Just a followup. Of the cruise lines I suggested, only Norwegian will let
you be casual every night in every venue. The others will have formal nights
(Norwegian has an "optional" formal night.) where at least some of the dining
rooms will expect you to have a jacket. The difference between these and
Celebrity is that you won't be terribly in the minority, and they will have
more options for casual dining. Plus ont he semi-formal nights on these
lines a polo shirt and dockers will do just fine.

Your "Golf wear" as it were.

However, if you truly want to wear shorts in the dining room every night,
then I have to heavily recommend Norwegian Cruise Lines. They will accept
this, you will be able to eat anywhere at any time. (On their optional formal
nights there might be one dining room off limits to shorts, but another dining
room will have the exact same menu.)

Norwegian has two cruises to the Caribbean going in September; the Norwegian
Sea does the Western Caribbean and the Dawn does the Bahamas (not really the
Caribbean) from New York.

If I were you, I'd choose one of these for September departure instead of
Celebrity. You can choose the more interesting ports on another voyage (I
also highly recommend Norwegian's Winter Southern Caribbean itineraries out
of San Juan. Thanks to Spirit Air, San Juan is much less expensive to
get to than it had been.)

Julie

In rec.travel.cruises Otis McNatt wrote:
Juliana wrote:

Just a quickie. I know that a lot of people are taking a "Try it you'll
like it" attitude toward dress on Celebrity. I'd like to suggest a different
tack. If you can rethink this, you might consider a cruise on Norwegian,
Royal Caribbean, or possibly Carnival (depending on the ship) or on
Princess.

All of these cruise lines will let you be casual at dinner, and not feel
funny about it. I suspect with Celebrity you will either cave or feel a
little like a fish out of water.

Thanks for touching on this Juliana. I was beginning to suspect that
I'd happened on a cruise line that emphasized glitz, and that they
were not all the same.

I realize that since the cruise business now caters to the masses, that
dress codes may be desirable because I know how some people are. Some folks
would show up for dinner wearing their grungy old sandals and tank tops,
with all their pimples showing...YUK. Then again, you can put a nice suit
or evening gown on a boor, and they're still boorish; but I guess they
would look a little nicer anyway. But the bottom line is that my idea
of a tropical vacation does not include packing a suit for any reason.
And my wife feels the same way. Our idea of "casual" does not require
slacks, or "golf" wear, as Ive read. If we can't wear shorts everywhere,
then we don't care to be there.

And thanks a bunch to everyone who posted. All were read, and all were
informative!

--
Otis

--
Julie
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