Am I the only one who'd love to cruise without formal night?

[josassoc]

I realize that formal night is a tradition for cruising. But, it is my vacation...and I'd love to be able to relax and forego the dress and heels for a week. Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

I'm NOT looking for an education on the etiquette of cruising. I don't wear jeans to the dining room. I do follow the rules and bring/wear my black cocktail attire when we cruise. I'D JUST RATHER NOT! (So flamers find another victim!!)

 

What I wish is that I could JUST ONCE go on a cruise without having to go through the enire hassle of getting so dressed up...so that they can sell more photos. My opinion.

[Druke I]

I for one enjoy formal nights.

 

That said, we are going on a Baltic cruise, 8-31-05, on Oceania's Regatta, and they do not observe formal nights - just "smart casual".

[pejay]

We would love to eat lobster and not have to dress up for it:-)

[lindberg]

I wouldn't mind it if there were no formal nights either. I sometimes skip formal night and do the buffet.

 

Check out Orient during the summer in the Med....No formal nights. I loved not dressing up. Also Oceania I believe doesn't do formal either. Both are just

"country club" casual. My style when I'm on a summer vacation.:D

[britsbest]

There are several lines that are totally informal, each to his own,...........we love formal nights we eat casual all year !

[marly]

We don't particularly like formal night. We do it when required for dinner but then usually change immediately into our casual clothes for the rest of the evening.

[cherylandtk]

josassoc,

Not at all; NCL cruises has built an entire fleet around this premise.

[LARGIN]

Cruising gives us many options as there are many cruiselines that offer casual only cruising... However Princess is not one of them..

[britsbest]

I realize that formal night is a tradition for cruising. But, it is my vacation...and I'd love to be able to relax and forego the dress and heels for a week. Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

I'm NOT looking for an education on the etiquette of cruising. I don't wear jeans to the dining room. I do follow the rules and bring/wear my black cocktail attire when we cruise. I'D JUST RATHER NOT! (So flamers find another victim!!)

 

What I wish is that I could JUST ONCE go on a cruise without having to go through the enire hassle of getting so dressed up...so that they can sell more photos. My opinion.

 

So far the answer is ....."Yes"

[bdjam]

I realize that formal night is a tradition for cruising. But, it is my vacation...and I'd love to be able to relax and forego the dress and heels for a week. Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

I'm NOT looking for an education on the etiquette of cruising. I don't wear jeans to the dining room. I do follow the rules and bring/wear my black cocktail attire when we cruise. I'D JUST RATHER NOT! (So flamers find another victim!!)

 

What I wish is that I could JUST ONCE go on a cruise without having to go through the enire hassle of getting so dressed up...so that they can sell more photos. My opinion.

I don’t think you are – that’s why there are other successful cruise lines out there that offer no formal nights. In reference to Princess specifically, there are also cruise lines that are more formal. I choose Princess because for me it’s the right fit of formal and “smart” casual. The other posters here have noted other cruise lines that present the “casual” cruising alternatives and those who prefer that type of cruising seem to find them satisfactory.

 

As for formal nights being a gimmick to sell more photos, I think that's a stretch…the cruise lines that have formal nights wouldn’t go to the expense of setting up photo shoots, printing the pictures, employing the photographers, etc., if there wasn’t a healthy return on their investment…which is due to passenger demand.

 

[stoneharborlady]

Well, you can still skip formal in the dining room, and hit the buffet instead that night. We dressed for one formal night, and skipped out on the second.

[sjcivilady]

Which ships are informal? I would love an informal cruise. When I was younger I chose Club Med as my favorite way to vacation because I loved the beaches, water sports and casual atmosphere. As you arrive at the dining room, the hostess fills up the tables of eight; so you eat with different people. Was a great way to meet new people. You wore a cover-up over your bathing suit at lunch and tropical/casual at dinner. (and tipping wasn't allowed...although I always left something for the maid). Now I don't have the figure to wear a bathing suit all day(and most of the guests are probably under 40); so cruising is more appealing to me. If the friend I am going on the Alaskan cruise with doesn't want to do formal, we'll probably just eat in the alternative dining room those nights. :)

[KatWag]

I prefer not to dress up as well. (Have to do it way too much in my day-to-day life and would rather get away from it on vacation. It's no treat for me.) Like you, I do so when required. We're actually looking into Oceania ourselves. I love the Country Club Casual approach. In May, 2004, we took an RSSC cruise to Bermuda which was also Country Club Casual and loved it.

 

Although Princess doesn't offer cruises which are Country Club casual, you can occasionally find it on other lines like RSSC as well.

 

We enjoyed our cruise in Hawaii on NCL, as well. We were on what was, at the time, a very new ship, the Star. It was terrific, but I've heard less than flattering reports about some of the NCL ships that were not specifically built for "Freestyle Cruising".

 

I'd definitely think about trying other lines as well. Although I've really enjoyed my Princess cruises, by the time we retire, I want to be a member of the "frequent traveller" club for all of the cruise lines that interest me. You never know when you'll find something that's an even better fit for you.

[travellady]

I just got off the Sapphire Princess this morning (Alaska cruise) and we also love to go at a casual pace. So, we did pack formal clothing and with the idea we'd decide onboard if we want to do formal or not. We opted to go the first formal night as it was my 26 year old son's first time cruising. We enjoyed it but honestly, that night the menu wasn't really special. The rest of the cruise we did both the buffet and sit down restaurants depending on our mood and skipped the 2nd formal night.

 

This is one of the reasons we love Princess - you can do formal if you choose but the buffet offers great selections as well so you never miss out on a tasty meal (and I won't step on a scale until next weekend). We are now booked on the Grand Princess Dec 24 Xmas cruise and on the Carnival Valor. I do have to cancel one and am leaning towards the Grand due to the Anytime Dining options coupled with the great entertainment, freshwater pools open anytime...

[bdjam]

Which ships are informal? I would love an informal cruise.

More like which cruise lines. As mentioned above, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania are two. I believe that some of the more up-scale, small ship lines also have a “country club casual” dress guideline. Windstar for a totally casual, t-shirt and shorts kind of cruise.

[PrincessAddict]

...I could do away of the "Dog and Pony Show" of formal Night...after 14 cruises trust me the champagne waterfall still tastes like goat urine!....I wish they would stop serving the cheap stuff!

[josassoc]

LOL. Your comments are a crack-up!

 

My husband loves the idea of dressing up, and dragging me around to every different photo backdrop to take pictures. By the end of the night, my feet hurt from standing in line in heels. And, I still can't get a decent picture with me in it -- he's much more photogenic (thereby my annoyance with the photo opportunists).

 

I'd much rather enjoy my day at sea, and end it with an relaxed evening of dinner and maybe dancing in some semi-comfortable clothes/shoes.

 

NCL previously hadn't been positively reviewed in prior years, but now that I'm hearing better comments, we'll try them. I plan all the vacations, and my DH won't be aware of the loss of his "formal" nights if I don't let him in on it before we get aboard the ship.

[biloxi0625]

My DW and I where just talking about this a few days ago. We decided to skip formal night on our next cruise and just try the buffett. I don't have a problem wearing dress pants and shirt every night in the dinning room. I would not go to a nice resturant in shorts and a t-shirt, however, I am on vacation and I really don't enjoy wearing a coat and tie. Plus its one less thing to pack!!

[llund]

My husband wears a suit and tie to work each day so wants to relax on vacation. I also wear skirts, dresses, nylons, and heels to work so I also like to relax a little. We will be very happy not to have formal nights. I wish they would cut down the amount of formal nights. I think one on a 7 or 10 day cruise is enough and none on shorter 3-4 day cruises. But, we always go along with the dress code and wear the formal attire to dinner. However, we do change close for the rest of the evening so we can relax.

 

By the way, we took the Radisson cruise lines (Paul Gaugin) in Tahiti and there were no formal nights. Didn't miss them at all. I like the "Country Club" attire and think people should dress a little nicer for dinner. Don't like jeans and shorts in the main dining room for dinner.

[LMCAT123]

Dressing up is not so bad, it's dragging all the extra clothes/shoes/purse/whatever along !! Smart causal works just fine for us, no need for all the "extra's" of formal wear, and no extra luggage to hold it all.

 

We opted out of formal nights on our April Sun Princess cruise simply because we did not want to have to pack extra clothing. Since we are not buffet fans (any buffet, anywhere) we ate at Verdi's, which is the pizza, Italian restuarant on the Sun and it was GREAT. They have waiters who serve you and along with pizza they served various Italian dishes, salads and desserts. It was quite busy so we came to the conclusion that there are people who, for whatever reason, don't do formal nights.

[britsbest]

Which ships are informal? I would love an informal cruise. When I was younger I chose Club Med as my favorite way to vacation because I loved the beaches, water sports and casual atmosphere. As you arrive at the dining room, the hostess fills up the tables of eight; so you eat with different people. Was a great way to meet new people. You wore a cover-up over your bathing suit at lunch and tropical/casual at dinner. (and tipping wasn't allowed...although I always left something for the maid). Now I don't have the figure to wear a bathing suit all day(and most of the guests are probably under 40); so cruising is more appealing to me. If the friend I am going on the Alaskan cruise with doesn't want to do formal, we'll probably just eat in the alternative dining room those nights. :)

 

Try Ocean Villiage?

[johnsea]

I agree I think a vacation should as relaxed and informal as possible. If Princess were to have totally informal cruise I would definitely go on it.

[cruzbabe]

People have the option to dress up on formal nights or use the buffet and not dress up... It's the beauty of cruising.

 

I for one love the formal nights... so does my 10 year old DS... seriously!

[johnsea]

:) I agree I think a vacation should be as relaxed an informal as possible. Certainlt no one should dress like a slob Ithink Princess should try an informal ship and see how it works.

[MaryPoppinz]

We've always enjoyed dinner in the dining rooms on formal night, but.....

 

There are some cruises where the activities in the ports tend to be more adventurous. On those cruises, particularly if they are a bit longer and if traveling with lots of bulky clothing and shoes is going to be an issue, I wouldn't mind skipping formal nights.