Do all cruise lines have a formal dress only during all dinners?

Question

Do all cruise lines have a formal dress only during all dinners?

Answer 1

It depends on the cruise you go on some do some dont. the best thing to do is check witht he cruise line you are planning on going with.

Answer 2

Most have one or two nights formal.  The more expensive lines, Like Crystal Cruise Lines or Cunard, have formal more so.

Disney Cruise Lines have normally one or two formal nights, but the atmosphere is relaxed and you do not need to have a tux, or even a suit, but a dinner jacket will help you blend in with the atmosphere (hard to say it's formal but Mickey Mouse is in a tux on these nights).

Answer 3

NO... of course not.  If you are looking for a cruise ship for the first time then you need to talk to a travel agent that specializes in cruises... There are so many ships available and each has something different to offer, you really DO need to talk to a travel agent... because you won't get your answers here on YA.

Answer 4

We've only been on one cruise, that was P. & O's Oriana to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary.

We had an allocated dining room and chose which sitting we would prefer for dinner.  However you could choose to eat in other places - the bistro had a small additional charge.

Each evening a newsletter was delivered to your cabin telling you about what would happen the following day and "dress code".  The first night was listed "informal", then you had some semi-formal and a couple of "formal" evenings - this applied only in the main dining room.  There was also a "black and white" evening when everyone tried to keep to that colour scheme.  Formal evenings were only when the ship was at sea all that day and night so it was more like party time on board.  The men wore D.J.s and bow ties and the women wore dressy cocktail or long skirts for the formal ones and also for the Captain's cocktail party.  If you wanted to eat in the bistro or have a snack in one of the bars, you didn't wear D.J.s.  There was also an Indian evening - optional - where some women wore saris and a buffet of different curries, etc., was served.  This wasn't in the main dining room.

Have a look at pictures in brochures of the cruise line in which you are interested and do some homework about the different ships - some really cater just for families, like "Ocean Village", the Italian line Costa is really directed towards the Italian community, of course, and ships are  described as being very noisy.  Cunard has a "class" system.

We thoroughly enjoyed Oriana and would love to go again.

Answer 5

Yes - but you do not have to dress if you don't want to.

Answer 6

Most 7-day cruises have two formal nights when you can wear your best stuff and get pictures taken, and maybe meet the ship’s Captain.  If the cruise is longer than 7 days there may be 3 formal nights.  

The formal nights are REQUESTED not required attire.  But most people do dress up in a tux for men and a long dress (any color) for women.  Some men just wear a suit and tie and some women wear a nice dress but not a gown.  You will not be denied access to the dining room or anything else if you choose not to dress up.  After 6:00 PM they request that you wear "sports casual" attire.  That's attire that you would expect a person to wear in a business office, shirt with a collar, slacks, skirt, blouse, etc.  You can wear that same attire on formal nights if you wish.

Now the top end cruise lines like Windstar and Chrystal have a somewhat different policy.  They have formal nights, but then on regular nights they expect the guests to be more dressy, not formal but just more dressy. So the men may wear a jacket for dinner every evening and the woman  may always wear a dress, rather than a paints suit or plain skirt.

Answer 7

not all dinners.  on a 7 day cruise there might be 2 formal dinners.  dress-casual is what they call the other nights and that is a dress for women and men coats and ties.

cruiseclues.com

Answer 8

As some have pointed above, formal nights are not mandatory, there are always alternative dinning options for people who don´t want to dress up.

As far as I know, the only cruise line that has NO formal nights at all is Island Cruises (Island Escape and Island Star).

Never. Their slogan says it all: "Relaxed, friendly and informal"

Answer 9

This is very cruise line dependent.  A line like Crystal tends to be more formal, while a line like Norwegian is very casual.

Most lines only have about two formal nights per one week cruise.  I don't know of any cruise line that requires formal dress at all dinners.