Thanksgiving Week

I have sailed other lines during holidays, but not NCL. We will be on the Jewel during Thanksgiving week. Will the ship be decorated for the holiday? Will there be a special Thanksgiving meal on Thursday? These things will not affect our cruise, just curious.

Thank you,

Kayla

If the ship isn't decorated for Christmas when you board, they should start sometime that week. There will be Thanksgiving food that evening in the MDRs and the buffet. The specialties will serve their regular menus.

We sailed on Thanksgiving last year. It really is not a big deal on the ship. The main dining room will have a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner. Other than that, there will be a few paper cut-outs taped on the walls throughout the ship in an effort to decorate, but it looks more like a Kindergarten classroom. You might not notice them if you weren't looking for them. Keep in mind that 98% of the staff do not celebrate Thanksgiving, so don't be one of the countless people who wish them a happy Thanksgiving. Haha.

If the ship isn't decorated for Christmas when you board, they should start sometime that week. There will be Thanksgiving food that evening in the MDRs and the buffet. The specialties will serve their regular menus.

Ok. Thanks for the info. Christmas already? WOW!

We sailed on Thanksgiving last year. It really is not a big deal on the ship. The main dining room will have a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner. Other than that, there will be a few paper cut-outs taped on the walls throughout the ship in an effort to decorate, but it looks more like a Kindergarten classroom. You might not notice them if you weren't looking for them. Keep in mind that 98% of the staff do not celebrate Thanksgiving, so don't be one of the countless people who wish them a happy Thanksgiving. Haha.

Hmm...that's too bad. Oh well! Note to self...do not wish staff a Happy Thanksgiving! LOL

Thanks for the info.

We were on an NCL ship last year at Thanksgiving. They had a turkey dinner that night but I don't recall seeing any decorations, either for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I was on The Getaway last Thanksgiving: (1) food everywhere including a hot dog stand for all those watching football in the Atrium. (2) Thanksgiving dinner on the menu in the MDR (3) Class Room type decorations everywhere. (4) Staff loved Thanksgiving- most did not understand the history but they loved the food and the football- what they understood of our version of football- very different from their fotball especially the cheerleaders.

Best cruise I have had in a long time. Had so much fun I am going back this year for Christmas.

I'm not sure what kind of Thanksgiving decorations you're looking for? Are you expecting crew to be running around in pilgrim and indian costumes? Most formal places I know serving Thanksgiving dinner will have their Christmas trees up by that day. I know my SIL always did. And people sailing all of December expect the Christmas decorations. One of my favs on the Jewel were the huge wreaths in the aft MDR on the back windows. Very elegant.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Thanksgiving food, so I'm all for other stuff and we usually make it to a specialty. My birthday falls that week, and sometimes even on Thanksgiving. We love cruising this week. I didn't like cruising Christmas at all, but did like New Year's.

There were absolutely no Christmas decorations on our Thanksgiving cruise. The holiday was Thursday, and we disembarked on Sunday. No decorations, nor did we expect any.

LrgPizza were you on the Pearl cruise over Thanksgiving? We were and we ate in LeBistro. We had duck breast for dinner with sides from the MDR (stuffing, etc). One of the best Thanksgiving meals ever. No Christmas decorations but our friends stayed on doing a B2B and the day we disembarked is the day they decorated for Christmas, they said they left the ship to make a run to the store while they were turning over the ship and when they re boarded some of the decorations were already in place.

I was on The Getaway last Thanksgiving: (1) food everywhere including a hot dog stand for all those watching football in the Atrium. (2) Thanksgiving dinner on the menu in the MDR (3) Class Room type decorations everywhere. (4) Staff loved Thanksgiving- most did not understand the history but they loved the food and the football- what they understood of our version of football- very different from their fotball especially the cheerleaders.

 

Best cruise I have had in a long time. Had so much fun I am going back this year for Christmas.

Hi, a couple of years ago we were on the Breakaway during Christmas week with my son and his family. The ship was decorated for the holidays with Christmas trees all over the place. The best part of the cruise was Christmas morning when I took my granddaughter to see Santa Claus. He was in the Atrium, the big screen had a fireplace showing and there were piles of presents. She got to sit on Santa's lap as she was sitting there an Elf gave Santa a gift and he handed it to Paige. Walking back to the room, she turned to me and said, "this is the best Christmas ever...I have never had Santa hand me a gift."

When her younger brother saw that she got something he was all set to go see Santa.

They also took pictures that you could purchase and they made sure you got a chance to take your own pictures.

LrgPizza were you on the Pearl cruise over Thanksgiving? We were and we ate in LeBistro. We had duck breast for dinner with sides from the MDR (stuffing, etc). One of the best Thanksgiving meals ever. No Christmas decorations but our friends stayed on doing a B2B and the day we disembarked is the day they decorated for Christmas, they said they left the ship to make a run to the store while they were turning over the ship and when they re boarded some of the decorations were already in place.

No, we were on the Epic. I'm not a big fan of traditional Thanksgiving food (and we rarely celebrate anyway), so we ate Moderno that night. We figured the holiday is mostly an excuse to pig out, and that's easy to do at Moderno!

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I was thinking they might have some fallish, pumpkins, leaves, etc. decorations. I've seen pictures of that from other lines.

We do like the Thanksgiving foods and although we have reservations at some of the speciality restaurants, that Thursday evening we will be in the dining room. We figured that would be the way to get a traditional or close to dinner.

Either way we are just happy to be on a cruise ship.

Thanks again,

Kayla

There were absolutely no Christmas decorations on our Thanksgiving cruise. The holiday was Thursday, and we disembarked on Sunday. No decorations, nor did we expect any.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I was thinking they might have some fallish, pumpkins, leaves, etc. decorations. I've seen pictures of that from other lines.

 

We do like the Thanksgiving foods and although we have reservations at some of the speciality restaurants, that Thursday evening we will be in the dining room. We figured that would be the way to get a traditional or close to dinner.

 

Either way we are just happy to be on a cruise ship.

 

Thanks again,

Kayla

We did a back to back on the Dawn last year. We did a two day cruise to nowhere and followed that with a Thanksgiving week cruise. We watched them putting up Christmas trees and garland in the atrium while waiting for the second cruise to start. Quite enjoyable. We had Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing in the MD. I wouldn't choose that again! lol

I have sailed other lines during holidays, but not NCL. We will be on the Jewel during Thanksgiving week. Will the ship be decorated for the holiday? Will there be a special Thanksgiving meal on Thursday? These things will not affect our cruise, just curious.

 

Thank you,

Kayla

We have sailed the Dawn thanksgiving week, and there was absolutely no way to know that it was a holiday week, other than turkey roll being served on Thursday night at dinner.

In spite of what others claim even Christams decorations are minimal, and unless you look for them can easily go unseen. They appear about 2 weeks before Christmas, and come down on turn around day after Christmas.

I've done three Thanksgiving week cruises, one on the Breakaway and two on the Gem.

The Breakaway had a few decorations at guest services but there wasn't a lot around the ship overall. The MDR served Turkey, pumpkin cheesecake, and one of the nest appetizers I've ever had and have sadly never seen again on NCL (stewed apricots in earl grey tea). Guest services also had a plug-in Menorah since Hanukkah fell early that year. There wasn't a big holiday vibe on the ship.

The Gem, however, was decked out in the main atrium and MDR both times I've done a Thanksgiving cruise, but there weren't a lot of decorations around the ship otherwise. I ate at Moderno both time for Thanksgiving, so I can't say what the food was like in the MDR for the holiday.

Here is a pic each of the main atrium and the MDR from my Gem Thanksgiving cruise last year.

I looked back at our photos from last Thanksgiving (on the Jewel), and I have a photo of DS & DH in front of the big Christmas tree in the atrium. That was probably the first tree that went up on the ship. There were others in various phases of going up at the end of the cruise.

It seems like there were little paper cuts outs of pilgrims like might see in a kindergarten classroom. Lol