Kids attire in dining room?

[Meditrina]

I see the posts about jeans, but what about khaki cropped pants for girls? I have twin daughters (14) and an 11 year old daughter, and all they have for nice slacks are cropped pants (or jeans). Will this be a problem in the dining room on non-formal nights? We are going on a NB Alaska cruise on Coral Princess. My recollection of our last cruise (Caribbean Princess - but we didn't bring kids with us) was that there were several people wearing jeans in the dining room.

[LARGIN]

Wear what you want like others will say and do, but according to Princess brochures and Cruise Answer Book, jeans are not allowed in the dining rooms during the evening.

[DrivesLikeMario]

This topic is an age-old hot one. :rolleyes: Jeans are not allowed, but you'll see them there anyway. Khaki cropped pants are pretty casual for dinner IMO; maybe with a nice pair of heels or wedges, but definitely not flip flops, and a dressier top, it would be okay. You'll find that people dress pretty nice for Princess dinners and even more so in Alaska.

 

What we do with my teen sons is buy them "cruise clothes" - dress pants, dress shirts, ties, dress shoes, etc. They never wear them at home in So. Cal., but they are perfect for the cruises. Maybe you could do that for your daughters? They don't have to be expensive, just something to get them by.

[Vanilla]

Meditrina

I think the crop pants will be fine for your daughters on non formal nights.

[thechandlers99]

Cropped pants for the girls would be just fine. I think girls look so much nicer in sundresses. All of the stores are having major sales on summer clothes so if they don't have any cute sundresses, now would be a great time to invest. They will be prefect for the dining room.

[iancal]

I would not worry. Our distince impression is that dress is even more casual on the Alaska run...at least that was our experience on RCI.

[prarie cruiser]

I agree with previous posters that Jeans are not permitted by Princess in the dining rooms but you see them anyway, and I also agree dress is more casual on the Alaska cruises.

 

I sure would not go through the expense and effort to try to dress kids up. Put a pair of navy blue, black or khaki pants on them and a shirt, like a polo shirt, and they will be fine. For formal night, a pair of dress pants and a shirt for the boys and a dress or nice slacks for the girls will get them by. However, it is a nice opportunity to teach the kids about dressing for special events and more formal attire is seen on kids too.

 

One thing to keep in mind is they don't even have to dine with you on formal night. They could go to the kids areas, eat in the food court, or eat with room service. Just some options to consider. However, if they do get all gussied up for formal night, take the opportunity to get a picture made with them!

[Princess Patches]

I have seen passengers in the dining room in blue jeans and I have seen passengers turned away at the dining room entrance for being in blue jeans. I would not want to risk the embarassment of being asked to go back to my stateroom and change. When I don't want to dress for the dining room I just go to the buffet.

 

If you want to be 100% certain of eating in the dining room follow the dress code. Cropped khakis are too casual for the dining room. They might be mistaken for shorts which are not allowed.

[stoneharborlady]

My sister outdid herself dressing her three young boys for our dinners in traditional dining. On one of the first nights the three year old had to go to the bathroom. His 17 year old sister kindly got right up to take him. I saw the maitre d watching them leave, with an odd look on his face. None of us at the table noticed that before he left, Andrew had taken his shoes and socks off and stashed them under the table, and was on his way to the bathroom barefoot. He did however, have on a dress shirt and a tie. (and I guess we were lucky he kept that much on)

Karen

[Meditrina]

Thanks for all the advice. Formal night is not a problem, they all have nice dresses that they will be wearing for those nights - we are planning on taking the opportunity to get a nice family picture, and we agree that its good for them to have an opportunity to dine like that!

 

My main concern is the non-formal nights. We're going to be in Alaska for about 6 days after the cruise and I know that during that time, they'll be wearing only jeans or (hopefully if weather permits) shorts, so I'm trying to eliminate too much packing. It will be tough enough to fit all the luggage (for 5 people) in the car that we're renting while we're in Alaska.

[Eric95403]

Thanks for all the advice. Formal night is not a problem, they all have nice dresses that they will be wearing for those nights - we are planning on taking the opportunity to get a nice family picture, and we agree that its good for them to have an opportunity to dine like that!

 

My main concern is the non-formal nights. We're going to be in Alaska for about 6 days after the cruise and I know that during that time, they'll be wearing only jeans or (hopefully if weather permits) shorts, so I'm trying to eliminate too much packing. It will be tough enough to fit all the luggage (for 5 people) in the car that we're renting while we're in Alaska.

 

 

They're kids...nobody is going to tell the kids they can't enter the dining room. "I'm sorry lil Johnny, your parents are dressed properly but you failed to comb your hair and have jeans on. You must go back and change." Has anyone really seen kids turned away because they wore jeans? Maybe the people who are complaining about implementing a kids curfew on that other thread would.

[marinearchit]

They could get into the dining room with jeans since they are kids/teens. But you'll see a majority of the other kids/teens wearing the clothes the line specifies.

Adults will get turned away if they are out of the night's code.

[mrdood]

Well, take a look at what you see, and how it is being enforced, you can then adjust without any embarassment :)

[quincytoo]

I think your daughter would be fine in cropped pants..I think we call them capris here in Canada. Hopefully the weather will get better then it has been...we live in Victoria BC and this has to be the wettest coldest summer I can remember.

 

We had our son wear dress slacks and long sleeve button down shirt for the times he joined us for dinner. The two nights he was eating with the Teen Center once he wore jeans the other night I believe he dressed up on his own accord!!

 

One of his friends he met wore a tux one formal night, we now live in fear he will be demanding a tux for our next cruise....;)

 

I know what the dress code is but when we were on our Diamond cruise last Nov not only were there people wearing jeans one man actually had his baseball cap on during dinner, I wanted to go up and discreetly *accidently* knock it off his head........my husband said I couldn't....LOL.

[trav'linteach]

We are going on a NB Alaska cruise as well (Aug) and our 12 year old daughter will be wearing cropped pants/capris (non-jean) on non-formal evenings at the early seating in the dining room. She will pair them with nice knit tops and sandals. She would be too cold in sundresses. She is looking forward to wearing her fancy formal dress on 1 formal evening. We are also packing jogging suits and jeans for our extended land portion on our own. It is difficult to pack clothing for a 17 day trip and still remain within the 50 lb bag restriction. :eek:

[Roxilla]

On our latest experience with the Coral Princess NB in Alaska, we did notice that many of the kids and teens were dressed very casually including capris and jeans on the smart casual nights. The sign in front of the Provence dining room stated that bathing suits and shorts were not allowed in the dining room. I remember that the signs included jeans on other ships we've been on but that was not the case this time. I don't know if Princess is relaxing or eliminating the "jeans" rule but I did not see anyone turned away. In fact, I did see an adult male wearing shorts one night in the dining room.