Christmas Cruise

[bride928]

Hi everyone.

 

Has anyone ever done a Christmas cruise? Is it weird being away from home during the holidays? MY DH (33), DS (7), and I are considering it this year.

 

Also which would you choose between???

 

Carnival Magic (7 day Western)

Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas (7 day Western)

Disney Fantasy (7 day Western)

 

 

I appreciate all the advice to come.

 

THANKS

[gremlinbangles]

Hi everyone.

 

Has anyone ever done a Christmas cruise? Is it weird being away from home during the holidays? MY DH (33), DS (7), and I are considering it this year.

 

Also which would you choose between???

 

Carnival Magic (7 day Western)

Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas (7 day Western)

Disney Fantasy (7 day Western)

 

 

I appreciate all the advice to come.

 

THANKS

We have done a "Christmas Cruise ever year around Christmas but not actual Christmas day. Since we make it a family event, it is a great time for everyone to come together. We go our separate ways but meet in the dining room at a certain time each night. It is fantastic. We love the decorations and activities.

 

Sorry I can't recommend a ship as we haven't traveled on the other lines.

 

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[paxpax07]

My 1st cruise was a Christmas cruise on HAL, Dec 94. We had a great time. Coming from Canada, it's always great to get away from wintery weather. It was fun to see the islands decorated. Christmas lights on cactus.

We are booked this year Dec 17-23, so not a true Christmas cruise, I suspect it will have the feel of one. We are tying in a Fl vacation with it, so we will not be home for the holidays.

I'm not decorating or doing nearly the shopping i would if we stayed here. I won't be cooking or cleaning either. Looking forward to a stress free holiday season.

I would like this to become my family tradition.

 

 

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[BTromboneFrack]

Christmas cruises are great!!! A few years ago, after our sons graduated college, everyone in my family wanted us to still decorate our house. I agreed, as long as I got help putting the stuff away. So, after THAT didn't happen, I vowed someone else would always do our decorating, and what better place than a cruise ship? That first Christmas after we stopped decorating our own home we saw over a dozen Christmas trees on our ship and the ones docked next to us. Love Christmas cruises!!!

[winddawn]

Hi everyone.

 

Has anyone ever done a Christmas cruise? Is it weird being away from home during the holidays? MY DH (33), DS (7), and I are considering it this year.

 

Also which would you choose between???

 

Carnival Magic (7 day Western)

Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas (7 day Western)

Disney Fantasy (7 day Western)

 

 

I appreciate all the advice to come.

 

THANKS

 

I've cruised on Carnival many years over Christmas. It isn't weird at all to me, and in fact, I enjoy being away from the usual family and holiday stress and commercialism typically associated with Christmas at home. I love to experience the decorations and good cheer around the ship, and I find the holiday meals served to be exceptional! For me, the downside is there are a lot of children on the ship during that time. One thing I always enjoy though is seeing many of the officers in white uniforms enjoying Christmas on the ship with their families. You won't see that any other time of the year.

Edited October 1, 2017 by winddawn

[Drazil65]

We always do the week before christmas because DS (now 14 cruising since a toddler) only wants christmas at home. We have a lot of traditions for christmas eve and then christmas day and we have always made it a priority to be home that week. The week before is a great lead up to the actual holiday and gets you full speed ahead into the holiday,the cruise lines do a great job with special activities and decorations, they make is a special time to be on the ship.

[Computer Nerd]

My very first cruise was a New Years cruise. Not weird at all.

 

I would choose Carnival Magic. The other 2 ships won't be even close to the cost of the Magic plus the Magic is a good ship.

[poz222]

If money is no object and you have a 7 year old... Disney... Next (irregardless of price) would be the Magic because of the kids program and it has more opportunity for you as a Single mom to meet/hang with other cruisers when your son is off with other kids. The Harmony is amazing ship but might be overwhelming for his age group (but it is a great Teenager ship) and more difficult to meet others as it is huge and you rarely run into the same people. But Christmas is amazing on a ship!

[Djptcp]

Before we retired, DH and I took several cruises the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas because we then had to take less vacation days. Ships nicely decorated and Christmas carol sing alongs in the main bar. Stopped doing them because way too many kids - hundreds of them. We avoid them at all costs now, especially since retirement and we can cruise whenever we want to.

[A&Jfamily]

We cruised at Christmas when my oldest was a Sr. in HS and my youngest 11. We took silver tinsel trees, a suit case full of small sized presents with bags, tissue and wrap, gel cling Christmas lights, elf socks for stockings, and battery advent tea lights. Carnival had some craft or caroling or snow or tree lighting or a santa visit every night. Christmas was our last full sea day and they did the show and did formal night that night. It wasn't like being at home but we all had a wonderful time. And, we were heralding in a new era with my oldest headed to college and his future holiday plans unknown. We are shooting for 15 days to Hawaii over Christmas during his senior year of college.

 

 

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[Cruzlover7]

We cruised with family over Christmas for the first time last year. We really enjoyed all the decor and festivities. We had three rooms and decorated the doors as well as the mirrors in the stateroom with cling decorations. I made special cruising decorations for all in our party and on Christmas morning, at breakfast in the MDR we had our gift exchange. Some ships have snow (fake) falling in the atrium, ours did not, but I would like to experience that while singing Christmas carols.

 

 

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[beachbum6264]

We took a family Christmas cruise in 2011. Our 3 children were adults, one was married - pre grandchildren, one was almost engaged (she didn't know it yet, but we did), and our son has a gf, We were on RCCL Jewel of the Seas. We loved it - the cruise was all the kids' Christmas gift, so no shopping or wrapping gifts. Loved that part too. We were at sea on Christmas day - Santa made an appearance, giving gifts to the younger children on board. There was eggnog for the adults, and a special menu. Not having to put up and take down decorations was a plus. Now that we are living in FL all the kids want to come here for the holidays, and with the grand kids we want to have the whole stocking and tree traditions, so no holiday cruises for a while.

[rprice11]

My family booked a cruise leaving Christmas Eve . We spend most Christmas' with my wife's family and it's just stresses my wife out and she just wanted to do something else. We thought about flying up to my mothers but we really didn't want to go somewhere cold (we live in FL). Well it turns out my mother in law is planning a Christmas get together before we leave. Now we have to get out of that one.

[nealstuber]

We did a Christmas Cruise as a family on Princess two years ago and then last year DW and I bailed out on the kids after presents and Brunch Christmas Day to Drive to NOLA to catch a Dream NY’s cruise.

 

We’re glad we did the Christmas Cruise, but probably won’t do that again. We took small trees for each cabin and our stockings. It was not weird, just different. It felt more like a regular cruise day than an extra special holiday.

The New Year’s Cruise worked out much better for us. We still felt like we had a Christmas. Opened the presents in the morning as usual and had steak and eggs for brunch. We had a 10 hr drive and planned to leave later and split the drive leaving 4 hrs for sailing day, but the kids were fine with us leaving earlier so we did. Carnival throws great New Years parties.

 

This year with DD not coming home for thanksgiving, and DS apathetic about cruising and Holidays in general, DW and I are cruising Thanksgiving. We’ve done 3 other Thanksgiving cruises with the Kids and even extended Family. Definitely our Favorite holiday to cruise, great Turkey dinner, without the work, football on the biggest screen you can find, and wonderful warm weather! DW and I will be taking a jet Ski to Rum point GC!

 

Done the Magic and Harmony’s sister Oasis. My vote is form Harmony. Have not done Disney because we are of the mind that we would rather cruise twice as much rather than pay twice as much.

 

 

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Edited October 3, 2017 by nealstuber

[Cruise4Fun2Sun]

Christmas cruise on Disney Dream 2011 with 5yo and 13 yo kids. Christmas Eve in Castaway Key, Christmas Day as a sea day. Perfect weather. Fun cruise. Kids enjoyed. Atrium was nicely decorated, Santa visits, special food on Christmas Day, and a whole box of chocolates and lithograph as a gift (balcony cabin, not concierge). We brought some gifts for kids stockings which we hung in the room, with a note from Santa indicating remaining gifts at home (which were laid out when I "forgot something" as we were about to leave home). Overall, a great change of pace for that year! Enjoy whatever you choose!

 

 

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