First time Europe cruise-10 day

Group, this is our first time going to Europe. We always did the formal thing on our Caribbean cruises, but there is no itinerary for this cruise since this is a first for Carnival.

The question is luggage space, should we waste valuable space for a formal night?

I know this is a personal preference, but I need the tie breaker, wife says no, I say yes.

Well in my world here its whatever the wife says :'). I am with you though and say yes !

I'm confused...what do you mean by "a first for Carnival"? We were in Europe with Carnival a few years ago, and there were formal nights.

Not sure what you mean by 'no itinerary'. Do you mean it is the first time sailing this itinerary, so there is no experience to refer to? It'a pretty easy to see that you have a sea day between Barcelona and Livorno, so that will be your first elegant night. Sea day between Naples and Dubrovnik, so that will be the second elegant night. EM

We've been on 10 & 12 day cruises in Europe with CCL. Both times there were 2 formal nights. We dressed up nice.

I never bring jackets or ties

Group, this is our first time going to Europe. We always did the formal thing on our Caribbean cruises, but there is no itinerary for this cruise since this is a first for Carnival.

The question is luggage space, should we waste valuable space for a formal night?

I know this is a personal preference, but I need the tie breaker, wife says no, I say yes.

Hi Dave, We are also on the 10-day Horizon Med cruise. We will not waste space with formal attire and have not for a long time. Maybe a nice pair of slacks and a few nice shirts. What are you doing pre- and post-cruise? We are Getting off the Epic and onto the Horizon for B2B cruise that end up in NYC. We will be gone from home for 47 days, so that valuable packing space is even more critical for us.

John

I read that the horizon trip was the first for Carnival for this itinerary, I could be wrong, but most likely mistaken

We sailed Vista last year, Athens to Barcelona. DH and sons brought button-down shirts, slacks, and ties. (The slacks came in handy for our stop in Rome since the Vatican requires covered knees) DH had a jacket and wore it on the plane to save luggage space, just as he's usually done for business travel. I have a couple of travel-friendly outfits that can go right in a suitcase, so I brought those. I would say that people dressed nicely, but there certainly wasn't much in the way of formal wear.

We sailed Vista last year, Athens to Barcelona.

Kathy, we were on the same sailing...what a great cruise ! Too bad we couldn't make it to Turkey though.

Carnival does not have a formal night, so you don't need formal clothes. However, even with Carnival, Europeans, and basically the rest of the world, have a habit of showing more respect then those in the USA when dressing according to recommendations. For example, recommendation in the USA, means to ignore it and do what you want, but the traditional meaning of recommendation is the nice way of saying, dress up nice and is taken to mean that.

So bring clothes based on the dress codes listed for Carnival.

I was at a church once in Europe, and a small group of USA women were highly ticked off that they were told to cover up, and they would loan appropriate covers for them. They actually said we are tourist, so we don't need to do it. I was embarrassed to hear that, and I slowly begin to realize why Europeans have a disdain for Americans.

Your not in the Caribbean, so dress according to the recommendations, and it's not that hard to stay within 50lbs of luggage each since you can also have a carryon.

On Carnival "Cruise Elegant" nights don't require a whole lot of extras.

I bring a lightweight black skirt or black slacks and a sparkly top. If I was your wife I'd wear the same top for more than one elegant evening. For most nights cruise-long I wear the same black strapped sandals which don't take up much space.

DH brings black "khakis" with a belt and brings a button down collar white shirt. He wears his black driving loafers which he wears every evening so extra dress shoes aren't needed. If the shirt can't be worn a 2nd night we just send it out to be laundered by the ship. If you wanted to throw in a tie you can but probably won't need it.

We did not participate in formal nights when we sailed the Mediterranean, due to the reason that you shared: luggage space. Also, we found that we spent waaaaaaaay more time ashore in the ports than we would in the Caribbean, so dinner was not at normal times for us.

Admittedly, we did not sail Carnival, and booked via NCL specifically for their "freestyle dining", knowing that we weren't going to be participating in formal nights. But, if/when we book Carnival again for Europe, we will definitely skip formal nights.

CeleBrat

Kathy, we were on the same sailing...what a great cruise ! Too bad we couldn't make it to Turkey though.

Carnival does not have a formal night, so you don't need formal clothes. However, even with Carnival, Europeans, and basically the rest of the world, have a habit of showing more respect then those in the USA when dressing according to recommendations. For example, recommendation in the USA, means to ignore it and do what you want, but the traditional meaning of recommendation is the nice way of saying, dress up nice and is taken to mean that.

 

So bring clothes based on the dress codes listed for Carnival.

 

I was at a church once in Europe, and a small group of USA women were highly ticked off that they were told to cover up, and they would loan appropriate covers for them. They actually said we are tourist, so we don't need to do it. I was embarrassed to hear that, and I slowly begin to realize why Europeans have a disdain for Americans.

 

Your not in the Caribbean, so dress according to the recommendations, and it's not that hard to stay within 50lbs of luggage each since you can also have a carryon.