WHEN DO CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY DECORATIONS GO UP ON CRUISE SHIPS?

[SeaNStars4Me]

I'm looking into booking a cruise in November or December. I know the holiday decorations would probably be up on Thanksgiving but does anyone know about when in November they "deck the ship" with holiday decorations. Wonder how early they go up in November? 

[chengkp75]

They typically start putting up decorations the first cruise after Thanksgiving.

[leaveitallbehind]

Agree with @chengkp75 that in our experience they don't start decorating the ships until after Thanksgiving.  We have never seen it before or during Thanksgiving.  It also typically is removed after NYE.

Edited August 13 by leaveitallbehind

[zqvol]

Doubt you see any ship decorated prior to US Thanksgiving. 

[SeaNStars4Me]

So on a December 7th departure I could expect Christmas decorations? Sounds like it! Thank you for the info they don't decorate until after Thanksgiving!

[leaveitallbehind]

3 minutes ago, SeaNStars4Me said:

So on a December 7th departure I could expect Christmas decorations? Sounds like it! Thank you for the info they don't decorate until after Thanksgiving!

It may be cruise line dependent as each may have different policies regarding this, and my experience has been with RCCL and Celebrity, but I would think it likely that they would at least be in the midst of decorating then if not completed.

[Airbear232]

We do a lot of Thanksgiving cruises and one of the highlights has always been that the Xmas tree and other decorations are up the morning after Thanksgiving.

[George C]

We have cruised the week after thanksgiving about the last ten years (except for Covid) beginning of cruise they have a few things up by end of the week e everything is up , at least on rccl.

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, Airbear232 said:

We do a lot of Thanksgiving cruises and one of the highlights has always been that the Xmas tree and other decorations are up the morning after Thanksgiving.

Curious what cruise line(s)?

[Airbear232]

3 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Curious what cruise line(s)?

For Thanksgiving, always Royal. 

[leaveitallbehind]

18 minutes ago, Airbear232 said:

For Thanksgiving, always Royal. 

Interesting.  We have done RCCL over Thanksgiving and don't recall seeing decorations being put up.  We will be on Celebrity this Thanksgiving and will check, but also have not seen them there.

Edited August 14 by leaveitallbehind

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, SeaNStars4Me said:

So on a December 7th departure I could expect Christmas decorations? Sounds like it! Thank you for the info they don't decorate until after Thanksgiving!

Perhaps, but more likely you might see the staff starting to put up some decorations.   Nearly every year, we take a 2-3 week cruise between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We have done this on many different lines (Princess, MSC, RCI, Celebrity and others).   On that cruise we often will see decorations going up, but it is done slowly and over weeks.  In fact, just last year on the Sky Princess, in early December, we spent one entertaining morning at their International Cafe (which is right in the large atrium) watching the crew trying to assemble the large Christmas tree (over 2 stories high).  At times it was comical, but also fascinating to watch how careful they were to secure (at many places) that large artificial tree,  

 

Hank

[Donald]

You may be surprised to learn that most cruise ships do not have space to carry Christmas Decorations onboard all year.

They are generally stored at shoreside warehouses - or they belong to a decorating company that brings them onboard at a convenient port. Installation dates are very predictable.

Most of the Mass Market lines are in the Caribbean for Christmas. They can easily schedule the decorations for a Florida turnaround.

The better cruise lines are often at more exotic places, quite often with longer itineraries.

There, they must schedule shipping and installation at ports that can handle the shipments and staff to put up the decorations.Those dates and places are much more random.

[Host Kat]

Years ago, I was a Pier Agent with the outsource company used by RCI in Port of Galveston. The Christmas decorations were usually loaded during turnaround the week before Thanksgiving.

 

Edited to add:

I guess the above where I stated, "The Christmas decorations were usually loaded during turnaround the week before Thanksgiving." should be as follows: "The pallets of crated Christmas decorations were usually loaded onto the ship during turnaround the week before Thanksgiving."

 

Now as for when they were actually uncrated and started to appear on the ship... that was up to the ship's crew schedule.

 

Edited August 16 by Host Kat
Additional information.

[Airbear232]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:18 PM, leaveitallbehind said:

Interesting.  We have done RCCL over Thanksgiving and don't recall seeing decorations being put up.  We will be on Celebrity this Thanksgiving and will check, but also have not seen them there.

Maybe we were just lucky

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, Airbear232 said:

Maybe we were just lucky

I'm sure it's not set in stone and likely varies from ship to ship.  Just our experiences have differed from yours.  But we have only been on a couple of Thanksgiving cruises and have not seen that and it sounds like you have been on many more.  Maybe we will get lucky this Thanksgiving!