Dress Code Query

[TeaOneSugar]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but the cruise section isn't very busy.

DH booked a cruise as a surprise birthday present, which was very nice of him, however, he's not very keen on dressing up.

For formal nights it's clear that the minimum is a dark lounge suit with shirt and tie.

For informal nights it's less clear, the wording is;

" Men will be comfortable in a lounge suit or jacket and/ or tie"

I read this as meaning he needs to wear either a lounge suit or trousers with a jacket (FIL has a "sports coat") but that a tie is optional.

DH wants to interpret this as saying that the jacket is optional.

Does this sound right?

He currently has one dark lounge suit, two formal shirts and three ties, so i need him to do some shopping.

We're going for 7 nights, the first and last will be casual so he will probably be OK with jeans and a nice casual shirt, the other 5 nights will be a mix of formal and informal, so I think he needs;

Two dark lounge suits
Four or five formal shirts
Three or four ties

Shopping list = 1 suit, 3/4 shirts, 1 tie.

It's a traditional cruise line, and we're boarding in the UK so no luggage weight limit to worry about.

It clearly that a jacket is required - ether as part of a lounge suit or not, but definitely needed. It's the tie that's optional. Wishful thinking interpretation on his part there.

Thank you.

He's desperate to minimise the "dressing up" so why he booked a cruise in the first place is beyond me.

So it's a suit for 5 nights out of the 7, but on a couple of nights he can probably ditch the tie.

I've not been on a cruise and am very jealous! I agree that he will have to wear a jacket - maybe he could get away with something like chinos and a blazer, and a collared but casual shirt. I'm thinking sort of the 'preppy' look?

Am also

Agree about the preppy thing for 'casual' evenings, he can't wear the same as the formal evening but without the tie. No way. They specify dark lounge suit for those so I suppose a light lounge suit would be OK if he doesn't fancy the blazer and chinos route.

I'm not sure the preppy look is his thing, although he does like Ralph Laurent type polo shirts so maybe.

I could try to steer him towards a lighter coloured lounge suit for the informal evenings. He's going to have to buy another suit anyway, whether he likes it or not.

I am of course delighted at the propect of having to buy new dresses .

Could he manage a linen suit? Might get away with it not even being light in colour actually.