Christmas Cruise Questions

[Cancruizer]

Hi All,

 

I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me out. I'm wondering what cruisers can expect on Celebrity if they cruise during Christmas (decorations, special holiday dinners, Santa?). Any info you can share would be super helpful.

 

Thanks so much!

Ilana

[Jim_Iain]

Celebrity does quite extensive decorating of the ship and is very festive.   Last year on Infinity they erected a large Gingerbread house outside the OceanView.   They usually have a Santa who give gifts to the children.   It is common that they have a Priest, Rabi or Minister onboard for holiday services.   Depending on when the cruise departs they have a Passenger Choir that preps and does Christmas Carols in the Foyer. 

 

They often if not always put on a special meal for Christmas.   Some passengers enjoy bringing a couple of small gifts that they can give to their room attendant and wait staff but not expected but always appreciated. 

[cruisestitch]

Excellent summary -- I will only add that if the Cruise Critic search is working you should be able to find lots of photos of Christmases past -- the ship decor is very festive.

[Jim_Iain]

Here's a link to the Passenger Choir doing Xmas Carols

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

And a couple pictures I googled up

 

 

 

[crazyman3]

We were on the Connie for Christmas 2016. Many of the public areas were decorated. A reasonable festive feel ----it must be difficult to make the ship Christmas-y when there are many people of other/no faith on board.

The choir sang well and Father Christmas made some appearances ----loved him descending on a rope from the dizzy heights onto the stage in the evening show! 

 

The sad part, for us, was the Christmas Dinner. We had told our Norwegian friends about it and asked for it to be served from the MDR to us in Luminae. It was awful! School dinners ----and as a retired teacher I've many of those! 

I was surprised that Christmas food wasn't offered on the Luminae menu ---it can't have taken them by surprise! 'Now what's happening on 25th December... no... I can't think of anything special... let's use Menu 4 then!'

[digital_curator]

We have done holiday cruises on both the Eclipse and Reflection. In addition to the decorations (great on Eclipse, less so on Reflection), there was caroling on Christmas Eve and a turkey dinner option in the MDR. Santa arrives "down the funnel" and parades the kids down to the theater, where he gives each child a present. 

 

We enjoyed the festivities on the Eclipse better but the Reflection had lots of extra festive foods (including bottles of eggnog) in the buffet. 

 

New Year's Eve is also a lot of fun. There is (weather permitting) a pool party. Everyone gets hats and noisemakers at dinner and then at midnight, they push an ice sculpture of the "old date" into the pool and set up a new ice sculpture with the new one. 

 

A lot of people also bring their own decorations to hang on their doors. All in all, it is quite festive!

[digital_curator]

I also found (and please don't anyone start a debate on X's clothing suggestions) that people tend to dress up more for holiday cruises, especially the formal nights (Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve) when there were a lot more gowns and tuxes that I am used to seeing on Caribbean itineraries. 

[mahdnc]

We were aboard Infinity on Christmas Day 2016 somewhere off the coast of Chile.  Here are the Celebrity Today newsletter and MDR dinner menu, and MDR dessert menu.  

 

The Grand Foyer, MDR, and forward observation lounge were decorated.  Here is the best photo I have although my kids are in the way!

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by mahdnc

[Cancruizer]

Thanks so much for the very helpful replies as well as the photos! This year I'm celebrating on Princess (shhh), but maybe next year on Celebrity, lol

 

Ilana

[Cancruizer]

1 hour ago, digital_curator said:

We have done holiday cruises on both the Eclipse and Reflection. In addition to the decorations (great on Eclipse, less so on Reflection), there was caroling on Christmas Eve and a turkey dinner option in the MDR. Santa arrives "down the funnel" and parades the kids down to the theater, where he gives each child a present. 

 

We enjoyed the festivities on the Eclipse better but the Reflection had lots of extra festive foods (including bottles of eggnog) in the buffet. 

 

New Year's Eve is also a lot of fun. There is (weather permitting) a pool party. Everyone gets hats and noisemakers at dinner and then at midnight, they push an ice sculpture of the "old date" into the pool and set up a new ice sculpture with the new one. 

 

A lot of people also bring their own decorations to hang on their doors. All in all, it is quite festive!

Oh cool ice sculpture tradition!! Thanks for the other info too!

[crazyman3]

14 hours ago, digital_curator said:

I also found (and please don't anyone start a debate on X's clothing suggestions) that people tend to dress up more for holiday cruises, especially the formal nights (Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve) when there were a lot more gowns and tuxes that I am used to seeing on Caribbean itineraries. 

 

Yes, I'd forgotten that! There were a lot more DJs and posh frocks around ----- never on the same person though! 

[digital_curator]

On 11/29/2018 at 8:38 AM, crazyman3 said:

 

Yes, I'd forgotten that! There were a lot more DJs and posh frocks around ----- never on the same person though! 

 

I didn't learn the British term DJ until my first Christmas cruise- I still think Disc Jockey when I see it! 

[topcruz]

When do they put up the decorations?  We will be on Reflections Dec 7 to 21 so was hoping we may see some decorations towards the end of our crusie which is just before the holiday cruise.

[awhfy]

3 minutes ago, topcruz said:

When do they put up the decorations?  We will be on Reflections Dec 7 to 21 so was hoping we may see some decorations towards the end of our crusie which is just before the holiday cruise.

Normally decorations are up by December 1

[GACrusin]

Thanks all for sharing the information and pictures!  We'll be on the Equinox at Christmas this year (for our first Christmas cruise), and glad to see all of the decorations...as there won't be many at home between now and then!  Hard to justify getting everything out and put up when we're going to be on the ship.  We've got dinner reservations in Murano Christmas evening.  I'm guessing their menu will be the same as usual...with good food!

Edited December 1, 2018 by GACrusin

[Lolabunny488]

we will be on the constellation this year for christmas last year we were on the solstice. We can not wait to be on the ship its so nice to be on a ship for christmas. We are in aqua class o looking forward to blu restaurant again, We were on constellation in May and the service was superb. Hope everyone enjoys there xmas cruises.

[2chiefs]

17 hours ago, topcruz said:

When do they put up the decorations?  We will be on Reflections Dec 7 to 21 so was hoping we may see some decorations towards the end of our crusie which is just before the holiday cruise.

We will be on the cruise with you next week. We went on a 4-day cruise last year on the Reflection (December 18-22) and they were decorated.

We always cruise in December (mostly RCCL) and it varies from ship to ship as to when they start but mostly it begins shortly after Thanksgiving and continues for several weeks before it's completely done. We've seen progress such as gingerbread villages being built in the windjammer over a period of a week for instance.

T

Edited December 1, 2018 by 2chiefs

[welshwizards]

Does anyone know when the decorations are taken down? Here it is normally on 12th night i.e about 6 Jan. We are on Reflection on 4th January so am wondering if they will still be up!!!

[llamasocks]

11 minutes ago, welshwizards said:

Does anyone know when the decorations are taken down? Here it is normally on 12th night i.e about 6 Jan. We are on Reflection on 4th January so am wondering if they will still be up!!!

On a 6 day cruise that departed January 1st a few years back, there were some decorations up at the start of the cruise, but most were down by the end.