Alaska cruise -- clothes for "informal" evenings

[CowPrincess]

I'm trying to minimize the amount of clothes I take with on our 7 day HAL cruise to Alaska in May.

 

I was thinking about taking a pair of black velvet pants and strappy black sandals, and wearing with

1. ivory cashmere shell and pearl necklace

2. red silk shirt, diamond earrings and pendant

3. black silk tank with pearls

 

... and figured this would cover off the 3 "informal" evenings.

 

Would appreciate your feedback. Is this going to be acceptable? What else would anyone suggest? I really, REALLY want to save my packing space for casual clothes, as those seem to be the ones I run out of when on vacation! Thanks in advance!

[Cachecara]

I did something similar when cruising Alaska. :)

I brought a pair of dressier black jersey pants and then traded off dressier tops like you listed. I did this for a few nights and it helped cut down on my packing.

There was so much to do while in port, that I was wiped out by evening and it was so nice to be able to grab an easy, yet elegant outfit to put on.

[CowPrincess]

Cachecara, thanks for your reply. I **wish** I could wear jersey pants, but alas .... a few extra pounds in the wrong places :) I'm hoping no one jumps in and goes "Ohmygoodness NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" as I really DO need to conserve packing space. But I guess we'll see!

[cb at sea]

As long as the pants are matte, and not shiny, you won't see any "bulges"!

[vfb2girls]

That is exactly what I did last year for our Alaskan vacation. We spent two weeks inland and one week on our cruise last June so I knew I had to cut pack on the packing. I bought a pair of black dress pants and then had several really nice blouses to wear with them. I only ended up taking one pair of black dress heels with me, my two formal dresses and my non-formal outfits worked fine with the one pair of heels. I agree, the excursions that we took while cruising the Inside Passage just wiped you out, so being able to just grab an outfit and throw it on really made it nice. Have fun on your vacation, Alaska is wonderful.

[caviargal]

FYI, HAL no longer has "informal" nights. On a 7 night Alaska you will have 2 formal nights and 5 smart casual.

 

The outfits the OP describes would be perfect and mix and match is a practical option...but my choice would be matte jersey as velvet IMO is a winter fabric.