Children's Dress Code for Dinners

[ldohe]

Hi. We are going on our first cruise Aug.14 on the Victory. What should my 10 and 13 year old boys be wearing to dinner and to the formal dinner? Should we buy them a shirt and tie? We are a "casual" family and I really don't want to buy them a jacket that they will promptly grow out of. :cool:

 

I have been reading this board for a few weeks now, and want to thank everyone for all of the great information I have gathered from reading your posts. It is great to see how helpful everyone is to each other.

[DebBrown]

I know how you feel about them growing out of the clothes so soon. Do you have any children's consignment shops near you or have you checked out Ebay? You may be able to find them something VERY reasonable and they will be styling!! ;)

[TheTravelista]

A shirt and tie is fine. A jacket depends on your personal taste.

[L2J]

Hi. We are going on our first cruise Aug.14 on the Victory. What should my 10 and 13 year old boys be wearing to dinner and to the formal dinner? Should we buy them a shirt and tie? We are a "casual" family and I really don't want to buy them a jacket that they will promptly grow out of. :cool:

 

I have been reading this board for a few weeks now, and want to thank everyone for all of the great information I have gathered from reading your posts. It is great to see how helpful everyone is to each other.

I'm not going to be helpful rather I'm just going to say what the vast majority will say.....

 

If you've been reading this board for a "few weeks", I doubt that you have missed any of the "dress" threads.

 

Formal night is just that....FORMAL. CCL "suggests" a suit or tux for FORMAL NIGHT. If one chooses not to "dress" there are alternative dining options (read.....BUFFET).

 

As far as other nights other than FORMAL NIGHT...Dockers and a polo should be fine.

[bethm214]

i LOVE the pics I have of my older son when he was dressed for dinner....for the most part it is the only 'professional' photos I bought 'cause i wanted to remember how good he looked.

i shopped at consignment shops and bought 2 shirts, 2 ties and 2 jackets for him for a total of about $8 back then....that was in about 97. In 03 i did it for my younger son and paid about $15 for the same type deal.

Even though they seemed to balk at it...they really did enjoy it and asked when they would be getting dressed up for the second time.

My second son didn't even usually come to dinner with us (loved the kids program), but would be sure to come by on the dress up nights to show off his clothes (but he would never admit that of course).

I then held on to the clothes for a bit to be sure we didn't need them then donated the clothes to a homeless shelter. One time we did need the clothes....we had an unexpected funeral to go to for an uncle and we didn't have to fret about what he would wear.

[hstrybuf]

A shirt, tie and slacks would be great! If you can find jackets as suggested above, that would look even better! :)

[moxie99]

Formal nights are just what the name implies "formal". Our beautiful daughter, 11 years old is still talking about formal night and our last cruise was in January. We are booked on the Legend again in October and all I can say is it is wonderful fun shopping for the new dresses she wants to wear on formal nights. My new most cherished possession is her dad in his tux and her in her long dress, etc., sitting at the Grand Piano on the Victory. Children learn by example. I'm gonna catch it for this remark, but if you can go on the cruise, why not follow the dress codes? If you want to dress casual on formal night there are alternatives to the main dining room.

[luv2cruise99]

My teenage nephew usually just wears nice slacks with a shirt and tie. When he was younger (up to about age 13) he usually skipped the tie and just went with the dress slacks and dress shirt. You will see many kids and teenagers dressed this way. The kids usually change right after dinner anyway, so no point in worrying about it too much.

[kapcruiser]

My three boys will be wearing dress slacks, dress shirts and ties on formal night.

 

The other nights in the dining room they will be wearing pants, collar shirts, polo shirts and dress shoes.

[RinaJune612]

On our cruise in June. We seen kids that age on Formal night were wearing what they would wear to church. and the other night they worn school clothes. just not shorts/tank tops. a nice Shirt & Tie. Will work just fine.

[ldohe]

I appreciate everyones' comments. Unfortunately it is just not any fun dressing up the boys, especially since they are not into it like a lot of girls are. We've starting asking some of our kid friends to lend us some dress clothes!

[bethm214]

you could just not fight it and let them stay in the kids room for the dressy dinners, although, as i said in my earlier post, i think they will eventually like it.