Newbie needs help dressing for dinner on Queen Mary II
 

I'm making my very first crossing in June on the QM II. I have never been on any big ship trip before. And I have no sense of fashion even on dry land. Hellllllppppppp......

What will I be expected to wear for dinner or anything else for that matter? I wouldn't be caught dead in a tux! I'm probably in a steerage cabin so I'm not exactly going in style. I hope they'll let me in SOME dining room!

I had considered titling this post "Help me learn how to cross dress" because it's about learning how to dress for a crossing but I changed my mind. Sorry 'bout that.

The cross dress headline would have attracted people's attention! I've never been on Cunard, but I'm guessing they have the guidelines posted online or in your trip packet. It's a formal line, so I'd probably pack a suit and some sports coats and slacks. I have a feeling jeans won't cut it in the main dining room or their extra-fee restaurants, but others would know for sure.

If you eat in the main dining room you need to be dressed up every nite. A suit or sport coat for sure.....and on formal nites a dark suit at the very least.

However you can always eat in the Lido and never dress up and have a perfectly wonderful time.....I saw many who did this very thing on my crossing.

But dinner in the MDR is so lovely and quite spoils you so worth the tie etc.

Airlines make it impossible to carry a couple of suits, sports jackets and all the stuff that goes with them. Wear a navy blazer on the plane and pack dark grey slacks. with a tie you will look as good as many guys with tuxes. The pants can double so the only extra garment that you have is the blazer.

Oh lawd! And here I was planning on making do with one rollaboard and one day pack. Now it sounds as if I'll have to buy a ticket for my valet too!

When I was on the QMII, it was expected that formal attire evenings were for the entire ship (including the Lido) and for the entire evening. This wasn't on a transatlantic crossing but on a Caribbean Cruise, so it might be different.

Crossings tend to be a bit more formal than Caribbean cruises, but if the OP doesn't want to dress up, I see no problem with taking a single sports jacket and perhaps 2 ties and eating in the Lido or in the main dining room during the less formal nights. You can dress up a rather informal shirt as long as it has buttons and a collar with a tie, and while you may not be fit for the Oscars, I doubt that anyone will have a problem with that.

I've packed a sports jacket in my rollaboard bag before. If you fold it carefully (and perhaps keep a dry-cleaning bag to wrap it in), it won't get very wrinkled. Just fold it like a shirt, and pack some Downy wrinkle release, and you should be good to go. Or you can have it steamed and pressed when you get to the ship.

Actually I am a bit sick of the let us pretend we're in the Great Gatsby era just because we're on a ship. Let's face it there are very few places that require even a jacket and tie let alone a tux. If they want to stay in business that is. Of course there are a few parties planned by those with a lot of free time on their hands.

Hey thx for all the advice. Sounds as if I need to take something better than my usual casual attire. I'll be in a group that has told us all we can bring is one rollaboard. And after the trip I'll be wandering all over the continent by Eurailpass and I KNOW I won't need whatever formal stuff I will have lugged for the ship so I'll need to offload it somehow. Mail it home i guess. Oh the rigors of travel!!!

Mailing home from western Europe is easy. I have done it several times.

I agree w/ Susie it is EXPECTED.....but I also saw lots of casual people in the Lido on formal nites and they they also slipped into the show room and sat in the back for the show.

I just think it IS all about the "Great Gatsby" experience......and part of the fun to play dress up for one or 2 nites. And like Doug says .....jackets etc can be packed easily!

I was on to Switzerland for 3 weeks so I wore black dressy pants and dressy tops and that was that. I fit in ok but was no where near those darling English couples in full tuxes, formals, long white gloves, tiaras, ......etc etc!!!

We were on a transatlantic sailing last March on the Cunard Queen Victoria. We had booked a Princess Suite but at check-in were upgraded to a Queen suite and the Queen's Grill, which was terrific.

My husband packed a very good blue-grey suit and a navy blazer. He did not feel out of place although on formal nights he was in the minority, I would guess 70% of the men wore tuxes or white dinner jackets (which I don't particularly like).

I did not wear long or short formal evening wear, just silk jackets and trousers. We both felt totally comfortable.

I think there is a tux rental service on board if you want to go that route.

We've been on the QE11 and and QM11.... my husband always took a navy blue suit and white shirt for "formal" nites. He wore a black bow tie. In the dusk with the light behind him it almost looked like formal wear -:) With a navy blazer and a black tie you'd probably fit right in.
In my experience on 3 voyages the men always looked more elegant than the women!
(Of course, we were in "peon" class.)

Just a note about rolling around Europe without a jacket - Unless you hang out exclusively in pubs and caffs in working class neighbourhoods (and they can be huge amounts of fun with good food and cheap pints!), you will find yourself missing a jacket at times. People in Europe generally speaking dress less informally, and having a jacket for dinner at a nice, moderately priced restaurant, is a good thing. Plus, in March, it can be a very nice warm thing to wear!

A well-made, medium weight wool blazer in dark blue will take you anywhere... and if you don't go cheap in buying it, they could bury you in it... years from now.

When I went on the QM2 I was going on a long trip and couldn't justify carrying formal wear around for 3 months, just for a 7 night cruise. The fact is, you can always eat in the King's Court dressed in just about anything.

If you think about it, it pretty much has to be that way. It's very possible for someone to get on board with no formal attire, and once on board you're under their care. They can't throw you overboard, and neither can you leave. They can't just refuse to feed you dinner for a whole week. I'm sure that would result in a massive lawsuit. So, there has to be a non-formal alternative.

You can't go to the main restaurant without dressing up though, and apparently you're not supposed to go many other places on the ship after 6 PM not being dressed up. I didn't really notice the second part of this really being enforced when I was on board, however I didn't actually go to any shows in the evening (I was using the ship for transportation, not amusement).

With all that being said, it's still probably worth bringing a single dress outfit that you can just wear every night. It solves the whole problem, and I doubt many will notice you are wearing the same thing every night.

While you didn't ask about this, I'll just add that during the day, you can pretty much just wear whatever you would be comfortable wearing on the street, at least throughout the vast majority of the ship. There were tons of people in jeans and shorts when I was on board. I'm just mentioning this, because some other posts I've seen around the internet suggest that everyone dresses up nicely during the day, and that certainly was not my observation.

Although, it's possible there's some sort of recognition bias where those of us dressed in t-shirt and shorts/jeans notice everyone else who is dressed the same, and those dressed "casual" likewise fixate on those who are dressed the same. Maybe we're all just in our own little worlds like that.