Question about Formal nights on 5 night Cruises

[iubigman]

Hey everyone, we are taking the 5 night Mediterranean Cruise out of Barcelona on the Magic this August.

I know on DC website it states that only cruises of 7 nights or longer will have a formal night, but in looking at some recent Personal Navigator from the Magic for 5 night cruises, it does list an "optional" dress up night. Is this standard? Do people observe it generally?

As we are traveling to Europe, any chance to avoid packing formal clothes would be nice....

 

[King Racoon 77]

Hey everyone, we are taking the 5 night Mediterranean Cruise out of Barcelona on the Magic this August.

I know on DC website it states that only cruises of 7 nights or longer will have a formal night, but in looking at some recent Personal Navigator from the Magic for 5 night cruises, it does list an "optional" dress up night. Is this standard? Do people observe it generally?

As we are traveling to Europe, any chance to avoid packing formal clothes would be nice....

If you are wanting to skip it entirely then you can always go up to cabanas that evening. Just inform your servers the night before.Even on a full formal night last year not everyone was dressing "fancy" for the meal.

 

[Sans Souci]

I did a seven night Mediterranean cruise in 2015. My husband and son had formal wear delivered to the stateroom for the formal dinner. I packed a cocktail dress. When we went to dinner, I could count on one hand other men in formal wear. Everyone looked "dressy," but not "formal." My husband said he would not bother renting formal wear on future cruises.

If it's optional, I wouldn't bother with the formal wear.

 

[pilka214]

If it states "optional" that only means that they won't deny you entrance to the dining room if you don't dress formally. Some cruise lines have Dress code that you must adhere to in order to enter the dining room on any day (pants no shorts on normal days, collars on formal nights) Disney, I don't believe, enforces any kind of code of dress except in Palo and Remy.... really the formal night on disney is because the character will be out in their formal attire and it makes for such great photos!

 

[CJR]

Hey everyone, we are taking the 5 night Mediterranean Cruise out of Barcelona on the Magic this August.

I know on DC website it states that only cruises of 7 nights or longer will have a formal night, but in looking at some recent Personal Navigator from the Magic for 5 night cruises, it does list an "optional" dress up night. Is this standard? Do people observe it generally?

As we are traveling to Europe, any chance to avoid packing formal clothes would be nice....

On our last cruise, it's definitely become more of a guideline than an actual rule. The couple across from us came to dinner in jeans and a T-shirt. They got no flack what so ever from anyone to my knowledge and most people didn't appear to dress up more than any other night. I actually felt over dressed on formal night (which is crazy). It could be different from one cruise to the next, but it's far from mandatory from my experience.

 

[jaklgreen]

On the Disney cruises, the formal nights are not really a big deal. You will have some families that go all out with tuxes and gowns but also some that just wear every day clothes. Most go somewhere in the middle, Nice slacks and shirt. When it says optional, then I would not worry about bringing fancy clothes unless you want to. Disney does not turn you away from the dining room unless you are in something like a swimsuit.

 

[Phonedave]

My experience is that DCL really does not care about how you dress (which I find sad, but that's a debate for an other thread)

You can dress however you like, and nobody is going to say boo. However, keep in mind that DCL has very reasonably priced dry cleaning and pressing services on their ships. There is no need to pack a seperate garment bag for suit coats and slacks. Just put them in with all of your other clothes in a normal suitcase. On day 1, give them to your stateroom attendent to have pressed, and for about $5 a jacket, they will be back in your room, ready to go, in under 24 hours.

-dave