Christmas on Celebrity (Edge)

[The Med]

We’re going to be on The Edge over Christmas.

We haven’t been on a Celebrity ship for some time and we haven’t been away for Christmas for about 12 years.

I know that Celebrity don’t do formal nights any more, they do chic nights instead.I just  wondered though if they do anything special on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day such as a gala dinner etc?

 

 

[Heimey]

I am curious to know the answer to this question as well. 

 

Heimey

[rachelmle1]

Same! Following. 

[The Med]

Someone surely must know the answer!

[Esprit]

We were on the Edge the week before Christmas and it was tastefully decorated. There were chic nights according to my DD and SIL who were working on board but no Gala dinners any different from other chic nights.

You almost get the impression it's not PC to celebrate Christmas overtly. It's all "Happy holidays". There is a Catholic priest on board celebrating Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. 

[cruisestitch]

I wonder if “gray will be the new red and green” again this year.  These are from 2028 edge Christmas

[rachelmle1]

55 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

I wonder if “gray will be the new red and green” again this year.  These are from 2028 edge Christmas

 

I actually love the silver/white decorations! 

[The Med]

Lots of replies, thank you.

However, I’d still love to hear from someone that has actually done a Christmas Cruise on Celebrity (not in December, not the week before) but Christmas Day itself.

 

I find it hard to believe that they don’t do anything to celebrate Christmas, apart from putting up Christmas Trees.

[killarneylady]

I haven’t been on Edge but on other Celebrity ships over Christmas. Each time I found it fairly low key. Nice decorations etc and did have Santa for kids, Turkey on the Main Dining room menu , ‘it’s a wonderful life ‘ at the cinema but as an earlier cruiser said it’s not as overtly celebrated as you would think. I imagine they are conscious of other passengers who don’t celebrate the festival and allow for that.  I found that it’s a nice way to spend Christmas if you want a change but don’t expect it to be a ‘Disney type’ Christmas all over the ship. 

Edited August 6, 2019 by killarneylady

[Paulras]

I've been on for Christmas (and many NYEs) for the past 6 years. And #7 coming up in a few months. They used to do more; like a special Christmas brunch and even a special holiday performance by 2 American Idols at night. But that ended a while ago. Now it's fairly low key.

 

Typically the evening chic night is Christmas eve. Midnight mass in the theater.  Santa will "land" on one of the outside decks and there will be a small parade through the ship to where he stops (one of the venues) and gives out small presents for children. They usually have little treats or cookies there too. The buffet will have a special holiday display, like a chocolate fountain. Other than that, mostly special holiday "sales" at the shops and art auction. And maybe a holiday giveaway at the casino. Might find a holiday performance in the theater but usually just a regular performance that they call special.

 

Besides all of the decorations everywhere which are very nice and not overly done, you will probably hear Christmas music constantly for the week pumped throughout the ship. Nice at first unless Feliz Navidad gets stuck again and plays over and over for an hour! 

 

But it all really depends on who's in charge on your ship and definitely the itinerary. Last 2 years, we've been in port on Christmas day, so the ship was a little empty and low key. 

 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

Edited August 6, 2019 by Paulras

[kk99]

I've done three Celebrity Christmas cruises on ships other than Edge. We will being doing Edge this year for Christmas.  On all of the three prior Christmas week sailings, all of the  wonderful decorations were up with garlands, trees, and floral arrangements. On Christmas Eve, the officers, staff and guests had a singalong around the main staircase on the M class ships, and on the S class ship, it was held in the main atrium area. On Christmas Day, there was a "Santa" parade, and the children were each given a small present by Santa and his elves. The main dinner on Christmas Day did include turkey, and dressing, and the regular menu items. There was a service on Christmas Eve. The decorations on all of the ships were beautiful. We will be on Edge for Christmas, and we were on just prior to Christmas last year. The ship was all in silver, white and crystals as opposed to the more traditional red and green decorations, and lots of gingerbread decorations on the M class  and S class ships..  On all of the ships, the theatre held a holiday show.  It was festive, but low key. For Hanukkah during one of the prior cruises when it fell during the same time period as Christmas, the electric menorah is lit each night, and there are activities for the children, and a Hanukkah service. They do extra dessert and cookie creations on the buffet, as the pastry chefs are very talented. We have always enjoyed Christmas cruises, and being with family. I hope you have a wonderful time on your vacation.

[Kmangel]

We cruised Silhouette at Christmas time.  The cruise started several days before Christmas.  We noticed many people decorated their cabin doors with tinsel, battery operated lights and other decorations.  We saw an inflatable Christmas tree on the balcony of another ship when we were docked.  People seemed to be in a festive mood.  I think the fact that we were on board the ship several days before Christmas influenced people’s Christmas spirit.  Another time we cruised at Christmas, but the actual holiday fell a couple days after we set sail.  No one decorated their doors.  I sensed people were not in a Christmassy mood at all.  A lot depends on when Christmas actually falls during the cruise.  This year we are sailing in December, but we disembark on the 20th.  The ship will be nicely decorated, but I am thinking no one will be much into the fact that Christmas is a couple weeks away.  

[The Med]

Thank you, that’s very informative.

 

A few years ago we were on a P and O ship over New Year.

Although we were on flexible dining, on New Years Eve they had a gala dinner and ALL seating in the main dining room was on 2 sittings, early or late. We didn’t know this until we got on board (we were a late booking and only booked a few weeks prior to sailing).

 

The reason for my initial enquiry on here was because I was wondering if they did something similar on Celebrity either for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but from the replies it seems not.

 

So am I correct in assuming that Christmas Eve will probably be a Chic night but other than that everything is more or less the same as other nights, people who are on Select can still eat at a time to suit themselves? 

Edited August 7, 2019 by The Med

[Paulras]

4 hours ago, The Med said:

Thank you, that’s very informative.

 

A few years ago we were on a P and O ship over New Year.

Although we were on flexible dining, on New Years Eve they had a gala dinner and ALL seating in the main dining room was on 2 sittings, early or late. We didn’t know this until we got on board (we were a late booking and only booked a few weeks prior to sailing).

 

The reason for my initial enquiry on here was because I was wondering if they did something similar on Celebrity either for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but from the replies it seems not.

 

So am I correct in assuming that Christmas Eve will probably be a Chic night but other than that everything is more or less the same as other nights, people who are on Select can still eat at a time to suit themselves? 

You're correct. No special sittings for dinner. Just probably a holiday menu. I still hope every year they bring back the holiday brunch. Would be nice to have something extra special considering holiday cruises are usually much more expensive than non-holidays. But I would also feel bad for the crew to have to do alot of extra work on the holiday. 

 

And as I said before, it all depends on itinerary and who's in charge. Evening chic will probably be Christmas Eve but I think one year, it was on Dec 23rd so they weren't going to do it 2 days in a row. 

 

One last thing that I thought about is that holiday cruises tend to surprise you with an extra chic night. Not sure how many days your cruise is, but we usually have 12 to 14 days over both Christmas and NYE. Those usually have it on the 2nd night, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Many people wouldn't have planned for 3.

[The Med]

5 minutes ago, Paulras said:

 

 

One last thing that I thought about is that holiday cruises tend to surprise you with an extra chic night. Not sure how many days your cruise is, but we usually have 12 to 14 days over both Christmas and NYE. Those usually have it on the 2nd night, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Many people wouldn't have planned for 3.

 

 

Its a 7 day cruise and I will have seven chic outfits.

I dress up whether it’s a chic night or not!

[Esprit]

23 minutes ago, The Med said:

 

 

Its a 7 day cruise and I will have seven chic outfits.

I dress up whether it’s a chic night or not!

Hear hear. So do we.

[rachelmle1]

FWIW, we’ve sailed on RCCL’s Anthem of the Seas for the past 2 years during their holiday and/or NYE sailing.  For Xmas eve and NYE they had festive decorations in the main dining rooms and a special printed menu for both nights.  In the specialty dining restaurants they inflated the price greatly for those holiday dinners and had special menus.  I remember for NYE they sold tables for the countdown and midnight party anywhere from $200-$500 per table. Seemed ridiculous to us that you had to pay just to sit down.  It seemed like such a money grab to us and left us with a bad taste in our mouth.  

 

Hopefully Celebrity shows more class and doesn’t nickel and dime on our Xmas cruise this year.

[Paulras]

2 hours ago, rachelmle1 said:

FWIW, we’ve sailed on RCCL’s Anthem of the Seas for the past 2 years during their holiday and/or NYE sailing.  For Xmas eve and NYE they had festive decorations in the main dining rooms and a special printed menu for both nights.  In the specialty dining restaurants they inflated the price greatly for those holiday dinners and had special menus.  I remember for NYE they sold tables for the countdown and midnight party anywhere from $200-$500 per table. Seemed ridiculous to us that you had to pay just to sit down.  It seemed like such a money grab to us and left us with a bad taste in our mouth.  

 

Hopefully Celebrity shows more class and doesn’t nickel and dime on our Xmas cruise this year.

Oh yeah. That's another thing. Usually the specialty restaurants are $5 or $10 extra for the WHOLE cruise. NYE is always a special reservation in the specialties for like $100 or more per person but includes things like champagne. My opinion, not worth it.

 

A couple years ago they offered a special beverage package that was over $100/day (maybe even $120) but you had to buy for the whole cruise and it included everything by the glass with no dollar limit. I didn't meet anyone who bought it.