Packing for both travel on own and a cruise

I've been wrestling with how to get through a cruise.

First - formal nights on the cruise aren't really that formal.

For men - I'm ditching my tux w/shoes and accessories. Instead one of my pants will be black microfiber pants, instead of one light khaki color and one olive, matched with a black microfiber sportcoat (regular black buttons instead of brass). I'll pack a white cotton/poly no-iron shirt, black tie and red pocket square. The shoes will be eccos walking shoes that are a very plain black and can be worn with a suit.

It will look almost the same as my casual packing list:

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=1440268

with only an added sports coat worn on the plane and one dress shirt instead of one of my other shirts.

For Women - Again ditch the formal wear. Only about two-thirds of the women will be dressed formally at all. Of those more than half will wear a cocktail dress. You can do fine with a decent black dress made of rayon that packs to almost nothing. Add some black pumps as the basic outfit. Accessorize your outfit to make a couple of looks (one night wear some costume jewelry, the other wear a silk scarf purchased on your trip to dress it up). I doubt you will feel underdressed. All in all you will be adding one nothing dress, a pair of pumps, some costume jewelry and a scarf (that you might have anyway).

As for the rest of the cruise, wear the same clothes you will wear for normal travel. You have the advantage of being able to do laundry on the cruise (hopefully yours has self-service laundry, that's one feature I always look for when shopping cruises). One bathing suit is normal, mix and match your pants, capris or walking shorts with the tops you bring to get multiple looks. Bring a comfortable/sturdy pair of shoes for walking (whatever would be comfortable for a full day of shopping) and a pair of sandals you can wear to the pool or to dinner on non-formal nights. And you're there.

Some things you shouldn't need:

A wrap for the pool on the cruise, you can use your robe from the room (most people do).

An iron - they will either have one in your room or you can ask for one.

A blowdryer - they will have one on the boat. If you really need one after you get off the boat, a lot of people suggest getting a cheap one while there rather than dealing with a converter.

Extra shampoo, conditioner, lotion. They have it in your room and have a shop on board if you need anything else. When you get off the boat, there are stores too.

They also sell a lot of reasonably priced dress up wraps on the boat. We considered buying one even though we didn't need it.

Don't pack a top (or a bottom) that you will only wear with one outfit. Unless it matches every bottom (or top).

We follow a similar pattern as Brad suggested. However, the cruise goes add one extra carryon size rolling bag for 4 of us (2 sons) Two daughters would probably add two bags. During six European cruises we have never had a self laundry available.

I like vacationstogo.com. One of the features is to click on the ship; it outlines the services available. Two important ones to me are when the ship was built or renovated and whether it has self serve laundry on board.

I'm still debating whether I like bigger or smaller ships. I like the features of the bigger ships but (especially if you have to tender into port) a big ship may take awhile to unload. I don't take the onboard excursions which supposedly get you priority tendering and I don't really like to be pushy trying to get to the front of the line.

We just returned from spending spending 3 days in Florence and 3 in Rome before setting off for a 10 night cruise on Celebrity. We traveled with a 24" and a 21" Rick Steves rolling baq, 2 small rolling back packs and a brief case, so we didn't travel as light as some, but one back pack was filled with 2 cpap machines and a laptop for my husband's work. We did not have quite the variety in our evening clothing that we might have had if we had not been on a combined trip, but I think we looked presentable. My husband took a good blue suit for formal nights and wore the jacket with nice pants for informal nights. I took a long black knit dress for formal nights with a couple of pretty shawls and the jewelry I bought along the way to make me feel more elegant. On informal nights I wore a pair of dressy black slacks with white top and accessories-a beautiful shawl makes everything feel dressier. I wore a pair of flat evening sandals with both. Among our dinner companions, one couple was dressed more formally and the rest slightly less formally, but all were friendly, and we enjoyed our time with them.
We wore each piece of daytime clothing at least 3 times in one combination or other, so we did a lot of hand laundry. I tried to do it each night so it wouldn't take so long, but sometimes I was too tired. I combined suggestions from others to come up with a concoction what will take the spots off a leopard. Spray with prewash and febreze, dampen, rub all spots with a wet Fels Naptha bar, soak for a few minutes and rinse thoroughly in the shower. Wring out in a microfiber towel and hang on blow up hangers or on the RS clothes line I brought. I also took a few spring clips for clothes pins.
I hope at least some of this proves helpful. Have a wonderful trip!

Hi, I don't know if it's too late for you to do this or not, but many cruiselines that have formal nights will rent formal wear onboard, I believe you need to book in advance, the nice thing about that is that you don't need to pack any formal wear, it will be in your cabin at the beginning of the cruise and your steward will collect it at the end. If you are travelling with a line like Azamara, their casual cruising is just that, casual. (not jeans or tank tops casual, resort casual - which they outline on their website.) My travel agent has told us that people dress quite casually on that line. hope this helps.