Tips on scaling down luggage for 2 week cruise

Tips please on how to scale down luggage on a 2 week cruise, evening dresses alone weigh so much.

Tips please on how to scale down luggage on a 2 week cruise, evening dresses alone weigh so much.

I keep banging on about this (I'm really not a laundry addict, honest!) but if your ship has a passenger launderette then you could do a lot worse than spending a couple of hours on a sea day doing some laundry. If you're on a large ship then there is no way that anybody will know if you wear the same blouse/top/shorts/trousers twice in a fortnight!

I know that doing laundry on your holidays isn't really terribly appealing, but it is totally worth doing if you want to scale down the luggage you take.

I don't know what your evening dresses are made of....mine are slinky and don't weigh much at all...and pack pretty small, too. Stretchy jersey material...doesn't wrinkle, so easy to pack!

Perhaps you have the wrong "formal" clothes! You do NOT need "ball gowns"...or heavy brocades or sequins....

Pack for one week. Wear everything twice. Done :D

On a more serious note, you just need to pack multi use clothing. Every top needs to go with every bottom, a pair of shoes that goes with everything etc.

I did a 3 week cruise in the South Pacific and this was roughly my packing list

4 x shorts

4 x thirts

2 x fancy tops

1 x pair pants

3 x sun dresses

2 x formal dresses

2 x cardigans

Bathers

Socks & jocks

Flip flops

Sandals

Ballet flats

Walking shoes

Port days & sea days were a mix of tshirts and shorts, I wore each a few times in different combos. A couple of tshirts I washed in the shower and hung up for a day to dry. Evenings I wore pants and fancy top combo or a sun dress, my 2 formal dresses 1 was cocktail length so not too bulky and the other was a stretch jersey fabric that scrunches up small and doesn't wrinkle. I wore both twice. My sandals and ballet flats were a style that went with pants, sundresses and formal dresses so no need for multiple shoes.

Things like wraps and scarves are a lightweight way to change the look of outfits, as are chunky bright coloured necklaces. Just remember that no one is keeping tabs on what outfit you are wearing, no one cares if you wear something more than once. Everyone else is in the same boat (ship?) so to speak.

I don't worry about cutting back on luggage.

Since DH had a heart attack, we still take 4 suitcases since we don't want them heavy.

Also by the time we add on pre and post cruise hotels, we are usually gone nearly 3 weeks. Also after having 2 different ships ruin several of DH's new golf shirts, we no longer send out laundry.

Many women no longer bring heavy gowns. Most now wear cocktail dresses or fancy pant suits.

Google Capsule packing. There are loads of ideas on pinterest. Ways to put your clothes together, how to pack so you maximise the space in your case.

I would also look at your last holiday photos and see what clothes you actually wore. Which ones lived in; What you wore on your feet. I'll bet it was one pair of shoes of an evening (your favourite comfy ones that go with everything) a pair of sandals for walking in port and perhaps some flipflops for the pool.

Pack for a 5 days to a week. Mix and match. Do laundry. Hand wash or send it out. Which line? Many have laundries available for passenger use.

Ladylighttravel.com and The Vivienne Files have ideas for packing and color combinations.

The Fashion and Beauty board has lots of threads. Search 'Packing Light'

Guys have it easier than gals.

So much depends on where you are going and on which cruiseline you are taking. One reason I prefer to go "freestyle" or other cruise equivalents is that I never worry about other folks seeing me in the same outfits every other night.

Most lines don't have a self service laundry. My thinking is that I can wash out the simple clothes, use downy wrinkle release and use the laundry service bag specials. I also have favorite light weight clothing that I reserve for cruises. The days of heavy suitcases have to go.

Also, invest in nice, lightweight shoes that are comfortable. That usually means fewer shoes which are so heavy.

Our question to the OP would be why? Just take whatever you need/want and pay the airline for an extra bag. On a relatively short 2 week trip it is ridiculous to spend time being concerned with doing laundry or paying for the ship to do your laundry. DW and I are in very high repeater categories on many lines and usually get unlimited free laundry on our cruises. But on a two week cruise we still take enough clothes so as not to have to deal with the laundry issue. If we are taking a 2 month trip that is a different issue and we usually find ourselves packing similar to a 2 week trip and having to send out laundry.

Hank

Do laundry, take clothes that allow you to mix and match so that you wear different tops and bottoms together each time you wear them. Basically reduce the number of clothes Our trips these days are 1-5 months long (usually cruise/land combo) and we take 11 outfits each and do laundry. Tops are not t-shirts...."Formal" wear is dressy pants or skirt for me and slacks for DH with top worn that day that works at the theater or dinner on land too. Two pair of shoes....flip flops and a trail shoe that can be worn for hiking or everyday walking. That works for us. But, everyone is different. We travel most of the year and formal night isn't special to us.

Leave the formal wear at home!

And for those who ask why some of us might want to scale down the weight and number of suitcases...maybe we don't want to pay excess baggage and weight fees? Maybe we don't want the added weight of carrying all of it to and from the airport, hotel (etc.)?

Do people still wear evening dresses??

I take a light weight black skirt or slinky blk slacks for evening & some nice tops

Wash/wear type clothes

Tips please on how to scale down luggage on a 2 week cruise, evening dresses alone weigh so much.

my evening dress is a knit jersey that weighs nothing. I pack different jewelry and wraps to change the look. alternatively, a simple pair of palazzo pants and a variety of sparkly tops. Hubby brings his Uniform and a kilt. kilt one formal night, uniform pants the other. same jacket.

as for daily wear. I bring basic bottoms, usually skirts or skorts and half a dozen tops that go with every bottom. these transition just fine from poolside to MDR without having to change to meet dress code. one pair of dressy shoes, one pair of sandals, one pair of walking shoes/sneakers (usually worn on board) and pair of flip flops/shower shoes for poolside. endure gets rinsed out and hung to dry or sent out with the laundry bag special.

I stuffed 14 dresses (6 sundresses for beach/sundeck and 8 dresses for dinner / walking tours) in a large pack cube - that's my Caribibean wardrobe whether its a week or a month. Since most plus the undies can be handwash in a sink and can dry in a day or two - pretty much the closest thing to the perfect wardrobe for a woman.[emoji7] And they all fit in a 22 inch or less duffel /carry-on bag along with the 2 heavy cardigan sweaters and 4 pairs of shoes (1 sandal and 3 Crocs that look like flats).

The key to packing less for a cruise trip is figuring out what exactly you're planning to do for the daytime and evening time. I winded up finding out I packed too light on the 1st trip since I was changing clothes twice and 8 dresses was just not enough for me, so brought additional clothes. If you have ask yourself how many times your going to switch clothes and what activities you're going to do that might need a different outfit. That's actual hard part of packing for a cruise otherwise, its pretty easy - go with whatever method (stuffing, rolling, folding, etc) you see fit to pack your luggage.

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Pack for a 5 days to a week. Mix and match. Do laundry. Hand wash or send it out. Which line? Many have laundries available for passenger use.

I agree.

We cruise on NCL for three weeks at a time. They have no self-serve laundry.

I pack 8 days of mix n match and do the bag special for ship's laundry every week. If there are delicates I hand wash them.

Not familiar with Oceana. I was thinking Oceania which has no formal nights.

I agree.

 

We cruise on NCL for three weeks at a time. They have no self-serve laundry.

 

I pack 8 days of mix n match and do the bag special for ship's laundry every week. If there are delicates I hand wash them.

 

 

 

Not familiar with Oceana. I was thinking Oceania which has no formal nights.

We are taking our first NCL cruise later this year...28 day Venice to Cape Canaveral. I was disappointed when I learned they don't have self serve laundry when I started my research. Glad they have bag specials...

Easy for us. Quite a few years ago we started booking suites and have the ship do our clothes. Have never booked any thing else since we started. We pack at least half of what we used to pack.:)

We pretty much just pack the same for a 2, 3, or 4 week cruise as we do for a 7 night cruise.

For shorter than a 7 night, we pack a little less.

I agree it's key to have separates that can be worn with more than one thing. And I have a cocktail dress that I can pack in a zip-loc baggie with no wrinkles.

Thank you for all your replys, think the problem is i have too many nice dresses, there not the heavy ones, but just need to scale down to taking a few. good to hear too nice trousers and tops can be worn on non formal nights. hubby says do the men where tucks on formal or mainly suits?

Thank you for all your replys, think the problem is i have too many nice dresses, there not the heavy ones, but just need to scale down to taking a few. good to hear too nice trousers and tops can be worn on non formal nights. hubby says do the men where tucks on formal or mainly suits?

You may get a better idea of dress codes/habit on the P & O forum

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38

The British seem to dress up more that the North Americans

Thank you for all your replys, think the problem is i have too many nice dresses, there not the heavy ones, but just need to scale down to taking a few. good to hear too nice trousers and tops can be worn on non formal nights. hubby says do the men where tucks on formal or mainly suits?

On HAL and Princess, I saw mainly suits/jackets, very few tuxedos. I haven't cruised with Cunard which is said to be more formal.

We travel reasonable light and only wear clothing items once before being laundered again (I sweat too much). All of the clothes we bring are washable and I found that there was an iron in the laundry room if I needed it. Mind you, we avoid formal nights.

My wife and I always do three to four week cruise/land vacation combos. We only bring one suitcase each, and not even the largest that we own. The key is to bring clothes that aren't so delicate that they can't be laundered or dry cleaned two or three times during your time away. We never do our own laundry, even if self service facilities are available. We much prefer to let the cruise ship take care of this chore for us (we're on vacation to get away from chores!). We have never had anything lost or damaged in all of our years of traveling. We bring items that can hold up to the rigors of traveling instead of easily damaged items. Those we keep for when we go out at home.

Our last three cruises were two-week ones on Princess, which as the self-service laundries, so we plan to do a couple of loads each cruise. Previous cruises we've paired with a land trip, so we did laundry too. Since a family member is allergic to regular detergent, as well as some items my daughter and I like to wear are better air-dried, the self-service option is a must. We do try to wear some pieces more than once, so that helps. Hubby brings two dress shirts for formal night, so one gets washed for the third formal night. I usually wear cocktail length dresses so probably a bit lighter than glitzy full length gowns.

Now I'm trying to plan our trip to move our kid into her college dorm so this is a challenge for me, especially considering the bedding will be the most bulky.

do people still wear evening dresses??

 

I take a light weight black skirt or slinky blk slacks for evening & some nice tops

wash/wear type clothes

amen!