Hello,
I'm due to go on my 1st ever cruise around the Caribbean on Sunday and I was wondering what kind of clothes I need to take with me? I'm 31 years old and I am assured that cruising is no longer full of 'old people!'

I am on the Freedom of the Seas boat that sails under Royal Caribbean cruises.

Any help? THere are 2 formal nights and the rest are smart casual. Do I really need to buy a tuxedo?

Thanks. Kingston

You can rent onboard, which is easier but then you have nothing to show for it afterward.

My advice is, buy one. You'll never regret having it. It doesn't have to be fancy, a couple of hundred dollars buys you the same quality as a rental, (in fact you can probably buy it at a rental place) including a formal shirt with pleats, collar style of your choice. If cash is tight, some rental places will sell rental stock after a few wearings. If cash isn't so tight, buy better.

2-3 rentals = the cost of buying the thing, and if you take reasonable care of it you'll never have to buy another unless you have a big weight change.

If you want to stand out a bit, buy a real bow tie and learn to tie it - my wife likes to do mine. Google the diagrams to learn to tie it. Avoid colours, classic black and white will knock them dead. Ordinary black dress shoes well polished are fine, I wouldn't be caught dead in patent leather shoes.

I've done two cruises with mine. I only take one formal shirt and wear it with a white undershirt, it's fine for the two formal nights on a one week cruise. Don't fool with a suit bag, just fold it neatly and hang it as soon as you get to your cabin. Wrinkles will hang out fine.

Why buy?

• you'll feel like a million bucks strolling into the dining room on the ship, as will your significant other if she's along.
• you can wear it to the night club after dinner.
• face it, the girls love it.
• if you're not married, you can wear it to your wedding when the day comes (in which case you might want to spend more on a nicer one.)
• you'll probably find one or two occasions a year when you'll wear it but wouldn't rent one. It's a nice way to stand out. Says something about you. Can also make a good impression on the boss depending on your job if you wear it to a suitable work related event.
• You don't have to fool with lining up to pick it up and return it on the ship.
• did I mention? the girls love it.

Sure you can wear a jacket and tie, but trust me, you'll look and feel better in a dinner jacket than a sports jacket.

Knock your self out - it's a great way to travel. We've done two cruises and can't wait for another.

By the way you're right about the age thing. We're in our 40's but act like in our 30's, and found a wide range if ages. Loved every minute of it.

Probably more info than you asked for, but there it is.

I agree with AC110 wholeheartedly. I personally cannot resist a man in a tux. If there is a Sym's near you they might have very good deals on tuxes, we have gotten several nice ones here in ST Louis at decent prices, and I am devastated that our Sym's is closing down.

A tux isn't really necessary for formal night on a cruise. A nice dark suit with a tie will be fine. We've been on 7 cruises on Regent and I've never taken my tux (even though I have one).

I agree with this. Although you don't need one for the cruise, you'll look good and you'll feel good for looking good.

Dressing up is probably one of the best parts of cruising. Suit or tux or whatever. We just never get a chance otherwise. Rent - I don't think so.

Every man should own a tux.

When our son was in prep school, getting invited to dances by girls from several schools, we realized that buying a tux was way cheaper than renting on several times a year. Fortunately, he was a rower back then and had built up his shoulders very nicely, so the tux still fits him today and age 30, and he still wears it once or twice a year.

Hunki picked up an Armani Tux at Saks Off 5th in Florida for only $499.00. The fabric is luscious and he looks just stunning in it. We love to take cruises and also belong to a couple of different clubs that each have four or five black-tie events annually, so he ends up wearing his a dozen or so times each year. He even wore tux to my high school reunion. He was the only one who did, but he sure looked hot. Someone even commented to my girlfriend that he looked so gorgeous that he had to be a "rent-a-stud".

I'm going to offer a different point of view. With airlines now having weight restrictions, traveling with what is bascially an extra man's suit is not all that necessary. If it means a lot to you, do it, but if not seek an alternative.

As we have aged, my husband can no longer help load luggage in the car, carry it or help to put bags in an overhead locker on a plane. We are traveling much lighter.

It's your cruise: do what you want with it. Dress up or not. It's your vacation.

This is the main reason my husband and I chose a NCL cruise with an optional formal night. NCL had many dining options so it was easy to avoid the participants of formal night.

We dress nice, just not on the level of tux and gown.

A tux definitely isn't necessary for the formal nights. If you like wearing them, go for it. But otherwise, a dark suit is fine. In fact, we have men on Princess not even wearing full suits on formal nights.

Mike

If you've reached this age without one, don'y buy one. Certainly, a dark blue /black suit/white shirt/silver tie will act well in lieu of a dinner jacket (which hardly requires a pleated shirt underneath). Having had a succession of "Tux" since I was 15, and even "full-fig penguin" (white tie and tails) during the years I was shepherding debutantes or paying to "fathering" a couple, I keep one for necessar occasions, but for cruising,, I'll stick to what has carried me throughhout the world for half a century, Blue Blazer, grey slacks, black tassle loafers, white shirt (after 6PM, no button downs or colors) and relatively "formal" silver or muted pattern tie. During the day, if tie and jacket are required, I revert to tan slacks or chinos and brown penny loafers.

Laughably, I end up, aside from more colorful sport and golf type shirts, dressed in the same clothing as I wore in 1956, testimony to the service life of Blue Blazers.

I agree with most of the posters on this board about wearing the tux...here's another thing I can offer since I just got back from the Explorer of the Seas (Royal Caribbean as well).... ship photographers will be taking pictures all over the place throughout your cruise and will make those photos available near the end of the cruise trip... since this is your first cruise (?) you probably want some sort of memory that you had that "james bond" look.... on your first formal night which you will find out, many make a big deal about.

An alternative, would be to wear a dark suit but get a pair of snazzy shoes, a tie and a "vest" which would help set off the look of the suit from just looking like any other person in a suit....to save weight (if you like) you could use the same suit, just drop the vest and change the tie and shirt for the 2nd formal night and nobody will be the wiser.......hope this helps cover your 2 formal nights

Now....on to daily wear.....

Wear anything comfortable to walk in such as jeans (1-2 pairs), casual pants (2-3 pairs), and shorts (2-3 pairs). Shoes are descretionary to each person so I'll just tell you what I took and you can use it as a guideline.....

1 pair tennis shoes
1 pair dress shoes
1 pair sandals
1 pair flip flops for the beach excursions

The most important part with the pants/shorts/jeans is to be able to wear the pants again but with different shirts so this also can help save some weight on your luggage. The shirts I mostly saw were the hawaiian type shirts or your casual shirts with collars and of course t-shirts for people just hanging out near the pool or sunning on the deck.....

let me know if you need any additional information and/or tips and I'll be more than happy to answer...

I posted somewhere about the tux I had on a Disney Cruise 2 years ago. It was a brand new Joseph Abboud that I got on eBay. So what if it was a closeout from Bloomingdale's (had the Bloomies tags still stiched to it ) and so what if it was the prior year's style? A tux bought in 2006 is soooo last year as well!

Anyway, the tux looked fantastic and a few people commented on how much better it looked than the rentals that some guys wore. You could tell the ones that used the convenient shipboard rental service. I forget the company but they'll deliver your tux to your stateroom on embarkation day and you just leave it in the stateroom when you disembark, your room porter will collect it and the rental place swings by to get them when they drop off the tuxes for the next sailing.

Since it was a Disney Cruise I decided to have some fun and wore a Mickey Mouse tuxedo vest like this which I also got from eBay. I missed out on the bidding for a black one like this so I got a silvery/black paisley vest & tie that Mrs. jonesing liked but people LOVED the white Mickey vest!! ^ I wore the tux 3 times: formal night, semi-formal night and for the special dinner at Palo. No regrets whatsover! Especially after seeing the expression of one of our tablemates on formal night...he rented and boy was he SHOCKED as hell when he found out that I paid LESS for my tux, 2 vests & ties, shirt and shoes than he did for his rental package! ^ Now I did splurge a little for the shirt. I wanted a specific shirt that has the fold over "channel" on the collor that hides the bowtie strap. That I got from Men's Wearhouse and it was about $40 more than the tux shirts on eBay.

I've worn it a couple of times since the cruise, most notably a black tie wedding and the adult Christmas party. No, get your mind out of the gutter my job holds two parties: one for kids/families and another for adults only. Always plenty of compliments whenever I wear it

BTW Congrats on the cruise, probably one of the best vacations I've ever had.

Don't get a tux unless you really want to wear one. Just wear a dark suit.

Another vote for a dark suit if you do not already own the tux. We leave in two weeks and my husband will be wearing a dark suit formal night, a blazer informal nights. Tuxes always look sharp, but we can only fit so much in the bags and need room in the luggage for our port shopping purchases.