Formal night and new years eve.

[sealpup]

I have been to that formal night is always New Years eve.  That being said our port time is 230 pm to 1030 pm.  Would they take this into consideration?

[staceyglow]

Anything is possible, but it has been my experience that the evening dining room schedule does not change based on the port departure time.

 

If you want a decent amount of time in port and also attend dinner if it is elegant night, I would suggest getting YTD and show up near the end of the seating window.

 

Just curious, what port is this?

[sealpup]

Bonaire 

[BallFour4]

Several cruises on NYE with no norm. For the times that Cruise Elegant was switched to NYE it was listed as optional. A few more dressed up than usual with a range of dress from shorts to whatever formal definition is on a ship with a hairy chest contest.

Wear what you want, you will be in good company.

 

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[nc762shooter]

I've been on 2 New Year's cruises, one NYE fell near the end on a sea day about when the 2nd formal night would have been usually and the other we boarded the ship on NYE. Between it being over 10 years ago, having Cheers, and the free champagne they were handing out all day I honestly don't remember what the suggested dress was.😁😁I do know there were plenty of NYE festivities that evening and I want to say most people were fairly dressed up but when you have a drink in each hand for the most part since boarding the memory isn't exactly clear LOL.🤣

[sealpup]

The issue is not the attire.  I live the dining  room menus on elegant night but with getting into port at 2 and early dining.   It doesn't give you much time in port

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, sealpup said:

The issue is not the attire.  I live the dining  room menus on elegant night but with getting into port at 2 and early dining.   It doesn't give you much time in port

That's why I recommended YTD for this particular cruise.  You can eat early on the other nights and later on the date that you get into the port later.

 

Another option would be to spend a few hours in port, come back for early dining, and go back out for awhile after dinner.

 

 

Edited August 15 by staceyglow

[mdin]

Sounds like we may be on the same cruise. Normally my wife and I do YTD, but since this is a family cruise, we chose late seating. We booked an early excursion that gets us back in time to enjoy NYE dinner.

[nc762shooter]

On 8/15/2024 at 12:35 PM, sealpup said:

The issue is not the attire.  I live the dining  room menus on elegant night but with getting into port at 2 and early dining.   It doesn't give you much time in port

I wasn't very clear, I forgot to point out that normally they try not to have formal nights on the day you board because not everyone gets luggage in a timely manner, same reason they try to avoid having them last night of the cruise for everyone that needs to pack and leave their bags out overnight, and try to have them on sea days instead of port days. Holidays are the big exception to this, I imagine the ship will have the usual festivities for NYE and leave it up to the passengers to decide how much time they want to spend in port vs on the ship.

 

Your situation of having NYE fall on that late port day is definitely less than ideal since unfortunately you'll have to sacrifice some time in one place or another. The best compromise to maximize port time would be doing YTD and going to dinner toward the end of the seating like has been mentioned. For what it's worth the buffet can also have many, but not all, of the same items as the MDR menu but I suspect you do not want to settle for the buffet over a formal meal on NYE.😁 

 

You could also look at attempting to make later reservations at the Steakhouse or another specialty restaurant. Typically, they wouldn't be as busy with the ship being in port that late. My wife and I did the Steakhouse when we were docked in Curacao until 10pm, it wasn't busy and I think they may have even advertised a special deal the day of to attract more business. But with NYE who knows, demand may still be high despite being in port.