MDR attire....

[Floridastorm]

Our last cruise was on Celebrity Equinox through Europe. Now, I am not a formal type guy. Live in Florida and am 73. We can't even spell tuxedo in this state. That being said my wife and I did not bring any formal wear nor did I even bring a sport jacket and tie. So, we ate at the other venues during formal nights, which is fine with me. However, my wife let me know that she didn't appreciate missing out on the extra special food including lobster. On this cruise I will be bringing my sport jacket and tie (never owned a tuxedo and wouldn't even know how to put one on) so that we can eat in the MDR during formal nights and also the Pinnacle Grill a couple of times. When you're 73 you do anything to keep your wife calm. ;)

 

By the way, I wonder why a huge line like NCL went totally informal. Don't believe they have formal nights any more. And, for those that are not aware, Carnival owns just about every cruise line with the exception of Cunard and some of the elite lines.

[LMaxwell]

Carnival owns just about every cruise line with the exception of Cunard and some of the elite lines.

 

Carnival owns Cunard and Seabourn, AIDA, Costa, HAL, Ibero, P&O, and Princess. They also used to own Windstar Cruises

Edited March 31, 2014 by LMaxwell

[Floridastorm]

Carnival owns Cunard and Seabourn, AIDA, Costa, HAL, Ibero, P&O, and Princess. They also used to own Windstar Cruises

 

And Royal Caribbean owns:

 

Royal Caribbean International

Celebrity Cruises

Pullmantur

Azamara

 

Norwegian only owns their ships

[LMaxwell]

Norwegian only owns their ships

 

Norwegian hasn't owned themselves for quite some time though. They were bought by a Malaysian group about 15 years ago and a few years back sold to an investment group that also owns Oceania cruise line.

 

The number of players in the cruise world is actually very limited; lots of sub brands to fill each niche. :)

[Floridastorm]

I'm still wondering what motivated NCL to go to Free Style dining? Has it been popular with passengers? Did they change because the majority of their passengers preferred free style to formal? Just curious.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Floridastorm

[cruz chic]

I'm still wondering what motivated NCL to go to Free Style dining? Has it been popular with passengers? Did they change because the majority of their passengers preferred free style to formal? Just curious.

Doubt if many folks on the HAL board could answer that. Why not ask the question on the NCL board or better yet the cruise line. They likely thought it was a good move to set them apart from the pack.

[bepsf]

(NCL) likely thought it was a good move to set them apart from the pack.

 

That's it in a nutshell.

NCL had nothing special to offer other than the S.S. Norway - and when that was gone, their only hope at survival was to differentiate themselves from the pack...

...and now that the industry has followed them - NCL has nothing special to offer. ;)

[teacher43]

I'm still wondering what motivated NCL to go to Free Style dining? Has it been popular with passengers? Did they change because the majority of their passengers preferred free style to formal? Just curious.

 

Having sailed NCL several times, I can say pretty assuredly that on the "dress up or not" nights most people smarten up their smart casual clothing. My DH puts on his grey sports coat (no tie) and I wear a long black skirt with a sparkly top. Smart casual is the order of the day for most of the evenings, but I must admit that we wear nice jeans with nice shirts usually. While the food is not great on NCL, at least we have been comfortable. For our upcoming HAL cruise that same long black skirt will be pulled out, but DH will be sporting his new suit (DS is getting married in September right before we leave on our cruise!).:D