hi. my husband and i are doing a transatlantic from Miami in april and are planning to stay in amsterdam for 5 days afterwards. although we want to pack light, a cruise demands formal clothes and certain accessories. any suggestions on how to lighten our load so we are not overloaded when we are in amsterdam? thanks
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23245 posts
We have done six European cruises. Normally the cruises are in the middle of a three to four week travel schedule. We normally travel with one carryon, back pack style of luggage each which contains our normal travel clothes, etc -- basically wear one , pack two changes. For a cruise we add one rolling carryon size bag for BOTH us -- total three carryon size bags. That bag will hold the formal clothes, extra shoes and, of course, the key is to cross match everything so that some of the additional clothing will work with our other travel clothing. Before and after the cruise the rolling bag is never opened or used. It is kind of a pain to drag it around but that is the trade off for doing a cruise in the middle. Packing light for a cruse ship is no different than packing light for a regular trip. The three carryon size bags makes it easy to leave the ship when finished because you don't have to turn your bags over to the ship for removal.
Posted by
San Clemente, Ca.
408 posts
Debra,
That is a tough one. I would take black dress cloths that can be mixed and matched. I would still try to take just one carry on size bag each, but you can put a lot in a backpack as a carry on.(extra shoes) Remember to take a Pashima for the cold dinning room on the ship.
Posted by
Anaheim, CA, USA
1455 posts
One of you should pack the Cruise items, and the other one has the Post cruise items. That way you are only worrying about 1 case at a time. Or, pack 1 case as "formal" and 1 case as "casual".
Even after the cruise, you can still dip into the cruise suit case in the event you want to dine in a "nicer" place.
You should be able to pack light, mix and match items, even formal attire.
If you also use Rick's packing cubes that will help organize your pre and post cruise items. The cubes also help out with the wrinkling of (some) items.
Posted by
Seattle
223 posts
I've been in Amsterdam for two weeks now. There are two items I would recommnend having FOR SURE:
(1) A light jacket; and
(2) A small, lightweight travel umbrella.
The weather seems to be rainy one minute and really hot and humid the next. Of course, now that it has been raining every single day, a taxi driver told me that in April they had no rain at all.
Go figure! Anyway, better safe than sorry. It really does have the propensity to rain a lot here.