Dressing up for Dinner -11 Year Old Boy

[sk8rmomof3]

I was planning on putting my son in plaid shorts with a matching polo shirt. He's 9 and I'm not dressing him up too much. I doubt he'll even do the MDR more than once as he doesn't sit too long! We shall see!

[Smithkids5521]

Yep, we did pretty much the same as everyone else said. My son, now 13, wears nice shorts and polo shirt for dinner, except on formal nights, then we do make him wear a tie, dress shirt, and pants. He is just now wanting to dress up though, so I actually had to go buy him more dress clothes. Of course, in another year, he'll need it (he's going to a Catholic H.S. and they have to wear shirt/tie on some days). He even wanted a suit coat, which I found at a decent price at Burlington Coat Factory! But he is usually in Nike, head to toe any other day of the week! LOL! And yes, after dinner, he's back into his comfy clothes. I haven't forced the dress shoe thing mostly because his feet were growing all crazy and nothing fit comfortably. I have wide feet myself, and I know it's no fun to wear uncomfortable shoes. Nobody really looks at their feet anyway, and his shoes are usually a black color/style, so they're not standing out really.

 

(y)Everything that she said!!

 

My 14 yo is exactly the same- his normal attire is under armor everything :rolleyes: but he will be going to a Catholic HS next year where shirt and tie is the everyday uniform. Thank you for the heads up about Burlington Coat factory for the suit coat- I had been looking at Kohl's and they were $120 or more and I was like "no way". I actually was going to look at Goodwill... I bet I can find a decent sport coat there, but I will head to BCF too.

 

Anyway, back to OP's question- I agree with what others have said- normal night in MDR he would wear khaki shorts with collared polo type of shirt (what someone would wear to play golf) with some Sperry's and then on formal night he wore dress shirt, tie, dress slacks (first cruise he was young so no jacket but ever since then he has worn the jacket- but that was more for me because I wanted it for pictures).

 

You'll see all type of attire so you don't need to go out and buy something specifically for the MDR unless you want to. :)

[mariefisher]

The rules have changed and I think they represent what most want any way. But I live in fl. and Ruth Chris to Flemings Steakhouse you will find the majority of the customers in nice shorts and polo. The Ritz Carlton where I live has most of the patrons in nice shorts at dinner time. So I think it is appropriate to say that it is appropriate attire. I also think these people have class and were taught at one time to wear suits and ties to these type of places but that is not today's standard. At one time they would hand you a jacket when you didn't come to the restaurant with one, but I don't see any one handing out slacks to those in shorts. I feel I did my best raising my children and teaching them proper manners but at 19 I sure didn't tell them how to dress. They learned that way before 19.

[ShillyShally]

LOL, we truly don't care what anyone else wears and we do casual on casual nights and dressier on formal nights but we found a bit of everything goes on our Sunshine cruise recently - including on formal night a guy had on a button down ss Hawaiian shirt, and on the bottom - a beach towel, we chuckled but didn't care. It was the second formal night and one we were still in port for so I expect he was racing back to get to early seating but no matter what, it wasn't out of place lol!