For a Mediterranean cruise in May, how formal will the clothes for women be on the formal nights? Is it mostly gowns? Cocktail dresses? What about pants suits or silk slacks with a dressy top?

What do women wear on the semi-formal nights?

For shore excursions....is it okay to wear shorts? jeans?

I've been on Princess and Royal Caribbean where the dress has become pretty casual. But I hear that HA is more formal. So I was wondering how much more formal.

Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

We've been on quite a few HA cruises, also Princess, I see no difference. Our Christmas cruises seemed to be more formal, lots more tuxes, fancier dresses....every night I just wore black slacks with different jackets and I was right in there, no problem. Certainly permissible to wear jeans anytime on shore. We are going on the May 20th HA Mediterranean and I plan to bring denim for daytime and black for night.

Desertduds...Thanks for the help.

Thanks so much, Attagirl.

Attagirl...are you sure you gave me the correct link? I keep getting an error message.

My husband and I were on a Mediterranean cruise on HAL Rotterdam in May 2006. Some women wore gowns & cocktail dresses. Most did not. I wore either a long black skirt and dressy lace blouse or black dressy slacks. For semi-formal nights, nice slacks & blouse or a pants suit will be fine. (If you received a brochure from HAL for renting formal attire, what they have available for women to rent is a black skirt and a choice of dressy tops).

Shore excursions--shorts, jeans are OK. I wore mostly crop pants and cotton tops with either short or 3/4 length sleeves.

Make sure that there are no special dress requirements for your shore excursions (for example, visits to cathedrals or mosques may require that your knees and shoulders should be covered).

Takemealong:

Thanks for all the details. I appreciate it.

HAL is a more traditional and formal line.
On my cruises with them, I have seen a good percentage of long gowns followed by cocktail dresses.

For a Med cruise, I would likely pack a pair of black evening trousers (very dressy) with two different tops and accessorize differently. For all other nights, I wear skirts, dresses and nice slacks with heels.

It is not like Royal which has become frightfully casual.

Re shore excursions, jeans are both hot and heavy to pack. Shorts are not appropriate IMO except for beach destinations.

For women, below the knee skirts and capris, worn with cap sleeve tops or twin sets will get you in everywhere. For men, docker type slacks look neat and are always appropriate for day.

Thanks again to all for the input.

Actually I recall not being able to enter St. Peters in Rome because we had shorts on, though it was allowed for entry to the vatican Museum and the Sistene Chapel. We were able to go everywhere else however w/o any entrance hassles dressed in shorts and this included cathedrals in Florence, and Malta. If you will be in Monaco and want to enter the Grand Casino then no shorts amiga. .
Overall I think shorts are fine for shore excursions w/ the exceptions noted above. We were rather happy to have them because our trip was in late July/early August and it was pretty hot then. I am not sure about May but I suspect it will be cooler then. Also most Europeans, unless it has changed, wear long pants regardless of the weather. In we saw a lesser selection of shorts for sale too. Personally we had no issue wearing shorts but its up to you. Have fun. Larry