Travelling with a tuxedo / formalwear.

[JackSparrowLive]

Soon we'll be heading out on our May Dream trip!! But, here's an interesting question:

How do you travel with a tuxedo and ladies formal wear? My tailor said that the tux can be put with the regular luggage, and if it's wrinkled, have it steam pressed on board. The same for my wife's dresses.

Well, needless to say, my wife has an issue with this. She insists that we carry on our formal wear as a piece of carryon luggage (Like brides do with their dresses).

So DisBoard...what say you? What have you done?

 

[tanda4556]

If you don't have to carry-on anything else, I don't see why not?
I would have done so myself, but we had carry-ons plus two kids. So, we packed our formal wears in the suitcase, and I used the iron in the laundry room. I wish DCL provides the steamers in the laundry rooms.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

My husband and I share a rolling garment bag that I fill with my formal dresses (at least 3 for a 7 night cruise) and his tuxedo, vests, ties, shoes, and 2 tuxedo shirts. I carefully fold up the bottom of my dresses once everything has been loaded.
I pack this at the very LAST MINUTE and unpack it immediately upon arrival. We've never had an issue.
Just a note: On our last cruise, I didn't have time to have one of my dresses pressed before we left, so I sent it on the ship, and it was only like $6, which I thought was completely reasonable. It was delivered the next day, ready to wear!

 

[Gigi22]

My DH always brings his tux on cruises, I occasionally bring a formal but more recently I pack a cocktail dress or two. We have never carried our formalwear onto a ship in our carry on luggage, we always pack it in our regular luggage. You can limit the amount of wrinkles if you pack formalwear in large plastic bags from the dry cleaner. I make it a priority to unpack the formalwear, take it out of the plastic bags, and hang it up in the closet. We steam minor wrinkles out in the bathroom, and send anything with lots of wrinkles out to be ironed.

If we were to put our formalwear in a carry on, I think we would use the garment bag style of carry on so that we wouldn't really wrinkle or crush the clothing.
Since you have to wait to get into your cabins until about 1:30 p.m. on DCL, you would have to find a place to hang up your carry on luggage until you can get into your cabin--or simply board the ship sometime after 1:30 p.m. My vote would be for delayed boarding.

 

[cindy18]

We put our formalwear on the very top of our luggage and unpack it as soon as the bags arrive. DH's tuxedo has always been fine. He keps his dress shirts in the plastic wrap that the dry cleaner uses, and that helps too. Often I send my dresses to be pressed by DCL, and it is very reasonable. We always have enough carry ons without dealing with a garment bag!

 

[lbgraves]

I was told to use the plastic bags you get at the dry cleaners. Ours sells them for .10 each. Somehow they help keep stuff from wrinkling. It has worked every time!

 

[Anal Annie]

I wouldn't carry it on. We either use a rolling garment bag which is designed for this type of thing OR we have 2 traditional style suitcases which are "suiters". They have a way to attach hanging clothes in the top and they have these panels that fold out with straps to hold things in place so you lay the clothing out and it folds up neatly to stay in place. I also use the dry cleaner bags AND I pin tissue paper inbetween garments which helps reduce wrinkling too. FWIW on my dresses, I try to look at the fabric content and I bring things that have some polyester in them which cuts down on how much they wrinkle. I'm not above wearing poly. It's amazing stuff that polyester - I have a dress that I can wad up in a ball & leave it like that for days then pick it up and put it on & you'd never know.

I also travel with some Downey Wrinkle Release & would first try a spritz of that & if it doesn't get the wrinkles out then I'd send the garment out to get pressed or steamed.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

I was told to use the plastic bags you get at the dry cleaners. Ours sells them for .10 each. Somehow they help keep stuff from wrinkling. It has worked every time!

Totally agree with this...works every time!

I dragged my wedding gown to WDW for our wedding and I can tell you...it's a pain in the bum. (allbeit-worth it...but a pain) I have never had a problem with the plastic bag trick and formal wear for our cruise in checked luggage.

 

[spacecanada]

We pack our formals in our regular luggage and ALWAYS have our suits/dresses/dress shirts steamed/pressed on the first night of our cruise. It's super cheap and well worth it.

We tried the suit carrier once but our stuff still ended up with wrinkles. We'll never do that again.

Ship drycleaners know what they are doing - they press all the crew uniforms too! We've never had an issue and it's so cheap and quick we never think twice about having it done.

 

[Goofy Fan]

What % of people aboard bring tuxedos on Dream 3/4 night cruises?

 

[cosine4]

I have never traveled with a formal dress, but have traveled with a business suit many times. I just use a garment bag and have everything pressed before going in. I have never had a problem checking the bag and opening with unwrinkled clothes. Just make sure that you do not stuff it very tight. This is what I plan to do in 2 weeks for our trip on the Wonder. I am not taking a tux but am taking a black suit with purple vest/bow tie as well as a couple other suits.

 

[atinkerbellmom]

We have always put it in a garmet bag in the plastic that it comes from from the cleaners. This garmet bag we check. Last cruise I did not have DD's dress cleaned before leaving home , so had it cleaned on the ship! They did a FANTASTIC job. So from now on, I will just bring it any type of way and send it out once on the ship.

 

[Mrs. Gumdrop]

We pack our formals in our regular luggage and ALWAYS have our suits/dresses/dress shirts steamed/pressed on the first night of our cruise. It's super cheap and well worth it.

We tried the suit carrier once but our stuff still ended up with wrinkles. We'll never do that again.

Ship drycleaners know what they are doing - they press all the crew uniforms too! We've never had an issue and it's so cheap and quick we never think twice about having it done.

We do the same.

 

[tufbuf]

Hubby will carry his suit in a suit carrier (which came with the suit) and mine and our daughter's will all be in a garment bag which is a carry on, together with the other outfits that will wrinkle big time packed in a luggage.

 

[QuiltTeddy]

We put it in a hanging garment bag that gets folded as we get to the airport. Once we are onboard, we unpack and usually the hanging gets the wrinkles out, but there are irons if need be.

 

[Sir William]

I put mine in the plastic bag from the cleaners since fabric rubbing on fabric is what causes the winkles. The plastic helps reduce the rubbing effect. I then carefully folded it and placed it to one of those pack-it folders.

http://www.magellans.com/store/Packing_Organizers___Packing_Cubes___FoldersLP917?Args=

Upon arrival I hung it in the closet. After 2 days being packed only the sleeves were slightly wrinkled, and these disappeared after a day of hanging. On reflection, I probably should have placed some tissue paper around the sleeves to further help the rubbing (or friction) effect.

 

[skypixy]

We were on the 11 night Christmas Cruise last Dec. I packed my DH's tux & a gown in our regular suitcase. I did not have to press anything, just hung it all in the closet. Sometimes you can hang a garment in the bathroom while the shower is running to "steam" wrinkles out.
Strategic packing is the key to fewer wrinkles, since I am a flight attendant I have a little more practice.
No need to bring a carry on hanging bag, save yourself the trouble. Also, some aircraft no longer have closets to accomodate hanging a garment bag, I recommend checking the suitcase!

 

[JackSparrowLive]

What % of people aboard bring tuxedos on Dream 3/4 night cruises?

Well, you can count me as "one" that will be bringing & wearing his tux on a 4 night cruise! How often do you get to dress up with your spouse and have a ton of fun??