QM2 | Question on luggage/packing evening gowns

First time TA crossing coming up in August (9 days NY > Hamburg).

I tend to travel lightly when I fly. I can pack for a 2 week international vacation using just a carry-on suitcase, so I’m feeling a little daunted by the prospect of packing 3 evening gowns plus (presumably) at least 2 cocktail dresses, and daytime clothes.

My question is two-fold: What’s the best recommendation for packing evening gowns, and what size suitcase should I look at purchasing.

Secondly - if it gets wrinkled, will it unwrinkle in a bathroom (I’ve never owned an evening gown, so haven’t tried this at home…) or should I look at sending it to the QM’s dry-cleaner (laundry service) to be “pressed”?

We’ll be flying from DFW to NY, and then return from Paris to DFW, so unlimited luggage is not an option.

Thanks for any insight!

For us, it’s two extra large checked bags and two carry ons. Dress clothes and shoes just take a lot of space.

Pack tux, suits and gowns in the plastic dry cleaner bags and use the garment bag portion of the suitcase. Roll up dress shirts around T-shirt’s and other clothes you don’t care about wrinkling. Put socks and underwear inside shoes.

Buy gowns that are lightweight and wrinkle resistant. I love my satin and sequined gowns but they will not be coming with us. There are irons in laundry area. I’ve had good luck using onboard laundry & pressing services.

We use 28" suiters. This provide not only a lot of room but allows us to hang gowns for my wife and also suits and other dress clothes for me and that works very well for us. We place a dry cleaning bag over each of these items and that helps to minimize wrinkling and my wife has not had any issue with that.

Keit

We use a garment bag (sturdy one that stands up like a suitcase, probably what Keith is calling a suiter) for DH's tux and my gowns. If we have a lot of pre-crossing travel, we ship it ahead using White Star luggage service. It's expensive, but we travel a lot by train and lightening the load is, in the words of that old Mastercard commercial, Priceless. You could ship your posh frocks home to make your post-cruise travels easier.

When you shop for evening wear, remember that it is not against the Laws of the Fashion Police to wear something more than once. Maybe it's boring, but basic black and a lot of accessories will take you a long way. For my crossing, I'll probably take one gown, a long black skirt and two different beaded tops (not "sparkly tops" with glitter, real beads and sequins on real silk--they never show wrinkles) for formal nights. For the other nights, I'll wear a LBD twice and a LRD twice.

When you shop for gowns, remember that a long evening dress does not have to be a ball gown with a full skirt and crinolines. Too many women see "formal" and think they have to pack Cinderella's ball gown. (I've seen them on QM2, and for the life of me I don't know how anyone could pack them and have them look so good.) If you're worried about wrinkles, as you look at gowns, grasp a handfull of the skirt fabric and hold it in your hand for a few seconds. When you let it go, you'll have an indication of how easily it wrinkles. Of course, that only works if you're shopping in person, not online.

We've found that DW's long evening gowns (yes, one for each formal night) don't take up much space if you fold them in the suitcase with tissue paper. They don't even have to be the top layer in your suitcase. Wrinkles have never been much of a problem as long as you hang them as soon as you get to your stateroom.

My tuxedo has been a bigger problem as far as wrinkles are concerned. However, a few minutes in the steam from the shower will usually remove any packing wrinkles from it or any other formal or informal clothes we bring along.

Hint: Relatively inexpensive magnetic hooks can be placed on the walls to hang gowns if they are too long to hang in the closet or just to have extra hanging space.

Thank you eveyone for the suggestions & hints!

I pack my evening clothes on the bottom of my suitcase because I feel that when the suitcase is upright it makes no difference, and when it's slung into a hold it could be any way up. I always put a sheet of tissue paper between each of the items. I never feel the need to iron them.

My latest suitcase set was a 'clamshell' design (the type that opens in the centre with two equal halves for packing stuff. I have not really enjoyed using these. I don't think they are as versatile as the one large, deep suitcase.

Diane

We've done several transatlantic crossings on QM2. The first time I had one suitcase just for my gowns, and had them "pressed" as needed. My husband had his tux. We had 5 suitcases to hold all the clothes/shoes we took on the cruise! The second time I took one long black sleeveless knit dress (that doesn't wrinkle) with several sequins jackets/cover-ups and just rotated them for the different formal nights. I also bought a 3 piece silver and black knit dress ensemble that doesn't wrinkle for the semi-formal nights. (I was able to cut down to 1 large and 1 small suitcase.) When airlines started charging for luggage, I noticed that the gowns that many women wore were less formal (very few Cinderella dresses) and more "packable". One time our tablemate who was also going to travel in Europe after the cruise wore a pair of dress pants with fancy tops during the cruise. The QM2 used to have theme nights, one was "black and white", one was Royal Ascot with fancy hats (they have an afternoon event where you can decorate your hat), and sometimes a masquerade (masks used to be able to buy onboard). In the Caribbean, they had pirate themes. I used to pack elaborate outfits for the different themes but also cut that down for less luggage, too. We would be notified what themes (and how many formal nights, etc.) would be on the cruise in our cruise documents. Have not been on the QM2 for awhile, but noticed that the transatlantic cruise are generally more formal. I believe that the amount of formal nights is the same but I think they have elegant casual instead of semi-formal nights now. Hope this helps.