Yeah my first cruise on one formal night I dressed with tie and slacks and the other formal night I just had a nice pair of jeans a nice buttond down shirt and dress shoes. I guess you can say I wasnt totally formal but definitely presentable.....as usual
If you don't enjoy dressing up, skip the formal night. Alot of people REALLY enjoy it (some go a bit crazy with long gowns and tuxes but hey, that's their thing and they enjoy it). Others wear a cocktail dress and the guys wear at least a jacket and tie. My teenage boys just wore a shirt and tie with dress pants and dress shoes and that was fine. HOWEVER, going extreme the other way with jeans or something like that kind of ruins formal night for those people that do like to dress up, so if you are one of those people, just skip the formal night. Why go through all of that if you don't enjoy it? It really does ruin it for the people that like formal night when they go through all of the trouble to dress appropriately and others don't. Just my two cents...
I LOVE formal nights. Now that we have discovered cruising, my fun thing to do is to see how little I can pay for a long formal gown on sale. Ha! I'm starting to get a fun collection and even though my husband could CERTAINLY do with nothing more that a pair of shorts and T-shirts the whole trip, he knows how much it means to mean that we are both dressed to the hilt on formal nights. It gives me a chance to keep telling him how handsome he looks and I think he likes that part. We bought him his own tux for about $125 and he's worn it so many times that we're getting a kick out of the use.
In January, we're taking all 4 kids on a cruise (VOS) They range in age from 19-27. I told the older boys about formal nights and they were excited about it too. The conservative son has a dark navy 3-pc suit that he will most likely wear. The other son dresses quite...different. They don't have tuxes, but the 2nd one tends to be more "creative" in his fashion so I suggested that he get to some thrift stores and start looking for some fun creative formal wear. He really liked that idea.
I think that "formal night" really is trying to tell people that the night should be something special. I love seeing everyone joining in the fun. This certainly isn't everyone's "thing", but those are probably the people who would ultimately get the most out of it in a fresh new way if they would just go with the flow for a night. Make it fun!
Hi Susan! My husband and I also enjoy the formal nights. Guess what! I bought a formal gown marked down from $136 to $21! It's gorgeous.
In November, we are taking our 3 grown children and their spouses on an 8 day cruise. The girls have had a blast looking for gowns and have gotten beautiful dresses. We are renting tuxes from the ship. That is what we have done for our last 3 cruises. Since we plan to continue cruising, and love the elegance of formal night, I think we will start looking for a tux for my husband. The only thing is, it is so convenient to have it delivered to your cabin and not have to pack dress shoes, ties, etc. Guess I'm basically lazy!
I do hope they never take away formal nights. They are so romantic and beautiful!
Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe it's just a "girl thing", but my daughter who lives out of state and will be going on the cruise with us, just told me she found a $500.00 gown marked down to $25.00 and IT FIT!!! It's hard to get much more of a "high" than that! Ha! ha! It's fun!
As for renting the tuxes onboard, I can imagine how convenient that must be to not have to cram one more complete formal outfit in the bags. My thought is, now that we actually HAVE the tux, my husband likes seeing how many times he wears it divides into the original cost and how much we've saved. For him, I think it's a challenge. He does this with his ski pass too. Men. Ha!
If your husband bought a tux for $125, he is WAY ahead of the game!! It costs about $85 each time we rent the tux and shoes. I wish we didn't have to fly to our cruise ports because then the amount of luggage and weight of luggage wouldn't be such an issue. Unfortunately, Illinois is a long way from Florida!!
Congratulations to your daughter on a super bargain! What fun! I'll have to see if I can top that!
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