5-night Christmas cruise on Constellation-different vibe?

[surgie]

My husband and I took a 7 day cruise on Millennium to Alaska this past May and loved the ship, AQ and Blu. Decided to book a 5-night on Constellation for Dec. 21-26, again in AQ in cabin 1138 (love the true aft cabins). I'm assuming it will have more families than the Alaska 7-day did which is fine. But I've read horror stories about "booze cruise" behaviors on the shorter itineraries. Has anyone done a 5-night Christmas week cruise on Celebrity and found that to be true? I'm hoping not but I have until September to look for other options and cancel if we change our minds.

[gimletgal]

My husband and I took a 7 day cruise on Millennium to Alaska this past May and loved the ship, AQ and Blu. Decided to book a 5-night on Constellation for Dec. 21-26, again in AQ in cabin 1138 (love the true aft cabins). I'm assuming it will have more families than the Alaska 7-day did which is fine. But I've read horror stories about "booze cruise" behaviors on the shorter itineraries. Has anyone done a 5-night Christmas week cruise on Celebrity and found that to be true? I'm hoping not but I have until September to look for other options and cancel if we change our minds.

 

It will, for sure, be loaded with families and children. As to being a "booze cruise", unless some large college contigent has booked, you should be relatively safe. It certainly won't be like a Spring Break 5 nighter! :)

[Muushka]

Plus with the Christmas cruise premium price, I would think the party type would stay away.

 

Have a great Christmas cruise!

[hcat]

I agree...probably more families/children than party goers...

 

FYI to OP, AQ class cabins are limited to 2 people...one can be a child... suites also have access to BLU and may attract families.......we never saw an unruly child in BLU.or elsewhere on board

 

we enjoyed Connie very much in Jan for a 5 night cruise....there were some partiers but fairly easy to avoid them....they gravitated to the loud music and more lively bar areas.

 

The crew and staff were amazing....ship will likely have lovely decorations.,,,sounds like a nice plan for the holidays..,

Edited July 8, 2015 by hcat

[Snit13]

Love Christmas time cruises with all of the lovely decorations. We sailed the Constellation for 5 nights the 1st week of February and had a wonderful, peaceful cruise. So glad we were not on the "cruise from hell."

 

We are booked on Constellation for 9 nights in February 2016 which will be our 3rd cruise on The Connie. We previously did a 14 night Southern Caribbean on The Connie.

 

Your cruise should be great. Not to worry.

[Tiggertastic]

We're on the cruise. We do Xmas on celebrity for a couple of years and find the atmosphere on the Xmas ones different from other Caribbean ones. They are family orientated although you never really see the children other than Xmas day when Santa comes to hand out presents. Never found them to be anything like we experienced at spring break.

[surgie]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. Our grown kids and their families will each be with their spouse's family this year so even though Christmas is an expensive time to travel, it's making me feel a little better to look forward to a short cruise since we won't be seeing our grandkids.

[cruisingsince94]

We did a Christmas cruise last year and it was just fine. Expect a lot of families, beautiful decorations, and a wonderful time. As stated in previous posts, rates will keep the college age crowds away. They are saving their money for spring break. They stay at home and terrorize the parents at Christmas. :D

[Muushka]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. Our grown kids and their families will each be with their spouse's family this year so even though Christmas is an expensive time to travel, it's making me feel a little better to look forward to a short cruise since we won't be seeing our grandkids.

 

Oh you'll not see me complaining about the expense of Christmas cruises.

We've done a few. For us it is worth every penny. Do a 2 weeker some time! Now there's a cruise. Christmas and NYE.:D

[jayoldschool]

We did the 5 day on the Connie last March Break, and it was packed with college students! It was fun, and definitely a different vibe. The pool area was a party, the Sky lounge at night was busier than any cruise we've been on. Lots of groggy late arrivals at the Oceanview the next day. Schools were so well represented that we thought that X must have done some on campus advertising.

 

Not sure if our experience will translate to the xmas cruise, however. We're planning on booking that itinerary soon.

[cosmo1027]

Has anyone done a short cruise in between Christmas and New Year and what was that atmosphere like? Do the decorations stay up even though it leaves the day after Christmas?

 

We are thinking about booking this cruise, but trying to figure out what to expect. It's not a Christmas cruise and not a NYE cruise, but the dates work well for us and we are wondering what to expect.

Thanks!

[Chazteach1]

On past Xmas week cruises they have kept decorations up til January 1st.

[Murphy]

Has anyone done a short cruise in between Christmas and New Year and what was that atmosphere like? Do the decorations stay up even though it leaves the day after Christmas?

 

We are thinking about booking this cruise, but trying to figure out what to expect. It's not a Christmas cruise and not a NYE cruise, but the dates work well for us and we are wondering what to expect.

Thanks!

We did this itinerary last year. Loved it. All the holiday decor was up so looked quite festive. There were more kids than normal , but never felt like they took over. It was a relaxing break for us.

[wallie5446]

These sailings are booked by more families enjoying the time their grade school youngsters are on holiday. And for the most part the families that sail on Celebrity will have better behaved children :D

 

This is the holiday period where the party crowd looks to be in Time Square, not with their friends Grand Parents:D

[JohnBoy in NC]

Will they have decorations Dec 12th week? Hope so!!

 

John in NC

[Murphy]

Will they have decorations Dec 12th week? Hope so!!

 

John in NC

 

Yes

[sswv]

We are staying in same cabin, but taking the 5 day cruise just after you! We took a 4 day cruise last year on the 26th December and we loved it so much we booked it again! First time in Aft room though so we are excited. We have our teenage/college age kids in an interior room across hall. They enjoyed that Connie was not like a Carnival or Disney cruise with little kids running all over. I don't think you should have a problem. And yes the decorations go up right after Thanksgiving and come down after Jan 1. It's a nice time to be on a cruise! Enjoy!

[cosmo1027]

Thank you for the comments! They are very helpful.

 

For those of you that have done a short cruise between Christmas and New Year's, will there be a dressy formal night? I have cruised on NYE and it was formal, but we will debark the morning of NYE so I wasn't sure how formal for a 5 day cruise.

TIA!

[Dick in Falls Church]

We did Constellation last Christmas, with 3 daughters, 3 guys, and 4 grandaughters (17-20). It was very nice. Quite a few families, not a lot of college kids for party-boat. and 5 days was just about enough! Best I recall, there was only 1 dressup night--had my usual sport coat.

 

Since air fares were not a great deal at that time of year, we went ahead and took a 1 week cruise which ended a day before the Christmas cruise--without the family.

[Tiggertastic]

We're excited about this one, first time on the connie. We're getting off and getting on eclipse the following day for new year. Really looking forward to it even more after all these positive comments

[Muushka]

We're excited about this one, first time on the connie. We're getting off and getting on eclipse the following day for new year. Really looking forward to it even more after all these positive comments

 

Want another positive comment?? You are going to have an awesome New Year celebration!

We were on Eclipse last year for the Christmas and NYE cruise.

It was the best NYE celebration we have ever had. So many special moments. Enjoy!

[Trainer]

We're also on this Dec. 21 Constellation cruise. There is a roll call for it, so come on over and get acquainted. I love cruising at holiday time, very festive, beautiful decorations. Great for family photos around the decorations.

Our children and grands are scattered around the world, so we would not see them all anyway.

[Murphy]

Want another positive comment?? You are going to have an awesome New Year celebration!

We were on Eclipse last year for the Christmas and NYE cruise.

It was the best NYE celebration we have ever had. So many special moments. Enjoy!

Do you remember if there was something different in the MDR on NYE? Trying to decide if we should make a specialty dining reservation or if MDR would have anything going on.

[Muushka]

Yes, I do remember. For one thing, it was next to impossible to get specialty dining for the holiday dinners. If that is the route you want to go, start working on it now. I (wrongly) assumed I could take care of it once on board, but none left.

 

Dinner in the MDR was very festive, high energy. it was formal night and lobster was served. They had crowns saying Happy New Year for the ladies and the silly hats for the men. I didn't mind that we couldn't eat SD that night.

 

Another thing I remember was wandering around on the pool deck where the party was. We happened on the filling of the champagne glasses, all 3000+ of them! How fun is that?? We were cruising to St. Marteen on 1/1. The captain asked permission from HQ to burn some extra fuel to get us off the coast so that we could see the NYE fireworks on the island from the ship. Awesome!

 

We are not 'party people', but very much enjoyed the party on the pool deck.

 

I hope you all have a great Christmas and NYE cruise!

[Murphy]

Great info. Thanks