All your P&O dress code comments and queries.

[jomf]

I’ve tried looking through past posts to no avail.

 

Do you need to wear formal wear in the specialty restaurants on formal night, or are they more casual? 
 

 

[TigerB]

4 hours ago, jomf said:

I’ve tried looking through past posts to no avail.

 

Do you need to wear formal wear in the specialty restaurants on formal night, or are they more casual? 
 

 

A quick search revealed the following thread from the back end of last year that mentions the dress code:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2890757-where-to-eat-for-gala-night/#comment-64227305

 

From my experience, I have only seen it 'enforced' in Epicurean and the Crow's Nest.

Others have mentioned about a requirement for best bib and tucker in Sindhu on formal nights; however, we have previously dined in there on a formal night when on Britannia, and men were allowed in whilst wearing open necked shirts.

Edited February 14, 2023 by TigerB

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, jomf said:

I’ve tried looking through past posts to no avail.

 

Do you need to wear formal wear in the specialty restaurants on formal night, or are they more casual? 
 

 

Would it be the end of the world if you had to wear a tie ? 

[jomf]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

Would it be the end of the world if you had to wear a tie ? 

No, I doubt it, but how does that answer my question? 
 

[jomf]

8 hours ago, TigerB said:

A quick search revealed the following thread from the back end of last year that mentions the dress code:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2890757-where-to-eat-for-gala-night/#comment-64227305

 

From my experience, I have only seen it 'enforced' in Epicurean and the Crow's Nest.

Others have mentioned about a requirement for best bib and tucker in Sindhu on formal nights; however, we have previously dined in there on a formal night when on Britannia, and men were allowed in whilst wearing open necked shirts.

Thanks.

[snaefell]

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

Would it be the end of the world if you had to wear a tie ? 

No,but I would be uncomfortable,why should I be made to be uncomfortable on Holiday?

[tring]

18 hours ago, jomf said:

I’ve tried looking through past posts to no avail.

 

Do you need to wear formal wear in the specialty restaurants on formal night, or are they more casual? 
 

 

 

It seems to vary by ship, even for the same restaurant, for instance last Oct/Nov respectively Sindu did not need formal dress on Azura, but on Aurora it did.  So that will explain the disparity mentioned in #2.  Hence need to consider which ship you are asking about.

Edited February 15, 2023 by tring

[Dermotsgirl]

13 hours ago, wowzz said:

Would it be the end of the world if you had to wear a tie ? 

Where did he say he wasn’t going to wear a tie? 

[jomf]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

It seems to vary by ship, even for the same restaurant, for instance last Oct/Nov respectively Sindu did not need formal dress on Azura, but on Aurora it did.  So that will explain the disparity mentioned in #2.  Hence need to consider which ship you are asking about.

We will be on Azura.

[BandBlady]

Having just done 28 nights on AZURA ,the only speciality dining that required the dress code on Formal nights was Epicurean .Enjoy them all .We found food to be of an excellent standard .

[jomf]

30 minutes ago, BandBlady said:

Having just done 28 nights on AZURA ,the only speciality dining that required the dress code on Formal nights was Epicurean .Enjoy them all .We found food to be of an excellent standard .

Thank you. 

[tring]

1 hour ago, jomf said:

We will be on Azura.

 

We were on there last Oct and Sindhu + Glass House had no restrictions, just the MDR's and Epicurean.  The Blue bar was black tie attire only, which seemed very strange as it is a walkway in some respects, being right by the Atrium.  We walked through in smart casual wear to get to the Glass House.  We were on for 23 nights and at the time the Freedom dining MDR was chaotic with massive queues, poor service and generally felt overcrowded.  We had loads of OBC, so booked the Glass House or Sindu for the formals after the first week. 

 

We tried the Epicurean once on that cruise and would never repeat it.  It took a full 3 hours, with almost two of those before the main course, so I was starving by then, even though they let me have a starter and soup, both being negligible in quantity.  All starters and main courses on the menu were heavy on protein foods with virtually no veg or carbohydrate food available at all with rich, heavy sweets, being the only things to fill up on.  I was told veg options were only available if I declared myself to be vegetarian at least 24 hours prior and the chef would "supply something suitable" - no choice whatsoever. I am not vegetarian, but we eat a selection of food items as per what is considered a healthy diet nowadays and also our preference, we like veg with our meals.  I left one item which I considered appalling and the only comment from our waitress was to tell me how expensive the item was!!!!  Even a decent roll, or some bread and butter would have improved the experience immensely imo.  Our cruise was the first one when the Epicurean was open, do it could have changed since, but is not a risk we would take again.

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by tring

[tring]

5 minutes ago, jomf said:

Thanks for the reply.

We are minded to try Epicurean, I’m hoping it has improved since your visit.

We are only onboard for a week, just trying P & O again after a bad experience a few years ago! 
 

 

May well have changed, always worth trying something.  The menu will be available, so worth having a look at that before booking.  It does seem to have a very good reputation on here, so something I just had no understanding of when we went.  Everyone has their own preferences on food though.

 

[BandBlady]

41 minutes ago, tring said:

 

We were on there last Oct and Sindhu + Glass House had no restrictions, just the MDR's and Epicurean.  The Blue bar was black tie attire only, which seemed very strange as it is a walkway in some respects, being right by the Atrium.  We walked through in smart casual wear to get to the Glass House.  We were on for 23 nights and at the time the Freedom dining MDR was chaotic with massive queues, poor service and generally felt overcrowded.  We had loads of OBC, so booked the Glass House or Sindu for the formals after the first week. 

 

We tried the Epicurean once on that cruise and would never repeat it.  It took a full 3 hours, with almost two of those before the main course, so I was starving by then, even though they let me have a starter and soup, both being negligible in quantity.  All starters and main courses on the menu were heavy on protein foods with virtually no veg or carbohydrate food available at all with rich, heavy sweets, being the only things to fill up on.  I was told veg options were only available if I declared myself to be vegetarian at least 24 hours prior and the chef would "supply something suitable" - no choice whatsoever. I am not vegetarian, but we eat a selection of food items as per what is considered a healthy diet nowadays and also our preference, we like veg with our meals.  I left one item which I considered appalling and the only comment from our waitress was to tell me how expensive the item was!!!!  Even a decent roll, or some bread and butter would have improved the experience immensely imo.  Our cruise was the first one when the Epicurean was open, do it could have changed since, but is not a risk we would take again.

 

 

 

 

[TigerB]

15 minutes ago, jomf said:

Thanks for the reply.

We are minded to try Epicurean, I’m hoping it has improved since your visit.

We are only onboard for a week, just trying P & O again after a bad experience a few years ago! 
 

 

On these boards you will get a lot of different viewpoints about many different subjects, including dining. Tring had a very poor experience in Epicurean, whereas we have always had an enjoyable experience. We had a very poor experience in Olive Grove last month, whereas others rave about it. Will it stop us going again? No. We'll try again in June on Iona.

 

My advice would be to give it a go and make your own mind up. If you book before you board, for two of you it will cost less than a weekly shop at Lidl.🙂

[BandBlady]

Just now, BandBlady said:

 

This is one of the reasons I don’t like replying to topics these days ,no matter how positive I am and how much we’ve enjoyed the experience there is is always someone feels the need to put such a negative view on the subject . Wish I had taken some pics of the 3bowls of vegetables too 

[terrierjohn]

5 hours ago, snaefell said:

No,but I would be uncomfortable,why should I be made to be uncomfortable on Holiday?

The answer could be why book a holiday with P&O when you know they like to have at least one formal attire night every 7 days?

[TigerB]

1 minute ago, BandBlady said:

This is one of the reasons I don’t like replying to topics these days ,no matter how positive I am and how much we’ve enjoyed the experience there is is always someone feels the need to put such a negative view on the subject . Wish I had taken some pics of the 3bowls of vegetables too 

 

That's the nature of these types of forums, and life of course; if everyone had the same opinion about everything then life would be very boring. Whenever I have read reviews for anything, that alone has never put me off trying something, but has encouraged me to do more research.

Please don't let it put you off from sharing your experiences; I'm sure folk will be encouraged by your views. They can then make up their own minds about what they wish to do.

[BandBlady]

Thank you .I feel for the crew who work so hard and away from families for long periods .We had a brief chat with the head chef and congratulated him on producing excellent food ,given the difficulties of getting supplies to Tenerife on a weekly basis.

[snaefell]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

The answer could be why book a holiday with P&O when you know they like to have at least one formal attire night every 7 days?

We are not keen cruisers,20+ years after our first we about to sail on our fifth,we don't book cruises for any reasons other than the timing & the itinerary,this time happens to be a Med cruise which we fancy & sails on my Wife's Birthday.

[zap99]

4 hours ago, BandBlady said:

This is one of the reasons I don’t like replying to topics these days ,no matter how positive I am and how much we’ve enjoyed the experience there is is always someone feels the need to put such a negative view on the subject . Wish I had taken some pics of the 3bowls of vegetables too 

Absolutely. Every holiday we have ever taken has been enjoyable. Some more than others, some won't be repeated , but we are currently on a P&O ship. Prawns, coasters, ties around necks. All present and correct.

[funinhounslow]

15 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

The answer could be why book a holiday with P&O when you know they like to have at least one formal attire night every 7 days?

Itinerary, price, convenience of sailing from Southampton?

 

Like many others I find formal nights a faff - I don’t want to wear a suit on holiday.

[Guest ccpm]

5 hours ago, funinhounslow said:

Itinerary, price, convenience of sailing from Southampton?

 

Like many others I find formal nights a faff - I don’t want to wear a suit on holiday.

Yes a valid point. I too make the P&O choice for the same reasons but I love to dress up formal night, every night so it is just horses for courses. I think there are more no suit options now for formal night now than ever before.

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 2/15/2023 at 2:00 PM, jomf said:

We will be on Azura.

Are you going to America and the Caribbean by any chance ? 

[Cruisemeister2002]

I don't know whether all cruise lines have Formal nights. But it sometimes amazes me how many people go on cruises that involve Formal nights and then don't want to dress up. I appreciate that some people that cruise don't have tuxedo's or gown's to wear. Quite a lot of men don't have patent shoes. Which is fair enough. But really there's little excuse for not having any of these items. Examples are that I got one of my tux's from a charity shop for £15. I also got patent shoes and a cummerbund on online market place sites. My wife has also bought some wonderful shoes, dresses and handbags via facebook and vintage sites and also online market sites the same as myself. In fact a lady who my wife converses with advertised a beautiful dress. My wife contacted her and she kindly sent the dress free and paid the postage as well . Can't get cheaper than that, unless someone pays you to take it away I suppose.