Caribbean, Christmas, Cruise, family trip, Galveston, Liberty of the Seas, New Year's Eve, NYE, RCCL, ROyal Caribbean, South America, Texas, Travel, vacation

Festive holidays on Royal Caribbean

This year we tried something new over the Christmas break.  The husband , two adult kids and I packed up, drove down to Galveston and took a Royal Caribbean western Caribbean cruise from December 26- January 2.  It was a whole new way to spend the holiday, and it was a lot of fun.  The ship was definitely festive…

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Mark on the Promenade

We are starting to get accustomed to warm weather holidays after spending several December vacations at Disneyland and Disney World.  Not a tough adjustment to make!

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The main dining room was decorated very nicely for the holidays.  Dinners in there were a real treat. There were lots of Christmas-y touches throughout the ship, and because it was also Hanukkah, there were services every night to celebrate that as well. img_5967

New Year’s eve was the BIG night, and I will tell you that a cruise ship is a very festive place to be!  There were parties all over the place, and the BIG production show, plus the final countdown on the main promenade with the dropping of a few thousand balloons. img_6091

Of course, party hats were handed out at dinner…

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img_6087Lots of fun NYE things to do and festivities all over the ship!img_6095

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After midnight, there was a big dance party up on the pool deck, and other after parties throughout the ship…

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And for my family, and important part of NYE was to watch the college football playoffs… GO CLEMSON!  Here is my plug for using a travel agent…  We KNEW this would be important to us.  Our team, Clemson, was playing in the semi finals at 7pm on NYE.  It mattered a lot to us that we would be able to watch the big game.  I was able to connect with contacts who confirmed that the big games would, indeed be shown on board.  As a travel agent, I can do the research to find out this sort of information for you 🙂 I can’t necessarily impact whether or not something is shown, but at least you will know what you are getting into.

It turned out that we were just about the only Clemson fans on board, so we viewed the game with about 30-40 Ohio state fans. But in the end, we were the HAPPY fans!

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Diane Frisch

I am a travel consultant at Diane Frisch Destinations, LLC. I love to travel and share my experiences in this blog.

22 thoughts on “Festive holidays on Royal Caribbean”

  3. Looks like a fab holiday! My mum loved spending Christmasses onboard as it meant no Christmas cooking/prep and dishes to do 😉 Never done NYE but looks like it would be fun too – certainly seeing folks’ photos of fireworks on land taken from the deck of the ship 🙂

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  5. Thanks for commenting on my blog and I’m enjoying yours. I loved seeing the holidays aboard a cruise ship and might look into that for next winter. We were on a cruise for Thanksgiving once but it was in China and not quite what we expected. Still fun though.

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    1. Is it the crowds or does he get sea sick? If it is the crowds, I understand !! I am going to do a smaller ship next time it is just the husband and me- maybe azamara. They are mid-sized. So not very crowded and great docking opportunities where big ships can’t fit… but big enough to have some entertainment , casino and more than one dining option. When we go with the kids, we do the bigger ships because there is more for them to do! It is a happier vacation when everyone is entertained and happy. Next family trip is Alaska on a cruise ship!!

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        1. Have you thought of a river cruise? Much, much smaller ships and you don’t have the motion of the Seas. I have heard there is zero sea sickness. I am not sure I believe zero, but I do believe it will be significantly lower.

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    1. GO TIGERS!!!!! We will be watching with our two kids, Michael a recent grad and Megan, a current Junior at Clemson – at a local alumni club viewing party her in Dallas. We are already all decked out in ORANGE!

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