Has anyone cruisesd on Celebrity at Christmas/New Year time?

[2dogs4us]

Greetings! We are thinking about a cruise on Celebrity around the winter holidays…we’d love to hear about your experience if you’ve done this previously on Celebrity! TIA!

Edited March 31, 2022 by 2dogs4us
Typo

[hrhdhd]

I was on the Constellation for its Christmas/New Year cruise in Dec./Jan.

 

There were the gingerbread house display (rather a tacky thing, IMO), trees scattered around, and a visit from Santa on Christmas morning. It was fun to have a few touches, but it wasn't over the top.

 

New Year's Eve isn't my thing, so I am not sure what happened then. Balloon drop at midnight, maybe?

[TeeRick]

47 minutes ago, 2dogs4us said:

Greetings! We are thinking about a cruise on Celebrity around the winter holidays…we’d love to hear about your experience if you’ve done this previously on Celebrity! TIA!

Many, many people have cruised during that time including recently (2021) since cruising re-started.  Do you have any specific questions or items that you would like to know more about?  That would be helpful to answer your question.

[lv2cruisgrl]

We cruised on Equinox at Christmas a few years ago. We had a great time. Ship is all decorated, service was great. We would do it again. They had activities for the kids, Christmas sing alongs, etc.

[mahdnc]

 

We have done two Christmas/NYE cruises (2016 Infinity South America and 2019 Solstice New Zealand) and one NYE only cruise (2013 Eclipse Caribbean).  We are scheduled to do a Christmas/NYE cruise this year on Solstice if Asia opens up.

 

Each time we have taken our family (including our 2 adult kids) and we have a great time.  The ship is nicely and tastefully decorated and everyone is in a festive mood.  Last year Celebrity published a Holiday Experience brochure which you may find informative: link 

 

The pricing is higher for a holiday cruise and you will see more family and kids on board.  Also you will want to check to see when the holidays fall on your itinerary because many shops, or tours could be closed.  Ideally Christmas and New Years Day fall on a sea day. 

 

[justhappytobehere]

6 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

We have done two Christmas/NYE cruises (2016 Infinity South America and 2019 Solstice New Zealand) and one NYE only cruise (2013 Eclipse Caribbean).  We are scheduled to do a Christmas/NYE cruise this year on Solstice if Asia opens up.

 

Each time we have taken our family (including our 2 adult kids) and we have a great time.  The ship is nicely and tastefully decorated and everyone is in a festive mood.  Last year Celebrity published a Holiday Experience brochure which you may find informative: link 

 

The pricing is higher for a holiday cruise and you will see more family and kids on board.  Also you will want to check to see when the holidays fall on your itinerary because many shops, or tours could be closed.  Ideally Christmas and New Years Day fall on a sea day. 

 

 

[justhappytobehere]

Thank you for posting the  Holiday Experiences info mahdnc.  Very interesting ... we hope to be on the Eclipse at the end of October and I'd forgotten it would coincide with Halloween which looks as if it will be a big deal on board. We were on a pre-Christmas cruise once  (with a different shipping line) and it was a lovely atmosphere on board especially during the Carol Service but we realised it must be quite a challenge to get the celebrations just right for everyone as, apart from all the different religions of staff and passengers, there are a lot of folk on board that will have spent a lot of money  purposely to sail away and escape Christmas.

[songbird1329]

Our cruise on the Constellation ends on December 23.  I assume the ship will. R decorated for Christmas.  Am I right?

[sunpsyche]

Yes it will. The magic fairies add to the displays at night so you should see more every day. They do a fantastic job!

[mahdnc]

11 hours ago, songbird1329 said:

Our cruise on the Constellation ends on December 23.  I assume the ship will. R decorated for Christmas.  Am I right?

 

Here was the Christmas decoration schedule that was used in 2021:

 

[Saturngrl]

We cruised on Reflection this past Thanksgiving.  The ship was already partially decorated for Christmas when we boarded, with more decorations up by the time we disembarked.   This was the third cruise Reflection sailed since the 600 day hiatus.  Needless to say, the crew were VERY thankful we were on board! 

 

Having sailed this, plus another Thanksgiving cruise,  I can report you may anticipate more families of all types on board for a holiday sailing.   

[Jsim2011]

We sailed on Equinox over New Year about 3 years ago,  it   It was wonderful.  New Year's Eve was a lot of fun.

[Von & John]

We've sailed a few times over the Holidays:

Panama Canal - Coral Princess - Christmas 2011 / New Year's 2012

Exotic Caribbean - Celebrity Eclipse - Christmas 2013

Eastern Caribbean - Regal Princess - Thanksgiving 2014

Transatlantic - NCL Getaway - Halloween 2019

And a couple of other Holidays:  Valentine's Day (2) & St. Patty's Day

 

Both Celebrity & Princess decorated for the Christmas Holidays.
They had activities leading up to the holidays -  including cookie decorating & Guest/Crew Choir.

The Choir practiced daily, prior to performing a number of times.

Santa made a visit on both cruises for the Children - both Young & Old 🙂

Christmas Eve & Day had special menus & at some point on Christmas Eve they served cookies & milk, hot chocolate or specialty drink 🙂

 

Princess Celebrated New Year's w/ 3 or 4 Huge Parties & you could float from one to the other

Again - Specialty Menu

 

NCL celebrated Halloween w/ decorations, a Costume Parade, Contest & a Haunted House...

Valentine's Day & St. Patty's Day included decorations - specialty menus & drinks...

Each celebration added a little extra something to our cruises!!!

 

Cheers All  ---  Von & John

[Floridadude]

I cruised twice during the week of Christmas and the week after.

NEVER again...maximum passengers and tons of kids, bored without waterslides and other activities.  Oh yay...lets take a driving vacation to Mt. Rushmore bored!

 

Not enjoyable at all.

 

[woldridge]

We were on the Reflection this last Christmas.  In addition to everything else that has been said, we received some gifts that included a Celebrity ball cap, lanyards and some other small things that I don't remember.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We've done 2 New Year cruises and are booked again this year.  We've also sailed in December before the holiday cruises.  Didn't find the gingerbread houses to be tacky. 

[travlr21]

55 minutes ago, woldridge said:

some gifts

We sailed on the Infinity from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires over Christmas & New Years Dec 2015. I recall we got a gift of a picture holder that was very, very heavy.  We just left it behind, not wanting to pack it in our suitcase or have to lug it around in our carry on. 

 

That was also the cruise that decided for us that we would never cruise with Celebrity over the holidays. It was not the typical, pleasant Celebrity cruise. On that itinerary the drinking age was 18 and there were a few unpleasant incidents with very drunken young adults. 

[mahdnc]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:47 AM, 2dogs4us said:

Greetings! We are thinking about a cruise on Celebrity around the winter holidays…we’d love to hear about your experience if you’ve done this previously on Celebrity! TIA!

 

We were on the same cruise as @travlr21 but one year later.  Thankfully, we did not receive the heavy picture holder nor experience the drunken young adults.

 

I have posted you links to the Celebrity Today issued during our holiday cruises to give you an idea of what activities are planned.  They are a bit dated and all are pre-pandemic.

 

Dec 31 2013 Eclipse (Aruba) Celebrity Today

Jan 1 2014 Eclipse (Curacao) Celebrity Today

 

Dec 24 2016 Infinity (Valparaiso, Chile) Celebrity Today

Dec 25 2016 Infinity (At Sea, Chile) Celebrity Today

Dec 31 2016 Infinity (Ushuaia, Argentina) Celebrity Today

Jan 1 2017 Infinity (Cape Horn) Celebrity Today

 

Dec 24 2019 Solstice (Tasman Sea) Celebrity Today

Dec 25 2019 Solstice (Tasman Sea) Celebrity Today

Dec 31 2019 Solstice (Milford Sound) Celebrity Today

Jan 1 2020 Solstice (Tasman Sea) Celebrity Today

 

Infinity Grand Foyer, Dec 2016

 

 

Starting 2017 aboard Infinity near the bottom of the world!

 

Eclipse, Dec 31 2013, off the coast of Aruba.

 

Solstice at Milford Sound on Dec 31, 2019.  Photo by @waweidman

Edited April 3, 2022 by mahdnc

[talljules1]

We haven't yet, but we're booked on the Christmas/NY Infinity sailing in 2023-4 to Spain, Canaries and Morocco in a Royal Suite.

 

Expecting it to be busy (if nothing else, it looks to us like a great itinerary, and it will be lovely to be away over Christmas and not have to faff with it). The photos of the decorations look good to me!

[dreamer321]

I just booked the New Years 2023 cruise aboard Apex. Looking forward to the NYE party.

[funredhead]

We sailed the 12 night Equinox holiday sailing this past year. We were onboard for Xmas and New Year’s. It was amazing!  Even considering we missed several ports and there were many cases of Covid.  Our trip coincided with an uptick in cases sure to omnicrom.  We sailed in 2 cabins with our older teenage children. They loved every minute and so did we.  The ship was decorated beautifully.  They had special dinners for the holidays. New Years Eve was the best.  I cannot recommend this experience enough. 

[Jim The Lizard]

On 4/3/2022 at 12:54 PM, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We've done 2 New Year cruises and are booked again this year.  We've also sailed in December before the holiday cruises.  Didn't find the gingerbread houses to be tacky. 

We are booked on Silhoutte for our first Celebrity cruise this New Years.   I think the gingerbread houses are nice!