Dress Code- The Big Debate

[LSUfan4444]

We are on the Dream leaving PC June 21-25. This will be our first ever cruise. My DH has read a little bit about the cruise and about the dress code for dinning (cruise casual). His definition of cruise casual is shorts, and either a tshirt or polo. Will he feel out of place in shorts instead of pants at dinner? Are shorts at dinner more common place now? He says he's on vacation and wants to relax and not have to worry about dressing up for dinner. Ugh!!

I don't wear shorts to the MDR for dinner but other people do. He won't be the only one.

 

[Raptor83]

Dress code threads are always an entertaining read.

To the OP:

Tell your DH to wear whatever he feels comfortable in. Shorts & a polo or tshirt meet DCL's requirements for the MDRs and that is all that matters. Tell him to wear that and have a good time!

Last July, I wore a tshirt and jeans (since it was Alaska) to dinner every night that I went to the MDR. A couple people in our party wanted to skip formal night in the MDR rather than dress up; when the servers heard us talking about it, they practically begged us to come and were emphatic that it is an OPTIONAL formal night and we were absolutely NOT required to dress up. We just got off a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Magic April 23rd and I wore cargo shorts/tshirt every night except formal night and at Palo. There was a gentleman seated at the table next to us in Palo wearing jeans. Did that ruin my experience? No! I thought about wearing jeans myself, but it was our anniversary, so I wore dress pants.

Ignore people who look down on others for what they wear on their vacation. If they have a problem with it, it is THEIR problem, not yours. I wear business attire at work all week; having to wear it to dinner is not my idea of vacation. Also, never once have I had my dining experience ruined by the attire of those at the table next to me. I feel sorry for anyone who would focus on that to the point it prevents them from enjoying their own experience. We have another DCL cruise planned for December - if someone thinks I should wear "big boy clothes" or go to Cabanas rather than the MDR and they want to mail me a check for $15K to cover our cruise, then I'll wear what they request to the MDR. Otherwise, they can pound sand and I'll wear what I like. Why should one wear something they're not happy in or dine elsewhere to please a complete stranger? Same goes for our cruise next April. DCL has had no issue taking my $ or with my dining attire. I'm sure DCL will feel the same with you. I hope you wear what lets you enjoy your vacation and don't worry what others think!

 

[Neptune's Fork]

There's other cruise lines that are more old school when it comes to dining attire, so if what people wear bothers people they should consider one of those lines. I'll echo what someone else said here, I really couldn't tell you with specificity what others wore to the MDR because I don't get concerned enough to pay attention to what others are wearing. As long as you're clothed, and don't have anything offensive on, most people won't pay attention.

 

[mandylovesdisney]

Dress code threads are always an entertaining read.

To the OP:

Tell your DH to wear whatever he feels comfortable in. Shorts & a polo or tshirt meet DCL's requirements for the MDRs and that is all that matters. Tell him to wear that and have a good time!

Last July, I wore a tshirt and jeans (since it was Alaska) to dinner every night that I went to the MDR. A couple people in our party wanted to skip formal night in the MDR rather than dress up; when the servers heard us talking about it, they practically begged us to come and were emphatic that it is an OPTIONAL formal night and we were absolutely NOT required to dress up. We just got off a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Magic April 23rd and I wore cargo shorts/tshirt every night except formal night and at Palo. There was a gentleman seated at the table next to us in Palo wearing jeans. Did that ruin my experience? No! I thought about wearing jeans myself, but it was our anniversary, so I wore dress pants.

Ignore people who look down on others for what they wear on their vacation. If they have a problem with it, it is THEIR problem, not yours. I wear business attire at work all week; having to wear it to dinner is not my idea of vacation. Also, never once have I had my dining experience ruined by the attire of those at the table next to me. I feel sorry for anyone who would focus on that to the point it prevents them from enjoying their own experience. We have another DCL cruise planned for December - if someone thinks I should wear "big boy clothes" or go to Cabanas rather than the MDR and they want to mail me a check for $15K to cover our cruise, then I'll wear what they request to the MDR. Otherwise, they can pound sand and I'll wear what I like. Why should one wear something they're not happy in or dine elsewhere to please a complete stranger? Same goes for our cruise next April. DCL has had no issue taking my $ or with my dining attire. I'm sure DCL will feel the same with you. I hope you wear what lets you enjoy your vacation and don't worry what others think!

This right here! Yep Yep I totally agree! If you are following what DCL says are the rules, don't worry about busy bodies who have nothing better to do but complain. Only thing I would have added was a mike drop

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Personally, I wear shorts to the MDR's most nights for the same reason that many people on here say they dress more warmly: How the temperature of the room feels. To me, almost all places are TOO HOT, especially when the room is full of people. So I wore shorts most of the time. Of course, there are lots of different kinds of "shorts." I chose to wear shorts that are essentially dress pants cut short. I like them. Having said that, on formal and semi-formal night (7-night cruise), I did wear long pants. We took a lot of pictures and it is nice to have some more formal ones.

Have a great time!

 

[LSUfan4444]

There is no denying that the attire has an effect on the theme and feel of a restaurant and I can certainly empathize for those people who want to treat the MDR as a special occasion. The proximity of cultures and personal differences are part of the fabric of cruising. It's just something you have to deal with.

I wish the dining attire was different but it's not one one of the things I let effect me all that much.

 

[AquaDame]

We are on the Dream leaving PC June 21-25. This will be our first ever cruise. My DH has read a little bit about the cruise and about the dress code for dinning (cruise casual). His definition of cruise casual is shorts, and either a tshirt or polo. Will he feel out of place in shorts instead of pants at dinner? Are shorts at dinner more common place now? He says he's on vacation and wants to relax and not have to worry about dressing up for dinner. Ugh!!

From DCL's website: "In general, most onboard dining locations are "cruise casual,” so casual attire, such as shorts and T-shirts, is permitted, with the exception of swimwear and tank tops." So your husband is a-ok with his plan as shorts and t-shirts are very much allowed. Anyone who says otherwise is, in this case, passing out incorrect info.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/faq/dining-food-beverages/dining-dress-codes/

 

[wilkeliza]

Shorts and Polo are more then okay. All of us (yes even the ladies) wore that on normal nights in the dinning room on our longer cruises. We did dress up on semi-formal and formal night. I guess I made a faux pas in that on formal night I wore what is closer to a cocktail dress (oh the horror) because I find it ridiculous that the length of my dress dictates the formality of it. It was much much nicer then any other dress I'd ever owned at that point. I believe we went to Remy that night actually because it was the night we got engaged and it was easier for the guys (we were on a friend cruise) to have an excuse to dress up be it formal night and Remy to throw me off form knowing what was up.


As others have pointed out if you want the traditional cruise experience Disney hardly provides that any more and for the price Disney costs now you can go on a different cruise line that does indeed still require jackets for men and dresses for ladies every single night.

 

[Dug720]

Shorts and Polo are more then okay. All of us (yes even the ladies) wore that on normal nights in the dinning room on our longer cruises. We did dress up on semi-formal and formal night. I guess I made a faux pas in that on formal night I wore what is closer to a cocktail dress (oh the horror) because I find it ridiculous that the length of my dress dictates the formality of it. It was much much nicer then any other dress I'd ever owned at that point. I believe we went to Remy that night actually because it was the night we got engaged and it was easier for the guys (we were on a friend cruise) to have an excuse to dress up be it formal night and Remy to throw me off form knowing what was up.


As others have pointed out if you want the traditional cruise experience Disney hardly provides that any more and for the price Disney costs now you can go on a different cruise line that does indeed still require jackets for men and dresses for ladies every single night.

Even on the lines where I have seen the dress code enforced, they define formal for women as "an evening gown, a cocktail dress, or a dressy pantsuit".

 

[wilkeliza]

Even on the lines where I have seen the dress code enforced, they define formal for women as "an evening gown, a cocktail dress, or a dressy pantsuit".

I have to check my cruise documentation to check but I keep being told that formal equals below the calf at minimum. Will have to see though. Never done this cruise line before and it wouldn't be my first choice. It is one of the few that still strongly discourages children but even then with the change times has relaxed that a tiny bit to "well behaved children".

 

[Dug720]

I have to check my cruise documentation to check but I keep being told that formal equals below the calf at minimum. Will have to see though. Never done this cruise line before and it wouldn't be my first choice. It is one of the few that still strongly discourages children but even then with the change times has relaxed that a tiny bit to "well behaved children".

It probably does depend. The verbiage I stated is from Princess.

 

[wilkeliza]

It probably does depend. The verbiage I stated is from Princess.

Ah I see the verbiage for this one is evening gown or cocktail attire so maybe I don't need to go shopping! It is mostly coming from the social etiquette of the traveling group and not necessarily the cruise officials if that makes sense.

 

[Dug720]

Ah I see the verbiage for this one is evening gown or cocktail attire so maybe I don't need to go shopping! It is mostly coming from the social etiquette of the traveling group and not necessarily the cruise officials if that makes sense.

I understand. Actually I had to ask on the cruise critic Princess boards because it's phrased something like "Full-length evening gown, cocktail dress, or dressy pantsuit" and I wanted to clarify that cocktail dresses are not always full length.

 

[jrabbit]

I'm probably in the minority here - I think that dinners in the MDR's should be Slacks and Polo shirts for the guys and closed toed shoes. Formal - especially in the Caribbean - seems to be out of place. And no one wants to have all of that extra luggage.

On the other hand, I am VERY SAD that "Cruise Casual" has devolved into "Theme Park Casual" - in my mind they are NOT the same thing. Over the years there's been the argument that - "It's OK at WDW so why can't I wear this to dinner on the ship".

Long ago and in a thread far away .... I created this list to post on the "dress code" threads ... and I see that in today's "anarchy rules / it's ALL about ME" world it is out of date, but here it goes anyway and it's amazing how far down DCL has come with regards to dress code for dinners over the past 10 years (or less).

And I appeared to have not even mentioned Jeans back then ... Dress, skinny, normal, low riders (plumber), ripped (stylishly or just old)!

THE Clothes Hierarchy
The Tuxes look down upon the suits
The Suits look down upon the sport coats
The Sport Coats look down upon the dress shirts
The Dress Shirts look down upon the polo shirts
The Polo Shirts look down upon the tee shirts
The Tee Shirts look down upon the tank tops
The Tank Tops look down upon the shorts
The Shorts look down upon the swimming suits

and so it goes

 

[phinz]

I know that "below the calf" isn't necessary for Remy, because my wife wore a Haunted Mansion skater dress with black shrug and black flats without any problems.

There's other cruise lines that are more old school when it comes to dining attire, so if what people wear bothers people they should consider one of those lines.

Definitely. Like I said earlier in this thread - or another thread, as the dress code threads tend to become redundant and hard to keep from blending together mentally - the evening dress codes for some of the higher end lines are specifically out of my wheelhouse. I don't want to have to put long pants, closed-toe shoes and a button down on to be on deck in public after 6 pm, especially in the Caribbean when it's hot outside even at night. The only reason we considered them is because they cost about the same as DCL Concierge, which we cruise more often than not, and have much more luxuries and amenities.

 

[fairfax]

We enjoy dressing up for dinner (except for my son maybe lol but he doesn't complain too much) so that's what we do. That being said, it doesn't matter to me if others don't dress up. We are all there to enjoy our vacations after all.

 

[Mighty Mouse Mama]

It's funny to read all the people here who are forced to dress up for work everyday, so dressing down is what makes it feel like a vacation. I can relate in a completely opposite way.

I work from home half the time, and on a film set the other half. I make costumes and spend most of my working time wearing the worst stuff I own because it's going to get dye, glue, threads, bits of fur and feathers and other nonsense all over it. When I'm not doing that, I'm homeschooling my kids and am likely to be covered in paint, more glue, and food. My husband is a stuntman and spends most of his time in workout clothes. We aren't religious so we don't even get to dress up for church.

I am literally DREAMING of wearing nice clothes on our vacation. I am so darn excited at the thought of a formal night where I can get a picture of my whole family wearing really nice clothes. I'm daydream shopping for the perfect dress to wear to Remy. I. Cannot. Wait. To dress up!

That said OP, I cannot imagine anything your DH would have any interest in wearing to dinner that would ruin my enjoyment of anything my DH or I are wearing to the same dinner. Seriously, I will be so busy ogling my DH in his suit on formal night, adoring how cute my children look in their fancy clothes (that they will probably wear exactly ONCE but it will be worth it!), and feeling insanely pretty myself to even notice what anyone else in the room is wearing.

Honestly, I've never understood why anyone would care what someone else wears to a restaurant. Going out to eat and going on vacation are supposed to be about relaxing and enjoying yourself and taking a break from your daily grind, not judging everyone around you.

As long as you're not wearing disgusting, smelly, or grossly revealing clothes to dinner, who cares. It's your vacation. If the thing that makes your hardworking DH feel relaxed is wearing shorts to dinner, let him wear shorts to dinner. If it's allowed by Disney, there's no reason anyone should judge. And since there will always be people who judge no matter what you do, you might as well relax and not worry about them. As long as your decent and abiding by the rules, you're not hurting anyone.

And now I'll step down off my soapbox, stop using this lovely forum as a procrastination device, wipe the paint off my neck, pull the feathers out of my hair, and get back to sewing.

 

[Aanna]

It's funny to read all the people here who are forced to dress up for work everyday, so dressing down is what makes it feel like a vacation. I can relate in a completely opposite way.

I work from home half the time, and on a film set the other half. I make costumes and spend most of my working time wearing the worst stuff I own because it's going to get dye, glue, threads, bits of fur and feathers and other nonsense all over it. When I'm not doing that, I'm homeschooling my kids and am likely to be covered in paint, more glue, and food. My husband is a stuntman and spends most of his time in workout clothes. We aren't religious so we don't even get to dress up for church.

I am literally DREAMING of wearing nice clothes on our vacation. I am so darn excited at the thought of a formal night where I can get a picture of my whole family wearing really nice clothes. I'm daydream shopping for the perfect dress to wear to Remy. I. Cannot. Wait. To dress up!

That said OP, I cannot imagine anything your DH would have any interest in wearing to dinner that would ruin my enjoyment of anything my DH or I are wearing to the same dinner. Seriously, I will be so busy ogling my DH in his suit on formal night, adoring how cute my children look in their fancy clothes (that they will probably wear exactly ONCE but it will be worth it!), and feeling insanely pretty myself to even notice what anyone else in the room is wearing.

Honestly, I've never understood why anyone would care what someone else wears to a restaurant. Going out to eat and going on vacation are supposed to be about relaxing and enjoying yourself and taking a break from your daily grind, not judging everyone around you.

As long as you're not wearing disgusting, smelly, or grossly revealing clothes to dinner, who cares. It's your vacation. If the thing that makes your hardworking DH feel relaxed is wearing shorts to dinner, let him wear shorts to dinner. If it's allowed by Disney, there's no reason anyone should judge. And since there will always be people who judge no matter what you do, you might as well relax and not worry about them. As long as your decent and abiding by the rules, you're not hurting anyone.

And now I'll step down off my soapbox, stop using this lovely forum as a procrastination device, wipe the paint off my neck, pull the feathers out of my hair, and get back to sewing.

I knew I liked you Half my time homeschooling, the other half costume-mistress for a ballet company. I get to play with and help create all the pretty costumes, but I never get to wear them!!

So I, too, am really looking forward to the chance to have a reason to dress up, and I am desperately hoping that enough other people are dressed up on formal night that my ankle-length gown will not make me look like an idiot. Sure, sure, I can *say* I don't care what other people are wearing and that I should be allowed to wear whatever I want whenever I want, but the fact is, if I show up in an evening gown to a pool party where everyone is wearing bikinis and flip flips, I'm going to look like -- and feel like -- an idiot.

I'm not looking at other people and blaming *them for not dressing right. The dress code is up to the restaurant and not me. Rather, I'm curious what other people are likely to wear so that I can dress to blend in.

And I really want to be able to wear my evening gown without feeling out of place.

 

[carolina_yankee]

The thing about DCL is that however you are dressed for dining, there are others dressed the same way so you really aren't out of place. My evening is far to important to me to worrry about what others are wearing. If I want to dress up, there are plenty of others who do so I won't stick out like a sore thumb. If I want to dress down, there are enough who do that I won't feel awkward.

If somebody else is spending their evening worrying about how I look, that's a real ego-boost that I matter that much! With all the wonderful CMs and characters about, you'd think l'il ol' cruise guest stranger wouldn't matter to anyone beyond his or her traveling companions.

Dirk

 

[Mighty Mouse Mama]

I knew I liked you Half my time homeschooling, the other half costume-mistress for a ballet company. I get to play with and help create all the pretty costumes, but I never get to wear them!!

So I, too, am really looking forward to the chance to have a reason to dress up, and I am desperately hoping that enough other people are dressed up on formal night that my ankle-length gown will not make me look like an idiot. Sure, sure, I can *say* I don't care what other people are wearing and that I should be allowed to wear whatever I want whenever I want, but the fact is, if I show up in an evening gown to a pool party where everyone is wearing bikinis and flip flips, I'm going to look like -- and feel like -- an idiot.

I'm not looking at other people and blaming *them for not dressing right. The dress code is up to the restaurant and not me. Rather, I'm curious what other people are likely to wear so that I can dress to blend in.

And I really want to be able to wear my evening gown without feeling out of place.

Well, yeah...I guess I don't want to be the only one dressed up either. But since so many people have said that plenty of people do dress up, I wasn't even thinking about the possibility of being the only one.