newbie w/ dining question

[ally&tommysmom]

HI! This is my first post, although i've been lurking for about 2 weeks. This is our first cruise. We are SO excited. My husband won a trip through his work, so this was completely unexpected. This is our 10th year of marriage and the anniversary of his proposal falls during the week of our trip, which makes it that much more special.

 

I have a question about dining. We plan to go to one formal night and the other formal night, we think we may just want to have a dinner to ourselves. We don't want to spend too much, so we aren't going to do the ultimate balcony dining on that night. We'll probably just do the buffet and bring it back to our room.

 

We have two small kids at home, so although this may not seem very fun to most, we are looking forward to a quiet night together.

 

My question is about the formal nights. Are they the same night of the cruise all the time? According to cruisingthecaribbeanprincess.com, each night has a different title for their dinner menu. I'm assuming the Captain's Gala Night would be one formal night. Is that correct? What night is the other formal night?

 

Thanks! I'm sure i'll come up w/ more questions in the coming weeks! :)

 

Christy

[gambit57]

It depends on each particular sailing. Typically it's on a sea day. For a 7 day cruise, the 2nd and 6th nites are quite common for formal nite. It's too hard on passengers to have it on the 1st nite and last nite as people don't have luggage easily accessible and most other nites in the middle are typically days where you're docked and they don't want to force people to have to rush back on board to eat dinnner.

 

Still, it depends on the particular itinirary of your cruise.

[paul929207]

Whenever possible, formal nights are on sea days. There are several reasons for this. First of all, people are not rushing back from port to get dressed. The first formal night begins with the Captain's Welcome Cocktail Party. It starts about 45 minutes before dinner or 5:30 for first seating. This would not allow much time to get ready. Also, it gives passengers who so choose time to go to the beauty salon. This is another way for the ship to make money.