15 SEP 2017: Dressing up for dinner is something that’s special about cruising. Ships are their own floating worlds and every night can be a party where people are dressed in their best. While the glamour remains, the formality has faded on many ships, as generations who have grown up in jeans take to cruising. And with airlines charging for checked baggage and cracking down on luggage weight, there’s more incentive than ever to leave gala outfits and dancing shoes off the packing lists.
That’s led even the staunchest upholders of the formal tradition to loosen their ties, and many lines have now declared all their evenings casual, or they define their gala evenings as some version of “elegant casual” or “formal optional.” But that still means thinking of evenings on a cruise as special events and dressing accordingly.
However, the baffling array of current dress-code euphemisms: “Smart casual” “country club”, “evening” or “resort casual” can leave even the most fashion-savvy at a loss for what to pack for non-formal nights.