Help where to cruise in December

Hi all

We've decided not to be home for christmas this year and go cruising!!

I've looked and it seems that most cruises are around the Caribbean or the med.

We like weather that not to hot, and really into beaches. Can anyone recommend somewhere not too hot?

Also as we have never down a Christmas cruise, if anyone can shed some light on what Christmas cruises are like it would be good. We both like the Christmas and do the full works every year Including a full Christmas Roast dinner, do they do that?

Thank you for reading this.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Hi all

 

We've decided not to be home for christmas this year and go cruising!!

 

I've looked and it seems that most cruises are around the Caribbean or the med.

 

We like weather that not to hot, and really into beaches. Can anyone recommend somewhere not too hot?

 

Also as we have never down a Christmas cruise, if anyone can shed some light on what Christmas cruises are like it would be good. We both like the Christmas and do the full works every year Including a full Christmas Roast dinner, do they do that?

 

Thank you for reading this.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

My last three cruises were the holiday ones on Princess to Hawaii. Not to hot, even in Hawaii (maybe the high 70s and some rain). Definitely the few first days on the cool side from Los Angeles (sea days in the 60s). But you can definitely go to the beaches in the ports (except for Hilo, which is really not a beach port). On Christmas Day, we were on Maui, and went up to Ka'anapali, which has a nice beach, but we went next to it to Whalers Village, which I had found out would be open from my pre-cruise research.

The ship was decorated for the holidays, and even Santa came on board to meet with the kids and give them each a present.

There's three formal nights on the two-week cruises, and usually one of them would be on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I can't remember about roast, but there was roast turkey and ham (I don't eat either of those).

Anyway, here's the photos I took of the menu:

We have been on several Caribbean cruises over Christmas week on Carnival, Princess, and Royal Caribbean ships. We enjoyed all of them but like Royal Caribbean more than the others for its more festive atmosphere and the spectacular Christmas themed ice shows. We also think the food was outstanding.

If you have time, you might enjoy seeing the slide shows my wife made with pictures she took for her website. The green links in my signature below will take you there.

Some ships really are decorated beautifully at Christmas.

We did several Christmas cruises years ago. But gave them up as more and more families decided to them and the ships were packed with children. We thought that going on a longer cruise we would have fewer children. Didn't happen. Many children are now home schooled and some parents don't care if their children miss school.

The shorter, less expensive cruises will have lots of families. The longer luxury cruises will be mostly adults. All are festive and special.

If you don't mind a bit of extra travel you could always head down under to Australia and New Zealand.

From Australia you can do either a NZ cruise where the temperatures will be milder, or a South Pacific cruise where it will be warmer and more humid.

We cruised on Sun Princess to the South Pacific last Christmas and really enjoyed Christmas on board. Princess do very nice turkey and their Christmas Pudding was one of the best I've ever tasted.

We're doing NZ this year on Celebrity Solstice. It will be interesting to see how it compares with Princess regarding the festivities.

Check out RCI Navigator of the Seas - she is doing 11 day southern Caribbean cruise leaving Miami on Dec 23rd. Great Itinerary and covers both Christmas and New Years.

If you leave from Puerto Rico and go on a Southern Caribbean cruise, the weather should be ideal.

December is an excellent time to go to the Southern Caribbean! :D

LuLu

We did a number of Christmas cruises and loved them. The ships are decorated so pretty, it's all so festive and on HAL Christmas Eve the crew sings Carols in the main show lounge in various languages. Very lovely.

HAL does the holidays well, IMO

Good weather in the Mexican Riviera this time of year. Ships are decorated starting around Thanksgiving thru just after New Years.

I am lucky to be a part of this community where people are so generous and helpful. Thank you for taking the time and effort to reply.

From reading everyone's posts it seems the Caribbean is the way forward, we may add a little of the USA to it to. But will definitely have to pick carefully, I don't want lots of kids on the cruise.

[emoji3]

But will definitely have to pick carefully, I don't want lots of kids on the cruise.

 

[emoji3]

You will need to avoid the week of Christmas to have a cruise without a lot of children since they will be off school at that time.

I am lucky to be a part of this community where people are so generous and helpful. Thank you for taking the time and effort to reply.

 

From reading everyone's posts it seems the Caribbean is the way forward, we may add a little of the USA to it to. But will definitely have to pick carefully, I don't want lots of kids on the cruise.

 

[emoji3]

From the way you've said that you "may add a little of the USA to it" makes me wonder where you're from.

If you're from Europe, do you know that there's a few lines which have adult only ships, such as P&O, C&M and Saga?

Hi thanks for the reply, we had. A sickness in the family and got super busy. We're in the uk but as we don't like too much heat the carribean isn't too enticing. We just came up with South America but have delayed that so we have more time next year which would be better given the expense of flying out. I think it's going to a med cruise.

Hi thanks for the reply, we had. A sickness in the family and got super busy. We're in the uk but as we don't like too much heat the carribean isn't too enticing. We just came up with South America but have delayed that so we have more time next year which would be better given the expense of flying out. I think it's going to a med cruise.

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about sickness in your family.

I think you got a lot of suggestions about the Caribbean since people reading your question probably assumed you are here in the USA. The med sounds like a great plan. We haven't cruised there yet, but hope to in the future.

Happy cruising wherever you go.

 

You will need to avoid the week of Christmas to have a cruise without a lot of children since they will be off school at that time.

I did the Mexican Riveria last Christmas. It was fine. There were multigenerational families and way fewer kids then over the Spring break time frame. Ship was decorated nicely, but not over done. Couldn't even tell when it was Christmas Day.

Diana

Hi all

 

We've decided not to be home for christmas this year and go cruising!!

 

I've looked and it seems that most cruises are around the Caribbean or the med.

 

We like weather that not to hot, and really into beaches. Can anyone recommend somewhere not too hot?

 

Also as we have never down a Christmas cruise, if anyone can shed some light on what Christmas cruises are like it would be good. We both like the Christmas and do the full works every year Including a full Christmas Roast dinner, do they do that?

 

Thank you for reading this.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We like to stay home for the Christmas holiday, so can't speak to a actually holiday cruise but we have cruised in December both before and after Christmas.

We prefer not to cruise with families with kids, so avoid Christmas for that reason too. New Years is a better deal for us.

Mexico is a good choice, weather pleasant. Ships are decorated for the entire month so very feastive. Menus in MDR seemed to be better than normal our last New Years cruise. We enjoyed it so much we booked again for this year. We are doing a 10 day from our home port of San Francsisco... weather going down to Mexico - 2 days each direction his not warm and can be windy and cool.

Mexican Riviera is out of California-San Diego, San Francisco or Los Angeles (Long Beach or San Pedro). Many will tack on a California tour.

Not hot at all.

Thank you for returning to your post, and I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.

I'm afraid the Caribbean does little for me, either, with that amount of heat... I stay on board, but enjoy the sea days to and from the UK. ;)

Have you thought about the Canaries at Christmas? They're not over warm, but have plenty of sunshine.