Which are formal nights, informal nights and casual nights?

[docmsf]

Is the itinerary posted for which night is what dress? I must be an idiot bc I have searched the SS web site and My Voyage and can't seem to find it listed. HELP!

[DebbieH103]

They tell you the night before, but they rotate. First and last are casual. Typically, in a 7 day voyage, there are 2 formal, 3 informal and 2 casual. On longer cruises, they still rotate, so are more, and the amount of each is on the website. This info comes in the docs, also. On both of our cruises, the 2nd night was formal.

[dusababy]

It's been my experience on all 4 ships that upon boarding, the CHRONICLE (daily activities) publication found in your suite will have a schedule of the cruise days, whether 7 or 14, whatever, and will give advance notice of expected dress. And 2nd night out is usually the first formal night.

[dusababy]

Haven't been on the water since WIND in October and am wondering if Venetian Society rep is still on the ships to book future "on board" cruise discount or just booking on board? Or have they eliminated that staff expense too?

[docmsf]

1. Thanks to those two of you who replied. We were wondering b/c several of the nights we have late departures and would like to plan a couple of meals around that possible even ashore. We are some of the few who really like the formal nights and don't want to mess that up. We suspect that the one day-at-sea is one formal night. Right?

[unfathomable]

We were wondering b/c several of the nights we have late departures and would like to plan a couple of meals around that possible even ashore. We are some of the few who really like the formal nights and don't want to mess that up. We suspect that the one day-at-sea is one formal night. Right?

Yes, normally they don't mix late departures with formal nights, so a day at sea may be a formal night. Barbecue night is usually a late departure night.

[castlewood]

I hadn't heard about barbecue night before . . . would this likely be a feature of a Baltic cruise? What's it like? Are we talking standard BBQ fare, etc.? Does everyone eat outdoors?

[unfathomable]

It's subject to weather, but unless it rains, seems to be offered on most cruises -- I'm not sure what they do in Alaska!

 

The fare includes the obvious BBQ things and is self-service so can involve waiting in lline for five minutes -- one of the few times on SS. But there's a very wide range of salads and cooked items and usually one hot dessert cooked on deck. As with all outside eating, sometimes the food coukd be hotter.

 

The crew go to great trouble to decorate the deck and there used to be live entertainment after dinner -- other than the band, that is.

[castlewood]

Thanks for responding--the barbeque sounds like fun.

 

Never been to a barbeque on a ship. I was on a cruise once when they showed a movie outdoors, on the top deck. Then it started raining . . . Too bad, it was really a nice idea.

[DebbieH103]

On the BBQ nights, they have a cocktail party 30 min before, so people sit early. On our Whisper cruise, we came at the regular dinner time and were stuffed in a corner and ignored all evening. We had the worse service of the cruise. On Wind, we skipped this event except to take pictures and then went to the restaurant where 50 guests dined and we had excellent service and a 5 course dinner. Afterward, we joined the DJ'd dance party.

[CanadianKate]

This keeping us in the dark might be exciting for some people, but I need to plan my wardrobe very carefully and I need to do so soon.

 

My ship leaves on May 22. But I leave on May 6 and technically, I have a 1 20 kg suitcase limit since my travel includes inter-europe flights. On my first leg, I have a two suitcase limit. I'll be gone, in total, 40 days, 17 days cruising. Luckily, it is all one season (my last 28 day trip covered two seasons and a one suitcase limit.)

 

I really, really, need to know how many formal nights I'll have. NOW! The best info I have is there will be 3 or 4 on my cruise since it is more than 8 days. But since it is 17 days, will there be more than 4 since we have 8 at-sea days and 1 early departure from a port?

 

On my last trip, there were only two items in my suitcase that were never used. One was my SAD light (which I didn't need since we had 27 days of sunlight - unlikely as that sounds!) and a set of silk long underwear (because both England and Norway were unexpectedly warm for March). Everything else was used/worn multiple times and I lived for a month with only 3 types of footwear (including boots.)

 

One extra formal outfit will add at least 1kg to my suitcase so I'm looking at 1/16th of what I can bring (my suitcase itself weighs 4kg.) Each extra kg will cost me about $30 if I choose to pay for overweight baggage.

 

This is my biggest stress right now (well, after getting our taxes done!). I currently have no idea what to bring. I have a formal cocktail length dress and a sari that I'm considering bringing, but it would be helpful to know if there will be 2 more nights to dress for or just one. And waiting for my info package isn't an option since there is serious concern it won't arrive until after we leave.

 

I'm defining formal to be 'mother of the bride' level of formality, as opposed to simply long. I have some long travel knits that are attractive, but not fancy enough to be considered formal by my definition.

 

BTW: has anyone shipped a suitcase back home from England by FedEx or another shipping company? That might be an option since my dh won't need his tux for the last part of our trip anymore than I'll need 4 formal outfits.

[MJN1]

Assuming that you are on #3711 you will have 3 formal nights. Go to your voyage, click on "Details" and voila...

Shipboard Attire

This voyage is scheduled to have 3 formal nights, 7 informal nights and 6 casual nights. As a rule, the first night of every cruise is casual. This information is for your guidance and subject to change. The daily attire schedule will be listed in The Silversea Chronicles on board.

[MrsWaldo]

We got our docs 6 weeks before our cruise as we left home on Aug 13th and started cruisng on Sept 13th and I know we had the docs 2 weeks before we left so stop stressing on that part.

 

We had 3 formal nights and we had to travel in two different seasons as well as carry extra luggage for a world champs...

 

My formal night solution (we had 3) was to use two piece outfits..one was cream and one was rose. Worn as one they were indistinguishable from a dress but do the mix n match and they made a new outfit altogether..and they were mother of the bride...(well ay least in level of formailty...I'm hoping not to be mother of the bride for quite a while yet) Mr W's ties were cream, rose and a cream rose stripe to match my outifts...

 

Choosing lightweight fabric was the key to reducing weight

[CanadianKate]

Assuming that you are on #3711 you will have 3 formal nights. Go to your voyage, click on "Details" and voila...

 

Thank you. I was looking for the information in the My Voyage section, not on the page describing the voyage. In My Voyage, they just say 3 - 4 on cruises over 8 days. Why can't SilverSea have the 'details' section in the My Voyage part of the website? Probably the same reason their map puts Cork in Northern Ireland and Waterford in the North Sea...

 

Mrs. Waldo: You had mentioned you had no problem in a previous post to me. Yet, my travel agent and the Silver Sea representative both felt it would be a problem. They do know we leave on the 6th so now I just have to see what happens. In our case, having a travel agent slows things down since my agent buys through agent2 so the docs go there, then to my agent and then to me.

 

And finding time to meet with her will be rough that last week since I'm booked pretty solidly as I deal with business and personal stuff before an extended absence.

 

Normally, we are on our own so deal directly with airlines/hotels/etc. This means I can call at any time of day or night and don't have to show up in person for anything. Not true with an travel agent.

 

In actual fact, if the box doesn't arrive in time, we're ok. She'll FedEx it to our hotel in New York and then I'll time to leisurely go over it. So, that will be for the best as far as I'm concerned.

 

We've found dealing with SilverSea quite good. It is the agent that gets in the way. For instance the special request form only allowed 100 characters but our requests added up to over that. So my husband emailed Silver Sea. That triggered a medical information form for special requests from Agent2 to Agent1 who wanted me to fill it in immediately. Our special request? We don't drink so wanted some specific non-alcoholic beveridges in our fridge and wanted both non-allergenic and firm feather pillows. Yet the form from Agent2 wanted to know about if we'd be traveling with needles (we will, but that isn't their concern) and special walking devices (yes, I have a cane but don't need extra help). Since the form had nothing to do with our special request, we just ignored it and continued to deal directly with SilverSea.

[CanadianKate]

BTW: has anyone shipped a suitcase back home from England by FedEx or another shipping company? That might be an option since my dh won't need his tux for the last part of our trip anymore than I'll need 4 formal outfits.

 

FWIW, I just got off the phone with FedEx. For me to ship a 21kg suitcase back to Canada from London will cost C$470. I know mailing 10kg will cost $100 so we are considering mailing just the formal wear (tux, dresses, shoes) back and paying the overage on our regular suitcases inter-Europe.

 

We have folding suitcases so will use those for the trip to NYC (full of non-breakable stuff like socks and pants), then fold up the two suitcases and send at least one back with the formal clothes.

[simonv]

If I'm not mistaken, the Silversea has the luggage forwarding service also. Check it out.

[CanadianKate]

Actually, we just booked our inter-europe trip and by using Star Alliance, our Star Gold member benefits kick in and we'll be able to travel with a second bag each. Which is a very measurable benefit to being Star Gold members.

 

So that solves the problem. (Last trip we had to fly KLM since they were the only major airline flying from Manchester to Oslo to Norwich - no FF perks at all and the baggage restriction was 1 bag, 20 kg. At least I knew what I was facing long before leaving home so packed accordingly and was pleased that my travel wardrobe is flexible enough that I never got bored of my clothes during the 28 day trip.)

[McMer]

SimonV is correct. We just inquired about it for our Baltic trip. It's called Airport Ease Luggage Service and uses DHL. Just contact SS for your particular rates. It's not cheap but their prices are comparable to the charge we had from Seabourn last year.

[MrsWaldo]

Kate, sounds like its your agent thats the prob not SS...

 

ours had to go from SS US to SS agent in Oz and then to our TA and all in plenty of time before we left. SS had originally told the agent that no docs could be available more than 4 weeks before trip...(so exactly the same path as yours...the big difference of course being they had to completely change continents and the travel time from door to door would have been greater, the agent explained the situation and SS came to the party)

Basically the agent said..not satisfactory..we were in Romania and there was no way we would get ANYTHING fedex or delivered there.... keep pushing

 

When we booked in the Nov before SS said there would be no problem so I'm concerned now that things have changed...

 

Next year we are planning to tack on a Baltic-Russia cruise at the end of the World Champs so the same will happen except we plan to leave home 6 weeks before the cruise.

[CanadianKate]

Mrs. Waldo was indeed correct, my Silver Box arrived in plenty of time. We picked it up yesterday but it arrived late April at my travel agent.

 

Another question re formal wear: will there be other ladies wearing evening gloves on the formal nights, or should I just leave mine at home? (I'm still obsessing about what to bring for formal wear but I'm packing a black strapless dress for sure and my gloves look great with it and with another dress I'm considering borrowing - my whole neighbourhood is coming together to get me dressed for this cruise, I have clothes from three people so far.)

[dollymadison]

I don't believe that you will find any other ladies wearing evening gloves. That may be a bit more formal than is customary.

[MrsWaldo]

Great to hear youb got the docs intime Kate!

 

As fpr the gloves...wear what makes you feel great! If ou don't feel fullyb dressed without them take them (although I must admit I cant remeber seeing anyone with gloves on our voyage..but with a strapless dress..I consider my gloves to be My sleeves