Formal Night
 

I posted this question under General Interest and someone suggested I post it here under Holland - can anyone tell me what folks wore on Formal nights as well as casual nights on Holland ships to Alaska - am sailing on the Veendam and now am wondering what to plan to wear. As it seems on different ships formal wear might be different. Thanks

Good advise. Tux and long gown were minority on our last cruise on Holland America. The definition of formal, informal and casual is moved one notch lower. My observation; Formal nowadays means suit and coctail dress, informal is what used to be called country club casual and casual, well, seems to be just anything even a gym outfit.

I disagree with the above somewhat. For the past 20+ years many cruise lines have very clearly stated in their brochures in terms of the "recommended" clothing for formal nights for men can be EITHER a tuxedo OR a dark(er) suit and tie.
If things have "dropped a notch" it is because people finally realized that they didn't HAVE to dress up that much (and believe me, it was all about what the MEN wore and not the women because most of them were dressed to the teeth regardless of what the husband/male companion was wearing).

Before, if you wore "formal" attire you knew you were never going to feel "overdressed" but that has changed....again more for the men than the women IMO.

I, for one, will continue to wear my tux on formal night. If the cruise lines don't want to enforce the dress code they should abandon the whole concept. At least some of us know the meaning of the word "formal," or know how to use a dictionary. If you don't want to dress up, you have the option of dining somewhere else, like at the buffet on deck, the grill by the pool, or order room service.

I can't speak for Holland, never been on one.

On a recent Celebrity cruise, there were 3 formal nights, and people were either wearing a tux or a dark suit. Ladies were in long gowns or nice cocktail dresses. I didn't remember anybody in the dining room going casual. I wasn't looking, but I certainly would have noticed.

On Carnival, there was a mixture of just about everything on Formal Night. ((b))

My husband and I were on a Holland cruise last November. Before we went everyone told us no one wore tux's and gowns - and much to our suprise the majority of people were very formally dressed. We are taking another Holland ship to Alaska in a few weeks and my husband is planning on wearing his tux (afterall how often do you get to wear a tux especially if you own it) and I am planning on gowns - nothing over the top but we own them and feel it is more than appropriate to wear them!

We went on a HAL cruise to Alaska last summer. There were definitely tuxedos and gowns on formal nights, but also suits and sport coats, dresses, skirts and pants sets. The guys in our group rented tuxes from HAL, and they were laid out on the beds when we arrived. Very convenient!

For an Alaska cruise, how do people manage to pack their formal attire, in addition to the heavier layers of clothing that are needed for the land tours?

I'm starting to pack for our cruise, and already I am stressed about how to get everything that we need to fit into our suitcases!

We just returned from a cruise on Holland - for our formal night wear - I took an extra suitcase and packed only our formal wear in that bag - put our shoes on the bottom in plastic bags - then did my two outfits for formal night - folded these length wise the length of the bag and put in a plastic cleaning bag and next did my husband's suit - dress shirt - tie - folded these length wise the length of the suitcase and put them in a plastic bag - hung everything up as soon as we got on the ship - and nothing needed pressing. Hope this helps.

It does help Applejack, thank you!

We're going to Europe on NCL in less than a week. They have "Freestyle Dining) where you can dress up if you want. There are 2 formal nights which we plan to enjoy.

Husband is taking 2 dark suits, can't talk him into just 1, I'm taking a long gown and a short black cocktail dress.

I'm sitting here looking at all these bags trying to decide what to put where, and you have provided a great idea! Thank you!!

Happy Travels!

I am going to nova scotia next month on RCCL and was told its much more casual, like what one might wear to a afternoon wedding, a sportcoat for men and short cocktail dress for women. What do ya think???

It has been my experience aboard Royal Carib. ships that most wore formal attire. However, you are right in saying that "formal" has different meaning on different ships. On a recent four night cruise aboard Carnival Victory to Canada we were dev. in the minority. As a large family we enjoy dressing up for dinner at least a couple of nights aboard ship (black tux one night, dinner jacket the other). It is a lot of fun expecially for ship photos. If you have concerns about the number of suitcases you can always (God forbid) rent a tux aboard ship. FPK
P.S. Black tie means black tie