New Hal Dresscode - dress up or down

[giraffez]

I just had a look at HALs new dress code. The old and the new sound pretty much the same to me so I don't understand what the fuss with introducing the new dress code is. Anybody able to shed some light into this matter?:o

[Navy_Chief]

I see is they stuffed the word SMART in front of casual and eliminated Informal nights. Looks like this takes effect in May. Here's a link for the page if anyone is interested: http://hollandamerica.com/guests/category.do?category=packing&topic=dressCode

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just means the men don't have to wear jackets on those smart casual evenings if they don't want to.

[Seago2]

I didn't notice much difference between the casual and informal nights anyway. Sometimes I wore nicer things on casual night- just depended on what I wanted to wear. But I looked at everyone else to try to see if there was any real difference between the two- there wasn't.

[hammybee]

Just means the men don't have to wear jackets on those smart casual evenings if they don't want to.

 

When all is said and done, this is the only real difference. Men can leave the sports jacket at home if they want.

[TrojanCruiser]

The cruise documents for our 1st HAL cruise (Ryndam) last May listed 2 formal nights and 5 resort casual nights. With that info in hand, I brought my tux for the formal nights and left my sportcoats at home. Upon boarding, the sail-away daily listed 2 formal nights, 1 informal night, and 4 resort casual nights! The day before the informal night, I asked the maitre' d if I truly needed to wear a blazer the following night- he said it was required to dine in the main dining room. Not wanting to miss a single dinner in the main dining room, I wore my tux coat over a hawaiian shirt on informal night. The new rule is clearer and allows me to leave my sportcoats at home and wear my tux only on formal nights- looking forward to doing this on the Zuiderdam in October!

[RevNeal]

As I've said on other threads dealing with this issue, the change will not change how I dress. I will still wear a jacket many nights ... not just Formal nights.

[RSGS315]

I didn't notice much difference between the casual and informal nights anyway. Sometimes I wore nicer things on casual night- just depended on what I wanted to wear. But I looked at everyone else to try to see if there was any real difference between the two- there wasn't.

 

Many cruisers confuse the terms casual and informal.

Informal used to be called semi-formal, meaning men were expected to wear jackets, and ladies usually dresses instead of slacks. Casual is definitely a step or two down from informal.

Ginnie