Tux rental

[Seaducer]

Does anyone know why Princess Cruise lines is no longer providing Tux/Suit rentals ? The Tux "rental" web page has been down for weeks, so after a quick call to Princess Cruise lines, I discovered that I have the terribly inconvenient option to rent a tux "locally" and have to carry it on board! 

[Cruiser_1977]

It appears the company that supplied the tuxedos went out of business. This has already been discussed.

 

 

[c-boy]

😕 unfortunately we were inform by a fellow cc'er,  that the web site supplier for  Princess as well as other cruise lines filed chapter 7.  Plan B' is in play now. 

Edited November 27, 2019 by c-boy

[2ferfun]

This service was not provided by Princess, it was an outside company that Princess contracted with.  That outside company went bankrupt. 😞

 

I always liked the convenience of it. 

[grouchomarx]

Why can't Princess just contract a different company?  Was this the only tux rental place in the universe?  Seems pretty stupid they haven't solved the problem or updated their website to keep passengers informed.  If you're not reading CC you're not going to know what's up.  

[Bruin Steve]

The same company provided this service for most, if not all, cruise lines. 

However, over the last few years, things have changed...Oceania and Azamara never instituted formal nights, NCL, then Celebrity, stopped having them... and, on the few cruise lines that still have formal nights, fewer and fewer people have dressed in formal wear.  Many people have taken to dressing down a bit from true formal--maybe a suit...or just a sports coat...Many just ignore the thing altogether.  Cruise lines have become more lax in enforcement.  With the number of potential customers having dwindled so much, the business model no longer works.

 

For me, I've just dropped the idea of packing my own tux...or renting one (which I used to do often due to airline baggage limits and other logistics.  Now I just pack black slacks and a black sports coat...and I still find myself appearing more "formal" than 80% of the men onboard.

[franktown]

This company provided Tuxes for almost all cruise lines and suddenly went bankrupt.  Not very easy to find a company that will provide all the services this company did.  

[Bruin Steve]

7 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

Why can't Princess just contract a different company?  Was this the only tux rental place in the universe?

 

Groucho...there is NO other company.  It was a unique business model.  The model required the company to own thousands and thousands of tuxedos in all possible sizes...and to keep that stock on ships going out of ports all over the world.  Then, they had to have an employee stationed on every ship to handle errors, exchanges, last minute alterations and more.  As the number of cruise lines--and, hence, the number of ships, went down...and the number of customers on each ship decreased, it no longer supported the cost of the inventory and the cost of the employee.

[c-boy]

I do believe I didn't get that memo.

[Daniel A]

12 minutes ago, Bruin Steve said:

 

Groucho...there is NO other company.  It was a unique business model.  The model required the company to own thousands and thousands of tuxedos in all possible sizes...and to keep that stock on ships going out of ports all over the world.  Then, they had to have an employee stationed on every ship to handle errors, exchanges, last minute alterations and more.  As the number of cruise lines--and, hence, the number of ships, went down...and the number of customers on each ship decreased, it no longer supported the cost of the inventory and the cost of the employee.

I also think that the increasing number of pax who don't dress formally on formal nights added to the increasing number of cruise lines that no longer do formal nights played a large role.  Those who cruise so they can dress up often have their own tailored tuxes.  (Buggy whips?)

[grouchomarx]

Well this certainly drove us to the decision to not be "formal" on formal nights, as packing a tux is not something we want to do. We'll still dress nicely but no tux and no super fancy dress for me.  I suspect a lot of people will go the same route. Packing a tux takes up a huge amount of suitcase real estate, it's just not worth it.  So interesting to learn there really was only one company doing this!  Who knew.  

[jwattle]

We still like the tux approach 😄

 

[MissP22]

4 hours ago, grouchomarx said:

Well this certainly drove us to the decision to not be "formal" on formal nights, as packing a tux is not something we want to do. We'll still dress nicely but no tux and no super fancy dress for me.  I suspect a lot of people will go the same route. Packing a tux takes up a huge amount of suitcase real estate, it's just not worth it.  So interesting to learn there really was only one company doing this!  Who knew.  

Same here. We gave up the silly dress clothes years ago & stick with the comfortable casual style for all our cruises. It makes things so much easier for travel. 

A quick look around the DR on formal night tells you exactly why the company is no longer in business. 

[c-boy]

I agree no point in making any effort to pack a jacket and tie on a three day cruise.

[caribill]

11 hours ago, c-boy said:

I agree no point in making any effort to pack a jacket and tie on a three day cruise.

Three day cruises do not have a formal evening.