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Is Fred cutting back on formal nights?


nb125
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I am booked on a 27 night cruise in July and there are only four formal nights. I suspect that FOCL are cutting back. It wouldn't surprise if they dropped the idea in future. I think would be a pity.

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We have two 5 night cruises booked for next year. I would be very disappointed if there was no formal night. P&O have them even on two night cruises. I suppose Fred want to save money on the free drinks. An economy too far! We love the dressing up.

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I suppose Fred want to save money on the free drinks.

 

This is what I was thinking, but that would not explain only four formals on a 27 night cruise as only the first and last night have captain's drink receptions with the free drinks, and if you are lucky nibbles, but we have found the nibbles much more difficult to come by in the last year or so.

 

I cannot clearly see what economy they would be making to remove the other formals. The staff wear different uniforms which may be a bit more expensive to launder and replace when needed perhaps. The menus used to be a bit more impressive, but I am not so sure that is necessarily the case now.

 

Perhaps it is just a sign of the times - some formals keep Fred's oldies happy, but less of them may not be quite so much of a put off to potential new passengers who they may be able to poach from other lines? The drinks pack seems to be encouraging a different sort of clientele.

 

One thing that has annoyed us a great deal is the scheduling of the formals. Gone are the days when they were on sea days, so it gave a little more interest to the day. We increasingly seem to find ourselves rushing from some time ashore to get dressed up for formal, or even worse, find that one has been scheduled for a late night in port, when we would much prefer to be ashore anyway!

Edited by tring
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It is not just oldies who enjoy formal nights. Our adult sons, in their twenties, travel with us sometimes and they love them too. They were very disappointed when we took them on a cruise line which didn't have them!

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It is not just oldies who enjoy formal nights. Our adult sons, in their twenties, travel with us sometimes and they love them too. They were very disappointed when we took them on a cruise line which didn't have them!

 

Having re read my post, I can see why it was taken to refer to the age of passengers. In fact my intention was to refer to the passengers who have been travelling on Fred ships previously and my mind for some strange reason thought that using "oldies" was a sort of antonym to the term "newbies", who I suggested later in that sentence, may be easier to poach from other lines if less formals were held. Obviously not the best thought process at the time! Shows my age perhaps :)

 

Regards your post, I also believe a lot of older passengers prefer not to have formal nights. We can take them or leave them, but if Fred is going to persist in having formal nights when a ship is in port late night, we would much prefer they did not exist at all. If we have been out and about in a port all day we do not want to have to take the time to get dressed up madly, although we have put our formal clothes on to eat in first sitting, before changing into other clothes so we could go out "on the town" for the night. I know there is an option of the self service, but after a day off the ship, probably walking a lot, we much prefer to just flop down and let someone bring our food to us.

Edited by tring
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Having completed 25+ Cruises on various lines and I have to say Formal nights just don't do it for us anymore. We enjoy NCL who are very informal and Celebrity who have relaxed their formal nights. However we cruised P and O last year and to be honest it didn't take much effort pack my dinner suit and dress accordingly. We've booked our first Fred Olsen Cruise on Boudicca, 7 nights, Malaga to Southampton next March and will of course be packing the dinner suit , I think it would be very disrespectful to the other passenger who do enjoy Formal nights not to comply, I just hope there's not too many on our 7 night cruise.

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Further to my original post the information on our cruise has changed from 5 smart casual to 1 x formal and 4 smart casual. This withjust two weeks to go.

That's good! More what you would expect. Perhaps it was just a mistake before.

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This policy says 0=1 for 5 nights. My point is that they should decide on which it is before the tickets are issued rather than change the information on "manage my cruises" two weeks before departure, without any other notification being sent.

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Further to my original post the information on our cruise has changed from 5 smart casual to 1 x formal and 4 smart casual. This withjust two weeks to go.

 

Yep my parents are going on a 5 night cruise around Scotland on Boudicca at end of month and the cruise tickets says 5 smart casual nights which I was a little surprised about at the time. However got a email from them few days ago saying it had now changed to 1 formal and 4 smart casual. Maybe they read these forums ;)

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Here is the current policy;

 

Five nights or less - 0-1

7 nights - 1

8 - 14 nights - 2-3

And so forth.

 

On longer cruises they tend to implement one per week.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Odd on my up and coming cruise there are 2 formal nights and that's 7 nights cruise. It was 2 last year as well oh well guess just need to wait and see what happens

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just back off Magellan (Cruise & Maritime Voyages).

8 night cruise - 2 Formal nights, 3 Informal nights (jackets for men but tie optional), 3 Smart casual nights.

Dress code seemed to be well adhered to.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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