Iona cutting down on formal nights

[Les_ldh]

9 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

also wondering where we were on the formal nights as I didn’t notice any difference 

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one!

[Vampiress88]

4 minutes ago, Les_ldh said:

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one!

I have looked. We were at beach house and sindu. Typical 

[AndyMichelle]

10 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

I’m assuming this is different to the normal dinning room dinner then? 
 

off to google

 

also wondering where we were on the formal nights as I didn’t notice any difference 

It's served alongside the normal mdr menu, usually created by Marco Pierre White I think? 

Did you think there were lots of 1980's nightclub bouncers wearing Bow ties? 😊

Andy 

[brian1]

39 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

what’s a gala dinner?

A typical gala menu may be liver pate starter,liver and bacon and mash mains and then they liver to you to decide for dessert.

[Vampiress88]

Just now, brian1 said:

A typical gala menu may be liver pate starter,liver and bacon and mash mains and then they liver to you to decide for dessert.

😂 love it 

[P&O SUE]

Marco Pierre White’s beef wellington on formal night is lovely!

[davecttr]

5 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

Marco Pierre White’s beef wellington on formal night is lovely!

We had one of his xmas dinners on Oceana. It was pretentious rubbish and I told the chef so. We had better quality xmas dinners in our local country pub

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

We had one of his xmas dinners on Oceana. It was pretentious rubbish and I told the chef so. We had better quality xmas dinners in our local country pub

That’s a shame, the beef wellington I had on Britannia and Ventura and it was very good. This was in the MDR on a formal night.

[Camberley]

3 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

That’s a shame, the beef wellington I had on Britannia and Ventura and it was very good. This was in the MDR on a formal night.

Had the Beef Wellington on Britannia on a formal night and it was terrific. Easily as good as any I’ve eaten in restaurants over the years, and I’ve had some shocking ones: dry grey beef, flaccid soggy pastry ....

 

But horses for courses (horses seasoned appropriately to cater for all manner of tastes 😀)

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by Camberley

[Son of Anarchy]

Had the beef wellington on Azura within the last couple of weeks.  Great stuff

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, Camberley said:

Had the Beef Wellington on Britannia on a formal night and it was terrific. Easily as good as any I’ve eaten in restaurants over the years, and I’ve had some shocking ones: dry grey beef, flaccid soggy pastry ....

 

But horses for courses (horses seasoned appropriately to cater for all manner of tastes 😀)

 

 

I'm sure I have seen horses douvres on the menu on P&O ships . Does anybody know what part of the horse this is? 😊

Andy 

[eddie11]

You wouldn’t really want to know ...

[Britboys]

Coming back to the original thread, Formal Nights are one of the things I love about P&O.  For me it creates a really nice atmosphere when everyone is in formal wear.  I can understand why P&O are only having one on Iona as I firmly believe the whole atmosphere on her will be less formal and with all the eating options available, the formal dining experience will, I think be quite different.  It doesn't bother me as Iona doesn't appeal to me in the least, so as long as they leave things as they are on the smaller ships I am happy.

I sailed on Marella Discovery 2 early last year and the "Dress to Impress" night was pretty much a waste of time really as many didn't bother at all, sticking to shorts or jeans.

[kenhem]

I'm in the camp of one formal night per week is enough, particularly on the longer cruises. We're currently on the 28 night Arcadia cruise to the Caribbean and there are 8 formal nights on this, I'm doubtful we'll do all 8. What makes it worse is where there are no formal nights whilst we spend 7 nights doing the islands they are crammed in on the sea days. Consequently there are 4 formals across 7 nights going to the islands and 4 formals across  9 nights coming back.

 

But I hope P&O do not go down the route mentioned by Andrew of Marella. Personally our favourite dress code is Celebrity's Evening Chic which gives the option of formal or smart casual. When we first started cruising we enjoyed and looked forward to the formal nights but maybe where we've done quite a few cruises now we've got tired of them. But each to their own of course as I know a lot of P&O cruisers enjoy the formal nights.

[Camberley]

I liked the formal nights we had but I can see myself getting fed up with them: for me once a week is probably quite enough to keep it all “special enough”.

[happy v]

On 10/29/2019 at 7:21 AM, peteukmcr said:

Interesting, but having seen a presentation regarding Iona last Saturday by P&O reps I'm not surprised in the reduction of formal nights on Iona with the vast array of alternative dining venues, especially in the Sky Dome area. All appear to be less formal than the main dining rooms. It will be interesting to see what venues are out of bounds on formal evening if you're not dressed accordingly.

 

With Iona's sister ship due in 2022 (expected to be designed more for warmer climes - according to P&O) you can only expect a reduction in formal dress codes. 

 

RCI are the latest to abandon formal night on some ships (no doubt to be fleet wide eventually), now known as 'Wear your Best'. As with 'Evening Chic' on Celebrity and 'Norwegian Night Out' on NCL, this does not prevent you from wearing formal wear, and people still do, it's just not mandatory. Of course none of those lines ever restricted you from using venues you've paid for if you weren't dressed formally which is my bugbear with P&O even though I intend to adhere to the dress code on our upcoming Britannia TA (just bought another tux yesterday).

I like the thought of the newer new ship doing more interesting itineraries than the Med.

I hope they don't just mean the Fjords again.

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, happy v said:

I like the thought of the newer new ship doing more interesting itineraries than the Med.

I hope they don't just mean the Fjords again.

I wonder if the new ship is destined to join Britannia in the Caribbean for winter cruises, this would also free up Azura to take over the winter Gulf fly cruises, if indeed Oceana is to be sold or transferred.

[davecttr]

Iona is restricted in where she can cruise because of the need for her special fuel. Obviously they hope to expand the range of 'filling stations'

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, happy v said:

I like the thought of the newer new ship doing more interesting itineraries than the Med.

I hope they don't just mean the Fjords again.

So where exactly do you think a mega ship will cruise to, that is only 7 days away from Southampton? 

You have to be realistic.

[brian1]

7 hours ago, davecttr said:

Iona is restricted in where she can cruise because of the need for her special fuel. Obviously they hope to expand the range of 'filling stations'

Perhaps that's what the gin distillery is for,when in port.

[terrierjohn]

11 hours ago, davecttr said:

Iona is restricted in where she can cruise because of the need for her special fuel. Obviously they hope to expand the range of 'filling stations'

Dave by the time Iona2 is launched Carnival's Mardi Gras will be sailing in the Caribbean, probably along with the Costa Smeralda as well, so the filling stations should be in place.

[happy v]

18 hours ago, wowzz said:

So where exactly do you think a mega ship will cruise to, that is only 7 days away from Southampton? 

You have to be realistic.

Why 7 days? I have no time constraints, and to get to warmer climes it will have to be longer.

[terrierjohn]

19 hours ago, wowzz said:

So where exactly do you think a mega ship will cruise to, that is only 7 days away from Southampton? 

You have to be realistic.

It only has to be 7 days away from the nearest port with a LNG refuelling facility, and these currently exist in Barcelona, Tenerife, Gibraltar, Hamburg, Civitavecchia etc.

Madrid Gras will cross the Atlantic after its launch next year, so presumably Miami and Fort Lauderdale will have facilities, and I expect that Barbados will have them as well. And of course they can also be refuelled from road tankers just about anywhere.

Incidentally there are 120 LNG ships currently operating with 130 being built, so the infrastructure will quickly follow.

Edited November 4, 2019 by terrierjohn

[AndyMichelle]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

It only has to be 7 days away from the nearest port with a LNG refuelling facility, and these currently exist in Barcelona, Tenerife, Gibraltar, Hamburg, Civitavecchia etc.

Madrid Gras will cross the Atlantic after its launch next year, so presumably Miami and Fort Lauderdale will have facilities, and I expect that Barbados will have them as well. And of course they can also be refuelled from road tankers just about anywhere.

Incidentally there are 120 LNG ships currently operating with 130 being built, so the infrastructure will quickly follow.

Good insight John, thank you. 

Andy 

[Denarius]

On 11/3/2019 at 4:49 PM, Camberley said:

I liked the formal nights we had but I can see myself getting fed up with them: for me once a week is probably quite enough to keep it all “special enough”.

I agree. Whilst I prefer casual dress, I am quite happy to don black tie if there is a special occasion to do so. A special occasion like the captain's reception or the gala dinner. I am less happy to do so when there is nothing special about the evening but black tie is to be worn simply because it has been decreed that there should be a certain number of such evenings on the cruise.