Do All Cruises Have A Theme Night?

[Great 2 B at Sea]

I was wondering how you find out if your ship has a theme night for your sailing?  We've been on cruises before and everyone was wearing Caribbean shirts on a particular night, and we were clueless. Thanks in advance. 

[Kellie in Texas]

Look in the app in the daily planner for each day. Scroll down through all the morning exercise, spa and other things. There should be a note to indicate if it's a theme night, as well as whether it's formal or casual or other in the main dining room. So, there's a theme for the dining room and (sometimes) a theme for special dress-up nights. 

[Great 2 B at Sea]

I will definitely do that.  Thanks, Kellie, for helping me out!

[printingchick]

The app is new to me, but it doesn't show anything in the daily planner BEFORE you're on board as far as I can tell. I think the OP would need to know ahead of time in order to PACK for the theme. 

 

[Kellie in Texas]

@printingchick the app does show this information before you board, but maybe not until 30 days or so. We board on Jan. 14 and this info has been in the app for awhile. 

[printingchick]

21 hours ago, Kellie in Texas said:

@printingchick the app does show this information before you board, but maybe not until 30 days or so. We board on Jan. 14 and this info has been in the app for awhile. 

@Kellie in Texas Does it show things like the 70s party, dancing under the stars and other such events? That would be awesome!

 

[smokeybandit]

There may be themes, but they're pretty subtle and largely ignored.

 

[lenquixote66]

We have only been on a few cruises that had theme nights ,mostly on NCL.

[Kellie in Texas]

@printingchick the Daily Planner is the app is going to show everything on tap for that day, starting with 7:00 am sunrise stretches (no, thanks!) on down to the various shows, activities, and dance parties at midnight (again, no thanks). You can tap through to see each day. 

 

Agree with @smokeybandit. If there are any theme nights, they seem pretty low-key. 

[bonsai3s]

Theme nights during our last Symphony sailings...

 

Caribbean/Hawaiian night.

Red night.

White night.

Casual night.

Formal night.

 

* We also sailed during Halloween...so a good number of passengers wore costumes.

 

* There are also large groups who we've seen, wear the same color/design/custom made shirts. 

Happy sailing!

[crzndeb]

On 1/9/2024 at 8:47 AM, Great 2 B at Sea said:

I was wondering how you find out if your ship has a theme night for your sailing?  We've been on cruises before and everyone was wearing Caribbean shirts on a particular night, and we were clueless. Thanks in advance. 

Others have failed to mention that you can look at the current cruise and see daily activities. It’s a bit harder to find now, but if you click on head icon in upper right, under your cruise, it says “select a different cruise”. Scroll to bottom and where it says Don’t see your cruise, click on let’s add it now. Then scroll down to “browse our ships”….from there, it will bring up the ships. Pick yours and then pick the current date.

I have noticed the Dress for the Day is usually around the 4-5pm mark.

Hope this helps.

[neverbeenhere]

Other possibilities

 

70's night

80's night

If 90's Grunge night starts - I won't be attending.(the look,  just isn't me)

But, 80's Punk Rock Night, I'd actually plan to attend and participate.

Night of the Living Dead

 

[printingchick]

I'm 29 days out and the only thing on my app's daily planner is things for purchase, like excursions or behind-the-scenes ship tours.

 

[printingchick]

On 1/10/2024 at 1:58 PM, crzndeb said:

Others have failed to mention that you can look at the current cruise and see daily activities. It’s a bit harder to find now, but if you click on head icon in upper right, under your cruise, it says “select a different cruise”. Scroll to bottom and where it says Don’t see your cruise, click on let’s add it now. Then scroll down to “browse our ships”….from there, it will bring up the ships. Pick yours and then pick the current date.

I have noticed the Dress for the Day is usually around the 4-5pm mark.

Hope this helps.

I tried this I got to the "Don't see your cruise" and "Add it now." It wants to look up my cruise by name, date and reservation number. There isn't a browse our ships. And if I go to another screen and browse ships, I just get itineraries I can book. 

 

[crzndeb]

1 hour ago, printingchick said:

I tried this I got to the "Don't see your cruise" and "Add it now." It wants to look up my cruise by name, date and reservation number. There isn't a browse our ships. And if I go to another screen and browse ships, I just get itineraries I can book. 

 

See bottom in Blue

 

Edited January 12 by crzndeb

[printingchick]

Found the Cruise Compasses from December on-line so I think I'm all set. Thanks!

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

On 1/9/2024 at 12:45 PM, printingchick said:

The app is new to me, but it doesn't show anything in the daily planner BEFORE you're on board as far as I can tell. I think the OP would need to know ahead of time in order to PACK for the theme. 

 

 

This is my biggest issue with things like "white nights" and the like. You need to know to plan, and when you don't know but those experienced with the line do it really gives an insider/outsider feel that is pretty off-putting, especially if you're a new cruiser or new to that line.

 

For example, Disney generally has a pirate night. They make it known they have a pirate night. You can find out in advance which is the pirate night by looking at when Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is doing pirate makeovers if it's not clear from the events. But you know about it and can choose to dress up or not. (Same for Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel on cruises with those themes). They do not, however, have a "white night" so anyone coming to another line from Disney will most likely be unprepared.

 

But other lines seem to have things like "white nights" that insiders know about but newcomers don't. And IMHO that's not cool. It's not that hard to say what themes there will be - especially if they almost always happen.

Edited January 12 by WrittenOnYourHeart

[printingchick]

When I took my first Royal Caribbean cruise (after 5 cruises on Carnival), I was thrilled to find out there was a 70s party. I had hosted 70s parties. I love that era. Lots of regular RCL cruises dressed for the event. I didn't know about it so obviously wasn't prepared with 70s clothes - but I was on my next cruise and every one since. I think that's part of the benefit of having a favorite line that we frequent. That said, I do try to read reviews and look for the Cruise Compasses on line prior to my cruises, which helps me know what to expect. 

 

In terms of the dinner themes, probably fewer than half of the passengers dress for the theme, so I don't think it leaves people left out.

[zebe912]

Ours only shows a caribbean night plus the formal/best dress nights in the app.  I was hoping for 80s but don't know where to look for that.  Would it be listed separately as some sort of "party" on the ship or did they just do away with the extras since few people seem to participate anymore?  Kind of was looking forward to fully embarrassing the nieces we're traveling with by dressing up.