Would you like Celebrity to return to Casual, Semi-Formal, and Formal Nights?

[JezzaC]

I prefer smart casual all the time.

 

Agree, that would be the best solution.

[Meena]

We have taken over 20 cruises and now we don't even pack anything formal at all. Our last two cruises we have dined in the cafe practically every night and noticed it was very crowded. We opted for Select Dining just in case we wanted to dine in the dining room some nights and pre-paid the gratuities because all of those servers also work the cafe and should be appreciated with tips. But, especially on a Med cruise, after being out all day, we just don't feel like changing for a formal dinner. It's worked out great and saved on a lot of packing extra clothes. I often wondered how those people who pack gowns, tuxes, etc. and have changes for every formal night pack all of those items and lug those suitcases around.

[MartinsCruise]

At first we missed the old dress code of casual and semi-formal but now we really like the smart casual for non-formal nights. It doesn't take as much planning when packing and DH doesn't have to pack a sport coat and dress pants which saves room in the suitcases. We still pack a tux and long dresses for formal nights because we really enjoy that part of the cruise experience.

[PatC]

To be very honest, we do like the smart-casual nights but would not want to give us at least 1 formal night.

 

My gripe is if you want to do all smart-casual, then Celebrity should make sure it's not "dress down casual". It's nice in the MDR with the smart-casual but then there are those in tee shirts and jeans. Sorry, just my opinion.

 

Make the rules, fine, stick to the rules, please. If you want folks to dress a certain way then fine, don't "bend" them. It's so confusing from ship to ship.

 

I never thought I'd not like formal nights but our past few cruises were nice just being casual. Besides, costs of travel have gone way up and it's not cost effective to have to pay so much for your luggage.

[mpbmark]

Just my opinion, but it doesn't matter what the suggested dress is, people dress the way they please. The mass market cruise lines don't bother to enforce the suggested dress code anyway. In just this small sampling, it's clear that most don't want to be told what to do or wear on "their vacation".

 

And BTW, the suggested dress code is for the evening, not the MDR. Going to the specialty restaurant on formal nights because you can wear less formal attire or eating in the buffet or on your balcony, isn't complying with the suggested dress code. The code doesn't say "formal dress suggested for main dining room only" but for the "evening". How many times have the late seating dinner people been in a tux and gown only to pass a whole group of early diners who have "changed" into t-shirts and flip-flops and are heading to the bars or casino?

 

Rant over and yes, we dress for the evening as suggested. I avoid the packing issues by renting a tux on board. Leaves extra room for wife's shoes and fancy gowns.

[horsesandcruises]

We have taken over 20 cruises and now we don't even pack anything formal at all. Our last two cruises we have dined in the cafe practically every night and noticed it was very crowded. We opted for Select Dining just in case we wanted to dine in the dining room some nights and pre-paid the gratuities because all of those servers also work the cafe and should be appreciated with tips. But, especially on a Med cruise, after being out all day, we just don't feel like changing for a formal dinner. It's worked out great and saved on a lot of packing extra clothes. I often wondered how those people who pack gowns, tuxes, etc. and have changes for every formal night pack all of those items and lug those suitcases around.

 

wife does the packing and we always check 3 bags. We dress for formal night(tux, etc.) and the other half thinks that i look nice in my tux. If it pleases her, i am all in. She is beautiful and seeing her in her nice clothes is very pleasing. Just makes for great cruises on celebrity...Lots better than the tee shirts and jeans and rum punches that we saw at formal dinner night on carnival...I guess it is just a matter of having some class and respect for one another's wishes..thanks to celebrity for providing a cruise that we feel comfortable on......;)

[dkjretired]

Just my opinion, but it doesn't matter what the suggested dress is, people dress the way they please. The mass market cruise lines don't bother to enforce the suggested dress code anyway. In just this small sampling, it's clear that most don't want to be told what to do or wear on "their vacation".

 

And BTW, the suggested dress code is for the evening, not the MDR. Going to the specialty restaurant on formal nights because you can wear less formal attire or eating in the buffet or on your balcony, isn't complying with the suggested dress code. The code doesn't say "formal dress suggested for main dining room only" but for the "evening". How many times have the late seating dinner people been in a tux and gown only to pass a whole group of early diners who have "changed" into t-shirts and flip-flops and are heading to the bars or casino?

 

Rant over and yes, we dress for the evening as suggested. I avoid the packing issues by renting a tux on board. Leaves extra room for wife's shoes and fancy gowns.

 

I don't know what cruise line you are talking about but it is not Celebrity...

 

The dress code is not for the evening, it is only for the Dining room. The "evening" dress is a tradition that Celebrity eliminated about 3 years ago.

 

The dress code for Specialty restaurants is smart casual every evening so going there to avoid formal in the MDR is perfectly acceptable....

[FastFreddie]

First of all if a Cruise line can't stop chair hogs how do they enforce a dress code? Second, Cruise lines are in business to make money. "Smartcasual" seems to be what's in demand, that's why it's accepted. Jeans and ball caps in the dining room for the evening meal are commonplace.

 

That being said. I really liked having 2 formal nights on a 7 day cruise. Everyone (or most everyone) seemed to be in their gala attire. It was nice. Ships were smaller. The feeling was more intimate. Now we have Solstace class ships (and, that class is, comparatively smaller than the mega ships like the Freedom and Oasis classships) with1/3 more passengers. There are many more dining choices. More entertainment choices and etc. I love the Celebrity product. I wish the ships were smaller. But I think because of consumer demands and heavy competition the crusie lines have to adapt to make a profit.

 

It would be nice to have a part of the dining room cordoned off, for the formal nights, for non formal dress. Ya I know that's why the Windjammer is there, but some people like to have a nice 3 to 5 course meal in less formal attire.

 

Perhaps smaller Holland America ships would be a solution.

[coffeebean]

I much prefer the dress code as it is now...smart casual or above all nights with the exception of formal nights. Actually, my husband and I have done the formal dress on several cruises and we feel we have "been there, done that". Neither one of us wish to dress in formal clothes. We go to the specialty restaurants on formal nights.

 

I love wearing capris in the evening with a nice top and nice shoes to dress up the outfit. That is dressy enough for me when I'm on vacation.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

 

We will dress up to please ourselves, after all it is our vacation. I suspect cruise lines are complying to limits on luggage set by airlines. It is tougher to take the clothes with luggage limits these days. We pay extra but not everyone wants to do so.

 

It's not necessarily the paying extra for luggage that's an issue. I just dislike having to drag all that luggage around.

[cruiserhal]

I prefer smart casual and formal but - here is the catch - if we have to fly then I only pack one suit and dress more smart casual due to the cost of extra bags. The home port cruises I take a suit and a sport coat or 2 with dress slacks. How do you like that for a wishy-washy answer? :)

[iancal]

We just returned from a month or so in Greece and Turkey. Twelve days on the Constellation and the balance of the time touring Turkey. This is the norm for us-to combine a cruise and some land based travel.

 

We are not about to carry formal clothes around on a three-five week trip just so that we can wear them on two or three nights. It has nothing to do with airline baggage fees and everything to do with trying to travel light so that we can enjoy our travels.

[Shooraq]

Casual and smart-casual work best for me. It's painful lugging a suit for my DH... just not worth it. But I don't have a problem with others dressing formally, and when I go on the Equinox in May I will do the specialty restaurants on the formal nights to avoid brings the fancy clothing along for the ride!

[coffeebean]

 

And BTW, the suggested dress code is for the evening, not the MDR. Going to the specialty restaurant on formal nights because you can wear less formal attire or eating in the buffet or on your balcony, isn't complying with the suggested dress code.

Not true. The following is taken directly from the Celebrity website under "dining"...

 

...Additionally, guests are asked to follow the "Smart Casual and Above" dress code in the Celebrity Theater for all evening performances.

[LyonQueen]

It's a vacation, and it's my opinion people should be able to dress comfortably. We chose to pass on formal night for that very reason. I have no issue with "smart casual" and think formal night should be optional, with perhaps a section in the dining room reserved for those who choose to dress more casually if the formally dressed people wish to not see those dressed more casually. To each their own.

[TucsonBlonde]

I would not mind smart casual if people had any clue as to what that meant! It is not schlepping around on t-shirts, jeans or a ball cap

[phoenix_dream]

I prefer smart casual and formal as it is now. But I do agree that with this change many people interpret smart casual as casual so overall it is less dressy. I wish they wouldn't.

 

Everyone is welcome to their own opinion and preference. I do think, though, that the response of 'it's my vacation and I should be able to dress as I like' is rather a weak argument. What if what you like is to go topless? What if what you like is to wear dirty cut-offs and midriff bearing tank tops? What if you're most comfortable in your painting clothes with dirty work shoes? I think most people would not want to see that in the dining room.

 

These are extreme examples admittedly. I know most people who say that actually mean 'within reason' but without dress codes I expect you would see a number of people really stretching the limits of taste and decency as the majority of people would see it. If you want to be really casual, go camping. If you want to be more casual than Celebrity, pick a cruiseline that offers that, or choose alternative dining options. Leave at least one mid-priced option for those of us who prefer cruising closer to what it used to be, and enjoy the chance to dress up. There are enough options to go around for everyone to find an option that is suitable for them - that way we can all be happy.:)

[AcadiaL]

We used to do formal nights when we were younger and could lug lots of luggage for free onto the planes. Now we prefer smart casual or casual.

We will respect the formal nights by eating elsewhere, but we will attend the shows in our smart casual clothes. If someone is offended by that, then they need to get off their high horse.

 

We loved our NCL cruise to Hawaii recently where we could choose to be casual every night and get the same main dining room food and service as the few who like to really dress up and have their portraits taken, etc.

They had one dining room where you had to wear long pants and be a little dressed up(smart casual), and an even prettier dining room one floor down where you could show up in sandals and crops. We didn't see any really distastefully dressed people in either dining room. It was a classy crowd.

 

IMHO, real class is not shown by how dressed up one is, but rather how considerate one behaves toward other people. There are lots of rude, loud, wealthy people on cruise ships who show no consideration for the people around them.

[iancal]

We have absolutely no issue with Celebrity's policy as it now stands. We prefer casual but on formal evenings it is not an issue for us to find an alternate dining venue. There is lots of room on a Celebrity ship to meet all preferences.

[cruiserhal]

I would not mind smart casual if people had any clue as to what that meant! It is not schlepping around on t-shirts, jeans or a ball cap

 

You are so right. We did an Ociania crusie in Europe a few years ago with a dress code of smart casual and everyone dressed very well but were also very relaxed. Smart casual can work.

[Norfolk Brit]

I would not mind smart casual if people had any clue as to what that meant! It is not schlepping around on t-shirts, jeans or a ball cap

 

Certainly not on my Celebrity sailing from the UK - returned recently from 16 days on Eclipse and 'smart casual' for the ladies was, in the main, extremely dressy, and the equivalent of semi-formal on Cunard: many cocktail dresses and similar, though the chaps didn't really come up to scratch, which seemed a little incongruous.

 

I packed my usual smart casual Cunard outfits and felt underdressed at times...

 

Mary

[QueenDido]

I love dressing up in cocktail dresses and looking fabulous. I guess this would fall under the "Informal" umbrella, but I just wear those outfits on the smart casual nights anyway. I don't really care what people are wearing around me... too bad for them if they don't look as nice as me!

 

Also, I fly Southwest so the bag fees are not a problem :)

[A Sixth?]

We liked it better on Celebrity when the dress code was categorized as Casual, Semi-Formal, and Formal. After Celebrity made the change around 2008-2009, the average dress of those onboard at dinner time went down. Everything at home is casual. We like to dress up on cruises and wish Celebrity would step it up a notch.

 

How do you feel? Are there others that share our opinion?

 

Casual / Smart Casual

[hcat]

we prefer the way it is now with Formal & smart (resort) casual-- otherwise too many outfits to pack.... but it is nice to have one or two really dressy evenings!

[ghstudio]

I expect Celebrity to remove the formal nights within a year....to be competitive and in repsponse to the majority of their potential customers who would prefer not to have a formal night.....In fact, I would bet money on it just from looking at the competitive landscape and the number of cruise ships competing for passengers.

 

I think there is almost no chance of their going back to 3 levels of attire. Yes it was nice, but I think that folks looking for a cruise today don't want the formality of olde...they just want to relax and minimize the baggage they pack (airline fees anger everyone).