The Deal About Ball Caps

[HalFan]

Another reason my bald husband wears a baseball cap is to keep his head warm, particularly in over air conditioned buildings. He does always take his cap off in restaurants, churches, etc.

 

On numerous times, his baseball cap has been a fun conversation starter. You'd be surprised how many "Go Giants!" remarks we have gotten around the world when he's wearing his San Francisco Giants baseball cap.

 

Several people commented above on Regent's policy, written or unwritten, about baseball caps. I was pretty sure that I had read it somewhere. We were on the Navigator cruise from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6, 2015 so I looked back at our daily Passages. On the first full day's Passages there was "A Description of Shipboard Dress Codes." It describes the Daytime and Evening dress codes similarly to what it posted on the website. Then at the very bottom in italics it says: "Please note: Jeans, T-shirts, baseball caps, shorts, sneakers and bathrobes are not considered appropriate in any public area after 6pm."

 

At 6PM on each day's Passages, it did briefly describe the evening dress code but never said anything about baseball caps.

[Travelcat2]

HalFan: A "Go Giants!" cap would definitely gotten my attention (even though I am a diehard Dodger fan):) There are plenty of "caps" of different types during the day. However, from what you posted, Regent still doesn't address "nice" or "proper" hats (whatever they would be called) in the evening. If I had not seen men being asked to remove their hats I would not have known that Regent had the policy.

[poss]

Oh, those over air-conditioned spaces! They are a real bane!

 

My husband, too, is bald and finds eating in many restaurants quite uncomfortable. Dining on those wonderful Regent ships is often not very pleasant for us. I can bring extra wraps, pashminas, whatever. My husband is among the ones who virtually always wears a sport jacket to dinner, to keep comfortable. But what can he do about the frigidness on his pate? Nothing, really, except remove to our suite and have dinner there (which we don't much enjoy, though I know that many people do). He was asked to remove the boina (smaller than a beret, not much larger than a yarmulke) or to leave CR when on a particularly shivery evening he dared to put it on. It's rare that we eat at 6 star restaurants (or however Regent classes itself these days) at home. He always has his boina in his jacket pocket, and if it's particularly icey in the restaurant, he has , on occasion, asked if it might be ok if he donned the hat. He has never been told no, and the allowance has always seemed genuine, i.e. in the sense of "But, of course; we want you to be comfortable." Whether other patrons were offended, made uncomfortable, I know not. In fact, we've been offended by other kinds of behavior by supposedly "upscale" diners, but it's not spoiled our meal (except on a few very rare occasions).

 

I know I've put in my 2 cents on the subject in the past. I'm not exactly saying that Regent's rules are wrong. And for sure, one ought to abide by rules.

[Baggywrinkle99]

There's hats, and there's hats. Your husband's boina sounds like a good solution to the problem of uncomfortably cool aircon and I'm sure he looks very smart. Ball caps, on the other hand, are just tacky indoors and after 6pm - there, I said it. Wear them on the golf course, on the tractor or at the ball game (!) but not in the restaurant please.

[ridon]

In the USMC, you only wear a cover (hat) when under arms (carrying a weapon) and on duty. In fact every Officer's Club has a sign stating "He who enters covered here buys the bar a round of cheer". Many young Lieutenants learned an expensive lesson.

[Dolebludger]

There are different customs in different places around the US considering wearing hats and caps indoors. We used to live in Okla. City where virtually no man wore a hat or cap while eating at any restaurant. We now live in SW Colorado, where hats and caps are worn everywhere by men -- even nice hats and caps in upscale restaurants. But baseball-style caps are pretty much reserved for casual restaurants. In upscale restaurants men do leave their expensive cowboy hats, flat caps, and fedoras on. While I have never seen a need to wear any hat or cap in a cruise ship sit-down dining room, I can't see that there should be any objection to wearing something like a fedora or flat cap by somebody with a medical reason for doing so. I have never read a Regent rule against men wearing hats and caps in the CR and specialty restaurants, but apparently some ship's personnel think there is one. In the case of the OP, I'd recommend contacting Regent in advance about this, as was suggested above.