HappyFeet13

CWN, I must agree with you, although in an earlier posting I said I brought and wear a tux. I'm aboard Sojourn right now, about 200 miles from rounding Cape Horn. My wife and I have TWO 50 pound suitcases each. We also make side trips before and after the cruise and are often gone for a month. We need cold weather clothes, warm weather clothes, hiking/boating clothes, "elegant casual" clothes, etc. I won't try to attempt to address the problem for women's attire, I have no ideas from that perspective other than to say it looks like women have it a lot easier. For men, the requirement to have a tux, black shoes, tux shirt, etc for two brief dinners is really a burden. Even a dark suit, white shirt, black shoes, and tie are useful only for these two dinners. I had thought that a solution might be a dark Navy blue suit. The coat could be worn as a sport jacket with tan or grey slacks, the pants could be worn with dress shirts or short sleeve shirts, and together with a white shirt (just a nice white shirt, not a tux shirt) and a black long or bow tie, it would work on "formal" nights. Maybe I'll try that next.

I've asked several people about why they chose to wear what they did. Virtually everyone said that this trip is the toughest to pack for. Hot weather at the beginning and end of the trip, and cold, colder, weather in the middle. Also, this cruise has a lot of outdoor walking/hiking/canoeing/horseback things and ports that are EXTREMELY rustic, and is very different than packing for other cruises that go to cities and major ports. That said, I packed a tux and wore it last night. I do that for my wife who goes to a lot of trouble to dress up occasionally in more formal attire, and she loves the chance to do so. It is unfair of me to not dress to suit her efforts. I only have to do that a few times a year, and I can live with that. It is not a terrible hardship for me to pack a tux instead of a suit and a bow tie instead of a long tie. Frankly, my opinion is that the 75% of the guys at dinner last night that wore suits didn't look worthy of the women they were escorting.

We are aboard the Seabourn Sojourn now. We are on our 2nd "sea day" enroute from BA and Montevideo to the Falklands and then around the Horn ending in Valparaiso. Our first "formal night" was last night. I would estimate that of the 450 passengers aboard, about 225 of them went to the formal "Captains Reception" from 6:45 to 7:30. Don't know why such a low turnout...maybe it's because many didn't feel their attire was "formal" enough to go through the reception line and meet the Captain and senior staff. That's when we started to estimate the % of men in tux's. Then we went to the main dining room, which was nearly full...say 400 passengers. Our estimate is that 70% of men did NOT wear tux's. The majority wore dark suits and traditional tie. We'd guess 95% of the women wore black or white or both. VERY monochromatic. This is a MUCH lower percentage of men in tux's than we have ever seen on a Seabourn cruise. But it may be that we are going to a lot of very rustic ports that require rugged outdoor clothing and we will be in cold weather most of the time.

Solutions:

1) Corduroys. They sell them like jeans. They fit like jeans. They are tailored like jeans. They are as durable as jeans. They come in different colors. They are acceptable during the day, on excursions, and at night.

2) Or...buy some chinos at Sportif. They have a little stretch in them. VERY comfortable. They come in different weights. The heavier weight is about the same as jeans. They, like corduroys, are durable like jeans and come in other colors...but tan goes anywhere anytime. They are acceptable anywhere.

For cruisers, who need "multi-purpose" clothes, Sportif tan chinos and a couple of pairs of cords are an anywhere, anytime solution and go as well with a sport jacket as with a golf shirt.

3) And add some Merell slip-on shoes. The "brushed leather" look that never need to be polished. Easy to get on and off for security at airports, can be worn anywhere, and are insanely comfortable.

Sorry...I have seen jeans during day and on shore excursions. I should have said that I can't remember ever seeing anyone, women or men, wear them to dinner at the restaurants.

Roxburgh...some people have no sense of humor. I have been on 4 other Seabourn cruises. I don't think I have ever seen a pair of jeans. I have always thought it hysterical that there have always been so many places that men can't wear jeans all all, ever, under any circumstances, but women can wear "designer" jeans to the swankiest places. That's pretty goofy and pretty sexist. Why can't men wear designer jeans, too? Seabourn solved it. No sexism...no jeans, no matter who designed 'em. But...I am wearing jeans for some shore excursions, maybe with my dinner jacket.

I contacted Patrick about this incident, and here is what he said:

"I had 13 passengers booked from the Seabourn Sojourn for Volunteer Point but because the route across to the location was in a very poor state after 4 weeks of non-stop rain I knew that it would be impossible to make the tour with them and get them back in time to catch the last tender and accordingly they would have missed the ships sailing. The ship was due in port for just 7 and half hours while the Star Princess was in port for 10 hours.

I was able to e-mail 8 of those people and informed them PRIOR to the ships arrival that I could not make the tour. Unfortunately I did not have the e-mail address of the other 5 persons who were all one family, so I wrote a letter to ********* which I left in the Visitors Centre, informing *** of my decision not to make the Volunteer Point tour with passengers from the Seabourn Sojourn and because it was in *** interests given the short duration of the ship in port and the conditions of the grass track."

Patrick has an absolutely stellar reputation. I have seen dozens and dozens of other postings attesting to his professionalism and his honesty. This is the only negative one I have ever seen, and I have done a lot of searching. One posting I saw said the tourist left his wallet and credit cards in the van, and Patrick emailed him and immediately posted the wallet back to the owner. I'm sorry that the poster had a bad experience but I believe it was an aberration. I'm booking Patrick for my visit to Pt Stanley.