Shorts and Royal Carribean

[Ex RCI Customer]

Have cruised with different companies and different standards of ships. Have just been on the Independance of the Seas, Royal Carribean.

We choose this as the advertised a dress standard in the restraints. We didn't want formal but smart. What we didn't want but got was football tops, shorts and flip flops in the restaurants. We complained but have just been told "thanks for drinking it to our attention". It wasn't the cheapest cruise. We could have gone to Butlins and wore our Manchester United in the restaurant if we had wanted to.

[cb at sea]

Unfortunately, most of the mainstream cruise lines have gotten more and more casual...they won't say anything to those not in "proper" attire, for fear of offending someone....and it just gets worse and worse! I have no problem with shorts/tees in the restaurants during the day, but for dinner, a "step up" is nice!

[BruceMuzz]

Since you posted this message in the food section of CC, I suppose the only correct answer must be, " Eat my shorts".

[crazy cajun]

As long as people have clothes on and they don't smell, What they wear doesn't affect how my food taste.

If you want meals where everyone dresses up you will have to move up to the high end lines. Carnival , rci ,etc have gotten away from "formal" nights and now office casual is the norm on the 2 cruise elegant nights. Even those rules are often not enforced.

[Hlitner]

Smart casual is one thing, but the wearing shorts, baseball caps, wife beaters, etc. is not smart casual...it is just crass. We saw this coming, several years ago, when RCI abandoned any attempt at "class" in favor of attracting hoards to their monster vessels. As long time RCI cruisers (DD was Diamond before her 15th birthday) we simply voted with our dollars and took our business elsewhere (we have cruised on 14 lines).

 

Not sure the OP needs to move to the "high end" luxury lines (such as Crystal, Regent and Seabourn" as there are lower cost alternatives. Celebrity still tries to maintain some semblance of decency (although they do not always succeed) as does Holland America and Princess. Cunard is always an option for those that prefer even dressier evenings. As to RCI, it would have to be one heck of a great deal to ever bring us back.

 

In a related issue, we were recently on a longer HAL cruise when we saw a man (we are talking a senior man) try to enter the MDR with a hat. The maitre'd told him to remove the hat....or go up to the Lido. He did remove the hat (his DW snickered) and a few in the queue quietly clapped (and laughed) after he was gone.

 

Hank

[bananawindnj]

I find that the dress up standards are a bit lower in the East Coast ports that many people can drive to. In line at check in, the local team sport shirts are worn by many people already . The demographics are totally different it seems. More families take cruises there, as airfare is not an issue and tend to be more informal as the kids don't dress up often. Just much younger cruisers in general who don't want to dress up on vacation.

With Royal, if I can't beat them, I join them.

[USNUZULOOSE]

I just don't want to see wearing caps at dinner. But not much you can do if they choose not to enforce the dress code. I wear what I want. And if I dress up so be it. I won't let it affect my meal.

[jolapo]

Just off Royal Caribbean last week and shorts are nothing compared to what we saw in the main ding room! Cowboys hats, baseball hats (worn backwards) and the best of all was an elderly man wearing jean OVERALLS (dirty)and a hat to top it off! Head waiter just smiled and said he would take care of it. Not!

[Cruising Golfer]

"You do your thing and I'll do mine. I am not on this earth to live up to your expectations, and I don't expect you to live up to mine. But if some how we meet, it's beautiful... :cool:

[Bookster99]

I find that the dress up standards are a bit lower in the East Coast ports that many people can drive to. In line at check in, the local team sport shirts are worn by many people already . The demographics are totally different it seems. More families take cruises there, as airfare is not an issue and tend to be more informal as the kids don't dress up often. Just much younger cruisers in general who don't want to dress up on vacation.

With Royal, if I can't beat them, I join them.

 

That's true. We have had Carnival and RC suggest that flying to a port like San Juan for embarcation will "improve" the formality of the other guests because of the additional cost and commitment of the airfare.

[Hlitner]

That's true. We have had Carnival and RC suggest that flying to a port like San Juan for embarcation will "improve" the formality of the other guests because of the additional cost and commitment of the airfare.

 

Baloney :) Or so we say. Cruises out of San Juan are no more formal then out of Florida....and may even be less formal if the ship has a huge group of locals (from PR).

 

If you want formality you need to move into the world of we old folks :) who take longer cruises on lines like HAL (which no longer has formal nights) or Cunard (probably the most formal line remaining). In fact, take a long cruise on a Cunard ship and you will find out what "Black Tie" really means. And on Cunard we did not change out of our formal wear after dinner..since the dress code remained for anyone entering the Ball Room. Even a short 6 day crossing on the Queen Mary 2 will usually have 3 Formal Nights (Black Tie) and two semi-formal (men must wear jacket and tie).

 

Hank

[goldenrod]

We are going on our first NCL cruise this November 21 Days dress as you want (no dress nights) after 35 cruises finally no jackets or ties!! YEAH!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ReneeFLL]

"You do your thing and I'll do mine. I am not on this earth to live up to your expectations, and I don't expect you to live up to mine. But if some how we meet, it's beautiful... :cool:

People should at least follow the rules or suggested attire.

Edited November 4, 2016 by ReneeFLL

[JPartin]

I'm a little behind chiming in here but I think a lot of it has to do with the ship and staff. On our most recent RCL cruise our party went to the MDR for breakfast on a port day. There was only 1 other lady in there, wearing a casual sundress, at the time. My husband and the other two guys in our group had to return to the room to change shirts because tshirts were not acceptable.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Edited November 16, 2016 by JPartin

[cruzeluver]

I'm a little behind chiming in here but I think a lot of it has to do with the ship and staff. On our most recent RCL cruise our party went to the MDR for breakfast on a port day. There was only 1 other lady in there, wearing a casual sundress, at the time. My husband and the other two guys in our group had to return to the room to change shirts because tshirts were not acceptable.

 

I am little surprised by this. We have worn t-shirts in the main dining room on Celebrity for breakfast/lunch in the Caribbean for years and they are definitely stricter than Royal.

[JPartin]

We must have just had a strict lady at the door that cruise. We typically eat breakfast in the MDR on port days to avoid the madness at the buffet and tshirts had not previously been a problem. What surprised me most was that she made them change from a t-shirt but the swimming trunks they were wearing were acceptable.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Hlitner]

We are clothes snobs (we still dress up for gala/formal/ nights) but have often worn T-Shirts to the MDR (and we have cruised on 14 cruise lines) with never a problem. I am not aware of any cruise line that has or enforces a dress code at breakfast....especially when in a port. We should add that we say this having spent more then 3 years on cruise ships.

 

Hank

[JPartin]

We are clothes snobs (we still dress up for gala/formal/ nights) but have often worn T-Shirts to the MDR (and we have cruised on 14 cruise lines) with never a problem. I am not aware of any cruise line that has or enforces a dress code at breakfast....especially when in a port. We should add that we say this having spent more then 3 years on cruise ships.

 

Hank

 

 

I'm glad that you have never experienced any issues. I am a seasoned cruiser as well and as previously stated I had never had an issue wearing a tshirt to the MDR for breakfast; however, this was not the case one morning for breakfast on Serenade of the Seas. This is why I pointed out that it must have to do with what staff member that is at the hostess station, because for the lady there that day tshirts were unacceptable dress that morning. I will add that the other port mornings we experienced no issues wearing tshirts.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Hlitner]

I'm glad that you have never experienced any issues. I am a seasoned cruiser as well and as previously stated I had never had an issue wearing a tshirt to the MDR for breakfast; however, this was not the case one morning for breakfast on Serenade of the Seas. This is why I pointed out that it must have to do with what staff member that is at the hostess station, because for the lady there that day tshirts were unacceptable dress that morning. I will add that the other port mornings we experienced no issues wearing tshirts.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

That does sound like a staff issue. We have seen related problems on other cruise lines such as with HAL. On that line we saw men turned away from the MDR on formal nights (now Gala nights) who were not wearing a jacket. But on the very next formal night there were quite a few men in the MDR without jackets. Sometimes its just luck of who is working the door.

 

Hank