Holiday Decor?

[JMurray823]

With today's news release about the Merrytime Cruises, I have a question!

We are scheduled to cruise on December 26th on the Dream. This is not a Merrytime Cruise, but I was wondering if we can expect the decor to still be up? Not expecting any of the special events/Santa meet and greet or anything, but hoping the ship is still decorated!

 

[RedHead0186]

With today's news release about the Merrytime Cruises, I have a question!

We are scheduled to cruise on December 26th on the Dream. This is not a Merrytime Cruise, but I was wondering if we can expect the decor to still be up? Not expecting any of the special events/Santa meet and greet or anything, but hoping the ship is still decorated!

I can't speak to after, but I've been on the sailing right before the offical start of Merrytime cruises, and they did have some decorations up already. I think I recall they had the gingerbread houses up already (you could smell them a mile away, lol), but not sure what else.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We have been on a NYE cruise and the Gingerbread House was still up!

NYE 2019

 

[Cheburashka]

With today's news release about the Merrytime Cruises, I have a question!

We are scheduled to cruise on December 26th on the Dream. This is not a Merrytime Cruise, but I was wondering if we can expect the decor to still be up? Not expecting any of the special events/Santa meet and greet or anything, but hoping the ship is still decorated!

Yes, we've sailed on three non-Merrytime cruises between Christmas & New Year's within the past several years, and I can vouch for the fact that all decorations will still be onboard and on Castaway Cay. The only difference between those cruises & Merrytime (which we've also sailed) is the lack of specialized Merrytime activities like cookie decorating, etc., but the ship and CC are still beautifully decorated for Christmas.

The decorations come down immediately after the end of the New Year's cruise. If you disembark late enough after the New Year's cruise, you'll see them starting to take the decorations down. We disembarked on the late side after one New Year's cruise & were treated to the sight & sound of them tearing down the life-size gingerbread house in the atrium as we left.

 

[Keyser]

With today's news release about the Merrytime Cruises, I have a question!

Sorry to sidetrack this thread, but what was the news release?

 

[JMurray823]

Yes, we've sailed on three non-Merrytime cruises between Christmas & New Year's within the past several years, and I can vouch for the fact that all decorations will still be onboard and on Castaway Cay. The only difference between those cruises & Merrytime (which we've also sailed) is the lack of specialized Merrytime activities like cookie decorating, etc., but the ship and CC are still beautifully decorated for Christmas & you'll see characters in Christmas gear.

The decorations come down immediately after the end of the New Year's cruise. If you disembark late enough after the New Year's cruise, you'll see them starting to take the decorations down. We disembarked on the late side after one New Year's cruise & were treated to the sight & sound of them tearing down the life-size gingerbread house in the atrium as we left.

Thank you so much for your personal insight! This is what I was hoping to hear from someone who’s sailed in the same time frame!

 

[JMurray823]

Sorry to sidetrack this thread, but what was the news release?

Basically just details about the Very Merrytime cruises sailing and what to expect in terms of decor and character costumes.

 

[vrneuroh]

I know this is a bit of the opposite of your questions, but it could help people on the front-end of Merrytime cruises. We did the first Merrytime cruise of the season on the Dream in 2018 and they were decorating the ship before we got on. We were actually delayed a bit while they were finishing up. All of the decorations were sitting on the pier and they had a large team moving them on the ship and the empty containers off. It was pretty neat to watch all of the activity! The only down side is they were just starting work on the gingerbread house and it was nowhere near finished. It had walls around it, but you could see it from the higher decks in the atrium. I hope our 3-night cruise on the Fantasy in November will have it finished. Nice to know they keep the decorations up after Christmas!

 

[kkayluvsdis]

I know this is a bit of the opposite of your questions, but it could help people on the front-end of Merrytime cruises. We did the first Merrytime cruise of the season on the Dream in 2018 and they were decorating the ship before we got on. We were actually delayed a bit while they were finishing up. All of the decorations were sitting on the pier and they had a large team moving them on the ship and the empty containers off. It was pretty neat to watch all of the activity! The only down side is they were just starting work on the gingerbread house and it was nowhere near finished. It had walls around it, but you could see it from the higher decks in the atrium. I hope our 3-night cruise on the Fantasy in November will have it finished. Nice to know they keep the decorations up after Christmas!

We had this same experience in November of 2019. We were on the first Merrytime cruise on the Fantasy. It was absolutely remarkable to imagine that the crew was not only able to disembark guests and clean and turn over the entire ship but ALSO to get up ALL the decorations before boarding our cruise. We too, got the chance to see the multitude of decorations being loaded on the ship from the Port Canaveral terminal. The gingerbread house was finished as well. The only downside was that the boarding was significantly delayed which meant a lengthy wait in the terminal. If we were to do another "first" Merrytime cruise we definitely would not arrive at the port as early