what happened to dressing properly in specialty dining?

[norboy76]

i've been on a couple of cruises now where i'm seeing passengers being allowed in the specialty dining rooms not in dress wear, iv'e seen passengers in nike track suits, shorts, baseball caps, sandals, jeans with holes in them. iv'e seen that in the italian, french and steak house restaurants on board the last 3 cruises I was on, what has happened to the dress code for those pay restaurants? has anyone else seen this happening more and more often?

[cb at sea]

Yes...all of society nowadays seems to ignore rules, laws and suggestions.  The crew is loathe to "offend" anyone, even if the behavior of some are offensive to others.

 

It's rare for them to refuse entry to anyone because of clothing.  I would assume they would stop you if you tried to wear swimwear into a restaurant...

[2BACRUISER]

The majority of cruise lines have downgraded, dumbed down, diluted whatever you want to call it their 'formal' dress codes. For what its worth i think MDR and speciality venues should be smart casual as a minimum standard.  No shabby jeans, beachwear, shorts, tanks, caps, footy shirts or track suits. We are in our fifities and we find most passengers of a similar age and older  who have grown up with certain standards and ideas of etiquette that just dont seem to exist in today's generations ie people born late eighties onwards. In fact many seem to revel in flouting the codes on purpose!

But at the end of the day the cruise lines are trying to appeal to this younger demographic as the old guard pop off the mortal coil as they are the next generation of cruisers.................

[norboy76]

I know, my brother and I were at the steak house and the Italian restaurant on an NCL, and passengers were coming in, in shorts, caps, sandals, one lady you could tell it was a swimsuit with a wrap around the waist she put on and sandals and they still let her come in with her family. I think besides my brother and me, only 4 other tables were dressed properly. I even saw people dressing shabby for the Captain's party for repeat passengers, which I though was sad.

[norboy76]

they used to, esp for the specialty dining in the older days, but since they introduced *freestyle* thats when it seems all dress codes got lost. my first cruise on them, everyone in the restaurants (pay ones) and the main diningroom were all dressed in dress pants and a nice dress shirt, ladies in dresses, even the kids were dressed nicely, now that's all gone with freestyle.

Edited August 13, 2019 by norboy76
forgot to add something to the message

[clo]

16 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

The majority of cruise lines have downgraded, dumbed down, diluted whatever you want to call it their 'formal' dress codes. For what its worth i think MDR and speciality venues should be smart casual as a minimum standard.  No shabby jeans, beachwear, shorts, tanks, caps, footy shirts or track suits. We are in our fifities and we find most passengers of a similar age and older  who have grown up with certain standards and ideas of etiquette that just dont seem to exist in today's generations ie people born late eighties onwards. In fact many seem to revel in flouting the codes on purpose!

But at the end of the day the cruise lines are trying to appeal to this younger demographic as the old guard pop off the mortal coil as they are the next generation of cruisers.................

I believe this was on the Oceania board where someone said IIRC something like 90% of people show up 'correctly' dressed.  On other lines is that not the case.  Are the 'offenders' more obvious or do they represent the majority?

[clo]

16 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

The majority of cruise lines have downgraded, dumbed down, diluted whatever you want to call it their 'formal' dress codes. For what its worth i think MDR and speciality venues should be smart casual as a minimum standard.  No shabby jeans, beachwear, shorts, tanks, caps, footy shirts or track suits. We are in our fifities and we find most passengers of a similar age and older  who have grown up with certain standards and ideas of etiquette that just dont seem to exist in today's generations ie people born late eighties onwards. In fact many seem to revel in flouting the codes on purpose!

But at the end of the day the cruise lines are trying to appeal to this younger demographic as the old guard pop off the mortal coil as they are the next generation of cruisers.................

I saw a photo from a formal night on a ship.  The woman had on a long, lovely dressy dress and the man had on jeans and a plaid shirt.  They were likely between 60-70.

[Sweetnspicy]

I was born in the late 80's but I do enjoy dressing up for dinner. I don't go all out but I don't often have the chance to wear something nice with my work schedule. I don't really mind what other people wear, it has no impact on my dining experience. On the NCL Gem in January one of the guys in our group was turned away from dinner at Le Bistro because he was was wearing chino style shorts. He was dressed really nicely, kinda country club casual but he needed to be in pants. He didn't know to bring slacks on the cruise and all he had was jeans. So we gave up our reservation and went to the MDR. I think it really put a damper on our meal because he felt so bad. 

[clo]

4 hours ago, Sweetnspicy said:

He didn't know to bring slacks on the cruise and all he had was jeans.

I'm shocked that their website didn't spell it out.  Seems that most do even though they may not enforce it all.

[geniesue]

On Princess if you’re in a Suite,  breakfast at Sabatinis is a perk.  A table of 4 included

a man dressed in a bathrobe and slippers.  I know I shouldn’t care what others wear,

but really?

[c-boy]

On 8/31/2019 at 4:27 AM, geniesue said:

On Princess if you’re in a Suite,  breakfast at Sabatinis is a perk.  A table of 4 included

a man dressed in a bathrobe and slippers.  I know I shouldn’t care what others wear,

but really?

😮 WHAT ! I wonder what his story was.  I agree cb at sea, even tho there is a written dress code  some passengers  like to flirt with the #sowhatyagonnadboutit class.  

[c-boy]

On 8/13/2019 at 2:30 AM, 2BACRUISER said:

The majority of cruise lines have downgraded, dumbed down, diluted whatever you want to call it their 'formal' dress codes. For what its worth i think MDR and speciality venues should be smart casual as a minimum standard.  No shabby jeans, beachwear, shorts, tanks, caps, footy shirts or track suits. We are in our fifities and we find most passengers of a similar age and older  who have grown up with certain standards and ideas of etiquette that just dont seem to exist in today's generations ie people born late eighties onwards. In fact many seem to revel in flouting the codes on purpose!

But at the end of the day the cruise lines are trying to appeal to this younger demographic as the old guard pop off the mortal coil as they are the next generation of cruisers.................

on certain threads the issue of what to wear on formal night comes up an, it can have responses (negative)  from ages 80 on down. I think it might have to do with attitude and location. Where I'm at in life and where I live, attending two formal events a month is common,  so I am not opposed to wearing a suit and tie or a tux. Now if your retired and living in a retirement community in Florida your views may differ with mine. Off the top of my head I can think of at least six cruise lines that require a minimum of a coat and tie on formal nights. Whether it's enforced that's another story.

[chuchycruise]

On 8/13/2019 at 10:30 AM, 2BACRUISER said:

The majority of cruise lines have downgraded, dumbed down, diluted whatever you want to call it their 'formal' dress codes. For what its worth i think MDR and speciality venues should be smart casual as a minimum standard.  No shabby jeans, beachwear, shorts, tanks, caps, footy shirts or track suits. We are in our fifities and we find most passengers of a similar age and older  who have grown up with certain standards and ideas of etiquette that just dont seem to exist in today's generations ie people born late eighties onwards. In fact many seem to revel in flouting the codes on purpose!

But at the end of the day the cruise lines are trying to appeal to this younger demographic as the old guard pop off the mortal coil as they are the next generation of cruisers.................

 

Really interested in this thread as we have just booked on MSC for 2020, having cruised on Celebrity many times.

 

Several of our party have never been on a cruise before and we have been telling them about the 'formal' nights, and wearing shirt with collar, smart trousers, dresses etc on Celebrity - and that some people still turn up in their Tux.  We feel it is part of the experience of being on 'holiday' and makes that evening meal a little more special.   - A number of our party are teenagers so are keen to show of their 'prom dresses' so we shall all be in 'formal' -

We're hoping other passengers on the same cruise will also......

 

How many 'formal' nights are there on a 7 day European cruise?  

[2BACRUISER]

2 hours ago, chuchycruise said:

 

How many 'formal' nights are there on a 7 day MSC European cruise?  

MSC Cruises

Number of Formal Nights: There's one formal night on four- to six-night cruises, two on seven- to nine-night cruises, three on 10- to 14-night cruises and four on cruises of 15 nights or longer.14 Mar 2019

 

[c-boy]

3 hours ago, chuchycruise said:

 

Really interested in this thread as we have just booked on MSC for 2020, having cruised on Celebrity many times.

 

Several of our party have never been on a cruise before and we have been telling them about the 'formal' nights, and wearing shirt with collar, smart trousers, dresses etc on Celebrity - and that some people still turn up in their Tux.  We feel it is part of the experience of being on 'holiday' and makes that evening meal a little more special.   - A number of our party are teenagers so are keen to show of their 'prom dresses' so we shall all be in 'formal' -

We're hoping other passengers on the same cruise will also......

 

How many 'formal' nights are there on a 7 day European cruise?  

sounds exciting 

[slidergirl]

21 hours ago, c-boy said:

on certain threads the issue of what to wear on formal night comes up an, it can have responses (negative)  from ages 80 on down. I think it might have to do with attitude and location. Where I'm at in life and where I live, attending two formal events a month is common,  so I am not opposed to wearing a suit and tie or a tux. Now if your retired and living in a retirement community in Florida your views may differ with mine. Off the top of my head I can think of at least six cruise lines that require a minimum of a coat and tie on formal nights. Whether it's enforced that's another story.

Which 6 cruise lines did you come up with?   

 

Where I live, there are charity dinners/fundraisers all the time.  None are formal.  Our ex mayor even made a commercial about our town dress codes - "semi-formal is clean jeans, cowboy boots and a hideous Hawaiian shirt."  We can spot a tourist a mile away in a high-end restaurant in town (we have several Forbes 4 star eateries) because the man has on a sport coat...  

 

If someone is attired in what the lines' suggested dress is for the MDR on a particular night, I don't have a problem.  Like on HAL, for a man, trousers and a collared shirt is all that HAL "requires" for their gala night.  Yet, some will still whine that they dressed formally and those with "lesser" dress took from the ambience or "didn't make the effort".    It's all in the eye of the beholder.

[c-boy]

2 hours ago, slidergirl said:

Which 6 cruise lines did you come up with?   

 

Where I live, there are charity dinners/fundraisers all the time.  None are formal.  Our ex mayor even made a commercial about our town dress codes - "semi-formal is clean jeans, cowboy boots and a hideous Hawaiian shirt."  We can spot a tourist a mile away in a high-end restaurant in town (we have several Forbes 4 star eateries) because the man has on a sport coat...  

 

If someone is attired in what the lines' suggested dress is for the MDR on a particular night, I don't have a problem.  Like on HAL, for a man, trousers and a collared shirt is all that HAL "requires" for their gala night.  Yet, some will still whine that they dressed formally and those with "lesser" dress took from the ambience or "didn't make the effort".    It's all in the eye of the beholder.

 hmmmm, ambience there's a word that gets thrown into a verbal blender.  https://www.frommers.com/tips/cruise/cruise-line-dress-codes

[Nebr.cruiser]

On 8/13/2019 at 8:01 AM, fyree39 said:

I didn't think NCL had any kind of dress code. 

What's funny is that we have been on around 40 cruises, and NCL was the only one where I have seen someone turned away--for wearing jeans in the MDR that did not allow jeans (the other MDR did.)  It was our first NCL cruise and I was astounded.  

 

I have seen people in the dining rooms on formal nights in sweatpants and running shorts and clothes that I would wear to do lawn work.  I'm ok with not making everyone dress formally, but there should be some standards.

[slidergirl]

10 hours ago, c-boy said:

 hmmmm, ambience there's a word that gets thrown into a verbal blender.  https://www.frommers.com/tips/cruise/cruise-line-dress-codes

 

Well, this is definitely NOT accurate.  Take what Frommers has about HAL:

Policy: Holland has 2 formal and 4 casual nights on a 7-day cruise.

Men: Casual: pants and button-downs. Formal: dinner jackets, tuxedos, or dark suits with ties.

Women: Casual: casual dresses, pants or skirts with blouses. Formal: cocktail or evening dresses, or dress pants with blouses.

 

HAL has no more formal nights.  They have a couple of "gala" nights.  However, the dress suggestion for any night is pants and a collared shirt (polos are OK) for men and pants and shirts or a casual dress for women.  No need for any jackets, tuxes, suits, cocktail or evening dresses nowadays.  Some may still go for the old Formal look, but it is not required.  

[legaljen1969]

On 8/15/2019 at 12:31 PM, Sweetnspicy said:

 He didn't know to bring slacks on the cruise and all he had was jeans. So we gave up our reservation and went to the MDR. I think it really put a damper on our meal because he felt so bad. 

If any of the rest of you were veteran cruisers, why did no-one mention to him that he might need to bring at least one pair of nice pants (khakis or dress pants?) I would feel awkward too if none of my friends had bothered to mention it.   Yes, he could have looked it up on his own.  I know it's kind of weird, but did anyone else have a pair of pants he might have been able to borrow just for that night?

 

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by legaljen1969

[Sweetnspicy]

1 hour ago, legaljen1969 said:

If any of the rest of you were veteran cruisers, why did no-one mention to him that he might need to bring at least one pair of nice pants (khakis or dress pants?) I would feel awkward too if none of my friends had bothered to mention it.   Yes, he could have looked it up on his own.  I know it's kind of weird, but did anyone else have a pair of pants he might have been able to borrow just for that night?

 

 

None of us had ever eaten in the specialty dining restaurants! We had no idea. We never do dress up nights so it’s not like we planned on “dressing up”. He is definitely bringing slacks this next cruise in January. 

My husband only brought one pair of chinos so nothing he could share. 🤣

[legaljen1969]

On 9/4/2019 at 4:18 PM, Sweetnspicy said:

None of us had ever eaten in the specialty dining restaurants! We had no idea. We never do dress up nights so it’s not like we planned on “dressing up”. He is definitely bringing slacks this next cruise in January. 

My husband only brought one pair of chinos so nothing he could share. 🤣

Well, it was a learning experience for all.  Throwing in one extra pair of pants won't take up too much space I hope.  I am sorry your dining experience was hampered by this unexpected situation.  

 

[Alatraveler1]

Trying not to make excuses, but when you could check up to two bags for free on airlines i would take formal wear or at least suits for nightly dining and it would take one suitcase and one garment bag.  With the extra fees now it is harder to fit complete formal/semi-formal wear in one suitcase along with everything else needed for a cruise.   Couple that with the fear of lost/delayed baggage and we try to stick to resort casual (slacks/polo or button down, skirt/top or dress for women).  Maybe I just don't know how to pack efficiently!  The rise of for fee specialty restaurants has also diminished the MDR experience so that it in itself is not a "special experience" anymore, and the food and service quality have declined in MDR venues as well.  At least we find this to be true for the main lines.  Oceania and higher being exceptions.  In addition, extra fees and dress codes have in todays society pushed passengers to buffets to avoid fees and tipping.  With more and more of a cruise staff's compensation relying on service charges and tips, they need as many people to fill the MDR's as possible.

[dancingfish]

I am old enough to remember dressing up to go on an airplane and I am only 55!

 

I don't understand why people can't put a small bit of effort into dressing for  a special occasion (yes vacationing is special to me!). I understand that not everyone feels comfortable in a tie or a long dress BUT you could put on dress pants and a button shirt or fancy top with black pants with no more effort than putting on your gym clothes!  You are talking about an hour- hour and half right? 

 

I am so excited to be going on a cruise in November- I apologize now if you show up in jeans and I give you "that" look!  🙂

[slidergirl]

1 hour ago, dancingfish said:

I am old enough to remember dressing up to go on an airplane and I am only 55!

 

I don't understand why people can't put a small bit of effort into dressing for  a special occasion (yes vacationing is special to me!). I understand that not everyone feels comfortable in a tie or a long dress BUT you could put on dress pants and a button shirt or fancy top with black pants with no more effort than putting on your gym clothes!  You are talking about an hour- hour and half right? 

 

I am so excited to be going on a cruise in November- I apologize now if you show up in jeans and I give you "that" look!  🙂

 

How much luggage I can bring has nothing to do with what I bring to wear on vacation.  I'll just get that out of the way.

 

Be sure to send out flyers to all the cabins to indicate this is a special occasion for you and that you would appreciate everyone "making an effort" so you can feel special...  (sorry, I just had to say this).

Which night are you saying is a "special occasion"?  The cruise lines have set the dress suggestions.  If someone comes to what you consider is a "special occasion" in khakis or jeans and a polo shirt or a sun dress or a little black T-shirt dress, which are all within the line's suggestions, are you saying they didn't put enough effort in their attire?   You will never get me in a long dress or "fancy top with black pants" on a vacation, so feel free to avoid me 😉 If I'm abiding by the suggestions of my cruise line, sorry to ruin your dinner...

Edited September 9, 2019 by slidergirl