Sceret to packing?

[polyfan]

We have previously cruised, but not with children. We now have 2 young sons(3&6). Because I am a rule follower, I feel we do need to dress for the dinners. Now, my question- how doyou pack all those clothes? It was bad enough before, but now the kids need clothes for each day and each evening also. Do you just pack a few pants and then just pack more shirts? to be honest my boys wear mostly jeans. I would not go to dinner like that. Please do not suggest just not eating in the main dining, and go where very casual is suggested because we always eat in the main dining room for dinner. I feel we have paid for it, so we are going to enjoy it. I know there is a thread on the debate board, but I am not going there- I just would like to hear what others do.

 

[DawnL]

We were on the 7/6 Western with my 2 dd's and we ate in the dining rooms every night. I made the mistake of way overpacking. When the cruise was over, we had 1 full suitcase of clothes we never wore. We really lived most days in our bathing suits. The next time, I would bring another bathing suit cover-up, I had 2, but really could have used another. I was able to use sundresses mostly for myself and my girls so they packed very easily. My sister-in-law was with us with her 6 year old ds. She brought him a couple of pairs long pants and put them with different shirts each night. He immediately got back into his shorts after dinner, so his pants really never got dirty. We saw lots of younger children that wore nice shorts and tops to dinner and they looked fine. We also saw everything from shorts to dresses to suits for adults. People dressed all ways, but everyone was dressed neatly.

 

[prymsu]

I used to overpack for my son, but the last couple of times i tried something different, and it helped cut down on the clothes. I take one outift for each day and put the shorts, shirt, underwear and socks in a ziplock back, so each day all i had to do was grab the ziploc and he had everything he needed all together. I also packed an extra swimsuit for him. I didn't pack any extra t-shirts, because we always pick up t-shirts along the way. Then i packed two pairs of dress slacks and two nice polo shirts, and he rotated these for dinner.

I had started a pile way in advance, and by the time i bagged up stuff for each day, i realized i had about five extra t-shirts and about that number in extra shorts. Since a lot of the time you will be in you swimsuits, you can get by on this.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

During our first cruise (and frankly our second) DS was 10 & 12 respectively and was not about to "dress". He did agree to khakis and a polo or short sleeve button down shirt.

But take heart, things do change. For our next cruise he will be 15 and is actually considering wearing a tux! I suspect from his comments he is thinking about points with the young ladies on board.

Our DS always liked dressing up - mainly sundresses on our previous cruises for dinner. Again we took a couple and rotated. However, this next one she will be 13 and I may need a whole suitcase just for her.

 

[CamColt]

We did the 3 day cruise with our then 3.5 yr old and 8 month old. We did have khakis, shirts, jackets and ties for them(Pictures made great Christmas cards that year ). We just packed their stuff with the regular clothes in the suitcase. I believe I had the 2 of them share a small suitcase. With such little(size wise) clothes, they didnt really need much room. We also reused a pair of khakis on each of them since they only wore them during dinner.