so many clothes!

[naples585]

I am not looking to get flamed, just some guidance... it seems to me (first cruise) that you have to pack SO many clothes. Between swimwear, shorts and tees for daytime, casual dining room, formal dining room, rugged excursion wear, etc I am tempted to just empty my closet into my suitcase.

Also my DH lives in shorts (Dockers) when he's not working and right now he's in the mindset that he is paying enough money he will wear what he wants when he wants. What is a girl to do? Help me plan out my packing and give my husband appropriate dresswear guidelines please.

[booboo4031]

Layout everything you think you're going to need and only pack 1/2 of it! When I used to pack for my ex for the casual nights he normally did the dockers type pants and it went one color scheme. Either navy or black.. that made for 1 pair of casual shoes. Since he only wore them a few hours at night I'd only pack 2 pairs and interchageable shirts. 1 dark suit for formal night w/2 shirts & different ties... seen 1 dark suit you've seen them all! As far as shorts & tees and that stuff pretty much stuff for everyday. It's the formal stuff that takes a lot of room. Shoes are a pain... to save space.. pack your shoes inside of his..

 

I would do the same for me ... to lower the shoe count.. casual pants & skirts were on a 1 color motif so I could do it w/ 1 color shoes and mix/match shirts. Dresses pack quite easily ... the guys stuff take much more room.

 

One thing I learned traveling on long excursions was the disposal method. Gives you extra room in the luggage on the way home. For excursions that you would wear tees, socks, etc... that are in good shape but you're sick of and want to get rid of ... bring them... wear once and then dispose of. Clears the closet out and makes for a lot of room in the suitcase to bring stuff home. The biggest trouble I encountered with this on a ship was the cabin steward thought I accidently had thrown stuff away.

 

Good luck!

[ineedacruise]

I am still working on getting my packing down but I have learned a few things over my past three cruises. Most of these rules go for all members of the family.

 

1) I pack 4 shoes = black heels, sneakers, flip flops, nice sandles. I can get all I need right there because I plan my outfits with my shoes.

2) On sea days, you will wear your swimsuit more than regular clothing. I pack shorts and tees and wear them more than one day because I only have them on for a short time.

3) My last cruise, I brought a simple black dress with spaghetti staps and brought a top to go over it. One dress, two nights.

4) for the DH, no shorts in the dining room but dockers are fine for casual night, put the dockers with a shirt and tie for smart casual, dark suit for formal. If he is against formal dressing, try and tell him how nice he will look and how pleased you would be to see him all dressed up for an evening. It might just work.

[imlulu]

The 2 above posters have given you great info. I take 2 pairs of shorts for my dh and boys. I find they wear bathing suits during day mostly.

 

My mission this cruise for 4 people is to get us down to 2 suitcaes and a rolling garment bag. If it wasnt for formal nights I could probably skip the garment bag. You really dont need tons of stuff. We just think we do!

[jp2001]

Your husband cannot get away with shorts in the dinning room, he will be turned away but dockers and polo shirt are ok for casual nights. A shirt he wore only a few hours for dinner can probably be worn again another day, for a nice excursion or sea day. Dockers and a nice shirt is ok for semi-formal nights and a suit, or at least a dark sport jacket is required for formal nights (or you can go to the buffet, if you prefer not dressing up). This is true unless you sail a cruiseline that is formal optional (Norwegian Cruise lines sailings are formal optional, don’t need to bring any formal clothes, casual is alright every night). For women, it’s even easier, IMHO. I just do the mix and match thing. I stick to about 3 basic colors, if an outfit (except formal one) cannot be mixed and match with other clothes I bring, I leave it home. For casual nights, I mostly wore short skirts with nice tops and I rewore the skirts on top of my bathing suit for an excursion or sea day and the nice top I rewore it under a jacket for another night (semi-casual).

[naples585]

Thank you all for your help. We are trying to get our packing to 2 large rolling and 1 carry one for the four of us. We'll see how that goes.DH will definately wear dark suit on formal and I suppose he can suffer through his Dockers and polos during casual dinners:p Now I am looking into options for my DS (7yrs) who LIVES in sweats and shorts. He also will dress in nice slacks, dress shirt, and tie for formal however the casual days I'm sure I will have to struggle to get him into something appropriate. Dockers for him as well?

[ineedacruise]

Dockers will be fine for your son too. When my son was younger, we took a couple pair of the pants that had the zip off legs. Shorts and pants all in one. (Not the nylon version though, too casual)

[naples585]

Good Idea!!!:D He has a pair now that are nylon so atleast I know that he will wear them. This way if he hasn't dirtied (sp?) the shorts during the day I can quick zip on the legs and cart him off to dinner. Then afterwards he can just zip the legs back off and get back to playing! Thanks again!!