Anyone just back from cruising Christmas/New Years?

[A Little Pixie Dust]

Hello,

 

We will be cruising Summit next year for Christmas and New Years. I was wondering what X does to celebrate the holidays. Is there a Santa for the kids to see? On New Years eve - do they hand out hats or noisemakers or anything?

 

Just curious. Thank you in advance for any information you could provide.

 

Desiree

[geoherb]

We're just back from a Christmas cruise--but on a HAL ship. Last year we were on the Century for Christmas and New Year's. On Celebrity, we received a gift in the cabin and Santa came for the kids. On New Year's Eve, there was a party near the pools with complimentary cheap champagne. We had received hats at dinner.

 

Both Christmas night and New Year's Eve were formal nights. They had special menus for dinner both nights. And of course there are decorations throughout the ship (although not as nice as we had seen on Princess and RCI or what we saw last month on HAL).

[Live_2_cruise05]

Hi, We're just back from the Celebrity Galaxy over Christmas. On our cruise they had a special family Christmas show and Santa did show up! Also the when we came back from dinner we had a gift in our cabin! It was great!

[nova1]

We were on the Infinity for the holidays. The decorations were just OK. On Christmas they had a great parade and the kids all received presents from Santa (a blanket with a Celebrity insignia). The adults received presents in their cabins as well.

 

Christmas day we had the first formal night. The food was better than usual.

 

New Year's Eve was FANTASTIC. They had a huge deck party with the Celebrity Orchestra playing big band hits. They had a video display, ice sculptures, and a big dramatic countdown with champagne and food for all. Very well done.

[Barbarina]

Hi, We just came back from the Century where we spent Xmas and New Years. We had a wonderful time, there was Santa with the children on Xmas morning giving them presents, my daughter got a great sweatshirt, we received a nice gift also on our stateroom of a photoalbum with a pad , very nice and a Panettone (Italian sort of like fruitcake, yummy!) and we had the midnight mass (cathoilic) which was beautiful and on New Years they gave us at the formal dinner hats and noisemakers etc....and had a great party on the pooldeck, we had a great time , very recommended! :)

[SeaGal]

A bit more detail on the 12/17/05 Galaxy Christmas cruise:

 

Another poster mentioned the Family Holiday show. It was the evening entertainment in the Celebrity theatre on Christmas eve and started with about 18 Filipino crew members doing a native dance - very well done. A waiter sang - he should be on the entertainment staff. Children from the kid's activity program came on stage wearing reindeer antlers (made from their own hand prints - very cute). One of the youth staff read "The Night Before Christmas" and then the children sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer". After this the Celebrity singers and dancers did a few holiday songs. The theatre had a full-house for this event.

 

Christmas eve was informal/formal and Christmas night was formal. There was a traditional turkey dinner entree choice on Christmas day.

 

Both Protestant and Catholic services were held at midnight Christmas eve (one in the theatre, the other in the Savoy nightclub). There were services again at 10am on Christmas morning.

 

Santa arrived in the Celebrity theatre at 9am Christmas morning . Santa sat in a nice big red chair on the theatre stage and the children (up through age 17) lined up to sit on his lap and receive a gift. The Celebrity photographer was there to capture the moment.

 

The Christmas decorations on the ship were underwhelming. A few decorated trees in the main public rooms, some garlands here and there, poinsettias on the staircases (but many were not in good shape). We decorated our room by stringing lights around our mirror and window. We even brought a 3’ fake tree and decorated it with non-breakable ornaments. The first night was quite rough and after hitting a particularly large wave with a big bang, the tree fell off the table. If the loud bang and jolt did not wake us, the jingle bell ornaments rolling all over the cabin floor would have. Bring the 3M Command mini hooks that pull off without damaging the surface. They worked great for stringing the lights. Also, with only one outlet in the cabin, which is over the dresser, we were glad that we brought two 15’ extension cords and a power strip so that the tree could stand on a table near the window.

 

We were apprehensive about being away from home over Christmas, but we had a wonderful time and would do it again.

[kelmac]

A bit more detail on the 12/17/05 Galaxy Christmas cruise:

 

Another poster mentioned the Family Holiday show. It was the evening entertainment in the Celebrity theatre on Christmas eve and started with about 18 Filipino crew members doing a native dance - very well done. A waiter sang - he should be on the entertainment staff. Children from the kid's activity program came on stage wearing reindeer antlers (made from their own hand prints - very cute). One of the youth staff read "The Night Before Christmas" and then the children sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer". After this the Celebrity singers and dancers did a few holiday songs. The theatre had a full-house for this event.

 

Christmas eve was informal/formal and Christmas night was formal. There was a traditional turkey dinner entree choice on Christmas day.

 

 

Both Protestant and Catholic services were held at midnight Christmas eve (one in the theatre, the other in the Savoy nightclub). There were services again at 10am on Christmas morning.

 

Santa arrived in the Celebrity theatre at 9am Christmas morning . Santa sat in a nice big red chair on the theatre stage and the children (up through age 17) lined up to sit on his lap and receive a gift. The Celebrity photographer was there to capture the moment.

 

The Christmas decorations on the ship were underwhelming. A few decorated trees in the main public rooms, some garlands here and there, poinsettias on the staircases (but many were not in good shape). We decorated our room by stringing lights around our mirror and window. We even brought a 3’ fake tree and decorated it with non-breakable ornaments. The first night was quite rough and after hitting a particularly large wave with a big bang, the tree fell off the table. If the loud bang and jolt did not wake us, the jingle bell ornaments rolling all over the cabin floor would have. Bring the 3M Command mini hooks that pull off without damaging the surface. They worked great for stringing the lights. Also, with only one outlet in the cabin, which is over the dresser, we were glad that we brought two 15’ extension cords and a power strip so that the tree could stand on a table near the window.

 

We were apprehensive about being away from home over Christmas, but we had a wonderful time and would do it again.

 

Hi SeaGal (Patti),

 

The holidays at sea are now a new tradition with Luaren and I -- this Galaxy cruise was our 5th. Looks like you did some real planning to make your cruise special for your family! We enjoy meeting you, Jim, Alex and Annmarie. I have a few photos of you and Jim "zip linning" through the rain forest of Costa Rica. If you wound like a copy, email me and I will send them your way. mccoyote@msn.com

Have a great New Year and tell you lovely family ""hello" from Lauren and Kelly.

[Sahaj]

We just returned from the December 18th sailing to Hawaii for the Holidays! It was a great trip. There were a lot of children of all Ages onboard, with much for them to do. And yes Santa did land onboard!

 

There was a great outdoors New Years Eve Events we really enjoyed. The champagne was flowing!

 

All in All, a great cruise. We did go to the specialty restaurant, The Normandie, on Dec. 24th (and 2 other days)..Wonderful!

 

Christmas, New Years and Hanukkah are wonderful celebrating on a cruise!