Elegant-Night Gown; Foolish?

[Adventuremum]

We were on a cruise last year and I would say at least 85% of the people were dressed very elegantly. They are strict on carnival cruise about what you are allowed and not allowed to wear into the dining room. No jeans were ever allowed. I don't wear dresses myself but have very elegant pant suits and I got compliments all night long. Do whatever you feel like as it is one place you know nobody and it is the best feeling having all eyes on you.:)

[Sue Do-Over]

I say, wear the gowns. I think it's great to see families wearing special dresses they have purchased for Christmas, Easter or a wedding. Celebrate AGAIN, I say! I won't criticize... more likely, I'll complement you!

[momof4boys]

I was pleasantly surprised on our July 2012 cruise. After reading all the posts on CC, I figured our group of 13 would be the only ones dressed up with tuxes & gowns on elegant nights, and suits and cocktail dresses the rest of the time.

 

To our delight, the majority of people were dressed up on elegant nights. In fact, there were about 15 Quinceañeras being celebrated on board and did that ever dress up the evenings!!! It was fun to see all the beautiful young ladies and their families enjoying the evenings!

 

I am beginning to believe the only people who say the dining rooms are getting much more casual are those who do not want to wear nice clothes to dinner.

[najnelle]

I love to dress up for elegant nights. I wear a dress every night to dinner. We don't have much opportunity to dress up these days, so a cruise is a good excuse. Wear what makes YOU happy!

[dmarie1623]

This is me in my floor length gown that I'm wearing on the Pride this month. Im not going to worry about anything but having a great dinner with my DH.

[Warm Breezes]

If you want to dress formal then do so. Don't expect everyone else to be, because they won't all be. But that is ok and you will have a great time if you realize that and don't have unrealistic expectations of everyone else. Dress up, look beautiful, and own it :D. That's what I tell my DD(16) who is pushing 6 foot tall. She doesn't want to look like that awkward tall girl. I tell her to stand straight and tall and own her height and she won't be that awkward tall girl. Dress up and own it and no one will see you as foolish....you will be the envy of room.

[Drew's Wife]

By all means, wear your beautiful gowns...no reason why you should not wear them. The important thing is that you like them and they make you feel elegant and special for the evening. There will be people that will be in shorts and jeans every night, don't let that deter you from wearing your evening wear.

 

My husband and I dress for dinner every night. It's just part of cruising for us. We probably looked out of place most nights, but it didn't bother us. We dress to please each other. I can honestly say that we never heard any degradiing remarks....the only thing we received each evening were compliments from total strangers. Gor for it...have fun and enjoy dressing to the nines!

 

Here is a sample of the outfits that we wore on our last cruise in October on The Legend.

[sarafinadh]

I love seeing everyone looking spiffy ; -)

 

And don't think Celebrity is the answer...

 

we did a Celebrity cruise summer before this and it was the same flippin deal over there.

 

Dress ****s saying you *must* wear *this* and others says 'I'll wear what I want and just try and stop me... And all the rest of us in between trying to find our comfort zone.

 

And onboard the range of attire was as *wide* as it could get.

 

I think it's just a societal issue over all, and the cruising seems to condense the feelings about it...

[Blk_Amish]

 

I am beginning to believe the only people who say the dining rooms are getting much more casual are those who do not want to wear nice clothes to dinner.

 

Without a doubt. I almost forget to take what posted online with a lump of salt. My cruising buds.

 

 

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If you are planning to meet people after dinner at the disco DO NOT do dress the switch, unless you notify them.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Blk_Amish

[Blk_Amish]

Casual night, which I thought was lovely. Many of the people on my cruise did not get the memo that Carnival went casual.

 

 

 

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Edited January 2, 2014 by Blk_Amish

[Midwestgal]

Go for it! Our last cruise people were really dressed up and it was nice to see. Love all three dresses you picked , #3 is my favorite.

[funinthesun1964]

There are many debates and discussions on dining room attire. Not just cruisers, but society as a whole are not dressing "up" as they did in past decades. Churches, wedding, funerals, all over the place people do not dress as nicely as they formerly did. In the work place, many offices allow short and flip flops in the summer, jeans and tennis shoes in the winter. My mom was appalled the day she went in the bank, spoke to one of account managers, and she was in FLIP FLOPS! It's just society. However, some occasions such as high school proms, Wedding Gowns, are still calling for fancy gowns (usually). I take a nice dress, but not a overly fancy one, for formal night. DH has threatened to ditch the suit and have dress pants and a collared shirt, maybe a tie for dinner. It's just not as fancy, like it was at one time. Society has changed.

 

OTOH, if you have a formal dress, you love it, it makes you feel wonderful when you wear it, and you WANT to wear, by all means do. You will get a lot of looks of admiration and probably compliments too. You can get nice pictures taken. Do this if this is what you would like to do. And mostly, have a lot of fun and have a great cruise. :)

[JustCruiseMe]

Wear what makes you happy! We choose not to dress up and a PP is probably right it's probably why we don't care if the MDR is more casual in appearance. We are contemplating skipping elegant nights all together as we didn't enjoy it.

 

I didn't see one person on our cruise though that had a formal on (Liberty in Oct) but that wouldn't stop me if I wanted to wear one, just like it won't stop me from doing the bare minimum if I choose to go to elegant night. We don't do pictures either.

 

Funny note, on our last cruise (1st one) after elegant night DH and I rushed back to cabin to change clothes and he said "you know I don't know how I feel about elegant night, I don't think it's worth it dressing up". I said "I just did the bare minimum" he replied "I noticed"...and I busted out laughing!

[RoseDawson]

My first Carnival cruise (April 2011) I did not see many people wearing gowns. My last cruise, (August 2013) there were gowns everywhere. My daughter wore her prom dress. Formal night is my favorite part of the whole cruise. We just purchased my daughters dress for our April cruise with the understanding that she will need to wear it to prom also.

[Almost Packed]

One of my favorite things about cruising is being able to dress to the 9s on formal nights.

I have several gowns that I wear only on cruises and my work Christmas party.

 

However with Carnival going more casual and having elegant nights I'm not too sure about what to wear? I keep reading posts about people showing up in black jeans, shorts, tank tops and polo shirts.

As much as I want to wear a gown, I'm starting to think I'm going to look rather foolish next to someone in black jeans and a polo.

 

Any thoughts? Does anyone here dress up anymore or have you seen people recently dressed up? The photos below from Google are similar to mine to give you an idea of what I like to wear. Not the exact ones since I've had them for awhile. Am I going to look silly?

 

Thanks for any insight.

 

I have worn a long gown a couple of times and dh usually wears his tux at least one night of the two "elegant" nights. I think most people have cut down on the gowns because of luggage restrictions.

 

I say wear what you like. I love looking at everyone dressed up and I always appreciate those who take the time and effort to do so. I dress up and so does the rest of my family.

 

Have fun!

[Tantra1]

If you want to dress formal then do so. Don't expect everyone else to be, because they won't all be. But that is ok and you will have a great time if you realize that and don't have unrealistic expectations of everyone else. Dress up, look beautiful, and own it :D. That's what I tell my DD(16) who is pushing 6 foot tall. She doesn't want to look like that awkward tall girl. I tell her to stand straight and tall and own her height and she won't be that awkward tall girl. Dress up and own it and no one will see you as foolish....you will be the envy of room.

 

Excellent advise. Confidence trumps everything. I hope your daughter listens.

 

Cheers!

[RWolver672]

LOL, the dress I'm planning to wear the first elegant night was bought for my last Celebrity cruise. :) The plan was to wear it on all cruises for the next year or so. However our next cruise is Carnival which seems to have a vocal group of anti-elegant night cruisers.

 

Thanks for everyone's replies and the photos supplied. You're right: I have the dresses, paid good money for them, and like how I look and feel in them. No reason to let them sit in a garment bag in the closet!

 

If I'm the only one in a long gown, so be it.

 

I second that. I bought a tux and I'm going to keep wearing it on elegant nights even if I am the only one wearing one. On our last cruise, one elderly gentleman walked past us in the MDR and tapped me on the shoulder, then raised his thumb to give me his approval. We had to laugh at that.

[smyliecruising]

One of my favorite things about cruising is being able to dress to the 9s on formal nights.

I have several gowns that I wear only on cruises and my work Christmas party.

 

However with Carnival going more casual and having elegant nights I'm not too sure about what to wear? I keep reading posts about people showing up in black jeans, shorts, tank tops and polo shirts.

As much as I want to wear a gown, I'm starting to think I'm going to look rather foolish next to someone in black jeans and a polo.

 

Any thoughts? Does anyone here dress up anymore or have you seen people recently dressed up? The photos below from Google are similar to mine to give you an idea of what I like to wear. Not the exact ones since I've had them for awhile. Am I going to look silly?

 

Thanks for any insight.

 

After reading the boards, I thought I was the only girl who liked to dress up and feel like a princess! So glad to know I am not alone! I have fun fixing up every night. I wear a flower in my hair and do extra things to make my sundresses kicked up a notch. I love love formal nights:) Wear the dresses for sure if you feel beautiful in them!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[ellie1145]

I would agree with so many - go for it!

 

My daughter and I dressed up on Norwegian Jade in the summer and I have to admit that we felt grossly overdressed amongst the scruffy jeans and shorts which 99.9999% of the other guests were wearing. But hey, it's our cruise and dressing up is something we enjoy, and it WAS my birthday! It was certainly the most scruffy cruise we have ever been on, though there were a few more formal dresses on dress up/dress down night.

 

One bonus was that the lovely Greek lady photographer was thrilled to see us and persuaded us to have a formal portrait done, something we normally avoid like the plague! She took oodles of time with us and really made us relax and we were pleased with the results and actually bought the photos. Had the rest of the passengers been dressed to the nines she would not have had time to spend with us.

 

Hope you have a great time with all your lovely dresses!

[moesyk4]

I agree..wear what makes you happy! Even if you are the only one on the ship that wears a fancy dress, who cares? It's not like you'd be kicked out of the dining room for wearing it :) I am a stay at home mom and DH is in more of a blue collar job, so opportunities to truly dress up are few and far between. On our cruise a few years ago (2005) I wore my sister's prom dress. I was definitely one of the fanciest people on the cruise (and the dress took a whole suitcase!) but I LOVED it.

I'm going less fancy this upcoming cruise but only because I'll be 15 weeks pregnant and none of my really fancy dresses will fit!

[MsMot]

Part of the fun in cruising to me is having the chance to dress up. On the formal nights I always wear a nice cocktail dress and accessorize with some sparkly jewelry and DH wears a nice suit. On the other dinner nights DH wears pair of dress slacks and a button down shirt and I wear a comparable outfit. We would never go in the MDR in jeans:eek:.

 

If you enjoy dressing up, I encourage you to do just that. You'll feel good strolling through the ship as onlookers admire your dress and you will enjoy the pictures for years to come.

[okgirl]

If you like to dress up then do so. You won't look foolish or silly. I go on 3 or 4 cruises a year and almost always see a few women in long gowns. They are always on the receiving end of lots of smiles and complements.

[patkusps]

About a 1/2 hour ago I started packing for our upcoming cruises. I asked my wife if I should pack my tux and she replied "sure you never get to wear it except on cruises". After reading all the responses I will pack my tux and enjoy wearing it on elegant nights. Patrick...:)

[NCTribeFan]

"Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man!"

 

OP - I wear long dresses on elegant nights. I have one I absolutely love and I only get to wear it when I cruise, so I wear it every time (bought it for my HAL Hawaii cruise). I'd post a pic but I don't "do" the ship photos and just don't have one of me wearing it.

 

It isn't super-formal, but it is a very nice dress (bought at Nordstrom at an incredible sale price <$100).

 

I "dress" for dinner every night, even if it is only a pair of black slacks and nice top.

 

And, FTR, I did that 14-night HAL with 1 large suitcase, 1 rolling duffle and 1 carry-on. We had 3 or 4 formal nights. We dressed for dinner every night. I didn't do any laundry and came home with unworn clothes.

 

I realize a man's suit is heavy and takes space, but I think many of those who say they don't "dress" because they don't have space in their suitcases are just looking for an excuse. :p

[MsTabbyKats]

My opinion...FWIW

 

If you wear a stylish dress with the correct accessories (make sure the shoe style is correct for the dress) you'll look nice.

 

No matter what you wear....if it's too small, too short, just doesn't fit right, wear the wrong shoes, wear unflattering jewelry....you'll look, as you said, "foolish".

 

(I emphasize "the shoes"...because there's nothing more foolish looking than a nice gown with a pair of sporty sandals etc.)

 

It's not what you wear....but how you wear it.