Cruise over Christmas with 5 year old..what to do?

[Live_2_cruise05]

Hi, This Christmas our family is going on the Celebrity Galaxy for a 12 night Panama Canal cruise leaving December 17! Has anyone ever cruised over Christmas before? We have a 5 and 15 year old DDs. Although our 15 year old really does not care if she gets anything (because she is on a cruise:) ) I know that our 5 year old will be expecting something form "Santa". What would you do?

Thanks!

[cusyl]

Why not hide a wrapped gift in your checked luggage for him..some ships have a gift department where you can order things sent to the ship to arrive when you embark. We are cruising over Christmas this year and I am putting a very small fibreoptic tree in my suitcase and making some stockings for the cabin steward and waiter/bus boy.

You could even put one of those little portable game boys in your carry on for him.

[shrimp0]

Dont bring wrapped presents in your luggage.... the surprise will be ruined when airport securtiy opens your packages in front of your child!!!!!!! What you can do is sneak away at a few of the ports before Christmas day and buy a few souviners to give to your son on Christmas day. ( these you can wrap on board in your cabin and you can tell your son that Santa came all the way to the Caribbean to drop these off... and he picked up a few things on his way.)

You can also research Christmas customs for the area where you will be on Christmas day and celebrate with local customs. If you are in port that day... make sure to find out what kind of things will be open and available for visitors.

[Arubalisa]

This is our second Christmas cruise in a row. As others have said...

 

Bring wrapping paper with you. Do not bring any gifts wrapped already in your luggage.

 

DH & I challenged ourselves to find gifts which could fit in "small" packages along with dd's Christmas stocking. Small gifts included gift certificates, earrings/jewelry, hair accessories, Game Boy games, Books.

 

Our family traditionally exchanges gifts Christmas Eve. We continued this tradition but exchanged gifts before dinner (we had late seating and didn't want to put the kids through staying up that late after dinner) instead of after as we usually do at home. That morning we ordered wine, sodas, cheese plates and fruit platters for delivery at gift opening time.

 

After dinner we returned to the cabin where our dd set out some juice she had brought for Santa as well as graham crackers she had "acquired" at one of the buffets. Sure enough Santa came and did his thing, spilling graham cracker crumbs half way across the cabin :rolleyes: YES, she was surprised when she awoke Christmas morning.

 

Santa also visited our home while we were away on our cruise. The neighbors helped him get into our house and he left the huge and or heavy gifts there...bicycle, board games, artist kit ...you get the picture.

 

Let me end by saying dd is 9 years old this year and she still believes in Santa Claus :D

 

Also, I don't know if Celebrity does the same, but HAL offered special bon voyage gifts for purchase such as two sizes of table top Christmas trees, floral arrangements with evergreens, holly, poinsettia, special gift boxes of chocolates and other assorted goodies. Other nice gifts off the bon voyage list were chocolate covered strawberries, massages (our Nana's favorite), casino chips (Dad's favorite), bottles of wine (can never go wrong with wine for my Mom or SIL), soda cards (for my nieces and nephews)...

[Cruisin' Chick]

We're going on our first Christmas cruise on the Island Princess. Not only Christmas at sea but the first night of Hanukah, too. I'm thinking of helping our girl make a paper menorah with velcro so we can attach the candles every night (don't want to burn down the cabin). Maybe even bring along some small gifts (we're driving to the port so we won't worry about airport security but I guess we should check with port security about wrapping ahead). I heard Princess gives the kids a present "from Santa."

[thunderbird1]

We've never cruised over Christmas before, but have been in hotels for the last several Christmas's (and will be again this year), so my dd always mentions in her letter to Santa that we'll be gone over the holidays so please come early. So far, he's always been able to visit our house ahead of the "Christmas rush," and often brings travel-themed gifts (new gameboy games for the plane ride; Disney dollars, Pal Mickey and trading pins for Disney trips; kids' travel journals; etc).

 

This year, we'll be cruising just before Christmas so we're also looking at onboard gifts that either Santa could deliver or the grandparents could "send." Carnival has some fun kids' packages that will be easy to order and have waiting in our stateroom.

 

We've also had luck explaining that our cruise (or vacation) is our family present to each other, and tried to build in some special activities that we consider "gifts." My dd is especially looking forward to high tea with daddy and the scavenger hunt with mommy (both big hits from our last Carnival cruise).

 

Good luck and have fun! Travel is a great way to spend the holidays!

[pooh012]

Thunderbird1 - what kind of "kids packages" will Carnival have available during the holiday season? Are they special themed packages or the ones that can be ordered throughout the year? We are booked on the Conquest 12/18-12/25 and our children are about the same ages as yours (dd 9 & ds 2). Planning to do stockings in the cabin Christmas morning and was hoping to leave gifts at the hotel to be opened when we check in later Christmas day. Have you ever had packages shipped/delivered to hotel prior to your arrival?

[Arubalisa]

Check out http://www.carnival.com/BonVoyage/Default.aspx and go to "Just for Kids"

[thunderbird1]

Yep-those were the ones I was thinking of. I think there's a mermaid-themed package, a beach-themed package and some stuffed animals. They were all around $30, so not too expensive, but a little unusual and tied to the trip. On our Disney cruise my dh had a few things sent to the cabin (without us knowing) and they included gift cards, so you could send the package to the kids from parents, grandparents, Santa or ??? Even if it doesn't come exactly on Christmas, we always figure the whole trip is our Christmas present to each other, so we like to extend the magic over the entire trip.

 

I've never had anything delivered to our hotel, but we're doing Disney World this year as well and I'm thinking I might try it. There are several different people who will do gift baskets in whatever theme you like delivered to Orlando-area hotels or shipped to anywhere, so I'm sure either you could find someone or the hotel might even be able to recommend someone. Or you could probably even put something together yourself and ship it to the hotel before you leave (check with them to make sure they could hold it for your arrival).

 

Good luck, and have fun!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Of course, after the cruise, will be the opening of presents from grandparents and other relatives.;)

[Cruisin' Chick]

Another thing to be aware is that if they are involved with the kids' program, they'll have those items to bring home. I remember Carnival gave her a lunch pail type container with some stuff on one cruise, and a back pack on another.

[Live_2_cruise05]

Thank yall so much for the info on what to do! We are getting very excited~! I know that our daughters will LOVE this Christmas!

[serene56]

I have seen suggestions to have christmas before you cruise with a note from santa saying he knows you will be away...etc.etc. or a note from santa saying that he left the presents at home since a cabin is only so big and all the presents wont fit there.