formal wear in restaurants

[imanewcruiser]

I'm sailing on the Carribean Princess next month. Can anyone tell me if on a formal night, you have to dress formal in the restaurants, or if it's just formal wear for the dining rooms? Thanks for your help.

[Woodmnky]

On both the Star (in May) and Emerald (Jan 09) the menu boards outside of the specialty restaurants stated that the dress code was Smart Casual. We dined at specialty restaurants on formal nights and noticed a mixed bag of formal and dressy smart casual.

[Clutterlady]

Smart casual will be fine:)

[Pam in CA]

Smart casual will be fine:)

In keeping with the formal night atmosphere, I'd say "nice" smart casual. Most people will be dressed up a bit more, even as smart casual, than on other nights.

[asctony]

Here we go again. Smart Casual, Business Casual, Nice Smart Casual, Elegant Casual.......

We are trying to come up with some sort of dress preference daily for each and every dress posting. It is clearly posted in all Cruise line documentation what the dress code is/suggested. Why try to redefine what should be worn as .............

Good thing this is not a natural dress cruise. Can you imagine what people would be asking. LOL Happy Holidays and Happy Cruising!

[LARGIN]

Here we go again. Smart Casual, Business Casual, Nice Smart Casual, Elegant Casual.......

We are trying to come up with some sort of dress preference daily for each and every dress posting. It is clearly posted in all Cruise line documentation what the dress code is/suggested. Why try to redefine what should be worn as .............

Good thing this is not a natural dress cruise. Can you imagine what people would be asking. LOL Happy Holidays and Happy Cruising!

 

Some people have a very loose interpretation of what smart casual is... As for sharing the Crown Grill or Sabatini's with formally dressed passengers on formal night, I would think that common sense would dictate that better "smart casual" outfits be worn. For me I wear a nice pair of black slacks, white shirt and a black cashmere sweater..

[kooljamming]

Here we go again. Smart Casual, Business Casual, Nice Smart Casual, Elegant Casual.......

We are trying to come up with some sort of dress preference daily for each and every dress posting. It is clearly posted in all Cruise line documentation what the dress code is/suggested. Why try to redefine what should be worn as .............

Good thing this is not a natural dress cruise. Can you imagine what people would be asking. LOL Happy Holidays and Happy Cruising!

 

The debate would be can I wear a gown:)

 

Not saying I know this for sure, with any degree of certainty, would swear about it, BUT at Au Natural beaches the non-conformists think they have a right to wear a suit on that side. Getting people to dress appropriately has been an going struggle.

[1 HappyCruiser]

Since the specialty restaurants don't require any specific dress, even on formal nights, you can wear just about anything with the exception of shorts. Dress pants, jeans, dockers with any type of shirt (Hawaiian, Golf or polo, dress shirt, etc). Most folks like going there on formal evenings so they can avoid the dressiness of the main dr.

[LARGIN]

Since the specialty restaurants don't require any specific dress, even on formal nights, you can wear just about anything with the exception of shorts. Dress pants, jeans, dockers with any type of shirt (Hawaiian, Golf or polo, dress shirt, etc). Most folks like going there on formal evenings so they can avoid the dressiness of the main dr.

 

Don't know what cruise you were on but on our 14 day Hawaii a few months ago we opted to forgo the second formal night and eat at Sabatini's. We were dressed as I said in an earlier post. Other guests were in suits, sport coats, sweaters, slacks etc. I saw no jeans, dockers, Hawaiian shirts, or golf shirts like worn on casual nights.

[hubofhockey]

Since the specialty restaurants don't require any specific dress, even on formal nights, you can wear just about anything with the exception of shorts. Dress pants, jeans, dockers with any type of shirt (Hawaiian, Golf or polo, dress shirt, etc). Most folks like going there on formal evenings so they can avoid the dressiness of the main dr.

 

I go there on formal nights and still put on a jacket (not a tie) and it seemed like most other men did as well. To me, Crown Grill is like any prime US Steakhouse and I don't go into those restaurants dressed down. Sabatinis is no different. If you go into nice restaurants underdressed and it doesn't bother you, then I suppose you would do the same at Crown Grill and Sabatinis.

[1 HappyCruiser]

Don't know what cruise you were on but on our 14 day Hawaii a few months ago we opted to forgo the second formal night and eat at Sabatini's. We were dressed as I said in an earlier post. Other guests were in suits, sport coats, sweaters, slacks etc. I saw no jeans, dockers, Hawaiian shirts, or golf shirts like worn on casual nights.

 

I guess the Hawaiian cruises are more formal but on both our cruises aboard the Ruby in November, once in Sabatini's & in the Crown grill people were dressed nicely but not formal. I love the idea that even on a formal evening it's not a requirement, especially when I can leave the suit jacket at home & still have a better meal without being formally dressed.

[LARGIN]

I guess the Hawaiian cruises are more formal but on both our cruises aboard the Ruby in November, once in Sabatini's & in the Crown grill people were dressed nicely but not formal. I love the idea that even on a formal evening it's not a requirement, especially when I can leave the suit jacket at home & still have a better meal without being formally dressed.

 

I agree about dressing nicely but not formal on formal night. What I meant is on formal nights, the casual dress in the Crown Grill and Sabatini's was a bit better than the casual dress in the main dining rooms on non-formal nights.

[1 HappyCruiser]

I agree about dressing nicely but not formal on formal night. What I meant is on formal nights, the casual dress in the Crown Grill and Sabatini's was a bit better than the casual dress in the main dining rooms on non-formal nights.

 

It is what ever you want to make of it.

[hubofhockey]

I agree about dressing nicely but not formal on formal night. What I meant is on formal nights, the casual dress in the Crown Grill and Sabatini's was a bit better than the casual dress in the main dining rooms on non-formal nights.

 

Agree 100%. Those restaurants are for a nice night out. Service is great and so is the atmosphere. It's more of a special occasion going to these places than the everyday dinner in the MDR. Of course, there is a small minority who dress down and those are the same who dress down at nice restaurants in big cities.

[CCSSDRC]

You get a lot of bad info on this board. From a practical stand point on the ship you can get away with rather casual attire in both the MDR and specialty restaurants on formal night. Of course the formal crowd hear will trash my comments, but simply tell the staff your jacket was in the lost luggage and they will let you wear anything you want. :cool:

[Times Prince]

I'm sailing on the Carribean Princess next month. Can anyone tell me if on a formal night, you have to dress formal in the restaurants, or if it's just formal wear for the dining rooms? Thanks for your help.

The norm for the main dining rooms is formal / semi formal. The norm for the Horizon Court is casual.

 

The norm for other restaurants is as Largin and Pam posted below, but they will cost you extra.

 

Dressing significantly different than the dress code will result in one standing out when in public areas and theaters for the rest of the evening. Some people are sensitive to this and some are obviously not.

 

On one cruise I opted to dress casual with white polo shirt, dining in the Caribe Cafe (Emerald Princess), and going to a show after. As I sat there in a sea of dark formalwear I felt uncomfortable - not because of anything anyone said, but because of how I felt - out of place.

 

I believe the comments made about a nicer kind of casual refer to one wearing colors and such that would tend to blend in rather than standing out garishly.

[bhopal21]

I'm sailing on the Carribean Princess next month. Can anyone tell me if on a formal night, you have to dress formal in the restaurants, or if it's just formal wear for the dining rooms? Thanks for your help.

 

In your third pre-cruise email this is addressed by the following statement from Princess:

 

 

"When a casual mood calls, you have plenty of choices

[hubofhockey]

While I might not have been quite so harsh I tend to agree with you. Whether it's LA,NYC,DC,South Beach or here in Mpls.,my experience is most men seem to dress smart casual. A few years back while in San Francisco I asked a barenter for a recommendation on a good steakhouse. His choice was just up the road but we were both dressed in jeans so we went to take a look with the idea of going back to the hotel to change if it looked good. After looking over the menu we told the manager we'd be back after changing. His response was "don't be silly, if you're willing to spend your money here,you're welcome to dress anyway you please".

 

On cruises I do bring a suit because my wife likes me to but it is of no concern to me how anyone else chooses to dress.

 

There aren't too many restaurants that are going to turn people away. Even those with jackets requirements for men will often supply guests with jackets.

 

I am not a big one to dress up. But almost everyone I saw in Crown Grill and Sabatinis were dressed decently. At the very least, I saw smart casual. But a large majority of men were wearing jackets and women dressed up. I doubt they would ever turn away anyone. But people dressed for the two specialty restaurants like a night out. I guess I would feel uncomfortable in there in jeans and golf shirt. But that's just me. If you don't care how you look as compared to others, you could get away dressing as they do in South Florida when they go out.

[johnmik1]

Don't know what cruise you were on but on our 14 day Hawaii a few months ago we opted to forgo the second formal night and eat at Sabatini's. We were dressed as I said in an earlier post. Other guests were in suits, sport coats, sweaters, slacks etc. I saw no jeans, dockers, Hawaiian shirts, or golf shirts like worn on casual nights.

 

After 30 cruises of dressing formally,we decided that we would try no formal clothing on the Emerald in October.We went to Crown Grille and Sabatini's on each formal night and was surprised that we did not see one person dressed formally or even in a sport coat.I wore slacks with a nice polo and felt perfectly at home.Our days of formal dress are officially over.

[karmacruiser]

The norm for the main dining rooms is formal / semi formal. The norm for the Horizon Court is casual.

 

The norm for other restaurants is as Largin and Pam posted below, but they will cost you extra.

 

Dressing significantly different than the dress code will result in one standing out when in public areas and theaters for the rest of the evening. Some people are sensitive to this and some are obviously not.

 

On one cruise I opted to dress casual with white polo shirt, dining in the Caribe Cafe (Emerald Princess), and going to a show after. As I sat there in a sea of dark formalwear I felt uncomfortable - not because of anything anyone said, but because of how I felt - out of place.

 

I believe the comments made about a nicer kind of casual refer to one wearing colors and such that would tend to blend in rather than standing out garishly.

 

Our experience was completely different from yours. We just returned from a 10 day Panama cruise, we took formal wear for both formal evenings but changed after dinner to attend shows. We found that 50% or more of the folks at the shows were dressed casually, not sure how many changed after dinner as we did. Also in the dinning room we saw everything from tux & gown to shorts.

 

I think that the swing really is towards more casual attire. We are considering not taking formal wear on our next cruise since the space it takes, for the time worn (just a few hours for us), just seems like wasted space that I could fill with shopping purchases;).

[junglejane]

I hesitate to enter the fray on this contentious subject, but I'll just report on our experience on the Sapphire this past October. We decided ahead of time that we didn't want to dress up for the formal nights. We'd read on these boards that the specialty restaurants are always smart casual. For the first formal night we went to Sterling Steakhouse. We were dressed nicely but not formally. DH wore khakis and a short sleeved golf type shirt. Some passengers were dressed in sport coats or suits but we didn't feel out of place.

 

The day before the second formal night, we had a voicemail message on our cabin phone reminding us of our reservation at Sabatini's. The message said, "As a reminder, the dress code is formal." We were in a suite so we were eating breakfast at Sabatini's every morning. So I asked Gianni (the Sabatini's Maitre D') to clarify. He said that they required gentlemen to at least wear long sleeves OR a sport coat at Sabatini's on formal nights.

 

DH hadn't brought any long sleeved shirts or sport coats along, so we decided to cancel and order room service to our suite. Could we have just shown up and been seated at Sabatini's? Probably. Was this just a particular requirement imposed by one Maitre D' on one ship? Maybe. But I do know that next time I'm making DH take a sport coat along just in case.:)

[shepp]

Ah, another dress code thread.

 

No, I don't have OCD, but I do like dressing nicely and seeing others do the same. I have a lightweight black linen suit that packs down to almost nothing and is easily ironed out once onboard. And because my table in the MDR was cold as Nome, this past cruise I got four nights' wear out of the jacket.

 

The real distinction here is "should happen" and "does happen." One casual night halfway through my cruise this month on the Crown, I was entering the MDR when I saw two men in shorts and flip-flops breeze past the assistant headwaiter. He actually started to go after them, then returned to his spot at the podium. Both puzzled and a bit nonplussed, I asked, "So there's really no dress code anymore?" He shrugged and replied, "They know what the code is. It's published in the Patter. They just don't care."

 

Once seated, I noticed a man at the next table was dressed in clearly frayed and shredded blue jeans, and all four guys in the party were wearing T-shirts (one a Harley shirt, make of that what you will), so when the headwaiter came by on his rounds, I decided to discuss (not complain about) the matter. His response was, basically, that he regretted people (almost all men, from my observations) not following the rules, but the rules weren't being enforced.

 

He then went over to the next table. I noticed that table was, for whatever reason, empty the following night, but that on formal night, all the men were wearing jackets. Did the headwaiter have a word with them? I doubt it, but...

 

I know that this makes me seem like more of a fusspot than I actually am...but honestly, flip-flops??

[1 HappyCruiser]

Ah, another dress code thread.

 

No, I don't have OCD, but I do like dressing nicely and seeing others do the same. I have a lightweight black linen suit that packs down to almost nothing and is easily ironed out once onboard. And because my table in the MDR was cold as Nome, this past cruise I got four nights' wear out of the jacket.

 

The real distinction here is "should happen" and "does happen." One casual night halfway through my cruise this month on the Crown, I was entering the MDR when I saw two men in shorts and flip-flops breeze past the assistant headwaiter. He actually started to go after them, then returned to his spot at the podium. Both puzzled and a bit nonplussed, I asked, "So there's really no dress code anymore?" He shrugged and replied, "They know what the code is. It's published in the Patter. They just don't care."

 

Once seated, I noticed a man at the next table was dressed in clearly frayed and shredded blue jeans, and all four guys in the party were wearing T-shirts (one a Harley shirt, make of that what you will), so when the headwaiter came by on his rounds, I decided to discuss (not complain about) the matter. His response was, basically, that he regretted people (almost all men, from my observations) not following the rules, but the rules weren't being enforced.

 

He then went over to the next table. I noticed that table was, for whatever reason, empty the following night, but that on formal night, all the men were wearing jackets. Did the headwaiter have a word with them? I doubt it, but...

 

I know that this makes me seem like more of a fusspot than I actually am...but honestly, flip-flops??

 

The head waiter obviously made the correct decision by not saying anything. If he did confront the individuals they would have filed a trumped up complaint against him & he would only have to defend himself. Since this usually occurs almost weekly, is it worth the aggravation to jeopardize his rating over such a trivial matter? If he has any hopes of making Matre D' someday it's better that nothing be said, keep a low key & worry about thing he can do to keep the restaurant running smoothly.

It really doesn't sound like the guys were doing anything other than having a good time together & weren't bothering anyone.

[shepp]

The head waiter obviously made the correct decision by not saying anything.

 

Actually, I agree with you. Given the realities of working aboard ship, he was absolutely right in not jeopardizing his butt for the sake of the dress code. And yes, the guys were having a good time and not hurting anyone. I was really just reporting the situation, not criticizing the staff involved.

 

It was, though, good to see (on a somewhat off-topic note) that the staff was enforcing the rules against chair-hogging...which does indeed inconvenience people.

[VegasPier]

Consider how you will look in the pictures that you take home of you and your table mates. If you feel good about being dressed in a golf shirt on formal nite while your new best frend next to you is in his tux go for it.

 

Cheers, VegasPier