A Right Royal Caribbean Dress Code Mystery!

Over the last few years there has been a general drift towards more casual attire during the evening on certain cruise lines. P&O and Cunard have done away with semi-formal evenings and now just have Formal or Casual attire while Celebrity have introduced Evening Chic which is really evening casual by another name. The latter is proving especially popular with men who no longer have to find room in their suitcase for their dinner suit, also those who hate formal attire when they are on holiday.

There are cruisers who just love dressing formally for dinner in the evening, and for those who have cruised for many years it is all a very important part of their cruise experience. I have a client who owns nearly 100 evening gowns, can you imagine! How would you ever wear them all?

Along with many other people I prefer to dress casually and comfortably while on holiday and would rather not dress up to formally of an evening, smart casual being my preference really. It’s each to their own isn’t it, it’s your holiday and you should be able to dress as you choose although I do think Smart Casual should be a minimum during dinner of an evening don’t you?

That said, I was rather shocked to see the latest revision to evening dress codes on Royal Caribbean ships. It isn’t exactly clear when this was introduced but according to their website now these are their guidelines when it comes to dress codes:

Formal and Evening casual remain as they were previously but under Casual Dress Code we now see the following;

“You’re on vacation – relax! Jeans, shorts, tees, tank tops (really? We wore those in the ’70’s!), polo’s, sundress’s, blouses – are all the right amount of laid back. Please keep swimmers to the pool”. This has been confirmed on Royal Caribbean’s blog too.

Now I don’t know about you but whilst I love smart casual, I think this is a step too far for the main dining room! I rally don’t think that shorts and t-shirts is suitable attire for dinner.

I would appreciate your comments and feedback on this, as always.

Happy Cruising Folks!