Gala Nights on Thanksgiving Cruise

New to HAL here (well, we did one 14 years ago). I want to book a specialty restaurant but don't want to miss Gala nights in the MDR for a 7-night cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam leaving on a Sunday.

We have a sea on Tuesday which I would guess would be the first one. Thanksgiving is Thursday and the other sea day is the last day. So, I'd guess that the second one would be on Thanksgiving which would make sense to me?

Likely, first sea day and Thanksgiving. I guess they could make it Friday, if that is an early port exit.

That's my thinking as well. Friday has a departure time of 11:00 PM. So, that would probably would not be it.

We were on the Oosterdam last Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving was indeed a gala night. We eat early and the dining room was extremely busy on Thanksgiving.

That's my thinking as well. Friday has a departure time of 11:00 PM. So, that would probably would not be it.

It won’t be then, for sure, then!

Not to wander too far off topic, we were on a cruise about 10 years ago during which Canadian Thanksgiving was to happen. We do it on the second Monday in October. A few days ahead of time I mentioned to the head waiter (who was from India) that Thanksgiving was on the upcoming Monday. He looked puzzled and asked, "What do you want me to do about it?" I explained that it is traditional to have a turkey dinner. He graciously undertook to talk to the chef and see what he could do.

The next evening when he spotted me he hurried over to assure me that there would be turkey on Monday's menu. All was good, or so it seemed. When Monday came around I went to look at the menu and it was a curried turkey cutlet! Just then I also realized that I was a week ahead of myself, and Thanksgiving wasn't until the following Monday. So I had to explain in more detail the traditional roast turkey concept with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, etc.

To their credit, they came up with the proper turkey dinner. The only catch was that everyone at our table, which included two couples from the UK and one from Australia, had to have the turkey dinner. It was tasty, and our tablemates were quite good about it even though they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.