We're booked for the 2006 World Cruise on Serenity. What can we expect in the way of dress requirements? As this will be a trip of 106 days, formal attire could become a burden by the end of the trip!
Crystal is the most formal of all cruise lines, and therefore you will find that their passengers dress to the nines, even for the entire world cruise. Unlike other cruise lines where passengers go back to their rooms and change after dinner, you don't find that at all on Crystal. Passengers stay dressed in the code of the evening for the entire evening. It's written in the daily Reflections that if you're going to be in any of the public rooms after 6pm, that you adhere to the dress code. I've done parts of three of Crystal's world cruises and I find them to be the most dressy of any of their regular cruises. I know one woman who shipped 15 bags to the ship for the world cruise. You do have the choice of dining in your cabin on any night, but if you want to go out in the public rooms, you have to be dressed according to code. I would say that easily 95% of the men will be wearing tuxes or white dinner jackets on formal nights, and jackets and ties on the informal nights. The women wear long gowns, palazzo pants with very dressy tops for formal nights, and dinner suits, short cocktail dresses, or dressy dresses on informal nights. You will find that most of the full world cruisers dress well during the day. You will not find many, if any, wearing jeans, but rather nice slacks, capri pants or shorts outfits and nicer tops and blouses.
What I do for any long cruise aboard a luxury ship may help you. I take black pants and long black skirt and build from that. White sheer tunics, nice jackets, black tunics....
You accessorize, add glittery crystal jewelry, scarves...
In the end, people will see the scarves and jewelry and not notice much else. There will be a few women with steamer trunks full of gowns, but 95% will have your packing limitations. Black, black, black....it always looks formal.
I just returned from one segment of the world cruise. Relax. The majority of the women wore nice, but not fabulous, clothes on formal nights. Some looked rather casual, and it was our observation that noone was "frowned upon" for wearing a suit (male) or nice casual pants outfit (female) on formal nights. In addition, you can take the advice given in previous messages and work around black pants and long skirt PLUS you can either eat in the room occasionally on formal nights or better yet, schedule dinner in a speciality restaurant. These are small, and you probably won't see the people you normally dine with.
I found that informal nights were typically more dressey than I had anticipated so plan accordingly.
As for casual clothes, khaki pants and dark slacks with all sorts of tee shirts were the order of the day. People did not wear jeans, but neither did they wear expensive "resort wear."
Enjoy. You will have a great time. Crystal is the best.
A world cruise! What a dream that would be. My husband and I went on our first cruise (1 week) last year and loved it. I was a little disappointed that so many of the passengers didn't want to dress more formally. Is there a cruiseline that adheres more to their formal nights dresscode, but doesn't have quite a high-end pricetag?
Celebrity Cruises are quite good at being a very good deal for a more elegant upper-mid-range cruise experience. I was on the Mercury, and I thought the atmosphere and passenger dress were both quite elegant on formal nights.
I'm going on segment one and segment two of the Crystal Serenity World Cruise. I can't wait. Pitcairn Island, Tahiti what a fabulous destination. I imagine that I will be wearing bathing suits and cover ups most of the time during the day. Evening clothes are easy on crystal, I never saw anyone turned away from the dining room. It is good to know that "fancy" is in vogue on the world cruise.
I've seen people turned away from the dining room on the Symphony and Serenity. Once a man was wearing an Hawaiian print shirt and khaki pants on formal night and he was refused entrance. Another time a couple was wearing shorts in the evening and they were refused entrance. A third time a man tried to come into the dining room on formal night wearing slacks and a plain shirt and he was also asked to return when properly dressed.
Donnalee and Sally, check out cruisecritic.com, boards, crystal cruises. There is a thread where people are posting their 2006 cruises and there are several on the 2006 World Cruise with whom you could communicate.
I know that under normal circumstances that Crystal is fairly dressy. But call Crystal and ask them how many nights are formal, casual, etc. Serenity has a wonderful casual restaurant on deck that is always more casual and you can dine there when you don't feel like dressing up.
I recommend planning an entire cruise wardrobe around one long black skirt of dressy pair of pants. The next pieces would be dressy blouses, jackets or solid color tops that you can accessorize. Take lots of shawls and sparkly jewelry. And, borrow what you don't have, it's a shame to buy things you'll never use again.
After all these years, I've come to realize that the only person who notices what I'm wearing is ME. We're always thinking about how we look, not the person sitting next to us. This is a great, once in a lifetime experience and I recommend you dress for yourself only. What is comfortable, easy and makes you feel good.
Hi Sally
We are also on the world cruise for the 105 days. Have 6 large suitcases packed and ready to go in a couple of days.Hope to meet at the Gala on the 17th.
Look for John & Aileen
And EXCUSE ME ms donnalee, but I wasn't talking to you either. I was referring to the poster, Luthien, who mentioned Celebrity as an upscale, dressy cruise line. And as I said, Celebrity doesn't do a world cruise as the original poster was asking about.
Dress Code for World Cruise
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