Hello Turkey Gang!
I am thinking of going on the 2009 Thanksgiving cruise and trying to talk my Brother, SIL, Mom Dad and other family members into joining us.
You sound like you've been here before so could you please help me out with some answers?
How many folks dress up for pirate night? (I really want to make them all nice costumes)
How dressy is Thanksgiving?
Is there anything else I need to know that's special about this cruise. Something I should warn/talk up to the family?
Thanks Heaps.
MM
Hi Patsy!
You've picked a wonderful cruise to join in on! I cruised with a number of the returning '09 Turkey Day Gang group in '07 and they are a ton of fun (very nice and helpful too!).
Lots of folks dress up for pirate night...and costumes range from elaborate to basic (black t-shirt, bandana, eye patch). While I understand wanting to bring an elaborate costume, remember that you are limited to 2 pieces of luggage per person (to check) and you have to store all those suitcases in your stateroom somewhere!
I can't remember if Thanksgiving is the formal night or the semi-formal night. I'm sure someone else will know. I do remember that this cruise had a formal night and a semi-formal night. For formal night, some of the mean had tuxes and some had suits. Others just had coat and tie with dress pants. For women it ranged from formal gowns to nice "church" dresses or dressy pantsuits. For the kids -- boys were either in tuxes or coat and tie or just tie with nicer pants (no jeans) -- girls had on everything from "fancy" (or twirly dresses as my nieces called them) to just nice church dresses or sun dresses.
So, what's special about this cruise. Well -- 1) the Turkey Day Gang is special

; 2) You don't have to eat turkey on Thanksgiving (sorry, but I don't like turkey)

; 3) The ship is decked out with Christmas decorations (great for your Christmas cards); 4)
Castaway Cay is also decorated for Christmas -- wonderful Christmas card photo op there!; 5) It's just a ton of fun

!
In '07 those that were on the disboards (and wanted them) had special t-shirts made so that we could all find each other (they were lime green...I'll see if I can find the design...I was the coordinator for the shirts in '07). A lot of us did "Fish Extenders" which are little pocket like things that hang from the fish outside your door...we ran around and placed small trinkets in the fish extenders -- these items ranged from candy to cards to pirate stuff (one of our gang in '07 works for the Pittsburgh Pirates and had great pirate stuff

). Chuck (aka Icemanpad) linked up the dinner reservations of those of us who had late dining so that we all sat near one another at dinner (thanks again for that Chuck!). Most of our kids got to know one another fairly well and ran together on the ship (which made it really nice for them -- and for us).
All in all, this is a great group to cruise with. Very nice, very friendly, and very comfortable people. Which is why we started this thread nearly 2 years before our cruise!
Hope this helps.
Karen