Formal Night & Getting Dress Up ?

[SidneyOfEaston]

I'm just curious about getting opinions regarding dressing up on Formal Night. How many of you get dressed up because you enjoy doing so? How many of you get dressed up because you feel some kind of obligation to do so, but rather not? How many of you don't get dressed up for Formal Night? TYVM

Edited November 17, 2013 by SidneyOfEaston

[jndsilver31]

DW and I enjoy the two formal nights. It is the only time that we get to wear our formal clothes.

[teddie]

I'm just curious about getting opinions regarding dressing up on Formal Night. How many of you get dressed up because you enjoy doing so? How many of you get dressed up because you feel some kind of obligation to do so, but rather not? How many of you don't get dressed up for Formal Night? TYVM

 

We actually "dress for dinner" every night of the cruise. Formal nights, more dressy; DH always wears tux or suit. We do it because we like the tradition, we like feeling good about the way we look, and it fits the venue of the MDR.

 

It's our choice.

 

Teddie

[PORT ROYAL]

I'm just curious about getting opinions regarding dressing up on Formal Night. How many of you get dressed up because you enjoy doing so? How many of you get dressed up because you feel some kind of obligation to do so, but rather not? How many of you don't get dressed up for Formal Night? TYVM

 

It all depends on what you consider "dressed up" - Just off the VOS and Formal

Night dress ranged from old school elegant to charity shop buys 10 years ago.

 

Old School for us!

[Cruisegirl6]

Prior to 2006 yes I wore a gown and my other half wore a suit.

 

2006-2010, I would wear short dress and he would wear dress pants and dress shirt and tie no jacket.

 

2010-2011- I wore dress pants and a blouse/shirt and he would wear dockers pants and long sleeve dress shirt.

 

2011- Current- I wear nice dressy capris and nice shirt and he would wear dockers and he remains to wear a long sleeve dress shirt.

 

You will find everybody wearing everything. People make it what they want the formal night to be for them. Also, Im sure with the additional baggage fees including fees if the weight of the baggage exceeds the airlines rules does take in consideration why people really don't bring formal wear. I also feel with the decline in the quality of the food what we get does not make me feel that I am getting a high quality meal which adds me not wanting to get dressed up.

 

By the way on a week or longer cruise we only dine in the MDR on both formal evenings only because the menu is better than the other days. We enjoy the specialty restaurants so much!

 

Just my opinion.

Edited November 17, 2013 by lyndamr

[AandBmom]

We actually "dress for dinner" every night of the cruise. Formal nights, more dressy; DH always wears tux or suit. We do it because we like the tradition, we like feeling good about the way we look, and it fits the venue of the MDR.

 

It's our choice.

 

Teddie

 

I agree totally. Our children are 3,4,8, 9 and they participate as well. We're teaching them to feel comfortable and confident in all styles of dress. My daughter loves to pick out "a party dress" and my boys are comfortable wearing khaki's and dress shirts. If I can raise kids that are familiar with and comfortable with everything from track pants to suits then I've done a good job. I love dressing up as I don't do it much at home. I love looking at my husband in a suit. I feel it adds some romance and jazzes it up a bit.

[bbevanston]

Formal night was a mish mosh of everything. My husband wore a dark suit + tie. I wore a black dress + heels. Daughter (9YO) wore black glittery dress and son (7YO) wore button down shirt and khakis. Mostly older gentlemen wore tux. I've seen polo shirts and slacks, tee and slacks, button down shirts (no jackets). Seen it all last week. I would prefer not to dress up and bring the extra heels but husband wants to wear a suit so we go that route. Usually we're dressed for 2 hours, then off to regular clothes to play basketball, ping pong etc.

The other nights are "casual" and seen the mish mosh also. Those nights the kids wore the same type of clothing, my husband in button down shirt + khakis and I wore a dress with heels. Wear whatever makes your comfy and you're willing to carry w/you.

[OCruisers]

Prior to 2006 yes I wore a gown and my other half wore a suit.

 

2006-2010, I would wear short dress and he would wear dress pants and dress shirt and tie no jacket.

 

2010-2011- I wore dress pants and a blouse/shirt and he would wear dockers pants and long sleeve dress shirt.

 

2011- Current- I wear nice dressy capris and nice shirt and he would wear dockers and he remains to wear a long sleeve dress shirt..

 

Formal Nights are certainly not as formal as they once were on RCCL!

 

DH use to wear his tux and I wore a long gown.

 

Now, DH wears dress pants, a polo shirt, and a sports coat. I wear something sort of dressy.

 

Basically, you just need to wear something decent. ;)

 

LuLu

~~~~~

[estoyer]

I'm just curious about getting opinions regarding dressing up on Formal Night. How many of you get dressed up because you enjoy doing so? How many of you get dressed up because you feel some kind of obligation to do so, but rather not? How many of you don't get dressed up for Formal Night? TYVM

 

Our entire family enjoys the formal nights. It's defiantly a personal preference thing. Personally I wouldn't care if other's didn't dress up like we like to but, our senior's have a tendency to make comments at the table about how other's are under dressed. Just do whatever you fell like. It's your vacation...

[Desert Cruizers]

We are not seeing the long gowns on ladies as we did for our first couple cruises, 2002 & 2004, and are cruises are a minimum of 2 weeks, so for the ladies, I see cocktail dresses or black slacks and a fancy top with accessories. Men I see mostly in suitcoats & ties. We enjoy dressing up for dinner because we are casual 24/7 so for us, it makes the cruise more special.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Desert Cruizers

[setsail]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=861088&highlight=formal+night+poll

[rraider1961]

We always feel like the formal night is one of the "can't miss" experiences of a cruise. I get a chance to wear my tux and my wife gets to be at her lovliest best. I recommend you do it at least once.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Forums mobile app

[xxoocruiser]

No longer travel with any formal clothing. Nor do I feel obligated to dress formally just because I might offend the self appointed fashion police. After all RCCL's dress code is not mandatory contrary to what others might think. In fact it's only a "Suggested Guideline" and states so on RCCL's website. I wear basic black dress slacks and a nice black top on formal nights. Works just fine for me.

[caribbean sailor]

My wife loves formal nights,i also enjoy them.

[teddie]

No longer travel with any formal clothing. Nor do I feel obligated to dress formally just because I might offend the self appointed fashion police. After all RCCL's dress code is not mandatory contrary to what others might think. In fact it's only a "Suggested Guideline" and states so on RCCL's website. I wear basic black dress slacks and a nice black top on formal nights. Works just fine for me.

 

That sounds like "Formal Night" attire :)

 

Teddie

[cb at sea]

We like lookin' good...so we enjoy dressing up! Putting on a gown or cocktail dress is no harder than putting on a sundress....and much easier than putting on slacks and top! You don't have to get "updos" on your hair...or do anything different than normal! It's really not that hard or time-consuming!

 

For guys, it may be a bit more work, what with tie and dressier shoes...but hey...that's what civilized folks do...they dress for the venue!!

[chaching]

I did not dress up any night this last 13 night cruise because RCCL did NOT have anything special on the menu worth me dressing up for... all filets/lobster/good steaks cost extra any way. I can go out to a nice lobster or steak place at home that is less expensive. I'm a little offended that the menus are not "better" and "special" on a formal night.

I believe also that now the extra cost of bringing those clothes and extra shoes have other folks deciding not to bring the real "formal" clothes. My DH has a tux and I have long gowns, which we brought but decided not to wear.

The WindJammer offered prime rib on the "formal" nights in the MDR, so we just went to the WJ.

[Rala]

I enjoy getting "somewhat" dressed up...dressy evening pants and a sparkly top, sandals and sparkly jewelry. Hubby wears a jacket, slacks, dress shirt and a tie or he gets the "stink-eye" !!!! ....from me!:D;)

[teddie]

I did not dress up any night this last 13 night cruise because RCCL did NOT have anything special on the menu worth me dressing up for... all filets/lobster/good steaks cost extra any way. I can go out to a nice lobster or steak place at home that is less expensive. I'm a little offended that the menus are not "better" and "special" on a formal night.

I believe also that now the extra cost of bringing those clothes and extra shoes have other folks deciding not to bring the real "formal" clothes. My DH has a tux and I have long gowns, which we brought but decided not to wear.

The WindJammer offered prime rib on the "formal" nights in the MDR, so we just went to the WJ.

 

It's good, then, that you can dine in the WJ. Food choice/quality is so subjective; it's nice to have choices, no?

 

Teddie

Edited November 17, 2013 by teddie

[At Sea 4Ever]

I used to wear the big gowns but now I wear a fancy cocktail dress. My husband always wears a suit and tie for the formal nights. We do enjoy dressing up for these nights because realistically how often do we get dressed like that at home. And yes even though we've been on so many cruises we are still those people in line at every photo station lol. We did skip a captains though on one of our sailings just to see what that was like. To b honest it was great! We stayed in the solarium till almost 730 then we got ready and went to the windjammer. The WJ put out a great spread on captains night. There were even formally dressed people in there which kinda defeated the purpose I guess. It was nice though not having to rush away from the pool and stress to get ready. We have stopped all together with going to the captains cocktail party though. They are way over crowded and once you have been to one you've been to them all. We will be going on the Oasis in the spring and we will be using captains night to eat at the seafood shack.

[cruiselover2890]

Since our whole family only gets together one to two times a year during the holidays, we love dressing up for formal nights. We enjoy it more for the photos that we get to buy afterwards to be honest! We all usually pick out a color to wear and each wear at least a hint of that color and take our photos. This year's color is red! :) My mom will be wearing a long red gown, my dad and boyfriend will both be in a black tux with red bow ties and i will be in a black dress with red shoes. It's really fun for us!

[spookwife]

I'm just curious about getting opinions regarding dressing up on Formal Night. How many of you get dressed up because you enjoy doing so? How many of you get dressed up because you feel some kind of obligation to do so, but rather not? How many of you don't get dressed up for Formal Night? TYVM

 

 

not only do we go whole hog( formal gown for me, kilt and Mess Dress for him) we also dress up for dinner every night.. no jeans or casual attire for us. at minimum., khakis or dockers and collared shirts for him and I am usually in a sundress or linen slacks.

 

 

and we do it gladly.

[Bookish Angel]

which is New Year's Eve and our anniversary week, we don't do formal anymore as we are not interested in formal dressing on vacation. We have plenty of opportunity for that at home.

[Sherlock43031]

we had 3 formal nights on the Serenade cruise that ended last week. there were a few slobs but they were also slobs whenever you saw them around the ship. first two formal nights I wore my rental tux. one night in Chops and the 3rd formal night I wore a blue blazer with open neck dress shirt and pressed chino's. we ate breakfast in the Windjammer every morning but one and on several afternoons we would pick up a few snacks from there. dinner every night but one in the MDR/MTD and found absolutely nothing wrong with the selections or quality of food.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Sherlock43031

[teddie]

not only do we go whole hog( formal gown for me, kilt and Mess Dress for him) we also dress up for dinner every night.. no jeans or casual attire for us. at minimum., khakis or dockers and collared shirts for him and I am usually in a sundress or linen slacks. and we do it gladly.

 

Mmmm. Love a MIK (man in kilt)

 

:)

 

Teddie