Formal nights - know in advance?

[Jonbob*]

Hi you lovely lot. We are adventuring on the WBTA in September (our second ever cruise) and unfamiliar with the “process” for formal or semi formal nights. If anyone could answer a couple of questions I would be most appreciative!

- how many formal or semi formal nights should we expect (it’s a 12-nighter)?
- is there a way of knowing in advance which days will be formal or semi-formal?
- does anything on the ship change other than the expectation to dress up?
- just how formal we talkin’?

Thanks!

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

Hi you lovely lot. We are adventuring on the WBTA in September (our second ever cruise) and unfamiliar with the “process” for formal or semi formal nights. If anyone could answer a couple of questions I would be most appreciative!

- how many formal or semi formal nights should we expect (it’s a 12-nighter)?
- is there a way of knowing in advance which days will be formal or semi-formal?
- does anything on the ship change other than the expectation to dress up?
- just how formal we talkin’?

Thanks!

There's one formal and one semi-formal. How formal is up to you and your partner. On formal nights, my wife and I go for Tux & gown (same for Remy) and on Semi-Formal she wears a cocktail dress while I wear a suit/tie. I know that half the board is now going to explode in verbal violence about dress codes, so I'll (hopefully) pre-empt this forthcoming angst and state that it's really up to y'all on how 'formal' or 'semi-formal' you want to go. My wife & I like to get dressed up and treat every night as date night - that's our preference. Y'all do you - if you follow.

Nothing changes on the ship, unfortunately. That would be very cool. If you're lucky, you may get dance instructors who do ballroom dancing lessons. We had a blast on our 11 night going to lessons, having a dance on the pool deck and another in the atrium.

Not sure which nights will be formal/semi-. You can email DCL and they'll tell you. Or, you could brave the phone lines and ask. If they pick up in the next 8 hours...

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[Cheburashka]

- just how formal we talkin’?

However much you happen to feel like, and that will be reflected in the other passengers, as well. Disney makes it all optional, so there won't be one consistent standard of dress, unfortunately. Some men will wear suits, others t-shirts and baseball caps. If you want to dress up, I recommend dressing like a guest at an evening wedding. That's about the level of formality you'll see from those who choose to dress up.

You will know which nights are designated formal nights by looking through the Personal Navigator upon boarding.

 

[Jonbob*]

There's one formal and one semi-formal. How formal is up to you and your partner. On formal nights, my wife and I go for Tux & gown (same for Remy) and on Semi-Formal she wears a cocktail dress while I wear a suit/tie. I know that half the board is now going to explode in verbal violence about dress codes, so I'll (hopefully) pre-empt this forthcoming angst and state that it's really up to y'all on how 'formal' or 'semi-formal' you want to go. My wife & I like to get dressed up and treat every night as date night - that's our preference. Y'all do you - if you follow.

Nothing changes on the ship, unfortunately. That would be very cool. If you're lucky, you may get dance instructors who do ballroom dancing lessons. We had a blast on our 11 night going to lessons, having a dance on the pool deck and another in the atrium.

Not sure which nights will be formal/semi-. You can email DCL and they'll tell you. Or, you could brave the phone lines and ask. If they pick up in the next 8 hours...

Enjoy your cruise!

Thank you for the detailed response - that’s really helpful My partner and I do like to put on something nice for dinner, but admittedly we don’t own a tux! At least now I know we can have a chat and decide what will suit us without worrying about strict rules.

 

[Calantha]

is there a way of knowing in advance which days will be formal or semi-formal?

You could go to the DCL Blog and look up previous WBTAs to see when they were held...and it is probably similar: https://disneycruiselineblog.com/personal-navigators/ and scroll down. They don't match exactly, but it should help.

 

[Snowwhyt]

- how many formal or semi formal nights should we expect (it’s a 12-nighter)? I was on a 13 night cruise and had one of each.


- is there a way of knowing in advance which days will be formal or semi-formal? Which day is absolutely hard to determine in advance. Some guidelines I have found… Formal is usually in the earlier few days typically not on a port day. Semi formal is near the end of the cruise it has no bearing on a port visit

- does anything on the ship change other than the expectation to dress up? The crew will always step up their attire. Sometimes you’ll see a captains cocktail hour.

- just how formal we talkin’? Our May cruise was the first cruise that I did not see anyone in military dress for the first time. Could be for two reasons one it was a transatlantic with European stops or two the military would not approve the wearing of dress the uniforms under the current European military climate. Our longer cruise was thankfully more formal and majority did dress up. My last seven day cruise was so under dressed it made me feel uncomfortable and I will treat them as a semi formal going forward.

If anyone knows why there were no US military uniforms on formal night, for my transatlantic, please give me a shout out below I do occasionally travel with a military person.

 

[SnowWhite2]

Hopefully they still do this.....Formal night usually has a captains reception before each seating where the officers are out in the atrium and waiters bring around a tray of drinks ...for free. They usually have a wine choice, a beer choice and two cocktails. I've also seen a non-alcoholic option also. Your job is to find a server with a tray of drinks and score one. I've never seen them make up special drinks for anyone. You pick from the tray that the server has. You can also go before both seatings to grab a drink.

 

[TinkLoverSam]

Hopefully they still do this.....Formal night usually has a captains reception before each seating where the officers are out in the atrium and waiters bring around a tray of drinks ...for free. They usually have a wine choice, a beer choice and two cocktails. I've also seen a non-alcoholic option also. Your job is to find a server with a tray of drinks and score one. I've never seen them make up special drinks for anyone. You pick from the tray that the server has. You can also go before both seatings to grab a drink.

It had returned for the first Alaskan cruise this year, and I believe it has returned on all ships with longer itineraries.

 

[Capt_BJ]

COMMENT:

Today, on most ships which are regularly "cruisers", even when doing a crossing the dress code is simply a recommendation ..... they may say "formal optional" but you'll see chinos and t-shirts in main dining . .

there ARE exceptions the BIG one being CUNARD. When CUNARD says FORMAL they mean long dress and dark suit minimum (tux preferred). 'Informal' means a jacket and you can get away with no tie but . . . and YES I have seen them refuse folks at the dining room door and ask folks to leave lounges at 6pm when the rules changed. You may think this is horrible but SOME cruise CUNARD BECAUSE they do this. I've seen folks with youngen's and their toddlers were in formal wear so they could be with their parents after 6 in the ship's main areas.
acceptable formal night wear on QM2 ......

+++++++++++++
old school rules ....

first night is 'informal' since your bags may not have been unpacked yet .... similarly the last nite since your stuff needed to be packed.

and I've never seen two back to back formal nights . .

 

[Elleinthecity]

COMMENT:

Today, on most ships which are regularly "cruisers", even when doing a crossing the dress code is simply a recommendation ..... they may say "formal optional" but you'll see chinos and t-shirts in main dining . .

there ARE exceptions the BIG one being CUNARD. When CUNARD says FORMAL they mean long dress and dark suit minimum (tux preferred). 'Informal' means a jacket and you can get away with no tie but . . . and YES I have seen them refuse folks at the dining room door and ask folks to leave lounges at 6pm when the rules changed. You may think this is horrible but SOME cruise CUNARD BECAUSE they do this. I've seen folks with youngen's and their toddlers were in formal wear so they could be with their parents after 6 in the ship's main areas.View attachment 683783
acceptable formal night wear on QM2 ......

+++++++++++++
old school rules ....

first night is 'informal' since your bags may not have been unpacked yet .... similarly the last nite since your stuff needed to be packed.

and I've never seen two back to back formal nights . .

My husband used to work for Cunard and he is “struggling” with the ambiguous dress code. Glad to see someone gets him.