Christmas Cruise

[OttawaJohn]

We're doing our first cruise at Christmas and curious what it's like on Christmas Day.  It's a port day, Cabo San Lucas.  Does the ship do special meals?  Does Santa visit?  And how many things in the port are closed?

 

Thanks in advance

[www3traveler]

I have done two Christmas cruises. They are wonderful-- lots of decorations and big turkey dinner complete with Green Bean casserole.  Officers led a sing-A-Long on Christmas Eve.  Will have a special program in the theater on Christmas Eve.  Yes, Santa arrives on Christmas morning with gifts for all the kids-- very fun to watch.

 

I would assume that at least some excursions will be running.  The shops and restaurants outside of the Safety area will probably be closed.  Inside the Zone they probably will be open.

 

Enjoy

[KapohoTwo]

We cruised on Christmas twice.  Once with NCL and once with another line.  NCL was by far the merriest and most fun.  There were decorations everywhere that I did not have to lug out and put back into the attic🙂.  Santa arrived on Christmas morning and each kid (about 600 on our cruise) got a personal visit and gift from him.  We sat and watched for hours. Very cute.  Hot chocolate and cookies were served, there was a Christmas parade that wandered around the ship and crew members were handing out little gifts to each passenger.  There were special meals, special shows, caroling with the crew on Christmas Eve.  We were at sea on Christmas day.....don't know if this makes a difference.  We are booked again on NCL for Christmas 2022!!

[tony s]

We are doing  NCL South America cruise over Christmas. Does anyone recall if a special menu is served for Christmas Eve or Christmas and if so is a copy floating around. Also do they do some form of Mass on board? Thanks

[mearsfansinboise]

On 3/8/2022 at 6:55 AM, OttawaJohn said:

We're doing our first cruise at Christmas and curious what it's like on Christmas Day.  It's a port day, Cabo San Lucas.  Does the ship do special meals?  Does Santa visit?  And how many things in the port are closed?

 

Thanks in advance

We did this same cruise at Christmas and the cool part for us was we did one of those bus tour excursions in Cabo - (on Christmas Day) - and the bus stopped in town for us to have x time to sight see, and we were near an old Catholic church and we were able to do Christmas Day mass there - it was glorious! - one of my favorite cruise memories.

 

I do remember Santa in an atrium area and gifts for the kids.  I don't particularly remember special food or anything else; though it's been some years.

[juju2454]

On 3/9/2022 at 10:14 AM, KapohoTwo said:

We cruised on Christmas twice.  Once with NCL and once with another line.  NCL was by far the merriest and most fun.  There were decorations everywhere that I did not have to lug out and put back into the attic🙂.  Santa arrived on Christmas morning and each kid (about 600 on our cruise) got a personal visit and gift from him.  We sat and watched for hours. Very cute.  Hot chocolate and cookies were served, there was a Christmas parade that wandered around the ship and crew members were handing out little gifts to each passenger.  There were special meals, special shows, caroling with the crew on Christmas Eve.  We were at sea on Christmas day.....don't know if this makes a difference.  We are booked again on NCL for Christmas 2022!!

We're booked for this Christmas too.  on Gem.

[julig22]

13 hours ago, juju2454 said:

We're booked for this Christmas too.  on Gem.

Was on the Gem for Christmas, 2021.  Santa & Mrs. Claus were there, handing out presents to all the kids. They will have decorations throughout the ship, with one or more huge gingerbread-house displays.  Christmas dinner available in the buffet, not sure what was available in the MDR, although I assume turkey was available.  According to the Freestyle, O'Sheehan's blue plate special was sirloin.

Not a port day so can't speak to availability of excursions. Had a special Christmas-themed show in the theatre.

[KapohoTwo]

I can't comment on the Christmas dinner menu in the main dining room.  We had attended the special Christmas show in the theatre and on the way out stopped in a lounge for a drink on our way to dinner.  We ended up speaking with some wonderful people in the lounge, and a drink turned into hours of conversation.  When we were ready to eat we realized that most dining venues were closed  So, my Christmas dinner was fish and chips in O'Sheehan's.....always delish...lol

[Coastalbreezes]

Last year on Escape the captain dressed as Santa and along with his "elves" visited the specialty restaurants. It was very festive!

[juju2454]

On 3/11/2022 at 12:25 PM, julig22 said:

Was on the Gem for Christmas, 2021.  Santa & Mrs. Claus were there, handing out presents to all the kids. They will have decorations throughout the ship, with one or more huge gingerbread-house displays.  Christmas dinner available in the buffet, not sure what was available in the MDR, although I assume turkey was available.  According to the Freestyle, O'Sheehan's blue plate special was sirloin.

Not a port day so can't speak to availability of excursions. Had a special Christmas-themed show in the theatre.

We went in 2018 on RCCl  Grandeur, it was very nice, decorated to the hilts, Santa giving gifts,   elves in the elevators dancing...food was amazing.  we were at sea on that day.  So this will be different, being in port.