Elegant/Formal Night Kaput on Carnival

[elcuchio24]

To you guys saying he is teaching his kids a horrible lesson?

 

REALLY?

 

The Dad is teaching his kids about responsibility and adhering to standards. Is that so bad?

 

Do you guys teach your kids to break the rules and lower their standards if they don't feel like putting out any effort?

 

If you keep standards low, there is less chance for dissapointment. Everyone wins!

[EnTnSA]

The only reason Carnival even has a "Cruise Elegant" night now is to sell more formal portraits. Carnival is even so brazen as to announce this during the day of the elegant evening telling passengers to be sure to dress up and have their formal portraits taken before dinner. Good for Carnival! I'm a stockholder. The dining rooms rules are hardly enforced because there is no benefit to Carnival to annoy those passengers who don't care about the rules.

 

In La Jolla and Santa Barbara these days one hardly sees a gentleman in a coat and tie anymore unless he is on the way to a meeting with a new client or a day in court. Times have changed and formal nights on board ship have now become costume parties for those who want to relive their high school proms.

 

End of thread, enough said.

[Cruiser from MS]

You know I get the feeling that some of you look down on Carnival as a "lower class" cruise line. I feel sorry for you guys. I love to cruise Carnival because they are casual and "FUN" I am a 60 year old female that sill enjoys life and I do not really care what someone wears to the MDR. It is my belief that people who dress formal for dinner paid hard earned money to cruise just as I did. My husband and I did not dress up for dinner in the MDR on our last cruise and found many did the same, but there were also many that choose to dress up for dinner. Did it bother us? No, Did I care that they dressed up? No. I think we enjoyed our cruise more because we were more casual and did not have to bother with the formal wear. By the way we do not fly to our cruises so luggage did not play into our decision not to dress formally. When we cruised to Hawaii on Princess I found just as many people choose not to dress formally and they were not turned away from the MDR either.

[EnTnSA]

maybe ill pick up one of these bad boys this week, before our cruise.

 

and i can make everyone happy!

 

[hfweather]

maybe ill pick up one of these bad boys this week, before our cruise.

 

and i can make everyone happy!

 

 

 

LOL thanks for the laugh I needed that!

[H82seaUgo]

maybe ill pick up one of these bad boys this week, before our cruise.

 

and i can make everyone happy!

 

 

something tells me the fat kid may pick this guy up too and body slam him.

[Barb C]

I agree with the OP. For my husband and I it is not so much about FORMAL wear. Carnival is allowing sweat pants and flip flops (as I have seen as well) and that does lower the standard for everyone!

 

Seeing people dressed inappropriately never ruins my cruise but it does make me wonder how far will Carnival go?

 

I love to get to know as many staff personnel on board from different countries and a conversion with our room steward last Summer (he is from India) will always stick in my mind. He said what he has noticed over the years is a disregard for looking your best. Standards are going out the window. He didn't say but I got the feeling he was talking about Americans haha.

 

Maybe a good rule of thumb would be to dress like you are going to a wedding on formal night. Just my humble opinion.

[picklebongo]

I will hazard a guess that if you take your teen girls on Princess or Celebrity they will not enjoy the overall cruise experience as much as Carnival. There won't be as much of a peer group nor as many activities geared towards that age group.

 

You may find that the dining experience of a few nights is worth losing out on the overall experience of what they will or won't experience, but it's something you might want to keep in mind.

[elcuchio24]

something tells me the fat kid may pick this guy up too and body slam him.

 

Ha! Love the reference. I have, in fact, seen one of this in an MDR before.

[Sailor_Sally]

And' date=' for the record, I really don't have a problem with the people who choose to dress to the minimum allowed by Carnival. If it's allowed, then that's their prerogative. Some of my closest friends do that and I don't have a problem with it. If it's not allowed and Carnival lets them in the dining room anyway, then that's Carnivals fault for being wishy-washy.

 

.:)[/quote']

 

 

Wow ! So some of the Mcdonald's army are your close friends . Do they realize how you talk about them because they are obviously breaking the rules and bringing the five star experience down .

[vfb2girls]

It really never bothered me or I was just to sick to notice but for the most part people dressed nice on our last cruise. But what did bother me was that we chose to go to Golden Fleece for a nice evening, hubby and myself made the effort to dress up and they still let some guy in to eat in the a plain t-shirt and ratty looking pants.I had thought that on formal nights when eating in the steakhouse a man was suppose to wear a jacket. It probably bothered my husband more since I made him wear a suit. So when it comes to our next Carnival cruise we will probably leave the suit and cocktail dresses home and adapt the more casual style.

[Cigar Dude]

Most people still dress nice for dinner in the dining rooms but few REALLY dress up for the elegant nights. My wife and I still do and enjoy it. I wear my black tux and she wears something dressy. We won't change.

[Warm Breezes]

Just returned from our second and very last voyage on Carnival. Our first Carnival experience was over the Christmas holiday in 2008 and the passengers dressed reasonably well, probably due to the holiday season. Yesterday, we left the Triumph in New Orleans with the conclusion that the "Elegant Night" is really a joke on Carnival. Out of 3,500 passengers on board (1,100 of them children), only about five percent made any attempt to dress well in the dining room on "Elegant Night." Most were in jeans, shorts, T-shirts, and other very casual attire. I even saw some folks wearing flip-flops and one fello wearing gym sweats to the dining room. I did see about 20 men and boys wearing a tux. My son and I were two of this 20 or so. My wife and our two daughters were dressed appropriate for a formal dinner. This was really a let down to our family and is not what we expected. I know that many of you out there like this new super-casual dress standard, but it is not for us and we will be booking our future cruises on more upscale cruise lines where the passengers dress up more. I just cancelled a NCL booking this morning as we did not want to encounter the same lax dress code as we saw on Carnival. This is an FYI to all those new cruisers looking to book future trips. I will be booking Celebrity to replace the cancelled NCL booking.

 

Carnival is catering to a more casual crowd. I am glad you realize that and are changing to a cruiseline that better suits your needs. One of my pet peeves are people who continue to sail on Carnival, after the switch to a more casual dress code, and who complain that it ruins there cruise. There is a market that Carnival is trying to cater to, if its not you, then you would be much happier sailing a line that did cater to your needs, rather than complain about a line that doesn't and continue to sail on it. Good luck finding what you are looking for and happy sailing.

[Nanaimobound]

Lord forbid that anyone would would wear anything that would spoil the 5 star ambiance. :p

 

 

It's the Fun Ship - not the military.

 

Teaching your children not to cave to (fashion police) bullies is always a valuable lesson.

 

Ha Ha Love it!

Now that is the point!

[WeBeCruisin']

Wow ! So some of the Mcdonald's army are your close friends . Do they realize how you talk about them because they are obviously breaking the rules and bringing the five star experience down .

 

Again, they are not the people I'm talking about. As I mentioned previously, the ones whiom I am "irked" by are the ones who exaggerate, twist the facts, lie and bully to manipulate and railroad the majority of cruisers into adapting their minority point of view. It's that attitude and the control-freak aspect which is the problem.

 

I'll say it again, since it didn't register with you the first time. I have no problem with my friends who choose to follow the minimum dress code standard. It's their prerogative, and if they dress below the stated standards and are allowed into the dining room then that's Carnival's fault for being wishy-washy about enforcing their rules.

 

And your referring to honoring the dress code as "bringing the five star experience down" is another snarky example of the manipulative attitude I'm talking about. :)

[ib4cruzn]

Celebrity won't do it for you. Yes, you won't find jeans in the dining room, maybe, maybe, but you also are not going to find men in black tie. In fact, the higher up you go in cruise line scale, the fewer men in black tie you will see. On Seaborne, you will see men in silk or linen shirts and dress slacks, no ties, rather than overly dressed. At my yacht club, the only men one sees dressed formally are the servants.

 

This has not been my experience.

[ib4cruzn]

It is really quite simple. Dress for the class for which you think you belong.

 

YMMV

[WeBeCruisin']

Lord forbid that anyone would would wear anything that would spoil the 5 star ambiance. :p

 

 

It's the Fun Ship - not the military.

 

Teaching your children not to cave to (fashion police) bullies is always a valuable lesson.

 

It's mind-boggling that people use waitstaff dressed in upscale uniforms and attempting to entertain the diners as "proof" of how Carnival is so tacky that they themselves are justified in wearing inappropriate attire to the dining room.

 

And I'll ask again how wearing the cruise line's requested and suggested attire is "caving in to the fashion police". That is totally ludicrous and a cheap shot.:rolleyes:

[Lovelylady226]

OP,

 

Thanks for your input. This will be my first 7-night cruise (I FINALLY convinced the hubby he could go that long) and my husband was going to buy a second suit. Now, I know he doesn't have to. He will probably want to, cause we both like to dress up, but it's nice to know he doesn't have to.

[ib4cruzn]

Tuxes and gowns here as well - don't care what others are wearing. We have our own personal standards and we dress accordingly. It certainly does not ruin our cruise experience if others have different standards. If Carnival lets them in the dining room based on their published dress codes, no one should take issue. Our opinion is that they are not dressed properly, but doesn't affect our cruise. Plus, no one values or asked for our option so that is a mute point.

 

Same here. We dress accordingly and don't care what others wear. I just wish they'd quit being offended when I ask them to remove my used place settings...

[Nemspy]

I think the more relaxed atmosphere takes away from the cruise experience.

 

I know you've said other things and I'm all for keeping tank tops and sweats out of the dining room - but take a look at your opening sentence here.

 

Why do you generally go on a cruise? To stress out and not relax?

[chrislynnet]

I'm not sure if spring break had anything to do with people dressing down. I've been on Carnival and RCCL at both spring break and non break times and there's always people not "dressed up". I don't let it bug me because the way I figure, the people dressed down just make me and my family who are dressed up look a whole lot nicer.

 

I'm not picking on you ottasha honest -- you just said what a number of posters are saying. But on my 2 Carnival cruises I DID see most people dress up for elegant night. Not many tuxes true, but suits for the guys and long dresses or cocktail dresses for the ladies. I did not see anyone in casual clothes in the MDR. This was both on the 7-day Splendor to Alaska and the 4-day Paradise to Baja. Note: I saw the same thing on our 5-day RCI to Baja.

 

And in response to other posters who wonder why people care what other people are wearing? Because it's rude to dress so completely outside of cultural and specific guidelines. So yes, a lot of people will notice. Deliberately poor dressers are thumbing their collective noses at the cruiseline's request and at basic manners. Same thing with wearing a baseball cap in a nice restaurant. Maybe the maitre d' won't throw you out... but why would you choose to be clueless?

[mrobnmel]

I wasn't going to dress too fancy for our May cruise, simply because I don't have a gown. What did I find today at Ross for $49, a beautiful full length, sort of sexy calvin klein gown...so excited!!!!We never have an opportunity to dress up and our last formal photo was on a cruise in ummm 1996 I think. Sounds like I might look a little out of place, but that's OK. I do wish everyone dressed up though. Not that I care what everyone is wearing, but it just gives the evening a special feeling....this is something we don't do often...plus, I like to look at how pretty the other ladies are dressed, I think it's fun.

[Sailor_Sally]

 

And your referring to honoring the dress code as "bringing the five star experience down" is another snarky example of the manipulative attitude I'm talking about. :)

 

 

. I could care less what people wear or don't wear to the dining room or anywhere else but you sir seem to or you would not keep on referring to them as The McDonald's army which a real snarky remark . Name calling after the age of three is pretty tacky .

[WeBeCruisin']

. Name calling after the age of three is pretty tacky .

 

yet you still practice it. :D