Caribbean Princess Dining Room Attire

[stuckintexas]

I have been on many cruises with Royal Caribbean,  Celebrity and Carnival but this will be my second on Princess.  We didn’t go to the dining room but once on our previous Princess cruise so I am looking for information on the dress attire in the dining rooms and specialty restaurants so I can pack accordingly. How does the attire compare to the other cruise lines, are jeans/tshirts/capris on non formal nights?  I know over the years the dress

codes are not enforced as much as they used to.   Any feedback on your dining room experiences will be greatly appreciated!!

[neverbeenhere]

This brilliant post should cover it. 
 

Top hat and tails required. Monocle, pants and cane optional. 

 

[kywildcatfanone]

43 minutes ago, stuckintexas said:

are jeans/tshirts/capris on non formal nights?

Yes, smart casual on non formal nights.

[riffatsea]

  Even on "formal" nights men can just wear slacks and a nice shirt. No jacket and tie will be required even if the web site "suggests" them.

Women wear nice dresses or nice slacks with a glam top.

[MissP22]

We found the Caribbean Princess to be among the least formal ships allowing casual dressing on formal nights & jeans/T shirts on casual nights. (sometimes even shorts were seen in the DR) 

It doesn't say that people who wanted to dress up weren't seen but that particular ship does allow people more leeway in how they choose to dress. (or at least it was about a year + ago)

[flamomo]

No matter which Princess ship, or what itinerary, you are sailing on, Princess suggested attire for non-formal night is the same. Resort casual/smart casual. Generally that seems to mean a nice pair of slacks (or" nice" jeans, meaning no rips or holes even though some find those fashionable) and a nice shirt or top, This seems to be the sort of casual most passengers choose. This is what I have observed on my 40+ Princess cruises in various parts of the world.

[MotownVoice]

Most cruiselines seem to have thrown their hands up trying to expect anything respectful from the great unwashed.

So ....... wear what you like.

 

Cover up the naughty bits.

[kywildcatfanone]

I still think the better option to satisfy all passengers is to have a casual DR/or set time if one DR and a smart casual DR, people can dress as they like and be with people dressed how they like. 

Edited January 17, 2020 by kywildcatfanone

[MissP22]

13 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

I still think the better option to satisfy all passengers is to have a casual DR/or set time if one DR and a smart casual DR, people can dress as they like and be with people dressed how they like. 

Sure it would work but would cause a major headache for the ships when the way they're doing it now upsets only a few people.

Why bother to segregate people dressing differently? 

[mosenga]

From my experience, Princess has more people who dress formally than RC or Celebrity. When we were on CB during the holidays, there were a very large number of tuxes and gowns on formal nights. Not everyone dressed that way, but there were definitely more than on RC or Celebrity. We enjoy dressing up (we don't have many occasions at home to dress formally), so we appreciated it. Even on other nights, people dressed nicely in the dining room.

[kywildcatfanone]

Just now, MissP22 said:

Sure it would work but would cause a major headache for the ships when the way they're doing it now upsets only a few people.

Why bother to segregate people dressing differently? 

Well, people seem to complain when they are dressed one way and others are not.  Allowing people who like to dress a certain way an option, seems like a good solution.  One of the main reasons I see on here from people who don't want to dress up for dinner is they miss out on some of the food options that aren't available in the DR.  Would seem to solve this, and allow people to dress how they want, and have the same experience.

[mosenga]

19 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

I still think the better option to satisfy all passengers is to have a casual DR/or set time if one DR and a smart casual DR, people can dress as they like and be with people dressed how they like. 

Dining is already a problem on the Princess ships. They've changed the set dining times to 5:00 and 7:15. On our recent cruise, the ATD line was really long. We spoke to passengers who waited a VERY long time for a table. I fear that further segregation would only make it worse.

[MissP22]

Just now, kywildcatfanone said:

Well, people seem to complain when they are dressed one way and others are not.  Allowing people who like to dress a certain way an option, seems like a good solution.  One of the main reasons I see on here from people who don't want to dress up for dinner is they miss out on some of the food options that aren't available in the DR.  Would seem to solve this, and allow people to dress how they want, and have the same experience.

I totally agree.

We only go on formal nights because of the better food options but I have noticed in recent years that the food at the buffet has improved considerable on formal evenings.

I really believe that Princess has taken notice of the problem & is trying to satisfy both parties.

[Kimba2]

2 hours ago, mosenga said:

Dining is already a problem on the Princess ships. They've changed the set dining times to 5:00 and 7:15. On our recent cruise, the ATD line was really long. We spoke to passengers who waited a VERY long time for a table. I fear that further segregation would only make it worse.

Agreed.  And people who want to dress up can dress up - every night if they would like to - so that option is already there.  Those who don't want to dress up don't have to - they can be casual every night if they want to.

We just came back from the Regal over New Year's week - we waited in line at least 30 mins every night.  The first night we went to the dining room shortly before 7:00pm and we were told it was a half hour wait - we were also told that the other dining room was opening at 7:30pm if we wanted to go down there.  However, they weren't going to make a call to the other dining room to ensure that we would get in at 7:30pm so it didn't seem to make sense.  The second night - again, a 30 min wait - this time we were told that we could make reservations beginning at 8:00am - so much for any time dining.

 

Once inside we had very slow service - it was awful.  

 

[MissP22]

3 minutes ago, Kimba2 said:

Agreed.  And people who want to dress up can dress up - every night if they would like to - so that option is already there.  Those who don't want to dress up don't have to - they can be casual every night if they want to.

We just came back from the Regal over New Year's week - we waited in line at least 30 mins every night.  The first night we went to the dining room shortly before 7:00pm and we were told it was a half hour wait - we were also told that the other dining room was opening at 7:30pm if we wanted to go down there.  However, they weren't going to make a call to the other dining room to ensure that we would get in at 7:30pm so it didn't seem to make sense.  The second night - again, a 30 min wait - this time we were told that we could make reservations beginning at 8:00am - so much for any time dining.

 

Once inside we had very slow service - it was awful.  

 

Actually a 30 minute wait at 7:00 PM isn't all that bad. Did you consider getting there at 6:30? It would have made a world of difference, at least to get seated. 

[Kimba2]

And you're right about 30 mins - we just ordered a martini during the wait.  But it was the disorganization followed by the (very) slow service.  We just thought that things could have been handled differently. 

 

 

[cmorgeng]

I am so confused why people get so up in arms about what other people wear. If you want to dress up, do! If the people around you want to dress more casually, how in the world does that affect you? I just can't understand getting worked up about other people's wardrobe choices. 

[Loucat]

We were just on Sky and Regal. No one monitors what anyone wears. Men in Horizon Court with no shoes and no shirts.  Just swim trunks so glad they bothered to wear those.🤣 Not very appetizing.

Dining rooms had guys with t shirts with no sleeves, shorts and flip flops. 

I have not seen this on other cruise lines.  I do not "get up in arms" about what others wear, but wonder why post dress guidelines and then pay no attention to them?

[MissP22]

5 hours ago, Loucat said:

We were just on Sky and Regal. No one monitors what anyone wears. Men in Horizon Court with no shoes and no shirts.  Just swim trunks so glad they bothered to wear those.🤣 Not very appetizing.

Dining rooms had guys with t shirts with no sleeves, shorts and flip flops. 

I have not seen this on other cruise lines.  I do not "get up in arms" about what others wear, but wonder why post dress guidelines and then pay no attention to them?

That's the way it was in Dec on the Regal. 

Jeans & T shirt for the husband. 

It makes for easy packing that's for sure. 

[blloydtbird]

12 hours ago, mosenga said:

From my experience, Princess has more people who dress formally than RC or Celebrity. When we were on CB during the holidays, there were a very large number of tuxes and gowns on formal nights. Not everyone dressed that way, but there were definitely more than on RC or Celebrity. We enjoy dressing up (we don't have many occasions at home to dress formally), so we appreciated it. Even on other nights, people dressed nicely in the dining room.

 

We were also on the CB during the recent holidays (lovely cruise by the way!) and noticed the same.  Quite a few tuxedos and gowns, which was nice to see.  My wife an I really do enjoy dressing formally, thus it was quite nice to see that we were not oddities.  Still, I am perfectly fine with others dressing as they wish, hoping they don't make things difficult for the crew by wearing inappropriate attire and having to be turned away.  A great mixture of formal and smart-casual attire was nice to see.  

 

 

[wildcats40]

On our princess cruise my husband wore nice khaki shorts and collared shirt to the main dining room for dinner and was told it was not allowed. He had to go back to the cabin and change.  It was not formal not which obviously would have been inappropriate.  Then the next night we saw a man in athletic shorts and t-shirt in the same dining room and no one said anything! 

[Steelers36]

On 1/17/2020 at 9:43 AM, mosenga said:

From my experience, Princess has more people who dress formally than RC or Celebrity

That is because Princess continues to keep the pretense of a Formal Night and requests/recommends a traditional dress code for the Dining Rooms,  whereas other others have dropped this.

[Steelers36]

On 1/17/2020 at 9:45 AM, mosenga said:

Dining is already a problem on the Princess ships. They've changed the set dining times to 5:00 and 7:15.

IMO, the problem was that the folks in the ivory tower at Princess HQ thought people wanted to eat earlier, and not that more people wanted the early dining time.  The early TD was often over-subscribed on most cruises.  This was their answer.  I suppose it worked in that the crowd appears to be more balanced now (based on a very limited sample set of me not seeing wait list for early TD on our current bookings).

[RocketMan275]

On 1/17/2020 at 8:44 AM, kywildcatfanone said:

Well, people seem to complain when they are dressed one way and others are not.  Allowing people who like to dress a certain way an option, seems like a good solution.  One of the main reasons I see on here from people who don't want to dress up for dinner is they miss out on some of the food options that aren't available in the DR.  Would seem to solve this, and allow people to dress how they want, and have the same experience.

This solution has been proposed many times.  Some have rejected this solution because their party had persons that wanted to dress up for formal and some that did not thus splitting their party into two groups for dinner.  

 

Most cruise lines have employed a lax enforcement policies to allow those passengers to dress pretty much as they please.

[RocketMan275]

On 1/17/2020 at 2:53 PM, cmorgeng said:

I am so confused why people get so up in arms about what other people wear. If you want to dress up, do! If the people around you want to dress more casually, how in the world does that affect you? I just can't understand getting worked up about other people's wardrobe choices. 

Casual dress destroys the 'ambiance' for some.