New Thread on Dress Code Policy Preferences

Hi All-

I've started a new thread with a new poll with more options. Thanks for making it such a lively thread but lets try to be civil and respectful of one another. We all are HAL loyalists and want everyone to have the best cruise experience possible.

Thanks,

Paul

Hi All-

 

I've started a new thread with a new poll with more options. Thanks for making it such a lively thread but lets try to be civil and respectful of one another. We all are HAL loyalists and want everyone to have the best cruise experience possible.

 

Thanks,

 

Paul

I don't care for any of the options. Smart casual in evenings with optional formal nights would work for me.

I agree with Mame42. I think there should at least be a smart casual dress code with formal night as your option. If you are going to eat in the Pinnacle Grill or the MDR, then you should dress for formal night. If you are eating in the Lido, I think smart casual is fine. If there is no dress code, I would hate to see how some people may dress on cruises down in the Caribbean.

I don't care for any of the options. Smart casual in evenings with optional formal nights would work for me.

Here, here!

Casual evenings (pants, collared shirts required) with optional formal evenings is the winner for me too.

I don't like the idea of formal optional nights. I feel like a moron if I'm all dressed up and others aren't. Yes, I know I can go casual. I just wish they would go one way or the other and enforce it. Do away with it or keep it with enforcement.

Here, here!

 

Casual evenings (pants, collared shirts required) with optional formal evenings is the winner for me too.

Is it safe to say you won't be going with that jacket POA posted :D;)?

Not necessarily to keep the dress code it has, or to get rid of the dress code - but to establish a dress code (of whatever degree of formality they feel appropriate) AND THEN ENFORCE IT. Better to have a "come as you feel like coming" approach (ie: no dress code) than to pretend to have one --- the present approach reminds me of that great line from "The Pirates of the Caribbean" - when asked if he wasn't violating the "code of the pirate", the scoundrel replied that it was not so much a "code" as a "guideline".

Err... Aye the pirate code it is then for all things concerning dress.

Is it safe to say you won't be going with that jacket POA posted :D;)?

I did buy it. :) I doubt I get it in time for our trip to Norway on Rotterdam, we leave Tuesday. :)

Haven't decided if we'll take "formal" wear or not. Taking a jacket to wear for two nights really isn't that important on a 16 day trip IMO. :)

Err... Aye the pirate code it is then for all things concerning dress.

Works for me!

I vote for cruise casual on all nights. This is similar to more upscale cruise lines (except Cunard). Optional dress up nights would be fine too.

Disney Cruise Line has gone to casual dress on all nights with optional dress up nights. It seems to be working well for them. They do have higher dress codes for their specialty restaurants, which works out fine as well. The specialty restaurants are adults only and offer a higher level of service than the main dining room.

soccer

I vote for cruise casual on all nights. This is similar to more upscale cruise lines (except Cunard). Optional dress up nights would be fine too.

 

Disney Cruise Line has gone to casual dress on all nights with optional dress up nights. It seems to be working well for them. They do have higher dress codes for their specialty restaurants, which works out fine as well. The specialty restaurants are adults only and offer a higher level of service than the main dining room.

 

soccer

There is a significant difference between smart/cruise/country club casual that you will see on lines like Cunard and Oceania I believe compared to what is seen on HAL.

Disappointing that DCL's specialty restaurants are adult only. That deprives some of going. I've seen some children behave better than some adults ;)

As for us, we're easy, we just follow the dress code.

What I don't understand about optional dress up nights is, isn't EVERY night a night that a person can choose to be dressed up? If half the ships chooses the "not dressing up" option on "dress up or not night", what is the purpose of declaring it an "optional dress up night"? To me, unless it is declared "toga" night shipwide, every night is optional dress up night....

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/onboard-activities/dining/adult-exclusive/

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/fantasy/dining/palo/

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/fantasy/dining/remy/

There is a significant difference between smart/cruise/country club casual that you will see on lines like Cunard and Oceania I believe compared to what is seen on HAL.

 

Disappointing that DCL's specialty restaurants are adult only. That deprives some of going. I've seen some children behave better than some adults ;)

 

As for us, we're easy, we just follow the dress code.

Disney Cruise Line does offer a nursery and excellent children's clubs so those traveling with children do have an opportunity to enjoy the specialty restaurants. The nice thing is that both specialty restaurants are very upscale and everyone is dressed nicely.

soccer

 

Disney Cruise Line does offer a nursery and excellent children's clubs so those traveling with children do have an opportunity to enjoy the specialty restaurants. The nice thing is that both specialty restaurants are very upscale and everyone is dressed nicely.

 

soccer

I have it on fairly good authority that some people with children actually go on vacation to spend time with them, eat with them, talk to the. No, really.

As for me, the choices above are not mutually exclusive. I want to keep formal nights AND I want the dress code enforced.

I have it on fairly good authority that some people with children actually go on vacation to spend time with them, eat with them, talk to the. No, really.

 

As for me, the choices above are not mutually exclusive. I want to keep formal nights AND I want the dress code enforced.

That's fine, just letting people know that there are alternative ways other than the current Holland America way.

I didn't create the poll and your choice should have probably been included in the choices.

soccer

I did buy it. :) I doubt I get it in time for our trip to Norway on Rotterdam, we leave Tuesday. :)

 

Haven't decided if we'll take "formal" wear or not. Taking a jacket to wear for two nights really isn't that important on a 16 day trip IMO. :)

Jealous! Have a great time.

None of the poll choices work just right for me. :o

Hi

Why is it such a problem for pax who do not want to dress up go eat somwonw else? I just started to cruise the last few years I love to cruise and now I like to dress up. I do change every night into a nice outfit. I have my formal wear I wear on cruises. Why do people want to spoil it for those of us who like to dress up. Its not like you can't find a place to eat. My last few cruises I have seen one man abuse a young waiter on formal night he did not have a jacket. The poor man (not officer) was being abused. finally the man said he had a jacket it was a outsidie jacket and he was seated. I got up enought nerve to say something to him. But I might as well talked to the wall. He was happy he was able to get in and was smug about it. So go down without your jacket and those wonderful baseball caps you wear everywhere and abuse the poor guy at the door of the mdr. But leave formal nights to those who like to dress up.

Using the 7 day itinerary as an example: the 5 nights of Smart Casual and 2 nights of Formal are quite acceptable to me. If one chooses not to participate in Formal Night attire, dinner at the Lido or at Canaletto, or even Room Service, is available for those good folk. Enforcement of whatever dress code that exists is, I think, very important. But, that takes a Dining Room Manager, backed by a Hotel Director, that is willing to do so.

What would not be acceptable is an Optional Formal Night where one would get such a mixture of dress, some of which might be, by my standards at least, unacceptable. The most extreme I have experienced was on a Star Princess cruise during a Formal Night. I am seated in the Princess Theater awaiting the start of the show, dressed in my tuxedo. The vacant seats to my left are filled by a couple dressed in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. Others around me were properly dressed, even if not in a tux.

I don't have a clue as to how this couple felt. But, I was uncomfortable with the situation.

What I don't understand about optional dress up nights is, isn't EVERY night a night that a person can choose to be dressed up? If half the ships chooses the "not dressing up" option on "dress up or not night", what is the purpose of declaring it an "optional dress up night"? To me, unless it is declared "toga" night shipwide, every night is optional dress up night....

Good question: I suppose a vigilant maitre d' should be expected to refuse admission to the MDR for someone who came dressed formally on an evening which was not an "optional dress up night".

I don't really get this which is being promoted as a possible "third way" about formal night and advocated by a few people. It seems to me we already have "optional formal night" on HAL because lots of passengers opt-out of formal night and still enjoy the Lido or room service or Dive-in.

I also use to be perturbed by people who opt-out of formal night and then show up in the theater or piano bar in their PJ's. But then I decided maybe they have a medical condition that prevents them wearing acceptable clothing in a public setting and tried not to judge them.

-Paul

I don't really get this which is being promoted as a possible "third way" about formal night and advocated by a few people. It seems to me we already have "optional formal night" on HAL because lots of passengers opt-out of formal night and still enjoy the Lido or room service or Dive-in.

 

I also use to be perturbed by people who opt-out of formal night and then show up in the theater or piano bar in their PJ's. But then I decided maybe they have a medical condition that prevents them wearing acceptable clothing in a public setting and tried not to judge them.

 

-Paul

Not everyone would consider eating in their cabin or the Lido as optional dress up. Many people want to dine in the main dining room every night.

Everyone has different opinions when it comes to formal dining, which is OK.

Just an FYI, I dress in a suit on Holland America formal nights. So I can follow the policy, I just don't see that it is needed any more. Cruise casual is fine with me on all nights. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though.

soccer

Good question: I suppose a vigilant maitre d' should be expected to refuse admission to the MDR for someone who came dressed formally on an evening which was not an "optional dress up night".

Only if it were formal forbidden. Whatever happened to "when in doubt, overdress?"

Don't answer that. I know. It's the retired folks. Or the younger generation. Or Gen-X, Y, the Millennials.

I HOPE everyone can at least agree we want a dress code. If this assumption is correct, then we are only talking about a line of what is acceptable.

For example, I think we all want people to wear shoes of some type. But think about it, why? Do you eat off the floor? Or do you just not want to see someones feet. You cannot say you don't want to see the feet because many styles of womens shoes are very open and you can clearly see the toes, the only thing that is covered is the bottom of the foot.

We want men to wear shirts with sleeves, why? Women wear sleeveless dresses all the time. But take a poll on whether to allow wife beater T-shirts and my guess is the vast majority would vote NO. Especially if you throw in prohibited if armpit hair can bee see.

So my vote would be to establish a very precise dress code whatever it may be and then ENFORCE it.

One comment of feeling out of place to be in a Tux, I feel that way many times. A friend of mine passed away a few months ago. At his viewing and funeral I wore a suit (my sign of respect). Others wore white T-shirts and shorts. I was over dressed, but I was taught a funeral is a play to show respect and I do it whether I look stupid to others or not.