Dress code in main restaurant on Voyager, Voyages of Discovery

Just booked a cruise on this ship and I asked about the dress code, which I am a little confused about.

I was told on the phone that men needed a jacket, but not tie, in the main restaurant at night. I was not surprised as I know that is the situation on Swan Hellenics Minerva and they are both run by the same owners. I am wondering just how strict they are with this though, as taking a jacket for a fly cruise to the Med in summer seems a bit silly if not needed. We do not want to be restricted to the self service restaurant every night except formals though, (we will take formal wear with us).

Because this was a "British" ship we found the standards of dress to be different from American cruise ship interpretations of the same wording of the dress code.

Regular dinner nights in the main dining room were as described - most men wore jackets because one sensed that is what they would have worn going out to dinner at home too. But not a requirement. A light-weight linen jacket for men in the summer can always look nice. And they even had some choices in the ship's store.

The sense of this ship is not rigid, and open more to guidelines than mandatory rules. We sensed our fellow passengers knew what to wear because it followed their own comfort levels at home too for public dining venues.

Women again did dress up a bit more for regular dinner in the main dining room too - skirts, dresses, special tops, more accessories that sort of thing. But again, no pressure just that is the way those diners felt comfortable. Dinner in the buffet is set with white tablecloths so people often did change out of their daytime clothes even for the buffet, but not to the degree they probably would have for the main dining room.

Lot of nice long gowns and black tie for formal nights. Dark suits, cocktail dresses, sparkly tops and pants too - looks like everyone enjoyed getting dressed up. So do we. American ship passengers tend to resent formal nights and you see anything and everything. Including tee-shirts with picture of tuxedos across the front.

On this ship formal night was honored in the spirit it was offered - a chance to make a few dinner evening special. If you get 5-10% black tie on American ships, it is a breakthrough. One this ship it was probably 80- 90% in the main dining room. If you also include the Scotsmen in their kilts. (Love it!)

Lunches and breakfasts were regular casual - depending on your climate - ours needed warm clothing, so any sort of clothes when walking about at home was what one saw during the day.

(Sorry duplicate)

Thanks for your very detailed reply. The English based ships do seem to have a more formal reputation, but P&O and Fred Olsen have now dropped their 'semi formal nights', (which were jacket nights) for smart casual - does not mean casual jeans though. Swan were a one off as they insisted on Jackets for the main dining room every night - or you ate in the buffet. We last sailed with them a couple of years ago, so that may have changed, but I would not be surprised if they have not and that is fine with us. Swan's Black tie nights were 100% adherred to and it is similar on Fred too (some lounge suits/ties are appearing though), but P&O is becoming much less formal as they attract families and younger passengers.

Men of our age (mid sixties) and below are rarely seen in Jackets at home, even in reasonably upmarket venues (more shirt and jumper if needed). I think that could be different in the south of England though, as my husband's old school freinds tend to turn up in jackets when we are down there, even for a local restaurant visit. Perhaps that is because they wear jackets for a evening when we are more likely to need coats! Regular cruisers have their cruise wear though and jackets used to be essential. We will probably pack a jacket as well as the black tie outfits.

Cheers,

Barbara

I see Holland America now calls these "gala nights" instead of formal nights. And indeed the British people we just visited that did put on jackets for dinner at home, are in eastern England Sussex where i guess they are still more traditional on your lovely isle.

More traditional, yes, but the weather may have some effect as to the habits of the area.

My husband was brought up near Portsmouth, (which I think is where Voyager sailed from for your cruise), and which is generally drier and has warmer summer evenings than we do in Merseyside. So his school friends, (who do wear jackets), can use those as a coat in the evenings when we are often looking for something warmer and waterproof! Wearing a jacket under a coat can be a bit cumbersome, so that could have altered habits up here - or perhaps we are just scruffier!

Cheers,

Barbara

As well as smart casual and formal, Voyages of Discovery have re-introduced semi formal evenings on their cruises - as we found to our cost earlier this year. So, despite what you may be told prior to booking and the advice in their brochures, men will need to carry an extra jacket with them.

As well as smart casual and formal, Voyages of Discovery have re-introduced semi formal evenings on their cruises - as we found to our cost earlier this year. So, despite what you may be told prior to booking and the advice in their brochures, men will need to carry an extra jacket with them.

Thanks for that. We note from their details that shoes rather than sandals are needed in the dining room as well, so my husband will be wanting me to pack two pairs of shoes, as well as trainers, decent sandals and sports type walking sandals etc......... The secret is not to take all those extra T shirts and evening wear that there is never time to wear anyway, but will we manage it this time? It will be a first if we do!

Looks like we can take at least 20 kgs hold luggage though, even for a cheap cruise fare. We are booked on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and Aegean airlines back from Piraeus to Manchester (steep Manchester supplement though). Turkish and Aegean...... well we do consider our holidays as gaining experiences!

Have you seen my post on your roll call for Canada in August? I posted my review of Canada in May/June late last night but, by past experience, it will likely take at least a week to appear on this site.

On our earlier Voyages of Discovery, they had that third distinction for evening attire (semi formal) but there never appeared to be much distinction as most dressed up more than "smart casual" anyway for the main dining room dinner. And there was no alternate dinner food service on their old ship which is probably why they went through the motions of having the three tier dress guidelines on that older ship.

However, I hadn't noticed these three tiers of dress on our most recent VOD cruise in the daily program - but we often ate in the Lido restaurant for dinner anyway where it must have been just "smart casual". It might have been there but we just let our mood determine where we would eat that night and how we would dress - dress up for the main or dress down for the buffet. Nice to have the choice.

Personally, I would not be too concerned about the designations except for formal is still formal, the main dining room feels like you want to dress up more for dinner and the lido is just fine for when you do not. There was never a sense of "group pressure" or even official admonishments if you didn't dress to some suggested guideline.

Not sure anyone tested smart casual on formal night though. It just wasn't that kind of a ship nor group of passengers. And had they, I assume there would have been benign toleration because everyone was there to enjoy themselves.

I doubt they will have any less than lounge suit/tie in the main restaurant for formal night. Likely be sent to self service.

We have now received details for the cruise and it says no jacket required on any smart casual night. Sometimes things are different in warmer climates, but best be safe and take the jacket anyway.

We have been on MV Discovery with VOD in it's later times and they always had an evening self service on pool deck with a roof overhead. Roof leaked though, so you had to be careful not to fall over the buckets! That was a 6 night UK cruise in May so I do not think they had the roof open at any stage. It was possible to book the Yacht club as many nights as you wanted on that cruise as well, but that was more formal of course.

Thanks again,

Barbara

Just done a review of our Sept/Oct cruise to the Eastern Med and meant to mention dress code, but fogot, so I have retrieved this and will add for completeness.

We did not take a jacket as we were subsequently told by the company that it was not needed. On Smart Casual nights there were no more than 20% of men in jackets in the main restaurant - may even have been as low as 10%, but it was hot weather and a fly cruise. I can well see more jackets being worn on ex UK cruises, especially to colder climes. There were no semi formal evenings on our cruise.

On formal nights quite a number of men wore lounge suite and tie rather than a dinner suite and that was quite acceptable - it was a fairly equal mix. A group of Australian men went into the restaurant one formal night just wearing casual shirts and were sent out, (presumably to the self service).

My husband went into the main restaurant on a couple of smart casual nights wearing good quality, dark, leather sandles with plain black socks and got away with it. I suspect the 'no sandles' rule is more to prevent casual sandles and brightly patterned socks - or perhaps they just did not notice. I actually think he looked smarter wearing those than the more casual shoes he would have worn otherwise.

Hope this may be helpful to others,

Barbara