Celebrity ditch formal nights

[Florry]

Hi, this is purely a personal opinion based on reasoning and observation, but I think that P&O will not change their approach to dress code anytime soon. I think they are already relaxing by removing semi formal on most cruises and giving alternative formal dining options for those who chose not to dress up. So in my opinion at the moment they have a mixed customer base, some prefer to dress up, some prefer not to - but all are catered for. So I think they will continue to monitor feedback and if such a time comes when the balance is tipped away from formal then they may revisit their codes. I would say that this will be no time soon based upon what I see onboard and so long as we can all have dinner wearing whichever code is our preference and passengers respect each other's diversity and choice - this seems fine to me.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Florry

[Scriv]

Hope you are right, Florry. What worries me about people's feedback though is what I have mentioned before... the wording of the questions is not always very clear and I worry that our replies are also misinterpreted and so sending the wrong message. One question in particular is the one asking on the lines of whether you prefer to relax and not worry about what clothes you wear on holiday OR having a dress code. Something like that anyway. It's just that I would say yes to both!!

 

And I would also be very happy to have some more international cuisine, Jean.

[whoops]

I think the idea of a formal night is that it is just a bit more special, like a wedding reception, retirement party or special birthday. Where we show respect for everybody about us and when the staff do that extra bit more to please in their professional manner, each demonstrating their high quality skills which we do not tend to see ashore these days. On a cruise ship it recognises the first class era when everybody dressed like this every evening. It is just a suggestion of class which may or may not be existent. To suggest that the attire is 1920's says a lot about yourself as does suggesting people where what they like. sic

 

Regards John

 

Your highlighted words seem to confirm there is a snobbery element and that my suspicions were correct. That must be the first time for many years I have heard the word "class" used in any context. And what exactly do you mean by indicating that my views about formal attire say a lot about myself?

[john watson]

Your highlighted words seem to confirm there is a snobbery element and that my suspicions were correct. That must be the first time for many years I have heard the word "class" used in any context. And what exactly do you mean by indicating that my views about formal attire say a lot about myself?

 

I do not think anyone can believe that because people put on formal attire they are from high class society, however some likely will be. Some may be snobs or inverted snobs, but who is worried about demorgraphics?

 

Phrases and words people use when expressing views about anything reflect on the person speaking. That person does not always fully understand what people infer, rightly of wrongly. They simply draw a conclusion about the person and the world goes on.

 

Regards John

[whoops]

I do not think anyone can believe that because people put on formal attire they are from high class society, however some likely will be. Some may be snobs or inverted snobs, but who is worried about demorgraphics?

 

Phrases and words people use when expressing views about anything reflect on the person speaking. That person does not always fully understand what people infer, rightly of wrongly. They simply draw a conclusion about the person and the world goes on.

 

Regards John

 

You were the one who mentioned class. On top of that your comments are judgemental. You know nothing about me or my wife so how can you draw conclusions on such scant evidence? We might be humble in your opinion - my wife is a Doctor and I am a retired accountant and company director - but the clothes we prefer to wear on holiday have no relation to class or our views on issues such as dress codes.

[jeanlyon]

Personally, my husband is an accountant and I am an ex flight attendant, secretary, dogs body, administrator. We like the formal nights, as it's fun to dress up occasionally as we rarely do it nowadays. I think my husband looks very suave in his dinner jacket and he loves me to wear a beautiful dress.

 

I don't actually care if someone on our table is wearing smart casual. I am not dressing for them, or anybody else.

[kruzseeka]

Hope you are right, Florry. What worries me about people's feedback though is what I have mentioned before... the wording of the questions is not always very clear and I worry that our replies are also misinterpreted and so sending the wrong message. One question in particular is the one asking on the lines of whether you prefer to relax and not worry about what clothes you wear on holiday OR having a dress code. Something like that anyway. It's just that I would say yes to both!!

 

And I would also be very happy to have some more international cuisine, Jean.

 

I do so agree with you on this. Every time I get to that question I feel as though there should be more options as it seems so much one thing or the other without a middle ground. I like to relax on holiday but I also like formal nights so would like another response to reflect that. I would agree though that perhaps on such as 28/35 night cruises, two per week begins to undermine the 'special' feel of formal night and perhaps one per week would suffice.

[Florry]

I sometimes do formal and sometimes I don't, I don't judge or criticise other people's choices. P&Os offering caters for all preferences. I appreciate the history of formal and how it is an important part of the holiday for some, I appreciate that others don't care for it. What I can't figure out is why people seem to get over defensive about it and the discussion seems to get personal. To be honest I don't give a flying fig what people choose to do if they are good company and respect each other.

[terrierjohn]

Alan Flett

I probably did not convey what I intended in my post, I am by no means a snob and I also wore a uniform throughout my working life and now that I am free to wear what I wish I always wear casual dress unless I am going somewhere where I require smart dress.

The point I was trying to make was a large amount of people post on this board with comments such as Celibrity do this, Princess Do that, we don't get this on P&O, people know the product each cruise line provides.

I chose to Cruise with P&O because I like their product, I don't cruise with other lines because I know they may not provide the experience I want.

Why do people who do not like what P&O provides go on a cruise with them and then start complaining about their experience. If you want an RCI/Celebrity/Princess etc experience then cruise that line.

As to food I do not head to the nearest greasy spoon cafe, in fact I do not frequent greasy spoon cafes at all, I like to try local food when abroad.

I agree with many of your points Sanjam and I also hope that P&O retain some formal nights even on their family friendly ships.

However we differ on our views of American cruisers, we have done many fly cruises with Princess and Celebrity with mainly north american passengers and found them to be very sociable, as well as smartly dressed and most followed the dress codes on formal nights.

There were some baseball cap and jeans wearers, but they were very much in the minority and were disapproved of by the US cruisers as much as by us.

Additionally on Celebrity Eclipse from Southampton, even when there are a reasonable percentage of Americans, the ambience has been very similar to P&O. It will certainly be interesting to see how their new Evening Chic develops, we still intend to dress formally but I would not want to end up as part of an ever smaller formal group.

Overall there do seem to be an increasing number of passengers who would like to dispense with formal nights, which I feel would definitely reduce our enjoyment of cruising.

[john watson]

You were the one who mentioned class. On top of that your comments are judgemental. You know nothing about me or my wife so how can you draw conclusions on such scant evidence? We might be humble in your opinion - my wife is a Doctor and I am a retired accountant and company director - but the clothes we prefer to wear on holiday have no relation to class or our views on issues such as dress codes.

 

Cruise ships always had First Class which required passengers to wear formal dress every evening. Wearing of formal attire does not confer social standing or class on people and I never suggested it would. I simply said a suggestion or slight indication that this might be the case whereas it might not.

 

Your reference to formal nights as dressing up in 1920's clothes was the point which I found amusing. Most of what I have said was not addressed at you merely following the theme of the thread.

 

Regards John

[Scriv]

Overall there do seem to be an increasing number of passengers who would like to dispense with formal nights, which I feel would definitely reduce our enjoyment of cruising.[/quote

 

Do you think it depends on the itinerary of the cruise? So far, we have only done cruises to to the cooler climates where we have always found the majority seem to enjoy the formal nights.

[terrierjohn]

Overall there do seem to be an increasing number of passengers who would like to dispense with formal nights, which I feel would definitely reduce our enjoyment of cruising.[/quote

 

Do you think it depends on the itinerary of the cruise? So far, we have only done cruises to to the cooler climates where we have always found the majority seem to enjoy the formal nights.

Our recent experience is only for Southampton cruises, but we saw very little difference between formal acceptance in our recent Iceland and Fjords cruise as against our Canaries cruise.

[kruzseeka]

Overall there do seem to be an increasing number of passengers who would like to dispense with formal nights, which I feel would definitely reduce our enjoyment of cruising.[/quote

 

Do you think it depends on the itinerary of the cruise? So far, we have only done cruises to to the cooler climates where we have always found the majority seem to enjoy the formal nights.

 

I always think that the demographic is different on say, cruises from the UK to such as the Baltic/Norway/Iceland as compared to a fly cruise to the Caribbean. We love the varied itineraries, mix of passengers and ambience on both but whilst some passengers will embrace fly/cruises and ex-UK sailings some will only be attracted to one or the other. I reckon that results in a different demographic on board. I suspect therefore the passenger feed back will be different for a number of reasons from itineraries, large/small ships, UK sailings/fly cruises and mini cruises/month/worldies etc. So many variables - but I bet they have a handle on it!

[john watson]

Overall there do seem to be an increasing number of passengers who would like to dispense with formal nights, which I feel would definitely reduce our enjoyment of cruising.[/quote

 

Do you think it depends on the itinerary of the cruise? So far, we have only done cruises to to the cooler climates where we have always found the majority seem to enjoy the formal nights.

 

I think this is true and that in the Caribbean dressing formally becomes more of an issue, you are ok in the air conditioned areas but when you venture out on deck the climate can oppose your mode.

 

Regards John

[daiB]

 

 

 

I think this is true and that in the Caribbean dressing formally becomes more of an issue, you are ok in the air conditioned areas but when you venture out on deck the climate can oppose your mode.

 

 

 

Regards John

 

 

On our 4 Caribbean cruises I have not noticed any change in the way people dress for formal nights.

 

On our last two Britannia cruises all of the Formal nights were well adhered to. Especially with the families. All of the young people I saw were very smartly dressed.

[Scriv]

Sounds as if there are still a lot of us around who enjoy the Formal Nights :)

 

I have only done cruises on P&O from Southampton - maybe the fly cruisers are not so keen because of the luggage issue?

 

I have done several mini cruises from Southampton where the majority were dressed up to celebrate group or family birthdays and anniversaries - as did the children on board and also the hens and stags. In fact, on Ventura recently where our formal night was disrupted because of late boarding, many people dressed formal the next night which was Evening Casual.

[slhw]

I'm new to P & O, doing first in July on Brittania. What strikes me is that the brigade who want less formality want to scrap it across the whole ship, even the industry, whilst the 'stay formal' devotees are quite happy to have some venues formal and others not as long as this is adhered to. We have mainly cruised Cunard in the last few years and love the formal nights, we have an 18 nighter coming up with 5 formal nights. We have also had many enjoyable cruises with Thomson, as they are great fun, and found that most people observed the formal nights. We cruised Celebrity last year on Equinox and really disliked the ambience. Yes, the ship is beautiful, although poorly laid out in some respects, and the food was excellent but the 'grab, grab, grab' attitude to on board spend drove us mad. Americans we met were very pleasant but I thought that if I heard the word 'awesome' one more time I would throw myself overboard. The fact that Celebrity have ceased formal nights has merely reinforced our decision not to travel with them again. Don't follow suit P & O.

[Scriv]

kruzseeka - just to say I have posted a request to P&O for a review of the wording of that question - you may recognise some of your words. Hope that's OK?

[kruzseeka]

kruzseeka - just to say I have posted a request to P&O for a review of the wording of that question - you may recognise some of your words. Hope that's OK?

 

Of course not. I always stop at that question not knowing how to reply so some alternatives to provide a closer match to how I feel will be welcome. We'll see if they respond! ;)

[Scriv]

They have responded and said they can certainly look into it and will pass our message to the relevant people....

 

Will be interesting to see if we notice a change ;)

 

PS Noticed a typo - oh dear, should have proof read it more carefully.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Scriv

[kruzseeka]

They have responded and said they can certainly look into it and will pass our message to the relevant people....

 

Will be interesting to see if we notice a change ;)

 

PS Noticed a typo - oh dear, should have proof read it more carefully.

 

So easily done - in re-reading your post asking 'if that was OK' my response doesn't really make sense either! I should have said 'Yes of course' not 'of course not'. Between reading your post and writing my answer I'd translated your question as 'I hope you don't mind'!! Oh well, I'm sure the general gist is understood. :D

[Scriv]

So easily done - in re-reading your post asking 'if that was OK' my response doesn't really make sense either! I should have said 'Yes of course' not 'of course not'. Between reading your post and writing my answer I'd translated your question as 'I hope you don't mind'!! Oh well, I'm sure the general gist is understood. :D

 

I know what you meant, don't worry. :) :)

[Alan Flett]

I personally don't understand how somebody's enjoyment of a cruise or even their decision to cruise with P & O can be affected by whether formal nights continue or not.

 

Personally I go for the children's enjoyment, food, entertainment, ports and ship. Generally the whole experience. One particular thing in the grand scheme of things wouldn't stop me going.

 

I have said that I personally don't particularly like them as I wear a suit every day to work. I do however adhere to them.

 

I would understand if P & O would like to continue them in some form but on a 2 week cruise 4 is too many. I know some people see it as a special occasion but 4 special occasions is overkill in my opinion. Maybe have 1 per week to keep them special.

 

Maybe they should make certain ships more formal to cater for people who want to dress up more often but I think the family friendly ships would benefit from a much more relaxed approach. I think looking over the last 5 or so years they have realised this and gradually changed it.

 

As I say that is my personal opinion and won't suit everyone.

[frenchmartiniplease]

We enjoy dressing up for a formal night, I'd be really disappointed if they stopped doing them, especially as I've just learnt to tie a bow tie!

 

I wouldn't dream of judging someone by their dress ( judging/book/cover) but it's fun if the majority join in.

 

All countries have citizens that can behave badly abroad. I've seen Brits who have made me cringe.

[jeanlyon]

hee hee, me too. Brits abroad en masse are awful.