No smart casual night? Jeans are fine now?

[Cats' slave]

I just read a post on the Royal Caribbean board from people who returned from a trip on the Mariner a couple of days ago. They said there was no smart casual night, just 2 formal nights and 5 casual nights.

 

RCCL's web site still says 2 formal, 1 smart casual and the remainder casual on a 7 day cruise. I'll dress however they ask me to, but right now I don't know what that is. Has anyone heard about the loss of smart casual?

 

Oh, and there's another quote from RCCL saying jeans are now allowed in the dining room on casual nights. That won't affect me but I thought I'd pass the word.

[caviargal]

On a recent Serenade cruise, there were 2 smart casual, 2 formal and the balance casual. Chops and Portofinos are smart casual every evening.

[Happy ks]

I'll still be leaving my jeans at home. For me, they are work clothes and I'm on vacation. Time to dress up a bit :) .

[TupeloHoney]

Let's just hope my husband doesn't find out about jeans in the diningroom! It's a struggle to get him to wear anything but jeans for any occassion. But he is at least trained now that he cannot wear jeans in the diningroom on the cruise! Eek!

[ciderapple]

Whatever the dress code, everyone should feel free to dress above that standard! The dress code is a MINIMUM requirement :)

[Sassy Chassis]

It was the same on Rhapsody...2 formal nights and the rest casual.

[caviargal]

I emailed the district manager this morning re the dress code debate and asked for clarification. This is her response:

 

"Hi, Kim-

 

No, there has not been a change in the dress code policy, and yes it is enforced. The dining room is only formal on 2 nights (on a 7-night cruise), and the rest of the nights can vary. The dress suggestion for the dining room each night is printed in the Cruise Compass for the day. I have seen casual nights in the dining room, but it depends on the ship.

There can also be special circumstances that can cause a small minority to not be able to follow the theme of dress for the night, i.e., lost luggage, etc., but overall the code is adhered to. If you need more info, please let me know. Thanks, and have a great day!"

[Jane110]

Whatever the dress code, everyone should feel free to dress above that standard! The dress code is a MINIMUM requirement :)

 

 

Well said! Thanks.

[TupeloHoney]

I emailed the district manager this morning re the dress code debate and asked for clarification. This is her response:

 

"Hi, Kim-

 

No, there has not been a change in the dress code policy, and yes it is enforced. The dining room is only formal on 2 nights (on a 7-night cruise), and the rest of the nights can vary. The dress suggestion for the dining room each night is printed in the Cruise Compass for the day. I have seen casual nights in the dining room, but it depends on the ship.

There can also be special circumstances that can cause a small minority to not be able to follow the theme of dress for the night, i.e., lost luggage, etc., but overall the code is adhered to. If you need more info, please let me know. Thanks, and have a great day!"

 

Hmmmm, so does this mean no jeans in the diningroom? She doesn't really address that specifically. Interesting how you get different answers from different people! We'll still not wear jeans in the diningroom regardless. You can bet my husband will run back to the room after dinner to change into his jeans. But at least he won't wear them in the diningroom! ;)

[Cats' slave]

I won't be wearing blue jeans to dinner, but I will be wearing my white ones with a nice blouse. I asked about this a while back and you gave me permission. :)

 

Even with the response above, I can't figure out if it's 2 formal, 5 casual or what. It sounds like it can vary from ship to ship. So what I'm going to do is bring the things I originally planned to bring and the heck with it. If I'm a little overdressed one night, it won't matter.

[Monthend]

I won't be wearing blue jeans to dinner' date=' but I will be wearing my white ones with a nice blouse. I asked about this a while back and you gave me permission. :)

 

Even with the response above, I can't figure out if it's 2 formal, 5 casual or what. It sounds like it can vary from ship to ship. So what I'm going to do is bring the things I originally planned to bring and the heck with it. If I'm a little overdressed one night, it won't matter.[/quote']

 

We were on the Voyager of the Seas in July. The first day the compas announced there would be a smart casual night but it never happened. It was supposed to be the last night but I thought that would be a little strange as everyone is packing. The casual nights were a little too casual for me. Cut off jeans and tube tops. People coming in to dinner at 7:00 for a 6:15 seating.

[nanner10]

We sailed on the RCI Mariner (eastern) in December and the RCI Navigator (western) in January. We saw a very noticeable difference from our other recent cruises. Both my husband I kept wondering what was up. We noticed that a large percentage of people were wearing very casual clothes in the dining room. We had the main seating (6PM) for both cruises.

 

We did notice that there were no smart casual nights listed for the Navigator. I will have to check what my Compasses said for the Mariner. We saw many people who looked like they just came back from the beach. One woman at the next table showed up every night in what easily looked like hiking clothes; hiking style shorts and very casual t-shirts with sneakers or sandals. Her tablemates were also very casually dressed. Would it surprise you to know that they showed up between 30-45 minutes late for dinner every night?

 

Actually, that was the other thing we were surprised to see, many, many people seated around us showed up about 20-45 minutes late every night. The wait team crew next to us (the one with the lady in the hiking clothes) had I believe around 5 tables to serve. All five nights that we ate in the main dining room not one of their tables had anyone seated before 6:30. You could see that they were visible upset, but, once the people showed up they treated them wonderfully. I doubt I could have pulled that off! Kudos to them! Shame on the guests.

 

I should mention that I'm not sure what the attire was like (or how late people were) on formal nights, as we went to Chops and Portofino on formals nights on both cruises. In gerenral though, we saw lots of shorts, jeans, t-shirts, tank tops for men, sneakers and one guy who came to dinner every night wearing surf board style shorts, sleeveless shirts and sneakers. What's up with that??

[Buster27]

I think the reason more and more people are NOT dressing appropriately for the dining room is because they get away with it.

 

The cruise lines may SAY they will enforce the rules, but they do not. Certainly not Carnival or RC. On our last trip in Dec. on the Victory, I could not BELIEVE the way people dressed, even on formal night we saw tee shirts and baseball hats. Not a word was said. I think when people see other people dressed like that, they think, why should I waste time and money getting all dressed up to sit around people dressed like they are at a ball park???

 

The cruiselines are a business trying to attract larger and larger crowds of people with these massive sized ships. I think alot of these people have never cruised or just don't "get" or want to "get" the formal atmosphere concept of cruising. Those that enjoy this I think choose the more upscale - expensive- cruiselines.

[momofmeg]

I just read a post on the Royal Caribbean board from people who returned from a trip on the Mariner a couple of days ago. They said there was no smart casual night' date=' just 2 formal nights and 5 casual nights.

 

RCCL's web site still says 2 formal, 1 smart casual and the remainder casual on a 7 day cruise. I'll dress however they ask me to, but right now I don't know what that is. Has anyone heard about the loss of smart casual?

 

Oh, and there's another quote from RCCL saying jeans are now allowed in the dining room on casual nights. That won't affect me but I thought I'd pass the word.[/quote']

 

There was no smart casual night when I was on the Mariner back in Oct. but if you eat in Portofinos or Chops they are smart casual.

 

 

We had a table full of people close to us in the dinningroom that wore jeans and tee shirts with slogans on them every night- even the 2 formal nights, at least every night I was there. The last night I ate at Chops and got to dress up-the atmosphere at Chops and the FOOD as much nicer and well worth the $20 extra charge.

 

I thought the dining room food pretty much stunk. They tried to do "gourmert" food with what to me seemed substandard ingredients. I prefered the simple fare in the windjammer to the dinningroom. My feeling is-don't do 4 star type food unless you use quality ingredients. Just give me the simple fare.

 

Johnny Rockets was very good-ofcourse that food is not so "good" for you-and was always super crowded-the restuarant would only seat around 100 people and although you could get take out-you still had to stand in line with those who were wanting seats in the restuarant. That is a problem they should fix-there should be a take out line.

[momofmeg]

I emailed the district manager this morning re the dress code debate and asked for clarification. This is her response:

 

"Hi, Kim-

 

No, there has not been a change in the dress code policy, and yes it is enforced. The dining room is only formal on 2 nights (on a 7-night cruise), and the rest of the nights can vary. The dress suggestion for the dining room each night is printed in the Cruise Compass for the day. I have seen casual nights in the dining room, but it depends on the ship.

There can also be special circumstances that can cause a small minority to not be able to follow the theme of dress for the night, i.e., lost luggage, etc., but overall the code is adhered to. If you need more info, please let me know. Thanks, and have a great day!"

 

Caviergal if you read any of my posts since I came back from my Mariner cruise you would KNOW in spite of what the district manager told you in that e-mail that this is not true. I do not make up things. So expect to be disapointed when you do your Mariner cruise. I know from your posts you will absolutely hate it. Unless you luck out with a better class of passengers then I did.

 

It seems to me that any cruisline (or cruiseships) that attracts families and younger crowds that people do not want to dress-as I have said in my posts MANY times I have found this true of Carnival, RCCL and Disney. (and all you guys know Disney is far from cheap)

 

Now I may occasionially cruise these lines again-when I am with friends who choose these lines or as I have posted, we are considering a European cruise on the Jewel of the Seas-because the posts I have read here-that on the European cruises even on lines like Carnival and RCCL dress is differant then the caribbean-plus the Jewel was a good third less then Celebrity or Princess and we would have a balcony instead of an inside cabin. I have also been told the radience class ships are smaller then voyager class ships-less pax-less children-and the food is much better.

 

But I am still debating about that-and since the schedules for fall 2007 do not come out until June-I still have time to consider that.

 

To the OP-I say just be prepared-you can still have a good time-and if your cruise turns out beter you will just be pleasantly surprised-and if it is like mine-at least you will not be disapointed as you will be expecting this. Have a good time and don't let a bunch of jerks who do whatever they want not ruin the cruise for you.

[caviargal]

Caviergal if you read any of my posts since I came back from my Mariner cruise you would KNOW in spite of what the district manager told you in that e-mail that this is not true. I do not make up things. So expect to be disapointed when you do your Mariner cruise. I know from your posts you will absolutely hate it. Unless you luck out with a better class of passengers then I did.

 

It seems to me that any cruisline (or cruiseships) that attracts families and younger crowds that people do not want to dress-as I have said in my posts MANY times I have found this true of Carnival, RCCL and Disney. (and all you guys know Disney is far from cheap)

 

 

QUOTE]

 

momofmeg, we have cancelled the Mariner cruise and I have no more plans to cruise with RCI. I have an upcoming working cruise on HAL and a family cruise on Celebrity - we are getting married while on Century in November - but I think that will be it for awhile.

 

I will save up and cruise with a luxury line. I really cannot get excited about cruising on RCI or any of the mainstream lines when they are allowing shorts, ball caps, etc. in the dining room. It has just gotten too sloppy for my taste.

[Cathy Maneri]

I've only cruised RCL and Celebrity and I've found on my last few cruises on RCL that the other cruisers would prefer a laid-back cruise vacation. They don't want to get dressed up, don't care about gourmet food.

 

Royal Caribbean is always promoting their ships as a cruise with alot of sports activities and I think that they are getting that type of cruiser.

 

Even though I find the RCl ships was pleasing to the eye, especially the Radiance class, I prefer Celebrity for the ambiance I want. Good food, service and courteous people. So far I've always found that on Celebrity.

 

It's all a matter of taste and what kind of cruise you want. Instead of complaining about a certain line, just try another line. There are so many to choose from, I'm sure you will find one to suit your taste.

 

It's rude to show up late for dinner wherever you are. Personally I ask for a small table, even a table for two. I would rather meet other people while I'm having a cocktail and then talk to them. Just my preference.

[momofmeg]

Caviergal if you read any of my posts since I came back from my Mariner cruise you would KNOW in spite of what the district manager told you in that e-mail that this is not true. I do not make up things. So expect to be disapointed when you do your Mariner cruise. I know from your posts you will absolutely hate it. Unless you luck out with a better class of passengers then I did.

 

It seems to me that any cruisline (or cruiseships) that attracts families and younger crowds that people do not want to dress-as I have said in my posts MANY times I have found this true of Carnival, RCCL and Disney. (and all you guys know Disney is far from cheap)

 

 

QUOTE]

 

momofmeg, we have cancelled the Mariner cruise and I have no more plans to cruise with RCI. I have an upcoming working cruise on HAL and a family cruise on Celebrity - we are getting married while on Century in November - but I think that will be it for awhile.

 

I will save up and cruise with a luxury line. I really cannot get excited about cruising on RCI or any of the mainstream lines when they are allowing shorts, ball caps, etc. in the dining room. It has just gotten too sloppy for my taste.

 

Well I guess I will still cruise the family lines at times-as our income would mean we would rarely cruise otherwise-but I do want our 25th to be special and nicer.

 

I have just decided when I do the family lines-I will dress more casually-I won't be a slob like others I have seen-but I will wear things like khaki on casual nights and simple black dresses on formal nights-and I will not let what others wear or do bother me. In others words I will just let my expectations be lowered.

 

Congrats on your upcoming marriage-that sounds wonderful-I am sure you will be a very beautiful and happy bride. You will have to post a picture of your wedding dress-I am sure it will be something of timeless elegance.