Formal Night gets LESS formal each time I sail...

[Nliedel]

Our Mariner Cruise had many women in formals. I know I was. I am comfortable in a formal dress. I admit I don't get the super short, show your hiney, dresses but if I had the body I did when I ws 17 I might be more inclined to understand.

[quagmire0]

Formal nights are always going to be a random situation in terms of who wears what. Whenever you deal with that many people, you are bound to have people that just ignore the theme and do whatever they want. It's part of life. The only thing you can do is dress really well and make them feel bad. :D

[Retired not Expired]

Nothing real surprising here. A business will always conform to its customer base and the customer base for main line cruise lines is becoming much more casual, even in the work force.

 

More and bigger ships, more customers needed. More customers needed, broaden the customer base.

[daffodil]

i am mazed to read all the comments about the dress code. If you go on a cruise with P&O you will always see everyone dressed appropriately. always formal on at least 2 nights and the majority of the men in dinner suits. they have a special formal black and white night and it;s very impressive to see the lovely gowns and black dinner suits. there are also 2 smart casual nights and they are more smart than casual.

What a shame that standards have dropped so much. Rccl and other lines are wrong not to enforce the dress code.

PLEASE tell me-- what is a muscle shirt??????????????

Daff.(England)

[Travelgrrl]

A muscle shirt is a tight fitting, armless t-shirt, really more of an undershirt (or vest to you, perhaps?)

 

They are also called "A" shirts, or more colloquially, "wife beaters" (because on true crime shows you always see the lowlife criminal husband wearing one)...!

[skypilotks]

Interesting little case in point about RCCI being confused about the whole issue! The C&A Platinum and up Brunch note asked for smart casual on our cruise last month! There were not smart casual nights, just formal and casual, so I had no jackets with me other then the tux (we have started to learn to decrease what we are packing) When I mentioned this to the C&W ambassador,when we were booking our next cruise, she said well we don't want people showing up in bathing suits, "didn't you go to formal night"? She just expected that I had wore a jacket, not a tux!

[emilygrace]

I have to agree with Daffodil.....we just did a short cruise on the QM2 and there was a Black and White Ball and it was VERY impressive to see everyone (I'd say 95%) dressed up, and especially beautiful to go into the Queen's Ballroom and see everyone on the dance floor in their black and white attire.

[Jeanie821]

I find that the second formal is always less formal than the first. Do any of the ships actually do "smart casual"? When we were on navigator, they had two formals and 5 casuals.

 

I was on the Carnival Fascination for their 4-day Western Caribbean itinerary. Valentine's week, of all times. We had two casual nights, one formal (Valentine's Day), and one smart casual. Seemed like the only ones who paid heed were the 40 people in our Christian singles group... and my oh my, did the men clean up nicely.

[johnjen]

The days of dress up...............are pretty much gone, along with Pan Am and some other elegant modes of transportation.

 

I agree! I remember being just a little kid, having to dress up on the plane before we came to the states for the first time. It was 1970, and everyone dressed to the nines on the 707 we flew in.

 

Even on cruise ships, times are changing. We go along with the dress code because it's all part of the fun. We believe in dressing nice on every dinner event onboard, but that's just us, and we don't worry about how the rest of the people dress up.

 

If the cruise companies buckled down on dress code - they'd be getting a lot of complaints, and they cannot afford to lose customers.

[atticus]

I love getting dressed for formal nights and I have noticed that people are dressing more casually now; or changing into very casual dress after dinner. I know that Cunard asks that you keep to the stated dress code in all public rooms and most people seem to hold to this.

 

Just to show that everyone has their own interpretation of dress codes.... several years ago I sailed on the QE2 during their holiday cruise. An older English woman got on the elevator with me and gave me the once over. She moved a little closer taking my top between her thumb and forefinger and made a very snotty comment about wearing a "jumper" on a formal night. I was wearing a black silk sleeveless turtleneck with a full pewter colored taffeta skirt and beautiful heirloom crystal necklace and drop earrings. I thought for a girl in her late-twenties I looked pretty presentable for formal night - no hootchie mamma dress for me!

[Weez]

I guess I am in the minority, I am glad the dress is becoming more casual. I dress according to whatever the dining room dress is for that night. I have never worn shorts or jeans to the dining room but I really wish golf attire was allowed on casual nights, I would absolutely love to wear shorts to dinner. As for the formal nights, the last thing I want to do is worry about wearing a suit and tie to dinner but I either suck it up and wear it or I eat in the windjammer.

[mrgabriel]

The worst hoochie mama dresses I saw were beach coverups. Ladies ... before you wear one of those little flirty skirts, you might want to do a stair check to see how much of a show you're putting on for those who follow behind you.

[Florida Gator]

We enjoy dressing up (although strickly speaking, we do more semi-formal) and will continue to do so. Love people watching on formal nights. I am not a fashion critic or the "formal police", AND DON'T WANT TO BE!

 

We are not going to let how someone else drsses determine how much we enjoy our cruise.

 

HAVE FUN!!!!:)

[CGTNORMANDIE]

I think that the more you get away from school vacations the more you see formal dress. The longer the cruise the more you see formal dress. It is not unusual to see the t-shirts and flip flops on formal nights on shorter cruises. I would also say that where RCI is concerned...you will find a dressier atmosphere onboard the RADIANCE CLASS ships and the EXPLORER CLASS ships...for the most part. It is interesting that Princess has a large number of pax dressing up formally onboard CARIBBEAN PRINCESS and STAR PRINCESS and that they are affected by school vacations also.

 

ROSS

[Sailfish]

Unlike most people who respond to such threads, I find the shift to a more casual dining room a welcome change as well. It's just a reflection on how people dress when they go on vacation.

 

With that said, I find most people in the formal dining room on formal nights to still dress up - I usually wear a nice cocktail dress and my husband wears a nice dress shirt with a tie and jacket to dinner. But no longer is it necessary to dress up in long dresses and dark suits.

 

On low end mass marketed cruises, like Carnival and Royal Caribbean among others, you won't see as much fomality in the dining room. Even on Celebrity, where people still dress up on formal nights, you are seeing less and less dressy attire on non-formal nights.

 

Since most people who cruise do not read these boards, most dress the way they would were they to on a land based vacation. Taking a cruise is no longer like going to a dressy New Years Eve party; for most, it's an afforable family vacation and people dress accordingly.

[OliverTheCat]

The worst hoochie mama dresses I saw were beach coverups. Ladies ... before you wear one of those little flirty skirts, you might want to do a stair check to see how much of a show you're putting on for those who follow behind you.

 

EXACTLY my point! Good response!

[syndyj]

EXACTLY my point! Good response!

 

 

But aren't beach cover ups meant for the beach or pool? I doubt people were wearing them on formal night :eek:

 

I like the cover up skirts/dresses by the way,I don't see a problem wearing them at the pool or even to go on excursions. :cool:

[cruiser_carol]

We were on the Legend for 14 days.. out of Southampton.. to the Med last summer, and found things very different. There were 3 formal nights and everyone dressed up. Quite a lot of tux..but the majority of men did wear nice suits instead. The ladies were in cocktail length dresses.. to full length..with all the accessories and nice hairdos. They made a really big effort...on all 3 formal nights. Everyone was having their photo taken..it was a lot of fun.

 

I never saw anyone, even in the windjammer, in overly casual clothing, at any time in the evening..or even in the day..people were dressed nicely. We chose to eat several dinners there as it had such a nice atmosphere. Everyone looked nice. As many people have said, we changed, and dressed for dinner everynight...the vast majority appeared to do the same. In the dining room, everyone was dressed smartly. young..and old. Perhaps us Brits don't get out as much, and enjoy dressing up more?? lol. We Are sailing on LOS again this summer...so I'll be anxious to see if it is the same. Carol

[OliverTheCat]

Hey Carol - Actually that is very true. I talked to a few folks from UK and they were saying how different the ship is when the tours change over to the Southhampton itenerary. Even the people that work on the ship like it more and say its a huge difference. I can totally see the people on board being nice and dressed up each night. That doesnt surprise me a bit.

 

I thank you for all your help in my Legend planning for the past year. I am posting a quite lengthy review in several parts on her either tonight or Tuesday. I did have a good time, but did not care for a few aspects, which I will address in the review.