Evolution of Dining Attire

[L454S]

It seems to me that the point of contention is being missed here.

 

I think people can wear much more casual attire all they want ( I do, to a point). The problem is them wearing it to the MDR on formal night. If shorts and T shirt are what you want, then have dinner in the buffet. I bring a nice pair of slacks and dress shirt for formal nights, no coat and tie anymore(won't pay for airline additional baggage). 

 

Agree that attire has grown more casual, I just think some can and do push that a bit too far and think it applies all the time and all places in this age of entitlement.

[2Long2NxtCrz]

I agree that airline baggage fees have contributed to the decline in formality.  And the ports also determine the general attire.  The Caribbean is just going to be more casual.  To save on luggage costs, we did rent hubby's tux for our 12-day Med cruise.  Glad that we did because there were formal nights and cocktail parties and a masked "ball", so it was good to "fit in".  We did end up having to buy another suit case in Barcelona (and pay to check it) because the two we started with were filled to the brim.  We had no room for souvenirs.

 

On our June Harmony cruise we had a table for eight right at the front so we got to watch the parade of clothes coming into the MDR.  The women were generally all dressed up more than the men, but there were still plenty of suits and ties and tuxes.  On our August Radiance cruise in Alaska, I'm not sure I saw a single tux.  Still some pretty fancy dresses, but for the most part everything was far more casual.

 

We enjoy dressing up.  So we're going to do so no matter what others are doing.  We're trying Celebrity -- in a week! -- and they have no formal nights, just evening chic.  Whatever that means.  I'm taking long dresses, not formal wear, and hubby is taking a suit coat, dress shirts, dress pants and ties.  We enjoy going out dancing when we're all "dolled up".  Our enjoyment will not be lessened by what others are wearing.

[BillOh]

On 11/15/2018 at 8:04 AM, SargassoPirate said:

The lack of decorum permeates our entire society, not just cruise ships.  

 

Decorum and attire are two mostly different things to me.  To me the biggest blow to what people most remember on formal nights was airlines charging for baggage.    I'll add in my personal view of the Tuxedo on a cruise ship vacation, its like getting stupidly fall down drunk. I've been there, done that, no need to do it again. 

[sparks1093]

Dress has become more and more relaxed since the '60's. (And after typing that I feel really old.)

Edited November 16, 2018 by sparks1093

[dswallow]

I was on a 4-night cruise on Explorer of the Seas out of Seattle in September. I was really impressed by how many people really dressed up for formal nights; I had expected it'd be fewer than normal since it was a short cruise, but it was at the point I barely noticed people who weren't dressed for formal night. It was well more than I usually see. But every one of the 10 RCCL cruises I've taken in the last 2 years has had a decent number of people dressed for formal nights, including men wearing tuxedos.

[boscobeans]

21 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Dress has become more and more relaxed since the '60's. (And after typing that I feel really old.)

 

In my youth I worked for the Railway Express and remember people took cruises with more than a few suitcases. Let me tell you they were packed with more than just shorts and T-shirts..  LOL

 

Now they are considered to be antiques… 

[Rala]

22 hours ago, Yorkvillain said:

My formal night evolution:

 

1- I used to bring a tux and a suit on every standard 7-night cruise. 

 

2- In an effort to pack less, I decided to leave the tux at home but bring the suit with two different shirts and two different ties. 

 

3- In an effort to be a little more comfortable, I eventually decided to leave the ties at home but still bring the suit with two different shirts. 

 

4- In an effort to pack even less and be even more comfortable while on vacation I decided to leave the suit at home and just wear button down shirts and khakis. (Always long sleeve button downs by the way. I would never wear a short sleeve button down anywhere). 

 

I’ll never go back to bringing a suit on a cruise. 

Omigosh!  Are you my husband?    LOL!!!   

[Baron Barracuda]

Wonder how significantly photo sales would decrease if Royal eliminated formal nights.   We have 20+ years of formal family photos taken aboard Royal ships.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, sparks1093 said:

Dress has become more and more relaxed since the '60's. (And after typing that I feel really old.)

You're not old if you can remember the sixties. ☮️

[sparks1093]

11 minutes ago, davekathy said:

You're not old if you can remember the sixties. ☮️

I thought it was "you didn't live right if you can remember the sixties"?

[davekathy]

20 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

I thought it was "you didn't live right if you can remember the sixties"?

Now that has nothing to do with age. Been there, done that. 

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

You're not old if you can remember the sixties. ☮️

 

49 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

I thought it was "you didn't live right if you can remember the sixties"?

 

 

No, I always heard, "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there."

[davekathy]

12 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

 

 

No, I always heard, "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there."

It's all a purple haze. 

[Zach1213]

2 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Wonder how significantly photo sales would decrease if Royal eliminated formal nights.   We have 20+ years of formal family photos taken aboard Royal ships.

 

But, I think as crowds get younger and personal/cell phone cameras get better, that alone will lead to killing off photographers more than anything else. There will always be people who want the formal night photo by the official photographer, but each year I am sure that number goes down and down.

[mcatmcat]

43 minutes ago, Zach1213 said:

 

But, I think as crowds get younger and personal/cell phone cameras get better, that alone will lead to killing off photographers more than anything else. There will always be people who want the formal night photo by the official photographer, but each year I am sure that number goes down and down.

 

I used to but more pictures when I sailed for the first time , now I’m diamond and the only reason I take those picture is because I get one for free otherwise I coins t bother taking them at all. 

Do you think people are willing to buy those picture when they see it on the monitor screen or when they used to have them printed and you were able to see them and more tented to buy them. Pictures are not printed anymore and if you visit the photo center I see them less crowded than before. 

[cindivan]

4 hours ago, boscobeans said:

 

In my youth I worked for the Railway Express and remember people took cruises with more than a few suitcases. Let me tell you they were packed with more than just shorts and T-shirts..  LOL

 

Now they are considered to be antiques… 

Wow!  I want one of those. 

 

Can you imagine what the airlines would charge for that?

 

 

[Zach1213]

11 minutes ago, mcatmcat said:

 

I used to but more pictures when I sailed for the first time , now I’m diamond and the only reason I take those picture is because I get one for free otherwise I coins t bother taking them at all. 

Do you think people are willing to buy those picture when they see it on the monitor screen or when they used to have them printed and you were able to see them and more tented to buy them. Pictures are not printed anymore and if you visit the photo center I see them less crowded than before. 

 

I will say that I've only been on two cruises, and I have never done a formal night (because they sound awful to us), but I don't think I would ever buy a photo from the ship. Seems like such a waste to us, personally.

[screenname2004]

36 minutes ago, mcatmcat said:

 

I used to but more pictures when I sailed for the first time , now I’m diamond and the only reason I take those picture is because I get one for free otherwise I coins t bother taking them at all. 

Do you think people are willing to buy those picture when they see it on the monitor screen or when they used to have them printed and you were able to see them and more tented to buy them. Pictures are not printed anymore and if you visit the photo center I see them less crowded than before. 

I agree. The old way (pre-printed) encourages impulse buying. Now you can't even see pictures without any watermark.

[taglovestocruise]

On 11/15/2018 at 4:12 AM, BirdTravels said:

We're just off the Symphony of the Seas. I'll be the first to fully acknowledge the fact that there are only "suggestions" for dinner attire. From our table in the Main Dining Room, we could see 1/4 to 1/3 of the tables and did a quick survey. It is a lot easier to pick out men's clothes, so here's what we observed on Formal Night:

 

0% Tuxes (surprising)

25% Coats (could be coat and tie, or just coats in general)

65%-70% Casual shirts (polo shirts (many), dress shirts (many),  Hawaiian shirts (some))

5%-10% Shorts and Polo shirts/T-Shirts

 

We have contributed to the downturn in formal attire. We have not packed gowns/tuxes in several years. One less bulky item and shoes to pack.  We do still pack dinner dresses / suits. But, after three cruises on RCI in the past year where the "formal night" attire is getting more casual, maybe we can leave those behind too. 

We were on Symphony two weeks ago. Had dinner in 150 on formal night and saw at least 4 men in tuxes, another 10 - 12 in coats, no one in shorts or wearing polos. Had dinner there a few nights later and saw one in shorts and a t shirt. 

[mcatmcat]

6 hours ago, boscobeans said:

 

In my youth I worked for the Railway Express and remember people took cruises with more than a few suitcases. Let me tell you they were packed with more than just shorts and T-shirts..  LOL

 

Now they are considered to be antiques… 

 

what is that ???? people are moving forward and here is the prove, you either jump onboard or are left behind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llZys3xg6sU

[kochleffel]

I always dread these threads, but I'm grateful to BirdTravels for including actual data, even if necessarily incomplete.

 

I have not yet taken a suit on a cruise and probably never will - I would wear one for a wedding or funeral if I were the officiant (I'm qualified to officiate but haven't been asked recently). Even for shore excursions in warm climates I usually stick to business casual (may reconsider that for the Caribbean). For one next year on RCI I may take a blue blazer, since it's in northern Europe.

 

That, by the way, is the cruise that I said in a previous thread on this subject that I was going to cancel, because one post said that the MDRs on RCI had a portable closet and that if a man came to the MDR on a formal night without a jacket, the staff would whip one out and force him to put it on. The last time I saw that was in New York City in 1965 and if anyone tried to do it to me now, my reaction would probably cause me to be escorted to the brig and kicked off the ship at the next port. However, other posts disagreed with the claim, and I haven't cancelled the reservation.

[Nunagoras]

TBHH: Luggage limits and the mobile phone mentality are the very reasons why people are leaving the good old days of formal nights aboard cruises to fall apart... Why to carry more if it is expensive to carry? And why to buy cruise photos if you can take your own ones? That's it!...

 

I predict that in 10 years from now formal nights will be a thing of the past and the captain's reception will eventually to become such another pool party!... Meanwhile for my cruises here in Europe I'm carrying my formal night suit as my flying suit! Well: That way I can save some weight on the suitcase!...

 

Nice sailings!... 🙂

[omarchs]

Royal did have the failed attempt of Dynamic Dining on the Anthem which was trying to be a happy compromise.

 

They had one of the available dining rooms designated as formal all the time It was entirely your choice to ever go there for dinner.

 

You could just go casual to the other dining rooms. There were no designated shipwide elegant nights.

 

Their execution of the concept was poor which ultimately doomed it, but it did seem to have something that appealed to everyone.

 

Gave the ship a different dynamic seeing people dressed up for the formal dining room any given night instead of only potentially the 2nd or 5th night. They actually gave the guys jackets if you didn’t wear one so they did enforce it.

[BND]

Cruising used to be something that only well off people could do and they dressed accordingly because that's what was socially acceptable.  As cruising has been made affordable for almost everyone, attire has followed suit.  We started cruising in 2005 and even then, everyone dressed up for dinner and on formal nights you saw long gowns and tuxes on most.  As cruiselines decided to cater to everyone, we're seeing a lot of changes.  I do agree with being on vacation and relaxing, but honestly, some take it too far and manners tend to follow suit. too.   People blame luggage limits, but even people who drive aren't packing dressy clothes.  As we cruise out of Baltimore and/or NJ every year at least once, we've seen those that drive dressing down.   Funny thing I've noticed is that the 20 somethings and those over 60 tend to dress up more than the middle aged cruisers do.  DH always takes at the very least a blazer/sportcoat and sometimes a suit and I always wear a dress for formal nights.  I also wear business casual (dresses, nice capris, slacks) to "casual" nights.  

[davekathy]

7 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Wonder how significantly photo sales would decrease if Royal eliminated formal nights.   We have 20+ years of formal family photos taken aboard Royal ships.

We only reason we  have our pictures taken is because we get two free ones per cruise. The time of day or suggested dress has nothing to do with it.