For formal nights, how many ladies wear full length dresses and men wearing tux?

[sail7seas]

My late DH and I wore tuxedo for him and long dresses for me for over 20 years on the ships. Each cruise we saw fewer people truly dressing formal and when HAL started defining formal for gents as jacket and tie, we stopped bringing the truly formal wear.

I now wear cocktail dresses or even evening pants and dressy tops once in a while..

[gam888]

Thanks again folks for more replies, we are going on a 24 days cruise to the Mediterranean in May. We are also booked on the early dinning.

What about the dance venues, we like to do general dancing after dinners, are people pretty causal in the dance clubs? Nice top, capri pants would do it? Have you been to the BB King lounge? Do they play a lot of rhythm and blues or west coast swing music? The name conjures up this type of music but I read it from another post that they really don't play a lot of rhythm and blues music and play a lot of other music. I am kind of hoping they would play more R&B music, you don't get to hear that on a ship all the time.

[mor mor]

I agree. Have noticed the same. I have also noticed dressier crowds on the TA cruises. Many more tuxes.

 

We agree. For long cruises, we adhere to the tux/long dress. For Alaska and the hot Caribbean short cruises it is dressy pants and tops/cocktail dress and sport coat & tie. Also agree fixed seating seems dressier.

[dixieagle]

I've been talking about this issue with my husband, as we have a week-long Norway cruise on the Ryndam coming up in mid-June. We've decided that he'll take a nice blazer and dress slacks, with dress shirts and a couple of ties for formal nights. I'll likely bring a travel-friendly black dress with pretty wrap or dressy sweater, and a long (but not formal) maxi-dress. We like to dress nicely on formal nights (and actually dress well for dinner every night) but we're through taking or renting a tux and bringing very formal dresses. Afterwards, we'll be touring around Scotland on our own for a week with no need for anything but casual clothes and don't want to lug any more than absolutely necessary.

 

We're all about packing light, and love the fact that HAL has self-service laundry facilities. We enjoy our trips and cruises so much more when we're not dragging heavy luggage; I hope to do this trip (gone 17 days) with a rollaboard suitcase and a lightweight backpack.

[POA1]

What about the dance venues, we like to do general dancing after dinners, are people pretty causal in the dance clubs? Nice top, capri pants would do it? Have you been to the BB King lounge? Do they play a lot of rhythm and blues or west coast swing music? The name conjures up this type of music but I read it from another post that they really don't play a lot of rhythm and blues music and play a lot of other music. I am kind of hoping they would play more R&B music, you don't get to hear that on a ship all the time.

 

As for dress code, the BB King clientele usually follow the evening's recommended dress. (Even those guys who can do a full on, Isley Brothers "Shout" without so much as loosening their bow ties. - Not that I'm bitter.)

 

However, if you want to dress more comfortably after dinner, you'll be fine. If anyone looks at you sideways, ask the band to play Sam Cooke's "Twisting the Night Away"

 

Here's a man in evening clothes

 

How he got here, I don't know, but

 

Man, you oughta see him go

 

Twistin' the night away

 

He's dancin' with a chick in slacks

 

She's movin' up and back

 

Oh, man, there ain't nothin' like

 

Twistin' the night away

 

As for the music, I would expect more R&B and 50s-60s rock. You can also expect a fair amount of 70s disco and a little bit of early 80s funk (Rick James, et al. )

 

You won't hear the Four Tops' "Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got." For this, I am bitter.

[Profnew]

Nicely done. :-)

[cruz chic]

I've been talking about this issue with my husband, as we have a week-long Norway cruise on the Ryndam coming up in mid-June. We've decided that he'll take a nice blazer and dress slacks, with dress shirts and a couple of ties for formal nights. I'll likely bring a travel-friendly black dress with pretty wrap or dressy sweater, and a long (but not formal) maxi-dress. We like to dress nicely on formal nights (and actually dress well for dinner every night) but we're through taking or renting a tux and bringing very formal dresses. Afterwards, we'll be touring around Scotland on our own for a week with no need for anything but casual clothes and don't want to lug any more than absolutely necessary.

 

We're all about packing light, and love the fact that HAL has self-service laundry facilities. We enjoy our trips and cruises so much more when we're not dragging heavy luggage; I hope to do this trip (gone 17 days) with a rollaboard suitcase and a lightweight backpack.

 

Just for the sake of accuracy only hals older ships have self service laundries.

[gam888]

Thanks again everyone, leaving soon, will be packing a long dress and a cocktail dress so at least I have options, although I might just wear the long dress once and most likely be wearing the shorter dress. I believe for our 24 days cruise there are 4 formal nights.

[Daisygirl06]

I'm in my 40s and usually wear a black ankle length dress. I've never felt out of place. We were on a cruise that left out of Rotterdam last Fall. It was the dressiest cruise we had been on! Most of the passengers were Dutch and they are SNAPPY dressers. They were dressed smart casual during the day! We were glad we had brought some dressier clothes so we didn't feel out of place. ;)

This is just an FYI for all who might be sailing from the Netherlands.

[Wakepatrol]

There's absolutely no need for the men to

get stressed out. HAL will gladly give you a loaner jacket

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Harry1954]

On longer cruises (>30 days) DW brings full length evening dresses as well as the always useful dress black pants and various tops. When there are special occasions on the long cruises her dresses match the colors when possible. On shorter cruises the black pants with various tops work just fine.

 

Meanwhile back at the ranch, this guy always wears a tux as DW loves to dress me up (think Ken doll).

 

harry

[take us away]

One thing I have also noticed is that the longer the cruise, the more men one sees in tuxes or dinner jackets, and women in gowns. Also, late seating dinner passengers seem to tend to have 'fancier' attire with more elaborate gowns, as well as Europeans, who tend to like the late seating. We have even seen one older lady (she is late 80s or early 90s) in long evening gloves. Alaskan and Caribbean cruises seem to tend to be a bit less formal and they are also shorter as a rule, so there is less formal attire.

 

My DH does like to wear his tux and dinner jacket, and on really long cruises, also brings his suit (just in case). I have a few long gowns (not fussy), silk black slacks plus a long black skirt to wear with fancy tops to mix and match. Also bring some colored shawls to add variety in addition to jewelry.

[Profnew]

Glad you mentioned the shawls. I always take a long black skirt, black slacks, different tops and a shawl or two depending on cruise length. With "anytime" dining and mix and match clothes-that is plenty even for 4 week cruises. We tend to eat early because of our grandson and also we love getting room service breakfast at 6:30 a.m., so I am ready for reading and relaxing soon after dinner. The adult kids (granson's parents) and my husband get to party.

Fine with me.

[serendipity1499]

I'm in my 40s and usually wear a black ankle length dress. I've never felt out of place. We were on a cruise that left out of Rotterdam last Fall. It was the dressiest cruise we had been on! Most of the passengers were Dutch and they are SNAPPY dressers. They were dressed smart casual during the day! We were glad we had brought some dressier clothes so we didn't feel out of place. ;)

This is just an FYI for all who might be sailing from the Netherlands.

 

I agree.. It's been a while since we've been to Europe but when we travelled both to Europe & Asia, most of the men & women were dressier when they went out to dinner, than most Americans..