Jump to content

How many formal nights


boatboy2000
 Share

Recommended Posts

If you would like to email us at internet@fredolsen.co.uk with the cruise in which you are referring to we would be happy to let you know the number of formal nights and if there is due to be a theme night during the cruise.

 

This information used to be on the website, for the each ship for the next few weeks.

 

Last time I looked I couldn't find that section any more, is it still there somewhere or has it been removed for some reason?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The following information is given on our website as a guideline:

 

There are generally four formal nights on a two week cruise, with the remaining nights as smart casual.

Dress code guidelines are mentioned in your cruise ship’s Daily Times so you can be prepared for the next evening to come.

 

However if you would like to know the exact number of formal nights for a particular cruise please contact us using internet@fredolsen.co.uk about 6 weeks before your date of departure and we will be happy to help.

 

Regards

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Can one get the same standard meals as the "formal" dinners at other restaurants on board? We have ample opportunity to don "tux and tiara" at home. We do not want to lug them to Europe to wear on only a few nights of an extensive land, river cruise and (possibly) sea cruise journey.

What lectures about the history, geology, sociology etc. of the regions visited does Fred Olsen offer on its cruises?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not really, but there is a buffet open for those not wishing to dress up.

 

The vast majority of passengers do comply with the formal dress code.

 

Fred Olsen is one of the few remaining lines that still has a number of formal evenings on each cruise so if this is of no interest to you then it may not be the best choice perhaps?

 

We are only just barely hanging on to our interest in Fred due to the formal evenings which I have grown to dislike.

 

There is usually a lecturer who will cover the ports and the history etc. but you would never book a cruise on Fred specifically because of who that person was unlike some other lines. Adequate, but not spectacular usually.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can one get the same standard meals as the "formal" dinners at other restaurants on board? We have ample opportunity to don "tux and tiara" at home. We do not want to lug them to Europe to wear on only a few nights of an extensive land, river cruise and (possibly) sea cruise journey.

?

 

Our thoughts too. It is a holiday after all, and while it is good to have a night or two dressed up special, we wondered about the meals in the other restaurants if we just wanted to be smart casual on a couple of the formal nights. We will be on our first Fred cruise next month for 2 weeks and really looking forward to the new experiences of a different cruise ship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will be allocated a restaurant table for your evening meals but you can have breakfast and lunch wherever you want as they are open seating. If you prefer not to dress up for formal nights then you can use a different restaurant where you can have self service, waiter service or a mixture of both. They usually put on an Indian, Thai or Chinese night in the alternative restaurant. Don't worry, you will get fed! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were on the 28 night sailing to Canada in May/June this year and there were only 4 formal nights on the whole 4 weeks cruise. It surprised a number of us and made us wonder if they are reducing the number of formals as there have usually been about 2 per week previously.

 

Also the formals that they had were on silly days e.g. when there was an early start the next day or when we were going to loose an hour that night. There were lots of sea days that could have been used to good effect by interspacing them with a formal. Must admit, as they were timed, the formals just did not seem to be worth the effort of getting dressed up for.

 

There was nothing to do after dinner either unless you like entertainments from the 50's or before. As a couple in our mid sixties we find Fred's idea of entertainments to date back well before the music of our era. We also find the presence of dance hosts a problem, not as people as they were very sociable, pleasant people, but they were in the lido as well as the neptune so all music became ballroom dancing stuff, even if it could be used for more casual dancing styles. I asked one of the entertainment team if they ever do disco's and they said they did every night after the other entertainments - so if you want to stay up for a disco to start at midnight, that is you only option!! There is never an option to request music as it is all pre arranged and the entertainers in the lido were of the worst quality we have ever experienced on a Fred ship.

Edited by tring
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Tring a little surprised at your take on the entertainment and dancing. On all our Fred cruises there has always been what I call modern music for non formal dancing in the alternative lounges after dinner.

Ok the main lounge caters for ballroom but the other lounges, in our experience, have always catered for non formal dancing.

One if the reasons we cruise with Fred is the dancing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Tring a little surprised at your take on the entertainment and dancing. On all our Fred cruises there has always been what I call modern music for non formal dancing in the alternative lounges after dinner.

Ok the main lounge caters for ballroom but the other lounges, in our experience, have always catered for non formal dancing.

One if the reasons we cruise with Fred is the dancing.

 

 

Hi 1160451,

 

I know from previous posts that you are ballroom dancing enthusiasts and I quite agree that provision for that should be provided if some people want it. My issue is that there is not an alternative on cruises we have been on in the last couple of years (and there are a number of them). There have been occasions before that on Fred when there has been an opportunity to make requests, or if something a bit modern, (comparatively), came up we have got on the dancefloor and started something that other people joined in with and the company let that happen. One member of staff even commented in amazement that it was like a staff party on one occasion that we, (the only way I can think of putting it), lead a revolt which took off!! They used to have better entertainers in the lido lounges as well.

 

That last cruise was worse than ever. The appalling entertainers in the lido were often supplemented by members of the entertainment team ''singing'' as a cabaret act. Some of those songs were relatively modern, but as it was a cabaret style of entertainment, there was no scope for dancing as we would like to do.

 

We did take ballroom dancing lessons at one stage, but we really did not take to it and we much prefer disco style - pref to something like The Stones but are not particularly fussy what. We had found in the past that requesting a Stones number did get a lot of other people up on the dancefloor who were really made up that we had started it. I think the entertainment staff just look upon us all as being old, (which we are compared to them), and think we all want music from a very long time ago or to just sit and gape (I admit a number of passengers do and that opportunity should be provided as well).

 

They do not even do the sixties night now which used to be good at times. I think the entertainers could be quite surprised if they would only let people do, (or request), what they want rather than have everything totally prescribed. If you have something like a wedding, people of all generations get up to the 70's 80's and even more modern numbers, which proves not everyone over 50 or 60 years of age want ballroom dancing to the exclusion of everything else.

 

I have just looked back at this and thought perhaps I should make it a bit shorter, but I really think this needs to be said. Our experiences in the last couple of years have been that dance hosts are in the Lido as well as the Neptune so, as I said before, they make any music a ballroom dance therefore not allowing the floor to be used for anything else until after about midnight.

 

No offence taken or meant, but this means we would never consider a Fred cruise unless the itinerary cannot be done elsewhere. Will still do really good itineraries, but feel it is quite reasonable to make our views known. Will get round to doing a review of that cruise soon and there were good points to it as a cruise, which I will mention then.

Edited by tring
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Tring,

I was just trying to recall our last four Fred cruises to try and remember the dancing on those.

My recollection is that after 2nd dining we ended up in the smaller lounge and danced or listened to what I call popular music, not ballroom or Latin.

But as often is the case I might be a little hazy.....😄 I think probably that we do dance to the modern music but maybe Latin or jive, so maybe I get mixed up between the two styles.

For instance the Greenland cruise last July, I seem to remember dancing in the Lido Lounge but not ballroom or Latin. But there again I may be wrong.

To back up your points, though I would say that I do remember saying to my wife on one cruise that I was glad we had learned to ballroom dance or we would be just sat down all night....

I totally agree with you that there should be an easy mix in the styles, and not have to wait until after midnight for the Disco which is very quite on Fred.

I agree scrapping the 60's and Rock and Roll nights along with the Western theme nights was in our opinion a poor decision. I really am not keen on waving Union jacks and sing alongs.

The balance is difficult, we cruise sometimes on P and O, and find on most of their ships the Ballroom options are very poor.

I think after Dress Codes, dancing is often the next most discussed topics. On the Cunard site it gets very heated. As for free ballroom versus sequence dancing well......😄 take it easy and keep the reviews coming as I find them really interesting and balanced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We love disco dancing too and think it's a shame it doesn't start until after midnight by which time we prefer to be in bed. Like yourself, we are ballroom, Latin and jivers but are not keen on the sequence dancing that seems to have pervaded the dancefloor in recent years. The problem is that these people tend to belong to dance classes or clubs and many will book the cruise together and just take over the dancefloor. For example the band will announce a rumba but the sequencers will do a rumba one and squeeze us off the floor. Same with the cha cha which they will turn into a Sally Ann. The only sequence dance I really enjoy is the Mayfair quickstep which will really get the heart beating in overdrive! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ballroom consists of waltz, quickstep, foxtrot and tango. Latin is cha cha, rumba, samba and then there is the jive. Some people lump jive in with Latin. All these dances usually contain recognised steps which you do with your dance partner - but not in conjunction with other dancers. In other words, if you are dancing a waltz, you can be doing one waltz step while others are doing other waltz steps. With sequence dancing, everybody is doing the same steps as everyone else so dancers are moving around the floor as one. Usually with a fixed grin on their face. :D <----just like that. I'm sure I will now have incurred the wrath of every sequence dancer on Cruise Critic so I'll get my coat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure I will now have incurred the wrath of every sequence dancer on Cruise Critic so I'll get my coat.

 

I'm sure I can distract them from you as I'm always strongly reminded of the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video when I see sequence dancing in progress :)

 

I'm sure it is a fine way to spend an evening at a suitable venue, I just don't appreciate it when the relatively small dance floors are taken over to the exclusion of all others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to everyone who responded to my questions about alternative eating on formal nights and lecture programs as well as offering such diversity of opinion on ballroom dancing.

It seems that those who do not wish to dress up do not get the prestige meal they have paid for and there is one lecturer per voyage.

We'll look elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting take on the replies :)

 

There is usually one port lecturer, that does not mean there is only one lecturer on the cruise.

 

There are usually at least a couple of others talking about other matters as well.

 

Re the 'prestige meal' I think you may be dramatically over estimating the value of 'Baked Alaska' :)

 

The core point remains though, if you want to be able to eat in the main dining room each night but don't want to dress to the standard required for formal nights then yes, you are probably better looking elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...