First formal night - what happens?

[No Sea Legs!]

Thinking logistics.

Second night- a sea day and the first formal night.

We prefer to eat early (6.30).

Can anyone tell me how the first formal night is organised and what we might expect.

Is it an extra special menu for the evening?

Is it a lot of standing around and waiting for something to happen that we are not invited to as we not Ruby, Platinum or Elite cruisers? 

Thanks in advance.

[Over from NZ]

12 minutes ago, No Sea Legs! said:

Thinking logistics.

Second night- a sea day and the first formal night.

We prefer to eat early (6.30).

Can anyone tell me how the first formal night is organised and what we might expect.

Is it an extra special menu for the evening?

Is it a lot of standing around and waiting for something to happen that we are not invited to as we not Ruby, Platinum or Elite cruisers? 

Thanks in advance.

Don't over think it. There will be some people that don their glad-rags and suits and go to dinner. Some will turn up to the MDR in shorts and T-shirts. The photographers will try their hardest to get the dressed up to have their photo taken. There might be something "special" on the menu.. but most won't know. There will be a few "Elites" rattling their jewelry.. but mostly it's a bit of a meh night. Knock your self out if you love dressing up and preening.. otherwise it's really just like any night 🙂 

[Torfamm]

There is often an event on the first formal night with a champagne waterfall and introduction of the ship’s officers, the time is often 6:30. The MDR also has some elevated items on the menu.
 

You can check the schedule in the Journey section of the app to see what is happening on your cruise 

Edited June 5 by Torfamm

[paddingtonbear]

Even if you don’t want to dress up and go to the MDR it’s worth watching from higher up as they pour the champagne tower and watching people enjoying themselves. 

[latebloomer56]

We no longer pack formal wear for most trios. Smart casual is ok with us even on formal night. We do tend to do our specialty dinners on these nights so don't remember anything special in the MDR. I do like see all the folks who enjoy this having a lovely evening. Everyone should get at least one formal evening picture it makes a nice memory, our last one is 18 years old and it still makes me smile.

[skynight]

Dress. Most people will be dressed nicely, but very few in true formal wear. There probably will be production shows at 7:30 and 9:30. Arrive between 30 to 45 minutes early for seats. There might be the champagne waterfall tower in the Piazza. The remainder of the evening will be just like any other evening, live entertainers in the lounges, maybe a game show. Loyalty status has nothing to do with any of the activities. Everyone has equal access.

One note. If you have the premier fare there will be reserved seats for you for the production shows. Those seats are released 5 to 10 minutes before the show.

The DR menu will have some special formal night selections, maybe lobster tail. In my opinion the special selections are nice, but not so great that you would be sorry if you missed them.

Edited June 5 by skynight

[Princessfan20]

Our experience is nothing major happens on formal nights.  It is almost a non-occasion and really just one big photo shoot for the Princess photo department to make some money.  Maybe a champagne waterfall (for photos again to be bought) but no gala balls, dances or really big changes to the menu.

[HotRoot]

Note on the champagne waterfall.  On our first cruise we made a point to get there early and get a front row seat.  At least we thought it was front row.  Two minutes before the start, lots of people chose to just stand in front of us.  We could see nothing.  You are better off to stand at the rail on an upper level.

[555]

The best part of the formal night is the better meal in the DR. Other than that, it would be the production show unless you've seen it many times before.

[Torfamm]

4 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

We no longer pack formal wear for most trios. Smart casual is ok with us even on formal night. We do tend to do our specialty dinners on these nights so don't remember anything special in the MDR. I do like see all the folks who enjoy this having a lovely evening. Everyone should get at least one formal evening picture it makes a nice memory, our last one is 18 years old and it still makes me smile.

I was just scanning and sharing old photos with my sons. Seeing a 25 year old photo of them in their rented tuxedos on a cruise when they were teens brought back many happy memories.

[wallyj]

4 hours ago, skynight said:

 

The DR menu will have some special formal night selections, maybe lobster tail. In my opinion the special selections are nice, but not so great that you would be sorry if you missed them.

My experience has been if Lobster will be served on your sailing in the MDR, it will usually be the ‘last’ formal night of the sailing. It is up to the chef, as on one of my recent 7 night sailings, lobster was on the menu the night after the second formal night.

[HotRoot]

8 minutes ago, wallyj said:

My experience has been if Lobster will be served on your sailing in the MDR, it will usually be the ‘last’ formal night of the sailing. It is up to the chef, as on one of my recent 7 night sailings, lobster was on the menu the night after the second formal night.

On our last few cruises we had surf and turf on the last formal night but the surf was shrimp.

[Torfamm]

20 minutes ago, HotRoot said:

On our last few cruises we had surf and turf on the last formal night but the surf was shrimp.

We’ve had lobster on our cruises earlier this year

[memoak]

Formal night menus often feature things like beef Wellington, Lobster, Escargot and Prime Rib

[HotRoot]

1 hour ago, Torfamm said:

We’ve had lobster on our cruises earlier this year

Maybe because we had four formal nights?

[Torfamm]

25 minutes ago, HotRoot said:

Maybe because we had four formal nights?

I don't know but I suppose it's possible that they don't order lobster for the 21-28 day segments or maybe it was unavailable when the cruise started. It could be geographical as well. Were you on a segment of the World Cruise?

 

We were on the Enchanted in the Caribbean earlier this spring and had lobster on the last formal night on each 10 day segment. 

Edited June 5 by Torfamm

[JimmyVWine]

12 hours ago, No Sea Legs! said:

We prefer to eat early (6.30).

One thing to note.  6:30 is not early on a cruise ship.  5:15 is early.  And to be honest, 6:30 is kind of a unicorn time to get seated.  Many of the early diners have not yet left the dining room or the tables have not been cleared and reset yet.  Even though Princess has moved mostly to an "Anytime" system of dining, it isn't really "Anytime."  It works more like:

• First wave of diners queue up at 4:50-5:30 and fill the dining room.
• That first wave finishes dining around 6:30-6:50 and tables get cleared and reset.
• Second wave of diners gets seated around 7:00-7:30
• Small number of third wave diners get seated from 8:00-8:30 or later.

 

So if you show up at 6:25-6:30, there is a good chance that you will be in a half-hour line to get seated.  And if you try to make a reservation for 6:30, you will probably be told that you can't.  It's even hard to get a 7:00.  They mostly funnel people into the 7:20 slot.   On my upcoming cruise, I made all of my dining reservations on the day that they opened up and nothing around 6:30 was even an option.  5:30 and 7:20 was all I was offered for a private table.  6:40 showed up as an option for a shared table, but when I tried to book that, I always got an error message. 

 

 

[memoak]

5 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

One thing to note.  6:30 is not early on a cruise ship.  5:15 is early.  And to be honest, 6:30 is kind of a unicorn time to get seated.  Many of the early diners have not yet left the dining room or the tables have not been cleared and reset yet.  Even though Princess has moved mostly to an "Anytime" system of dining, it isn't really "Anytime."  It works more like:

• First wave of diners queue up at 4:50-5:30 and fill the dining room.
• That first wave finishes dining around 6:30-6:50 and tables get cleared and reset.
• Second wave of diners gets seated around 7:00-7:30
• Small number of third wave diners get seated from 8:00-8:30 or later.

 

So if you show up at 6:25-6:30, there is a good chance that you will be in a half-hour line to get seated.  And if you try to make a reservation for 6:30, you will probably be told that you can't.  It's even hard to get a 7:00.  They mostly funnel people into the 7:20 slot.   On my upcoming cruise, I made all of my dining reservations on the day that they opened up and nothing around 6:30 was even an option.  5:30 and 7:20 was all I was offered for a private table.  6:40 showed up as an option for a shared table, but when I tried to book that, I always got an error message. 

 

 

We love that all the those people eat early. We never eat before 7:30 even at home and never have to fight the crowds 

[voljeep]

6 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

5:30 and 7:20 was all I was offered for a private table. 

this ... booked the mdr on SUN P yesterday for the dress-up, picture night on our cruise.

We took 5:30

[No Sea Legs!]

Thank you all. What time is the champagne fountain...approx?

How do we navigate the evening? 

[JimmyVWine]

34 minutes ago, No Sea Legs! said:

What time is the champagne fountain...approx?

On the last cruise that I was on, the Patter shows that the ceremony (some quick speeches, recognitions and the Champagne pouring) was scheduled for 6:45-7:30.  I would say that is about right.  We had a dinner reservation for 7:20 so we bowed out at 7:15.

[No Sea Legs!]

3 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

On the last cruise that I was on, the Patter shows that the ceremony (some quick speeches, recognitions and the Champagne pouring) was scheduled for 6:45-7:30.  I would say that is about right.  We had a dinner reservation for 7:20 so we bowed out at 7:15.

Thank you! 

[arizonaperson]

1 hour ago, No Sea Legs! said:

Thank you all. What time is the champagne fountain...approx?

How do we navigate the evening? 

I just looked at a few live from’s.. From various ships. Here are the times for the champagne waterfall -approximately. Captains welcome aboard party and champagne waterfall in the Piazza 6:45 PM to 7:30 PM. On another ship, it says 6 PM to 6:45 PM and it says the  Captain will introduce the senior officers at 6:30pm.This usually takes place on the first formal night.

Basic, you can usually go pour champagne into the glasses with one of the officers and get your picture taken ,no obligation to purchase and then towards the end of the champagne photo opportunity,The captain introduces the officers. If you’ve never seen this before ,might be nice. You can make your dinner reservation for later that evening. Or just show up at the restaurant and wait to be seated or be seated right away if not busy.
I did not catch what ship you’re on or if you’re sailing after September 14, 2024, but there will be a new Dinning reservation system for those voyages. Also, you could get a better understanding of the menu for the first formal night, Patter( aka event/ newsletter )and the champagne waterfall schedule from your exact ship from somebody that does a Live from prior to your voyage.

[Kay S]

I like watching the staff set up the fountain more than the actual fountain itself.

[No Sea Legs!]

3 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

I just looked at a few live from’s.. From various ships. Here are the times for the champagne waterfall -approximately. Captains welcome aboard party and champagne waterfall in the Piazza 6:45 PM to 7:30 PM. On another ship, it says 6 PM to 6:45 PM and it says the  Captain will introduce the senior officers at 6:30pm.This usually takes place on the first formal night.

Basic, you can usually go pour champagne into the glasses with one of the officers and get your picture taken ,no obligation to purchase and then towards the end of the champagne photo opportunity,The captain introduces the officers. If you’ve never seen this before ,might be nice. You can make your dinner reservation for later that evening. Or just show up at the restaurant and wait to be seated or be seated right away if not busy.
I did not catch what ship you’re on or if you’re sailing after September 14, 2024, but there will be a new Dinning reservation system for those voyages. Also, you could get a better understanding of the menu for the first formal night, Patter( aka event/ newsletter )and the champagne waterfall schedule from your exact ship from somebody that does a Live from prior to your voyage.

Thank you, we will be on the Sky (August) Our priority is seeing the show, so we will want to be in the theatre for 7.30.