Packing For Cruises And Resorts
What is 'resort casual'?
Resort casual is looking nice while still being casual. And typically what that means is wearing nice khaki pants, maybe with a polo shirt, or with a short sleeved collared shirt. Also for women that could mean a nice pair of Bermuda shorts, with a nice polo shirt as well or nice blouse. What you want to do is avoid cut-off shorts or T shirts. A lot of times, jeans will be nice that you can wear, designer jeans and also sometimes you can wear a nice pair of sandals or a nice pair of slip-on shoes. What the key is, is to look casual but still be able to fit into a little bit more semi-formal environments.
What's the difference between day clothing and night clothing on a cruise or at a resort?
The difference between day clothing and night clothing at a resort or cruise is basically, during the day it is more like beachwear or swimwear. Things that you would wear around the pool. At nighttime a lot of times there aregoing to be formal dinners, particularly on cruises. You want to wear something you could wear out to a restaurant. That might be long pants, a polo shirt, or maybe a button-down shirt. The difference between day and night clothing is really that during the daytime it's kinda beachy and kinda casual and at nighttime its a little more dressier.
How many bags can I bring with me on a cruise?
You know for a cruise you want to make sure that you have enough clothes for the variety of activities that you're going to experience on a cruise. And one of the nice things about a cruise is that you only unpack once, so you're not carrying everything around with you during the whole trip. But you also want to be aware that you're probably going to take a flight to get to your port, so you have to make sure that you're not going to have too many bags; that the airlines going to overcharge you. One of the things that you can do is you can ship your bags to the port, that way your bags are there when you arrive at the port and you don't have to carry them on the airplane and you also can ship them back from the port, so it makes it nice and easy and convenient for you.
What mistakes do people make when packing for a cruise or resort vacation?
One of the mistakes that people make when they're going on a fun trip such as a cruise or a resort location is they forget to pack clothes for a more formal event. Such as, maybe the cruises will have a nice formal dinner so you'll need to have night time attire for that. Of if you want to go to a nice restaurant at the resort location you need to have something that will be appropriate for that restaurant. So they pack too many fun clothes and forget some of the formal clothes that they might need.
If a resort or cruise offers golf, or skiing, should I bring my own equipment?
I think it really depends on your skill level, and also the number of times that you're going to be playing. If you're a really great golfer and you have a great set of clubs, and you're going to be playing every day on the trip, you probably want to bring your own clubs. If you're a great tennis player and you're going to play every day, you probably want your own tennis racket. But keep in mind that many resorts and cruise lines have very nice golf clubs and equipment. In fact sometimes their golf clubs are better than what most people have at home. So it depends on your skill level and the number of times that you're going to play. The other thing to keep in mind is that when you do bring along golf clubs, you have to check them in as larger items, and that means you're going to have oversized baggage. Sometimes there's a fee for that and what you want to do is, particularly for golf clubs, make sure you pack them well. A lot of people will use what they call "hard case golf clubs," which is a hard plastic cover that you put your golf bag into and it protects them well, and you can lock it if you want to.
