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Dress Code on Cruise ShipsShould You Pack the Tuxedo or Leave it at Home?Dress code on cruise ships is often confusing to first time passengers. Here's a brief guide to what to wear on a cruise.
Cruise ships usually have three evening dress codes – ‘formal’, ‘informal’ and ‘casual’. The ship’s daily news tells you what the style for the evening will be. Love it or hate it, it's part of the tradition. It’s easy for women, as most prefer to be quite dressy on cruise ships. For men, cruising presents a big dilemma about whether to pack/buy/rent a tuxedo or hope to get away with one jacket and one tie. Formal nights on boardEssentially, ‘formal’ means black tie. On a traditional cruise, there will be one or two black tie nights in a week and the more expensive the ship, the more tuxedos there will be, although you can wear a lounge suit if you want to. A white dinner jacket is only appropriate in the summer, according to traditional etiquette. I spotted a man wearing tails on a Costa ship recently, which seemed way over the top. Larger ships have a hire facility on board and are also usually able to help out if you forget essentials like cufflinks! Ladies can wear long or short dresses on black tie nights. It's only on the really upscale cruises, like a Cunard world cruise, where most people wear long. On nights like these, it's acceptable to trot out your finest bling and plenty of sparkle. So what does 'casual' mean?‘Informal’ means jacket and tie on posh ships (and cocktail dresses for ladies) or at least a decent polo shirt and chinos on a more relaxed cruise. ‘Casual’ or 'Resort Casual' means anything goes, within reason, but probably not shorts at dinner. Formal and not-so-formal cruise shipsCunard, Crystal, Regent, Silversea, Seabourn, Holland America, the British P&O ships and Celebrityare all pretty traditional but NCL and Star Cruises promote ‘Freestyle’ cruising, which means there is no dress code as such and no instruction on the daily programme. Princess, Carnival Cruises and Royal Caribbean have a dress code but a lounge suit is fine on the dress-up nights. Star Clippers, SeaDream Yacht Club and Oceania are all tuxedo-free zones; on these ships, you won't even see anybody wearing a tie unless they really want to. Ocean Village and Island Cruises are also really casual, with no recommended dress code other than being covered decently during the day and ideally, not wearing shorts at night, although plenty of English football shirts slip through the sartorial net. Dressing downIf you really don't want to dress up, don't let it be a barrier to choosing a particular ship. There is always a casual restaurant where you can dine while everybody else sits down to lobster and Baked Alaska. And if the worst comes to the worst, there’s always room service…
The copyright of the article Dress Code on Cruise Ships in Cruise/Island Vacations is owned by Sue Bryant. Permission to republish Dress Code on Cruise Ships in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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