Are cruise ships too informal now ?

Royal Caribbean have recently added shorts to their acceptable attire in the main dining room on casual evenings which has now sparked debates again on the lack of formal wear on cruises.
I spoke with a customer yesterday who had just returned from the brand new Majestic Princess. This was their first cruise and they were disappointed by the relaxed dress code in the dining rooms. Even on formal evenings people were allowed into the main dining room in ripped jeans, shorts and hoodies.
Surely if the daily programme says it is a formal night the Maitre’d should not allow anyone into the dining room that isn’t dressed correctly. After all there are lots of other casual dining options available if people really don’t want to take part.
It is a shame because formal nights have always been a tradition of cruising and something to look forward to. After all it is not very often at home we get the opportunity to dress up so for me cruises are very special and a great opportunity to put on a lovely dress and go out in style.
I cruised a couple of years ago with my husband with MSC Cruises. There were 2 formal nights but on the first night we went to dinner dressed in formal wear only to find our table companions dressed in jeans and trainers. We felt really uncomfortable when actually it was them that should have felt that way. So the second formal night we just went smart/casual and again the others hadn’t made any effort.
Our next cruise is with Celebrity Cruises. They no longer have formal nights which I am really disappointed by. It will be smart/casual and we will still dress up but my husband won’t be taking the tuxedo.
For those that really prefer to be casual every night there are cruise lines that are completely informal such as Norwegian Cruise Line or if they want to cruise with another line go to the casual dining options on formal nights.
Cunard are the only cruise line I know of that do enforce their dress codes and I think others should do the same otherwise why bother with formal nights at all.
What are your thoughts ?


About Me

Hello my name is Ruth and I have worked in the travel industry for 28 years. Apart from a couple of years working in a retail shop the rest of my career has been specialising in cruise so as you can imagine I am an expert in this area. I…

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