Long dress for formal night, but semi-formal night is what?

[magyar2]

My girls and I have our fancy dresses for formal night. We are all set for most of the other nights, too. However, I am unsure about semi-formal night. Is it a long dress occasion, but no beads, or short dress with beads type of night? I saw lots of gorgeous gowns at Penney's yesterday, but I think my husband will cut up the credit card if I spend $200 on a dress!

Can I get by with just a black dress to the knee, but perhaps wear some nice jewelry with it? And anyone have some nice jewelry I can borrow?

 

[FOJMO]

A short, black dress is perfectly fine for semi-formal night. Wear whatever jewelry you want with it. I've seen short dresses for formal night also. You don't have to wear a long dress to formal night, IMHO. But, if you already have one, that's fine. Enjoy!

 

[imgoingtodisney]

Im bringing 3 long skirt w/matching top outfits. 1 for formal night, 1 for semi-formal night and 1 for Lumiere's. (I know I dont need to dress like that for Lumiere's but hey it's comfy). The dressiest of the outfits will be for formal, least dressy for Lumiere's. I dont like wearing nylons or high heels so with these outfits I can get away with flatter shoes and nylon knee highs.

 

[SC Minnie]

I wore a short black dress for formal and semi formal nights. They were different- the one I wore for formal night was velvet and the one I wore for semi formal night had a shirt/jacket over it with glitter lick pattern in it. On both night you will see a mixture of everything. Don't worry about what is right for this night ot that. If you want to wear a long gown both nights then do it. I remember several women in gown on semi formal night.

 

[LisaFB]

I had actually called the cruise line to ask them since I was also getting confused. They said that formal night is definitely black tie optional and that semi-formal night is jacket & tie for men but not black tie optional, so it's definitely less formal. But she did tell me that a lot of people go black tie on semi-formal night as well. DH & I are going black tie for both (we happen to have our Palo reservations for semi-formal night and it's our honeymoon so we're dressing up all the way!). He's wearing a tux both nights and I'm wearing a bridesmiads dress for the first night and another black tie dress the second (I wore it to a black tie prefered affair). So I feel if you have it,wear it! If you don't have it, you dont have to go out and buy it....

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Go for the LBD! <i>(<u>L</u>ittle <u>B</u>lack <u>D</u>ress)</i>

 

[tstobb]

Can't see it too well in the picture ( http://community.webshots.com/photo/50826740/50827077BmznJd ) but DW wore a jumper that was backless & very elegant-but-fun looking (IMHO) with dressy heels for semi-formal night. She didn't even realize that it wasn't a long dress untill she went to try it on in the fitting room!

 

[Chattyaholic]

On our first Disney Magic cruise I wore a long red dress on one of the formal nights, and a dressy black pants outfit the second one but this time I've decided to just take the pants outfit and not bother with the dress. You're only in your formal clothes for a couple of hours, so who really cares if you wear the same outfit? I'll wear different jewelry, and maybe a scarf or something but that's about it.

 

[magyar2]

Thanks all for your replies - they are a great help!

 

[Tooth Fairy]

Chattyaholic
Glad to hear that you are wearing the same thing twice! It hardly makes sense to take two different outfits with all the accessories for just a couple of hours! I hope I have the willpower to not eat my words!

 

[Michelle]

People seem to get confused with semi-formal night, perhaps because the dress code is not stated too prominently on the Navigator. On our last cruise we saw MANY people just dressed casually on semi-formal night. Jackets and ties were rare on the men, and I saw no tuxes at all. Ladies were wearing everything from pants to perhaps a cocktail dress. I don't think they were purposedly thwarting the dress code, I just don't think they KNEW it was a semi-formal night.

 

[LisaFB]

We just returned from the Magic today (nope, we didn't get sick but it was the crusie where everyone got sick) and there were several guys we saw in tuxes, there were actually more in tuxedos on semi-formal night than there were on formal night!!!!

 

[nedleycan]

Glad to hear that you didn't get sick Lisa! A question for you... how did the women/men dress on regular "casual" nights? My DH has some beautiful silk sport shirts (Tommy Bahama) and nice silk pants and I think that is perfect for casual nights. He looks very clean and handsome (if I do say so myself... wink wink). I am hoping that he only has to wear the suit on formal and semi-formal nights.

 

[My~Rumbly~Tumbly]

I'm sailing on the Wonder, which of course does not have a formal night, so on semi-formal night, I plan to wear an above-the-knee dress that is garnet in color (with a slight shimmer). It has black sparkly vines and flowers on it. The dress reminds me of an asian gown. I'm wearing some dressy black velvet mary janes with it. My 3 year old daughter is wearing a long sleeved dress- with a wine velvet bodice and a full chiffon skirt. My 17 month old son is going to wear a long sleeved shirt and khaki's. My dress is definitively not 'formal', but maybe a bit more than 'semi-formal'. We'll see. I don't know when I will cruise again- I plan to make the most of it!

 

[LisaFB]

I did notice that some peopel totally ignored the dress code and came to dinner in shorts or jeans but they looked silly and out of place. For casual nights we saw a variety of outfits. DH wore khakis and button down shirts for the most part. I wore either casual dresses or pants outfits. I guess the best way I can describe it is business casual.
Scott decided to wear his sports coats and tie instead of tux for semi-formal night and he looked very nice every single night!!

 

[mmouse37]

We have sailed on the 7 day a few times now and I have always brought 2 complete different outfits, one for formal and one for semi-formal...this time, on our upcoming 1/4/03 cruise I decided to bring one long gown and one shimmery, short jacket that I found in the closet from a few years ago. The jacket looks very nice over the long dress, so I will wear that on Formal and then just wear the long, sleeveless dress on semi-formal!!! I am sure no one would even notice or care that the dress was the same.

MJ

 

[my3kids]

My family was very surprised at the semi-formal night attire: A Lot of people were VERY formal. There were a fair number of tuxedo's and many very glittery/sparkly/long dresses. We hadn't expected that. My husband had a dark suit and I had a black cocktail dress, but we ended up in a different suit and a less dressy dress and that was okay too, but definately on the less dressy side. For formal night my older son wore a dark suit and younger son a blue blazer with tie. For semi formal I told them shirts and ties but I wouldn't force the coat/suit issue again. The children were less dressy than adults on semi formal night with a range of knit shirts to tuxedos on kids, but more casusal than formal. But again, we were VERY surprised that a lot of people were dressed to the nines on semi formal night.

PS: For formal night we were in a tux and long dress.

 

[AnnMorin]

I always thought formal meant black tie (tux) or at the very least a very nice black suit. And semi formal meant a suit. As for woman formal required a gown (floor length) and semi formal would be a nice coctail or "little black dress". Thats how we dress anyhow.

 

[Werner Weiss]

An issue that comes into play is how much you want to pack -- especially if all luggage for a family of four has to fit into the trunk of a Ford Taurus or Toyota Camry, so that you can get from your home to the airport in your family car and/or from the airport to the port in a rental car.

One way to cut down on the total amount of luggage is to wear the same attire on the formal night and the semi-formal night (and even for dinner at Palo). After all, you're only in those clothes a few hours each time.

Obviously, if a man wants to bring a tuxedo and a suit and a couple of different sport coats, that's fine. But if a man wants to bring a single suit for the formal, semi-formal, and Palo dinners, that's fine too. The same applies to women. Bring a closet full of various gowns and dresses -- or bring one nice dress.

I'll bring one dark suit and one summer sport coat again on our next cruise. My wife will bring whatever she wants.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

but by wearing the same outfit for 2 nights what do you do if youre a slob the first night?