Cruising at Christmas

[Cthy651]

Merry Christmas everyone.

I am been looking into booking a cruise for next Christmas.  Is there anything special that happens on Christmas day or is it just a wonderful day on a cruise ship?

Hope everyone has a great day.

Thank you

[jmh2006]

I thoroughly enjoy cruising over Christmas!  I have done two so far and going to take a third one next year albeit that one departs the 26th thru New Years.  The price is higher but for us the cruise becomes the present so I find the preparations to be less and I really like that.  Good luck with your decision making!

[crilski]

It also depends on how many children you'd like to cruise with.  After cruising this past Thanksgiving week, I'll never do it again.  I also was on the ship before and after Tday week.  Huge difference.  The pre-teens and teens were NOT well behaved.  In fact they were destructive and rude.  My dinner mates actually need security protection after they called security on a group. 

[hellsop]

It's pretty normal, with the addition of holiday music and decorations.  Few day-to-day changes.

[spookwife]

most you can hope for is  cheap trinkets handed out to the kids by Santa Claus and a 'special' menu in the MDR for dinner.  

 

there will be way too many kids on board,. way too many multi generational families on board crowding all the public venues  most of the time.  and the prices for the extras like the dining package will  go up. a lot.  

 

you can forget anything being open in port  most of the time.

 

I'll never do it again.  

[RSLeesburg]

51 minutes ago, spookwife said:

most you can hope for is  cheap trinkets handed out to the kids by Santa Claus and a 'special' menu in the MDR for dinner.  

 

there will be way too many kids on board,. way too many multi generational families on board crowding all the public venues  most of the time.  and the prices for the extras like the dining package will  go up. a lot.  

 

you can forget anything being open in port  most of the time.

 

I'll never do it again.  

Wow... we are on Christmas cruise now, and everything was open yesterday and today.  It has been a wonderful Cruise with lots of happy families enjoying themselves.  Just goes to show that the holiday spirit is alive and well...

 

To OP - don’t listen to the negative nellys - the Christmas cruises are fantastic.  This is our second, and we have our third booked next year.  Is it more expensive, sure, but any vacation is more expensive over the holidays.  Are there more kids?  Duh, of course, it’s the family holiday season.  It is the time to gather all the relatives and spend time together - unless you don’t like them...lol... and then I recommend one ship for you and another for them. 😂

[discru]

We have been on Christmas cruises for the last 5 years. Did not once notice any of the negatives listed by other posters. It seemed like a regular cruise, as far as kids and family units are concerned. On Christmas Eve they have Christmas carol sing-alongs on the promenade. Magical to be a part of that!  My favorite part of the cruise. The decorations are beautiful, as well I would definitely not shy away from a Christmas cruise. Our kids were in college when we started Christmas cruising, and it has been an amazing tradition that we plan to continue. 

[Spunky946]

43 minutes ago, RSLeesburg said:

Wow... we are on Christmas cruise now, and everything was open yesterday and today.  It has been a wonderful Cruise with lots of happy families enjoying themselves.  Just goes to show that the holiday spirit is alive and well...

 

To OP - don’t listen to the negative nellys - the Christmas cruises are fantastic.  This is our second, and we have our third booked next year.  Is it more expensive, sure, but any vacation is more expensive over the holidays.  Are there more kids?  Duh, of course, it’s the family holiday season.  It is the time to gather all the relatives and spend time together - unless you don’t like them...lol... and then I recommend one ship for you and another for them. 😂

We are in one too and it’s been amazing as always.  Yes the ship is full of families and lots of large ones, but that’s the fun part.  We were in st Martin yesterday and most of the French side was closed.  Other then that there have been a lot of Christmas themed activities.  Love our Christmas cruises.   

[RSLeesburg]

3 hours ago, Spunky946 said:

We are in one too and it’s been amazing as always.  Yes the ship is full of families and lots of large ones, but that’s the fun part.  We were in st Martin yesterday and most of the French side was closed.  Other then that there have been a lot of Christmas themed activities.  Love our Christmas cruises.   

Yes.  We are in St Kitts today, and head to St Marteen tomorrow.  We heard that there were strikes or something on the French side so some activities may be limited to Dutch side.  Yesterday we were in port with Freedom and Mein Schiff 3, and met some wonderful German families.  Hope the rest of your cruise is great!  

[jjmahaney]

Just returned from our first Royal Caribbean and first Christmas cruise. I would do it again in a heartbeat. We were on an older ship due to go into dry dock Explorer of the Seas. We normally cruise Haven on NCL so I was little worried that we would feel crowded. Other then the occasional busy times embarkation , sea day lunch in windjammer, we didn't notice any issues. The menus seemed a little amped up for Christmas Eve and Christmas day especially in the buffet and the desserts options. The ship was decorated beautifully there was caroling , christmas eve mass, hanukkah celebrations. You could be as festive or as laid back as you wanted to be and no one cared.  We are already looking to book another Christmas cruise for next year. 

[Cutigerlady]

We just got off the Mariner of the Seas today from the Christmas cruise and my family had a blast!  We watched A Christmas Story, The Grinch and the Muppets Christmas movies, went to holiday family feud, holiday trivia, and Christmas caroling  They had a midnight mass and many other holiday themed activities.  On Christmas morning, they had photos with Santa, presents for every child, hot chocolate and egg nog. Many families wore their holiday pjs to breakfast.  They had a special Christmas Eve dinner, so wouldn’t spend extra for the holiday dinner and then the regular formal night meal in Christmas Day. 
 

We were in Nassau on Christmas and they said everything would be open, but the stores were closing at 4:30. My kids decided to stay on board and they loved the empty ship!  We sat by the pool all day and participated in games. 
 

I didn’t think there were any more kids on this trip than our previous trip (when most kids were in school).  We saw so many people having a great time. Lots of people decorated their doors and/or rooms.  We were trying to figure out how to go back next year at dinner the last night!

[LeeW]

Our son and DIL are in Martinique today and often take holiday cruises.  The only negative they have reported is that some islands have shops closed and fewer excursions/cabs available on the holidays.  Might join them next year.

[fla33023]

19 hours ago, Cutigerlady said:

We just got off the Mariner of the Seas today from the Christmas cruise and my family had a blast!  We watched A Christmas Story, The Grinch and the Muppets Christmas movies, went to holiday family feud, holiday trivia, and Christmas caroling  They had a midnight mass and many other holiday themed activities.  On Christmas morning, they had photos with Santa, presents for every child, hot chocolate and egg nog. Many families wore their holiday pjs to breakfast.  They had a special Christmas Eve dinner, so wouldn’t spend extra for the holiday dinner and then the regular formal night meal in Christmas Day. 
 

How awesome does all that sound! We've sailed on Thanksgiving and I didn't really notice a ton of kids. Maybe those that don't have kids or aren't around them much are more aware of them. We come back on Christmas Eve next year but my goal is to wake up on a ship Christmas morning 2021!

[dipndotter421]

Just off Symphony of the Seas. There were definitely a TON of families and we did have a few kids running up and down the hallways at all hours (even well after midnight). However, I don't think that is any different than any other Symphony of the Seas cruise! They had a special menu in the main dinning room on Christmas Eve, Christmas Carols in the promenade on Christmas Even, and a special Christmas Show in the Royal Theater on Christmas Night. There was also a nightly lighting of the Menorah in Windjammer,  Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, as well as Mass at 8am on Christmas Morning. They had two gift giving times on Christmas morning, one being non-denominational, but as it was just my husband and I traveling i'm not sure what that consisted of.  Beautiful decorations and lots of Christmas cookies and desserts available all week long in Park Cafe, Windjammer, and the main dinning room for lunch! I did not feel the families took away from the overall experience of the cruise or ship at all. The only thing that I may have done differently is potentially booked the water park in CocoCay had I known less kids might be on board. As it was we avoided it due to fear of long lines.

 

ETA: We also spotted Santa throughout the cruise in various locations!

Edited December 28, 2019 by dipndotter421

[Iamcruzin]

On 12/26/2019 at 10:09 AM, spookwife said:

 

you can forget anything being open in port  most of the time.

 

I'll never do it again.  

Well that cured me of considering a Holiday cruise. We hit St Maarten on a Sunday one time. Everything was closed. 

[dipndotter421]

We ended up being in Cozumel on Christmas this year. Although the port was PACKED (7 ships... Symphony, in addition to two smaller RCL ships, as well as three carnival ships, an MSC ship, and an NCL ship) everything was opened as far as I could tell. We walked from the further port to Downtown for lunch and everything appeared to be up and running as normal.

[MainerRN92]

I've never done a Christmas cruise, but I did just cruise the first week of December on Harmony, and everything everyone mentioned here was done on my cruise as well, minus an influx of kids. They started decorating the ship the first day, did a tree lighting ceremony when they put the big tree up on the promenade, and did various holiday activities throughout the week including a meet and greet with Santa and caroling. So I guess if you wanted the spirit of a Christmas cruise but with less expense and ports to be open, try a cruise earlier in December!