No Gala Nights?

[jhannah]

We will soon be on the Koningsdam for a 7-night California coastal cruise. The Navigator app shows smart casual as the dress code every night ... no gala nights. Have you seen this before? Our experience has been at least one formal/gala night on a week-long cruise.

[RedIguana]

As with most cruise line apps, I would not trust a thing on them until actually onboard, and even then its a coin toss. Seven nights are usually 2 gala nights, at least for the Caribbean. I suspect the same for your coast. My Rotterdam cruise in 10 days is still showing all casual on the app, I am sure it will change once they update the backend database for that cruise. 

[jkrislc]

We're on the Koningsdam this month and our docs state 2 Gala Attire Evenings. It should be indicated on page 2 of your boarding pass.

 

[CruiserBruce]

The Navigator app does populate all info completely until onboard. The Gala nights populate about a week ahead.

[4966and556]

Almost every sea day has a gala night.  The hair salon loves it, because women love to get their hair and nails done. 

 

[CruiserBruce]

7 minutes ago, 4966and556 said:

Almost every sea day has a gala night.  The hair salon loves it, because women love to get their hair and nails done. 

 

That would depend on the itinerary and length of cruise.

[4966and556]

CruiserBruce I realized that after I hit submit.  I know they don't do that on TAs.  Could you imagine 5 Gala nights in a row??  

 

[fsdj1097]

We were on the October 10th California Coastal aboard Koningsdam, and we had the usual 2 Gala nights that week.  The stop in Santa Barbara was cancelled, so we had two consecutive sea days between Avalon and San Francisco.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

We will be on the Koningsdam for four weeks beginning Sunday,and somewhere I saw we will have two Gala nights. 

[KroozNut]

1 hour ago, 4966and556 said:

CruiserBruce I realized that after I hit submit.  I know they don't do that on TAs.  Could you imagine 5 Gala nights in a row??  

 

 

Not true even for shorter itineraries. It is true that the gala nights typically occur on sea days, but not every sea day includes a gala night (if that makes sense).

[PROCRUISE]

Cruising on the Eurodam 3/9 -3/20: gala nights on night #2 and night#9.

[jkrislc]

On the Koningsdam California Coastal at the end of the month, we really only have one true sea day, so that will definitely be our second formal night as it's on Friday of a Sunday to Sunday cruise. I'm guessing our first formal night will be either Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately, those are both tender port days, so that's not ideal.

[GulfShoresCruiser]

As far as we are concerned....every night is a gala night in the MDR.  We enjoy the great 5 course meals, incredible service and great atmosphere.....and I'm wearing my collared shirt and long pants (no matter what the night is called). 

 

Sometimes.....on the official "gala nights", the menu is knocked up a level or two and that's just another great night in the MDR....Enjoy the beef filet!

 

Excited to be dining in the MDR in September on the Westerdam. 

 

 

[victory2020]

10 hours ago, jhannah said:

We will soon be on the Koningsdam for a 7-night California coastal cruise. The Navigator app shows smart casual as the dress code every night ... no gala nights. Have you seen this before? Our experience has been at least one formal/gala night on a week-long cruise.

We're on the same cruise & were surprised that it didn't indicate any formal nights. I would have been really irritated if I didn't know better & didn't bring formal wear.

[KroozNut]

2 hours ago, victory2020 said:

We're on the same cruise & were surprised that it didn't indicate any formal nights. I would have been really irritated if I didn't know better & didn't bring formal wear.

 

Our boarding passes show 2 gala nights for our 9-day sailing in April... a full 6 weeks away.

[jhannah]

10 hours ago, jkrislc said:

We're on the Koningsdam this month and our docs state 2 Gala Attire Evenings. It should be indicated on page 2 of your boarding pass.

 

Duh! I forgot about looking at the boarding pass. Thanks. It does show two gala nights.

[BobbiSox]

Does anyone know how many Gala nights on a seven week cruise? I have looked everywhere but I can't find anything. 

[RuthC]

2 hours ago, BobbiSox said:

Does anyone know how many Gala nights on a seven week cruise? I have looked everywhere but I can't find anything. 

Is it a true 7-week cruise? Or, more likely several consecutive cruises? 
If it is a full 49-day cruise, then I could only guess at the number of Gala nights. Better to check your boarding pass for the information. 

If it is a series of shorter cruises that you have booked back to back, then the number will total the number of Gala nights of each individual cruise. There are 2-Gala nights up to either 13 or 14 nights, when it increases to 3 Gala nights. It's somewhere in the low 20s (21? 22?: I can't remember) when it increases to 4 Gala nights. 

There was a table posted once, a very long time ago, but I haven't been able to locate it in years. 
Sorry. That's the best I can do. 

[BobbiSox]

Thanks! It's not until September 2022, so I have no way of seeing my boarding pass yet. It is seven weeks. (50 days) It's the Hawaii/South Pacific on Zuiderdam.

[High Flyer]

1 hour ago, BobbiSox said:

Thanks! It's not until September 2022, so I have no way of seeing my boarding pass yet. It is seven weeks. (50 days) It's the Hawaii/South Pacific on Zuiderdam.

If you are sailing on the 45 day "Tails of the South Pacific" there is a VERY active roll call for that cruise.  There are many folks on that roll call who have taken that trip many times.  Join up and ask away.  

[NCTribeFan]

 

 

On my December NA sailing (I was booked as 12 nights but it was really a 7+5), we had 3 Gala nights (2 for the 7-night leg and 1 for the 5-night leg).

 

When trying to decide which nights to book specialty restaurants, it was a little tough to determine which nights would be Gala because they were not showing up correctly on the app.  I believe that finally was corrected shortly before we sailed.

 

I edited out my comments re: the spa, women, hair and nails. 😒

[DaveOKC]

2 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

 

 

On my December NA sailing (I was booked as 12 nights but it was really a 7+5), we had 3 Gala nights (2 for the 7-night leg and 1 for the 5-night leg).

 

When trying to decide which nights to book specialty restaurants, it was a little tough to determine which nights would be Gala because they were not showing up correctly on the app.  I believe that finally was corrected shortly before we sailed.

 

I edited out my comments re: the spa, women, hair and nails. 😒

I may have missed it, but I have never seen it posted ahead of time or even onboard.  However, you can normally make a good guess at it.  First, it is usually NOT on the first or last nights of the cruise.  Second, rarely is it on a normal (8-5) port day.  Remember, HAL likes to give people time to do spa treatments and photo ops on a Gala Night (more money for them).  

 

Very often the first Gala night will be on the first full day after departure, as usually this is a sea day.

 

Best way to find out ahead of time is to monitor reports from people who have recently done the exact cruise.