" still hold up fairly well. ;) This dress has a built in shelf bra that will be fine for me. I did get a very good and comfortable strapless bra at Soma before our last cruise. I wore it all day and evening on several days and it never budged!

You might also check out Steinmart. I stopped by there Monday and they had a ton of dresses on sale. I picked up this one for our December cruise. The price on another website was $178. I paid $40 Monday.

As far as style, I'm a big fan of the sheath dress right now. I find if it fits in the bust it will pretty much skim the rest of me and no girdle kinds of undergarments necessary.

I too saw the Road to the Runway show. Looks like an interesting bunch of designers. It's interesting that a couple seemed to do primarily menswear. In past seasons the menswear challenge has been a real challenge for most of the designers.

We'll be on our first Norwegian cruise in December and chose the 3 upgrade meals as one of our freebies -- of course the UBP is the other. ;-) Thanks for all the input on restaurants. At this point I think we are leaning towards Le Bistro, Pinchu's (yes, even though there is an upcharge we think it sounds fun,) and Wine Lover's the Musical -- we've heard you can use the dining credit for this and it sounds like fun. Does anyone have any experience with this?

We're taking our first NCL cruise in December -- Escape, same itinerary. Really enjoying your review and looking forward to the rest. Almost time to make our final payment and start planning excursions, dinners and most important -- first drinks!

I wore a "date night" outfit every night on my recent ten day NCL Med cruise. Same with my previous NCL cruises in the Caribbean. Even though NCL is freestyle, the majority of people dress very nicely.

Good to know. Thanks! I think I'll pack what I normally do minus sequin dress and hubby's suit.

I've seen people wearing tank tops and shorts in the main dining rooms.

 

 

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I guess I'm more interested in whether you've seen people wearing what you would wear for a nice date night out? There are always those who will dress as casually as they can get away with on every ship. But are there others who "dress for the occasion?"

Hubby and I are taking our first NCL cruise in December -- Itinerary is St. Thomas, Tortola and Bahama. Our previous cruises have been with RCL. This will be our first time Freestyle cruising. We actually enjoy getting dressed up on our previous cruises but we're not sure what's appropriate on NCL. Would love some input/advice from those who've been there, done that...

My DH and I have taken 2 cruises, both on Royal Caribbean. Our next cruise is on NCL in December. Someday we'll try Princess. We really enjoy dressing up for dinner every evening of our cruises. It makes it something special -- like 7 date nights in a row! And while we're still working, our social calendar isn't filled with dressy events so we enjoy dressing for formal nights as well. Gives DH a chance to wear his wedding suit and I get to wear something special as well. We view a cruise as an escape from the ordinary and don't see the point in dressing as we would every day at home. I expect we will pack the same for our NCL cruise even if there is no designated formal night.

I agree, there's something special about looking around at everyone looking their best.

Really enjoyed your review. We're taking this cruise in December. It will be our first NCL cruise after a couple on Royal Caribbean. Can't wait!

Thanks so much for sharing. We're considering a Bermuda cruise on the Escape next year as our family trip.

Love that you will be blogging! It's a great way to document and share adventures.

We were on Liberty of the Seas May 28 - June 4 with our family of 10 and have to say our experience was exactly the opposite of yours. We too had MTD because we didn't want late dining for the kids but wanted a little more time than standard early dining. I made reservations online before boarding for each day at either 6 or 6:15 depending on whether it was a sea day or shore day.

The first evening seemed to be a bit confused as when we arrived at the dining room there was a long line for "Reservations and Suite" guests. When we finally got to the front of the line, we were promptly seated at a table for 10 in corner near the front by a window, which we thought was great. After dinner we all agreed that we liked our table location and waitstaff so we talked to the hostess and requested that we have the same table and waitstaff for the remainder of the week. She said she would try to make that happen but could not guarantee it.

The 2nd evening was formal night so there was a bit of a wait again, but not as bad. We were quickly seated at the same table with the same waitstaff.

The rest of the week went smoothly. (I confess I took a look at their reservation system earlier on day 3 and saw we had the same table)

When we arrived at the dining room each evening we were recognized and told we could be seated at our usual table. On the 2nd to last day, we stopped after dinner and asked if we could move our reservation earlier some because we wanted to be sure to get seats for the Saturday Night Fever show. No problem. They moved our reservation to 5:15.

I'm sorry to hear you had so many issues. We were really pleased with how smoothly everything went. The one thing we were worried about was missing having the same waitstaff with MTD and we were able to overcome that easily. I also noticed that there were several other tables in our area that were the same each evening.

I will say we had an awful experience at the Character Breakfast. There was no table set large enough for our group even though we had made reservations online months earlier. The waitstaff was awful! We didn't get food or drinks that we requested repeatedly. One of our granddaughters order was not taken and we had to go track down the waiter to make that happen. Later in the day we went to guest services and complained. After speaking to the dining room manager, she promptly credited our account for the $100 extra we had paid for the character breakfast. We felt that was very fair and appreciated their approach to dealing with the situation.

 

Salad with a side of tomato juice & vodka does the trick ;p

Perfecto!

Thanks for the awesome review. Thoroughly enjoyed it! We're on NCL Escape out if Miami December 9 and thanks to you looking at booking Villa Europa for days before/after.

Also told Hubs we need to adopt your balcony nightcap tradition on our next cruise. Seems a perfect way to end the day👍🍷. (Also dropped hint about the roses... we'll see if it lands...)

That's cool about the Bricks....we Cruise with quite a few of the old S&S'ers ....bunch of us trying NCL in Oct of '18 out .of Miami....Just sayin

Really enjoying your review and hoping to cruise with you sometime. Was about to suggest NcLEscape December 9, 2017!

I just got this today at Burlington coat factory on clearance for $44.99 ( and it's a petite so no hemming!) I love it! Will be wearing it 2nd formal night of our late August cruise!

 

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Wow! That looks amazing!

We're cruising on Escape December 9-16, 2017. This will be our first NCL cruise after 2 on Royal Caribbean. We would like to make our specialty dining and show reservations as soon as they are open. For those of you who've been on Escape, what are your do not miss specialty restuarants?

We're cruising on the Escape December 9-16, 2017. Does anyone know if they will have the Christmas etc decor up? Just curious...