RCCL Dining Options - Maybe We Should Cancel Our Reservation?

My family (me, my wife, and two teenage kids) have reservations for a Southern Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean later this year. I am wondering if any RCCL veterans can fill us in on dining options.

It's my fault for not looking into it further before we made our reservation, but I didn't realize how the dining works. From what I can see, we have four nights of casual dining, one night of "smart casual" dining, and two nights of formal dining. However, even the casual dining means khaki pants and a dress shirt ... not that it's a big issue, but especially in the Caribbean, it would be nice to wear a polo shirt and dressy shorts to dinner. And the smart casual/formal nights ... not happening. I can't remember the last time I wore a jacket and tie, and I'm definitely not going to do that on vacation.

Unfortunately, the only other options I can see are eating at the Windjammer buffet (my wife hates buffets) or nibbling on room service in our staterooms (which sounds depressing).

Is there something that I'm missing? Any truly casual options? Anyplace where we can go to grab a quick salad or sandwich?

We didn't sign up for a cruise because we wanted formal dining every evening. We signed up for a cruise because we want to visit six different islands and have great excursions on them. But I'm starting to wonder if maybe we should just eat the reservation deposit, and instead spend the entire week in Puerto Rico.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

You can post this on the RCI Forum for more response.

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You can post this on the RCI Forum for more response.

Thanks, will do.

You're welcome! Hope you will have a nice vacation.

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There really are no more formal

nights. I think if you do your research, you will find that just a collared shirt and khakis will be fine --and clean jeans will likely be OK on casual nights.

Did you see any reference to a "dress shirt" for casual night?

I doubt there will be many ties on any night -or even many jackets.

You should talk it up on your roll call, and on the Royal Caribbean threads - and take a couple of minutes on the phone with one of their "cruise consultants".

on our very first cruise we thought we had to dress up big time for formal nights. We ordered a tux for hubby and I wore a little black dress. Ha-ha. Not anymore. He wears slacks and a buttoned-up shirt for formal nights and I wear slacks and a nice smart-casual top. For smart casual - nice top and jeans. For casual - jeans and t-shirts.

In the future you should sail Norwegian -- no formal nights, no dressier than shorts and a decent shirt in most dining rooms, no set dinner times. Sounds like it would be a good fit for you.

Just eat at the Buffet on the nights you want to "chill" in your shorts. Great food choices & your teens will enjoy it. On most ships you can even dine under the stars & have a breeze.

RCCL IS NOT FORMAL.

Smart Casual - pants and a shirt with a collar.

Formal - go to a specialty restaurant and you can wear pretty much whatever. But formal is not all that formal. Pants, business shirt and a jacket are more than enough for men and for women, maxi dress and kids, collar shirt and pants. We tend to go to the sushi restaurant on formal nights and just dress casual but even formal attire is not really very formal. Oh, a few dress up, but not so many anymore.

Your dining options on RCI are the same as on all the mainstream cruise lines. You have nothing to worry about. RCI is anything but formal...used to be 2 nights on a weeklong cruise...but no more! You will be fine.

Slacks and golf shirt is perfectly acceptable on "formal nights".

Relax and have fun.