New Year’s Cruise

[karatemom2]

We cruised with Princess over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays several years in a row when our kids were younger, but it’s been about 10 years now since our last holiday cruise. We are booked on Discovery for the New Year’s segment and are just wondering from those with more recent experience if the Christmas decorations stay up through New Year’s and if they have any other activities going on beside the big party on New Year’s Eve. I’m guessing they might broadcast the Rose Parade and some football? Would love to hear from those if you with more recent experiences. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

Decorations usually stay up through New Years but they disappear very quickly afterwards.  Can't speak to the Rose Parade...but very typically they will show special football games on MUTS screen.

[seagunthera]

I was on the Discovery for a 10 day Sea of Cortez last year that began on 12/28. Christmas decor was still up and disappeared on Jan 1. I'm also booked on this years 12/30 sailing and am curious to see if they use the turn over time on the 30th to strip the ship of Christmas decor (I hope not!). 

[karatemom2]

21 minutes ago, seagunthera said:

I was on the Discovery for a 10 day Sea of Cortez last year that began on 12/28. Christmas decor was still up and disappeared on Jan 1. I'm also booked on this years 12/30 sailing and am curious to see if they use the turn over time on the 30th to strip the ship of Christmas decor (I hope not!). 

Yes, we are on the same cruise and I was thinking the same thing wondering if the might use the turnaround day to remove decor. I hope not as well! Our other holiday trips all included Christmas and New Year’s, so in our experience the decor stayed up. But these are a different circumstances. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

They do not take turnaround time for decoration removal. It is done by staff during down times while cruising. 

[MissP22]

3 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

They do not take turnaround time for decoration removal. It is done by staff during down times while cruising. 

The crew packed them up right after Jan 1 last year on the Enchanted. 

[karatemom2]

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

The crew packed them up right after Jan 1 last year on the Enchanted. 

That’s kind of how it was on our Hawaii Christmas cruises. Decor started coming down the days after New Years and were gone by the time we disembarked and before next cruise started. 
 

We board December 30 so hoping to enjoy them for a few days before they come down. Jan 2 and 3 are both all day port days, so likely a good time for crew to do the dismantling process when the ship is quiet. 
 

it will just be fun to be back on for a holiday again. It’s been awhile!

Edited October 21, 2023 by karatemom2

[charliedalrymple]

Speaking of holiday cruises, do people tend to dress up a bit more on Christmas and New Year than they would on a cruise at other times of the year?  (We are on Enchanted from Sydney to NZ this year and the cruise will straddle both holidays.)

 

Also, Christmas Eve in our family is in some ways a bigger deal than Christmas Day.  Is it treated like a holiday on board?

[MissP22]

45 minutes ago, charliedalrymple said:

Speaking of holiday cruises, do people tend to dress up a bit more on Christmas and New Year than they would on a cruise at other times of the year?  (We are on Enchanted from Sydney to NZ this year and the cruise will straddle both holidays.)

 

Also, Christmas Eve in our family is in some ways a bigger deal than Christmas Day.  Is it treated like a holiday on board?

I would have to say yes. I believe many cruisers think that holidays are "special" and bring the clothing, so as long as they went that far, they do wear them.

It's still not a necessity.

[karatemom2]

6 hours ago, charliedalrymple said:

Speaking of holiday cruises, do people tend to dress up a bit more on Christmas and New Year than they would on a cruise at other times of the year?  (We are on Enchanted from Sydney to NZ this year and the cruise will straddle both holidays.)

 

Also, Christmas Eve in our family is in some ways a bigger deal than Christmas Day.  Is it treated like a holiday on board?

Like I said I’m my initial post, it’s been a few years since we did a holiday cruise, but I would say in our experience people definitely were dressed more formally, especially on New Year’s Eve. 
 

Christmas Eve usually featured many special things - Christmas Crackers on everyone’s plates at dinner, caroling, a reading of the Night Before Christmas, Ugly Sweater contest, etc. And there are generally religious services as well, or at least there used to be. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by karatemom2

[MissP22]

27 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

Christmas Crackers on everyone’s plates at dinner

What ship was that on? 

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, charliedalrymple said:

Also, Christmas Eve in our family is in some ways a bigger deal than Christmas Day.  Is it treated like a holiday on board?

I have read that Christmas Eve is more often labeled as a formal night versus Christmas day dinner.  But it can depend on the itinerary first.

[karatemom2]

56 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

What ship was that on? 

It was all four years when we did our Hawaii cruise out of LA, first year was Diamond and subsequent three years on Golden. We had never seen them before and had no idea what they were! It just happens we met some fellow passengers onboard who had a daughter the same age as ours and we all became fast friends. They were also from CA, but Mom was raised in the UK and she explained the tradition to us with the crowns and jokes. We had a fine time at dinner sporting our tissue paper crowns and reading our silly jokes. And even better we remain friends with them to this day and our girls are all grown up. And Christmas Crackers have become a beloved part of our annual Christmas Eve tradition ever since!