TA Question

[Jazzbo]

Regarding your question about sneakers: you definitely want comfortable walking shoes for your shore excursions. If you have a "The Walking Store" in your area, they carry the brand, Naot (hope I spelled that correctly). They are made for walking and have some cute styles. Before our first trip to Europe, I bought a black pair and a brown pair because I too didn't want to be dubbed a "dumb American". I loved them. They are perfect for long periods of walking without hurting your feet and they give you a bit of feeling more stylish.

 

 

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The most comfortable shoes I have ever owned are a pair of Naot sandals I bought for a trip to England to our niece's wedding in 2009 (no, I didn't wear them to the wedding), followed by a trip to Paris to celebrate our 25th anniversary in the heat of August. I just replaced them. They have black patent straps with rhinestone buckles, so they give comfort a little bling!

 

They are not cheap, but after 5 years, great value!

[KonaJo]

A little something for men;) A black sport coat - grey pants - black pants - Tan pants - 4 long sleeve dress shirts (white, strips, pale blue, grey) - 3 ties that have all the colors to coordinate - 2 pr. nice jeans - 4 polo shirts - 1 pr. of shorts (for the ship crossing in Oct., it got warm) socks - undies - belt - black shoes (that look dressy, but are really a tennis shoe, Clarks come to mind) - swimsuit - foldable raincoat - pj's optional :eek: This list got my DH thru 30 days of Med TA from Athens to Florida, he never looked out of place.

 

Yes we did have to use the laundry service 3 times, once a week, the last weeks worth we did when we got home. (We hand washed socks & undies)

 

I found a simple black dress - 1 pr. dress pants - 4 dressy tops - a dressy black skirt - 2 every day pants - 1 below the knee denim skirt - 4 everyday tops - 1 simple sweater - 4 scarfs (used different ways, makes it appear to be a new outfit, simple) - 1 pr. dress shoes - a cushy pr. of black maryjane Clark shoes - 1 pr. of shorts (for the crossing on deck) socks, undies, pj's, swimsuit - foldable raincoat.

 

1 carry-on each, 1 checked bag for the both of us, 1 collapsable bag to bring back goodies we found that I put my purse in coming home and called it my purse (i.e.: my personal extra on the plane home).

 

Sunny, I love your list. Did your husband really get by with one pair of shoes?

My Hubby's size 13's take up most of his suitcase...

[sunnygidget]

Yep, only one pair of shoes. He's 6'6" and wears size 14 shoes, so his stuff really takes up space. I wanted him to take flip flops for the pool area, but he hates them and wouldn't do it.

[need2bespoiled]

I can go either way, traveling heavy or light. I can do 7 days in a carry-on, no problem, but I rarely do, it's no fun for me and I thankfully haven't paid to travel with a checked suitcase in a couple of years.

 

Recently for an 11 day trip I had my large rolling carryon with my city tote on top and my 10 lbs (empty) suitcase weight only 46 lbs full including toiletries.

 

I never repeated an outfit, and left a few things I didn't wear as we had a change of ports and ended up with more sea days and less port days. I had an umbrella, a folding raincoat, two evening bags, laptop, ipad, kindle, hairdryer, toiletries, make-up, paperwork from work, and more. For shoes I had two pairs of flip flops, one pair of flat sandles, 1 pair of sneakers, one pair of chunky wegdes and 3 pairs of heels. Heaving things like my hairdryer, shoes, and jewelry of course all go in my rolling carryon. All in all this was actually pretty light for me!

 

When we travel on longer trips we'll bring a third bag and split it between us, and go overweight on each a bit. We're debating whether to bring 2 bags each on an upcomming longer trip. The beauty of cruising is we only have to unpack once and can hit a number of destinations, but we love cruises with overnights. For land trips we definitely pack lighter but we haven't done an extended land trip in a while.

 

I say, don't feel bad about bringing whatever you can fit :)

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna