Thanks everyone! Now after soliciting your advice it might look like I am completely ignoring it. Because I am keeping the turquoise dress and returning the other two. Mom advised me to try on all three dresses in front of her with stockings and pumps (not bare legs and sandals), in daylight. She had only seen the pictures on my laptop before. Her favorites on me, were the first turquoise dress and the last green dress. She felt the pictures did not do the first dress justice in particular. We did a sit and bend test and the first dress just barely passed but I think on a cruise to Hawaii it's fine. With pantyhose on the lumps get smoothed so the dress no longer looks clingy.
The second dress photographed better than it really looked we decided. The other two dresses unwrinkled after unpacking and hanging a few days while the navy dress stayed really wrinkled, we thought this was a problem given this dress would be traveling with me. Mom also thought the second dress was too similar to my Zara, and that other cruise guests would think I wore the same dress twice in a row. (!)
The turquoise dress was just $19 so if I only wear it once, it's ok. Meanwhile, a sleeved dress with an open neckline that is not black, goes on my HEWI list. When I am in SF in a few weeks I'll stop by an AS store and try on the Nise dress. Thanks for the recommendation Una, and if any of you find my HEWI dress, let me know!
ETA -- the green dress got returned because I didn't feel fab in it, I felt frumpy.
ETA note to Parsley -- yes -- I think I will look for AP dresses in regular sizes, that's good advice.
