Speciality Dining Dress Code

[dltodaro]

I read that Speciality Dining is smart casual.  My hubby and son are casual dressers.  What is the typical attire seen at Specialty Restaurants?  
 

Thank you,

Deb

[not-enough-cruising]

On a typical Caribbean cruise, I wear pleated shorts, a golf shirt or short sleeve button down to all dining venues. 

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

It varies from venue to venue. For example, 150 Central Park is quite an elegant setting, whereas the Mexican and BBQ places are significantly more casual. That being said, if you can get them into a button-down shirt or polo, they would be okay at even the more upscale places. I don't think I've ever seen anyone turned away for wearing jeans or shorts. Just avoid gym/pool attire.

[Surfguyxxx]

We usually just wear long pants and a polo or button down shirt.  Never had an issue.  I've seen shorts in the nicer restaurants but I personally only wear them to the buffet.  

[OCSC Mike]

In the Caribbean, anything above shorts and a t-shirt is fine.

 

Like the poster above, I wear pants (nothing fancy, khakis/nice jeans) and a polo/short sleeve button down every night no matter where I eat or if it's formal night... nice shorts would be fine too, tbh.

[jalves]

The typical attire is indeed "smart casual".  However, you'll find pretty much anything goes other than beach attire.  

[Morecruisesplz]

12 minutes ago, jalves said:

The typical attire is indeed "smart casual".  However, you'll find pretty much anything goes other than beach attire.  

Shorts, tshirts and ballcaps are often seen. Bottom line is they won't turn anyone away.

[Stealthdog]

We wore pants and shirts every night, but saw many in shorts and tshirts, even in 150.  If there is a dress code, it doesnt seem enforced.

[cruise_co]

4 hours ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

It varies from venue to venue. For example, 150 Central Park is quite an elegant setting, whereas the Mexican and BBQ places are significantly more casual. That being said, if you can get them into a button-down shirt or polo, they would be okay at even the more upscale places. I don't think I've ever seen anyone turned away for wearing jeans or shorts. Just avoid gym/pool attire.

We had 3 in our large group, both male and female, asked to change out of nice pleated golf shorts/polos/loafers at 150 Central Park last month on Harmony. We were hurrying after we got back on the ship and  I had forgotten to tell our adult children shorts weren't allowed. We ate in specialty dining / Coastal Kitchen for every other meal and nice shorts were being worn everywhere by many. After that embarrassment though nobody tried shorts at the Chef's table the following night 🙂 

[cruise_co]

50 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

We wore pants and shirts every night, but saw many in shorts and tshirts, even in 150.  If there is a dress code, it doesnt seem enforced.

They were certainly enforcing it on Harmony last month in 150 Central Park.  My adult children had on pleated golf shorts/polos/loafers.  The person at the podium whispered to our genie to ask the children to go change into long pants. I am not sure if she was more emboldened to ask the genie to be the bad guy to enforce the dress code or if she enforced it with everyone. I would guess the latter as I looked around and everybody had long pants on.  Needless to say, the 20 year olds never showed up at specialty dining in shorts for the rest of the cruise 🙂

[Oceansaway17]

2 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

We wore pants and shirts every night, but saw many in shorts and tshirts, even in 150.  If there is a dress code, it doesnt seem enforced.

agree and more and more folks are taking their noisy kids to these speciality restaurants and so the vibe is a bit more noisy and not as relaxing as some folks might want.  For me it is about the food and the service, and I try to tune out the rest,

[nasa1974]

On a different CruiseLine I watched a gentleman walk into the main dining room wearing jean coveralls and a T-shirt.  SMH!!

[not-enough-cruising]

6 minutes ago, nasa1974 said:

On a different CruiseLine I watched a gentleman walk into the main dining room wearing jean coveralls and a T-shirt.  SMH!!

I’m FunderStruck

[PhillyFan33579]

6 hours ago, cruise_co said:

They were certainly enforcing it on Harmony last month in 150 Central Park.  My adult children had on pleated golf shorts/polos/loafers.  The person at the podium whispered to our genie to ask the children to go change into long pants. I am not sure if she was more emboldened to ask the genie to be the bad guy to enforce the dress code or if she enforced it with everyone. I would guess the latter as I looked around and everybody had long pants on.  Needless to say, the 20 year olds never showed up at specialty dining in shorts for the rest of the cruise 🙂

I have cruised on Harmony twice in the last several months. We had the UDP for both cruises and ate at 150 Central Park 5 times. I wore shorts every night there (and to every other speciality restaurant we went to) and never got turned away. 

[clskinsfan]

24 minutes ago, nasa1974 said:

On a different CruiseLine I watched a gentleman walk into the main dining room wearing jean coveralls and a T-shirt.  SMH!!

I always wonder how this impacted your dinner exactly? One thing I will say NCL does way better than Royal. You wear what you want when you want. If you want to wear a ball gown good for you. If I want to wear shorts and a t shirt. Good for me. 

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I have cruised on Harmony twice in the last several months. We had the UDP for both cruises and ate at 150 Central Park 5 times. I wore shorts every night there (and to every other speciality restaurant we went to) and never got turned away. 

Same here in July on Harmony. Shorts every night, every venue, no one batted an eye. 

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, clskinsfan said:

I always wonder how this impacted your dinner exactly? One thing I will say NCL does way better than Royal. You wear what you want when you want. If you want to wear a ball gown good for you. If I want to wear shorts and a t shirt. Good for me. 

Different; not better, not worse, just different. 

[Stealthdog]

7 hours ago, cruise_co said:

They were certainly enforcing it on Harmony last month in 150 Central Park.  My adult children had on pleated golf shorts/polos/loafers.  The person at the podium whispered to our genie to ask the children to go change into long pants. I am not sure if she was more emboldened to ask the genie to be the bad guy to enforce the dress code or if she enforced it with everyone. I would guess the latter as I looked around and everybody had long pants on.  Needless to say, the 20 year olds never showed up at specialty dining in shorts for the rest of the cruise 🙂

 

On the Symphony last week, about 1/4 of the customers were wearing shorts and tshirts.  Went two nights and it was the same both nights.  Noone seemed to care (staff or other guests).  Chops, Jaimes, and Hooked Seafood were all the same.  I don't remember what people were wearing in Wonderland - it was the first night and most tables were empty.

[Stealthdog]

5 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

agree and more and more folks are taking their noisy kids to these speciality restaurants and so the vibe is a bit more noisy and not as relaxing as some folks might want.  For me it is about the food and the service, and I try to tune out the rest,

 

There were only a handful of children in the specialty dining restaurants on our cruise.  If there was a crying baby, I'm not sure what my response would have been. In fact on our whole cruise, there weren't a ton of kids.

 

I personally don't care what people wear.  We wear what we want, and others can wear what they want.

 

Oddly, every restaurant we went to, the same father and son from Chile went to.  The teenager didn't wear shorts, but he wore jeans and a t-shirt every night.  The adult men seemed to be more liberal with "dress code" 🙂 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Stealthdog

[cruise_co]

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I have cruised on Harmony twice in the last several months. We had the UDP for both cruises and ate at 150 Central Park 5 times. I wore shorts every night there (and to every other speciality restaurant we went to) and never got turned away. 

 

2 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Same here in July on Harmony. Shorts every night, every venue, no one batted an eye. 

 

2 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

 

On the Symphony last week, about 1/4 of the customers were wearing shorts and tshirts.  Went two nights and it was the same both nights.  Noone seemed to care (staff or other guests).  Chops, Jaimes, and Hooked Seafood were all the same.  I don't remember what people were wearing in Wonderland - it was the first night and most tables were empty.

I am not sure what to tell you. Are you implying I am lying? This was the first week in September.  We were Star Class on Harmony so ate all our meals In specialty dining or Coastal Kitchen. We had just arrived at 150 Central Park and our genie was checking us in when he turned to us and told us that our two sons and our daughter-in-law were being asked to go put on long pants. The guys were in typical 20's wear of dress shorts, polos and sock less loafers, daughter-in-law nice mid thigh shorts, a blouse, and sandals. This wasn't sloppy tshirts and athletic shorts and flip flops. It was the same type of outfit they had worn to Chops, Coastal Kitchen, Jamie's, and Wonderland with no issues. Our genie seemed very apologetic but said it was their rules. 

 

To those that say they have never seen someone turned away, we had the unfortunate embarrassing moment of it happening last month.

[PhillyFan33579]

4 hours ago, cruise_co said:

 

 

I am not sure what to tell you. Are you implying I am lying? This was the first week in September.  We were Star Class on Harmony so ate all our meals In specialty dining or Coastal Kitchen. We had just arrived at 150 Central Park and our genie was checking us in when he turned to us and told us that our two sons and our daughter-in-law were being asked to go put on long pants. The guys were in typical 20's wear of dress shorts, polos and sock less loafers, daughter-in-law nice mid thigh shorts, a blouse, and sandals. This wasn't sloppy tshirts and athletic shorts and flip flops. It was the same type of outfit they had worn to Chops, Coastal Kitchen, Jamie's, and Wonderland with no issues. Our genie seemed very apologetic but said it was their rules. 

 

To those that say they have never seen someone turned away, we had the unfortunate embarrassing moment of it happening last month.

I don’t think anyone is implying you are lying or doesn’t believe what you experienced. I just think what you experienced is pretty rare on an RCI ship. Like you mentioned you and your family didn’t have any issues at other speciality restaurants or CK, which is consistent with what other posters in this thread have experienced.
 

Just an FYI, Celebrity is a lot more strict enforcing their dress code. I have been on a couple of Celebrity cruises this year and witnessed numerous people denied entry to a dining or speciality restaurant. I wear pants every night when cruising on Celebrity because based on my experience they usually enforce their dress code. 

[Tin can]

6 hours ago, cruise_co said:

 

 

I am not sure what to tell you. Are you implying I am lying? This was the first week in September.  We were Star Class on Harmony so ate all our meals In specialty dining or Coastal Kitchen. We had just arrived at 150 Central Park and our genie was checking us in when he turned to us and told us that our two sons and our daughter-in-law were being asked to go put on long pants. The guys were in typical 20's wear of dress shorts, polos and sock less loafers, daughter-in-law nice mid thigh shorts, a blouse, and sandals. This wasn't sloppy tshirts and athletic shorts and flip flops. It was the same type of outfit they had worn to Chops, Coastal Kitchen, Jamie's, and Wonderland with no issues. Our genie seemed very apologetic but said it was their rules. 

 

To those that say they have never seen someone turned away, we had the unfortunate embarrassing moment of it happening last month.

 

I've seen people turned away from both the MDR and speciality restaurants many times although it was for sailings from the UK and Europe. 

 

Perhaps not relevant to the discussion here but as a cruiser from the UK who has sailed many times from US ports it seems to me peoples desire to dress up and the expectation of the staff seem way higher from your North East ports than it does from Florida ports.

 

Same country and cruise line but different local market expectations and rules between the ports, I have a bit of sympathy with the staff with no real clear ruling on this. 

 

 

[Stealthdog]

1 hour ago, Tin can said:

 

I've seen people turned away from both the MDR and speciality restaurants many times although it was for sailings from the UK and Europe. 

 

Perhaps not relevant to the discussion here but as a cruiser from the UK who has sailed many times from US ports it seems to me peoples desire to dress up and the expectation of the staff seem way higher from your North East ports than it does from Florida ports.

 

Same country and cruise line but different local market expectations and rules between the ports, I have a bit of sympathy with the staff with no real clear ruling on this. 

 

 

 

Thats a really good point - maybe enforcement may be more regional, so very well may be relevant.  We have never taken a cruise (from any line) out of the North East.

 

Agree completely with the other poster about celebrity - we have seen dress codes enforced regularly (even from Florida sailings) and wouldn't even try to wear shorts for dinner.

[Stealthdog]

7 hours ago, cruise_co said:

 

 

I am not sure what to tell you. Are you implying I am lying? This was the first week in September.  We were Star Class on Harmony so ate all our meals In specialty dining or Coastal Kitchen.

 

I don't see anyone suggesting you are lying.  I think what people are suggesting is your experience appears to be an exception to enforcement, and most people have experienced a much laxer enforcement.

[loman]

I waltzed into Coastal Kitchen last week in shorts and a short sleeve shirt on

formal night. I didnt actually know or i would of worn long pants rather than the shorts. Id say more than half were dressed up .

I wasnt turned away , and i didnt mind one bit that people were all dressed up.🙂

After all, its their vacation too.😂