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Christmas Eve and Christmas Day


lillulu
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Hello,

Are there any of my fellow CC members who have traveled at Christmas? I am interested in what Holland does Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? What's it going to be like on the ship? What Christmas traditions are followed?  We are in the Caribbean and both days are port days when we will be getting off the ship. Christmas Eve we will be in Falmouth, Jamaica 8:00-5:00. Christmas day we will be in George town, Cayman Islands 8:00-4:00. 

I don't even know if things will be open either day in either port. What are other's experience with this.

Any information would be great.

 

Another question. What's the norm on giving gifts to the crew?

Thanks!!

 

 

 

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2I am very fortunate to have been on 5 Christmas cruises with the most recent one on HAL Westerdam in 2017 (the others were one on Celebrity and three on Princess). Our family is looking at going again in 2020 and HAL or Princess are the most likely choices. Our entire family of about 20 goes so ages range from 2 to 85.

 

The Westerdam was a bit more low key than Princess in my opinion but all were great. I do not know if anyone in our family gave any kind of gift to any crew but if I did it would probably be a card/envelope with some cash. On the Westerdam sailing, which departed Ft. Lauderdale 22 December, Christmas Eve was a Gala night & Christmas Day was a sea day and the weather was very nice. Lots of large groups of families onboard but otherwise seemed like a usual Caribbean cruise. Ship is of course decorated.

Edited by cwtravel
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8 hours ago, lillulu said:

Hello,

Are there any of my fellow CC members who have traveled at Christmas? I am interested in what Holland does Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? What's it going to be like on the ship? What Christmas traditions are followed?  We are in the Caribbean and both days are port days when we will be getting off the ship. Christmas Eve we will be in Falmouth, Jamaica 8:00-5:00. Christmas day we will be in George town, Cayman Islands 8:00-4:00. 

I don't even know if things will be open either day in either port. What are other's experience with this.

Any information would be great.

 

Another question. What's the norm on giving gifts to the crew?

Thanks!!

 

 

 

 

The main event on Christmas Eve is a concert inside the main show lounge by the crew composed of an Indonesian choir, a Filipino choir and an international choir. They will each sing Christmas carols separately and then come together as one big choir. It's always a nice event for both pax and crew. 

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Edited by Copper10-8
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6 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

The main event on Christmas Eve is a concert inside the main show lounge by the crew composed of an Indonesian choir, a Filipino choir and an international choir. They will each sing Christmas carols separately and then come together as one big choir. It's always a nice event for both pax and crew. 

 

Yes!  It's special and ought not to be missed.  Has his duties allow, the ship's Master will participate.

 

Other highlights for me included a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony with Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, and warm apple cider being served by the Stewards, a Christmas morning program in the Main Theater with the arrival of Santa Claus and the distribution of gifts to the children on-board, and festive decorations including a Gingerbread village wintery scene set-up in a public area.  Gala night menus were offered on Christmas Eve in the MDR; regular dinner menu on Christmas Day.  In the past, there has been a Midnight Christmas Eve non-denominational service and, I think, a Christmas Eve Mass as well.  Our Jewish friends celebrating their holiday during this time of the year are remembered as well with a Menorah and, I recall, a Rabbi to officiate at their services.  

 

Don't recall the port, but the Prinsendam was in port on Christmas Day and the attendance at the Christmas morning program was missed by many.  Even on the Prinsendam, there were many children and those that attended the program received more gifts than the one that I think had been planned to be given.  My opinion:  on such a holiday cruise, one has to make the decision--is this cruise for the Christmas Cruise experience or is it to visit the ports?

 

Gifts for the crew?  They expect none.  My Cabin and Dining Room Stewards are always surprised with a small monetary offering that I give them.  If I have found a favorite Bartender and Steward(s) at that point of my cruise, a small gratuity always is happily received.

 

Holiday cruises are special!!!

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We do holiday cruises very often.  Christmas eve has always was gala. But on our last cruise 12/18 gala was Christmas day.  Spoke to hotel manager about why the change.  He stated the officers will wear dress "blues" both nights and passengers can make their own decision which night to go gala.  Most selected the eve to dress up, correctly in my opinion.  

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Thank you everyone for getting back to me. This is a 17 day with 4 Gala nights. Wonder how that's going to work. We always like to cruise during Halloween. Unfortunately due to health issues we were unable to take our cruise (which was to Hawaii. 17 day cruise out of San Diego). I had trip insurance  but Holland was kind enough to work with me hence taking this cruise. I personally did not feel up to filing a claim. (My problem, I know). So they would only give me 60 day out to book and it had to be within this year. This was the best choice and 3 ports we have not been too. That's why I wanted to know what they did or if they did anything during Christmas.

 

Does anyone know if you can give a gift to Santa to give to your child? My daughter would freak. I'd love to see her face. She is already asking me how he is going to find her.  

Thanks,

Lulu

 

 

Edited by lillulu
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On Christmas day Santa comes down the "smoke stack" and enters the Show stage area with his helpers.  They ask all the good boys and girls to line up and come on stage where they get a token gift from Santa and a photo taken.  Guess you pay for the photo, but I don't know.  All the girls get a girl gift and the boys a boys gift.  Since Santa does not know your girl he might give your gift to the wrong girl.  We go to the presentation each Holiday cruise and it is sooo cute until the older boys and girls start going on stage well past their level of belief just to get a token gift.  By the way adults get eggnog.

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On the Zuiderdam last year, we had a double Gala, both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If you're familiar with HAL's Gala menus, there is usually a silver menu for the first night and gold for the second. We has silver for the first night, green for Christmas eve, and red for Christmas day. The two menus are linked below. The links will take you to Evernote where you can see the scanned PDFs of the two menus. (You don't need to have an Evernote account. Just follow the link to the page and you'll see the embedded PDFs.)

 

We thought that the food was some of the best we've had on a cruise in years. (I posted that in my Live From a year ago.)

 

Speaking of Christmas Cruises, you can wade through the whole thing and see the daily programs and activities in the thread. It's a fairly long read, but it should give you an idea of what to expect. Ours was a 10 Day Southern itinerary with the ABC islands and sea days for both 12/24 and  12/25. Pretty much an ideal Christmas schedule.

 

The full Live From:

 

 

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7 hours ago, Billthekid said:

We go to the presentation each Holiday cruise and it is sooo cute until the older boys and girls start going on stage well past their level of belief just to get a token gift. 

 

You weren't on my cruise when the CD asked each child before she/he visited Santa about "what you wanted Santa to give you for Christmas?"  When one teen-age boy was asked that question, his answer was X rated, the CD's reaction was priceless, and the audience laughed louder and longer than most do for any comedian performer on the Main Stage.  

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