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Shine like the Stars For those that followed my blog last Christmas you may recall me mentioning that Reyd was graduating from high school and I had no cruises booked beyond our Europe 2024 “graduation” cruise on Anthem. There is a reason I always stick to a Christmas cruise so I was not terribly surprised when both Lindsay’s and Reyd’s work schedules conflicted with that trip. I typically book our cruises at or very close to release date so I wasn’t sure that star class would be in our future this year. Surprisingly the shorter 3/4 night sailings had ok pricing so I booked Allure for 2024 and Wonder for 2025 at its release date. 2024 has been a hectic and challenging year in some ways; I lost my Dad unexpectedly last spring just a few weeks before Reyd’s “season of grad” began, followed by Lindsay working out of province for 4-5 months, getting Reyd into trade school and settled in his apprenticeship and me adapting to life after high school. Thankfully Reyd continues to live at home while he works as an apprentice and will commute to SAIT (trade school in Calgary) for the 8 weeks in each period. All of that to say we are very grateful to have this time together this year and can’t wait to get this vacation underway! We have a lot planned so let’s get started!

Hubby and I will be going.

Christmas & Birthday combined sailing! Hubby & kiddo did this, they wanted to visit Bermuda! Yay, a surprise sailing. They booked an Owners Suite on this ship, we would just have sailed the Adventure in the Royal Suite in June 2024. This sailing it's all about the itinerary once again. To say I was surprised was an under statement. We had a busy Holiday Season so as soon as I realized (while super impressed) I think they booked it at a fair price I called @Sharla. I was still in the booking window to transfer to her...I feel much better now! Just the 3 of us with college starting 26 August 2024 it will truly be our last sailing for some time. We are getting some great news pertaining to merit based scholarships so I think that was a huge sway for Cabash/Vintage Magnet. Still stunned, feeling blessed. Anyone else on this one? It's Labadee, Haiti; Sea Day, Overnight (2 days Bermuda), Sea Day, Perfect Day/CocoCay-Return PC.

Hi, sailing on my family’s first cruise! Anybody know the level of holiday decorations around ship the month of December? Some, medium, over the top?

My family is scheduled to cruise on Harmony of the Seas and I was wondering what type of holiday activities might we expect while on the cruise. I recently cruised on the Allure of the Seas after Thanksgiving and after we were on the ship we found out there was an Ugly Christmas Sweater event. If we had known, we would have planned for it. Has anyone cruised during the Christmas holidays and can you tell me what holiday events might we plan for or look forward to?

To everyone on this sailing, I'm am so happy for you! Have a fantastic time, stay warm, we are with you in Spirit. One day I hope to be able to join you on one of these. Looking forward to your trip reports. Cheers to all and have an awesome sailing!

The Starmony “Christmas Vacation” blog is officially underway! We are counting down the days until this Christmas vacation gets underway. We are T - 11 days and the excitement is real! If you followed along last year, you know we like to have fun with a Christmas theme. This year it’s National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, a family favourite Christmas movie. We have a few fun things planned so follow along. Who’s going? Myself (Jacquie), 17 year old son (Reyd) and hubby (Lindsay) For those that followed along last year, our good friends Robert and Tammy are back again this year. Robert is a hoot so we are in for a fun week. Our group has expanded to include another set of good friends along with their 12 year old daughter and 16 year old son. These friends are travelling with a respite worker for their daughter and will be accessing many of the Autism Friendly Ship programming and supports.

Do you guys do anything different or pack anything interesting for a holiday cruise, whether it be for Xmas, New Years, Halloween, etc.? Let me know! I plan on doing a xmas cruise at the end of this year myself. I imagine there will be more kids on this cruise. Maybe i'll hide some xmas treats/toys throughout the cruise for kids to find. I just joined one of those hide a duck cruising groups on facebook, so thought that would be cute.

Just booked this holiday cruise at a remarkably low cost! TA says it's filling up very quickly already even though it's almost two years away. This will be our first time cruising during the holiday and we're really looking forward to it. Amy (and Frank)

Anyone planning to bring any sort of gift to give to crew for Christmas day? If so, what???

Hi to all, We will be doing our first cruise on the Symphony of the Seas over Christmas. Travelling from Australia for the opportunity. Can we bring a small Christmas tree to put in our room to put some presents under? Also what are other families doing while aboard for Christmas?

We are booked on the Dec 2019 Eastern Caribbean Holiday Cruise. Christmas day will be in St. Thomas. What will be the difference between this Eastern Caribbean 7 nighter and other, non-holiday cruises? Just listened to the podcast episode on the New Years Eve sailing out of Galveston on LOS.

And a Happy New Year

Hello! I'm new to this forum, but I've been an RC cruiser for a few years and it's by far my favourite line! We will be sailing on the Liberty out of Galveston leaving December 18th, and will be on board for Christmas. We will have our two young boys with us (ages 4 and 7). I've never cruised for the holidays before and I'm just wondering if anyone knows what kind of special activities will be available, for both adults and kids? I looked at booking specialty restaurants for Christmas Eve and Christmas night dinner, but they are all booked. Does anyone know whether there are waitlists for specialty restaurants? Or is the Main dining room a good place for these special dinners? Any other good things to know about holiday cruising? We're all super excited! Any insights you can offer will be appreciated! Thanks much! Cheers, Heather