Dressiest Cruise Lines.

My wife and I are planning a med cruise next summer. Unlike many passengers she enjoys wearing her finer dresses etc on an evening and has never felt overdressed on our previous silversea cruises.

We are considering a regent or seabourn criuse but she is concerned that she might be seen as overdressed. Do any cruisers have any advice or experiences relating to my query. If given negative thoughts we will probably go with silversea again.

Regent and Seabourn have moved to more casual over the past few years. On most of their voyages they no longer have formal nights.

Crystal Cruises still has formal nights and another one to look at is Cunard.

Now, my wife and I never worry about what others think. We like to dress up (I wear a sports jacket on casual nights so you can still wear what you want on the cruise lines you mentioned but as I said they pretty much have gone with country club casual with no formals on most sailings.

Keith

Already discussed on other forum: Ask A Cruise Question".

To my knowledge Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Princess still have Formal Nights, but formal dress might be optional.

To my knowledge Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Princess still have Formal Nights, but formal dress might be optional.

Celebrity has recently changed and it is no longer called "formal night".

I mean, you can dress up but they are not using the term "formal"........

It is now called "Evening Chic".....whatever you think that is supposed

to mean.

If the ship has "formal" or "elegant" or "chic" evenings, she will not be overdressed....others might be underdressed, but she'll be fine.

Regent and Seabourn have moved to more casual over the past few years. On most of their voyages they no longer have formal nights.

 

Crystal Cruises still has formal nights and another one to look at is Cunard.

 

Now, my wife and I never worry about what others think. We like to dress up (I wear a sports jacket on casual nights so you can still wear what you want on the cruise lines you mentioned but as I said they pretty much have gone with country club casual with no formals on most sailings.

 

Keith

Keith I enjoy reading most of your posts but we have to agree to disagree on this topic. I know this thread is more a month old but I feel I need to reply to your comment.

I am on a Seabourn cruise at the moment. This is a 22 day segment and we are about to have our third Formal night tomorrow. Yes it is Formal optional but what I observed on our previous two Formal nights the majority of passengers had Tuxedos and dark suits on the men and Ladies wore very formal clothes including a number of long dresses.

I did see a family dressed very casually on the last Formal night but they were the ones who stood out because of the contrast.

On the elegant casual nights there are more casually dressed people then previously but the majority who dress more to the Elegant then the casual. About the same as what I saw on my Crystal cruise three years ago. Now things might have changed on Crystal in three years so I won't presume to make comment on what is happening Crystal now.

Julie

My wife and I are planning a med cruise next summer. Unlike many passengers she enjoys wearing her finer dresses etc on an evening and has never felt overdressed on our previous silversea cruises.

We are considering a regent or seabourn criuse but she is concerned that she might be seen as overdressed. Do any cruisers have any advice or experiences relating to my query. If given negative thoughts we will probably go with silversea again.

Have you reviewed the threads for those particular lines? I thought I read somewhere that one of them was County Club casual all the time, but not formal.

I suspect the majority of posters here cruise more mainstream lines (CCL, NCL, RCL, HAL, X & Princess). I thought Princess had a fairly dressy formal night a few years ago but then again we usually sail NCL which was the 1st line to eliminate formal night. Didn't see a single tux on our last cruise; even one bridegroom we saw was only in a suit.

Anyway I would stay off all the lines I mentioned if formal is your desire. You may want to consider Cunard; my friend sailed it & dressed for dinner every night.

Keith I enjoy reading most of your posts but we have to agree to disagree on this topic. I know this thread is more a month old but I feel I need to reply to your comment.

 

I am on a Seabourn cruise at the moment. This is a 22 day segment and we are about to have our third Formal night tomorrow. Yes it is Formal optional but what I observed on our previous two Formal nights the majority of passengers had Tuxedos and dark suits on the men and Ladies wore very formal clothes including a number of long dresses.

 

I did see a family dressed very casually on the last Formal night but they were the ones who stood out because of the contrast.

 

On the elegant casual nights there are more casually dressed people then previously but the majority who dress more to the Elegant then the casual. About the same as what I saw on my Crystal cruise three years ago. Now things might have changed on Crystal in three years so I won't presume to make comment on what is happening Crystal now.

 

Julie

Julie I understand what you are saying but you are on a 22 day cruise.

On say a 12 day cruise there will be one formal evening and say on Cunard there will be several (we had 4 on an 8 night cruise) and on Crystal likely 2.

That was what I was thinking of.

All lines are clearly less formal than a few years ago. Even Cunard used to have six formal nights on an 8 day crossing.

I would add that Silversea is another cruise line that is more formal than most luxury lines.

Keith

Have you reviewed the threads for those particular lines? I thought I read somewhere that one of them was County Club casual all the time, but not formal.

.

Regent is "Elegant Casual" all the time. Azamara and Oceania do not have formal nights ("country club casual"). Seabourn and Silversea do have formal nights.

For the most formal line - Cunard tops them all. I am booked for a 14 day back to back transatlantic and there will be 6 formal evenings where tux or a dark suit is required for the gentlemen and dresses for the ladies. Very elegant. The other 8 evenings are informal where a jacket for the gentleman is required with nice dresses for the ladies. No jacket and you do not get into the dining rooms nor any of the lounges or shows in the evening.

Now on the other hand, while many of the really pricey lines have gone to elegant casual, I would hope that one would find mostly bespoke attire rather than off the rack dresses or slacks and footwear. There is casual where jeans are considered only when in "service" and then there is casual where nothing is too casual..

For the most formal line - Cunard tops them all. I am booked for a 14 day back to back transatlantic and there will be 6 formal evenings where tux or a dark suit is required for the gentlemen and dresses for the ladies. Very elegant. The other 8 evenings are informal where a jacket for the gentleman is required with nice dresses for the ladies. No jacket and you do not get into the dining rooms nor any of the lounges or shows in the evening.

 

Now on the other hand, while many of the really pricey lines have gone to elegant casual, I would hope that one would find mostly bespoke attire rather than off the rack dresses or slacks and footwear. There is casual where jeans are considered only when in "service" and then there is casual where nothing is too casual..

thank you for giving me a great laugh. Seriously. I hardly think that people who purchase bespoke casual wear are rubbing elbows with the unwashed poseurs on cruise ships. They are on those super yachts or sunning on their private islands….

For the most formal line - Cunard tops them all. I am booked for a 14 day back to back transatlantic and there will be 6 formal evenings where tux or a dark suit is required for the gentlemen and dresses for the ladies. Very elegant. The other 8 evenings are informal where a jacket for the gentleman is required with nice dresses for the ladies. No jacket and you do not get into the dining rooms nor any of the lounges or shows in the evening.

 

Now on the other hand, while many of the really pricey lines have gone to elegant casual, I would hope that one would find mostly bespoke attire rather than off the rack dresses or slacks and footwear. There is casual where jeans are considered only when in "service" and then there is casual where nothing is too casual..

I DO hope that all of your formal, informal and casual clothes are all bespoke or you will be so out of place on Cunard.

I was only able to wear Tadashi Shoji and Badgley Mischka gowns on formal nights...I'm just so common.

thank you for giving me a great laugh. Seriously. I hardly think that people who purchase bespoke casual wear are rubbing elbows with the unwashed poseurs on cruise ships. They are on those super yachts or sunning on their private islands….

You did notice that I said I hoped. With all of the cruise lines having to down market to fill the multitude of ships available, one is lucky if they find Macy's level attire with some lines offering up K-mart as their standard of attire to fit in.

You did notice that I said I hoped. With all of the cruise lines having to down market to fill the multitude of ships available, one is lucky if they find Macy's level attire with some lines offering up K-mart as their standard of attire to fit in.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize the store one purchases clothing from is indicative of their status level and whether or not they fit into one's belief of who should be on a cruise… Not every town has a High Street or access to a Saville Row tailor who will take a beloved Tshirt, then take measurements and discuss fabric and designs then make a custom pattern to make your very own bespoke Tshirts to wear on your 3 day Carnival cruise to the Bahamas :rolleyes:

If everyone had to be dressed to the nines, there would be a few ships only half full. I wear what I have or can afford and I certainly won't try to rub shoulders with the elite!

My idea of the ideal vacation is one on which I don't have to dress up. Since retiring, I no longer own any "formal" clothes. I have long skirts and a few sparkly tops, but they are from - gasp! - mass-market stores. There's nothing bespoke in my entire house.

my wife and I enjoy dressing up on cruises. we were on celebrity silhouette 2 weeks ago. we also went on the same ship last January. this is a very classy ship. we found everything a step above the regular cruise lines. there was 2 formal nights which are called chic nights now. we thought this would mean less people dressing up but to our surprise most people dressed nice. most men had jackets and many woman dressed to the nines. on the other nights both times we did celebrity many people were dressed up each night. my wife wore a skirt or dress every night and never felt out of place because there were many other women dressed the same way each night.

They seem to dress the most on Saga, Silversea, Seabourn.........