As my wife can attest, I hate to "dress up". I wore a loud plaid suit to our wedding. I wore an Hawaiian shirt, sandals, and canvas cutoffs to a tax audit (and came away clean as a whistle!). My cruise on the Mercury (with Star Trekkers) was no big deal from a clothing standpoint. I wore my sandals to dinner nearly every night (admittedly I wore my "formal flip-flips" for the formal night), and if one's jeans are relatively new and clean you can wear them, too.

The operative words above are "casual" and "comfortable". A sports jacket is not required, even for the one formal night: If you want to eat dinner in the dining room, all you have to do is bring a couple of decent shirts and one decent pair of pants. For those of us that just can't bear wearing "nice" clothes, the complete dinner menus are available through room service. Keep in mind that a cruise is "off the beaten track" of vacations. Many people find that wearing dressier clothing to dinner and having supper in a more formal environment than normal adds to the sense of "otherness" or out of the ordinariness of the cruise.

Play with the premise. All cruisers have the same interests at heart - vacation, enjoy nature, meet new people, have experiences unique to a cruise, all the while relaxing, and not taking anything too seriously, including clothing and dress codes.

The cruise line, with its "dress code", is inviting us all to mark the cruise as a special experience. They are committed to helping you have a good time. They have a lot of experience with partying, and they know what helps get people in a "special event" mood. Dressy clothing. Festive clothing. Creative clothing.

So, don't sweat the clothing issue. I hope you'll join your colleagues on our cruises, and see what the buzz about cruise vacations is about.

Neil Bauman
Captain