Flynn Stone -
We celebrated Christmas 2003 aboard the Disney Magic and we had a truly wonderful time!! There was an awesome group of DIS members aboard the cruise and we had all long planned our decorating schemes for our Christmas Cruise.
The CAT 3 is well-worth the cost for our family. We have a 17 year old son and a 9 year old daughter. She got the Murphy bed and he got the double sleeper sofa. And, we all had enough bathroom space. We like the suites and we have had both CAT 3 and CAT 2 Suites on previous cruises.
The stateroom was not decorated but we quickly took care of that. Plus, we had experience because we decorated our door/room on our Halloween Cruise. We brought decorations and our family stockings AND Shirley from the Perfect Gift did magical things with the other decorations. From the Perfect Gift, I ordered a pre-lit Christmas Tree (I think it was Teleflora but Shirley can tell you for sure) and a Sleigh Centerpiece filled with fresh cut greenery. Our cabin smelled Christmasy all week long. Most of the decorations came from the party store where I bought Christmas garland and some inexpensive holiday hanging decorations, lights, some window transparancies and we made door magnets (Thanks to Veranhah Man). Oh, and I brought two extensions cords. Our door was awesome and we wrapped garland along the side railes outside our door as well.
Just some suggestions: Bring hooks on suction cups! The other DIS'rs did but I forgot so couldn't put my lights around the windows like they did. There is really no way to hang decorations without those hooks (and I wouldn't use tape on the glorious walls) so I draped the garlands over the large artwork on the wall. I bought an inexpensive Christmas Red Table runner and placed the Christmas Floral Arrangments on it. Then, while on board, we built a family gingerbread house and it really looked lovely with the other decorations. Lastly, the decorations I brought from the party store stayed behind so we had lots of packing room for our purchases while on the ship. So, we didn't waste the space bringing the decorations.
One other head's up! You must be very careful about which Stateroom you are booking. There was a bit of confusion and I booked a stateroom with the Murphy bed in the living room......or so I thought. We had actually been booked erroneously into a handicap suite (which many folks love but doesn't work for us). The handicap Cat 3's say they sleep 4 but that requires two people to share a double sleeper sofa - there is no Murphy Bed. One of our other DIS'rs had older children too big to share a double sleeper sofa and found out too late to switch. That info was so helpful so we checked and were then rebooked into another suite. Although the diagram and brochures indicate the suite layout is with the Murphy bed in the living room, only 4 of the CAT 3 suites (mid-ship) have the Murphy in the living room. All the rest have the Murphy in the bedroom which may block your access to the verandah from the bedroom. So, just be wise up-front and ensure what layout you will have in your CAT 3.
Hope that helps. I am happy to PM pictures of our room if you are interested.
Take care -
