Staycation Dress Code

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, Britboys said:

That is something I have been saying for a number of years - that the brand should have been split into P&O Classic and P&O Contemporary. Totally agree with you that it won't happen now as they are completely focused on the new megaships. They'll dispose of Aurora and Arcadia as soon as they feel it is practically possible.

Perhaps we should join forces and make P&O an offer for the two ships.  I could probably find £5k. If you could find the other £50 million we are in business! 

[July morning]

for the "Classic" experience I think we might be able to at to the "kitty" ......not £50 million unfortunately 🙂

Edited August 14, 2021 by July morning
wrong key

[wowzz]

22 minutes ago, July morning said:

for the "Classic" experience I think we might be able to at to the "kitty" ......not £50 million unfortunately 🙂

If I went up to £6k, could you stretch to £49m ?

[zap99]

52 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Perhaps we should join forces and make P&O an offer for the two ships.  I could probably find £5k. If you could find the other £50 million we are in business! 

They did have an ' informal brand' Ocean Village. We did about 6 cruises with them before they closed it down. Ocean Village 1 became Columbus and I think the reincarnation of CMV have Ocean Village 2.

[davecttr]

7 hours ago, zap99 said:

They did have an ' informal brand' Ocean Village. We did about 6 cruises with them before they closed it down. Ocean Village 1 became Columbus and I think the reincarnation of CMV have Ocean Village 2.

I remember reading somewhere that Carnival still own the Ocean Village brand name but don't think they will use it as the fly cruise market has a lot of players nowadays. What they should be seriously considering in these COVID times is more round Britain/Ireland itineraries which don't need complex testing requirements.

[Charleyben]

I have just checked the itinerary on the personaliser for the 7 night Britannia Cruise departing on 5th September and the dress code on all 7 nights is shown as evening casual.  Is this just a default setting or is it correct.  It is now only 21 days until departure. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Son of Anarchy]

2 hours ago, Charleyben said:

I have just checked the itinerary on the personaliser for the 7 night Britannia Cruise departing on 5th September and the dress code on all 7 nights is shown as evening casual.  Is this just a default setting or is it correct.  It is now only 21 days until departure. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

That's interesting.  We're on Iona on 11 September.  Cruise Personaliser shows 1 formal/celebration night.

[Britboys]

5 hours ago, Charleyben said:

I have just checked the itinerary on the personaliser for the 7 night Britannia Cruise departing on 5th September and the dress code on all 7 nights is shown as evening casual.  Is this just a default setting or is it correct.  It is now only 21 days until departure. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Just remember that this is the Cruise Personaliser that is always going wrong...😀

[Britboys]

14 hours ago, zap99 said:

They did have an ' informal brand' Ocean Village. We did about 6 cruises with them before they closed it down. Ocean Village 1 became Columbus and I think the reincarnation of CMV have Ocean Village 2.

Almost. Ocean Village 2 was actually the sister ship of the 'new' Ambassador Cruises ship. Ocean Village 2 was also Pacific Jewel and then Karnika for India's Jalesh Cruise Line. Sadly, she has either recently been scrapped or is beached awaiting her fate 😢.

[Britboys]

7 hours ago, davecttr said:

I remember reading somewhere that Carnival still own the Ocean Village brand name but don't think they will use it as the fly cruise market has a lot of players nowadays. What they should be seriously considering in these COVID times is more round Britain/Ireland itineraries which don't need complex testing requirements.

But the British weather means a relatively short season for round-Britain itineraries and also there are relatively few ports that ships of any real size can berth at, meaning lots of tender trips, some quite lengthy. That limits the appeal for both the cruise lines and the passengers.

[wowzz]

57 minutes ago, Britboys said:

But the British weather means a relatively short season for round-Britain itineraries and also there are relatively few ports that ships of any real size can berth at, meaning lots of tender trips, some quite lengthy. That limits the appeal for both the cruise lines and the passengers.

Good points. The current raft of seacations seem to have been successful,  but I'm not convinced that there is sufficient demand for them to continue past September. 

[terrierjohn]

19 hours ago, Britboys said:

Hmmmm. A difference here is that P&O's 'casual' isn't very elegant. Jeans, shirt and casual shoes may indeed not be scruffy but elegant they are not.

The problem for P&O is that they are trying to be all things to all pax across a very diverse fleet. They want to give a more traditional, formal cruise on the smaller ships and a more casual, contemporary experience on the larger, newer ones. Not easy to balance.

My own feeling is that things will stay the same for the next year or two and then when Aurora is disposed of, there will be a 'sea-change' in style.

Which ships are you sailing on? The buffet may well be very casual, but I have never seen anyone in the MDRs that could be classed as scruffily dressed.

[wowzz]

11 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Which ships are you sailing on? The buffet may well be very casual, but I have never seen anyone in the MDRs that could be classed as scruffily dressed.

I think the issue is that the standard of dress  varies from cruise to cruise, depending on the time of year, especially on the larger ships. So a cruise to the Canaries in late November, with an older age  group will have a totally different standard to a Med cruise in August in the school holidays. 

[Britboys]

16 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Which ships are you sailing on? The buffet may well be very casual, but I have never seen anyone in the MDRs that could be classed as scruffily dressed.

Maybe I haven't been clear enough but I don't think I actually suggested anyone was scruffily dressed...

[terrierjohn]

Just now, wowzz said:

I think the issue is that the standard of dress  varies from cruise to cruise, depending on the time of year, especially on the larger ships. So a cruise to the Canaries in late November, with an older age  group will have a totally different standard to a Med cruise in August in the school holidays. 

The last cruise we did was Indy  in the summer holidays 2019, and the dress standard in the freedom dining MDR was way above  scruffy, and RCI is a lot more casual than P&O.

[squink]

On 8/12/2021 at 4:32 PM, squink said:

I'm going with the grey suit and tie option, will P&O accept a separate suit carrier or does everything need to be in the suitcases?

 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

On 8/15/2021 at 6:09 PM, squink said:

 

I carried my dinner suit aboard in a suit carrier. A lot of passengers were going aboard and disembarking with smallish pull along suitcases.

[squink]

1 hour ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

I carried my dinner suit aboard in a suit carrier. A lot of passengers were going aboard and disembarking with smallish pull along suitcases.

OK thank you

[sandancer]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:09 AM, Charleyben said:

I have just checked the itinerary on the personaliser for the 7 night Britannia Cruise departing on 5th September and the dress code on all 7 nights is shown as evening casual.  Is this just a default setting or is it correct.  It is now only 21 days until departure. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

We are on Britannia on the 29th and there is a celebration night on the 30th according to my P&O. The rest of the week is evening casual. 

[PJL1973]

Apart from one questionable case (short sleeve shirt, didn't see a tie but may have worn one), virtually every maler in the MDR was wearing either DJ & bow tie or smart business suits & tie on Celebration night on the Brittania cruise I've just been on.

Edited August 19, 2021 by PJL1973

[squink]

On 8/19/2021 at 8:33 PM, PJL1973 said:

Apart from one questionable case (short sleeve shirt, didn't see a tie but may have worn one), virtually every maler in the MDR was wearing either DJ & bow tie or smart business suits & tie on Celebration night on the Britannia cruise I've just been on.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts I did wear a grey suit, white shirt and tie and fitted right in, the balance was probably more toward suits than DJ but , as PJL1973 says, there were almost no exceptions. Celebration Night was really well attended and we managed to get a 18pm booking in Peninsular , which I would recommend, followed by a show. Sort your restaurant booking asap. We did that by going directly to the front desk on the first day, the on-line booking app said nothing available but we got in.

[davecttr]

My experience on Iona celebration night was, that apart from the designated formal areas about 50% or less men were wearing formal dress or suits. If you don't count the Sindhu bar which is part of the restaurant only the Crows Nest bar was formal. Maybe I inhabit the scruffy areas of the ship!

[Presto2]

On 8/15/2021 at 4:58 PM, wowzz said:

I think the issue is that the standard of dress  varies from cruise to cruise, depending on the time of year, especially on the larger ships. So a cruise to the Canaries in late November, with an older age  group will have a totally different standard to a Med cruise in August in the school holidays. 

We always have to cruise in the school holidays and to be fair to P&O we always find the overwhelming majority of people 'scrub up' really well and have made a great effort on the formal nights and have been in smart casual on other nights. We have only sailed on RCI once on IOS for a 4 night cruise from Southampton and everyone was dressed very smartly for that too.