Formal nights on Harmony of the Seas

[meff]

My husband and I are cruising on Harmony in September and I’m wondering how to dress on formal nights. We haven’t been on a cruise with formal nights in several years and we’re hoping they are a little less formal than they used to be.  

[topnole]

There is no formal night.  They call it dress your best night now.  Few dress in what is traditionally called formal attire.  More will kind of go half way like a tie for men with no jacket or maybe a sport coat with no tie.  Definitely not formal attire.  Many women wear dresses that seem like typical dresses to me.  
 

You can pretty much wear what is comfortable to you any night.   Enjoy and don’t worry.  

[meff]

Thank you so much!  That’s exactly what I wanted to hear!

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, meff said:

My husband and I are cruising on Harmony in September and I’m wondering how to dress on formal nights. We haven’t been on a cruise with formal nights in several years and we’re hoping they are a little less formal than they used to be.  

 

The previous reply is not accurate at all.  Note this screen shot from Harmony of the Seas 2 weeks ago.

 

There is vocal minority on Cruise critic that attempts to say that Royal has done away with Formal night.  As you can see this is not true.  Now, you can wear what you like and get away with it and you will see everything from casual to formal on formal night but do not believe the posters who say formal night is no more.

 

There are cruises where the verbiage has changed to "Dress your best" but Harmony is not one of them.

 

 

1 hour ago, topnole said:

There is no formal night.  They call it dress your best night now.  Few dress in what is traditionally called formal attire.  More will kind of go half way like a tie for men with no jacket or maybe a sport coat with no tie.  Definitely not formal attire.  Many women wear dresses that seem like typical dresses to me.  
 

You can pretty much wear what is comfortable to you any night.   Enjoy and don’t worry.  

Edited August 4, 2022 by Tree_skier

[OCSC Mike]

23 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

There is vocal minority on Cruise critic that attempts to say that Royal has done away with Formal night.

 

And the majority onboard who agree with that so-called "vocal minority."

 

Quote anything you want, post compasses, nitpick the verbiage... but the reality is cruisers should feel free to wear anything with which they are comfortable, within reason, on formal night.

[Tree_skier]

5 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

And the majority onboard who agree with that so-called "vocal minority."

 

Quote anything you want, post compasses, nitpick the verbiage... but the reality is cruisers should feel free to wear anything with which they are comfortable, within reason, on formal night.

 

You surveyed the majority on board LOL

 

They can and do... but to say that formal night has been done away with is 100% inaccurate.

[ReneeFLL]

2 hours ago, topnole said:

There is no formal night.  They call it dress your best night now.  Few dress in what is traditionally called formal attire.  More will kind of go half way like a tie for men with no jacket or maybe a sport coat with no tie.  Definitely not formal attire.  Many women wear dresses that seem like typical dresses to me.  
 

You can pretty much wear what is comfortable to you any night.   Enjoy and don’t worry.  

That’s not true. There is one night they call formal.

[ReneeFLL]

2 hours ago, meff said:

My husband and I are cruising on Harmony in September and I’m wondering how to dress on formal nights. We haven’t been on a cruise with formal nights in several years and we’re hoping they are a little less formal than they used to be.  

The cruises I have been on since the restart (19) have had a formal night and a dress your best night. We still wear a tux and a gown even on cruises we have to fly to.

[OCSC Mike]

20 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

 

You surveyed the majority on board LOL

 

They can and do... but to say that formal night has been done away with is 100% inaccurate.

 

Yes, I took a formal survey b/c the eyeball test wasn't sufficient.

 

And yes, I agree, it has not been done away with. It exists, you just should feel free to wear anything you want to it (within reason).

Edited August 4, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[topnole]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

 

The previous reply is not accurate at all.  Note this screen shot from Harmony of the Seas 2 weeks ago.

 

There is vocal minority on Cruise critic that attempts to say that Royal has done away with Formal night.  As you can see this is not true.  Now, you can wear what you like and get away with it and you will see everything from casual to formal on formal night but do not believe the posters who say formal night is no more.

 

There are cruises where the verbiage has changed to "Dress your best" but Harmony is not one of them.

 

 

Well, we are both wrong.   The OP asked about the formal nights on a week long Harmony cruise.  You because you said I wasn’t accurate at all.  I was half right so I was partially accurate.   Me, I was wrong because I somehow missed or forgot  that only one of the nights is now dress your best. 
 

Regardless, we all know the spirit of what I said is exactly true.  There is not any type of enforced dress code.  Their code, as they call it, is suggested attire and I’d guess less than 20% (and that is being generous) dress in formal attire.  Probably more like 5% in true formal attire.  On Allure this summer I saw many people in shorts on formal night and most folks were dress in more causal attire.  I also saw many people in shorts and flip flops at the specialty restaurants all week long.  No one cares what you are wearing. 
 

Formal night is a tradition that is past it’s time, and the mass cruise lines know it.  Is what it is.   

[jagsfan]

On Harmony in March, one man at our table wore and, we are sure, slept in the same pair of cargo shorts every night. On formal nights he changed from the shirt he’d been wearing to a different wrinkled one. 
We tried to pay attention to what he said, not  his appearance. 
We’ve gone much less formal with what we wear, so I just wore nice tops with black slacks and DH wore a sport coat, dress shirt and tie. 
The other couple at the table dressed like we did. 
I enjoy seeing the increasingly rare sequined gowns and tuxes, but those days are over for us.