Princess Men's Formal Night Dress Poll

[Cruise_Christy]

Answered for my husband since he doesn't have an account; Princess is our most travelled cruise line. He refuses to even pack a tie or jacket and although I can get him to pack a smart shirt/trousers/shoes, he's unlikely to wear them. He works very hard, long, ridiculous hours - if he doesn't want to dress up on his one vacation of the year, I'm not going to pressure him. We will always eat in the buffet, or where possible, take balcony dining or room service on formal night and we have always been happy doing this.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Cruise_Christy

[OCruisers]

DH currently wears his tux to the MDR on Formal nights on Princess ships.

This could possibly change in the future.

LuLu

Edited April 27, 2014 by OCruisers

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

I wear a sport coat/slacks to the MDR

[lexdisic]

C'mon people - dont turn this into a pick pick Celebrity thread. I will be taking my first Princess cruise next year. I recently started a thread on the subject of a Sports jacket and how in/out of place I would feel. ( which was removed because of the ensuing quarreling and bashing) I was generally told I would be ok and a few suggested I go to another line (nice people), but still didnt know just how many did. I have a Tux, and may still bring it subject to luggage restrictions, and still may use the specialities on formal nights, but thats another matter to be decided.

This poll may or may not be scientific and statistically correct for all the perfectionists and "pickers" but it is very useful for me to know that I wont be alone in my choice for the MDR as roughly 10% (+/- "statistical error"), will be wearing one and now I feel alot happier - sorry, but I have booked the cruise and wont be going to another line on this occasion :p

[Cruise Junky]

C'mon people - dont turn this into a pick pick Celebrity thread. I will be taking my first Princess cruise next year. I recently started a thread on the subject of a Sports jacket and how in/out of place I would feel. ( which was removed because of the ensuing quarreling and bashing) I was generally told I would be ok and a few suggested I go to another line (nice people), but still didnt know just how many did. I have a Tux, and may still bring it subject to luggage restrictions, and still may use the specialities on formal nights, but thats another matter to be decided.

This poll may or may not be scientific and statistically correct for all the perfectionists and "pickers" but it is very useful for me to know that I wont be alone in my choice for the MDR as roughly 10% (+/- "statistical error"), will be wearing one and now I feel alot happier - sorry, but I have booked the cruise and wont be going to another line on this occasion :p

 

You'll be fine in a sports jacket. Enjoy Princess

[lexdisic]

You'll be fine in a sports jacket. Enjoy Princess

 

Thank you - I believe you said that on the previous thread I started, and as comforting it was to hear your words, it is good to see polls like this to quantify it.

Looking forward to our cruise on Golden. Princess seems to have the itineraries we enjoy. I've surprised myself leaving it this long to try them.

[AKman2495]

Please reread the question asked in this poll. It asked about what was worn to the Main Dining Room on Formal Nights. That is where the dress code applies.

 

From the Princess FAQ: "When formal nights are held, please observe the dress code in the Traditional Dining and Anytime Dining venues for the enjoyment of all our guests."

 

Thank you...you took the words right out of my mouth....

[Times Prince]

Thank you - I believe you said that { Posted by Cruise Junky "You'll be fine in a sports jacket. Enjoy Princess" } on the previous thread I started, and as comforting it was to hear your words, it is good to see polls like this to quantify it. Looking forward to our cruise on Golden. Princess seems to have the itineraries we enjoy. I've surprised myself leaving it this long to try them.

Thank you for this comment, as quantifying it to aid people in their decisions is precisely the purpose of this poll.

 

Bob

[Mom33]

OP......your poll was very comprehensive.The results were quite illuminating.:D

[Times Prince]

OP......your poll was very comprehensive.The results were quite illuminating.:D

Thank you for the compliment.

 

The results were intended to be illuminating, no matter what they showed.

[dmwnc1959]

On our NCL Sun Christmas cruise on Christmas and New Years Eve almost everyone wore either a suit or tux...

 

 

That's because it was a Christmas and New Years cruise. Almost everyone will dress up for these end of year holiday cruises. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

:D

[BrandiGreg]

With 20 plus cruises with Princes...my DH always wears a tux on formal night. We are not dressy people at home, but we both enjoy dressing up on formal nights for cruises...

Same with us. Formal night dressing up is a big part of the cruise experience and something we don't do in our ordinary lives. I just wish they would enforce the dress code more than they do. Otherwise, why have a code? The Horizon Court is always open for anyone.

[Mom33]

I don't hold anything against anyone that doesn't want to participate in Formal night. We did not participate on our Royal cruise. We planned dinner elsewhere both nights and dressed smart casual. We went to the theater smart casual and participated in other activities.

 

However,we choose to observe the spirit of formal night in the dining room and dress for it when we participate, out of respect for our fellow cruisers.

 

Why is that so hard to understand?

[Times Prince]

FINAL RESULTS – SUMMARIZED for 2014

The following is a summary of the results for Cruise Critic men who attend the Main Dining Room (MDR) on formal nights. Please interpret these as you would the “best cruise line” polling data on the main Cruise Critic pages, representing the opinions of CC members. The results may not be universally applicable to all Princess cruise itineraries, as some tend to be more formal than others, but should be used as a guideline for persons wondering what to pack for or rent for formal nights.

 

Top level conclusion: Although the percentage of CC men dressing formally remains high at 86%, there has been a 3.6% shift toward more casual wear since 2011.

 

Poll Data (total respondents = 516)

• Number of Cruise Critic men who attend the Main Dining Room on formal nights: 467 (Note: this affects the percentages compared with the bar chart data in the poll)
  

• % of Cruise Critic men who dress per the Princess guidelines = 70.9 %
  % of Cruise Critic men who dress in the spirit of the Princess guidelines = 15.2%
  (e.g. kilts, military dress, sport coat and tie)
  

• % of Cruise Critic men who do not dress per the Princess guidelines = 13.9%

• Bonus question: For those who choose not to dine in the MDR and responded to the poll approximately 1 in 3 (33%) still dress per the formal night guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS:

86.1 % of Cruise Critic men in the MDR dress formally or in the spirit of formal during Princess cruises. This compares with 89.7% per a poll in 2011. There is insufficient data (due to question #3) to infer any shift from tuxedo to suits.

 

13.3% of Cruise Critic men in the MDR wear sport coat and tie to the MDR, compared with 14.1% in 2011. 4.5% wear sport coat and no tie, compared with 4.0% in 2011.

 

There has been a shift in those reporting they do not wear a coat to the MDR from 4.7% to 9.4%, indicating more casually dressed men are attending formal nights. Of the 13.9% of the total who do not dress per the Princess guidelines, 7% have been queried about the dress code or turned away from the MDR by the Maitre’D at some point during their cruising history. This supports the assertions concerning lack of enforcement of the dress guidelines in the MDR.

 

Acknowledgements

Thank you, Cruise Critic, for allowing this type of objective information to be gathered and presented.

 

Thanks also to the 516 Cruise Critic members who made their preference known in this poll. You have made the results meaningful.

[LMaxwell]

I do find this interesting and applaud your efforts to look for trends, but this poll has certainly left out numerous options and is hardly what I would call objective data. The sample size is less than 20% of the guest accommodation of a single Grand class ship and entirely ignores anyone who is not a Cruise Critic member or active forum participant. There is some merit of course to the poll and you could make an argument that the answers DO reflect the feeling of forum participants.

 

I wonder if Princess themselves have any sort of objective hard data on the subject or if they "wing" it. It would be interesting of course to compare the results of the data here with what the company finds on board. And it will be interesting to see if the trend changes in the coming years if a poll is redone. Kudos on your efforts.

[ldock]

First formal night: Tux

Second formal night: nice suit and tie

[cruiser 1613]

I do hope your post is correct on the cruise that I am taking...

 

That would mean that I should have NO problem finding a table in the

Buffet on those two nights.. However, I think it is wishful thinking on

my part... Will see if it holds true next week on our Alaska Cruise...

[swedish weave]

I do find this interesting and applaud your efforts to look for trends, but this poll has certainly left out numerous options and is hardly what I would call objective data. The sample size is less than 20% of the guest accommodation of a single Grand class ship and entirely ignores anyone who is not a Cruise Critic member or active forum participant. There is some merit of course to the poll and you could make an argument that the answers DO reflect the feeling of forum participants.

 

I wonder if Princess themselves have any sort of objective hard data on the subject or if they "wing" it. It would be interesting of course to compare the results of the data here with what the company finds on board. And it will be interesting to see if the trend changes in the coming years if a poll is redone. Kudos on your efforts.

 

I would be very surprised if any cruise line would publish this type of data. I believe the best would be a "guesstimate" and that would be kept internal until such time as they decide to revise the dress code officially (if they ever do).

[LMaxwell]

I would be very surprised if any cruise line would publish this type of data. I believe the best would be a "guesstimate" and that would be kept internal until such time as they decide to revise the dress code officially (if they ever do).

 

You are probably pretty accurate in your guess. I mean I doubt on the ship if they have a way to really track/tabulate/categorize what everyone is wearing. They may be able to see overall trends but I doubt that even the cruiseline has hard data.

[generichandle]

I doubt this is even very close to accurate, since most who don't care about dress codes are not going to answer polls regarding them, while those that DO care will always answer said polls. 'Intensity' is always a huge factor in issue polling in politics or any other social measurement.

 

Doug

[westwind6371]

I wear a tux at all formal nights.

[iancal]

The results are certainly not representative of the cruising population in general. You just have to take them for what they are.

 

We see the trend toward casual growing on all lines, including Princess. We used to participate but we no longer do. Formal evening lost their lustre for us some time ago. We usually combine cruises with land trips. We are light packers and have absolutely no desire to lug clothing along that we will only use for a few hours, few days, in an extended trip.

 

Having said that, we simply dine in an alternate venue. It is simply not a big issue for us to find an alternate venue. But of course, we certainly do not hide in our cabins on formal evenings. We are out and about....in casual wear.

[Potstech]

I never wear a tux or suit coat on formal night.

[MJSailors]

I never wear a tux or suit coat on formal night.

 

That is your choice,of course.

Question is- do you dine in the MDR on formal nights or do you choose another dining area?

It seems that some cruisers object to those guests who do not follow the dress guidelines and insist on having dinner in the MDR on formal nights. This leads to the question - why have guidlines for diner dress anyway?

[boca7]

Personally I enjoy wearing a tux, but leery of being overdressed. I check the cruisers on the roll call & if the majority is mess formal I will wear a suit, but always a tux in Europe. Europeans I find are more formal than Americans. I just returned from a MSC Italian cruise from Miami & viewing the roll call that everyone talking very casual I wore a sport coat & slacks. To my surprise the majority of cruisers were European & formal wear was the highlight. At least I know On this Thursday`s 4 day cruise on Caribbean Princess is recommended casual.