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On Formal Night(s), Do You Get Formal


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Do you:

1.  Go all out and wear a Tux or suit/evening gown

2. Get semi-formal.  I/We wear a nice pair of pants a button down shirt w/collar and a sports coat, no tie/pantsuit

3. Wear a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, maybe a sports coat/a nice pair of slacks and a nice blouse

4. Just wear what I/We had on during the day, shorts and T-shirt.  Not bathing suits and tank tops

5. We don't participate in Formal night(s).  So, we don't go to venues that want me/us to be formal

 

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Hubby: black pants long sleeve button down shirt & tie, no jacket.  Me: nice dress (not a cocktail dress) & heels.  For our upcoming 8 day ABC, I think we’re going to skip formal night entirely.  Neither of us care to dress up.  Won’t do the picture unless it includes extended family which this cruise won’t.  More suitcase room without the dress up stuff especially the shoes!

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Not into formal wear unless I am going to a wedding type event.  Typically most nights on the cruise I will wear either capris or summery palazzo pants with a slightly dressier top.  My husband will wear a nice polo shirt and “dressy” shorts.  He is not a slacks type of person.  

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9 hours ago, Moby Dick said:

Do you:

1.  Go all out and wear a Tux or suit/evening gown

2. Get semi-formal.  I/We wear a nice pair of pants a button down shirt w/collar and a sports coat, no tie/pantsuit

3. Wear a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, maybe a sports coat/a nice pair of slacks and a nice blouse

4. Just wear what I/We had on during the day, shorts and T-shirt.  Not bathing suits and tank tops

5. We don't participate in Formal night(s).  So, we don't go to venues that want me/us to be formal

 

1.5, I wear a suit one night and slacks, coat and tie the other.  My wedding tuxedo, which I felt obligated to wear a few times to amortize the cost, now sits in my closet at home.  My wife dresses in a nice outfit, but not a gown.  She has a fancy blouse, fancy pants or skirt, and the pearl necklace she bought from Royal on a previous cruise.  She leaves diamonds, etc. at home.

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For various health/comfort reasons, I can't wear heels, so have 2 pair dressy slacks (palazzo style) with various mix & match tops & comfortable sandals to wear on our dressiest nights, along with long sundresses that can be spruced up with a bolero style sweater or jacket for less formal times.  DH will wear dress slacks, sport coat, dress shirt & tie for dressing up, & usually nice slacks & minimum of a polo shirt or sport shirt even on casual nights.  T-shirts & shorts for him/capris for me are relegated to pool, excursions, & walking around the ship. 

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I dress for no one. Not at work (OK, maybe for customers), not at home, and not on a cruise. With one massive exception. I dress for my soulmate. Since I really can’t see what I am wearing, and I really could care less about what anyone else thinks, I dress for only one person ... the woman I fell in love with 43 years ago and the woman I want to make happy every single day of my life. 

I also do not care what other people wear … I am looking at my soulmate, everyone else is the equivalent of “visual background noise” … Sorry if some of you are upset.

These genuine requests for what is normal and tolerated in the MDR and on Formal nights are sincere questions (and good ones). My advice is ... Ask your soulmate(s). Ask the person(s) who you are devoted to. Ask the only person(s) on the earth that matters. You and they will be much happier as a result. 

On a cruise (and many times at home), I wear what my soulmate wants.  She also asks me what I prefer that she wears, and I am honest and very appreciative when she responds. When we do this, almost always she says I “look sexy”, and I feel great (I also laugh a little ... OK, maybe a lot). I think she is the most beautiful woman on the ship, and I would wear anything to make her happy. 

I hope everyone can have this feeling when they go cruising. 

Curt from Canada. 

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Business casual, dockers and a collared shirt anytime we eat in the MDR or specialty restaurant.  We tend to avoid formal night #2 on sailings with 2 and eat dinner somewhere else.

I think with the upcoming Alaskan cruise I expect to be in jeans (not full of rips or very faded) most of the time and that may be what I wear to the MDR with a collared shirt.

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2 hours ago, Pooch said:

Hubby: black pants long sleeve button down shirt & tie, no jacket.  Me: nice dress (not a cocktail dress) & heels.  For our upcoming 8 day ABC, I think we’re going to skip formal night entirely.  Neither of us care to dress up.  Won’t do the picture unless it includes extended family which this cruise won’t.  More suitcase room without the dress up stuff especially the shoes!

Exactly our feelings and actions.  Except pictures.  We don't do pictures at all.  I've got way too many cameras to pay someone else to take a picture of me/us.

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18 minutes ago, Moby Dick said:

Except pictures.  We don't do pictures at all.  I've got way too many cameras to pay someone else to take a picture of me/us.

We take some for the heck of it just so we can get our 2 free prints as a Diamond perk... then we take them home and toss them in a drawer, rarely to be seen again. 🤣

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I wear a suit, my wife and daughters wear nice dresses. My younger daughter actually made a point of buying a new dress right after prom season ended (great discounts to be had) so she'd have something more elegant to wear on our upcoming Med cruise (which has 4 formal nights). I bought a 10-picture package for our sailing and plan to get at least 1 pic of all of us in our formal wear.

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Just by my own antidotal evidence I'd say it won't be long before formal night(s) will be dropped from most cruise line's as a semi-requirement/suggestion. As time moves on, the cruise lines are doing less and less enforcement of it.  In fact, I don't think they enforce it at all (except for swimsuits/tank tops/torn-up jeans/etc.) anymore.  I love people watching and it is really a great time watching folks on the way to the MDR or other venues all dressed up and they, for the most part, look so happy and proud doing it.  Some kids, not so much.  I think it is a great option to do if you are so inclined, the taste of my meal and the enjoyment of the event doesn't change one bit.  

One night on Brand X cruise lines, in the MDR I witnessed a lady having a meltdown because a man had his cowboy hat on.  I was embarrassed for her.  If I was close enough to her, I would of asked her if her meal tasted differently because of a hat.  From that night on, including cruising now, I wear my baseball cap into the MDR/Chops/whatever.  I do take it off while seated, well my wife may have to remind me to do so. 

As one that really really dislikes formal anything, I do 3 and may modify that a little if I feel like it.  But, there is no Tux tie or Suit in my suitcase.  My wife always wears a pantsuit with a wrap.  She gets cold easy.  

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30 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

We take some for the heck of it just so we can get our 2 free prints as a Diamond perk... then we take them home and toss them in a drawer, rarely to be seen again. 🤣

No matter how long our net cruise is, we become Diamond, we only need 3 nights and I believe that's the shortest cruise you can go on.  But, of course we don't actually get the bennies until the cruise after that.  I didn't know about the pictures. But,  I really haven't checked/researched it, yet.  When it happens, I will.   

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2 hours ago, loki007 said:

 If I wanted to dress like I was at work I'd stay at work 😆

I can relate…..albeit going the other direction.  I wear steel toe boots, jeans, and t-shirt daily.  
 

I have one tie, one button up shirt, one pair of nice pants, and one pair of shoes.  I wear these for our kids weddings and formal nights on a cruise. Since two of our three kids are married, it’s mostly on cruises now. 
 

I can barely tie my one tie, and after not wearing it for a while, I have to refer to internet instructions. 😁

 

 

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46 minutes ago, teddy said:

I can relate…..albeit going the other direction.  I wear steel toe boots, jeans, and t-shirt daily.  
 

I have one tie, one button up shirt, one pair of nice pants, and one pair of shoes.  I wear these for our kids weddings and formal nights on a cruise. Since two of our three kids are married, it’s mostly on cruises now. 
 

I can barely tie my one tie, and after not wearing it for a while, I have to refer to internet instructions. 😁

 

 

I'm of the age I need a good dark suit for funerals....

 

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6 hours ago, Moby Dick said:

Exactly our feelings and actions.  Except pictures.  We don't do pictures at all.  I've got way too many cameras to pay someone else to take a picture of me/us.

We took our 2 adult offspring on our last cruise so I got a really nice picture of the 4 of us. Well except for me.  I look like crap in pictures.

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We gave up on formal night years ago. We like to keep it casual for comfort but respect folks that still enjoy formal night. We steer clear of the MDR and go to specialty or CK on those nights so we dont detract from other folks experience. I think we went to Playmakers both formal nights on our last cruise just so we could wear shorts, lol. 

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