Dining Options ON Christmas

[teacher/bartender]

Hello!

Starting to pencil out our dining plans for our December 22-29 cruise in the Joy.  I'm curious about dinner ON Christmas?

Is there a special menu in the main dining room?  I'm wondering if we should do the main dining room that night,

or opt for a specialty restaurant.  Looking for feedback from anybody who has cruised over Christmas. We never have!

I know it wouldn't be exactly the same, but just curious about peoples past experiences...

Thanks!

[www3traveler]

All three of the Main Dining Rooms will have a traditional Christmas Dinner-  Turkey and all that goes with it.  It was more than I could eat-- been on The Getaway twice for Christmas.

 

The ship will be decorated.  Somewhere on the ship will be a huge Gingerbread Village display.  The Officers will go caroling through the ship on Christmas Eve ending with a singalong in the lobby.

 

Santa will arrive on Christmas morning.  Even if you do not have kids- it is so much fun to watch.  Each child gets their picture taken with Santa ( some are happy, others not so much) and each gets a wrapped gift.

 

It is great fun. 

[teacher/bartender]

11 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

All three of the Main Dining Rooms will have a traditional Christmas Dinner-  Turkey and all that goes with it.  It was more than I could eat-- been on The Getaway twice for Christmas.

 

The ship will be decorated.  Somewhere on the ship will be a huge Gingerbread Village display.  The Officers will go caroling through the ship on Christmas Eve ending with a singalong in the lobby.

 

Santa will arrive on Christmas morning.  Even if you do not have kids- it is so much fun to watch.  Each child gets their picture taken with Santa ( some are happy, others not so much) and each gets a wrapped gift.

 

It is great fun. 

Awesome, thank you!  We are a group and will have a few kids with us so this will be fun!  We will make sure to do our specialty dining on other nights.

 

[trish1c]

Wow.  That actually sounds sweet.   

 

Other then the decorations & the menu I guess I kind of assumed the cruise line ignored the holiday.  I thought the ship would be filled with non believers 

[ColeThornton]

6 minutes ago, trish1c said:

Wow.  That actually sounds sweet.   

 

Other then the decorations & the menu I guess I kind of assumed the cruise line ignored the holiday.  I thought the ship would be filled with non believers 

 

There are a ton of people who celebrate the holiday who never even give one thought to the religious meaning.

[Srosenthal]

We celebrated Christmas on the Pearl in 2017. We opted for Teppanyaki that night...we let our then-11 year old pick. I was worried being away from home it wouldn't "feel like Christmas", but we had some of our extended family with us and packed a couple smaller gifts for our son to open Christmas morning. There was a Midnight Service offered and as much as I wanted to attend, my eyeballs simply weren't having it. The caroling on Christmas Eve was one of my favorite parts of the trip...so many people packed into this small area singing together; it was special.

[FLAHAM]

4 hours ago, www3traveler said:

All three of the Main Dining Rooms will have a traditional Christmas Dinner-  Turkey and all that goes with it.  It was more than I could eat-- been on The Getaway twice for Christmas.

 

I never realized that "turkey and all that goes with it" is the traditional Christmas dinner.

[trish1c]

16 hours ago, ColeThornton said:

 

There are a ton of people who celebrate the holiday who never even give one thought to the religious meaning.

 I wasn't even talking about the religious meaning.  I was talking about people who just don't celebrate Christmas at all in any form, secular, commercial or religious.  

[KeithJenner]

3 minutes ago, trish1c said:

 I wasn't even talking about the religious meaning.  I was talking about people who just don't celebrate Christmas at all in any form, secular, commercial or religious.  

Lots of people who celebrate Christmas in whatever form go away at that time of year. Hotels, resorts, cruise ships etc offer a nice alternative to doing the same old thing at home.

 

I know some people who have been away over Christmas as a large family group, but amongst my acquaintances it is most popular with those who don’t have large family get togethers at that time, mainly adults without kids at home.

 

We are going away at Christmas/New Year for the first time this year (on a cruise). Certainly looking forward to something different.

[trish1c]

It will be our 1st Christmas at Sea too.  Since my parents passed away a few years ago,  we have tried other distractions but it all just feels so . . . wrong.  I am hoping that maybe the tropics & the ship will be so different I won't feel the loss as acutely.  

 

It's a 2 week cruise from the Saturday before Christmas until the Saturday after New Years so I'm hoping there won't be a ton of kids.  

[www3traveler]

30 minutes ago, trish1c said:

It will be our 1st Christmas at Sea too.  Since my parents passed away a few years ago,  we have tried other distractions but it all just feels so . . . wrong.  I am hoping that maybe the tropics & the ship will be so different I won't feel the loss as acutely.  

 

It's a 2 week cruise from the Saturday before Christmas until the Saturday after New Years so I'm hoping there won't be a ton of kids.  

There will lots and lots of kids.  On my Christmas cruises, there have been many multi-generational family groups.  Grandparents, their kids and the grandkids.  I love it.

[Greenpea2]

On 4/25/2019 at 5:00 PM, FLAHAM said:

 

I never realized that "turkey and all that goes with it" is the traditional Christmas dinner.

Turkey is a traditional Christmas dinner. Some families have ham, some lamb, or roast beef, or something else. But turkey seems to be the most common in the US in terms of "traditional".

 

[FLAHAM]

2 hours ago, Greenpea2 said:

Turkey is a traditional Christmas dinner. Some families have ham, some lamb, or roast beef, or something else. But turkey seems to be the most common in the US in terms of "traditional".

 

I am aware that Scrooge bought Bob Cratchett's family the largest turkey in town for Christmas.  However, I had always heard of ham as traditional in the U.S.

[Greenpea2]

5 hours ago, FLAHAM said:

I am aware that Scrooge bought Bob Cratchett's family the largest turkey in town for Christmas.  However, I had always heard of ham as traditional in the U.S.

We always had ham at Easter. You got me wondering about this so I did a little research. Interesting factoid: 46 million turkeys sold for Thanksgiving in the US. 41 million sold for Christmas in the US. So it looks pretty close.