Teenagers formal night on Independence UK

[I'll give it a go]

Hi, can anyone advise me as to whether teenagers dress up and WILLINGLY;) get involved with formal nights or do they tend to dine else where on those nights. I would be particularly interested to hear from people with experience of this from a UK departure.

I will be sailing out of Southampton on Independence (19th Oct) with a 13 year old girl & 15 year old boy. I don't want to waist money kitting them out if once they hit the teen club they find out that "no one else is doing it".:D

If they do get involved, what would these ages generally wear?

[twinlges]

My girls love to get dressed up for it! My girls are 19 and 16 year old twins...The younger two are wearing their prom dresses (long formal length, and the older one is wearing a short dress) We always take a portrait so they really get into color coordinating everything... after dinner they usually hang out with new friends, of course some are dressed up and some are not!

[fubarsbabe]

Hi , only you know what your teens will happily as in not forced and spend the evening sulking ;) wear, however we cruised when my son was 13 and he asked for a tux and enjoyed wearing it and we are cruising next month and he's now 18 and has bought a tux for formal nights, i understand a suit will do the trick if they don't want to go that far. Have a great cruise

[Evelyn9597]

My children are also 15 (boy) and 13 (girl), and they are both looking forward to getting dressed up for formal nights on our Indy Caribbean cruise.

 

So, yes, I would definitely pack something smart so they don't feel left out.:)

[I'll give it a go]

Thanks for all the advise. fubarsbabe as to what they will be comfortable in, I would say they will want to fit in with the majority, so I'm hoping to get a good indication as to what that would be from this post.

[cb at sea]

When they see the other kids all dressed up, they'll be sorry if they don't! Boys, especially, look GREAT when all "decked out"! (Girls tend to like to dress up more than guys and do it to a degree almost everynight!!! Not gowns, of course, but taking that little extra 'oomph" to look good!)

[reallyitsmema]

Most teens will get dress up for dinner and then change back into shorts before going to the teen clubs. The teen disco usually has a "prom" on one of the formal nights for the older teen group (16-17 yr olds) where the crown the king and queen of the prom.

[livylotte]

Yes, lots of teenagers do dress up for formal night, I wouldn't have believed it till I saw it but they really do dress up. Having said that, not all do so I'm sure they will fit in fine whatever they wear.

 

We are from the UK and have sailed on Brilliance and Independence with 3 girls (9, 14 & 16) and they were all happy to dress up but to be honest they dressed up every night :) (much to the dismay of my husband and his wallet :rolleyes:!)

 

I don't recal seeing any teens in long dresses. Mine wore dresses bought from high street shops (Top Shop, River Island etc). I don't think there is any need to spend a fortune - there are some lovely dresses out there.

 

Your son will be fine with a white shirt and tie but if he does want to look the part you can a hire dinner suit on board. The grandson of the couple we were tablemates with wore his school blazer (but it was a nice one and nothing like the horrible ones at our local school!).

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much, let them wear what they are comfortable in. Have a great cruise!

[livylotte]

Just adding to say that you can get a full dinner suit with shirt & bow tie from Matalan for around £50 which are actually quite good quality.

[Bobal]

I have 2 teen boys (now aged 16 and 18) and we've sailed 5 times over the last 3 years, 2 of them with other families with teens. They love getting dressed up for formal nights and often kept on their formal clothes when they went to the teen club later. Although we haven't sailed from the UK we've sailed 3 times from the Med and our trip on Explorer last Easter had more UK visitors than Americans, believe it or not. On all the cruises there are lots of teens who dress up.

 

Don't worry too much about spending too much on clothes. Although my sons now have suits the first couple of times they just wore school trousers and a nice shirt and borrowed one of their dad's ties :). Most girls have a pretty dress anyway and that should suffice. You'll probably find that since proms are catching on in the UK now, those teens who are over 16 will wear their prom dresses/suits.

 

I agree though, that if they are really not happy dressing up, you wouldn't want them to be miserable but I don't think they'll regret it if they do.

[Bobal]

Just adding to say that you can get a full dinner suit with shirt & bow tie from Matalan for around £50 which are actually quite good quality.

 

I was just about to add that to my previous post when I noticed you'd pipped me to the post ;) Primark and Asda also have cheap, presentable, suits for around that price or less

[anastasia1]

I suspect a cultural difference. My uk teenage daughter may dress up wilingly but I think that my son would not. I was not intending to take anything more than a shirt and long trousers for him.

 

Probably also a bit of a class factor in uk society!

[I'll give it a go]

Again, thanks so much for all the responses. Although I've talked to my kids about the activities on board and the ports, I haven't really talked about the dinning etc so I think I'll have a chat about what to expect (I'm sure my fussy eating girl thinks she will be having pizza every meal!)and explain about the formal nights. We're only just getting into the "prom" thing over here (my sons will be next year) so hopefully they will embrace it. I'll keep my eyes open for a bargain (TKMax,Matalan,primark etc) and compare to hiring, might be worth buying then he'll have it for his prom (if there's enough growing room). Anyway I'll come prepared, It would be worse if they decided that they wanted to join in and we hadn't packed anything.

[twinlges]

I'm laughing about the fussy eating girls!!! I have three, but we have a deal, on the cruise they try something new, because if they don't like it, there's always a back up meal waiting that they are SURE to like! For the most part they always like what they've tried, and have expanded their culinary horizons on every cruise!!

 

Katie

[fubarsbabe]

M&S doing a full tux for £49.50 jacket £30 trousers 19.50 you can order online and the quality is fab, cheaper than renting

[Col1874]

I got mine from Sainsburys in a sale................... £30 for the lot lol :)

 

Only ever use it once each year or even twice at a push, so I didn't see the point in splashing out!

 

As for Formal Night - I personally have never been on a Cruise, but my wee bro in-law wore a Shirt & Bow Tie with black trousers rather than a suit - That was also on a RCL cruise.

[livylotte]

Yikes Proms ... when did they start happening! Our eldest had hers in year 11 and she now tells me they have another in year 13 :eek: Definitely a good idea to check out the suits if your son has his prom coming up.

 

MDR is a fussy eaters's heaven, if you don't like what you are eating they will bring you something else. Our waiter on Brilliance was lovely and catered for my children's every wish. Every night she would bring DD1 an amazing personailzed pudding, DD2 (the fussy one) always got her favourite pasta and DD3 always had cucumber & brocolli on her plate(strange child :p). Their glasses were filled before they had time to ask and she always brough a plate of chips for middle of the table complete with ketchup. Be warned if they ask for something once ... they may well end up getting it every night! The waiters forget nothing!

 

I think MDR is a great way for them to try new things, I was very impressed with DD2 one night, she ordered snails ... and actually ate them :eek: (LOL I couldn't look!)

 

Happy shopping!

[kernow]

I have a 15 year old son who loves to dress up on formal night. Its about the only night he comes to dinner with us. Last year on Explorer alot of the teens he met onboard had a group photo taken, all of them dressed in their formal attire. They all looked lovely.

 

Our Indy cruise out of Southampton a couple of years ago had the largest amount of 'dressed up' people I've ever seen on RCL, almost everyone young and old had made an effort.

 

Julie

[waterbug123]

Haven't sailed from Southampton so can't offer advice specific to those cruises but I'll offer this:

 

I've never sailed with my kids, but 2 years ago my boys went on the Mariner with their dad, stepmother and stepsister. My oldest son was 14; the ex got tuxes for both boys and they both wore them proudly (stepsisters were equally dressed up.) for dinner with the family.

 

On my most recent cruise on Freedom I saw a group of 7-8 teens waiting for an elevator on formal night. They were not with parents, and were clearly doing their own thing together that night. One girl was fairly casual (casual dress and flats) The other girls were wearing typical teen girl "look at me and how tight/short my dress is" dressy dresses and fancy shoes. The boys were in jeans and polos or tees.