So I changed my code around
It now looks like this
$departure_date = get_field('departure_date', false, false);
$departure_date = new DateTime($departure_date);
<?php echo $depature_date->format('j M Y'); ?>
It now displays the date “Departs 9 Jan 2017” even if the date is set to Jun 1, 2017
When I do $date on it’s own I get: 20170601
