Straw Poll on Formal Dining

[taxmantoo]

The software for the board should prevent multiple voting on any poll.

 

It does. If you look just under where the results would normally be posted, it tells you that you have already voted instead of the "vote now" button.

[chrispb]

Thanks for that. Good to know that the results should be representative of CC members.:)

[mudscraper]

I`m from Chicago.

Vote early--Vote often.

 

 

Rich

[serendipity1499]

Found this on Page 3 ....As of Thursday night 607 votes...

Do you think we will hit 1,00 votes by 7 a.m. Sat. morning when the numbers wil be announced..

 

cheers...:)Betty

[serendipity1499]

Found this on Page 3 ....As of Thursday night 607 votes...

 

Do you think we will hit 1,00 votes by 7 a.m. Sat. morning when the numbers wil be announced..

 

cheers...:)Betty

 

My Spell checker is still not working....I actually meant to ask if we will hit 1,000 votes by tomorrow morning..Certainly not at this rate..

 

Come on everyone, lets keep this on the front page, we need more votes..:):):)

 

Only 17 & 1/2 hours to go!

 

Cheers....:)Betty

[bob brown]

Thanks for that. Good to know that the results should be representative of CC members.:)

It would also be interesting to see the differences of results if this poll were individually made on each of the cruise line boards.

Predictably the results would be very opposite between the 'freestylers' on NCL, and the traditionalists on Cunard.

[serendipity1499]

629 votes so far....Approx 7 & 1/2 hours till we know the results..

Come on everyone, please cast your vote..No one will see how you voted unless you post..

I really would like less formal nights on the longer cruises of 28 days or more, but that was not an option...So had to cast my vote to have fewer formal nights..

Cheers....:)Betty

[roobrie]

just keep posting - we find out soon enuf!

[maxout]

Results are open.

[Randyk47]

Pretty much what I expected though the percentage of those who want to do away with formal nights all together is a bit lower than I expected.

[Solo1959]

Pretty much what I expected though the percentage of those who want to do away with formal nights all together is a bit lower than I expected.

Perhaps... But the results show that most voters wanted to change formal nights, have fewer, none, or only in certain venues. The results do show people want a change.

[jtl513]

Perhaps... But the results show that most voters wanted to change formal nights, have fewer, none, or only in certain venues. The results do show people want a change.

:confused: But the clear plurality is keep the status quo - 2 or 3 times any other choice.

[Solo1959]

:confused: But the clear plurality is keep the status quo - 2 or 3 times any other choice.

Or, another way of looking at it, 0nly 45% want to keep things as they are, everyone else wants to change it in some way.

 

I guess if this were a poll by a cruise line, they might have done two polls: Do you want to keep things the way they are, or do you want to change. And the second question (if change was the decision): Which change would you prefer?

 

These results of this poll, of 55 something percent wanting to change formal nights, shows that the most popular of the three change choices is to hold fewer of the same type of formal nights.

 

That's not my choice. I voted to keep formal nights but in specific formal venues only.

[cruiserking]

It's Formal Night by a landslide. Tuxes, dark suites and gowns all around. Well, I'm glad we finally got that sorted out. Looks like we won't have to worry about anymore formal night discussions for at least a week...:rolleyes:

 

Jonathan

[Jemima]

I don't see a landslide. The vote for keeping the current number of formal nights was under 50%. CC polls on this board tend to be skewed towards formal, fixed, late dinners. A survey of all HAL passengers would probably drop it much lower.

Many of us who voted for one of the middle choices (fewer formal nights or limited venue formal) did so because we know formal is important to many fellow passengers although not important to us. I voted for limited venue for that reason. My personal preference is none.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Solo has it right. Like many polls, it's set up to make one answer appear a landslide when the landslide is actually the other way when you add up all the choices for change. Many polls are skewed this way. You'll note that there was no choice for more formal nights:).

 

45% want to keep things as they are

55% want it changed in one form or another

 

341 say change

289 say keep the status quo

 

So it would seem the majority feel there are, at the very least, too many formal nights.

[iceman93]

This is fascinating! Not the poll so much as the after-poll analysis, and it reveals exactly why Republicans and Democrats can take the same data and spin it completely differently. Back in grad school I even took a couple of classes on market research where we learned the proper and improper ways to sample groups. Even the professor remarked that he was teaching the improper ways so that we would avoid them, but some of us would find ourselves with employers who wanted polls run the "wrong" way to come up with a pre-determined result.

 

The problem with this poll (from a scientific point of view) is that it mixed too many variables in the questions. One thing asked was about the number of formal nights but then that got muddled with things like the location of formal nights. And of course the omission of a choice to add more formal nights skewed the results.

 

If we really wanted to have a field day, we'd ask one question: Do you want to keep the number of formal nights the same or change it? Then people who wanted either more or fewer formal nights would vote for change, that would probably become the highest vote-getter, and then both camps would argue that they had a clear mandate to increase or decrease the number of formal nights! *lol*

[fann1sh]

Don't forget - both sides will say this only represents the people who post on CC, not the people who cruise on HAL.

[cruiseing marly]

I thought almost half wanted no change .If you look at who do does not want formals it is a small percent of of the vote . Maybe if we we did a vote on a small reduction in formals adding on cruises with more port dates you would please the majority. Just having less formals does not make sense on the longer cruises.

[jtl513]

45% want to keep things as they are

55% want it changed in one form or another

 

If we really wanted to have a field day, we'd ask one question: Do you want to keep the number of formal nights the same or change it?

Or you could say that

 

81% want to keep formal nights

19% want to end them

 

;)

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Well, at least the original poster, PeriB, took the initiative and the time to prepare a poll for us experts to scrutinize:) I'd like to thank him/her for doing so. Someone can always do another poll, with a more scientific approach. Wouldn't that be fun? Polls ad infinitum:D

 

I'd say that "formal" evenings on HAL will continue, for now. However, as has already been observed, both the definition and the enforcement of the dress code will continue to be fairly loose.

 

I'm extremely curious to see how shipboard dress codes will be affected when the rest of the world acquires the North American/European cruising mania. What types of dress code discussions will we be having then? Or will all the various geographic markets have their own cruiselines catering specifically to various cultural preferences, much as Star Cruises do now out of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia? But that's another topic entirely.

 

ps I see that CC member fann1sh has already put up another poll while I was gassing away on this one :-)

[English_in_Spain]

I have been in Market Research for over 40 years, running my own company for 20 of those.

People are asking if this poll is scientific. None of the polls here on CC are scientific and should just be taken as a bit of fun.

1. The way questions are asked does not cover all possibilities. It takes years of training to be able to correctly word the questions to get the best out it.

2, There is only the one question. As others have said you should 'layer' the questions. eg. Do you want change? If so, what sort of change? etc

3. People choose whether they want to come onto the thread so only those that tend to have strong feelings either way bother to vote. We would need to draw a representative sample of all HAL cruisers (not just CC) for the poll to have any validity.

Having said all this, I voted for less formals. This is because I think there are too many on a long cruise (we have 9 on upcoming 33 night cruise). If this had not been an option I would have voted to keep formals.

[serendipity1499]

Solo has it right. Like many polls, it's set up to make one answer appear a landslide when the landslide is actually the other way when you add up all the choices for change. Many polls are skewed this way. You'll note that there was no choice for more formal nights:).

 

45% want to keep things as they are

55% want it changed in one form or another

 

341 say change

289 say keep the status quo

 

So it would seem the majority feel there are, at the very least, too many formal nights.

 

Not completely...My vote really should not count, because my idea was not considered in the poll....My preference is:

A) On Cruises of 21 days or less, keep the same Number of Formal Nights (2 per week) ..

B) On cruises of 25 days or more, have one designated formal per week plus one optional formal per week..

My reasoning is: We usually book the longer cruises & by our eighth formal night last Nov., DH was getting tired of wearing his TUX..I suggested he wear his Sport Jacket with tie, but he refused to do that on a designated formal night..This coming Nov. we only have a 20 day cruise, so he should be comfortable with six Formals...(2 per week)... I usually have no problem dressing in my Formal outfits..

Therefore, I voted for less formal nights which really is not my preference...

 

 

I have been in Market Research for over 40 years, running my own company for 20 of those.

 

People are asking if this poll is scientific. None of the polls here on CC are scientific and should just be taken as a bit of fun.

 

1. The way questions are asked does not cover all possibilities. It takes years of training to be able to correctly word the questions to get the best out it.

 

2, There is only the one question. As others have said you should 'layer' the questions. eg. Do you want change? If so, what sort of change? etc

 

3. People choose whether they want to come onto the thread so only those that tend to have strong feelings either way bother to vote. We would need to draw a representative sample of all HAL cruisers (not just CC) for the poll to have any validity.

 

Having said all this, I voted for less formals. This is because I think there are too many on a long cruise (we have 9 on upcoming 33 night cruise). If this had not been an option I would have voted to keep formals.

 

 

My feelings exactly!

Interesting results....Guess I should take a look at the new poll..:)LOL

Cheers.....:)Betty

[RevNeal]

Or you could say that

 

81% want to keep formal nights

19% want to end them

 

;)

 

That is the methodologically more accurate analysis of the results. Groups 1, 2, and 3 have far more in common with each other than do groups 2, 3, and 4. Group 4 doesn't want any kind of formal night, whereas groups 2 and 3 want some kind of formal night observance (albeit with some kind of change). Hence, a 3-group break down produces the following:

 

46% "Keep Formal Nights as they are"

35% "Keep Formal Nights, but change frequency or venue"

19% "End Formal Nights"

 

This confirms that the principle selection factor is NOT "change" but, rather, the question of "keeping" or "not keeping" Formal Nights. Hence, the more accurate analysis in reducing to two groups is:

 

81% want to keep some form of formal night observance

19% want to discontinue formal nights

 

As for the margin of error, and the direction in which it should be shunted ... I have no idea if that could be done. However, I think the general impression garnered from this poll is correct, even if the percentages are skewed one way or the other. It may be that 2/3 of HAL's cliental wants formal nights continued, while 1/3 don't. That's both an impressive figure in favor of keeping formal nights, and also an impressive figure for the Line doing very little to enforce the Code (1/3 of the passenger base on the average cruise makes for a LOT of people). This also has the benefit of lining up with what we actually see aboard ship.

 

So ... as far as unscientific polls on these boards go, the results of this one appear to be quite close to reality.

[Opinions]

I am most impressed that on the HAl board that the majority of those that voted would like to see Formal nights limited in some way...I don't think we would have seen that 5 years ago...My opinion is that HAL will keep Formal nights but that it will be much less restrictive than it is now...