Are there cruises that don't require formal dinner wear?

Show all answers

j d

Most cruise lines have a formal evening which requires guests aboard to dress formally: tuxedos or similar for men and formal gowns for women. Having said that, you are not required to dine in your dining room on those nights. You may go to other restaurants on the ship or eat in your stateroom. Attendance is not compulsory at Captain's Dinner or formal night. Most cruise lines assign you to a table and a dining time, both of which are fixed.

Keeping that in mind, Norwegian Cruise Line has NO formal evenings on its cruises; it is freestyle cruising. You must wear presentable clothes (no jeans, no shorts, no T-shirts, no sandals) at dinner. Dining time is not fixed. You may present yourself at one of the main dining rooms at dinner time (6pm to 9pm generally)and wait your turn to be seated. You will not have the same table all the time, which means you will likely not see the people at dinner, and your wait staff will be different every evening unless you make a specific request. You may also call ahead to make a reservation; they ask you do this 24 hours in advance.

On Norwegian Cruise Line, you don't need to have formal wear with you. It is optional, so if you wish to bring it, by all means do so. The last two cruises I took were with Norwegian and it was a pleasure not to have that formal attire for the dining room. Some people do wear formal wear on what are called formal evenings, but I didn't. In fact, I never knew when the formal evenings were. They were posted in the Freestyle Daily, but knowing I didn't need it, I never checked for formal evenings.

Lew

Formal dinner wear is only a suggestion, not a requirement. You don't actually have to dress up if you don't want to and there are alternative eating places on all cruise ships.
NCL might be the perfect line for you, you don't dress up and you can eat when and where ever you like.

Andy

On a 7-day cruise there is only one (sometimes two, depending on the line) formal night. The dress code for the rest of the nights is casual (though they frown on shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops). As the other respondent said, you can always go to the buffet, the food is great and usually serve the same thing as the restaurant. As long as you're covered up and have something on your feet, you'll be fine.

star b

You dont have to dress up if you dont want to, you can always do buffet or a restaurant that is designated for people not doing formal night.

Neesters

Its usually only two formal nights for the whole thing, and there is never a requirment that you have to go to it. You can always eat at another time on a crusie.

rick d

Most line today only suggest you dress up to eat. With the air lines charging extra for luggage and they finally woke up to the fact that people are on vacation and some want to dress up & some don't so they have left it up to you. I have been on over 20 cruises and only wear jeans and never went hungry nor did anyone say I could not eat anywhere on any ship.

snailysnal

Ive only been on Carnival but nothing is REQUIRED. You can do whatever you want at any time. There is only 1 formal night and even then, I saw a few dudes in jeans. And if you dont want to go into the main fancy dinner room on that formal night, there is tons of food all over the rest of the ship you can eat.
Dont worry about it.

Peter L

I was on Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas to Alaska last may and we just wore a collar & tie with a sport jacket for the formal nights. Very few people had their own tux and only a few others had the ship's rented tuxes on. A rule of thumb is nobody will turn you away from the restaurant. If you spend your time wondering about what others think of how you dress then maybe you have an inferiorty complex. Also you can ask to be placed on a different table where the other guests are probably nicer anyway. Relax it's a holiday, enjoy yourself

hotttravel

With Carnival and Royal Caribbran it is suggested attire not required. We never wear formal. I am a travel agent and I always tell my clients it is your vacation. You do not have to go spend a fortune to eat dinner 2 nights. They have never turned anyone away for not dressing formal.
NCL has one restaurant that formal is required and then they have another that serves the same food but does not require it.
I am not sure about Princess, but I would say Celebrity and some of the other upper class ships might require.
You can not wear flip flops, shorts, tank tops to dinner.

Mopar Muscle Gal

formal wear is NOT a suggestion as another answerer said
guys wear suits with ties or tuxs
gale wear silk, satin, beaded dresses or pantsuits on formal nights
IF someone comes in dressed casual they appear poor (cant they afford one decent suit?) or unsophisticated and are pitied and whispered about by other passengers ( trust me I saw this)

I did the 1st formal night wearing a silk beaded jacket and silk pants, high heels..etc
I chose not to participate in the 2nd one because I was feeling lazy and I didn't feel like getting gussied up so I chose to eat at the buffet
I missed the finale with flaming baked Alaska presentation most cruises do the 2nd dress up night

research this info regarding attire
http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=545

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: