Were you sorry.................?

[Hikini]

We have done the AK cruise twice (both on NCL) and will be doing it again this summer. Neither time did we dress up for formal night, although we were perfectly presentable in appropriate clothing. We dined in the main dining rooms, right along with those who chose to dress up. I would guess that only about 1/3 of the people chose to get all gussied up and I think some of them were only for the photos take that night. To each their own. Or have I said that before?

 

I wear dresses 99% of the time anyway, and have some casual and some that would be considered "Sunday dresses". The men in our group wear slacks and resort casual shirts. The women wear dresses, skirts or nice slacks. That's one thing I love about NCL - it's freestyle! They ask you not to wear jeans or t-shirts in the main dining rooms for the evening meal, but I have never seen anyone kicked out when wearing jeans.

 

Enjoy!

 

Hikini:D

[carbon]

We are on the sapphire August 7th, which nights are formal?

[Host Caroline]

No formal wear here either.. fortunately Princess has PC dining so it's not necesssary.. too much else to pack, too much to see and do.. not gettin' all gussied up to eat the same food in a different dining room!

[andreaplants]

I may be mis-interpreting - we are taking princess later this month - I thought that on formal nights, even with PC dining, you have to get dressed up to eat in the PC dining room...?

 

 

Thanks!

 

Andrea

[nancycoop1]

We have cruised many places, and always taken formal wear. This trip we decided not to. I am taking one short cocktail dress and he is taking a sports coat and that is as formal as it is going to get. I truly don't want to offend anyone, but taking long gown, jewelry etc. to Alaska just doesn't make sense.

 

We may eat in the dining room and see if we are kicked out.

[cruisy]

Don't have this conversation on the fashion boards. Someone is being raked over the coals there for wanting to wear new keds to dinner on casual night.

[cruisermama]

Just a thought, the best food has always been on formal night! What's the big deal? Just take one nice outfit or a tie and you're set. You should at least check the menu every day and make your decision from that.

[WyoFloater]

We'll be cruising with kids (young teens) this June and while we can't afford to put everyone in tuxes and gowns, we're going to do our best to be "formal".

 

It seems like there's fewer and fewer opportunities these days to expose children to elegance, formality, and something that is increasingly rare these days - civility.

 

And, we want to have some fun doing it! Is there a better way?!?

[Time2sail]

We will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary during our cruise to Alaska. We will be doing the "renewal of our vows" ceremony and attending the formal nights in the dining room and Pinnacle Grill.

 

Looking our very best is always special and romantic to us and we would really miss formal nights. But, we are the hiking, swimming, diving, snorkeling,fishing, kayaking, adventurous types, too. Best of both worlds on a cruise;)

 

Have a great cruise everyone!

[Time2sail]

We'll be cruising with kids (young teens) this June and while we can't afford to put everyone in tuxes and gowns, we're going to do our best to be "formal".

 

It seems like there's fewer and fewer opportunities these days to expose children to elegance, formality, and something that is increasingly rare these days - civility.

 

And, we want to have some fun doing it! Is there a better way?!?

 

Lucky parents and lucky children--I am sure you will all look wonderful. Have a great time in Alaska.

[tafficat]

We love to cruise - but dh just doesn't get a thrill from formal wear. On our second cruise we did NCL "freestyle" and decided not to pack the formal wear. He was happy which made me happy and we truly did not miss it at all.

We are both excited about Alaska but know we can do without getting too gussied up for dinner and this year might try one of the alternative restaurants. Just one less worry with packing the suitcases and garment bags.

[Char]

It really depends on the cruise line you choose. Some are geared to a more formal ambience than others. On Celebrity, even in Alaska, you will see a majority dressing according to the dress code of the evening. I guess that's why we have so many different cruise lines catering to so many different tastes! :D Something for everyone.

[Cherylc2]

Just got off the Mercury yesterday, and, after a long day of kayaking and a flight, my husband and I decided to eat in our sky suite rather than deal with dressing up. Our 'butler' told us that he was serving dinner in THREE other rooms that night. (That means FOUR out of TEN suites had decided to skip the second formal dinner.)

 

At least in the suites, we had the same menu, and our butler spread the courses out over about an hour and a quarter.

 

We ate on our balcony, and it was wonderful!

 

CC

[Xoe]

We've been on 13 cruises, 5 of them Alaska, and the only one for which we took formal clothing was the first. We don't like to dress up, don't own much of that kind of clothing, & live in an area where dressing up only occurs for weddings and funerals, and not necessarily even then. Also, one ends up with way too much luggage, especially if a land tour is involved. I'd rather use my luggage space for photographic equipment, binoculars, hiking boots, etc.

 

That said, we do respect fellow passengers for whom this is important: on formal nights we wear clothing that does not flaunt the mode & mood, dine at the buffet, and take a circuitous route to the theater if the show on formal night is something we want to see, so that we do not walk through areas of the ship where people are enjoying their fancy evening.

 

We choose cruises by ITINERARY; the places we go are the focus of how we pack and what we choose to do. It works for us!

 

(BTW, this is one reason we like NCL's freestyle cruising -- dress-up is not an issue then.)

[Hikini]

Xoe - You're much too nice!:p We don't dress up either - but I'd never thought about staying away from the areas where the fancy folks are. We just traipse right on through! LOL! I guess that's my idea of freestyling. Even though we aren't dressed up (although we are very presentable) we are still free to roam.

 

We'll be on the Spirit in September and our fancy clothes (the few we have) are staying home in the closet. Can't wait!

 

Hikini:D

[Xoe]

Forgot to mention: at least on Sapphire Princess, choosing an alternative restaurant does not mean not dressing up. Sabatini's reservations desk guys absolutely scowled at us when we asked whether, if we were to reserve for formal night, we would be able to come in more casual attire. The other "alternative restaurants" on Sapphire are really just extensions of the main dining room but with no fixed seating, in that their menus are all the same.

 

For not dressing up, our choices were the Horizon Court buffet, or room service -- which was fine with us!

[Bsan1221]

Well on my Carnival Spirit cruise I didnt know there were 2 formal nights for a 1 week cruise.. I only packed for one formal night, nothing fancy, but cute...

 

the 2nd night I did go into the dining room and most people where dressed up, I did swear a nice blazer w/ jeans to the dining room.. I did feel a little out of place at first but then the menus came and I forgot about what I was wearing.. ;)

 

Anyhow, I wore jeans everynight to the dining room, however, I did dress it up with heels and a blazer... Always nice to dress up my down clothes.

[judynorth]

On our recent cruise I would have regretted it if we had not dressed for the formal nights. It is not so much the dress as having to miss our delightful table mates. We 2 couples sat with 4 wonderful ladies from England. I would not have wanted to miss a single night with them. They were lots of fun and we enjoyed hearing about their lives and families in England while we shared about our lives in the US. We all hugged each other and toasted our new friendships the last night of the cruise. It was the way cruising should be. That is one of the reasons that we opted for traditional seating. BTW, they dress up more than we did every night. It didn't seem to bother them though. They probably thought that we were from "the Colonies" and just didn't know any better :) .

[EGG]

This does not really answer your question - but it may help you if you want to participate in formal nights because you like eating in the dining room.

 

We have done some 12 day cruises and that makes a jacket more of a must since they have 3 formal and 3 or 4 informal nights. My husband takes a black suit. He adds a tuxedo shirt and cumberbund for formal nights and a shirt and tie for informal nights.

 

I have 1 long black skirt and 3 sparkly tops (not those heavy sequined tops but lightweight). I wear nice slacks for informal nights.

 

The last cruise the others men at our table wore sports jackets for both formal and informal. The woman added a shawl and it dressed up their informal clothes. One of the couples was continuing on with another 12 day cruise.

 

We had a great time and nobody cared if you wore the same thing twice, or if you mixed and matched. If you eat with that type of person - that is their problem.

 

We weighed our bags and our 2 suitcases were 40-45 pounds. We also had 1 garment bag and 1 carry-on. We did a 4 day precruise. You may have to do some washing. Also, layer for warmth. That way you can wash the lighter bottom layer only.

 

Happy packing.

[Chris]

we always do the formal thing on our warm climate cruises- When we go to Alaska this June we have decided on a compromise- black cocktail dress and husband will wear jacket and dockers-much as if we were going out for a nice dinner at home. The tux and gowns are not coming on this trip, that way we can skipthe extra garment bag.

Chris

[smart_alec]

Linda,

 

We weren't sorry at all. We were cruising with NCL specifically so that we don't have to dress up, have fixed seating, or anything else like that. We wanted to see Alaska. We didn't care about much of anything else. And we enjoyed ourselves just fine. BTW, we were in one of the main dining rooms not dressed up on a formal night, and didn't have any problems. Freestyle Cruising rocks.

 

Were you sorry you did not pack for formal night?

...

Linda

[cuddlepie]

We have just got back from Alaskan cruise on the Volendam and attended both formal nights. We had also spent 2 weeks on a bus tour around the rockies, etc. While it was a bit of effort to dress up ( only black trousers and a sparkly top) it was refreshing to feel glamorous ( so to speak!!!!) after so long living out of a suitcase. It was the only night we danced as well which was great after so much sitting down on the bus.

Each to their own though. We certainly were on the cruise for the scenery etc and not for partying but still did it!! The formal photos were worth it too.:D

[Tjalex07]

I have done it both ways, but I do enjoy the opportunity to go formal if I choose to. I do not pack formal clothing, except suit. The tux I order through the cruise line, usually. I tell them my measurements, much to my embarrassment, and they have the tux waiting in my cabin on arrival or soon after. They have always fit perfectly and do not cost any more than if I rented one and brought it with me. The main point is that you do what you desire to do, it is your vacation!

[lynnemac]

Maybe I'm missing something here but doesn't formal night mean formal. At least when dining in the main dining rooms. If you don't want to follow the appropriate dress of the evening eat somewhere else on board.