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Avoiding formal dinner


Celltech
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My husband will not go on a cruise around UK since it involves 2 formal dinners and he does not want to pack a suit. Do they have room service so as to avoid the dining room. He wants a casual vacation and not all the dressing up.

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My husband will not go on a cruise around UK since it involves 2 formal dinners and he does not want to pack a suit. Do they have room service so as to avoid the dining room. He wants a casual vacation and not all the dressing up.

Most major cruise lines offer room service. You can either go to your cruise line's website where they will tell you if there's room service available. Or, alternatively, you can head over to whatever cruise line's forum here that you are on.

 

I'll just point out that, often, the dress code for formal "night" means for the evening not just "for dinner".

 

Question, if he's dead set on a casual vacation, why are you looking at something that's not all casual?

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We often go on ships which are quite strict about formal nights, but the rules don't apply to the buffet and often a speciality restaurant.

On P&O, there are a couple of bars where you must be in a dinner jacket or suit, but there's always plenty of other bars.

On long cruises, we notice that the buffet can become quite full as people either grow tired of formal nights, or have run out of shirts... :D

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You don't mention which cruise line you are referring to. RCI and Celebrity, as examples, do not enforce a formal dress code and refer to it as a suggested dress. No tie or jacket is required with either. Both cruise lines also offer alternative restaurants - both inclusive and for a fee - that provide a casual dress code for each night. The rules don't vary simply because the itinerary would be UK based. We cruise with both and have left our formal wear at home for several years now. We dress nicely, just not suit and tie or formal dresses.

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My husband will not go on a cruise around UK since it involves 2 formal dinners and he does not want to pack a suit. Do they have room service so as to avoid the dining room. He wants a casual vacation and not all the dressing up.

not all cruise lines that do the British Isles have formal night

 

Just pick a cruise line that is more casual

 

many to choose from

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Few lines enforce formality. Nice slacks and a collared shirt will do just fine. The "formal night" is only formal (and not enforced) in the dining room, so if you don't want to eat there, there are other eating venues.

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My husband will not go on a cruise around UK since it involves 2 formal dinners and he does not want to pack a suit. Do they have room service so as to avoid the dining room. He wants a casual vacation and not all the dressing up.

I haven't heard of a mainstream cruise ship that didn't have room service. But without knowing which cruise line you are on, none of us can give you much more concrete advice.

 

There aren't that many lines that still REQUIRE formal attire/suits on "formal nights". That may or may not apply to the cruise line you are planning to sail on. As someone else asked, why didnt you choose a line that doesn't require formal wear?

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He doesn't need a suit! He can wear comfy dress pants, a button down shirt, a tie, and dress shoes on most cruises. And yes, you can order room service or even go to the buffet.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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It seems less and less people do dress up for formal night.

 

You are not alone.

 

And

 

Many cruise lines offer different options to dining in the MDR.

 

Scope out your ship.

 

If all else fails, then order in.

 

Enjoy

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Celebrity no longer has formal nights. They now only have "chic" nights - from Celebrity website:

 

Evening Chic is your night to shine in your vacation best, and will be featured once on cruises 6 nights or shorter and twice on cruises 7 nights or longer.

 

Women should feel comfortable wearing:

• A cocktail dress

• Skirt, pants or designer jeans with an elegant top

 

Men should feel comfortable wearing:

• Pants or designer jeans with a dress shirt, button-down shirt or sweater

• Optional sport coat or blazer

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Helps to know what line you're cruising on.

 

Cunard are very strict as I think are P&O (UK)

 

Others vary.

 

But I think every line will have some alternative, either specialty restaurant, buffet,pizza, grill or room service

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Seems from roll calls the OP is on NCL Jade so it'll be no problem not taking a suit. :D

 

If you are right about them sailing NCL, there's no problem. NCL has ZERO dress code - although they say you can dress up if you want to. Pretty much pants, shirt and shoes means you are fine on NCL - they might suggest long pants, but are unlikely to enforce even that.

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I have cruised on Princess and RC and have avoided the formal dinners more than once. Formal wear in only needed in the dining room not the entire ship. You can always go to the other restaurants, buffets, grills etc. or room service .

 

 

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On DW's suggestion, we stopped bothering with formal nights about 10 plus years ago. Besides, we no longer have room in our carry ons for all that jazz.

 

So, we never hid in our room. We were always out and about. Buffet restaurant was fine. Why hide. Many like us (cannot speak for Cunard). HAL was the oddest of the lot. On one hand they expected the dress code to apply to the entire ship yet their Lido buffet was casual. Princess, Celebrity, NCL etc dealt with reality and made room for everyone. To make matters worse their enforcement of any dress code was extremely haphazard at best. I can assure you that it did not keep us in our cabin. We were in the Lido, the bars, etc. and there were many like us.

 

Don't be concerned about going casual. This is a fast growing trend. Just go and enjoy your cruise.

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Helps to know what line you're cruising on.

 

Cunard are very strict as I think are P&O (UK)

 

Others vary.

 

But I think every line will have some alternative, either specialty restaurant, buffet,pizza, grill or room service

 

P&O are no problem. they have 2 formal nights a week where the dress code applies to the main dining rooms, some of the speciality restaurants and one or two bars. The code applies all evening from 6pm but apart from the venues mentioned above the normal code of evening casual applies to the rest of the ship. You can eat in the buffet or the Beach House (American diner style) or the Glasshouse (wine bar that sells food, think tapas etc) on some ships. You can also use the theatre, show lounge, cabaret club, main bar, casino, all deck bars etc etc. I cruise with P&O and don't take formal clothing any more.

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He can easily avoid the dining room by going to the buffet. Some people prefer to always eat in the buffet anyway and never set foot in a dining room, Ther's no need to rsstrict himself to room service, which on a lot of ships has a fairly limited choice.

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That 2010 you mention was simply showing when OP joined Cruise Critic - and has nothing to do with her current question.

You may want to read the post I was replying to before admonishing me

 

2010 was when the OP was sailing on the Jade check the date they posted & the sailing date of the Jade

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=26134486#post26134486

 

 

Celltech

Cool Cruiser

 

#726

Florida

4 Posts

Joined Jul 2010

 

 

Posted September 18th, 2010, 09:39 PM

We are looking for people to join us for a tour of Florence/Pisa from the Jade sailing on Oct. 3. The ship is in port on Oct. 5, 2010 which is a little over a week away. I have a tour guide lined up and it is very reasonable. We are a party of 3. My name is Karol.

I cannot use this site very well so I do not know how we can contact each other. We

are from Florida.

Edited by LHT28
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You may want to read the post I was replying to before admonishing me

 

2010 was when the OP was sailing on the Jade check the date they posted & the sailing date of the Jade

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=26134486#post26134486

 

 

Celltech

Cool Cruiser

 

#726

Florida

4 Posts

Joined Jul 2010

 

 

Posted September 18th, 2010, 09:39 PM

We are looking for people to join us for a tour of Florence/Pisa from the Jade sailing on Oct. 3. The ship is in port on Oct. 5, 2010 which is a little over a week away. I have a tour guide lined up and it is very reasonable. We are a party of 3. My name is Karol.

I cannot use this site very well so I do not know how we can contact each other. We

are from Florida.

 

"Admonish"????????

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