Christmas Day:
We felt like the Christmas cruise was worth every last penny. It was great to have Christmas be JUST our family- no running around, no other relatives to entertain. I know that sounds bad, but it was nice to have it be just US. We enjoyed Christmas with the relatives when we returned home.
I'd be happy to answer any questions, and others can add their tips or special moments of the Christmas cruises! It was an amazing experience, and we have been on many DCL cruises. This one was just really special.
Thank you so very much for posting this. We will be on the Magic this Christmas. Reading your post and seeing your pics put a tear in my eye. I'm so excited but getting very stressed out. My kids are 18, 11 and 5. I am really stumped at what presents I should bring on board for them to open. It looks like you had a lot of big presents, did you take those or buy on board?
Thank you again for sharing you memories!
OMG I cried too!! I am SOexcited to spring this surprise on the kids. I think we will just do stockings as the cruise itself is supposed to be the gift
We did the gingerbread house decorating last Christmas aboard the Wonder. It was held in Studio Sea on deck 4. When we arrived we chose whichever table we wanted that had the materials set out. One of the chefs came out and demonstrated how to put the Gingerbread house together step by step. There were plenty of televisions so if you were in the back, you could still hear and see what he was doing. He also provided tips on how to make icicles dripping from the roof and creative things like that. All the materials were provided and we had plenty of time to create. Afterwards, the kids took theirs back to their cabin and picked at it all week. We threw away whatever was still left at the end of the cruise. It was a simple but fun holiday thing to do together. We are definitely doing it again this Christmas!
I know they have changed things up, but was the gingerbread house only offered on 1 day or multiple times? We are on the Magic Christmas cruise this year and just trying to get an idea.
I know they offered two different times on the day we went and I think they offered two times on another at sea day. Just make sure you go to guest services the day you board to sign up if you want to be certain to do this.
Is it okay to do the gingerbread house decorating if your DD is 20? We do one at home every year and this would be great fun for both of us, but I don't want her to feel out of place with a lot of little kids. If other adults do it, we wouldn't feel uncomfortable.
Silly Little Pixie said:We had the good fortune to be able to spend Christmas 2011 on an 8-night Mexican Riviera cruise on the Wonder. It was everything we could have hoped for in a special holiday cruise! I know I would've liked to see some pictures/get information ahead of time about whether or not it was "worth it". So I thought I'd post some pictures of our cruise, hope it might help others plan or decide to take a Christmas cruise in 2013!
Gingerbread house making- sign up right away at Guest Services. My family had a blast and it made our cabin smell soooo good!
There are lots of pictures of the beautiful decorations, so I won't go into those. I will say there was milk and cookies on Christmas Eve in the MDR so we could leave it out for Santa. I brought magnetic hooks and hung our stockings inside the cabin. Santa had thoughtfully pre-wrapped everyone's stocking gifts in different wrapping papers. Just a tip.
Here is the cabin on Christmas Eve:
I had brought with us a fiberoptic Disney Christmas tree- bought at Disneyland for about $25 and it came in a box. I had some special ornaments for each of us that I hung on a ribbon and affixed to the walls with more magnetic hooks (no picture). My Secret Mickey on the cruise gave me the light up Minnie Mouse. We only plugged in the tree and Minnie when we were in the cabin. I saw lots of families had Christmas decorations up as you walked past the cabins or on the doors.
DCL gave us some gifts as well:
The lithograph was really nice!
Is it okay to do the gingerbread house decorating if your DD is 20? We do one at home every year and this would be great fun for both of us, but I don't want her to feel out of place with a lot of little kids. If other adults do it, we wouldn't feel uncomfortable.