Is Dressing up for dinner becoming a thing of the past

I have just been speaking to one of my clients who has recently returned from a cruise on the Caribbean Princess in and out of New York.

He had a wonderful cruise, however he had a few comments to make that I actually found quite surprising.

He had gone to the trouble to pack his dinner suit with him as he finds that on the formal evenings for him it is part of the cruise experience to dress up in his dickie bow and tails...

He said he was shocked that on the Captains night he only spotted about 4 gentleman who had made the effort to dress up fully and not many more on the other formal occasions. Instead of feeling special he was left feeling a bit of the odd one out... and more importantly it made him question taking his stuff on future cruises as this was a fly cruise obviously a full dinner suit takes alot of space...

Now whether this was because the cruise left from New York and the Americans do not treat the formal nights in the same way as us or whether times are changing I really dont know.

All I can say is what a shame if it is the latter because personally I think it is lovely to see the men dressing up in their full dinner attire, and it would be a shame if numbers started to dwindle..

Please let me know your experiences..