Emma666

I have a genuine question for the gents (and ladies) who don’t like to dress formally ‘because they’re on holiday’, who don’t want to buy suits or evening gowns out of principle or who want to just meet the minimum standard of the dress code. The vast majority of cruise lines are more laid back, but Cunard is known for traditional elegance, Gala evenings and White glove service. If this is not your thing, why choose Cunard? I’m honestly interested in the answers.

In my experience most people dress more formally than that, i.e. men wear long sleeve collared shirts and maybe chinos for smart evenings and tuxes for gala nights.

M503 Queen Mary 2 Southampton to Caribbean 11th Jan to 15th Feb 2025: 11th Jan: Embarkation Southampton: smart attire 12th: sea day: Gala night - Black and white 13th: sea day: smart 14th: sea day: smart 15th: Tenerife: smart 16th: sea day: smart 17th: sea day: smart 18th: sea day: smart 19th: sea day: smart 20th: sea day: Gala 21st: sea day: smart 22nd: Grenada: smart 23rd: Barbados: smart 24th: St Lucia: smart 25th: sea day: smart 26th: Curacao: smart 27th: Curacao: smart 28th: sea day: Gala 29th: sea day: smart 30th: Dominica: smart 31st: Antigua: smart 1st Feb: St Kitts: smart 2nd: sea day: smart 3rd: Tortola: smart 4th: St Maarten: smart 5th: sea day: Masquerade 6th: sea day: smart 7th: sea day: smart 8th: sea day: smart 9th: sea day: smart 10th: sea day: smart 11th: Madeira: smart 12th: sea day: smart 13th: sea day: Roaring Twenties 14th: sea day: smart 15th: disembarkation As you can see, there are only five galas on a 35 day trip; Cunard seem to cut back more and more on galas. The galas are one of the main reasons why we travel with them. I never would have booked this trip if they hadn't told us that there would be two per week, i.e. ten in total. I especially expected more during the Atlantic crossings, not seven sea days each way in smart attire!!

Thanks for that information, I hope that you are right. We've also booked a 35 night cruise on QM2 for January 2025 with only five gala nights (I can send the schedule if you don't have it yet). Again, that was very disappointing to us, especially as we booked both cruises whilst on a Queen Victoria cruise and were assured by the Voyage Sales Specialists that there would be 'two gala night per week on average'. If this continues, we will change to another cruise line.

We're going on Queen Victoria V426P Southampton to the Canaries, 3-15th November 2024. There is NOT A SINGLE GALA NIGHT. Every night shows as 'Smart Attire'. Did they make a mistake? We're very disappointed.