clothes on a cruise

You should be able to find out how many "formal" nights there are from the brochure or travel agent. When I went I think there were 2 formal nights each week (I took 2 evening dresses).

Went in September for 12 days..there were two 'formal' nights and even those were optional! As sunseeker says it was all clear in the pre-cruise documentation re number of formal 'do's'. DH just took a dark suit not a DJ/tux!

One word of warning, although we knew how many formal evenings to expect. No where had we been warned about the 'black and white' night. DH was fine of course but surprisingly I didn't have a black evening dress with me.
DH had just the one evening suit but a few white evening shirts and different coloured 'dickies'

As already said it depends if it's free style cruising or cruising with formal nights. If there are formal nights you should have information about them. However you don't have to attend formal nights and can eat in the self service restaurant. Some cruise lines don't allow informal wear in their public rooms on formal nights. So ask the travel agent or cruise line for the information.
For gentleman a dark suit is usually acceptable if you don't own a dinner suit. Charity shops often have them hardly worn. My DH who said that he would wear one over his dead body now owns two one black and one white.
I have a number of formal dresses but you can save money, and room. by having a plain long skirt and various evening type blouses or tops. I do long cruises and may have up to 19 formal nights but only take three dresses and evening skirt and evening trousers plus various tops.
An evening bag is useful to as it can hold your key card and tissues.
Have a great time.

On the last cruise I was on in November they insisted on formal wear in public rooms on formal nights. I did what BrendaW said ,taking a long black chiffon pleated skirt, black velvet trousers, and a variety of jackets . What did surprise me was the dressing up on the smart cocktail nights. Just as much bling on the ladies as on the formal nights IMO . In fact I'm trawling the sales for casual bling at the moment. Quite enjoying it to be honest.

Go to the charity shops they have little worn evening and cocktail wear.

Thanks everyone. I shall get some formal stuff as I love dressing up! DH does have a Dinner jacket so that is OK. I don't have black though as it doesn't suit me.

Will consult the travel agent.

As Brenda says, go to a charity shop. I volunteer in one and ladies come in looking for evening clothes for cruises.

Thank you all- you've definitely proven to me that cruises are just not for me. Hated those formal occasions when they were 'compulsory' for me- and never want to go to another again!

All I know is that on Saga cruises they send you a booklet near the date with a breakdown as to how many formal nights and what the dress code is. That being said one woman's 'formal is another woman's over the top nightmare of sequins. On the other hand on the formal nights NO ONE could have been described as over dressed....I actually felt a little under sequined but that's just me.
I'd say the rule is more easily defined by what the gentleman wear...if its formal he must wear a suit and tie and many wore DJs. Informal was a jacket and shirt or a shirt and tie, whilst the casual was pretty much anything that covered you decently.

If you enjoy dressing up....go for it but keep the full glitz for the official formal nights....and enjoy!

Always thought I fancied a cruise, now definitely not so keen. I don't enjoy formal events, least of all if also have to worry about dress codes and not sticking out like a sore thumb .......

I think there are cruises which are much more casual- anyone got any info or experience? Please.

Apparently river cruises are not formal.

Perhaps I did not make myself very clear....although on formal nights many ladies were in full regalia....everyone could wear their own version of 'posh'. Yes there were sequins but my top of the range formal is a dark maxi dress with a matching bolero type cardie and something shiny around my neck. It was my version of formal and I did not feel overdressed or uncomfortable. all I'm saying is that if anyone wants to go the full bling they will not be over the top. Many ladies were wearing just a simple well cut short dress and a favourite necklace or evening well cut evening trousers. Also (and I only know about Saga) even on designated formal nights you can still choose to eat a very similar menu in the less formal dining room which is run on a help yourself/waiter assisted system. This meant you could take a fraction of the time to eat say a couple of courses rather that the whole starter/soup/main/desert menu in the main dinning room. I'm a proper scruffy dog haired living in the country sort of person but I felt perfectly at ease with dolling up 3 nights out of 14.

granjura we went on river cruise with Saga and I am definitely not into "dressing up" . Didn't feel out of place at all. I just wore a nice pair of evening type black trousers with a variety of tops. Didn't take or wear a dress at any time. I do think other types of cruising are more formal but if you fancy a river cruise, go for it. Our Saga boat was beautiful. Very clean, the staff wonderful, helpful and polite. Cabin great, food delicious.

loopylou I think I've gone of cruising now with all that competitive dressing. I'm also worried about the social stratification i.e. whose allowed to go where and who gets first dibs at the lifeboats.

There are a lot of freestyle cruising companies. NCL being one of them. If you want relaxed dressing you will find it usually on the larger ships I think. My OH was really anti dressing up having had to do it in the RAF but now he owns two diner jackets and white and black shirts.
Ask a travel agent what each cruise line wants. The one we go on has formal nights but if you don't want to dress up there are alternatives and you can use the public rooms etc in ordinary clothes. Some people on formal nights even change after diner before going to the show etc into casual wear.

We used to go to plenty of black tie formals when working. Now retired they are few and far between so I enjoy getting full wear out of my evening kit. I've not cruised on European rivers but in the Far East the dressing was casual but not jeans etc in the evening. I've never yet been on a cruise for the sake of going on a cruise but have chosen the cruise for where I want to go and the no packing and and unpacking is bliss. We used to drive all over the place,one night here,one night there until I said never less than three nights in any one place. In Viet nam last February DH still managed to sneak in an overnight train. He still thinks I love to go awandering a knapsack on my back fal de dee.

Whilst I love dressing up. I couldn't care less about other people. If you think about it, how much notice do you take of other people, and how many do you remember? I bet like me absolutely none, although I do appreciate people looking stylish - something I never seem to achieve. and that is what I think other people are like - if not in my opinion they are a bit pathetic.

I realised very early on in life that no-should ever feel shy or uncomfortable in any situation as most people are too concerned with themselves to really notice anyone elses shortcomings,sartorial or otherwise.

Thanks all- DH dislikes dressing up even more than I do- so it's nice to know there are alternatives.

Maybe we will do a cruise on day- but I just don't feel 'ready'. We are the sort of travellers who like to turn right or left on a whim, and go and have a look behind and over or under.... and I think we'd both get frustrated at having to return to the boat at a precise time. I imagine it would be a good way to see where you might want to return one day for a 'proper look and explore'. Agree about not travelling on to new locations every night of two though- when we did our Arizona-Utah-Colorado trip, we took 3 weeks and had several days at a time in several locations, and only a few overnights.

My wife likes getting on her posh frocks and I hate getting dressed up. So we compromise by avoiding cruises that require mandatory formal attire. I do wear smart jacket and tie rather than dinner suit. I notice that many other blokes also do this and it is generally accepted.

We go on holiday, many cruises included, to relax and prefer to travel relatively light simply because coping with huge cases is stressful.

Teetime......social strata never a problem on Saga boats......we dined with retired diplomats, ex miners, semi retired electricians and the odd real 'Lady'.....everyone in together honestly, that's what appeals to us we loathe some of the other lines who operate a not so subtle two tier system.

Last year my brother and his wife took their first cruise, from Australia to the UK - his big complaint was the terrible one-manship regarding how many cruises one has been on.

He said it's the first thing everyone asks you and they then go on to proudly boast how many they've done and start to list and grade them ....

It is funny you should say that RIVER, we have never been on a cruise and do not intend to for the foreseeable future.

However, we know quite a few who do and they do exactly that, list them and then grade them ,and are forever telling us how we would enjoy them,[no we wouldn't,] how much food they manage to stuff in their Cakeholes, for goodness sake just enjoy, I say, like I do on my holidays.
L A L