We did a trip on the Queen Mary 2, Cunard Cruise Line November 2014. This is different from most of our trips. This one states it has a dress code. That dress code seems to apply for evenings more than for day time. For example, this 12 day cruise has 3 formal nights plus a Black and White Ball. That’s a total of 4 formal nights by my counting. We will be in the Queen’s Grill for dinner, and I gather evening dress code is enforced. Their paperwork states that men’s informal evening dress is jacket required, but tie is optional. No jeans and sneakers for dinner for us. So I have to up the ante on my clothes too. Also we will be spending about 5 days in Southampton before leaving on the cruise itself. We should be gone almost 3 weeks counting flying.

Planning

We will be with an Insight Cruise group. At this point I don’t even know what the classes will be about or if I will attend any of their classes. My other half will, but since I’m in school working on my Masters degree, I’m not sure if I’ll have the time. The cruise will go from Southampton, UK down to the Canary Islands. Currently it looks like Southampton will be cool and wet. So rain gear will be necessary. But the Canary Islands will be warmer and probably dry. I will keep a check on weather as we get closer to the trip.

Clothes

The evening clothes required for the QM2 are more formal. I shopped for and brought 4 long evening dresses. These are items I might wear to an opera in the evening. That also means heels to go with them (one pair of sandals). During the non-formal evenings most women wore dresses (think cocktail dresses), fancy evening pants and tops (think satin), and party or date type of dresses. These were fancy type clothes by my normal standard.

I attempted to get by wearing slacks, cashmere sweaters, wedge heels, and jewelry. I was a bit underdressed in these clothes. But I did okay.

Toiletries

In this case we were going from cool weather in London, to warm weather in the Canary Islands. So toiletries had to cover a range of climates. Since I have naturally curly hair, that means seriously thinking about how to handle my curls. As for skin care, most of what I need for warm weather just needs to be amped up a bit to make it through the cooler weather we encounter.

Luggage

For this trip I took the personal item, the carry on, and a 22” check thru case. I know that may not seem large, but I’m used to packing a smaller case (usually use a 20” as a check thru). Since I was in school I had to take school books, laptop, and notebooks. So that was carry on luggage for me. I could replace clothes if I absolutely had to, but I can’t easily replace my laptop or school books.