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Formal/Gala Nights on Divina


Hlitner
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We are on the Divina for 21 days in the YC.  Should we bring our formal wear (which we own) or dress down.  If I wear a Tux on the formal nights, will that fit-in with everyone or would I be too dressy?

 

Hank

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I bring my tux on the cruise.  It is unfortunately a bit too dressy, as quite few gents dress up.  But I figure that I'm on a cruise ship, and that it's fun to dress up and look nice for DW.  She also dresses up for formal nights.  Needless to say we looked great on the stairs in the Divina YC.

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On 11/13/2018 at 3:31 PM, ready2cruzagain said:

We will be on the Divina this Sunday and DH packed 3 suits and I have packed 3 long dresses and 10 cocktail dresses.  It really does not bother me if others do not dress up but the only time we get to is on a cruise.  I say if you have room and enjoy dressing up then take the tux.

My husband and I will be on Sunday cruise and we’re looking forward to dressing up.

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Ive just been on Divina and was hugely disappointed with the gala nights.

Hardly anyone dressed up, in fact some turned up in tee shirts, shorts, and flip flops and were allowed in the formal dining area -never seen that allowed elsewhere.

Also, the food was the same as on other nights, nothing special, unlike P&O who offered Marco Pierre White designed meals on gala nights at no extra.

A real shame if MSC allow gala nights to fade away and they become just another night

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Ben on Divina, Sinfonia and Seaside this year. Formal/Gala/Elegant night is not really any different than any other night. MDR food was a total disappointment. 

People dressed no different than any other night. 

Yes,  a few did dress up. But very few! 

No enforcement of attire. 

We even asked Head waiters we knew about this. They said NO COMMENT! 

As for chair hogs. We sat in adult Deck 7 pool area. We picked our lounge at 815am. For lounges next to us had towels on them. We asked 2 crew members what were the rules. LOL

One told us that those towels were on those lounges since 630am. They can't do anything. 

Finally at 1130 4 people came to sit in those lounges. 

So there are no rules. 

Cruise lines don't want to lose a customer.  LOL

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37 minutes ago, Nidec said:

Ive just been on Divina and was hugely disappointed with the gala nights.

Hardly anyone dressed up, in fact some turned up in tee shirts, shorts, and flip flops and were allowed in the formal dining area -never seen that allowed elsewhere.

Also, the food was the same as on other nights, nothing special, unlike P&O who offered Marco Pierre White designed meals on gala nights at no extra.

A real shame if MSC allow gala nights to fade away and they become just another night

Totally agree with you! 

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Wondering the same thing. We're doing 14 nights Caribbean cruising before the Divina TA in March. Do I take my tux or not? I could wear it three or 4 times in the Caribbean and maybe 4 times on the 22 day TA. But can I keep it clean that long, lol. Might be easier just to dress down and do laundry on the ship or in port between cruises. But I do own the tux and only use it on cruises so what's the point of having it if I don't wear it, lol.

Tony

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The issue with towels on deck loungers is common across all mass market cruise lines.  We just returned from a Regal Princess cruise where it was common for most of the loungers to be "saved" by 8:30.  That line does have rules but they are not enforced.  On some cruises if we saw that a lounger was obviously not being used it was a simple matter to remove the towels and take the lounger.  We once did this and were sitting in the lounger for several hours when a couple came up to us and told us we were in "their chairs."  I told the we had been in those chairs for the past 3 hours (the rule is that unoccupied chairs will be cleared after 30 min) and we assumed that somebody must have moved "their chairs."  They were unhappy, but too bad :).

 

Folks have gotten wise and will now leave some personal items on loungers.  But a friend of ours found the solution.  If he sees the lounger empty for an extended period of time he simply takes all the personal items to one of the pool attendants and tells him that somebody must have forgotten their stuff (which then goes to Lost and Found).   We have been told that Disney has implemented a solution.  If a deck attendant sees a chair unoccupied for a period of time they will take the towel, fold it neatly and put it over the chair.  When they later come by on their "rounds" if that towel has not been touched they clear off the entire chair.

 

Hank

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I agree with others who posted who say the formal nights are not any different than regular nights, at least on the Caribbean sailings. We brought suits to dress up (packed them all the way from Germany), but the communication is so non-existent we didn't even know it was gala night. There was a tiny little mention in one small place on the daily planner - nothing mentioned of it anywhere else anywhere on the ship throughout the day. We wore regular attire to the MDR - we were disappointed we packed something we didn't even use just because we didn't even know. Also, the web site said we would have 3 gala nights on the 11-night cruise, but there were only 2 (unless I completely misread the web page). Also agree that the food was regular food - it didn't feel like the formal night at all. We dressed up for the second one, and it was still pretty disappointing because it didn't feel any different. The ship is beautiful and has so much potential to really play up gala night, but they failed.

 

I did not see a single person in a tuxedo either night. I would say about 40% of the people dressed up, 50% dressed nice, and 10% didn't do anything special (i.e. jeans and t-shirt or similar).

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I might be on my own here but the last thing I want to do is pack and wear a suit and tie on my holiday.

I will only book a cruise line with a relaxed dress code, wear a nice shirt and trousers, that's fine but no more. 

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18 hours ago, tweakes said:

the web site said we would have 3 gala nights on the 11-night cruise, but there were only 2

We had that as well, just 2 instead of 3.

 

The Divina is a lovely ship and the staff try really hard but are clearly overworked, so things inevitably go wrong.

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1 hour ago, Nidec said:

We had that as well, just 2 instead of 3.

 

The Divina is a lovely ship and the staff try really hard but are clearly overworked, so things inevitably go wrong.

A lot of the staff from the Divina went to the Seaside. We just got off of the Seaside and saw many of the staff we knew from the Divina. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I may be wrong, but the question of  not dressing up, especially on formal nights ( why called 'gala' if not to play down the term 'formal') would not even be considered on a "luxury" cruise line. We will continue to dress up on these formal nights if only to pay homage to those bygone days. I am finding it harder and harder each year to fit into my tux, so please excuse  my over-extended stomach and my unbuttoned jacket when you see me. We were on the RCL Allure this summer and on formal night we saw this couple our age sitting at one of the venues. He in his dapper tuxedo and she in her lovely gown, we passed by them. I stopped my wife and said I must go back and tell him he looked so dashing sitting there in his formal wear that I felt I was rubbing elbows with James Bond. Though I would never go so far as to iron  or have my shoe laces ironed, which I read recently of the "Royals".( I do not remember  if Veblen  ever wrote of ironing shoe laces in his "Theory of the Leisure Class".)  As much as I love Geoffrey Hughes portrayal of "Onslow" in "Keeping Up Appearances" and live with that everyday, the opportunity on one or two nights to fantasize my being in the presence and dressed up like other like minded dreamers is a thrill." Que es la vida?" Calderon de la Barca.

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I will admit that “Onslow” is my hero and my goal for the next life.  That being said both DW and I have been enjoying dressing up on the gala nights during our current Divina cruise.  Would rather be among the best dressed rather then looking like we were raised by wolves:)

 

Hank

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On Divina in 2017, probably about 10% of the people wore formal attire to gala night. Probably 70% wore dress clothes (jacket and tie for men, dresses or dress slacks and a blouse for ladies) and 20% just whatever they would wear to go to Walmart. You'll be fine. Just enjoy your cruise and don't worry about the other people at either extreme. As for the food, the gala night food was nothing special compared to the other nights. It was very good overall but not really a big deal. 

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We were on the Divina last Jan and will be again this coming Jan.  Not everyone, but a good number of men were in Tuxes and women in very dressy attire.  I  plan on bringing my Tux this coming Jan.  In any scenario,  I feel more comfortable being overdressed than underdressed. 

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16 hours ago, marco said:

We were on the Divina last Jan and will be again this coming Jan.  Not everyone, but a good number of men were in Tuxes and women in very dressy attire.  I  plan on bringing my Tux this coming Jan.  In any scenario,  I feel more comfortable being overdressed than under-dressed. 

We will be dressing up on Formal/Gala nights. I'll bring my Tux and my White Dinner Jacket. My GF will have (I'm sure) numerous gowns and cocktail dress's. We drive to the port from Orlando, Fl so weight restrictions do not apply. :classic_biggrin:

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I was with a customer yesterday, he told me that on his last cruise, as well as all the dinner suites, he took 10 bow ties, each to coordinate with his wife's gowns, enough for every night.

 

That's dedication.

Edited by ziggyuk
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