Formal night

How strict is the dress code for men on formal night....is a suit jacket with dress pants acceptable or is it full suit and tie or tux ?

There isn't a dress code for formal night. Wear what you will be comfortable in.

ex techie

You will see everything from military dress uniforms and tux to jeans with holes in them.

Most guys wear a sports jacket and dockers or a suit. But the bottom line is that anything the spouse will let you get away with is the correct attire for the evening.

Long cruises tend to be more dressed up than short ones. By "long," I mean those that are 12+ nights.

How strict is the dress code for men on formal night....is a suit jacket with dress pants acceptable or is it full suit and tie or tux ?

There is no actual "dress code" on DCL in the Main Dining Room for formal nights or any other night. Well, except for "no swimwear or tank tops for dinner". Beyond that all the dress suggestions are just that - suggestions. You'll see all manner of dress from formal to tshirts/shorts for any given night (formal or otherwise).

Thanks everyone.....whew.....this simplifies things !! I was dreading telling my hubby he would have to wear a suit or anything close to a suit !!

My meager experience indicates that most people get into the spirit and do dress in their finest. It makes for a very fine evening IMHO to see almost everyone dressed for the occasion. The families especially, with their little princesses and princes all dressed up is pretty entertaining in it's own right. Some people don't participate, and that's OK, but those that do make for a nicer, more special evening.

I wear my best, (only), suit and my wife dresses up. She really appreciates the event more than I, but I enjoy it too.

How strict is the dress code for men on formal night....is a suit jacket with dress pants acceptable or is it full suit and tie or tux ?

my husband, son and son in law always wear khaki pants and polo shirt to formal night (and every other night)..

they feel perfectly comfortable, with lots of other men dressed the same...

people wear what they feel comfortable in..

if you like to dress up, then by all means do...

if you don't like to dress up, then by all means don't....

cruise casual works on dcl every night of the cruise...

by the way, with very strict baggage weight constraints these days, fewer and fewer people are willing to take up precious suitcase space with suits or tuxes or anything like that...

and more importantly, my husband was not willing to wear a suit on his vacation....not on our first cruise on DCL back in 2002 and not now...

and i'm more than happy with his decision, as with his 6'7" height, his suit and size 14 dress shoes would take up half the suitcase....

by the way, with his khakis and polo shirt he wears his birkenstock sandals....every night of every cruise.....

and as i said above, there are many other men dressed exactly as he is (except perhaps the birkenstocks :) )

.

Good to hear as my husband would have groaned and moaned had he been forced to wear a suit !!

Good to hear as my husband would have groaned and moaned had he been forced to wear a suit !!

I'm just double checking that none of your group are dining at Palo or Remy as they do have strict dress codes.

ex techie

No...we were unable to get reservation at either one. Does the brunch at Palo have a dress code just in case we are able to get in once on board ?

No...we were unable to get reservation at either one. Does the brunch at Palo have a dress code just in case we are able to get in once on board ?

Yes it does. And you may still be able to get reservations for either once aboard by going to dining changes and asking.

At Palo: The elegant northern Italian-inspired dining venue aboard all 4 ships.

 

- Dinner and Brunch

Men: dress pants or slacks and collared shirt; jacket is optional

Women: dress, skirt or pants with a blouse

Jeans may be worn if in good condition (no holes)

 

At Remy: Serving sophisticated French cuisine aboard the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy.

 

- Dinner

Men: dress pants with sports jacket or suit is required; tie is optional

Women: cocktail dress, pantsuit or skirt with blouse

- Brunch

Men: dress pants and a dress shirt; jacket is optional

Women: dress or pantsuit

ex techie

No...we were unable to get reservation at either one. Does the brunch at Palo have a dress code just in case we are able to get in once on board ?

when we went to palo brunch, both DH and DS wore khaki trousers and polo shirts, which is why i opted for brunch and not dinner...

in any case, we'll never do palos again, as we were unimpressed by the brunch...(i did it a second time when i took my mom and sister on the dream - and again we were unimpressed)...YMMV...

when we went to palo brunch, both DH and DS wore khaki trousers and polo shirts, which is why i opted for brunch and not dinner...

 

in any case, we'll never do palos again, as we were unimpressed by the brunch...(i did it a second time when i took my mom and sister on the dream - and again we were unimpressed)...YMMV...

If you don't mind me asking, what did you dislike about the Palo brunch's you experienced?

They have recently revised the menu and the food that you order is now from a menu along with the buffet.

Menu is from disneycruiselineblog.

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2016/09/new-palo-brunch-printed-menu/

ex techie

If you don't mind me asking, what did you dislike about the Palo brunch's you experienced?

 

They have recently revised the menu and the food that you order is now from a menu along with the buffet.

ex techie

the first brunch was on the wonder - i liked the venue a lot - thought it was very pretty...

and since it was for brunch, we had a lovely view...

as for the food - it was fine....just fine....

we eat out a lot....at very nice cafes and restaurants...

every friday for lunch, we eat with the entire family at one of the lovely cafes not far from us...

and at least once a week, we eat at a lovely cafe overlooking the mediterranean that serves outstanding food....so nice food in a nice location isn't unusual...

so while the food was fine, we didn't think it was exceptional...

but again, the location was nice (i love being on the water and eating surrounded by water is the top of the top for me)..

i forgot to say, the service in the palo on the wonder was excellent....definitely good (but so was our service in the regular dining rotation)...

the second time was on the Dream....

i didn't like the venue on the dream...it wasn't nearly as nice as the one on the wonder....i guess too big? and not as nice a view?

and our service was really terrible....the worst service i've experienced on any disney ship....arrogant, condescending, rude.....

our regular servers in the regular dining rotation could wipe the floor with this waiter we had in palos....we had outstanding servers in the main dining (waiter, assistand waiter as well as a wonderful head waiter)..

in palos, the waiter was terrible and the head waiter - the guy running the entire place was ridiculous....i don't even know how to describe the terrible feeling we had from him...

as for the food? not even fine....pretty unacceptable across the board...

not even as good as in the main dining rooms (where we found the food to be quite good)..

so all in all, palo on the Dream was a total disappointment..

and to add insult to injury, we had to pay extra and an extra tip (since i'm too much of a wimp to stiff people on tips)..

Since we are platinum level CC, we get a complimentary Palo meal on each cruise. We much prefer Palo on the smaller ships--more personal, better view, you get the feeling that they want to make this a special meal, not just another night for the staff. Even on the Magic, we've had two "just not up to standards" meals.

OK, that represents fewer than 10% of our Palo experiences, but I can't fault someone who says they had a bad Palo. We've had them occasionally.

I read somewhere that you can actually request a specific server to be your wait staff for the entire cruise. Is this correct ?? If so, anyone have a recommendation and how do we go about making the request. Sorry this is off topic.

I read somewhere that you can actually request a specific server to be your wait staff for the entire cruise. Is this correct ?? If so, anyone have a recommendation and how do we go about making the request. Sorry this is off topic.

Yes, you can request a specific server. If you have a favorite and that server is on the ship you're on.

Just call DCL and have the request placed on your reservation.

They will point out "it's just a request, yada, yada, yada" Just agree and ask for it to be put on there.

One note, if you have more than 1 request (server plus specific dining rotation, or server and assistant server), it's possible that the two requests are incompatible (your server doesn't work that rotation, or that team is no longer together), DCL will many time not grant either as they don't know which is more important.

If you have no server already that you've had before, I'd suggest that you just go with what you are assigned. I've found only one asst server that was less than stellar, and she was very new and hadn't worked out all the logistics yet.

I read somewhere that you can actually request a specific server to be your wait staff for the entire cruise. Is this correct ?? If so, anyone have a recommendation and how do we go about making the request. Sorry this is off topic.

You can basically make ONE dining request. You can request a specific server. You can request a specific rotation. But you can't request both (your server may not be on that rotation and two conflicting requests will just confuse the staff.) OR you can request a head server but not both a head server and a server--again, they may not be on the same rotation this cruise. DCL will not tell you if a particular server is on the ship when you are cruising. They could be on vacation or have been moved to a different ship.

I don't think we know which ship you are on or when you are cruising. Hard to recommend, especially not knowing which ship.

You make a request by calling DCL and having the notation put on your reservation. Your TA must do this if you used one. You then check in at "Dining Changes" to make sure you got your choice. Dining changes location will be listed in the Welcome Aboard Navigator that you can get in the terminal when you go to check in.

You can basically make ONE dining request. You can request a specific server. You can request a specific rotation. But you can't request both (your server may not be on that rotation and two conflicting requests will just confuse the staff.) OR you can request a head server but not both a head server and a server--again' date=' they may not be on the same rotation this cruise. DCL will not tell you if a particular server is on the ship when you are cruising. They could be on vacation or have been moved to a different ship.

 

I don't think we know which ship you are on or when you are cruising. Hard to recommend, especially not knowing which ship.

 

You make a request by calling DCL and having the notation put on your reservation. Your TA must do this if you used one. You then check in at "Dining Changes" to make sure you got your choice. Dining changes location will be listed in the Welcome Aboard Navigator that you can get in the terminal when you go to check in.[/quote']

 

We are on Fantasy. I guess for now I will be content with whomever we get since this is our first time cruising. I will be happy if we are able to change our dining time to the earlier seating since we are traveling with a 4 year old but we also have a later embarkation time so that may not happen. Thanks for the information. Glad to know where to find the dining change location.

We are on Fantasy. I guess for now I will be content with whomever we get since this is our first time cruising. I will be happy if we are able to change our dining time to the earlier seating since we are traveling with a 4 year old but we also have a later embarkation time so that may not happen. Thanks for the information. Glad to know where to find the dining change location.

Later embarkation time--ignore this. If your time is after 1pm, show up about 12:30 or 1. You will miss the early birds, get checked in, and have very little waiting until they either call your number or announce "open boarding" which means they are no longer using the number system.

Also, you can check on line and see if any earlier times are available.

Since you don't know any of the servers, taking pot luck the first time is not a bad thing. Good luck with moving to early dining. If you haven't done so already, contact DCL and waitlist for main seating! Again, if you used a TA, they must do this.

We are on Fantasy. I guess for now I will be content with whomever we get since this is our first time cruising. I will be happy if we are able to change our dining time to the earlier seating since we are traveling with a 4 year old but we also have a later embarkation time so that may not happen. Thanks for the information. Glad to know where to find the dining change location.

Have you requested to be placed on the wait list for early seating? That would be your first step.

Then, follow up periodically with a phone call to "confirm" you're on the list (remember the squeaky wheel?). If it still hasn't come through by the time you check in at the port, go to where the dining changes are handled to request again.

Many times these steps will get you moved to early seating. Sometimes not.

I'll put it to you this way: on formal night the cruise director asked during her nightly appearance on stage before the show in the WD theater "who here is dressed in the beautiful formal wear?" -> people cheer. "Who here is dressed like they're on vacation?" -> people cheer. :) So you can really wear whatever makes you happy.

I'll put it to you this way: on formal night the cruise director asked during her nightly appearance on stage before the show in the WD theater "who here is dressed in the beautiful formal wear?" -> people cheer. "Who here is dressed like they're on vacation?" -> people cheer. :) So you can really wear whatever makes you happy.

This--exactly!