Christmas Cruising (2014) - what's it like?

We are considering either extending our 12/13 Westerdam cruise to add Christmas week, or taking the 12/15 Noordam itinerary (because we love Chen Rio on Cozumel, and the Noordam). We've never cruised over Christmas, so we'd like to know what it's like. We are big Christmas people, from a decoration, festive, love-the-season perspective and I just wondered what it was like onboard. I did search the HAL forums but didn't see a lot of pertinent results.

I have done two cruises over the holidays. Yes, they do dress up the ship a bit. On Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years Eve, the menu in the dining room seems to be a bit more traditional.

NYE and Christmas on both cruises were formal nights.

It was so easy to cruise over the holidays for so many reasons...

If we didn't have grandchildren we would cruise every Christmas/New Years.

Our first cruise (2004) was 11 days on the Maasdam over the Holidays. I remember I fell asleep in the Caribbean sun on a lounger with a book in my lap. When I woke up I thought "this is the best Christmas Day ever! I didn't clean the house, cook the dinner, or rush for last minute shopping. I didn't even make my bed today!" :D HAL decorated the ship for me, and they took very good care of us. It was relaxing, but we didn't feel we lost the Holiday spirit.

10 years and 3 grandchildren later we choose to visit one family or the other to celebrate with the kids. But if you can get away, Holidays on HAL ships, in my opinion, are very nice.

You will see lots of Christmas decorations -- poinsettias all fresh.

Christmas eve there will be caroling late in the evening.

Special menus.

Lots of beautiful decorations around the ship, a ceremony to light the Christmas Tree in the Atrium, a visit to Father Christmas and gift for the children on Christmas Day.

AHOY SHIPMATES.....We used to do Christmas and New Years every year because our Wedding Anniversary is 25 Dec. Ship was always full and fun to watch, then about 10 years ago the price DOUBLED, so we now do early Dec. or the middle of Jan. at the normal price.

The only problem w the Xmas week is that the kids (esp the teens) get very bored about day three, they have worn out the grandparents, the parents cant be found and the mischief starts. the elevators have every deck pushed and the kids are gone, the signs on food in LIDO are switched around and in general it is harmless but not what HAL is used to.

STILL A FUN CRUISE

We have enjoyed Christmas cruises on other cruise lines. It was a similar experience to what has already been posted here. The price is much higher, and since the kids are out of school, some mischief takes place.

All in all, it is still a wonderful experience. It's nice to know HAL helps to keep the Christmas spirit alive.

Happy cruising!

Holiday cruises include one week cruises that turn around between Christmas and New Years, so that each segment has one of the holidays, and longer cruises that include both holidays.

As with other 7 vs. 15+ day cruises, the 7's will have more families on them.

We did the Amsterdam Holiday Panama Canal last year, and the mix was very good. Lots of people staying on for the Grand World Voyage, but also lots of folks our age taking a couple of weeks away for the holidays.

Decorations were everywhere--I think there were about 30 Christmas trees tucked here, there and everywhere. A large Christmas installation at the bottom of the Atrium and a gingerbread village in the Lido rounded out the decor.

Menus for holiday nights were a blend of traditions. But wine service on New Years Eve was very slow due to the number of champagne orders flying around the dining room. Wine stewards handled it well, though.

Other Christmas events included caroling and a visit to the ship by a jolly old elf.

If we didn't have grandchildren we would cruise every Christmas/New Years.

 

Our first cruise (2004) was 11 days on the Maasdam over the Holidays. I remember I fell asleep in the Caribbean sun on a lounger with a book in my lap. When I woke up I thought "this is the best Christmas Day ever! I didn't clean the house, cook the dinner, or rush for last minute shopping. I didn't even make my bed today!" :D HAL decorated the ship for me, and they took very good care of us. It was relaxing, but we didn't feel we lost the Holiday spirit.

 

10 years and 3 grandchildren later we choose to visit one family or the other to celebrate with the kids. But if you can get away, Holidays on HAL ships, in my opinion, are very nice.

I totally agree! We did the Westerdam for our Christmas cruise. With the route we did - Christmas eve was in St Thomas and Christmas day was in San Juan - both of which have normal -not international - cell phone service (as in free like on the mainland USA) because they are US territories so we could call family at home and wish them "Merry Christmas" before leaving for the beach :D:D

We were served special meals both Christmas eve and Christmas evening. The decorations all over the ship looked beautiful. In the piano bar caroling was going strong and there was a party for families with children with gifts if I remember correctly.

Before leaving home I hung a wreath on the door and send Christmas cards ... that's it ... no other Holiday stressors. Best Christmas ever!!:D:D

Holiday cruises include one week cruises that turn around between Christmas and New Years, so that each segment has one of the holidays, and longer cruises that include both holidays.

 

As with other 7 vs. 15+ day cruises, the 7's will have more families on them.

 

We did the Amsterdam Holiday Panama Canal last year, and the mix was very good. Lots of people staying on for the Grand World Voyage, but also lots of folks our age taking a couple of weeks away for the holidays.

 

Decorations were everywhere--I think there were about 30 Christmas trees tucked here, there and everywhere. A large Christmas installation at the bottom of the Atrium and a gingerbread village in the Lido rounded out the decor.

 

Menus for holiday nights were a blend of traditions. But wine service on New Years Eve was very slow due to the number of champagne orders flying around the dining room. Wine stewards handled it well, though.

 

Other Christmas events included caroling and a visit to the ship by a jolly old elf.

I agree - we were on this cruise as well and the decorations were gorgeous. There was a tree lighting ceremony and the visit from the jolly old elf on Christmas Day was very well done. Club HAL kids sang and the audience sang carols. Each child from the littlest to the teenagers received a gift from Santa. It was a riot watching the teens sitting on Santa's lap.

Just remember that if you are in a "Christian" port on the holiday, many (Perhaps most) of the stores will be closed on both Christmas eve and Christmas day. (Picture Old San Juan and Montevideo as deserted.)

Also (Not sure of this with HAL, but I can attest to Princess) Where you cruise out of makes a difference. A Princess cruise out of San Juan was "Christmas" to the extreme, while a Princess trip out of Miami two years later minimized the holiday. When I asked the hotel manager why he shrugged and said that out of Miami they had a much higher percentage of "non christian" passengers.....

We have been on cruises over the last 3 Christmases. It is cold and snowy where we live so we enjoy the warmth of the Caribbean.

The last two years were short notice 10 and 14 day trips-NCL Sun two years ago, Eclipse last year. Three years ago we were in Puerto Rico post cruise for Christmas-Isle Verde area. The stores were all open-in fact we went to the local grocery store to buy wine...and then went swimming. This surprised us. But a local fellow told us that Christmas Eve was the big thing on the island-the stores seem to close mid afternoon.

Ships are decorated. Carols. Not the same though as the white Christmases that we are accustomed to. But we are adapting very well to this new tradition!

Thank you all for your great insight!

We will be in San Juan on Christmas Day and Grand Turk Christmas Eve. We'll keep possible holiday closings in mind.

summersigh - the idea of skipping a year of weeks of decorating has me very excited. Which means it must be time for a break!

We did Zuiderdam over Christmas last year and loved it. There were decorations and events tied to the season. I hung snowflakes on our verandah window and we had some seasonal music on our iPad.

My strong recommendation is to select a cruise where you are at sea on Christmas Day itself. It solves the question about what is open or not and whether people are having to work in the ports on a very family day. Also being at sea gives you time for reflection.

On one of my earlier cruises I'll never forget seeing Nassau all decked out for the holidays.There was an amusing disconnect between the pastel architecture and Christmas lights and garlands.

We like to get away at Christmas but are not fans of all the children, especially by day 4 or 5 as previously discussed, so we now cruise just before Christmas and return about Dec 23 or so. We get to watch the decorating and see the ship decorated, the cruise is usually much cheaper as who wants to get home just a few days before Christmas, and often the cruise is maybe 2/3 full with some but not too many children. Plus it is a great excuse to not spend a week decorating the house and 2 weeks 'un-decorating' the house.

Christmas cruise tend to be big family cruising time. Lots of kids along with ofcourse the adults. They all want to sit together for dinner, which is not always possible if it is a big family, kids, parents, grandparents. They all want to be together around the pool. It can be chaotic. The ship is beautiful with lots of decoration. We prefer the New Year cruises.

Looks like if we extend our 12/13 Westerdam cruise we'll be at sea on Christmas Day, so that won't put San Juan at risk. Plus, we'd rather see St. Maarten than St. Thomas (been to both but seen less of the former). All that is probably Cozumel-sentimental-value trade-off worthy.

Sent by magic. Or mobile. Same thing.

Thank you all for your great insight.

 

summersigh - the idea of skipping a year of weeks of decorating has me very excited. Which means it must be time for a break!

I did decorate a Christmas Tree and a placed a few other decorations before leaving home.

I took a little tree for our stateroom, and decorated it with some tiny baubles.

I was on the Prinsendam for 14 days over the last Christmas/New Year holidays. It was wonderful. The ship was decorated in a traditional manner. The Christmas Eve International Concert was wonderful, and even though there were not lots of children on the Prinsendam (no Club Hall, but a few counselors), Santa did arrive on Christmas morning. Dinner on the "eves" was outstanding. I'd do it again in a flash.

Christmas and New Years and don't expect a lot of kids as Prins is a bit more expensive than most of the other ships. We did a NYE cruise several years ago and it was great. No port on Xmas and St.M on nye. Will pick upsome extra Champagne there for the cabin before dinner and maybe 2 so we can have some in the DR.

We have cruised over the holidays many times over the last ten years or so and love being on a ship - NCL, MSC, Princess, Azamara - for Christmas and New Year. This year we're sailing on the Maasdam in the Caribbean. Decorations, holiday feasts, Christmas carols, Christmas eve "church" service, New Year's Eve party, warm weather, pampering - what more could you ask for?!

We take our own decorations and really enjoy our small tree, red bows, window clings and door decorations. Our cabin attendants always say they like all of it too.

The Maasdam cruise looks lovely - are you taking the entire three legs?

I thought about taking decorations, but part of the attraction is to not have to deal with the hours and hours of unloading the attic and all the Christmas stuff- because of course, the small ones we would want to take are in the VERY back.

We really appreciate all the feedback. We're working with our TA tomorrow to make the changes. Thanks again!

We're doing the 25 day cruise beginning on 12/19, but it could also be booked as 14 day Christmas and New Years cruise, then stay on for the 11 day cruise beginning 1/2.

I bought a 2 foot tree at Walmart several years ago that folds up and goes into a sleeve just a little larger than a paper towel tube. Then I bought very light weight plastic red and silver colored decorations at the Dollar Store. I usually take a 50 bulb string of lights. All that, plus some Christmas window clings for the mirrors and the doors and some red bows really weigh very little and once up look very, very pretty.

I also carry birthday decorations for my DH (12/24), New Year's decorations and anniversary decorations (1/6)!

It's just fun!

Mary Jane

The Maasdam cruise looks lovely - are you taking the entire three legs?

 

I thought about taking decorations, but part of the attraction is to not have to deal with the hours and hours of unloading the attic and all the Christmas stuff- because of course, the small ones we would want to take are in the VERY back.

 

We really appreciate all the feedback. We're working with our TA tomorrow to make the changes. Thanks again!

Wishing you a wonderful cruise at Christmas.

We cruised on the Noordam on her first Christmas. It. Was. AMAZING!! The ship was decorated so beautifully. Formal night was on Christmas Eve. After dinner we had Midnight Mass in the Theater followed by Christmas Caroling and snow (paper) being pumped into the room. The crew came out on stage and sang to us. It was a beautiful experience.