10-Day Christmas Cruise - Gingerbread Houses

[Ginny]

To all who will be sailing over Christmas 2004 -

First, I am very, very envious of........................and excited for all of you! I wanted to share on of the special activities that DCL had on the 2003 Christmas Cruise that, for us, was really wonderful.

On our first "At Sea" day, they scheduled Gingerbread House making (although I'm sure it had a classier title). As soon as the overhead announcement was made on Sunday morning to sign up, I ran to Guest Services and we were about the 5th family in line. This activity was one of the highlights of our cruise and, for me, really made it seem more like Christmas.

Studio Sea was filled to the rafters (it "sold out" rapidly) and you had to have tickets to participate (like Tea w/ Wendy or High Tea). They had purchased pre-packaged Gingerbread house kits (they said from Wal-Mart) ...............but DCL pastry chefs pre-made their special frosting and pre-packaged it into individual pastry bags. You could use more than one bag of frosting. Then, two of the chefs demonstrated how to start the process and construction and decorative techniques. You then used the candy pieces in the kit over the frosting to decorate your house and garden.

There were a couple of cake decorators in the audience who really did an awesome job but, for the most part, it was just families working together and having fun. Please note that I am truly artistically deficient so for me to enjoy an arts/crafts activity is really saying something!! There were younger children, teens and adults all working together! At the end, you could take your gingerbread house "home" to your stateroom (it was on a gold foil base) and it was our favorite holiday decoration for the cruise.

I hope they include it again in 2004 (perhaps two times) so that all families who are interested can "play!" Have a Great Time!!

 

[WDWLVR]

Thanks Ginny - sounds like fun. Wonder if they consider two crazy childless adults as family.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

We were on the 11/29/03 Eastern and we participated in this activity as well. It was fun....but we couldn't think of what we should have done with the house once we were done! It was large, and the icing contained egg whites, so eating it was not really an option. Carrying it off the ship would have been awkward, if customs allowed it at all. We ended up leaving it in the room when we left. Kind of a waste. But it did make our room smell great while we were there!

 

[Buckleybunch]

That sounds like a blast- I hope they do this for the Dec 11th 2004 cruise..

What did you do with your house? How much was it? did you have to purchase the tickets for each person or could one family/set of kids make just one?


THanks

Linda

 

[Colestat]

We did this on our December 11, 2003 Wonder cruise. It was alot of fun. We also ended up leaving the house there. It was free.

 

[Ginny]

So glad to hear this was a Christmas Season activity. I just know we loved it. The sign up and access tickets are only to ensure that they don't overbook Studio Sea and, as Colestat said, it was free! We, too, left ours onboard with our Tabletop Tree and floral centerpiece.

Colestat - Great House!! You appear to be one of those really talented designers!

WDWLVR - No requirement that all adults must be accompanied by a responsible chid!! I think we are all children once we embark! Hope you enjoy it.