formal nights on Sapphire Princess Alaska cruise

[beachbuff9]

We are booked on an upcoming Sapphire Princess 7 night Alaska.  What can we expect on formal nights?  Nice Shirt, sweater and slacks for men?  Dressy pants and top for women?  Or suit and tie for men and long dress for women?  Packing is getting complicated!

[reedprincess]

12 minutes ago, beachbuff9 said:

We are booked on an upcoming Sapphire Princess 7 night Alaska.  What can we expect on formal nights?  Nice Shirt, sweater and slacks for men?  Dressy pants and top for women?  Or suit and tie for men and long dress for women?  Packing is getting complicated!

All or any of the above.  

Most men are generally in the dress pants, dressier type shirt and sport coat range, some suits and tuxes, more not. 

Ladies - much more in the dressy pants and top or maxi type dress with some bling, a few gowns and cocktail dresses mixed in, but not much. 

[lahlah57]

On Discovery last november...formal nights......mostly men in nice shirts and slacks....some with a jacket....some with a tie.....some not at all. Tuxes....not at all.

Women dressed nice but no sequins and gowns.

[jsn55]

My standard 'formal uniform' is a nice scarf and pretty earrings with a black silk tunic top & pants.  Men don't need to pack anything more than a collared shirt and a belt. But people who do enjoy dressing up are always welcome, so us peasants can admire them.

[AllHandsAstern]

10 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

But people who do enjoy dressing up are always welcome, so us peasants can admire them.

Thank you for recognizing your station 😉😉

I kid, obviously, my wife and I adore an opportunity to dress up. I'm using our cruise on crown as an opportunity to test out a couple different options for a wedding we're attending in june

[PR-Texas]

For our upcoming 14 day cruise on Royal I want to dress up a bit at least one night.  I told hubby he could wear slacks, nice shirt and either a sport coat or a tie.  Last I heard he was leaning towards a sport coat.  Besides if the DR is cold I can steal his sport coat to keep warm.

[K32682]

Princess is quite accommodating to those who are not interested in reliving their high school prom while on vacation. Collared shirt, casual trousers and hiking boots were accepted on fancy pants night in the MDR on our Alaskan cruise with them.

 

 

Edited May 7 by K32682

[beachbuff9]

Thanks for this info.  You have helped solve my packing crisis!  I suspected that an Alaska cruise might be more casual, but I like the idea of "dressing for dinner"!  We just won't get too formal! 

[555]

We've given up on anything close to formal clothing & cruise to relax. 

Thankfully, Princess no longer requires people to conform to dressing up on formal nights. 

[BamaVol]

We sailed Sapphire Voyage of the Glaciers last September.  Formal nights were relatively informal.  I wore a collared shirt under a cotton sweater.  My wife wore dark pants and a sweater.  We were not out of place.  For Floridians in Alaska, the primary concern is keeping warm.

[AllHandsAstern]

1 hour ago, beachbuff9 said:

Thanks for this info.  You have helped solve my packing crisis!  I suspected that an Alaska cruise might be more casual, but I like the idea of "dressing for dinner"!  We just won't get too formal! 

 

The consensus in the before times was that Alaska cruises tended to be more formal, but it's a whole new world now 

[no1racefan1]

6 hours ago, beachbuff9 said:

Thanks for this info.  You have helped solve my packing crisis!  I suspected that an Alaska cruise might be more casual, but I like the idea of "dressing for dinner"!  We just won't get too formal! 

I'm planning to bring two dresses to AK, one I would consider 'dressier' because it's sparkly, lol. They are both cocktail dresses. I wanted to bring a more formal look but didn't want to take up space for it. These two dresses are taking up very little room in my suitcase and, more importantly, won't require much ironing! For dinner other nights I plan to bring maybe a couple sweaters/tops that will look nicer than our day look, which will mostly be thermal layers/hiking gear.

 

I like to dress for dinner as well and will have fun with it, with zero judgement for what anybody else is wearing!

[wcook]

Interesting. Never been to Alaska but assumed formal night was when you wore your nice flannel. 

[BamaVol]

21 minutes ago, wcook said:

Interesting. Never been to Alaska but assumed formal night was when you wore your nice flannel. 

That was me.  But I wore a sweater over it so only the collar showed.

[jeromep]

On 5/6/2024 at 6:49 PM, beachbuff9 said:

Nice Shirt, sweater and slacks for men?  Dressy pants and top for women?  Or suit and tie for men and long dress for women?

Any of the above will be just fine.  Formal night isn't quite as formal as it used to be.  Don't stress about it as enforcement of the official line on the Princess site and in all their materials isn't done by ships staff.  Lots of threads here about formal nights, take most with a grain of salt, especially those that want everyone dressed up like they were on the "Love Boat"

[AllHandsAstern]

1 hour ago, jeromep said:

Any of the above will be just fine.  Formal night isn't quite as formal as it used to be.  Don't stress about it as enforcement of the official line on the Princess site and in all their materials isn't done by ships staff.  Lots of threads here about formal nights, take most with a grain of salt, especially those that want everyone dressed up like they were on the "Love Boat"

What's a love boat?

[jeromep]

11 hours ago, AllHandsAstern said:

What's a love boat?

The television show.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Boat

 

 

[555]

46 minutes ago, jeromep said:

The television show.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Boat

 

 

Sarcasm no doubt. 😄

[AllHandsAstern]

25 minutes ago, 555 said:

Sarcasm no doubt. 😄

Yes, TV show was way before my time

[jeromep]

5 hours ago, AllHandsAstern said:

Yes, TV show was way before my time

It is streaming on pluto.tv, has its own "channel".  It was a pretty revolutionary way of doing a TV show in its time, multiple story lines going at once, usually 3, recurring cast with notable guest stars on every episode.  And yes, lots and lots of formal wear.

[AllHandsAstern]

30 minutes ago, jeromep said:

It is streaming on pluto.tv, has its own "channel".  It was a pretty revolutionary way of doing a TV show in its time, multiple story lines going at once, usually 3, recurring cast with notable guest stars on every episode.  And yes, lots and lots of formal wear.

I didn't realize it was fictional, I thought it was like early reality TV

[K32682]

On 5/11/2024 at 9:56 PM, jeromep said:

Any of the above will be just fine.  Formal night isn't quite as formal as it used to be.  Don't stress about it as enforcement of the official line on the Princess site and in all their materials isn't done by ships staff.  Lots of threads here about formal nights, take most with a grain of salt, especially those that want everyone dressed up like they were on the "Love Boat"

 

The fancy pants crowd were aghast that passengers who did not meet their approved standards of sartorial elegance were permitted in the MDR. The fancy dressers then began cajoling passengers online with moral suasion, belligerence and insults. Recently however they seem to be in decline and may have accepted the inevitable. 

[jsn55]

On the whole, pax look pretty decent most of the time, in my opinion.  There will always be slobs among us, and always be people who will put on (or take off) anything that attracts attention.  I find loud obnoxious pax far more troubling, and think that people who disrupt a nice dining room should be sent back to their cabins.  It's a cruise, the ship is full of people you don't know, this stuff comes with the territory.  Shrug and move on.  A river cruise is usually hugely different than an ocean cruise.  Pax seem to be well behaved and considerate.  However, on my trip through France last month, on the first night, we all showed up eagerly to the port talk.  A very drunk woman was so disruptive that our CD walked out of the room.  Far as I could tell, she was falling-down drunk for more than 48 hours.  There's little any pax can do, just have to wait it out.