Too casual to cruise

[Lessa11]

I've read a lot about what to wear in the dining rooms at dinner, but what is OK during the day.90% of my DH shirts are T-shirts (and most are Harley-Davidson). Is that OK in Alaska during the day? We do own formal wear for the formal evening, it's just the cruise casual thing I have a problem with. What exactly are women supposed to wear to dinner? I think my clothes will be OK during the day, but I may be stressing about what to wear to dinner. And hey, we're the ones paying, are they really gonna kick us out (not talking about formal night or the formal dining room)?

[njhorseman]

T-shirts are fine during the day. Why not take the 10% of your husbands shirts that are not T-shirts for him to wear in the dining room at night? For women, a shirt or blouse and pants would be fine in the dining room if you're not into dresses or skirts.

 

By the way...there are no formal nights on NCL...so if you don't have to wear those clothes ...but you are free to do so...it's your choice.

[WinnieinWA]

I've read a lot about what to wear in the dining rooms at dinner, but what is OK during the day.90% of my DH shirts are T-shirts (and most are Harley-Davidson). Is that OK in Alaska during the day? We do own formal wear for the formal evening, it's just the cruise casual thing I have a problem with. What exactly are women supposed to wear to dinner? I think my clothes will be OK during the day, but I may be stressing about what to wear to dinner. And hey, we're the ones paying, are they really gonna kick us out (not talking about formal night or the formal dining room)?

 

Going to Alaska you will want to dress in layers. T shirts are fine during the day...even Harley ones....but you might get cold without sweatshirts or sweaters and coats to wear over the t shirt.

 

I've cruised NCL twice to Alaska and for dinner my daughter and I wore black slacks or skirts with very nice sweaters. For formal nights we wore black slacks or skirts with sparkley tops and a pashmina.

 

One of the Main Dining rooms allows jeans at night, if you don't want to change, and one doesn't. Don't worry...you'll be fine.:) Unless you dress like a homeless Harley couple you'll be fine. Alaska is much more casual than the Caribbean.

 

Have a blast!:)

[redlef]

I've read a lot about what to wear in the dining rooms at dinner, but what is OK during the day.90% of my DH shirts are T-shirts (and most are Harley-Davidson). Is that OK in Alaska during the day? We do own formal wear for the formal evening, it's just the cruise casual thing I have a problem with. What exactly are women supposed to wear to dinner? I think my clothes will be OK during the day, but I may be stressing about what to wear to dinner. And hey, we're the ones paying, are they really gonna kick us out (not talking about formal night or the formal dining room)?

 

I wouldn't stress too much. Anything neat and clean could probably pass for cruise casual. Really - NCL wants you to have a good time and spend money. Keep the sweaty ripped t-shirts and torn jeans out of the dining room and you'll be OK.

 

For non-formal dinner, most people will be wearing Chinos, slacks, button down shirts, polo shirts. You prbably won't see too many jeans in the main dining rooms. Women will have pants suits, dresses, skirts & sweaters.

 

Alaska can be a cold itinerary - t-shirts during the day may not be enough from a warmth perspective.

[WinnieinWA]

T-shirts are fine during the day. Why not take the 10% of your husbands shirts that are not T-shirts for him to wear in the dining room at night? For women, a shirt or blouse and pants would be fine in the dining room if you're not into dresses or skirts.

 

By the way...there are no formal nights on NCL...so if you don't have to wear those clothes ...but you are free to do so...it's your choice.

 

On a 7 day cruise there are 2 Formal or Not nights but you can bet 70 percent will dress for the occasion.:) The rest will be at the buffet or order room service. :) Just my observation.

[beachchick]

On a 7 day cruise there are 2 Formal or Not nights but you can bet 70 percent will dress for the occasion.:) The rest will be at the buffet or order room service. :) Just my observation.

 

A question for clarification, please: Are you saying that you've observed 70% dressing formally for the "dress up or not night" and dining in the dining room or restaurants, but the other 30% all dined at the buffet or used room service? That would mean that no one chose the NCL option of wearing the usual resort casual in the dining rooms and restaurants on the optional "formal" night.

 

It is our experience that plenty of people wearing regular resort casual use the dining room and restaurants on the "dress up or not" night. In fact, that's a selling point for NCL in that you are welcome in all those venues on all evenings if you wear resort casual--You can dress up or not, either way, you are welcome (as long as you follow the very basic evening dress requests of pants/slacks with collared shirts for the men and pants/slacks/capris/skirts with decent top or sundress/dress for the women). That's one of the points of Freestyle dining.

 

On other lines, the dining room (and sometimes other restaurants) have full on formal dining nights, where you need to dress formally to dine there. On those nights, those who do not care to dress formaly would normally use the casual dining options (buffet, diner if available, room service).

 

beachchick

[sjbdtz]

On a 7 day cruise there are 2 Formal or Not nights but you can bet 70 percent will dress for the occasion.:) The rest will be at the buffet or order room service. :) Just my observation.

 

 

I'll take that bet.

 

I can ASSURE you that 70% is nowhere NEAR the number who would dress up, and I can TRIPLE ASSURE you that the others will NOT be at the buffet, they'll be dining next to you...since NCL does not have a forced formal night.

 

I'd heard of rose-colored glasses before....Winnie, in order to make that "observation", you must have tux-colored glasses.

[1greencar]

Don't forget you don't need a different set of clothes for dinner every night, so if you bring 1 or 2 outfits that look a bit nicer than your typical jeans and t-shirts, you would be in great shape. Even for a guy that is into dressing 'down', a newish pair of jeans and a newish looking pullover top would be great.

[RnGram]

I think more than 70% of the people on my TA in 2007 dressed up going by my defination of "dress up" which doesn't necessarily mean sparkly tops and tuxes. If I'm not wearing a T-shirt and tennis shoes then I am "dressed up". Resort casual is dressed up to me. Of course this was a 19 day TA with an older crowd and no kids. A lot of people really "decked out" with those sparkly tops on optional "dress up" day. Even I wore a sparkly top one time. With NCL it depends on your definition of dressed up. Percentages don't mean a thing.

[cynbar]

I can think most NCL passengers make an effort to dress up just a little to go to the DRs at night. NCL is more casual than other cruise lines, but I still feel that most people shower and change into slacks and a shirt for the men, slacks or capris or skirts and a nice top (not sparkly) for the ladies. It's sort of like going to a nice restaurant in your hometown-- it doesn't require a sportcoat, but you probably wouldn't wear a Harley Davidson t shirt either.

[sjbdtz]

I think more than 70% of the people on my TA in 2007 dressed up going by my defination of "dress up" which doesn't necessarily mean sparkly tops and tuxes. If I'm not wearing a T-shirt and tennis shoes then I am "dressed up". Resort casual is dressed up to me. Of course this was a 19 day TA with an older crowd and no kids. A lot of people really "decked out" with those sparkly tops on optional "dress up" day. Even I wore a sparkly top one time. With NCL it depends on your definition of dressed up. Percentages don't mean a thing.

 

 

guessing that your use of "70" as the example percentage, implies you were responding to Winnie's post or my reply, I agree with you that more than 70% would be in Resort Casual.

 

That makes sense. Winnie seems to be suggesting that they were "dressed up" meaning MORE than Resort Casual.

 

And to that I say....no way!

[sottovoce]

On a 7 day cruise there are 2 Formal or Not nights but you can bet 70 percent will dress for the occasion.:) The rest will be at the buffet or order room service. :) Just my observation.

You've got to be kidding. I've never seen more than one-third of the men in jackets, suits, or tuxedos. And on our Alaska cruise it was less than one-fifth. Let's stop misleading people in an unnecessary attempt to get them to dress up when there's no reason to. Even on trans-Atlantic NCL cruises no more than one-third of men wear jackets of any sort.

[Lessa11]

You've got to be kidding. I've never seen more than one-third of the men in jackets, suits, or tuxedos. And on our Alaska cruise it was less than one-fifth. Let's stop misleading people in an unnecessary attempt to get them to dress up when there's no reason to. Even on trans-Atlantic NCL cruises no more than one-third of men wear jackets of any sort.

 

So if I run out of room when packing, I guess the formal wear is staying home. Thanks for all the input and the lively discussion. Sounds like us Californians need to focus on bringing warm clothes as opposed to fancy clothes.

[mtwingcpa]

Don't forget you don't need a different set of clothes for dinner every night, so if you bring 1 or 2 outfits that look a bit nicer than your typical jeans and t-shirts, you would be in great shape.

 

As an example, I only bring one pair of casual pants (not jeans) and two polo shirts to wear in the dining room, regardless of the length of the cruise (I've done up to 19 days so far). Launder as necessary. The rest of my clothing is outdoor and beach wear for excursions and daily wear around the ship, most of which would probably not be acceptable in the dining room.

[garycarla]

What does "dress up" really mean? (using mens clothes as an example)

 

a) Wearing a coat and tie

b) Wearing a button down shirt and nice slacks

c) Khakis and golf type shirt

d) clean jeans and clean t-shirt

e) jeans with obvious wear and shirt that says "I'm with stupid"

 

If the answer is "A" above, then I would say well under 20% fit that on most formal nights on NCL.

 

I would say a good 60-70% fit the B and C categories.

 

Here we go again.

[roger001]

I've read a lot about what to wear in the dining rooms at dinner, but what is OK during the day.90% of my DH shirts are T-shirts (and most are Harley-Davidson). Is that OK in Alaska during the day? We do own formal wear for the formal evening, it's just the cruise casual thing I have a problem with. What exactly are women supposed to wear to dinner? I think my clothes will be OK during the day, but I may be stressing about what to wear to dinner. And hey, we're the ones paying, are they really gonna kick us out (not talking about formal night or the formal dining room)?

 

Lessa. I'm a jeans or shorts and T-shirt guy, always...just sold my 100,000 mile HD recently, kept the shirts. Anyhow, for evening sit down dining in the 2 more formal dining rooms, when we ate there, I bought 3 collared shirts, and 1 pair of khaki's for the cruise (needed something more recent to fit my expanding waist). WalMart, total $25. I was as dressed as anyone in the dining rooms and better than some. On the entire cruise, you will see the total spectrum of dress, including HD shirts. Not once on the Pearl did I notice anyone ever paying any attention to anyone else in any critical way. My wife wore slacks and a blouse for the evening dinner. She looked very nice. Yes, you are way over stressing about what you expect on the cruise. It just won't happen. You will say later "what was this all about". Of course, if you sit up in the Spinaker lounge for "a few" before dinner, you really won't care anyway. Oh...let me add, if you are talking about other than the 2 more formal dinning rooms, then anything you want to wear is fine then.....shorts, HD Tshirts, jeans......anything.

[fieldmom35215]

just what the OP ordered. :)

[Lessa11]

I feel all better now.

 

Hey Gary & Carla - thanks for the great info provided in your link. Lots of useful stuff, newbies to NCL should check it out!

[garycarla]

Thank you.

 

If you run into "newbies", feel free to refer them there.

[beachchick]

Lessa. I'm a jeans or shorts and T-shirt guy, always...just sold my 100,000 mile HD recently, kept the shirts. Anyhow, for evening sit down dining in the 2 more formal dining rooms, when we ate there, I bought 3 collared shirts, and 1 pair of khaki's for the cruise (needed something more recent to fit my expanding waist). WalMart, total $25. I was as dressed as anyone in the dining rooms and better than some. On the entire cruise, you will see the total spectrum of dress, including HD shirts. Not once on the Pearl did I notice anyone ever paying any attention to anyone else in any critical way. My wife wore slacks and a blouse for the evening dinner. She looked very nice. Yes, you are way over stressing about what you expect on the cruise. It just won't happen. You will say later "what was this all about". Of course, if you sit up in the Spinaker lounge for "a few" before dinner, you really won't care anyway. Oh...let me add, if you are talking about other than the 2 more formal dinning rooms, then anything you want to wear is fine then.....shorts, HD Tshirts, jeans......anything.

 

Sorry (and I'm certainly not the fashion police), but that's not quite correct. The dining rooms and the specialty restaurants (Le Bistro, Cagney's, etc.) request that passengers wear resort casual attire at dinner. The buffet, Blue Lagoon diner (if applicable), and room service are the "wear whatever" places for dinner. Shorts, HD shirts, and such are not appropriate for the dining rooms or nicer specialty restaurants; nice jeans are allowed in all but one of the two dining rooms. Just a bit of clarification.

 

beachchick

[roger001]

Shorts, HD shirts, and such are not appropriate for the dining rooms or nicer specialty restaurants; nice jeans are allowed in all but one of the two dining rooms. Just a bit of clarification.

 

beachchick

 

Correct. That's what I said with "other than the two main dining rooms", emphasis being on "other than". In my mind I was talking about the free food opportunities on the ship . However, I did neglect to include reference the speciality restaurants. I should have been more specific and referenced them additionally. Thanks.

[tobyt]

Just back from the Pearl last week.....totally OVERpacked based on feedback that I would find Alaska like our past cruises and folks would dress...reality, jeans ---all over all the time, sweat pants (neat most and some not so much!) Hubby wore his non jeans ONCE on the first not so formal night then never again, a waste of effort, better to bring more things to wear during the day....I never wore any of my so called dressy items just a basic pair of non jeans and a simple long sleeve top once...after that we wore to dinner what we wore all day, no more changing and it was great! Don't stress and pack less!

[Ms belp]

For the ladies, I swear by Chico's travelers pants. You can wear them anywhere (black) and they wash well, in the sink if needed. They go with almost anything/everything. They are so light weight they take up no room in the suitcase. More room for tops.

 

For men, chinos and a polo type shirt always looks nice. Jeans if you want to stay casual in most places.

 

We pack less every time we cruise.:)

 

Oh, don't forget some type of jacket/sweater! It is cold on the ships.

[sillysailor 1955]

For the ladies, I swear by Chico's travelers pants. You can wear them anywhere (black) and they wash well, in the sink if needed. They go with almost anything/everything. They are so light weight they take up no room in the suitcase. More room for tops.

 

For men, chinos and a polo type shirt always looks nice. Jeans if you want to stay casual in most places.

 

We pack less every time we cruise.:)

 

Oh, don't forget some type of jacket/sweater! It is cold on the ships.

 

 

I just love Chico's clothes (no wrinkles either!):)

[newmexicoNita]

I've read a lot about what to wear in the dining rooms at dinner, but what is OK during the day.90% of my DH shirts are T-shirts (and most are Harley-Davidson). Is that OK in Alaska during the day? We do own formal wear for the formal evening, it's just the cruise casual thing I have a problem with. What exactly are women supposed to wear to dinner? I think my clothes will be OK during the day, but I may be stressing about what to wear to dinner. And hey, we're the ones paying, are they really gonna kick us out (not talking about formal night or the formal dining room)?

 

during the day, T shirts regardless are ok, at night you can wear capris, slacks or even nice jeans, he can feel comfortable in something like slacks and a polo type shirt. yes, you are the ones paying, but all cruise lines and most nice resorts do have dress codes just like many restaurants.

 

Nita