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Mediterranean summer day to evening teen and mom


flaca
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I am very used to cruising the Caribbean. I never wear my day clothes to evening dinner. Day clothes are always cover up/shorts or bathing suit. Now I am lost.... We have a twelve day Mediterranean coming up.

 

What do I do about clothes? How often will it be that I go straight to dinner from my tour. Is that a common practice people have noticed? or will I feel a huge desire after a long day touring to need fresh set for dinner. I have 8 pm dine time. We are doing mostly city tour of the major sites.

 

My outfits for port are all sundresses of various styles trying to match the vibe of the city. They are styles I would wear to work as a teacher (if we worked summer) and church.

 

I can't even begin to think about shopping and packing my teen daughter without crying. So trying to make mine easier starting two months early

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We would always shower and change for dinner. We do this wherever we are but you really need to after a hot day touring in the Med ports.

Also European cruises are sometimes dressier than Caribbean cruises.

Take a light wrap or scarf ashore with you as some churches require your shoulders and knees to be covered. They are very strict at St Peters, Vatican City

 

 

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We like late sitting dinner so we can relax a bit and have a pre dinner drink. We always change for dinner and like to dress up a bit as we rarely have the chance at home.

 

If you are visiting European cities, then a dress or skirt and top is fine. If you are visiting Greek islands or tourist resorts then shorts and a T shirt are fine.

 

Europe isn't as informal as the Caribbean, especially in the cities.

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I am going on my first Cruise in June to the Mediterranean. I finally decided on my wardrobe, after checking my Mom who has been on many European Cruises. I'm either wearing cropped pants or sun dresses during Port days. I do have a stop to Ibiza and plan to go to the beach most of the day, so I will be less dressed up. But, plan to change on days that we have later dinner reservations at Specialty Dinning. If we are just going to the buffet restaurant we may not change. Our Cruise has an evening dress code, Country Club casual, no shorts, no tank tops, no jeans, no athletic shoes, and collars for men. So, we will need to change. I plan to do laundry at least once. I have lots of layers so I can throw on a light weight sweater in churches but if hot, I will have sleeveless tops on.

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What you are thinking is fine for the days but I will say I walked 20-30,000 steps a day in Europe so comfort is paramount. Also a light weight squishable zip up rain jacket was very useful to have in my daypack, it covered shoulders and was used as intended several times. We did shower and change but because of weight (we were gone 3 weeks) I mostly wore to dinner what I was going to wear on tour the next day. I've been seeing memories of my Meditaranian cruise every day this week, we saw some Amazing things.

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I always shower after returning from a shore excursion. In the Med, if your plans involve walking or anything more than low levels of activity, I think you will want to do the same especially as you have late seating. Many ports involve climbing ancient monuments and sometimes very hilly terrain in sometimes hot and humid weather. Mips has an excellent idea about wearing the next day's clothes to dinner. I've also done that.

Alternatively you can have a few outfits for dinner that you repeat. My standard wear for dinner is black pants or skirt worn with a variety of lightweight sleeveless tops and overtops. I have a collection of extremely light weight, crushable tops that will crush down to less than the size of a fist. Of course there is also the option of washing and drying some of your clothes along the way.

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What you describe would be fine for dinner. If you don't know what time you're getting back from your excursion though, that's a problem. Check with whomever you booked with; the information should be available and it's nice to know if you'll have to rush right to dinner or not. Personally, I hate going straight to dinner after a day of touring, especially in the Med during summer when it's apt to be hot. I prefer to come back and shower and freshen up for dinner. On the rare occasion we didn't have time to do that, we skipped the MDR or specialty places and went to the buffet or other casual venue.

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On our Med. cruise a couple years ago, do not recall any port time later than 6PM. Should have time to "freshen up" and maybe, have a drink. Your cruise info. should indicate the time in each port.

Some cruise lines have 2 or 3 Formal/Gala nights. Cruise websites usually provide guidelines for dress in MDR the various nights.

You could wear a little jacket over those sundresses, a bit more dressy and ship can be cool in the evening. No one will remember what you wore each night, relax and enjoy.

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  • 5 weeks later...
I am very used to cruising the Caribbean. I never wear my day clothes to evening dinner. Day clothes are always cover up/shorts or bathing suit. Now I am lost.... We have a twelve day Mediterranean coming up.

 

What do I do about clothes? How often will it be that I go straight to dinner from my tour. Is that a common practice people have noticed? or will I feel a huge desire after a long day touring to need fresh set for dinner. I have 8 pm dine time. We are doing mostly city tour of the major sites.

 

My outfits for port are all sundresses of various styles trying to match the vibe of the city. They are styles I would wear to work as a teacher (if we worked summer) and church.

 

I can't even begin to think about shopping and packing my teen daughter without crying. So trying to make mine easier starting two months early

 

I just got back in mid-April from an 11 night cruise and 4 days on land. Even in April with all the walking, I found it very warm-to-hot. Western Europe is LOTS of stairs and inclines to walk. LOTS of walking!

 

Take very lightweight tops (I prefer chiffon), and several basic pants or capris. Since you might be going into a lot of churches, take longer capris. Europe dresses more conservatively than the US or Canada.

 

With chiffon fabric, you can wash and hang them to dry, and you have a clean top overnight. I did this throughout our trip.

 

Take a light jacket for mornings on the dock, since it starts out chilly.

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several basic pants or capris. Since you might be going into a lot of churches, take longer capris. Europe dresses more conservatively than the US or Canada.

 

 

The general rules for churches/cathedrals/mosques is to plan for knees and shoulders to be covered. Pants/skirts should come below the knees, and if wearing a sleeveless top, take a scarf or wrap to go around shoulders and/or cover head if necessary.

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We spent a month in the Med in July 2013 and yes it was HOT most days. After all the walking and touring we were often sweaty and gritty when returning to the ship so I would always freshen up. We were with NCL though, so didn't have a set dining time which worked great. I found sun dresses were best for shore days. Easy to wear, dressier than shorts, and cooler than jeans or pants.

 

My girls were 13 when we went, and they packed mostly shorts, skirts, one or two dresses and cute tanks/tee shirts. The only issue was churches/mosques in Istanbul where they have to use a scarf and the cover up thing they give you, to cover their shoulders and knees. I also carried a very light scarf with me that I bought in Venice that did the trick and also, on a very hot day at the Acropolis when my daughter's sun hat unraveled and she used mine, worked as a head scarf/shade. Most of the dresses/skirts I took along worked fine for dinner but then again NCL doesn't do formal nights (which was a blessing as I was far too hot and tired to think about dressing up fancy!).

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I was recently on a three week trip to Spain & Portugal . On days when we had very long tours we just hit the buffet . We were too tired to deal with a long dinner. On other nights we went to the dining room . I had a few outfits that I used for that purpose and I did repeat them . I did laundry twice .

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