Holiday Decorations & itineraries

We are thinking about our next cruise and are looking at possibly next year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was wondering if the Ships are decorated for the holidays during this time of year? Also, are the ports decorated in the Caribbean?

Also, trying to decide on two different itineraries: One including Jamaica & Grand Cayman or the one including Belize and Roatan. Both include Mexico. Can anyone tell me about how the beaches are in comparison? We like a beach with waves, good clean sand and clear water. We don't care for rocky beaches (Tortola) or very little waves (Magen's Bay, St. Thomas where the fish kept nibbling my feet). Our favorite beach is Orient in St. Maarten for comparison purposes.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

The ship and the ports will be decorated. Grand Cayman has beautiful beaches

I was just going to ask the same thing. We normally sail the week of Halloween, where the ship is just decorated for the one day.

Being that Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday, I wondered too, if the ship would be decorated. But, unless you are actually on that sailing, I would guess you wouldn't see any decorations.

Most islands are decorated in some way from the beginning of November for holidays. Last year in Aruba, we got off the ship and the terminal had a Christmas display set up. We went to the Marriott and they still had a Halloween display set up. Its a nice time of year to travel the Caribbean, you can pick up some nice gifts.

Sorry, can't speak for the beaches.

Decorations are minimal on both the ships and the islands. Much less than you typically find at home, in fact it is almost impossible to find any decorations in the islands, unless you go inside churches.

I am not sure about American Thanksgiving, but I can tell you that nothing was done for Canadian Thanksgiving, which is in October, for either decorations or menu. I have not travelled prior to Christmas, but my parents have, and there are lovely photos of them next to a lovely Christmas tree onboard.

I know when I went on carnival Thanksgiving week a couple times it was decorated real nice for Christmas and had thanksgiving menus. The only time on Norwegian it was a couple weeks before and there were no decorations prob cause it was too early

There are generally no decorations for Thanksgiving, but they will have turkey dinner. Decorations for Christmas start going up the week after Thanksgiving. Takes one to two cruises to get it all put up.

Our first cruise was the week after Thanksgiving and the ship was putting decorations up throughout the week. I don't remember seeing many (if any) decorations at the ports (St. Maarten, St.Thomas & Nassau).

Was on The Getaway Thanksgiving 2014- lots of Thanksgiving decorations up. Traditional turkey dinner including green bean casserole. Lots of fun.