Azura New Year Caribbean Cruise questions

Hello Everyone

We've just booked to go on the Azura over New Year departing from Barbados and I do have a few questions which I hope that you experienced cruisers can help me with.

1) on black and white night, do most ladies wear a dress that is a mixture of black and white or is it acceptable to wear a long white dress or a long black dress?

2) On the other theme nights such as 60's or tropical, are these on casual nights and how many tend to join in?

I'm happy to join in with the majority but won't bother if others don't.

3) For New Years Eve ( which I presume will be formal night) would you recommend main dining room or Epicurean restaurant?

4) Are the formal nights usually on sea days?

I do appreciate any help and advice. We've only cruised a handful of times, and only once before on P&O (Brittania).

Hi there! We've just booked this cruise yesterday. Have been on Azura at NY several times, so maybe I can help.

1) Ladies can where all black, all white, or a mix of the both. Some ladies also buck the trend and wear alternative colours, but most stick to the traditional black and/or white. My hubby wears his white dinner jacket on black and white nights. Personally I wouldn't wear all white unless I had a seriously good tan.

2) Generally men enjoy the tropical nights as they can wear their loudest shirts. My hubby has 2 very loud shirts and he loves them. In our experience, the 'musical decade' night is not that well attended but it depends on the age group on board. For instance, 30 to 40 year-olds wouldn't necessarily dress up for a 60s night, whereas they would enjoy re-visiting the 70s.

3) On NYE, we have always dined in Epicurean. However, this year we are undecided. Whilst the service and the meal are both fantastic, we find the atmosphere rather flat. We make up for it with the party on top deck though ;). This year we are toying with going to main dining room as there may be more of a fun atmosphere. We'll see.

4) The formal nights are usually on sea days, but we have occasionally had them on port days. It's rare but it does happen.

Hope that helps. We are particularly excited for this cruise as we thought we would miss out on the Caribbean this NY due our imminent house move. However our sale fell through on Monday, so yesterday we booked a cruise! As they say, every cloud has a silver lining :D.

Thank you, that helps a lot.

Hello Everyone

1) on black and white night, do most ladies wear a dress that is a mixture of black and white or is it acceptable to wear a long white dress or a long black dress?

Most ladies wear a black dress with a white stole/shrug/corsage, or vice versa. Doesn't have to be long. Some ladies also wear smart white trousers with black sparkly top, or vice versa. Quite a few black and white patterned maxi dresses on our last cruise, accessorised with sparkly sandals, bags and jewellery.

I'm lucky in that I found a ballerina length chiffon dress with a white wrap top and black skirt - very forgiving style - but I've had it a few years now so will probably be on the lookout for a replacement.

Hi, aside from b&w I don't see many doing tropical. I was on Freedom dining NYE last year, I think it was Arcadia. On NYE the freedom restaurant observes fixed settings and my experience was that this resulted in disarray with staff panicking not being used to having to clear people for a second setting. It was not a good experience and in future I will always book speciality on NYE if possible.

I think all the other questions have been answered, have a great trip.

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Thanks for the replies.

Florry can I just clarify something please that you mentioned about the dining on New Years Eve.

We are anytime/flexible dining. This suits us because we tend to eat at different times and vary our meal times according to any entertainment that we might want to go to.

Did you say that on NYE the dining is fixed dining, and if so will we need to book a time before we board?

Also, I know that there will be four formal nights but what is a Gala night?

On the nights that are not formal do some people still dress up a bit?

Our last cruise was Celebrity and there were no formal nights at all which was a bit disappointing for us. I love a chance to glam up.

We're really looking forward to this cruise.

Hello Everyone

We've just booked to go on the Azura over New Year departing from Barbados and I do have a few questions which I hope that you experienced cruisers can help me with.

 

4) Are the formal nights usually on sea days?

 

 

H, just had a closer look at the itinerary and it looks like we'll be having at least one formal night on a port day during the second week. Azura will be in port every day from Sunday 7th Jan to Saturday 13th Jan. Impossible to fathom out on which day though.