formal dress for boys

hi to everyone.My sons want to enjoy formal dinner and i was wondering if you could aswer me:
1.is it white shirt , dark trouses and tie enough for formal dinner fo 9 and 13 years boys?
or they MUST wear jacket? i soooo dont want buy new because i now they ll never wear it again.
2.now about shoes: they don't have ones and dont ready to change their all season's sport shoes. could they entrance in sport shoes?
3.if i should rent toxedo may be someone know how much is it?

What cruise line are you sailing? I have only sailed Carnival and will tell you that many boys and teen boys wear exactly what you are describing: dress slacks, dress shirt and tie. My boys wear dress shoes too (and they wear these with their docker type pants on non formal nights too). You can get away with wearing clean sports shoes, if you don't want to buy them dress shoes. My boys like slip on type dress shoes because they are comfortable. If you check out the sales, you can find them for about $20.

Perfectly appropriate for boys that young.

If you mean tennis or basketball shoes, that's a bit of a stretch, but I'm sure it will be fine. A confortable alternative would be to get a cheap pair of rubber-soled black casual (but not tennis) shoes. This will give them something for the ship AND for any other occassions where they might be better than tennis shoes. But don't worry about it - the tennis shoes will be fine.

Andre

[Darcy]

Check your local consignment or thrift stores. Sometimes you can get dress shoes, jackets or suits very inexpensively. I bought my son a blue blazer that looked brand new for $3.99. Another alternative to dress shoes is black sneakers. On our last cruise my son wore his as we packed his dress shoes, but didn't realize they were too small. I don't think anyone noticed that he was wearing black sneakers and not dress shoes.

[Cuti]

Alla, great questions, thanks for asking them, now I have the answers too!

[LisaK]

Alla- growing boys and clothes boy-oh-boy do i know about that one. Black sports shoes should be fine, check out Payless shoes,- look for their buy one get one half-off specials and maybe you could pick up a pair of decent dress shoes for your boys. Sportsjackets are not a requirement but again if you could pick them up cheaply at your local thrift or consignment shops that would be a good thing to do.

I'm leaving in about a week and a half on the Fascination. My twin boys have hand me down blazers but really seem uncomfortable in them. Does anyone know if button down shirts with sweater vests and slacks are appropriate? Any help would be great.

thanks to all. it was very helpful.
lisa, why dont you type your message like a question, and not as a replying? i think much more people read toplcs ,then aswers and you could receive more help.

Lisa........how old are they? If young, I think that would be fine. If they are teens, I don't remember seeing many (any) teens in sweater vests, so I wouldn't worry about the jacket or sweater vest, but add a tie.

[LisaK]

lisao - if your boys are young, the sweater vest would be fine, add a tie, nice shoes and they will be all set.

Thanks for the advice. They're five. Maybe I'll throw the blazers in to. They can't take up that much room.