Black and white night!

Is it compulsory to wear something black or white on these nights? The suit I have is dark blue and I do not own a black one.

Is it compulsory to wear something black or white on these nights? The suit I have is dark blue and I do not own a black one.

No it's not - you don't need to observe this

Is it compulsory to wear something black or white on these nights? The suit I have is dark blue and I do not own a black one.

No its not compulsory.

Black and White night is one of the formal nights and the black and white aspect is a theme, not compulsory. I treat it like any other formal night and wear my navy blue suit. I suspect it will go the same way as tropical and 60's/70's night with passengers mostly just wearing what they would normally that evening.

As already stated, Black and White night is on a Formal night and most gentlemen wear Black Tie so it doesn't really affect them.

It tends to be the women that wear something black and white, although not all. I don't always conform to this myself, so no, it is not compulsory.

Black and White night is one of the formal nights and the black and white aspect is a theme, not compulsory. I treat it like any other formal night and wear my navy blue suit. I suspect it will go the same way as tropical and 60's/70's night with passengers mostly just wearing what they would normally that evening.

I think the black and white night is the one that nearly everybody sticks to because it's so easy to do but we also find the Tropical Night is well followed and that has been the same throughout our years of cruising with P&O. We haven't found numbers wearing these themes has gone down at all.

However to the OP, Black and white is just a theme and not compulsory by any means for formal nights. Many men wear DJs but the code says dark lounge suit so you will be absolutely fine. if there are any ladies in your party, it is also easy to wear just a black dress and white corsage, wrap, bag -any accessory and fit in with the theme too

I agree that the Black and White formal evening is usually very well adhered to - no it's not compulsory but as has been said the majority - not all - men will be wearing a DJ so they are automatically wearing black and white. The women will largely be wearing black and white or black with a touch of white - pashmina, white flower etc. No not all women will do this. I think it largely depends on whether it bothers you or not. If a woman is happy to wear a different colour then it's fine, no one will approach her and tell her it's wrong. I can't see this theme evening dying out yet, it's not shown any signs of it on any of the cruises we've been on.

I also agree that a large number of passengers still abide by the Tropical Evening - lots of gaudy tropical shirts on evidence on the two cruises we've been on this year, one in the Caribbean, one in the Mediterranean. We have a Christmas Markets cruise coming up where we have three formal nights. According to the list on the website there will be a Black and White Evening and a 60s/70s, no tropical - suppose it would be odd to have a tropical evening when it may be snowing outside!

I'm surprised they still include the 60s/70s evening - in our experience it's that evening that the majority of people do not dress up for. There's usually a disco - on deck if weather permits - and I have known people go and change into a disco type outfit after dinner in order to go to the disco. It's not something we've ever done and we've never known anyone on our table do this.

No doubt things will change over the years but as I say I think it will be a white before the Black and White evening disappears - it does all look very glamorous on that evening - in my opinion - and that's the night the Gala Menu often makes an appearance.

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. As I live in Cyprus I don`t want to be carting a suit around that I don`t need, as we are travelling around the UK pre and post cruise :)

I have got a spectacular black and white dress which sadly I cannot get into any more (too many cruises I suppose). So I usually wear a charcoal grey one I have got in a more forgiving fabric. But no one really minds what colour your dress is, as long as it looks smart on a formal night.

I agree with comment it's mainly the women who adhere to the black and white theme. My wife wore black dress, pearls and a white silk flower. I wore as per normal formal night. I found the tropical theme was more adhered to on the Caribbean cruise than the European cruises I have done

hi im new to this forum,and looking for dress advice for the formal nights on ventura please.... going on N631 with 3 formal nights ...... my questions are in relation to types of dress ,ie,long ,short,flowy ,tight ,ball gown, cocktail, i just dont know .... have lovely dress but its rather short !

help me please (Jen) :confused:

hi im new to this forum,and looking for dress advice for the formal nights on ventura please.... going on N631 with 3 formal nights ...... my questions are in relation to types of dress ,ie,long ,short,flowy ,tight ,ball gown, cocktail, i just dont know .... have lovely dress but its rather short !

 

help me please (Jen) :confused:

Hi there!

You can wear long or short it doesn't matter, and they can be flowy or tight.

I wear mainly long because you don't get to wear long evening dresses very often in life so it's nice to do so on a ship, but I do have a number of short dresses as well - a black slinky one-shouldered one, a black glittery one and a silver glittery one, and I've worn them all on ships.

You can also wear smart trouser suits of course.

In my opinion it's a time to dress up, so the more glittery etc it is the better!

Have fun choosing! :)

I find all these theme nights a tad boring TBH, tropical night attire looks fine on the slim waiters, but I look ridiculous in an Hawaiian shirt.

I am OK on Black and white night in my DJ, and I even have a 2 tone bow tie, if I can remember to put it on. But a lot of ladies do tend to try and follow the theme, however on one cruise 2 very attractive young ladies wore multi coloured evening dresses and totally outshone all the other ladies on board.