Are casual cruisers spoiling Cunard?

One of the highlights of cruising for many people is the dressing for dinner, the opportunity to put on their finery for a couple of nights per week and enjoy a really special evening. As a cruise consultant I get lots of calls from clients asking how many formal nights there will be (always a good excuse to get your husband to buy you a couple of new dresses!), and what sort of attire is suitable for both men and women.

Obviously there are people who prefer a more casual cruise, which is fine, after all it’s horses for courses, and there are ships that have a more relaxed dress code.
Cunard is not one of these cruise lines though, and when calling around my clients after their trip to make sure that they had a good time I’m getting an increasing number of people tell me that there were people on board not adhering to the evening dress code. What’s more, nobody from the cruise line seemed to have a problem with it. A lady I spoke to this morning told me that on the Queen Victoria last week there were men wandering around the ship of an evening wearing shorts and tee-shirts – in the bars and Casino. She said “I thought that Cunard was an upmarket cruise line but it seems that anything goes these days”.
Such a shame! I do think that Cunard raises certain expectations in its clients and they feel let down that the cruise line seems to be happy to turn blind eye.
Has anybody had a similar experience? Or do you have a comment to make on this?
My next blog will just go over the dress codes and clarify them for those who are unsure.