Other dinning room option

rozo123

I'm curious if the smaller/other dinning room option on the MS Joy will be less formal. My husband is refusing to consider dressing up for dinner every night of our upcoming cruise.

Also, are there any in-cabin dinning options?

Thanks in advance for your reply!

Claudia Sails

When Tauck changed the old bistro into the newer Arthurs it went from a casual alternative with a very limited menu to something much closer to the compass rose dining room. Arthurs is bigger than the old bistro, has its own kitchen, carpeted floors, upholstered furniture, etc. The menu is set but more extensive than it used to be. Excellent food but doesn't have the nightly specials that the compass rose dining room has. We ate dinner there once on our last cruise and the food was excellent. They always post the menu for the main dining room at the front desk so you can look at and decide that night if you want to eat there or Arthurs. The only drawback to Arthurs is that you have to make reservations and they have set seating times unlike the main dining room when you usually can just show up. No reservations taken or needed.

Bottom line not really less fancy.

The good news is he doesn't really need to dress up a lot. Except for special occasions, my husband wears collared knit shirts (golf) and cotton slacks for day touring and evening meals. He may wear sneakers or hiking shoes for touring then changes to "docksider" type leather shoes for diner. For the special dinners he wears dress slacks, long sl dress shirt and may add one or more of the following - tie, sport coat, or sweater. A casual jacket/sweater are nice to have for going up to the sun deck in the evening when it may be chilly even in the summer especially if the ship is underway - very common time to take off for the next port.

Special occasions depend on your cruise but include the 1st and last night at a minimum. Of the dinners we've had off the ship only Fouquets in Paris was "dressy".

There are free "Bite to Eat" refreshments available from 10AM to midnight. They are snack trays of things like cookies, cheese/crackers, sandwiches, etc. There should be a menu in your room and you can call up the front desk and they bring it to your room. We've never taken advantage of this. With lunch, happy hour apps in the lounge and wonderful dinners we never felt the need.

rozo123

Thanks you so much for this info Claudia! I'm probably worrying about what to wear to dinner too much, but I guess I know it will affect how I feel about the whole thing! I have zero fashion sense, so the whole What To Wear, for me, is always a stress inducer!

Maybe I'll take some dinner photos during our cruise, post them on IG, and tag them. Then people will have a better sense. Tauck's brochure photos aren't very helpful in this area.

Again, thanks for the reply!

Claudia Sails

I agree Taucks photos aren't helpful since they seem to only be taken on the special occasion nights. Your concerns are shared by most first time cruisers. Dress code is the single biggest topic on the forum.

Part of the problem is that people tend to think of the daily touring as if its some physically arduous event requiring exercise gear and at the opposite end that dinner is some cocktail dress/suit&tie event. The reality is in the middle. The daily tours are pretty easy - I compare it to a nice lunch out and a few hours of shopping with my girlfriends. The easiest is to wear something nice, but casual and comfortable. Capris/lightweight slacks/casual skirt and a matching top. When the group gets back to the ship I may change shoes, grab a wrap/scarf and head for happy hour - the sun deck if its nice out.

People also think other people will remember that they already wore that outfit. No they won't.

For the special occasions you can do the whole dress, panty hose, etc thing OR bring a nice pair of neutral colored slacks (Coldwater Creeks Holly ponte knits are my favorite) and 1-3 dressy tops that go with them.

I took way too many dressy outfits, shoes and necklaces on our first river cruise. Luggage was so heavy I didn't feel I could do much souvenir shopping. Don't worry about repeating outfits - no one else will remember. Shoes and necklaces are heavy - limit the choices as much as possible. Chose outfits that can be worn with the same shoes and scarves instead of necklaces. When we went on the 14 day Rhine/Moselle in Oct (plus extra days on both ends) my suitcase weighed almost 10lbs lighter than our 10 day French Waterways in July. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Just keep editing your choices down and remember you can also hand laundry some items or have the ship do so - 6 euros for a pair on pants overnight.

Most importantly, have fun.

CATSOOS

Do not stress about the dinner attire, there were all types of clothing attire at dinner. I was on the Amsterdam to Basel trip last year and the ship we were on had a casual dinner spot changed from Arthurs.

You could order what ever you wanted, burgers, sandwiches etc. We even ordered lunch up on the deck while cruising the Rhine, they bought us burgers and fries.

Just go an enjoy yourselves, they are all once in a lifetime trips Tauck won't throw you out of the dinning room if you have sneakers on!

Claudia Sails

Catsoos, I'm a little confused by your statement that "the ship we were on had a casual dinner spot changed from Arthurs".
Do you mean it was one of the older Jewel class ships? Those ships have the smaller, more casual bistro - vinyl floor, wicker chairs, no kitchen, very limited menu. Although that is starting to change (supposedly) this year with the redesign of the Emerald and Sapphire.


Love the idea of lunch on the sundeck. If I can just drag my husband away from the main dining room which he loves.