Tell me about your Merry Time Cruise that wasn't over Christmas.

darnheather

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 28, 2013
I'm considering booking a Merry Time cruise on the Fantasy in 2018 but not one over the actual Christmas holiday as they are 2x as expensive. Your favorite parts, the most Christmasy parts, is there a special meal?
 
We've done two - our third is coming up this year. Our first one was mid-December so it was close enough to Christmas to be in the spirit. There are so many Christmas activities - making ornaments, making a Gingerbread House, a visit from Santa, the characters are dressed in their Christmas finest, Christmas Carols, etc. I don't recall any special meal.

Our second one was last year - a Nov. 5th cruise. We had just come off Halloween and it really seemed WAY too early for Christmas. It was even too warm. :-) This year it will be the same timing but a new ship and new shows for us so hopefully that will be more of the focus for us.

In any case, the Merry Time cruises are a lot of fun. Highly recommend doing one.
 
We've done two as well and will be going on our third one this year. There are a lot of holiday themed activities, especially for the kids, but we didn't do any of them. We usually go the about a week before Christmas so it definitely helps you get into the spirit of the holiday. I do love the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the first night and the ship is decorated in the most gorgeous holiday decorations. I think the MerryTime cruises are great because you can jump completely into the holiday themed stuff, none at all, or in between. I love going on MerryTime cruises and definitely recommend them.
 
I'm considering booking a Merry Time cruise on the Fantasy in 2018 but not one over the actual Christmas holiday as they are 2x as expensive. Your favorite parts, the most Christmasy parts, is there a special meal?
Been on 3, getting ready for our Dec 4 cruise - it's a great Christmas cruise, not over done. No special meal, the same as the other cruises. Hard to pick a favorite, characters dressed in Christmas garb, the ship tastefully decorated, it's all great!
 


We did ours the week of Thanksgiving, which is when we usually get out our decorations and put up the tree . . . we are a Christmas spirit family. :) No special meal. We did all the activities, from the tree lighting the first night to the Merrytime ball in the atrium (Elsa makes it snow) to a character show on deck 11 one afternoon. They serve cocoa and cookies before the atrium events, we decorated a gingerbread house, we loved watching the huge gingerbread house get assembled (ours was the Fantasy's first Merrytime cruise that season), and the tree itself was beautiful. Tons of fun and would definitely do it again.
 
Echoing everyone else..if you love Christmas, you'll love it. I too love decorations and music as soon as I'm done with my last bite of Thanksgiving turkey... in Nov? It's a little bit soon. They do change the hallway music to Christmas, so I've read some of the non-celebrating faiths cruisers says it's a bit much.
I love the ship's decorations, especially the giant gingerbread house. I love Castaway Cay's decorations and snow (foam bubbles). The holiday character outfits. You can sign up to make a gingerbread house, but it fills quickly. I like the holiday merch and just the festive spirit that takes it one step further than the normal joy of being on vacation. You really can't go wrong. We've been on two... the first and second weeks of Dec.
 
I love this thread! We're hoping to book a Very Merrytime cruise but are waiting for TA rates. I'm not sure exactly which cruise we'll hop on (if any at all) but it's great to hear about the fun Christmas activities that go on even outside of the actual Christmas Day or week. While we'd love to cruise on Christmas, we may or may not be able to do that, so this is great!
 


Sounds perfect! Now to get over my fear of the larger ships! LOL I think I'll have to have a balcony.
 
We're going on a very Merrytime Cruise on November 25th on the Fantasy this year. We're so excited!!

But I've got a question concerning the Character's outfits. Will they ALL dress up in Christmas attire, or is it still possible to meet some characters in a caribbean outfit (maybe like Mexican attire while heading to Cozumel, or jamaican style etc.)? Would love to meet them up like that.

Our first Cruise was a mediterranean one in 2013 and it was so lovely to meet and greet a Spanish or Italian Mickey
 
We were on Dream actually over Christmas 2015, which was fantastic. But due to cost, and wanting to mix things up a bit, we are likely to do the 17th Dec 4 night on dream next year. So following along!
We did have turkey as an option for dinner on Christmas day last time, which was a nice touch for us from the UK as we have roast turkey on Christmas day traditionally :)

Claire :)
 
Has anyone done a Merrytime Cruise out of NYC over Thanksgiving? We are thinking of scheduling a Merrytime Cruise on the Magic out of NYC with a day at Port Canaveral and WDW for Thanksgiving week 2018. We've only sailed out of Port Canaveral. If you've sailed out of NYC in the winter, can you tell me if we should expect rough seas on the way to and from PC? Thanks!
 
Merry Time Christmas cruise out of Galveston over Thanksgiving so got the characters in both Thanksgiving and Christmas attire. We like it so much we are doing it again this year!
 
Our first cruise was right before Christmas and we loved it. We loved the decorations and making a gingerbread house. One of our favorite things was story time with Mrs. Claus. Our 2nd cruise was the last Halloween cruise before they switched to Christmas. Castaway Cay was already decorated for Christmas. We didn't expect that. So, we have never been to CC when it wasn't decorated for Christmas...wonder what that's like? (Our next cruise to CC will also be at Christmas). The funny thing is, I like Halloween better than Christmas at WDW, but I liked Christmas better than Halloween on DCL.
 
Can anyone tell me what they do on the short 3 night cruises? We can't pull my daughter out of school longer. We have done 7 cruises, this will be our 1st merry cruise and first not 7 days or longer.
On the 3 day do they make orniments? Are they cute?
Do the do the gingerbread house making? Are there lots of things to decorate with?
Does Mrs. Clause do story time?
Etc thanks!!!!
 
This will be our 9th year sailing the Saturday after Thanksgiving - we LOVE all the holiday decorations throughout the ship. Super festive. The gingerbread house family craft is a favorite activity. Holiday music and Castaway Cay decorated for the holidays is also really special.
 
Can anyone tell me what they do on the short 3 night cruises? We can't pull my daughter out of school longer. We have done 7 cruises, this will be our 1st merry cruise and first not 7 days or longer.
On the 3 day do they make orniments? Are they cute?
Do the do the gingerbread house making? Are there lots of things to decorate with?
Does Mrs. Clause do story time?
Etc thanks!!!!
I just looked at past Navigators last night because I was also curious about this since we are doing a 3 night merry cruise too. I saw the gingerbread house and Mrs. Claus story time on there. I don't know about the ornaments. It does says family craft time, but not what the craft is.
 
We did a 4 night MerryTime cruise just before Thanksgiving in 2015 and thought it was a great start to the overall holiday season for us. No special meal since it wasn't over an actual holiday.

YDS was just barely old enough to cruise, so we didn't do a ton of extra activities and I'm not sure what was offered. I know they did gingerbread houses and we did go to the tree lighting. Otherwise we just enjoyed the decorations onboard and at CC.
 
Has anyone done a Merrytime Cruise out of NYC over Thanksgiving? We are thinking of scheduling a Merrytime Cruise on the Magic out of NYC with a day at Port Canaveral and WDW for Thanksgiving week 2018. We've only sailed out of Port Canaveral. If you've sailed out of NYC in the winter, can you tell me if we should expect rough seas on the way to and from PC? Thanks!

Hey! These are my exact questions for the same cruise! I was wondering how the weather would be, if it would be too chilly on deck to enjoy the pools, and if we should get a verandah or not (we always do ). But since this itinerary is mostly days at sea with a stop at CC and WDW, I wasn't sure how the temps and wind would be on deck the entire cruise, which is mid to late November.
 
We're going on a very Merrytime Cruise on November 25th on the Fantasy this year. We're so excited!!

But I've got a question concerning the Character's outfits. Will they ALL dress up in Christmas attire, or is it still possible to meet some characters in a caribbean outfit (maybe like Mexican attire while heading to Cozumel, or jamaican style etc.)? Would love to meet them up like that.

Our first Cruise was a mediterranean one in 2013 and it was so lovely to meet and greet a Spanish or Italian Mickey

*bump*

Does anyone know? :)
 

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