formal dress for speciality restaurants?

[jbeth]

We returned from a Canada New England cruise one week ago on the Carribean Princess. We were very surprised to find that, on formal nights, we had to dress formally in the speciality restaurants!!! We have always dressed "smart casual".....we don't want to pack formal clothes and love dinning at the spec. rest. Is this rule going to be on all the princess ships??? We were very disapointed.

[TravelingEA]

We returned from a Canada New England cruise one week ago on the Carribean Princess. We were very surprised to find that, on formal nights, we had to dress formally in the speciality restaurants!!! We have always dressed "smart casual".....we don't want to pack formal clothes and love dinning at the spec. rest. Is this rule going to be on all the princess ships??? We were very disapointed.

 

We usually do the specialty restaurants on the formal nights, since we do not pack formal clothes. Hopefully it is not a change. There have always been those in the restaurants dressed for formal nights, but it was not required.

[skynight]

Were you denied dining, or did you just notice passengers in formal dress? If denied, that is a change from what we have seen on other ships in the fleet.

[jennybenny]

I have never noticed formal attire "enforced" in the specialty restaurants and we did them on all the formal nights of our last cruise.

 

Usually as long as men are not in shorts or jeans and everyone dresses neatly, smart casual, or whatever, then it seems to be fine.

 

Were you denied service there?

[jennybenny]

We usually do the specialty restaurants on the formal nights, since we do not pack formal clothes. Hopefully it is not a change. There have always been those in the restaurants dressed for formal nights, but it was not required.

 

I agree, there have been those on formal nights dressed but it wasn't "required". I can't imagine that they are beginning to enforce this now. In the end, it doesn't affect us because we always dress up, but it does sound like a change.

[floridalover5623]

We returned from a Canada New England cruise one week ago on the Carribean Princess. We were very surprised to find that, on formal nights, we had to dress formally in the speciality restaurants!!! We have always dressed "smart casual".....we don't want to pack formal clothes and love dinning at the spec. rest. Is this rule going to be on all the princess ships??? We were very disapointed.

 

This is certainly not true on the Royal where even in the regular restaurants thay arn't pushing the dress code on formal nights. Just show up in better casual clothing (including short sleeve shirts without a jacket) and you'll be OK.

[jbeth]

It was absolutely required....the lady who took our reservation for the Crown Grill made it VERY CLEAR.......a new Princess policy.....on formal dress nights....formal dress required in spec. dinning venues!!! Anyone else hear this?

[Cruisin' Chick]

If this is a new policy, it hasn't been changed on the Princess website:

Formal

When formal nights are held, please observe the dress code in the Traditional Dining and Anytime Dining venues for the enjoyment of all our guests.

 

So unless this is a new policy that hasn't yet been communicated yet, it would be strange to suddenly enforce this.

[Todd320]

I could be wrong but I thought I saw a temporary stand alone sign out side of Alfredo's on the Royal saying something like formal dress required. We just got off the Royal after 20 days.

[capriccio]

It was absolutely required....the lady who took our reservation for the Crown Grill made it VERY CLEAR.......a new Princess policy.....on formal dress nights....formal dress required in spec. dinning venues!!! Anyone else hear this?

 

20 days on the Royal last month and we went to the Crown Grill on 2 formal nights and Sabatinis on 2 formal nights. We were nicely dressed but no where near 'formal' and most of our fellow diners were dressed nicely but not formal by any stretch of the imagination. We did see 2 guys in shorts turned away from the Crown Grill which was expected. If we had been turned away I would have gone to my cabin, logged on to Princess.com and taken the specialty restaurant dress code right back to the restaurant. Then I would have complained at passenger services.

Edited November 13, 2015 by capriccio

[Todd320]

I could be wrong but I thought I saw a temporary stand alone sign out side of Alfredo's on the Royal saying something like formal dress required. We just got off the Royal after 20 days.

 

This may be new because I didn't see the sign on our first 10 day but did see it on the last 10 day getting off the Royal, Nov 10. I'm sure current cruisers will let everyone know.

[bhopal21]

It was absolutely required....the lady who took our reservation for the Crown Grill made it VERY CLEAR.......a new Princess policy.....on formal dress nights....formal dress required in spec. dinning venues!!! Anyone else hear this?

 

I feel sure she was misinformed and the policy has not changed.

 

If any change is coming it will be a relaxation of the dress code rather than the opposite.

 

Mike:)

[BigGuy25]

We were recently on the Crown in Alaska and wore smart casual to specialty restaurants on formal nights. No issues!

[floridalover5623]

It was absolutely required....the lady who took our reservation for the Crown Grill made it VERY CLEAR.......a new Princess policy.....on formal dress nights....formal dress required in spec. dinning venues!!! Anyone else hear this?

I will check with them tonight but as I said previously that are not enforcing the formal dress code in the main dining rooms so why would they do so in the Crown Grill?

[BarbaraP]

I doubt Princess would turn away the extra revenue, since most of the time we dined in the Crown we saw many empty tables. Our last cruise we were refused a doggie bag and was told that for health reasons it was unsafe. We dined there again a week later and took our doggie bag to our room:confused: I think the specialty dinning venues have a management/consistency problem.

Edited November 13, 2015 by BarbaraP

[beg3yrs]

It was absolutely required....the lady who took our reservation for the Crown Grill made it VERY CLEAR.......a new Princess policy.....on formal dress nights....formal dress required in spec. dinning venues!!! Anyone else hear this?

 

Ahh... was it a DINE line person taking the reservation or did you actually visit the Crown Grill to make your reservation?

[jbeth]

DINE line lady, BUT, we went to the Crown Grill on a non-formal night and the manager agreed formal night formal dress in C. Grill!

[beg3yrs]

DINE line lady, BUT, we went to the Crown Grill on a non-formal night and the manager agreed formal night formal dress in C. Grill!

 

Wow, sorry you were disappointed.

 

If you didn't write this up on your survey, a nice note to "customerrelations@princess.com" would be appropriate. While it's probably not a big enough of an incident to ask for some kind of compensation, Princess needs to know when their staff is doing things contrary to what's advertised. Either correct the staff or officially announce the change in policy.

[Essiesmom]

I would bet that this is a whim of the CD on that ship at that time. I have been on several ships with traditional activities: the balloon drop, the crew show in the theater with balloons given on on entering...and on another ship there was no balloon drop, because the CD 'didn't like it', and crew show in Club fusion, no balloons. EM

[Regan]

Looks like a good reason and a good time for us to think about switching to Celebrity.

[bhopal21]

Looks like a good reason and a good time for us to think about switching to Celebrity.

 

Due to a single unverified post about one ship?

 

Mike:)

[rob2102]

specialty dining rooms have a more informal dress code if any. Hopefully people are smart enough not to dress too down. Me personally don't think tank tops or shorts are appropriate , but that's just me. But I am not going to call the princess dress code police. (lol)

[gbldcl]

I doubt Princess would turn away the extra revenue, since most of the time we dined in the Crown we saw many empty tables. Our last cruise we were refused a doggie bag and was told that for health reasons it was unsafe. We dined there again a week later and took our doggie bag to our room:confused: I think the specialty dinning venues have a management/consistency problem.

 

On the Royal last August for the British Isles cruise there was a sign posted at the door of Sabatini's stating Formal Attire on formal nights was desired. I went to the Maitre d' and explained we had reservations to celebrate our 40th anniversary there and I had not packed formal attire but could wear nice dress slacks and a long sleeve shirt. He said we would be welcome without formal attire.

When it came time for dessert the waiter brought out a nice Norman Love chocolate concoction for us. I said we were too full to eat it so could we take it with us to the cabin to eat later. He said, "NO, food may not be taken out of the restaurant," and he quickly removed it from the table never to be seen again. I thought that was odd as people take food from every restaurant on the ship back to their rooms all the time.

[Dbld777]

We were recently on the CB from Quebec City to Bayonne. With two formal nights, we usually dress formal and go to the MDR one of the two nights and then go to the CG on the other formal night and dress smart casual. We've never had a problem in the past on other ships. On the CB, upon entering the CG for any early reservation, we were one of the first couple of tables seated, I noticed that the head waiter gave us a rather discouraging look and then said something to the hostess who was seating us. We then proceeded to be seated as far back in the restaurant as possible, out of sight from anyone passing by the entrance. I had never experienced something like this on any of the other ships and I chalked it up to maybe I was reading more into the situation than was actually happening. Upon reading these posts, I'm now wondering if it is something specific to the CB, that someone on the ship, MD?, CD? is trying to establish a new precedent in the CG. Wouldn't be the first time senior staff on a Princess ship did what they wanted vs. what is communicated by Princess Corp via the website????

[IECalCruiser]

On the Royal last August for the British Isles cruise there was a sign posted at the door of Sabatini's stating Formal Attire on formal nights was desired. I went to the Maitre d' and explained we had reservations to celebrate our 40th anniversary there and I had not packed formal attire but could wear nice dress slacks and a long sleeve shirt. He said we would be welcome without formal attire.

When it came time for dessert the waiter brought out a nice Norman Love chocolate concoction for us. I said we were too full to eat it so could we take it with us to the cabin to eat later. He said, "NO, food may not be taken out of the restaurant," and he quickly removed it from the table never to be seen again. I thought that was odd as people take food from every restaurant on the ship back to their rooms all the time.

Princess doesn't let you take food from the DR's. One time we didn't eat dinner in the DR but I wanted to take out some Nutella ice cream. The head waiter said no but asked for our cabin number and room service delivered two dishes of Nutella ice cream to our cabin less than 15 minutes later [emoji5]️[emoji5]️ That was nice.