Packing for DH

[suntanzi]

Hi

 

Trying to figure out what my husband is going to wear on the cruise at night. From what I read, smart casual is a jacket & tie and formal is a suit/tie or tux. He works in a business casual office and has 1 suit. I guess he could wear the suit all three nights with different shirts & ties or the suit the smart casual night and tux the other 2 nights? I hate to pack an entire extra suit.

 

Any other suggestions for smart casual? He doesn't have any extra jackets other than the suit jacket and I don't think it pairs well with any of his other slacks.

[Kallen]

My husband wore his dark suit every night for dinner, had the pants pressed once and it worked out just fine with a different combination of shirts and ties. After all, the dining rooms are quite dark and who remembers what tie every man had on by the end of the week??? Skip the tux entirely unless you're rabid about them. :)

[TinaLee]

Which cruise line are you on? On Princess/Carnival/Royal Caribbean smart casual does not require a tie or a jacket. Just a collared shirt (like a polo or a button down) and slacks (Dockers or dress slacks). Formal night is a tux or dark suit. Smart casual is another way to say resort casual, as in what you would wear to a nice resort at dinnertime. My husband is taking black suit, black silk slacks, light kahki dockers, and a green/gray color dockers. He'll alternate shirts between the 3 pairs of slacks and wear the same suit for the 2 formal nights with different shirts/ties.

 

Where did you hear that smart casual required a jacket and tie?!? :confused:

 

TinaLee :)

[davenyl]

I am getting confused on the whole smart casual term as well.

 

This is directly from RCI's website regarding dress code:

 

 

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What are the dress codes onboard?

There are three distinct types of evenings onboard: casual, smart casual and formal. Suggested guidelines for these nights are: Casual: Sport shirts and slacks for men, sundresses or pants for women

Smart Casual: Jackets and ties for men, dresses or pantsuits for women

Formal: Suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women

 

3 to 4-night cruises include one formal night and two or three casual nights.

5 - nights include one formal, one smart casual and three casual nights.

7-night cruises include two formal nights, one smart casual night and four casual nights.

10, 11, and 12-night cruises include two formal nights and three smart casual nights, all other nights are casual.

14 and 15-night cruises include three formal nights and four smart casual nights. All other nights are casual.

 

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I'm going to be on an 11 night sailing and don't know if I should bring 2 dress shirts and ties or if I will be wearing a dress shirt and tie 5 nights.

[TinaLee]

My most humble apologies! Princess and Carnival have done away with the 3rd dress code option and have only smart casual (which is what the RCCL guideline describes as casual) and formal. They did away with the "semi-formal" and I thought all the other lines had done the same! I am VERY sorry for giving misinformation!

 

Back in the day, my husband wore a sports coat on the "semi-formal" nights, navy with kahki or light linen slacks, or a taupe-gray with black slacks, dress shirt and tie - then the suit for formal nights - dockers/collard shirt for casual.

 

This is a darn shame! I really liked not having to pack the extra sports coat, but I guess I will need to on Mariner of the Seas next year!!

 

If their guideline is suggesting jacket and tie on smart casual, that is what I would pack... sorry!! I guess that's one more thing in Princess' favor for us!

 

TinaLee :o

[JanetMarie]

My DH used to wear a tux, but that seems to be going by the wayside. These days 80% of the men wear a dark suit and only 20% a tux...

That being said, DH wears a dark black crisp looking suit - very handsome - for formal nights. On the other nights, he likes to dress-up wearing linen slacks with long sleeve linen button-up shirts, etc. I'm really fortunate to have a great hubby and handsome, too! ;)

[imosoreal]

JanetMarie: My husband does the exact same thing although he only wore a tux once and that was for our wedding.

[want2travelbad]

suntanzi, one suit is all your DH will need for a 7 day cruise, and is all my DH ever packs for our cruises. He wears his dark suit on formal nights, and then sometimes will just use the suit pants, with a nice shirt and tie if it is not formal night. He also brings a nice pair of khakis that he can wear with long or short sleeved button down shirts, or polo shirts. He brings several ties...luckily they don't take much room in the suitcase. He is able to make all sorts of combinations with these staples.

[suntanzi]

Our main problem is that he just has the one suit so if he wore the jacket & tie, the only pants that go with it are the suit pants. Oh, well. If it were Caribbean I would think we might get away a little more casual but it's Europe so we don't have the resort feeling.