Formal Night - Alaska Inside Passage Cruises

[grsnovi]

Is there a "rule of thumb" regarding when the "formal" dining evenings are? Will they be the nights at sea? Trying to determine when to book PG.

 

Thanks!

[Bill S]

Well, until last week when we were on theZaandam on an Inside Passage cruise, I would have said that the formal nights would be on the 2 sea days. But, on our recent cruise the 2nd formal night was held on the night of the 6th day which in our case was a port day at Ketchikan. Our first formal night was on the first full day of the cruise, ie, the day after embarkation. Our fifth day was at Glacier Bay, a sea day, and surpisingly, it was not a formal night.

I guess it depends on your itinerary, but I think you can safely plan on the first formal night being on the day after embarkation. Our cruise was a 7-day r/t from Vancouver and the itinerary was as follows: embarkation, sea day, Tracy Arm & Vancouver, Skagway, Glacier Bay cruising, Ketchikan, sea day, disembarkation day. I wish I could be more helpful!

[cruise101]

We were on the Zuiderdam leaving Vanc May 12th. Our itinerary was exactly the same as Bill's on the Zaandam (the previous post). I too was somewhat surprised and unimpressed that the second formal night was the day we were docked in Ketchikan. Unfortunately it meant that if you had dinner for the early sitting, you had to be back on the ship quite early.

 

I am not being picky here but for clarity I think there is a typo in Bill's earlier post. Day 3 should read Tracy Arms & Juneau, not Vancouver.

[Bill S]

cruise101: hey, you passed the test!!! ;)

I did mean Juneau, not Vancouver! Thanks for catching it and correcting it! :)

[Gonzo70]

On the Noordam last week the formal nights were the first full day (Sea Day) and the day we were in Ketchikan (as the boat left at 1pm leaving plenty of time for people to get all cleaned up).

[cruise101]

Also while on the topic of dress code, I thought I'd pass on a small hint. We went prepared for 2 formal nites, 3 semi formal and 2 casual nites. In reality, apart from the two formal nites, the rest were all smart casual. If I'd known that our suitcases could have been somewhat lighter.

[Bill S]

I should have mentioned that the Zaandam left Ketchikan at 6pm, so that is why we were really surprised it was a formal night.

[Krazy Kruizers]

It all depends on the itinerary. Usually at the beginning of all Alaskan cruises, there is a sea day which will be the first formal evening. But not all itineraries have a second sea 2 nights before the end of the cruise. So they will have the second formal night on an evening when you leave a port asround 5 or 6 PM.

[mamaofami]

Many recent posters have said not to book the Pinnacle Grill until you get on board because the reservations get messed up. When you board, go to the Pinnacle and they will know which nights are formal.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Pinnacle isn't as full any more since HAL raised the price in Oct 2006.

[grsnovi]

Thanks to all (and I suppose an apology). I support a message board daily and we always whine at folks for not using the SEARCH function. I guess we were just so excited at finding an active board that it was easier to post than search. We had quite an informative experience reading last night. We're going out of Seattle on 6/2 on the Oosterdam and really looking forward to our "early" season vacation.