Theme nights

[Goosebear Mum]

Don't think that they are promoted properly.

1, Should be more widely advertised - before departure.

2. Menu in MDR should reflect the theme.

3. Entertainment should reflect the theme, more than it does at present.

$. Should be specific to the area in which you are cruising, so no tropical night on a Greek cruise but bouzouki music and Greek food.

Then it would be worth joining in.

 

If there were a Like button, I'd like this... I agree, I wouldn't have known about theme nights unless it were for forums... I looked them up on the P&O site. Nothing about them on our cruise personaliser. How they expect people to just find suitable clothes onboard is anyone's guess. Maybe if they don't advertise them, less people will find out, so they can stop them quoting unpopularity...

[Kittyonions]

On a recent cruise on Oceana a tropical night was listed, so I insisted on my husband wearing suitable shirt, and I wore a dress decorated with palm trees. Together with an orchid in my hair we arrived at the MDR to discover that none of the waiters were wearing tropical shirts. I asked, and was told that they are no longer required to wear these shirts on Tropical nights. We felt rather uncomfortable, and will not bother with any theme nights on future cruises

[Florry]

I'm ambivalent to the themed nights, we have never observed them. On our recent cruise I did see a few people dressed in a theme but only about six. I guess P&O feel it's a bit daft to 'flog a dead horse' as it makes them look out of touch, introducing themes in the horizon that aren't observed. As for formal we become increasingly fatigued with them, and having recently disembarked we have reached a decision about our future cruising choices. How many times has it been said that we would gladly pay more to have better standards? The P&O strategy is to 'keep costs down' this is great for some, but we are fed up of the new standards, dated entertainment and trips. This has resulted in a decision to cruise less frequently and save to go with a luxury line - possibly without formal depending what's out there. Sorry I've gone a bit off-piste, we are 48/49 no kids.

 

 

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[Florry]

I would add that I agree with the post about them not being promoted properly or being treated as a real event.

 

 

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[ChrisPBacon]

I'm ambivalent to the themed nights, we have never observed them. On our recent cruise I did see a few people dressed in a theme but only about six. I guess P&O feel it's a bit daft to 'flog a dead horse' as it makes them look out of touch, introducing themes in the horizon that aren't observed. As for formal we become increasingly fatigued with them, and having recently disembarked we have reached a decision about our future cruising choices. How many times has it been said that we would gladly pay more to have better standards? The P&O strategy is to 'keep costs down' this is great for some, but we are fed up of the new standards, dated entertainment and trips. This has resulted in a decision to cruise less frequently and save to go with a luxury line - possibly without formal depending what's out there. Sorry I've gone a bit off-piste, we are 48/49 no kids.

 

 

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We had four formal nights on a 12 day trip. Too many. We too are considering how we take our holidays. Having used P&O exclusively for the last few years, we are not sure if we are getting fed up of cruising, or fed up cruising with P&O? The only way to find out is to try another cruise line.

 

I get the idea that some people love to dress up and love the formality, but how about this. They still have the formal nights, with 'smart casual' being the minimum. What people fail to understand is that if they like the formal nights so much, they can dress up every night if they like. There's no bar to that. But I guarantee this. If you hold the formal nights, but still allow smart casual, the amount of people in formal wear will drop dramatically.

 

 

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[Florry]

We had four formal nights on a 12 day trip. Too many. We too are considering how we take our holidays. Having used P&O exclusively for the last few years, we are not sure if we are getting fed up of cruising, or fed up cruising with P&O? The only way to find out is to try another cruise line.

 

I get the idea that some people love to dress up and love the formality, but how about this. They still have the formal nights, with 'smart casual' being the minimum. What people fail to understand is that if they like the formal nights so much, they can dress up every night if they like. There's no bar to that. But I guarantee this. If you hold the formal nights, but still allow smart casual, the amount of people in formal wear will drop dramatically.

 

 

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I agree.

 

There were 7 on our 24 night cruise - way too many.

 

I think if you are going to try other lines you may as well try to get one that really suits you and save for it. Some of the P&O competitors are very similar offerings I think.

 

The other thing about theme nights is that it's the same themes that have been in place for donkeys years, nobody has updated them or maintained the momentum. On S'ton cruises they could do so much more like an Ascot night where hats were the theme or such like. The complacency around theme nights has led to their demise, IMO.

 

 

 

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Edited October 9, 2016 by Florry

[davecttr]

We had four formal nights on a 12 day trip. Too many. We too are considering how we take our holidays. Having used P&O exclusively for the last few years, we are not sure if we are getting fed up of cruising, or fed up cruising with P&O? The only way to find out is to try another cruise line.

 

I get the idea that some people love to dress up and love the formality, but how about this. They still have the formal nights, with 'smart casual' being the minimum. What people fail to understand is that if they like the formal nights so much, they can dress up every night if they like. There's no bar to that. But I guarantee this. If you hold the formal nights, but still allow smart casual, the amount of people in formal wear will drop dramatically.

 

 

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I agree with you and think if you had less formals on longer cruises it would go some way to making them special. They just are not special at the moment.

 

I am on a 12 night Canaries cruise this xmas and I bet there are 4 formals, It would be much better if there were two, the captains welcome party and xmas dinner. They could then concentrate on making those special and maybe even seeing more people participating.

[annieuk]

I believe P&O will retain formal nights for a good while to come yet. It's one of the things that marks them out from other lines - apart from Cunard who some people think are too formal. If P&O cut down on their formal nights or even abolished them they would lose one of the things that distinguishes them from other lines. Then they would be in direct competition with lines like Royal Caribbean and NCL and I can't see them competing with all the lights and whistles that those lines have on offer.

 

I have seen comments on cruise sites with reference to Celebrity cutting back on their formal requirements - making it an 'elegant' evening or whatever they've decided to call it. Some cruisers have said that although they can still dress up formally on those evenings they don't like the fact that they could be sat with people who have just dressed casually - at the same table. It just felt odd to them.

 

I still feel the ship takes on a different aura on a formal evening - it just seems more sophisticated. Okay some people don't want or like this - fine don't go on P&O. We have done over 20 cruises with P&O since 2003 and I can't say we have noticed a decline in the numbers of people dressing up on a formal evening. Even in the Caribbean, where most of our cruises have been taken, we haven't noticed a decline.

 

P&O does feel like a British cruiseline even though it's owned by an American company and I think if you asked people what came to mind when someone mentioned P&O (apart from the cross channel ferries) they would say British and possibly 'dressing up - formal wear'. Yes things change over the years and it's right that they do. P&O have got to find a way to appeal to younger cruisers - I mean the thirty and forty year olds who have yet to cruise - but they won't be successful if by doing that they alienate all the older cruisers who are the ones who book the longer cruises, book the cruises out of school holiday times and provide a lot of the income for the company.

 

I'm sure many people will disagree with me but that's how I see things.

[smj777]

Couldn't agree more. I also don't like the way P&O are beginning to allow people who are dressed casually into bars and restaurants that are supposed to be formal dress only.

 

As regards themed nights, when we were on Ventura in June we dressed for tropical night, but there was no special arrangements that night, there were no leis given out and the waiters in the MDR weren't in hawaiian shirts, although the ones in Metropolitan bar were. We won't bother next time as a lot of people never even realised that it was tropical night and we felt the odd ones out.

[john watson]

Couldn't agree more. I also don't like the way P&O are beginning to allow people who are dressed casually into bars and restaurants that are supposed to be formal dress only.

 

As regards themed nights, when we were on Ventura in June we dressed for tropical night, but there was no special arrangements that night, there were no leis given out and the waiters in the MDR weren't in hawaiian shirts, although the ones in Metropolitan bar were. We won't bother next time as a lot of people never even realised that it was tropical night and we felt the odd ones out.

 

On a more positive note over the Ventura incident; thank god they were not running a vicars and tarts theme or a tramps ball.

 

Lol John

[Monorail Orange]

I'd forgotten about the leis they used to hand out. They were cheap looking, so it surely cannot be a cost saving exersise to stop handing them out. Unless its an 'elf un safety' thing.

 

To be honest, this year was the first time I actually bought a tropical shirt for the epoynmous theme night. And if they still suggest that's the theme of the night, I'll still wear it. If no one else is 'dressed up' then that's their issue.

 

Hmm... guess I'm doing a sort of reverse "I don't want to do formal nights" :rolleyes:

Edited October 10, 2016 by Monorail Orange