If an informal online poll is any indicator, then a cruise tradition isn’t going anywhere…
While cruising continues to reinvent itself with new ships, destination, and things to do onboard, one staple that’s stood the test of time is formal night.
These days most of the time aboard the ship is decidedly casual. Around the pool and the ship during the day, the dress code is essentially shorts and swimsuits, t-shirts and sandals. Even during the evening, the style is more of a focus on comfort rather than suits and evening gowns.
That is except for formal night. On these nights — sometimes called “cruise elegant” — passengers are encouraged to dress things up a little. This includes everything from men wearing tuxedos and women wearing elegant gowns, but for most people it simply means being a bit more stylish and wearing dress pants instead of jeans or sporting a cute dress for dinner. (See our guide to what to wear to formal night here.)
While formal night is always optional, for many people it’s a fun excuse to get a little fancier.
But for others, formal night is a pain. It means they need to pack dressier clothes for the occasion when suitcase space may be limited. It can also be that they just don’t like getting dressed up. (If you don’t want to get dressed up, you don’t have to. But if not, then it’s best to dine somewhere other than the main dining room on formal night.)
On a cruise the number of formal nights will vary based on the trip length. A cruise of less than five days will only have one. A typical week-long cruise will usually have two.
Time to Ditch Formal Night? Carnival Fans Say “No Way”
But what if formal night went away altogether? There’s no denying that cruising has become more casual. Is it time to do away with it?
That was a question posed to fans of Carnival via Brand Ambassador John Heald’s Facebook page.
Heald regularly offers up polls to his followers that cover all sorts of topics that he gets asked about in the course each day. While it’s not scientific, it can give you a good pulse on the thoughts of Carnival fans.
On Tuesday, he offered up a number of questions, including if Carnival should do away with formal night.
The results were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the classic cruise tradition. Of the nearly 14,000 votes cast on the question, just 23% were in favor of cancelling formal night. Seventy-seven percent opted to instead keep it.
(Note: The percentages shown in the poll below reflect the percentage of all answers to all questions. Typically there are several different poll questions at once. We looked specifically at the numbers only for the formal night question, which returned 23%/77% in favor of keeping it.)
Just to be clear, this is a fun online poll and likely not anything that Carnival is actively considering.
But when a cruise line that’s known for being casual like Carnival has its fans voting overwhelmingly in support of an elegant night, then you shouldn’t put away that tie or cocktail dress just yet.
