When do they decorate for Christmas/ the holidays?

[Optotronics]

we're going on the royal from 11/5 to 11/25 and will be onboard for thanksgiving, but just wondering if they wait to decorate for the holidays until the cruise following thanksgiving.

[Steelers36]

It should be ready for Thanksgiving. We were on one of the Grand class ships once the week leading to Thanksgiving and they were working on decorations in the Piazza every day.

[ar1950]

In our experience you will see Thanksgiving decorations a day or two before Thanksgiving. The Christmas decorations don't tend to go up until around December 1st or thereabouts depending on the beginning date of the first cruise on your ship in December (hope that makes sense).

[floridalover5623]

Not that I know anything for sure but I'm thinking they wont decorate until they return from the 11/25 cruise on 11/30.

[Coral]

Usually right after Thanksgiving. It will probably start the day you get off the ship. We have done several Thanksgiving cruises and they are onboard when we are disembarking putting decorations up.

[paul929207]

They take down the thanksgiving decorations the weekend after it. Then they start with the Christmas stuff a day or two later.

[tip]

Hopefully it will not be like the discount department stores that started sometime around Labor Day!

[Steelers36]

It should be ready for Thanksgiving. We were on one of the Grand class ships once the week leading to Thanksgiving and they were working on decorations in the Piazza every day.

 

On second thought (it was a while ago now), other posters jogged my memory and we boarded right after the Thanksgiving week voyage, so yes I was wrong in my timing.

[jasbo49]

My guess is you'll see almost nothing in November.

 

We were on the Island in December 2015 for a 15-day Panama Canal transit and the decorations seemed sparse when we boarded (Dec. 5, I think?). They gradually added things over the next two weeks.

 

The day we disembarked, they were adding a whole bunch more stuff. So it's a slow process, taking weeks to go from a little bit to full yuletide splendor. (Or at least it was on our cruise.)

 

Jim

[PescadoAmarillo]

We’ve cruised over those holidays several times. What we saw is that Thanksgiving decorations are pretty much a one day thing, except for a thanksgiving tree in the Piazza, which may stay up for 2-3 days. Christmas decorations usually go up either on the turnaround day after US Thanksgiving, or during the week or so after that. The **** is not always decorated on a turnaround day even when it’s homeported out of LA or Fort Lauderdale. Sometimes the decorations are taken on board on turnaround day and the decorators fly in and decorate on a port day during the cruise.

 

ETA: there are last minute decorations in the buffet and Piazza that go up just for the Christmas cruise. The above I was talking about are the trees and swags. Gingerbread villages and train sets sometimes are set up just around the holiday.

 

We have never cruised out of Asia or Australia over the holidays and don’t know how it’s handled on those cruises.

[MarkSeattle]

Christmas starts going up around the first turnaround in December. Lots of support crew from the port were onboard turnaround day after Thanksgiving. The week before Thanksgiving there was nothing up for any holiday.

[ne1travel]

They take down the thanksgiving decorations the weekend after it. Then they start with the Christmas stuff a day or two later.

 

 

 

Always wanted to do Panama Canal cruise and a Christmas cruise. Doing 15 day Panama Canal December of '18.

Looks like a 2 for 1[emoji41]

 

 

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[OCruisers]

Princess contracts with a company specializing in "events decorating" to decorate their ships for Christmas.

They normally begin after Thanksgiving.

[Steelers36]

Princess contracts with a company specializing in "events decorating" to decorate their ships for Christmas.

They normally begin after Thanksgiving.

 

Not surprising, but I thought I saw uniformed staff working on it a few years back.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

It is a tradition on all cruise ship to put a Christmas tree (with lights) on the highest point of the ship.

[Coral]

It is a tradition on all cruise ship to put a Christmas tree (with lights) on the highest point of the ship.

 

I have often seen them on funnels but with out lights.

[Corfe Mixture]

On our (ONE) experience of doing a back to back on the cruise before Christmas and the Christmas / New Year cruise, there were no decorations when we started the first cruise.

 

About halfway through our first cruise they started to build the 'gingerbread village' in the atrium.

 

I can't really comment on the suggestion that Princess employ an external contractor to do the main decorations, but the 'gingerbread village' appeared to be under the control of the catering department, with staff from the kitchen arriving with trays of gingerbread items, over a period of two days, which were then carefully placed in an apparently pre-determined design by one person.

 

Whether or not the person placing the items in the display was an external contractor, is not something I can comment on other than to say that he was dressed in chef's attire and appeared to know all the other chef's who were delivering the gingerbread items.

 

Can't really remember when they started to put up the main Christmas decorations in the atrium area, and don't know whether or not this was done by ship's crew or an external contractor, but I do seem to recall that the construction of the 'gingerbread village' (which took at least two days and possibly longer) was the first thing to happen.

 

On that basis I don't think you are likely to see any activity in the period between Thanksgiving and the commencement of the cruise preceding the Christmas cruise.

 

CM

Edited October 4, 2017 by Corfe Mixture
Added reference to perception of use (or not) of external contractors

[westendgirl]

It's been our experience that the decorating is done on the turn-around day closest to Dec. 1. They do bring in a special crew to do the decorating. We've spoken with them in both Europe and the U.S. They wear special shirts that state 'Princess Decorating Team' or something similar. (Not sure about AU cruises)

[floridalover5623]

We were on a B2B a few years ago where they decorated each cabin door mailbox with a Christmas spray.

They removed them before the completion of the first voyage & put them back for the following trip so people couldn't take them home with them. ;)

I haven see them do that since.

[KruzPrincess]

Usually the first week of December. Sometimes it’s a port day and sometimes it’s a turnaround day.

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

The crew does some of the simple decorations at sea but an independent company is hired for all of the major items. It probably cheaper & easier to contract the job out rather than do it themselves.

[MarkSeattle]

The crew does some of the simple decorations at sea but an independent company is hired for all of the major items. It probably cheaper & easier to contract the job out rather than do it themselves.

 

 

 

Plus the crew has zero free time on turnover day, how the heck could they spare 100 putting up decorations all day instead of their regular duties... the ship was swarmed on turnover day after my last Thanksgiving cruise.

[Wishing on a star]

The Holiday cruise we are considering on the Regal is the beginning of Dec.

I do hope that they have a Holiday Decorating Team hard at work!

 

I am wondering if they will have any early signs of Holiday Activities.... Maybe carolers, that early in Dec?

I think I have seen reports of this as early as Dec. 10th?

[floridalover5623]

Plus the crew has zero free time on turnover day, how the heck could they spare 100 putting up decorations all day instead of their regular duties... the ship was swarmed on turnover day after my last Thanksgiving cruise.

The crew works at night and very early morning, never on turn around day doing decorations.