Hi,
We have done two
DCL cruises (one 3 day and one 7 day). Just so you are aware, it also depends on your dining rotation how many of which types of dinner clothes you will need. Unfortunately, you will not know this until you board. On a Tritions/Parrot Cay/Animators Palete/Tritions rotation you have two nights in the "dressier" restaurant. If you are scheduled for 2 nights in Tritons, you will need one more dressier outfit than those who are scheduled for Animators Palete or Parrot Cay twice. If you decide to do Palo on a non-Tritions night, you will need a total of 3 dressier outfits. In your cruise docs you'll find a "Passport to Disney Wonder". On page 25 they go over the dress code "suggestions". It states
"Jacket for men and a dress or pantsuit for women"
for Tritions and Palo. No shorts, jeans or tank tops in any dining room for dinner and that applies to children as well. That said, you will always see a certain percentage of passengers who either never read about the "suggested" attire or who do read it and just don't care. ( After all, they paid a lot of money for this vacation and they should be able to dress any way they want regardless of standards, "suggested attire" or other passengers, right?) Thank goodness it's not a 7 day where they throw a formal and semi-formal night into the mix and don't tell you if you should follow the restaurant code or the "formal" or "semi-formal" thing. We ended up in Parrot Cay (the most casual of the restaurants) for formal night and it was weird to be there in formal clothes. Disney does not do a good job of informing passengers about these issues.
For our 7 day Western, I called DCL and they gave me my rotation, BUT, when we got on the ship it was not what I had been told. So beware if you go this route.
There will be many men in polo shirts and nice pants, there will also be many who wear the jacket as suggested-sometimes with a polo shirt or a button down shirt underneath with or without a tie. Others will wear a dress shirt with a tie and no jacket. You most certainly will not be the only one without "proper" attire if you choose to go that route, so your decision rests on how much you are willing to pack and how important it is to you to dress properly for dinner regardless of what others choose to do. Regardless, the CM's will never turn you away from any dining room because of how you are dressed. You could show up in jeans or shorts and rubber flip-flops every night and no CM would say anything.
This issue promotes quite a bit of heated debate as there are two distinct sides. It isn't my intent to start that debate again, I am just sharing my opinion.
Enjoy your cruise, they really are wonderful!
CLC Tiger Pom Mom
