Formal night help required

[Debde]

There was a smart casual night on our January sailing on the Jewel. We ate in Chops one formal night and everyone there was dressed formal or semi-formal. We did notice that there were mostly middle-age to older folks (like us) on board and this may have influenced the dress. Certainly different than a three or four day.

 

We seemed to have 'caribbean night' instead of smart casual. Hence one of those nights shorts and flip-flops were out and about!!;)

[missbogota]

We're just back from Serenade cruise. We went to Chops and Portofino on the formal nights and they were both casual. Like you, my husband wears a suit 5 days per week and didn't want to have to dress up on vacation. Plus, with all of the airline baggage fees, taking along the suits and all of the extra stuff is more of a hassle. I don't think anyone but the waiters were dressed formally in either of these venues.

 

Paulap70 is correct.

[jbond]

While it´s been some years, when I started cruising jeans were listed as a no go in the compass on RCI.

You must have started cruising with RCI before us We started in 1980 and we've cruised 35 times with them. Never have I seen no jeans in the MDR stated in the Compass. In fact, until just recently, RCI always had a Country Western Theme night. That would suggest that they encouraged jeans on casual nights.

 

Treasure hunt time...Find Jeans anywhere in the RCCL evening wear guidelines...

There are three distinct types of evenings onboard: casual, smart casual and formal. Suggested guidelines for these nights are: Casual: Sport shirts and slacks for men, sundresses or pants for womenSmart Casual: Jackets and ties for men, dresses or pantsuits for womenFormal: Suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women

Treasure hunt time... Find evening gowns for ladies on formal night??? How about military dress uniforms??? Does that mean that on a recent cruise when my wife and daughters wore full length evening gowns and our grandson his dress uniform they were violating your interpretation of the very loosely written, SUGGESTED dress code?

 

[jbond]

My experience as well, as of yet I´ve not been on a single cruise that had no smart casual nights, but I´ve been on cruises where the smart casual and formal nights outnumbered the casual ones.

We just got back from an 11 night Mexican Riviera cruise. It had two formals and two smart casuals. We ended up with four smart casuals because we dined in both Chops and Portofino on casual nights.

[cruisenfever]

Treasure hunt time...Find Jeans anywhere in the RCCL evening wear guidelines...:rolleyes:

There are three distinct types of evenings onboard: casual, smart casual and formal. Suggested guidelines for these nights are: Casual: Sport shirts and slacks for men, sundresses or pants for womenSmart Casual: Jackets and ties for men, dresses or pantsuits for womenFormal: Suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women

You are absolutely 100% correct...........the problem is that the suggested guidelines you have posted are not enforced and people do not pay attention to them.

 

Of course you will not find jeans in the suggested guidelines...........but that's not to say that people won't/don't wear them into the MDR. As jbond said, at one time RCI was real big on "themed nights", specifically Country Western and encouraged folks to dress according to the theme.

 

jb......that's a great looking photo of the family.:D

[bluegirlum]

You must have started cruising with RCI before us We started in 1980 and we've cruised 35 times with them. Never have I seen no jeans in the MDR stated in the Compass. In fact, until just recently, RCI always had a Country Western Theme night. That would suggest that they encouraged jeans on casual nights.

 

 

Treasure hunt time... Find evening gowns for ladies on formal night??? How about military dress uniforms??? Does that mean that on a recent cruise when my wife and daughters wore full length evening gowns and our grandson his dress uniform they were violating your interpretation of the very loosely written, SUGGESTED dress code?

 

 

The only potential violation I see is white after Labor Day. ;)

 

Otherwise, it looks great. Thanks to your grandson for his service.

[MICK48DC]

Many thanks to the 2 or 3 people who actually answered my question , the other 27 did not appear to be on the right thread

[LParente]

Sorry OP, this doesn't address your question, but I had to compliment this family. You all look wonderful!!

[sesquius]

I just completed a five night cruise and one of the nights was Formal Night. Before the cruise I had gone out and bought a formal dress for the one night. However, I was disappointed by how few people took advantage of this opportunity to dress up. If anything, I felt like I was one of the minority of those who chose to dress up.

 

Therefore, formal night should be stated as a night where the women where dresses and the men where suits. The more sparkle the better. :)

[DubbC]

Are formal nights on Caribbean cruises more relaxed than Med cruises. My wife and I were on Voyager last year on a Med cruise and I would say most people were dressed in formal attire including ourselves. We're doing another Med cruise this year , this time with four friends who cannot wait to get dressed up. Judging by most threads on CC "dressing up" on formal nights seems to be dissapering, though most of these threads seem to be about Caribbean cruises. Do I tell our party not to overdo it? or are things different on the Med.

[madforcruising]

I don´t know if Caribbean cruises are less formal, though it seems so, but I´ve said it recently on another thread, to my observation the formal night dress code seems to be more an issue on CC than on board. On all my cruises (which of course are just a tiny fraction of all cruises) the vast majority of passengers dressed formal. It was just a handful people not dressed in formal evening wear. Just my observation.