Cruise elegant dress vs casual dress dining

[jma624]

“Dressing up” means different things to different people. On my last cruise, we were seated with 3 other couples. On elegant night one couple came in polos & Khakis, One in a Tux & gown, one young couple came dressed for a night club, I wore a dress I bought to attend a wedding & my husband wore a dress shirt & tie with no jacket. 4 couples dressed for 4 different “experiences”, and no one felt over-dressed or under dressed. No one’s dinner was ruined because others didn’t live up to their expectations.

 

When you go out to dinner at a nice restaurant, or an Appleby’s, or a Denny’s – you dress for the occasion as well as the venue. Are you celebrating something special or just getting out for a nice meal. Regardless, I’m sure you can find other patrons dressed better, and worse, than you are on any given night. You dress for your own experience and let others do the same. I don’t see why the cruise elegant night should be any different. Some on these threads are starting to sound like the mean girls in the high school cafeteria.

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

I think what some people fail to realize is that many passengers are now restricting their luggage because of the cost associated with checking bags on many airlines...so the less "weighty" things that need to go in a suitcase the better. In fact many of the people I cruise with are now down to a carry-on suitcase even for 10 day cruises and the last thing they want to do is carry a tux, suit, suitjacket, long gown, extra shoes etc. And the on board personnel are more and more aware of this as more and more passengers voice their displeasure with the restrictions for dining room attendance. The corporate online "codes" are falling behind the actual circumstances that are being dealt with on board the ships.

 

If any of those who are adamant about keeping and enforcing the dress code want to pay for our luggage premium I will be happy to dig my mother of the bride dress out of mothballs and find a pair of "real" shoes where my always cruise associated swollen ankles don't swell over the sides...I'll also pack my Mom's antique jewelry including the tiara and mink stole she was so proud of.

[spleenstomper]

Didn't I recently read that the carry on size is getting smaller too? Or charges for carry on? Seems I head something recently about new restrictions on luggage for airlines

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

I think the fear comes from the total slobs that seem to cruise Carnival. I've seen men in stained and torn t-shirts. It's like they couldn't leave the clothes they change the oil in at home and maybe bring the clean shirt from the back of the closet instead. I just wonder why these guys never learned to dress themselves. :p

 

I must just not notice how other people dress because I've yet to see anyone come to the dining room at any dinner in old fashioned athletic shorts, wife beaters, torn ti-shirts, swim apparel, cut off levis, oil stained anything. I rarely see baseball caps other than the old guys who are afraid to admit they can't comb over their bald spot anymore. I've seen plenty of clean t-shirts, knee shorts, hawaiian shirts, golf shirts, cargo shorts and pants but these are always clean and presentable.

[spleenstomper]

The IATA was planning to reduce the size of carry ons, but it looks like trade groups dissented.

 

Its probably coming, though... Eventually...

 

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/airline-group-is-having-second-thoughts-about-smaller-carry-on-bags.html/

[BullDawg91]

Oh, I've never seen what you posted in the MDR on Elegant night (though I did see the gym shorts that hang off the ass). The guy with the torn and stained t-shirt was on the second half of my recent B2B on the Valor. This was during the drill. He just looked....homeless. :D

 

 

We had a couple of people that I would have suspected of being homeless had they not been on a cruise. I never saw them at dinner though.

 

We enjoyed seeing the variety of outfits people wore to dinner, particularly on elegant night. We had a ninja and a cowboy and their ladies who were dressed straight from the 1980's.

 

The only outfit I had a problem with was a woman on a casual night whose denim shorts had a raw edge and barely covered her butt. With her heels, she looked rather streetwalker-ish. The shorts were not really appropriate for anywhere.

[CheckersMidwest]

On the Glory the week of May 30-June 6, I saw people turned away on elegant night because they were in nice shorts and shirt with no collar. They argued they didn't know it was that night. (?!- it was in the Fun Times, besides, that's something you usually find out when it is, so you're prepared.) They told them to change or use other dining venues.