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How strict is Gala night dinner on HAL?

zhuangcorp

By zhuangcorp,
in Holland America Line

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MISTER 67 Great Review Rare

MISTER 67

Posted
Posted

No one will turn you away with Country Club Casual.

I wear Docker slacks with a nice polo shirt, usually long sleeve as the ships tend to be on the cool side. DW wears a nice pants suit.

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Wakepatrol

Wakepatrol

Posted
Posted
20 hours ago, zhuangcorp said:

How strict is the dress code for Gala night? Will they turn you away if you are not up to their code?

 

What is the least dressy that you could get away with wearing without causing a scene?

Such an odd question.

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sofietucker

sofietucker

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Wakepatrol said:

Such an odd question.

I know, a zillion threads on this! But we were once on a Royal Caribbean cruise--in the olden days* when folks still wore tuxes/dress blues/kilts--and a boorish table mate showed up in a sleazy, shiny oversize tee with a picture of a tux on it. His honey was dressed like a hoochie mama (though that seems to be de rigueur for gals these days; she was ahead of her time).

Point being, it felt like such a slap in the face to the rest of us at the table, who had made an effort. Just sit by yourselves if you want to be rude, without targeting others.

I think the OP simply wants NOT to be rude. And as others have said, a collared shirt and no raggedy pants would be fine. (The men on Oceania wear golf shirts every night, no matter what.)

*When even the servers wore dress uniforms!

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Florida_gal_50

Florida_gal_50

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6 minutes ago, sofietucker said:

I know, a zillion threads on this! But we were once on a Royal Caribbean cruise--in the olden days* when folks still wore tuxes/dress blues/kilts--and a boorish table mate showed up in a sleazy, shiny oversize tee with a picture of a tux on it. His honey was dressed like a hoochie mama (though that seems to be de rigueur for gals these days; she was ahead of her time).

Point being, it felt like such a slap in the face to the rest of us at the table, who had made an effort. Just sit by yourselves if you want to be rude, without targeting others.

I think the OP simply wants NOT to be rude. And as others have said, a collared shirt and no raggedy pants would be fine. (The men on Oceania wear golf shirts every night, no matter what.)

*When even the servers wore dress uniforms!

I used to really dress up for formal nights as they called them at that time.  Hal has gotten less and less formal over time.  Food has gotten to be meh to my taste on these nights.  I got tired of dressing up when others were wearing yoga pants for formal nights.  Now I wear regular pants and a chiffon or dressy “jacket” with a more dressy tank, sometimes a regular tank.  I think hal will let you in the mdr as long as you aren’t wearing shorts.  I’m puzzled at the op asking if slacks and a collared shirt was ok.  I thought that was mentioned as being ok on the hal website but I’m not motivated to look.

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sofietucker

sofietucker

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16 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

Very strict and no exceptions:

 

87e3ae9275ec4a0bbbc51dc3906c9296--fred-astaire-dress-codes.thumb.jpg.03cfeb1e4dc74d8dc7b77f9833b73398.jpg

My hero, ultimate class and elegance! We have been on Celebrity and seen a rack of sports coats at the MDR entrance, with the maitre 'd stopping men and having them wear one. But that too was awhile back... Now (as Cole Porter said), "Anything Goes."

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tunafish

tunafish

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, sofietucker said:

I know, a zillion threads on this! But we were once on a Royal Caribbean cruise--in the olden days* when folks still wore tuxes/dress blues/kilts--and a boorish table mate showed up in a sleazy, shiny oversize tee with a picture of a tux on it. His honey was dressed like a hoochie mama (though that seems to be de rigueur for gals these days; she was ahead of her time).

Point being, it felt like such a slap in the face to the rest of us at the table, who had made an effort. Just sit by yourselves if you want to be rude, without targeting others.

I think the OP simply wants NOT to be rude. And as others have said, a collared shirt and no raggedy pants would be fine. (The men on Oceania wear golf shirts every night, no matter what.)

*When even the servers wore dress uniforms!

you dress for other people? I have been on 10-15 HAL cruises spanning 10 years now and NEVER seen any elegance in people dressing. I am sorry, but a dress shirt with folding creases across chest and abdomen area or a cheap suit jacket that is 20 years old and 2 sizes too big or too small looks like a Halloween costume. You can slap additional cultural situation like men wearing baseball hats while sitting and eating etc etc. I really do not know why even bother if not for yourself. This "dressing up" especially on carib cruises  should be thing of the past (it is actually) and as long as you do not show up in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers you should be good

 

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Sir PMP

Sir PMP

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1 hour ago, tunafish said:

you dress for other people? I have been on 10-15 HAL cruises spanning 10 years now and NEVER seen any elegance in people dressing. I am sorry, but a dress shirt with folding creases across chest and abdomen area or a cheap suit jacket that is 20 years old and 2 sizes too big or too small looks like a Halloween costume. You can slap additional cultural situation like men wearing baseball hats while sitting and eating etc etc. I really do not know why even bother if not for yourself. This "dressing up" especially on carib cruises  should be thing of the past (it is actually) and as long as you do not show up in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers you should be good

 

Not really.

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Nang

Nang

Posted
Posted

Currently on the Rotterdam.  First dressy night any jeans or t-shirt allowed.  They turned people away on the second with t-shirts. Based on the hand gesturing it was about needing a collar.

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terrydtx Great Review Rare

terrydtx

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On 7/29/2022 at 12:36 PM, zhuangcorp said:

Could you get away with just a button shirt and slack pants? (without jacket, tie, etc)

Absolutely, i will be in my golf comfortable lightweight golf pants and a golf shirt or short sleeve button up untuckit shirt on the Oosterdam later this month. Basically, I will wear the same type of long pants and shirts for every dinner on the 14-night cruise. When I retired in 2020 all of my sport coats and suits when bye bye with my ties and dress shirts.

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terrydtx Great Review Rare

terrydtx

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On 7/30/2022 at 10:16 AM, sofietucker said:

My hero, ultimate class and elegance! We have been on Celebrity and seen a rack of sports coats at the MDR entrance, with the maitre 'd stopping men and having them wear one. But that too was awhile back... Now (as Cole Porter said), "Anything Goes."

Celebrity no longer does this and their suggested dress code is basically the same as HAL, they also no longer call it Fornal night, now called Evening Chic night. 

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sofietucker

sofietucker

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Posted
1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

Celebrity no longer does this and their suggested dress code is basically the same as HAL, they also no longer call it Fornal night, now called Evening Chic night. 

Correct. I think the last coat rack we saw was 10 years ago! And even then, it was an outlier compared to other lines--though we still saw tuxes on HAL at that point as well. . And "evening chic," along with "gala," sadly means whatever you feel like throwing on. On the bright side, it has saved us a bunch of luggage, without the dress shoes, suits, etc. 

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