Dining at Lumieres dress code

[candyht]

Are jackets required for men for dining at Lumieres? My DH wants to know if it would be okay to wear black khakis and a polo shirt.

 

[mikeymars]

If he doesn't have a jacket on, Mickey and the Pluto police aren't going to march out of the kitchen to drag your husband to the door and throw him out of Lumieres. However, he will be in the clear minority if he is just wearing a shirt.

On our 3/23 Magic cruise, our rotation put us into Lumieres twice (once on the Thursday semi-formal night). If I had to generalize, both nights something in the range of 80-85% of the men in the dining room were wearing coats (with a noticeable minority -- including stuffed-shirt types like me-- even adding a tie). Thursday was definitely a little dressier, given it was ship-wide semi-formal night.

On both nights, while the guys just in shirts didn't blatantly stick out, one could definitely notice a subtle difference: the parties seated at tables with the jacket-less guys tended to be less well dressed in general, e.g. the women and kids weren't as "classy" looking either. Did they look tacky? No, but then again a little less tastetful, given all the "better dressed" people surrounding them.

Bottom line: formality of dress and "what is appropriate" is a highly, highly, highly subjective thing that comes up again and again on this board and never really gets resolved. So what do you do? Just go what you are comfortable with. If hubby doesn't want to wear a coat, fine, just realize you may or may not feel entirely comfortable with that once you are actually sitting down to eat in Lumieres.

 

[StaceyA]

Hi,
If Lumiere's just happens to be your first night restaurant, and your clothes have yet to arrive to your room...do you look out of place, or does that happen alot?
I might actually pack nicer things into the carry on since we might try for Palo's the first night....
Thanks to everyone!

 

[ducklite]

The first night is resort casual at all restuarants for just that reason.

Disney requests men wear jackets in Lumieres. No, it's not a "rule", but it is a request from your host.

If you were invited to a party and the host requested no bare feet, would you kick off your shoes because you were a guest and so you could do whatever you wanted? IMHO it's the same principal. If you don't want to follow the hosts requests, dont' go to the party.

Anne

 

[cruisedad]

When I was on previous 3 day cruises I wore a jacket the first time. About 1/2 the men didn't wear jackets. The second cruise I did not wear one, just a polo and Khakis and was very comfortable and I did not feel out of place one bit. I say go for the Khakis and polo.

 

[mikeymars]

>>If Lumiere's just happens to be your first night restaurant, and your clothes have yet to arrive to your room...do you look out of place, or does that happen alot?<<

A number of guides to DCL I've read suggest you pack some 'nicer" clothing in your carry-on just in case (a) your checked bags don't get to your stateroom prior to dinner (yes, it does happen - our 3/23 cruise dinner partners still hadn't gotten their bags when we met them sitting down to eat Saturday night) and (b) so you don't end up walking into a place like Lumiere's dressed in a wet bathing suit.

 

[mikeymars]

>>When I was on previous 3 day cruises I wore a jacket the first time. About 1/2 the men didn't wear jackets. <<

I could be wrong here, but my gut is the shorter Wonder cruises are in general less "formal" than those on the Magic. The latter has both a formal and semi-formal night, and the longer seven night itinerary probably leads to people bringing more clothes along to begin with, which in turn increases the likelihood of packing some "dressier" stuff. That may explain why you saw a more dressed-downed environment in the Wonder's "formal" dining room.

 

[bray]

On our 3 day cruise, my dh wore a jacket to the 2 nights at Tritons and I wore a nice dress. On the other nights, we just wore golf shirt/dress pants and I a simple dress or capris. We did not see anyone in formal attire the nights we dined in Tritons.

How does the 7 day cruise differ? Would a suit/tie for dh and nice dress (appropriate for wedding or short cocktail dress) be acceptable?

We sail June 1. Can't wait.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

On the 7-night cruise, there is a "formal" night and a "semi-formal" night. There's not a lot of difference between the two. Maybe a few more tuxes on the formal night. I'd say it's about 50-50 tuxes to dark suits, on the formal night.

bray, I'd say what you described would be perfectly acceptable for the 7-nighter's formal nights. I go with a dark suit myself. I'd rather spend the money I'd use to rent a tux on something else.

 

[GenieNet]

My family and I had APLAPLA on the 7-Day Magic and it just so happened that the Captain's Gala fell on our night at Lumiere's. I would have felt extremely out of place without a dark suit (or tux for some). On the semi-formal night, I saw a decent mixture of suits and sportcoats and nice business casual, depending on each person's individual style.

It really depends on your rotation...but as a general rule if you don't have the Captain's Gala at Lumiere's, you're ok with nice business casual.

 

[bray]

What is the Captains Gala and is it on the same night for each cruise? What is APLAPLA and why do you feel it is a good rotation?