Formal Nights...love em or leave em?
 

Do you love formal nights?

Do you tolerate formal nights?

Do you eat elsewhere on formal night to avoid them?

I'm an avoid them kind of girl

No, I won't avoid them, especially it we have a table with traditional dining. Long gone,and thankfully so, are the uber formal nights, when many women were in ballgowns. I never went that route though, I like the the ease of mix & match dressier pieces.

I love formal nights, but not as much as I used to. It does make one feel special for a few hours. I cruise solo or with a female cruisepal now, so it's significance has dwindled compared to when I was married.

We like them, but maybe not as much as we used to, what I REALLY WISH is if they have them please enforce the dress code or just do away with it. A rule no-one observes is a nonsense.

Exactly! We don't do formal nights anymore but we don't crash the MDR either. It seems a lot do and get away with it.

These days I would have to say I "tolerate" formal nights. If I am cruising on a line that has a true "Formal" night I will dress accordingly.

If it's Country Club casual, such as Azamara, Oceania, or NCL then no jacket goes.

If it's a "Cruise Elegant" night on Carnival I probably won't wear a jacket and tie. On my upcoming Carnival Breeze cruise, and subsequent European vacation, the jacket and tie will stay at home. I will be nicely dressed on Elegant Night but without a jacket and stay well within their dress guidelines.

Take care,
Mike

I enjoy the first one. :)

My last cruise had 7 of which I skipped 4. I was in the elevator in my bathing suit and one guy asked his why he has to dress up and I don't. It's just not that special if it's too often.

We like the formal nights.

TM

As I've posted previously ,on my first cruise aboard a Cunard ship ,every evening was a formal night .

For lunch the attire was what is referred to now as business casual .Breakfast could be jeans but never shorts .

How did you find that?

I have no issue with dressing up, I'm a clothes horse. But for me Formal is just the absolute opposite of relaxing on vacation that we now take a pass.

I asked this question to a follow up to a post on the Carnival's Facebook site the other night. John asked if it were 5:00 pm and you were anchored just off the coast of Italy taking in the fabulous views of the towns, would you go inside to get ready for 'Elegant Night" Hell no was my response, just deliver me a pizza and a lovely bottle of wine to my deck to continue to take in the views. I was surprised by the amount of people that didn't really seem to care what they were seeing, they would rush inside to get ready for formal night.

Is this still the case on Cunard? Think I'd jump off the ship if I had to dress up for every meal.

In Europe they usually do later seating for both 1st and second though I still prefer late as you don't have to get on the ship and immediately go to dinner.

Cunard
 

Cunard
 

I'm not sure .I believe it may be .

We still enjoy formal nights and dress in tux & gown. We also stay dressed in formal wear during dinner, theater & later the casino. In other words the whole evening. I have no problem with people not dressing for formal night. What does bother me are people in their tee shirts & jeans in the area where the formal gatherings are taking place:(. I would never think of crashing a formal gathering in jeans & tees, but don't forget I am an O F C'er :D.

We still enjoy formal nights also. DW and I love dressing up for dinner. To me it just makes the whole cruise experience all the more special. I also enjoy seeing other people dressed up for dinner. It just makes everything nice. Formal nights for us, yes.

Wow seems like a majority of people like formal night...My wife and I also like it.

Formal nights give you a sense of pride and makes you feel good...its a important part of a cruise...Maybe not important on Mass market cruise lines But the higher end lines it does seem more important.

Crystal cruise in December...we will dress to the max on formal nights.

Most high end lines have dropped formal night. Crystal is one of the lone holdouts. Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, Regent = gone

We don't do formal nights because then we need to check a
bag with the airlines. We save about $30/bag if we don't do formal nights.

Well lets see... I only bothered to check 3 lines and they all have formal dining..

Seabourn offers SOFHISTICATED FINE DINING AMBIANCE OF THE RESTAURANT more casual can dine at the indoor outdoor venue

Regent Formal dining optional....guests may opt for a formal choice of clothing such as gowns, cocktail dresses, tuxedos and dark suits.

World of Silversea Video does not show one person in jeans...only dresses...slacks...dress shirts...pant suits are shown..

And those are the only ones I checked so far..YES my wife and I will be on Crystal cruises in December and dress for formal nights and we will love it.

Either way dressing up is still going strong on the high end class ships...if you dont like to dress up no porblem...Royal Carribean, NCL, Carnival, Disney cruises, even Celebrity can accommodate your class of attire.

Here's Seabourn's actual policy
For Evenings:
After 6:00 p.m., suggested attire for all venues on board will be one of the following:
Resort Casual: Slacks and a sweater or shirt for men; sundress, skirt or slacks with a sweater or blouse for women. Jeans are not considered appropriate in The Restaurant.

Elegantly Casual: Slacks with a jacket over a sweater or shirt for men. Dress, skirt or pants with a sweater or blouse for women. Jeans are not considered appropriate in The Restaurant.

Formal Optional: While Elegantly Casual is always appropriate during the evening, a Formal Optional evening will be provided for guests who wish to dress more formally at least once each seven days. Formal Optional attire includes a tuxedo or dark suit with tie for men, cocktail dress or other formal apparel for women. On Formal Optional evenings, we request no jeans in any of the lounges or dining venues.

And please god tell me Seabourn has better spelling than "SOFHISTICATED FINE DINING AMBIANCE OF THE RESTAURANT..."

Regent is listing Elegant Casual as the dress code every night on the cruises I looked at. But of course if a guest wants to wear a tux, the line isn't going to stop them. It's an elegant ship.

I never mentioned Silversea's as dropping formal nights, so not sure where that came from.

And this isn't a debate about formal nights, some people love them which is great. This was a question if you liked then, tolerated then, or ate elsewhere to avoid them.

Not nice to use the lords name in vain. No jeans in MDR at dinner...its is more appropriate to wear a tux for dinner on Crystal...Silversea and all the lux lines then it is to wear jeans...

Cruising on Crystal in December.:mrgreen:

Im sure you will feel comfortable in jeans and a tee shirt on any ship in Royal Carribean's, Carnival, NCLs fleet.

We don't let anything interfere with our cruise, we never do early dinner, we enjoy where we are after all it's what we are there for!

Cunard only have dress codes in the evening, Formal means Dinner suit or suit & tie, semi formal means jacket & tie, casual means jacket no tie (although a lot do wear a tie).

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::D:D:D:p:p:p

Excellent point. We're the same way.

Excellent standard...:mrgreen::mrgreen::p:D

Whatever gave you the silly impression i'm a Jeans and T-shirt girl? Far from it. Most of my closet contains designer labels. I have lots of opportunity to dress formal for the business events we attend. I just don't mix formal wear with my vacations. And I've never sailed Carnival and it's been 12 years since I've sailed RCI.

You seem to equate not wanting to dress formal with being a slob, I assure you that's not the case.

I wear nice slacks and shirt to my place of business even though I don't have to. I wear formal attire to formal events, I would rather dress up then down.

Some peope like to dress nicely and some people don't...because you don't does not mean I hold it against you, Its just that I would rather see people dress formal on formal nights.

Crystal cruise in December.

P.S...hope you eys aint bleding...lolol.

I tolerate them but would prefer if the formal nights went away. To me it is a vestige of a bygone era when the whole cruise formula was different than now. My observations on my last several cruises show me that most guests change back into casual clothes after dinner, so what is the point? To impress my waiter or the people at my table that I'll never see again? I prefer being comfortable and a jacket and tie is not comfortable. I ditched the tux 10 years ago. However I did wear a suit and went to a formal night on our recent cruise aboard Enchantment. We dined with the Captain so that was obviously a no-brainer about what I'd be wearing.

Also, it is difficult to accept how serious a cruise line is about formal nights when the waiters parade around the dining room in a conga line with the more talented ones balancing ketchup bottles on their heads. Sort of ruins the effect to me.