Celebrity Cruises Swaps Formal Nights for Evening Chic

In terms of the number of people that they'll gain due to the dressing no long being required might be much more of an increase. We've avoided Celebrity for years due to it being overly formal & in my opinion "stuffy".

We'll be considering a Celebrity cruise in the near future just to see how the new ships have changed and won't be dressing up either.

Good points, floridalover5623! Some on Cruise Critic are much more "stuffy" than what is typically encountered on Celebrity ships.

What kind of update are you expecting?

 

Formal nights have been replaced by evening chic.

Those who like to dress formally are encourage............... :D

 

Thanks for the faecietious comment. Obviously I meant an update on what others have seen onboard.

So how many "formal/chic nights" should I expect on a 11 day cruise?

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So how many "formal/chic nights" should I expect on a 11 day cruise?

This can be found in their FAQ:

All cruises that are 7 nights or longer will feature two Evening Chic nights. Any cruise 6-nights or shorter will feature one Evening Chic night. All other nights of the cruise will feature Smart Casual attire. Celebrity Xpedition will continue to feature casual attire for the entire cruise.

Or from the UK site:

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

Well, you can shout me down and certainly you will!

I am disappointed with smart casual rather than evening chic.

Some people looked as if they had just put the lawnmower away and come straight to the table.

All in all it was just a messy mix of styles.

So how many "formal/chic nights" should I expect on a 11 day cruise?

We just returned from an 11 night Pacific Coastal Cruise on the Infinity and we had two of the Evening Chic nights. We dined in Luminae both evenings and everyone looked nice. I did notice someone in a tuxedo, which is fine. As a guy, I noticed what the other males were wearing. Majority were without coats, but were wearing nice-looking shirts. I wore a jacket over a casual shirt with black jeans. The sommelier remarked that I looked 'sharp.' She was a sweetie, so I took the compliment proudly!

I am disappointed with smart casual rather than evening chic.

So glad that a cruise line like Cunard exists for people like you that desire a more formal atmosphere.

Some people looked as if they had just put the lawnmower away and come straight to the table.

I know that you will get a kick out of this, so I must share... we had just returned from a long day on our last Evening Chic night and I was wearing dark gray jeans, a long sleeved t-shirt, with a light windbreaker over it. We were both tired and knew if we went to our cabin to change, we would probably not get back out. We stopped on Deck 4 to consult the posted Luminea menu and were immediately greeted by the excellent hostess. When we told her what we were doing, she insisted that we come right in and have dinner. As usual, it was very, very good... and not an eyelash was batted.

We just returned from an 11 night Pacific Coastal Cruise on the Infinity and we had two of the Evening Chic nights. We dined in Luminae both evenings and everyone looked nice. I did notice someone in a tuxedo, which is fine. As a guy, I noticed what the other males were wearing. Majority were without coats, but were wearing nice-looking shirts. I wore a jacket over a casual shirt with black jeans. The sommelier remarked that I looked 'sharp.' She was a sweetie, so I took the compliment proudly!

 

Luminae is like Blu -- It's always smart casual, even on "chick" nights. :rolleyes:

On some longer cruises, there are 3 Evening Chic nights. On our recent B2B cruises, we had three Evening Chic nights on our 14-night April 15th Equinox Transatlantic cruise and two Evening Chic nights on our 10-night April 29th Equinox Western Mediterranean cruise.

From my perspective, Celebrity just formally recognized a dress code that passengers had already implemented. There will always be those who enjoy dressing to the 9's and they'll continue. There will be some, if not many, who decide that it's nice to dress nicer one or two nights so they take a sports jacket or suit. Finally, there are those who in the past flaunted the dress code in the MDR and wore a nice shirt and relatively clean pants. This did and will continue to vary by cruise area....cruises out of Europe will have more in the dressy/suit group and those in the caribbean will tend to be much more casual.

For us it's no big deal...I always pack a blazer and I haven't worn a tie on a ship for many years...and I'm sure my DW will make sure that doesn't change.

Well, you can shout me down and certainly you will!

 

I am disappointed with smart casual rather than evening chic.

 

Some people looked as if they had just put the lawnmower away and come straight to the table.

 

All in all it was just a messy mix of styles.

But still most people were happy dressing as they pleased.

We just returned from an 11 night Pacific Coastal Cruise on the Infinity and we had two of the Evening Chic nights. We dined in Luminae both evenings and everyone looked nice. I did notice someone in a tuxedo, which is fine. As a guy, I noticed what the other males were wearing. Majority were without coats, but were wearing nice-looking shirts. I wore a jacket over a casual shirt with black jeans. The sommelier remarked that I looked 'sharp.' She was a sweetie, so I took the compliment proudly!

 

 

Pretty much as I expected it would be. There are a few people who I'm sure were disappointed that everyone didn't conform to their expectations but for the most part it sounded very civilized.

I have just come back off the Eclipse, the "evening chic" nights were fine the majority of people were dressed very nice. There were dressed like they were going for an evening out back home, a few people did not make any effort and tried to get in the MDR looking as if they had just come from the pool. Think about it would you go down to your local restaurant in your swim stuff!! you wouldn't so why do it on the ship.

I have just come back off the Eclipse, the "evening chic" nights were fine the majority of people were dressed very nice. There were dressed like they were going for an evening out back home, a few people did not make any effort and tried to get in the MDR looking as if they had just come from the pool. Think about it would you go down to your local restaurant in your swim stuff!! you wouldn't so why do it on the ship.

Were they successful or not?

Returned last week from a 12 night Baltic cruise and since I had followed this topic avidly, thought it appropriate to report on what we saw in regards to what the men wore.

On chic nights (there were 3) we saw 1 or 2 tuxedos, a dozen or so suits with ties, many suits/jackets without ties, and many in dress pants/long sleeve collared shirts.

So the majority were dressed in what we'd wear out home here in London for a smart dinner.

As we were fans of the formal nights but didn't want to overdress, we wore dress pants/shirts on regular nights (as we always did), and suits without ties on the chic nights.

Just came back from Summit.

People definitely were dressed down, a lot of shorts in MDR.

It was a different experience from formal nights for sure. It might be a new definition of Celebrity"s "modern luxury".

Just booked, and that's disappointing. We love formal nights, everyone walking around the ship looking their best, smiling ear to ear, it just makes a lovely atmosphere, feels like a massive party. It's especially great when the little kids are in nice dresses and suits, instead of their pants hanging to their knees.

Definitely going to miss it.

Just booked, and that's disappointing. We love formal nights, everyone walking around the ship looking their best, smiling ear to ear, it just makes a lovely atmosphere, feels like a massive party. It's especially great when the little kids are in nice dresses and suits, instead of their pants hanging to their knees.

 

Definitely going to miss it.

I was on one the first Evening Chic cruises last December. A great enhancement getting rid of unnecessary and boring over dressing up on vacation. Since it was new then some on the sailing didn't know about the change. Sailing in a week and looking forward to an even better Evening Chic. A wonderful change!

Were they successful or not?

No they were not allowed in the lady by the door sent them away, they returned about 15mins later dressed correctly.

No they were not allowed in the lady by the door sent them away, they returned about 15mins later dressed correctly.

So they did change our of their swim clothes for casual clothing. :D

Seen a big difference in cruises. December hen it was first introduced, many people still wore the full tux but just done May and my husband was the only one in the dining room wearing one. So it's not going on the next one.

We really enjoyed the formal nights.

We currently have 7 Celebrity cruises booked over the next 2 years. Even though Celebrity no longer has formal nights, we will still do tuxes. To us formal is part of the cruise experience.

Bob

Nice to hear. My wife likes to see me in my tux so I'll be wearing one on our next cruise. Others can wear what they like, it won't bother me.

Luminae is like Blu -- It's always smart casual, even on "chick" nights. :rolleyes:

Yeah, spell check doesn't always catch that one!

We really enjoyed the formal nights.

 

We currently have 7 Celebrity cruises booked over the next 2 years. Even though Celebrity no longer has formal nights, we will still do tuxes. To us formal is part of the cruise experience.

 

Bob

We still will dress up as well. We do suits on Celebrity & save our tuxes for Cunard. We'll be on the Eclipse for the 1/22/1017 14 day Caribbean trip(our third)

Not sure how I missed this news until now. Our next X cruise is in August (Baltic). Very happy to see this change from our view (purely from a packing standpoint), but I also understand how many are unhappy as well. It's always been a polarizing topic.

When we've done shorter cruises (like 7 days), bringing a jacket and dress shoes was no big deal for getting everything into a 50lb-limit suitcase. But for a 14 day cruise plus extra nights on either end, every ounce is precious. Especially since we like to bring some souvenirs home too.

We're perfectly happy bringing a dress shirt and slacks, and a tie. I hope the many cruisers that really like to dress to the nines aren't deterred from continuing to do so, as it does class up the place. I have no problem with them "showing up the rest of us". ;)

But I'm glad that Celebrity appears to have acknowledged that it's more than just a personal preference thing for many people. It's also a practical matter for many of us. But I also hope they now enforce this new laxer code more tightly. IMO, this is a reasonable "meet half way" concession. There should be no luggage issue for throwing in something lightweight that can meet these minimum requirements.

Instead of formal wear I have been wearing a barong, which is an outfit that is worn in the Philippines instead of formal wear as it gets very hot there. I have 2 different ones. Here's a photo of what on looks like.

I have a lot of Pilipino friends & I consider it an honor to wear an outfit that represents there country.

Tom:)