Paul,
The thing is, in all of my 21 cruises, I have never noticed people not following the dress rules as long as formal is construed to mean coat and tie rather than tux. If a tux were truly required , I would not be in the dining room and probably not on the ship as all. I am still in the dining room for the food and the service rather than the ambiance.
Back in the 1970's, most gentlemen who could afford to cruise did not own formalwear (tuxedos or dinner jacket outfits) but did own business suits, which they wore in their work. Thus, most cruise lines adopted a modified standard of "formal" that admits DARK business suits in lieu of a true formal outfit in order to make cruising more accessible.
Alas, society has continued to change (one could debate whether it has evolved or devolved...) over the last three decades. For better or worse, many professional workplaces have gone to "business casual" attire, so many gentlemen no longer own business suits and most restaurants ashore have dropped their dress codes. The majority of cruise lines, however, have not further modified their dress standards. The result is that many more gentlemen now rent formalwear because they don't have the proper alternative, so we're seeing a lot more tuxedos and dinner jacket outfits on most cruise lines than a couple decades ago. By the guidelines now n effect on most major cruise lines:
>> A DARK business suit (navy, charcoal, black, etc.), worn with a dress shirt and a necktie, is acceptbable.
>> A light grey business suit is NOT appropriate.
>> A sport jacket, either with or without a necktie, is NOT appropriate.
>> A Hawaiian shirt, or a sport shirt without a jacket, is NOT appropriate.
A "T" shirt and shorts should be out of the question, but I have seen people show up in such attire....
I am certain that you can still find upscale cruises where most of the men are attired in a tux, but the percentage seems to be getting fewer on most cruise ships.
That has not been my obsrevation.
In the early days of cruising, I am sure that the formal dress requirements were in effect because most of the passengers preferred them. However, I really believe that one of the primary reasons for still having such rules is that the cruise line makes money from the photographs taken on formal nights.
Actually, there's a fairly large segment of the population that enjoys dressing up for a special evening and has little opportunity to do so in our casual society. Many such individuals now take cruise vacatoins prcisely because the cruises include formal evenings. Some cruise lines undoubtedly attract more such individuals than on others, but it's a significant factor in the popularity of cruising. In my experience on Celebrity Cruises (seven cruises since the fall of 2003), for example, the published dress standard seems to be more of a minimum than a maximum -- especially on the line's "informal" evenings when many passengers dress well beyond the "informal" standard and it's not uncommon to see ladies wearing cocktail dresses and accessories that would be acceptable on formal nights
There are enough options out there for everybody, but there's some onus on us, as prospective passengers, to make choices that are appropriate for our preferences rather than expecting every cruise line to accommodate -- or even tolerate -- failure to conform to its published standards.
Norm.