Dress code

we are going on the Christmas Caribbean cruise and are first time cruisers. do men have to wear Evening Suit or is smart jacket and trousers acceptable. just thinking of weight in case

There will be a formal night or two, depending on the length of the cruise. Many do wear dinner jackets, however the code requires a jacket and tie as a minimum.

Some venues do require guests to be in the right attire (as mentioned above) but there will be some venues where this does not apply. In other words, you can't go into the main dining restaurant (MDR) in casual attire on those nights, but you'd be fine in say, the buffet.

Hope that helps. :)

Have a look here: https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/dress_code?_ga=2.187132520.1984120931.1538322837-2145933624.1511345919

P&O faq are very helpful.

we are going on the Christmas Caribbean cruise and are first time cruisers. do men have to wear Evening Suit or is smart jacket and trousers acceptable. just thinking of weight in case

We are also going on a 2 week Caribbean cruise at Christmas and we have four black tie nights which Is how I understand P&O refer to formal nights. One of these will be a black and white night. We have cruised many times but never with P&O and look forward to dressing up on formal nights.

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we are going on the Christmas Caribbean cruise and are first time cruisers. do men have to wear Evening Suit or is smart jacket and trousers acceptable. just thinking of weight in case

You only need one jacket so if you have a DJ you may as well wear it as there is no advantage in not.

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we are going on the Christmas Caribbean cruise and are first time cruisers. do men have to wear Evening Suit or is smart jacket and trousers acceptable. just thinking of weight in case

There will, as others have said, be Black Tie nights, and these are the 'rules':

Black Tie

Black Tie nights foster a rather special atmosphere on-board and we know that our guests adore dressing up and it has long been a part of the P&O Cruises experience, adding a touch of glamour and a real sense of occasion to evenings at sea. Seeing an entire ship full of people transformed into their finery is quite something to behold. Ladies wear glamorous evening wear including cocktail dresses, ball gowns or even smart trouser suits. For men, dinner jackets or tuxedos are the norm, but a dark lounge or business suit and tie can be worn as an alternative. You can also wear formal national dress and military uniform.

The Dress Code applies to a majority of public areas after 6pm.

A dark suit is perfectly fine as an alternative to a penguin suit, and I can assure you that there will be plenty of people wearing suits - no reason at all to feel uncomfortable about it, I can assure you.

A plain dark (lightweight) suit (dark grey, black,navy) will cover you for all 4 formal nights.

If you do not already own a dinner suit you could buy just a dinner jacket (perhaps a white one for the Caribbean) and pair it up with plain black trousers (without side stripes) on formal nights. Places like M&S are quite happy to sell you a dinner jacket without matching trousers. You can then pair the trousers up with other clothes on casual nights.

^Excellent point there - especially as you'll save space by not packing two pairs of trousers.

One dark suit, sorted.

we are going on the Christmas Caribbean cruise and are first time cruisers. do men have to wear Evening Suit or is smart jacket and trousers acceptable. just thinking of weight in case

I find a suit is a lot more flexible than a DJ and you can wear the trousers without the jacket on a casual evening. I wear a navy blue suit with either a bay blue or baby pink pin striped shirt and appropriate normal tie. At xmas I can wear my Santa tie

Minimum guys can get away with is a suit type jacket and a pair of decent trousers.

Regards John

Minimum guys can get away with is a suit type jacket and a pair of decent trousers.

 

Regards John

In the Caribbean it will be hot and I noticed M&S have lightweight jackets with matching trousers to make a suit.

You could buy 2 pairs of trousers to alternate with the jacket on formal nights.

I agree.

In the Caribbean it will be hot and I noticed M&S have lightweight jackets with matching trousers to make a suit.

You could buy 2 pairs of trousers to alternate with the jacket on formal nights.

Wont be hot on board....its air conditioned

Wont be hot on board....its air conditioned

What I suggested ticks the box ie light weight suit and if there are any night time activities on deck it will be hot.

Weight of cases a problem? I have just returned from a 14 nighter. Without suit or DJ my case weighed 13.6Kg A suit and a couple of posh shirts take it up to nearly 16Kg

Weight of cases a problem? I have just returned from a 14 nighter. Without suit or DJ my case weighed 13.6Kg A suit and a couple of posh shirts take it up to nearly 16Kg

When we were on a 5 night cruise on Independence of the seas at the end of May both of our cases were 22kg and 6kg in both our hand luggage cases.