How many cocktail dresses do you recommend I take on a cruise holiday?

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Terri

How long is your cruise?

I was on a cruise from Monday 5pm until Friday 8am. I brought along two nice dresses, and one for the formal night.

If you are going to be at sea for a good length of time, get the soda coupon. Its $6/day and is totally worth it!

Go out and get a Visa TravelMoney card. DO NOT get an american express travelers card, I had a horrible time on my cruise with that thing. Visa TravelMoney is just like a regular card, except its not attached to your bank account and can be replaced (much like paper travelers cheques).

Bring hand sanitizer, a fanny pack (sounds touristy but it really helped), tissues, pepto bismol, advil, aleve, drammamine. They have this stuff at their medical station BUT I've heard you have to pay for it, so might as well bring it along!

We had an interior stateroom, so it was small, but there was PLENTY of places to put our clothes. The bathrooms are TINY (the shower I could not really bend over in, its that small!).

Check out the daily planners on board.

Let them take pictures of you. You are not obligated to buy them (they have a "unwanted pictures" box for you to put them in). We ended up buying four or five pics that they took of us on board.

Book a spa session. The masseuse my fiance and I had was amazing, it felt great. We were sore for a little bit the next day but it felt SOO good.

Go for the later dinner time, and with a small table. My fiance and I took the 8:30 dinner so we wouldn't be rushing when we came back from our excursions. We settled for a table of six so we could chat a little better with our tablemates.

Excursions... book as early as possible!

Check out cruisecritic and cruisereviews before picking a cruise and excursions.

I'd also get the interior stateroom, because you'll spend more time around the ship and on shore than in the room. Spend your money on souvenirs.

COoper4

1 for every night. Have Fun

Laura

I would take 2 dresses. One for a fun evening. One for maybe a serious sit at the fancy dining table with the ships captain.

Sue

Formalwear -- take only one fab dress for formal night. Even on a 7-day cruise, with two formal nights, we saw many passengers wearing the 'same' dress. There are photographers all over the ship doing pictures those nights, so stick to a solid color with a nice neckline. Bring a light wrap for walking on deck at night.

Underpack everything else. Bring 2 swimsuits -- most sizes can get a tankini (two-piece that covers your tummy). You will find that one with a good supportive top will be comfortable to wear all day. The two piece keeps you from tugging at the bottom, and easy to use the restroom. Get a large scarf/sarong, and tie it around your hips as a skirt. This will get you around the ship all day. (If you do it right, this could double as your wrap in the evenings!)

Plan to wear shorts/light slacks more than once, skip socks entirely (sandals!), and pack similar colors to minimize accessories. NOBODY will notice if you wear blue every day, or even the same shirt - unless it's really noticable.

Bring SUNSCREEN and wear it the FIRST day for sure. The sickbay handles lots of seasickness the first night, and the most sunburn the end of the first whole day.

Most ships have laundry facilities -- we liked to do just one load mid-week of swimwear and tshirts, saving lots of luggage space.

Mary Ann

For an 7 nights cruise, you need 2 elegant dresses (one formal and another semi formal). For the other nights, you can wear casual clothes.

sally b

If you can do it, take one long skirt, or dressy pants with a couple of tops. The biggest mistake new cruisers make is packing too much. On a 7 day cruise, your need for really dressy clothes is usually 2 nights. A few people will dress up for dinner every night, but not usually cocktail dress. Remember you are on vacation and should be relaxing, not stressing over what to wear. Don't over-pack shoes either. You don't need the weight. If you wear something more than once, most people won't remember and if they do they won't care. They will realize that you are an experienced cruise packer. LOL
Have fun.
Sally B

dkeebo

7 nt cruises have 2 dressy nights, one semi and rest are real casual. People dress how they want now a days.
So do what you want, want to get dressed up all 7 nts, then go for it. It's all a matter of taste and comfort. I just got off a ship and didn't dress up not one night. But if you are a first time cruiser, go for the gusto and follow guidelines.

cruise.expert

one for every night that you have to wear one unless you want to wear the same one two nights in a row

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