Dressing Kids Up For Dinner

Thank you for sharing! These are so cute! Seeing the pictures posted in this thread are making me more & more excited to dress the kids up!

 

 

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I enjoy coordinating my boy girl twins. As they get older, they still let me for trips and special days...but not so much for day to day school. I'll do it as long as I can!

We did fancy dressing for the formal nights, so we could get photos. Otherwise we just made sure they were in clean clothes for dinner. After the 3rd day kiddo got bored of the long meal in the dining room and asked to eat dinner with the kids clubs, so it was quick and she could go play. Worked out well for us!

If you decide to change them in a restroom as you take them to the club, don't forget to bring along a little beach bag or something to store all the clothes in.

Have a great time!

We did fancy dressing for the formal nights, so we could get photos. Otherwise we just made sure they were in clean clothes for dinner. After the 3rd day kiddo got bored of the long meal in the dining room and asked to eat dinner with the kids clubs, so it was quick and she could go play. Worked out well for us!

 

If you decide to change them in a restroom as you take them to the club, don't forget to bring along a little beach bag or something to store all the clothes in.

 

Have a great time!

Thank you, I am sure we will have a great time!

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My daughter dressed up on formal night.

We always dress up our toddler. He's been sailing since he was 18 months old. Everyone always says how handsome and cute the little ones are dressed up like the parents and it's true!

Plus we have some really GREAT professional photos that we have given for Hannukah and Mother's Day gifts.

Dress pants, dress shirt, clip on tie, and vest make for a really adorable GQ modeling session hahaha

Change them afterwards and take them to play. Enjoy every moment of the dressup nights.

I have two boys who were 8 and 11 on our last cruise, and they basically live in t-shirts and basketball shorts.  I did make them "dress up" one night on our cruise (NCL, so it's pretty casual) where they wore button down shirts and I think they wore khakis?  My youngest ended up wearing the same shirt with khaki shorts another night.  Most nights, though, they wanted to have dinner at the buffet and then go to the kids club, so I think we only had dinner together as a family in one of the MDRs twice?  I seem to remember most kids being pretty casual in the dining rooms.  If I could convince my kids to dress up more, I for sure would, but mostly I find it's not worth the fight.

I'm having the opposite fight. My 7-year old keeps asking us to rent him a tuxedo for the cruise!

On 8/16/2018 at 3:28 PM, Californiacruizers said:

My kids and I dress up often at home, so dressing up for dinner on the cruise didn't feel like a chore. I threw in items that we already had a home that were color coordinated. My daughter is 5 and my son turned 15 on the cruise. Dressing up added to the elegance of the ship and the ambiance of the restaurants. After dinner we were back in casual clothing. Here are a few of our dress up pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful pics! Obviously well worth the effort. 

On 8/27/2018 at 9:07 PM, lucyddr said:

 

 

 

These are typical cruise outfits for our twins. They coordinate and are nicer than typical school clothes, but comfortable enough to wear to Camp Carnival! Ours never want to take the time to change! We don't do ultra-formal anymore...it just isn't our style.

 

 

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Adorable!

I’m the OP and extremely late posting the outcome. My daughter just wouldn’t cooperate so we only took one picture on formal night and didn’t even attempt on any other nights. My son looks like he is trying to signal for help. Bless! But I still have the picture in a frame in my living room.

But overall the cruise was great and we can’t wait to do another one!

I think it's wonderful that you all have dressed up your children, and have such lovely photos!  On the flip side, if anyone doesn't want to bring formal clothes  I would like to note that the cruise lines are tolerant of families who aren't that dressed up (I like the idea of dressing up, but my last cruise to Norway required ski clothes and shorts and everything in between so we couldn't schlep anything else).  I wore an ordinary day black dress on Cunard, a line where we spotted men in tuxes and women in formal ball gowns in the buffet and they didn't say anything to me about my ordinary day black dress on formal night (there was no way I was bringing anything that couldn't be washed since I knew I'd be wearing food at some point).  My boys wore polo shirts and shorts, and they seemed tolerant of all of us.

cruiselines are very tolerant. And not just of children. On our recent Allure cruise on a formal night I saw a couple: the guy was dressed in swimming trunks and a t-shirt, and the woman was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Nobody escorted them out or barred them from entering.

We don't dress up (after our first cruise), but I wear nice dress pants and a pretty top, DH wears a button down shirt or a polo shirt and khakis, and DS wears a polo shirt and khakis. When DS is eating, we have to use a napkin as a bib, because a ton of food is missing my 8 yo child's mouth... So, it doesn't matter whether he is dressed up or not - we have to protect the clothing!

When my husband and I cruised for our honeymoon 10 years ago we dressed up every night. Over the years we have gotten more casual. Since it was the kids first cruise I wanted to be dressier than we normally would. On our next one (hopefully next year-trying to decide between a cruise, Disney World or both 😬) we will probably be more casual (maxi dresses, polo shirt, etc)  but still take pictures.