Cruising Christmas week 2019?

NJlauren

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
At dinner last night my MIL said she wants to take the family on cruise (Disney) Christmas week 2019. I am in charge of planning it. I know they are on sale already, I don’t think she knows that so who knows if it will actually happen, but if I’m in charge I want to know all the things!

So if we do this, what can you tell me about cruising chirtmas week?

Pros? Cons? Crowds? Booking excursions and other activities?? Tell me anything I need to know.

Would be 6 adults, 4 kids ages 7, 5, 5, 18 months.

Thanks!
 
At dinner last night my MIL said she wants to take the family on cruise (Disney) Christmas week 2019. I am in charge of planning it. I know they are on sale already, I don’t think she knows that so who knows if it will actually happen, but if I’m in charge I want to know all the things!

So if we do this, what can you tell me about cruising chirtmas week?

Pros? Cons? Crowds? Booking excursions and other activities?? Tell me anything I need to know.

Would be 6 adults, 4 kids ages 7, 5, 5, 18 months.

Thanks!
We cruise during Christmas vacation every year and love it. The great thing about a Disney cruise, as opposed to the Disney parks, is that the number of potential guests is limited, so you don't have to worry about crowds. Prices are much higher during Christmas week- that's the main drawback. But an advantage of high prices is that the cruise might not even come close to selling out (this happened on our Christmas week cruise last year), leading to less people on the boat.

We've been to the Caribbean & Bahamas 3 times in 3 different Decembers, and the weather was warm and clear each time. The water in the Caribbean is perfect for swimming. The water at Castaway Cay is chilly, but not too cold to swim in for most people.

The Christmas decorations on the ship are very nice, too.
 
My first Disney cruise was over Christmas. I really loved it. We only booked a couple months out (got a Florida resident discount on it) and we were able to get our own table and switch to main dining. It was just me and my BF at the time, but we had a fantastic time. Had no problem booking excursions and the ship didn't feel too crowded. I would definitely recommend going at this time.
 
..........So if we do this, what can you tell me about cruising Christmas week? Pros? Cons? Crowds? ....."

Pros: It's Christmas! the ship will be beautiful
Cons: It's VERY pricey to cruise that week! Might be tough to wrangle kids gifts onto the cruise.
Crowds: This is a very popular time to cruise, so I would anticipate pretty crowded/lots of kids. :-)
 


Our two cruises were Jan 2 and 3rd. So, while not Christmas time, it technically was still holiday time. The decorations were down for our two cruises. That time of year can be pretty spendy. The weather was decent though, if not a touch cool on sail away. We had two beautiful days on Castaway Cay though... water was cold (for the adults), the kids swam with no issues ;)
 
If you can do it with your kids' school schedules, cruising the week before is a great option. We went last year from Dec. 16-23 and this year we're going Dec. 15-22. It's much cheaper. Between changing our cruise from Eastern to Western due to the hurricane damage and it being the week before winter break for most schools, the cost of the cruise actually went down (figures it all happened just after we booked last Sept.- dropped close to $1000 for the three of us by mid-October). It ended up still being a full ship, but the holiday touches, while subtle (decorations, music playing in the common areas, snow at Castaway Cay, simple holiday activities, etc.), were so wonderful. We loved making it home for the actual holiday so we could continue some of our usual Christmas traditions (although the cruise was our family Christmas gift). Unfortunately, cruising this week does mean missing a week of school for my son and me (I'm a teacher), but both of our schools have been extremely flexible with this. I don't think this will work when he's in high school as it will probably be finals etc. but for now (6th grade this year) it works great!
 

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