My husband and formal dress

I am very interested in taking a cruise and my husband is also BUT he is a jeans and T-shirt kinda guy. He will wear shorts of course but no suits or even a tie. I realize the formal nights in the Main DR will be out and maybe the Main DR completely but will we have other options? I do not know what cruise line we are going on but possible Royal Caribbean.

BTW, he is not at all bothered by others in formal dress. He works in a business dress environment but because of his position as a senior computer guy gets away with jeans:-)

Thanks!

Missy

How formal he needs to be depends on the cruiseline.

For example, NCL has an optional "dress up or not" evening (s) so many people on on NCL don't dress up at all on any night.

Carnival is a pretty casual line too and only has "elegant" nights where you will see everything from dockers/polo shirts to tuxedos. You can wear jeans and shorts (no cut offs though) on regular nights in the MDR. People may dress up slightly more on the "elegant" nights, but not by much.

If your husband will at least wear a collared shirt/slacks, on many lines he will be ok even on the formal nights. He may not even need to do that much though depending on the cruiseline.

I suggest once you have it narrowed down to what cruiseline you want to go on, then check out there dress code for each one.

NCL and Carnival will be the most casual though.

Most main dining rooms will not permit shorts and t shirts at night.

For formal night, a jacket and tie, trousers and decent shoes will work for manhy dining rooms.

Or you can skip the dining room on formal nights and eat at the buffet.

If he can throw on khakis and a decent shirt and shoes he can go to the MDR on RCCL. If you don't feel comfortable, you can always eat at the Windjammer or get room service. There is also Johnny Rockets and food on the Promanade.

Hopefuly your husband is beyond adolescent phase and can appreciate sometimes dressing up a bit can be fun and appropriate; weddings, easter, fine dining, maybe cruise elegant night.

Most cruise you can "get by" with a nice pair of dockers and dress shirt. There are cruise lines and also dining options where one can go the whole shorts/flipflop thing but IMHO than you miss some of the other fun things on a cruise. Of course if just pools and buffet is all you are looking for.. that is also okay but a tad selfish perhaps??

I am very interested in taking a cruise and my husband is also BUT he is a jeans and T-shirt kinda guy. He will wear shorts of course but no suits or even a tie. I realize the formal nights in the Main DR will be out and maybe the Main DR completely but will we have other options? I do not know what cruise line we are going on but possible Royal Caribbean.

 

BTW, he is not at all bothered by others in formal dress. He works in a business dress environment but because of his position as a senior computer guy gets away with jeans:-)

 

Thanks!

Missy

Thanks for all the great replies.

as most folk say a lot of cruise lines you can get away with trousers and shirts even on formal night and if he really wants to be casual at all times most lines have a casual eatery .

most of all which ever lone you pick ,both of you enjoy cruising

I would encourage your husband to rent a tux from the cruise line vendor and give it a try. I, too, have always been a jeans and Tshirt kind of guy, worked in power line construction and maintenance. Formal night can be a good experience regardless of your background.

your husband could be eating anywhere in jeans and a polo type shirt on NCL anynight of the week.

On Royal Caribbean a man came to the formal dinner wearing a US flag polo shirt :o

We took our adult kids on RCCL last spring, including our son with the lip rings and tattoos--we call him our "Man in Black." I was a little worried, but DS agreed to bring a pair of khakis and he borrowed a couple polos from DH. True to his word, every night he changed into what he called his "MDR Uniform" and soon as dinner was over, he'd change back into his costume du jour. Much to my delight, he even managed to don a coat(but no tie) for formal night! :p No one in the MDR ever gave him any trouble about his attire.

I would hope that your hubby would make the effort to dress up a little, at least a couple times just so you could enjoy the MDR experience. I was surprised at how much we liked it. I thought the MDR would be all stuffy, but it was every bit as relaxing as any nice land-based restaurant.

go ncl. my husband was so thrilled that in one of the two main dining rooms he could wear shorts every night. none of the main dining rooms require formal wear. kakis and decent shirt will do for the men. i never wore anything dressier than capris and decent top. we don't go on vacation to dress up. we love ncl for its casual atmosphere. also love freestyle dining. we like to sit at a table for two at whatever time we want.

You will be very welcome & feel right at home on NCL & Carnival. Your DH may be able to "get away with" more casual clothes on RCCL. Do not book on any other lines as they are all more formal & have more strict dress code adherence.

Enjoy.

That said, to us there is something magical about getting all dressed up at sea. It's romantic & like being in a movie. If you have any interest in that, sneak a suit & tie into his luggage then bribe him to don them. ;)

I'm going on my first ever cruise next week w/ RCCL on the Allure. I'm a nerd too, and I don't currently own a suit or even a jacket. I don't mind dressing up at all, but I simply didn't want to spend the money at this time on clothes I'll wear for 3 hours in the next year, so my wife and I are just going to skip formal night and eat elsewhere.

Before anyone says that I'm not being fair to my wife, she suggested it! :) Seriously though, we both have a hard time imagining that this will significantly detract from the great time we're sure to have on the entire vacation.

Since I'm going next week, and I'm a noobie, I'll come back here and post with my after-cruise impressions on the subject...maybe add a little perspective.

dietDrThunder -- yours is indeed a solution but I would suggest you also check out thrift shops or ebay. You should be able to get a decent suit for a few dollars. It's one of those things you will always have for weddings & funerals.

hehe...well I'm 6'3" 280, so it's hard to find stuff in a thrift shop for me. I'm totally with the idea of having a suit for occasions that require it, I just don't happen to have one now is all, and I didn't want to buy one just for one dinner is all.

LOL Missy I think you stole my hubby. He's a computer genius who hate dressing up also lol. If you cruise on Carnival he'll be fine. Just eat on the Lido deck for dressy nights. He can get away w/ jeans or khakis in the MDR every other night. I hate to say it but my hubby wears jeans and a polo shirt in there most nights when I'm dressed up lol.Oh and on formal night he either wears a linen set or dress pants and shirt no tie!!! But adds a tie for supper club!

My hubby is a wrangler, western shirt, and boots guy, but he does have jackets and ties for church. But he and I came to the agreement that for 1 formal night it was tux and gown but the rest of the cruise it was up to him. I rented the tux from the cruise ship so that we did not have to purchase one. He only did it for me, :) because he knew how much it would mean too me but I would never have forced him to. That was the only night we even ate in the dinning room, we really did love the windjammer on RCCI. MDR food was wonderful but windjammer fit our schedule better for the cruise (Alaska).

hehe...well I'm 6'3" 280, so it's hard to find stuff in a thrift shop for me. I'm totally with the idea of having a suit for occasions that require it, I just don't happen to have one now is all, and I didn't want to buy one just for one dinner is all.

You don't HAVE to wear a suit or jacket for formal nights on RCCL. Do you own a pair of khakis or dress pants and a button up shirt? If not and you have a Kohls around you, you can get these pretty inexpensively and a nice pair of pants and a dress shirt would be all you need.

My husband wears a sport coat over a turtleneck or sweater with dockers and looks just fine. He's worn that on RCCL, Princess and Carnival.

``` but will we have other options?

 

Thanks!

Missy

Missy you will hear it all on CC, but pay it no mind and come back and ask more questions, and to answer your's, yes, there are many options for dinning on todays Ships, besides the main D/room. Which you can wear shorts into for breakfast and lunch. You will not go hungry. :D