I thought formal meant formal. As in dinner jacket and dickie bow or suit and tie. Where would an open necked shirt be classed as formal attire then Hyacinth would be flabbergasted...after all one does need to keep up appearances.
I don't think that the ladies in long dresses would be too hot with the air conditioning. I always felt cold on board in August.

I would say the same, it won't be hot onboard with the air conditioning.

luci

I was thinking along those lines....
BUT in the recent thread it seemed most peeps had NOT adopted the formal way of thinking......
difficult one....
PLEASE...if anyone just back can you tell me what folk ACTUALLY wear....rather than what we THINK they should wear LOL

I was on a Med cruise last year on the Celebration and although I wore a dinner jacket, many people were just wearing plain jackets and ties. A few people didn't even bother, either wearing open neck shirts or - horror - tee shirts! There is no dress code - the reality is that the formal dinner is an opportunity for people to dress up if they want to and have a photograph taken with the captain.

I'm going on the Celebration again in a couple of weeks - to the Baltic - and will be taking an ordinary suit and tie with me.

Thanks Danger man....I think thats what we'll do..take an ordinary suit...and then he can just take his tie off later if he wants to.

I picked up hubbies cream DJ in a charity shop A bargain !! so of course he had to wear it for formal night. If I hadn't got it he would have taken a lounge suit. I have noticed that the dress code has slipped since our first cruise. A shame really as it's a chance to get glammed up for the evening.

We did a cruise on board RCCL's "Independence of the Seas". Two formal nights on board, and at a guess, 80% of the men in the main dining room wore tuxes. The majority of the other 20% were at least in collar and tie. Those who didn't want to go formal ate elsewhere.

There is huge debate on other cruise forums about 'formal' nights. Some people deliberately don't dress up for the formal night, making some kind of "statement" by going in jeans and T shirts. (To me the statement is "hey look at me, I'm a wally")

Hi fitzy2,
We've just returned from a Med. cruise. For the formal night about 50% of the men wore a tuxedo, 40% of them wore black suits and bow ties and 10% wore smart trousers, jackets and ties, I didn't see anyone in open necked shirt at all. (Can you believe that all my husband had to pack was his suit, and half way through the flight over realised that he'd not put his suit jacket in the case!!!!! luckily I was able to borrow a dinner jacket for him off one of the singers in the entertainment group) The majority of men took their bow ties off after dinner when we went to see the show. I had to go back to the cabin and get my pashmina on two occassions as I found it rather chilly, coud have been because we were on first sitting and the room had not had time to warm up. Most of the ladies had either long dresses or long skirts and sparkly evening tops.
We were on a table for six for dinner but it was only on the formal night that we had another couple to share our table, the rest of the cruise we had the table to ourselves as the other four who should have been there couldn't be bothered to dress up for dinner, such a shame to have missed out on a lovely five course meal and being waited on hand a foot and prefering to have a self service buffet, even though the food at the buffet was really good.
Hope you have a great holiday
Wendy

Looking at previous posts I think Wendy(web1948) was on the Emerald.

I usually wear a cocktail dress (so does our daughter) and my husband a suit & tie as we both feel more comfortable wearing those than a DJ and ball gown, which we have to at a few (compulsory) black tie dinners we attend a year. It's our holiday afterall. On the Thomson cruises we have been on before, we have shared table with others similarly attired, maybe because we have always been paired with families. From my experience, it does seem to be predominantly couples & adult groups that wear the full formal regalia.

Hi windjammer,
You've got me wondering now, are you psychic or were you on there as well???
Wendy

web1948 wrote:

Hi windjammer,
You've got me wondering now, are you psychic or were you on there as well???
Wendy

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=120835&p=1204550#p1204550

Just returned from the Destiny Med Cruise. 99% of the gents wore either a tux or black tie. I only wore a shirt and tie with truosers and I still felt underdressed. It was great to see that the ladies and gents and their children all made the effort. It was worth it. The meal and show afterwards was brilliant. The Greek Captains not a bad lad either. Very Friendly. The wife wanted to take him home.
I will be doing a full report in due course. But if you are going it would be unfortunate if you did not dress up and join in on the occasion. Certianly worth the effort.

Colin B Northern Ireland

Hi windjammer,
Oops - silly me!! I forgot about that.