New Dress Code Designations?

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

I haven't taken my first cruise yet, but part of the appeal of Cunard is the formality of it; a throwback to another era. I like the idea of dressing for dinner, even for an informal night, and have been looking forward to it. It would be a shame if "smart attire" means that jeans will be allowed after 6pm.

 

Sorry to disappoint - Jeans are now okay anywhere in the evenings - and casual can be worn every night in the majority of the public areas - Cunard just 'snuck it in' and did not bother telling passengers with bookings from Mid Summer 2018.

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

Only 2 going forward,

Gala Evenings and Smart Attire.

No clue what "Gala Evenings" mean however I think Smart Attire may be a lessening of the dress code that was "Informal."





I could be wrong however, I do not think it is just a name change.

 

 

Nope not just a name change - Jeans are now acceptable in the evenings and casual can be worn any evening in most of the public rooms!

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

Hi,

 

Cunard should have provided the definitions of "Gala Evening" and "Smart Attire" at the same time that it added these new terms to the Voyage Personaliser. Because it changed the terminology, there must be a change in the dress code. However, this change is not clear until it provides the new definitions. I am guessing that the new dress code will be similar to the dress codes on Holland America and Princess.

 

Chuck

Hi Chuck

Despite assurances yesterday from @Cunard via Facebook DM andCruiseCritic that “no changes to the DRESS CODE were planned” having justchecked the Cunard VP under Dining ‘what to wear’ – SURPRISE, SURPRISE CUNARD HASCHANGED THE DRESS CODE DRAMATICALLY seemingly from MID SUMMER 2018, but bookedpassengers like me were not advised before the change? FORMAL is now ‘GALAEVENING’ & INFORMAL is now ‘SMARTATTIRE’ But the major change seem tobe that now a more ‘Relaxed Attire; another category’ which includes jeans cannow be worn any pretty well everywhere in the ship every evening, FOOD COURTS, GOLDEN LION PUB, CASINO, CARINTHIA LOUNGE/WINTERGARDENS, AND NIGHTCLUBS/G32/YACHT CLUB -JEANS ARE NOW APPROPRIATE FOR EVENINGS –I am a regular and loyal passenger on Cunard and I would be interested to knowwhy Cunard made these extensive changes to the ambiance on board BEFORE advising passengers with current bookings – hardly good customer service and has been poorly managed.

[Host Hattie]

Nope not just a name change - Jeans are now acceptable in the evenings and casual can be worn any evening in most of the public rooms!

That's not correct, the majority of the public rooms are still included in the dress code and neither Smart Attire or Gala dress code includes Jeans.

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

I'm feeling very much the same. I have other cruises booked and feel that I will not be getting what I booked for any more.

 

The dress code is very much Cunard's USP as others have said. Without it there is very little insentive to book with them when you can get the same standards on other lines at a lower price.

 

Does anyone know where I might find the email address of anyone at the top level of Cunard so that I can register my disappointment? I realise it won't do any good but I will at least feel I have done something.

 

 

Totally agree - we have x4 bookings with Cunard 2018/19 one is a full World Cruise and I am totally disgusted wth the way this has been managed. You could try Angus Struthers he is supposed to be the Cunard Marketing Director - angus.struthers@cunard.co.uk - but bare in mind he told a passenger and member of this site on 26th "Nothing is changing regarding Dress Codes" so he seems to not know what he is doing!! Good luck.

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

Totally agree - we have x4 bookings with Cunard 2018/19 one is a full World Cruise and I am totally disgusted wth the way this has been managed. You could try Angus Struthers he is supposed to be the Cunard Marketing Director - angus.struthers@cunard.co.uk - but bare in mind he told a passenger and member of this site on 26th "Nothing is changing regarding Dress Codes" so he seems to not know what he is doing!! Good luck.

 

Two other email addresses are:

Customer Services: customerservices@cunard.co.uk

Complaints: guestrelations@cunard.co.uk

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

And time will tell which one of us is right but currently Cunard are telling us things aren't changing so I choose to take them at their word.

 

Cunard lied - they made the change yesterday but simply chose not to tell passengers already booked on voyages from Mid Summer '18 - if that is you check your VP.

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

That's not correct, the majority of the public rooms are still included in the dress code and neither Smart Attire or Gala dress code includes Jeans.

 

It is correct Hattie - if your in jeans and casual wear to access the extra areas now allowed you have to pass through areas of the ship where formal will be required - for example G32 via all the public areas and via the Queens Room (great on a formal night)

[Host Hattie]

Cunard lied - they made the change yesterday but simply chose not to tell passengers already booked on voyages from Mid Summer '18 - if that is you check your VP.

I disagree, the codes themselves haven't changed, just the areas where those codes apply. Obviously you and others are very upset, personally it doesn't bother me.

The majority of public rooms still require the dress code of the day, as we generally use the formal dining rooms, theatre, Commodore Club and other formal bars/lounges I don't expect to see too much change.

I think the Smart Attire description is clearer and it's now more obvious on the VP than previously.

[majortom10]

Sorry but think the long standing regular Cunarders are wearing rose tinted glasses by not thinking the dress code has not changed and its just a change of words. If that is all it was why bother no there is definitely a "dumbing down" of the dress code standards in the future

[corporate services]

I just took this off the Cunard website, I think Cunard need to clarify the situation

 

Evenings

 

Evenings will be split into 2 different dress codes. You will be notified of the evening's dress code in your Daily Programme. As a guide, these will be:

Formal:

Evening wear consists of an evening or cocktail dress or smart trouser suit for ladies. A tuxedo, dinner jacket or dark suit with appropriate neck wear for men or you may wear formal national dress and military uniform.

Informal (Jacket Required):

Evenings would consist of a required jacket and optional tie for gentlemen, whilst ladies should wear cocktail dresses, stylish separates or equivalent. No jeans or shorts.

Informal (Jacket Optional):

The Informal (Jacket Optional) dress code amendment applies to Queen Victoria's summer fly Mediterranean season on embarkation days only, in Athens, Barcelona, Rome and Venice. Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth will continue to have the standard Formal and Informal (Jacket Required) dress codes. The ship's newspaper will confirm the dress code of the day.

Guests who have Athens, Barcelona, Rome and Venice as a port during their voyage and are already settled in on board are encouraged to wear a jacket.

Please note that after 6:00pm, shorts and blue or worn denim (for men and women); sandals and sleeveless tops (for men) are not considered appropriate within the ship.

On formal nights, any guests wishing to dress more casually are welcome to dine in the Kings Court or Lido restaurants and relax in the Carinthia Lounge, Winter Garden, Garden Lounge, Yacht Club, G32 or on the open decks. Please do not use other areas within the ship, including The Verandah restaurant, out of respect for our fellow guests.

[Host Hattie]

That's the section that hasn't yet been updated.

[Lakesregion]

Unfortunately the trend for more casual clothing has been going on for a while. I just remembered the scene from Downton Abbey that goes as follows:

 

 

Lord Grantham: I nearly came down in a dinner jacket tonight.

The Dowager Countess: Really? Well why not a dressing gown? Or, better still, pajamas?

 

Here in the US pajamas are regularly seen at the free breakfasts in the lower to mid range hotels. So my former fellow (cancelled my December b-b TA last night) Cunarders. brace yourselves for the inevitable. Down stream marketing yields only one thing.

[princeton12321]

Totally agree - we have four more voyages booked with Cunard in 2018 and 2019 and will dress a properly as we have always done - FORMAL & INFORMAL (jacket and for me a tie). What happens when we have used up the current tickets remains to be seen. A

s a regular passenger with Cunard and with two booking this summer 20018, a full World Cruise and an Alaska cruise booked for 2019 I am disgusted that the so called managers at Holland America Line (they 'manage' Cunard & P&O UK now) & Cunard did not advise those with live bookings/tickets BEFORE they rolled out the change. Or were they afraid they may get cancellations or lose new bookings. Yes you lose the deposit. The entire thing has been badly handled - which may be a precursor under the new regime!

 

 

 

This is said from the perspective of a long time Cunard passenger having sailed QE2 close to 20 times in QG- back then it was suit and tie first and last and black tie in between and it was quite nice.

 

But that being said Cunard is just adapting to the times and I can’t blame them. Shipboard style has moved on and for a while Cunard was the last vestige of that and traded on it- but you can only keep that up for so long. The Grills themselves from a price standpoint complete directly with luxury lines such as Seabourn, Silversea, Regent, and Seadream all of which are more or less “country club casual” and have been for a while. The high price passenger that Cunard is seeking to maintain simply doesn’t want to dress up anymore- that’s what the market says at least. Are they going to lose any passengers? Maybe a few, but they stand to gain more than they lose. There aren’t really any alternatives out there anymore for people who want to dress up.

 

Will the Britannia experience fall in line with that of Carnival main line ships as some have suggested? Doubtful- it’s always been more upscale. But let’s face it- even back in the old days, especially on QE2, the “image” that Cunard projected in their marketing of luxury, haute cuisine, and glamour was only really true in the grills and the rest was a dressed up version of a mid level cruise line. I don’t think much has changed there- I would argue that Cunard isn’t fundamentally changing their product but merely adapting it to today’s passenger.

 

Don’t get me wrong- I like Cunard a lot but they lost a lot of cache and corporate identity for me when they got out of the “ocean liner” business. Retiring QE2 and Caronia was much more jarring for me than allowing jeans in the Golden Lion at night. Granted those two ships wouldn’t have gone on forever and QM2 was a nice continuation of their spirit. But Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, and whatever giant cruise ship they are about to put in service are collectively a much bigger betrayal to a Cunard loyalist than a relaxation of an outdated dress code.

[kohl57]

Well said.

 

We adored CARONIA... she was perfection. And while I preferred her physically as VISTAFJORD (and sailed on her final cruise in home waters as a proper NAL liner), the food and service was actually better with Cunard. Extraordinary.

 

For me, the dress code change isn't so much fashion. It's the sheer unbridled hypocrisy of it all. For a company to trade on the great days of the ocean liner, blah, blah, blah (and they do to the point of distraction), to have a dress code that even most steerage passengers wouldn't aspire to, is dismaying and dishonest.

 

Same frankly for the passengers who want to go on Cunard but don't want to dress. Fine. Pick one of the 98.8% of the other lines that don't care if you do. Don't ruin it for the rest of us. But you already have. I am sure Cunard reads these pages and 25% of the bandwidth is devoted to newcomer angst over the dress code. It's easier to just capitulate.

 

Own the box set of Downton Abbey and watch it at home in your vest with a takeaway balti. That's Cunard's target market now.

[LB_NJ]

I agree, A cruise with Cunard is, or was, a special event and the only time my wife and I got to dress up in formal evening wear. I never owned a tuxedo until I started cruising with Cunard over 10 years ago and the refined, elegant ambience of Cunard ships was the reason I chose Cunard over other lines.

I have a TA booked for July and will decide then if I will stick with Cunard or wave them goodbye as I sail into the sunset on another line.

 

I would have added some humorous comments but it appears that the moderators do not appreciate British humour and delete any such postings,so I will make no mention of only having to pack a vest , my budgie smugglers ,and a baseball cap to be able to access most venues on the ship.

 

 

I have a cruise booked on July 1. Since it is almost fully booked by people who hopefully read the old guidelines I am going to be optimistic that the ambiance won't change too much by then.

 

After that I would only book Cunard if the itinerary were what I wanted and costs were equivalent to say Princess or an equivalent line. Assuming of course that Cunard food quality in Britannia is at least as good as Princess (and the quality there does not drop); not sure why Carnival doesn't just merge Cunard and Princess at this point. Maybe they will in a couple of years.

 

I don't think, at least hope, Cunard does not fall to Carnival level which appears to be targeted at partiers under 30 or people who want to spend as little as absolutely possible on a cruise.

 

I don't think I would ever pay Grills price on Cunard, I would just book one of the true luxury lines.

 

The one exception to this is I do think there is still a very, very, small niche for TA crossings on the QM2. There will be some people who just want that specific experience, at least once.

[autumn lass]

We are on QE on the 1 July and we will be adhering to Formal night wear and my husband will wear a jacket etc on Informal nights and I will wear dresses or a long skirt and pretty tops. We have cruised smart casual lines and we still like to dress up on those cruises except my husband doesn’t take his formal dinner suit on those but he does take at least one suit plus a smart jacket and trousers. Even on land based holidays we enjoy dressing up for dinner.

 

 

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[Aspidestra99]

I have a cruise booked on July 1. Since it is almost fully booked by people who hopefully read the old guidelines I am going to be optimistic that the ambiance won't change too much by then.

 

After that I would only book Cunard if the itinerary were what I wanted and costs were equivalent to say Princess or an equivalent line. Assuming of course that Cunard food quality in Britannia is at least as good as Princess (and the quality there does not drop); not sure why Carnival doesn't just merge Cunard and Princess at this point. Maybe they will in a couple of years.

 

I don't think, at least hope, Cunard does not fall to Carnival level which appears to be targeted at partiers under 30 or people who want to spend as little as absolutely possible on a cruise.

 

I don't think I would ever pay Grills price on Cunard, I would just book one of the true luxury lines.

 

The one exception to this is I do think there is still a very, very, small niche for TA crossings on the QM2. There will be some people who just want that specific experience, at least once.

I am a 'newcomer' who specifically chose Cunard for the opportunity to dress like a grown up and am/was looking forward to the Grills 'experience'. Whether I bother to book again now not only depends upon the cruise this year but on how Cunard actively respond to address concerns raised regarding dress. What will they change next....

 

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[mpfund]

Originally posted by DT_PB_all_at_sea Totally agree - we have x4 bookings with Cunard 2018/19 one is a full World Cruise and I am totally disgusted wth the way this has been managed. You could try Angus Struthers he is supposed to be the Cunard Marketing Director - angus.struthers@cunard.co.uk - but bare in mind he told a passenger and member of this site on 26th "Nothing is changing regarding Dress Codes" so he seems to not know what he is doing!! Good luck.

 

 

Many thanks for posting this email address. I have just sent a note expressing my support for this new policy and hopes that Cunard will continue to relax their dress code.

[PORT ROYAL]

Originally posted by DT_PB_all_at_sea Totally agree - we have x4 bookings with Cunard 2018/19 one is a full World Cruise and I am totally disgusted wth the way this has been managed. You could try Angus Struthers he is supposed to be the Cunard Marketing Director - angus.struthers@cunard.co.uk - but bare in mind he told a passenger and member of this site on 26th "Nothing is changing regarding Dress Codes" so he seems to not know what he is doing!! Good luck.

 

 

Many thanks for posting this email address. I have just sent a note expressing my support for this new policy and hopes that Cunard will continue to relax their dress code.

 

Why, when there are many alternative "relaxed lines", have you specifically selected Cunard?

Edited March 29, 2018 by PORT ROYAL
Predictive text error

[kohl57]

Indeed... I am not getting that. Oceania would seem ideal. Superb food, service, lovely ships yet sadly many passengers dress in the evening like they are looking for the bleacher section at a ballgame. "Country Club Casual" they call it. And I guess the YMCA is a club at that. We've sailed Oceania many times since the beginning (and earlier than that on Renaissance) and enjoy Cunard as an alternate specifically because it's different and dressy. Why people want everything to be the same is.... astonishing to me. Especially when Cunard is (was) unique in this department.

Edited March 29, 2018 by kohl57

[corporate services]

I posted the question to Cunard on their FB page - this is their reply:

Cunard Hi we are not making any changes to the dress code but we are updating the language that we use to describe the evening attire on board. Our Ask Cunard section on dress codes will be updated shortly but in the meantime, Gala Evenings do refer to Formal nights and Smart Attire will be the equivalent of Informal (jacket required) evenings

[Blu-iTT]

Hi All,

 

As previously, this is the response I have received from the Personal Cruise Expert / Carnival UK:

 

Following on from our recent emails I thought I should get back in touch in relation to an email communication the office have just received in regards to what we have been discussing.

 

I have enclosed the main body of the email below

 

We have completed extensive global research with over 13,000 guests who told us that they love the glamour of a Cunard voyage; the chance to dress up is something that is becoming increasingly rare yet increasingly desirable.

 

We are not making any changes to the dress code but we are updating the language that we use to describe the evening attire on board:

 

During the day, feel free to relax and dress as you please in all areas of the ship.

 

From 6pm on 'Informal' nights, we ask that you wear smart attire in most of our bars, restaurants and entertainment venues. On our much-anticipated Gala evenings, dress attire is Formal. We invite you to dress to impress and celebrate with us. There are two or three of these Gala evenings for every seven days of your voyage.

 

Informal/Smart Attire: Gentlemen, every night we request you wear smart trousers with a shirt and jacket; tie is optional. Ladies, blouses and skirts or stylish trousers and dresses are welcome.

 

Formal/Gala Evenings: It’s Showtime. Dinner jacket, tuxedo, or dark suit for the men with a regular tie or bow tie. Evening or cocktail dress, smart trouser suit, or formal separates for the ladies please.

 

Of course, if you prefer to spend your evenings in more relaxed attire, feel free to dress casually as you visit any of the following venues: Kings Court or Lido Buffet, Golden Lion, Casino, Carinthia Lounge, Winter Garden/Winter Lounge and G32 or Yacht Club. Non-ripped jeans are appropriate, but please refrain from wearing shorts, sports attire, swim wear or sleeveless t-shirts outside of the gym, spa and deck spaces.

 

Following on from this I have been assured the Cunard website will be updated to reflect the new language terminology within the next few days but as this was quite fresh in mind I thought I would let you know first.

 

Regards

[mpfund]

Cunard is the only line that I know of that does 7 day crossings NY-Southampton. (We have had it with flying.) I would probably not choose Cunard for a cruise vacation.

[kohl57]

Fair enough. More reason so many of us miss the old STEFAN BATORY. Jacket and tie was sufficient, she was charming and delightful. Cheap, too.

 

And yes, if there is a practical reason to "dumb down" the dress code on Cunard it would be the QM2. Frankly, I wish they just brought back two completely separate classes.. it was ever so much easier. In Tourist, you dressed pretty minimally at night and everyone else did, too. In First, you dressed. Proof that the old ways are often the best ones.