wonderful Xmas present

[Jody Miller]

Hi everyone
My mum and dad surprised me over christmas by giving me a present of a cruise holiday. It's actually a Xmas come birthday present as I am 21 in November this year.

I am meeting up with my American cousin in Miami to cruise on the Emerald Princess on 8th May to cruise around the Caribbean for 16 nights. Neither of us have cruised before and I have a number of questions that some of you may be able to answer.

Will we be able to make friends on board as I don't really know my cousin that well and it would be nice to talk to others over the 16 days? Will there be others our age (I am 20 and my cousin is 21)?.

How fussy are cruises? what should I wear in the evenings at the dinners? Apparently I can only pack 23kgs so I want to make sure I take the right things.

Answers to my questions would be great and I would love yo hear from anyone that is going on the same cruise and perhaps correspond before we sail

Thanks
Jody

 

[bostongal]

Jody - Congratulations on your first cruise & Welcome to Cruise @ddicts! I hope you enjoy every moment leading up to and on your first cruise.

On a 16 night cruise there may be as many as 3 formal nights. The other nights will be divided by casual and semi-formal wear. I have found that on formal nights a long skirt or fancy dress is appropriate and semi-formal is usually covered by a nice dress/skirt or pant suit. Casual is very relaxed but no jeans, shorts, flip flops or bathing suits in the dining rooms at any time. You can go to the buffet in your bathing suit if you have a cover up.

You should be able to make friends on board easily!

I hope you have a great time!

Meg

 

[MisterD21]

Welcome aboard Jody!! glad you are here. let me see if i can answer some of your questions.

1. firstly i would like to say this will give you an excellent oppourtunity to get better aquainted with your cousin. as you will have several sea days in which you can lounge poolside and catch some sun and catch up on each others interests.

2. making firends really depends on you.. if you are outgoing and pleasant i am certain you will at the very least make an aquaintance or two.

3. Cruise lines are increasingly becomming more casual in dress codes. Although there are formal nights for dining, most nights are smart casual/casual. Since this is your first cruise, i would like to suggest you attend at least one formal dinner(give you a chance to show off how stunning you can look),and it is a great experience you shouldn't miss at least once.
Attire for the rest of the cruise is entirely up to you, be it a bikini, or sundresses, or shorts and a t-shirt... aside from formal dining it's pretty much a laid back casual atmosphere.

If you have any other questions please post them we here at C@ love to answer questions... and you have a multitude of great people with tons of experience just waiting to answer your questions here ...

 

[bostongal]

Jody - I just re-read my post to you and I see that I wrote semi-formal which is not what I meant at all. I meant to say smart casual - thank you MisterD21 for putting that in your post!!!!! He is absolutely right about cruiseships being more casual now. I wear casual most of the cruise - capris, cute tops, flats and do pack items that I can use together so I can take less in my bags (a constant struggle for me). I have a long skirt and dressy top that I wear on formal nights - comfy but dressy. Otherwise it's bathing suit & coverup during the day when you will find me by the pool. :beach:

I hope you try the activities and enjoy meeting new people! Some of the best people I know I have met on cruises!

Hope this helps....

Meg