Celebrating Very Merrytime Cruises!

While celebrating any holiday on a Disney cruise is fun, the Very Merrytime cruises that celebrate the Christmas holidays are fantastic! From a huge gingerbread house and beautifully decorated tree to Mickey and Minnie and friends in their holiday wear, the sounds and smells of the holidays will surround you!


The gingerbread house greets you as you enter the ship for the first time and right next to it is the huge Christmas tree! On our recent Very Merrytime cruise, between the two dinner seatings, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto came out to light up the tree! This meant several holiday songs lead by this group of characters followed by a countdown!

O Christmas Tree sung (and barked) for the crowd.

There were a few other songs--Jingle Bells and Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (starring Pluto wearing antlers!)--and then it was time to count down to the tree lighting...

Watch the lights come on!

One day there was a Tropical Holiday deck party during the afternoon. This seemed like odd timing to me since it was held at 4 pm on a day we were in port in Cozumel, but it was really cute! Tropical islands meet Christmas with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald as well as Chip and Dale. Then Stitch joined the party, too!


The characters even took the kids on a Conga line all around the pool deck and up to the deck above!

How cute is this? Mickey leading the parade!

There are also opportunities to meet the characters wearing their holiday finery!

There were even opportunities to make a gingerbread house! It's free...you just have to sign up at Port Adventures. Do this on embarkation day because it fills up quickly!

Even the 'Til We Meet Again gathering the last night has a touch of holiday magic! Amazing singers entertain you; they reminded me of the Voices of Liberty at the America pavilion in Epcot. Then they were joined by kids from the Oceaneer Club. Adorable!

They also sang Let There Be Peace on Earth but this one is cute to see the kids singing, too!

Then it was time for the characters to head out. They do this on every cruise, and I get choked up every time but this one was especially neat because they all stopped on the stairs wearing their cute Christmas outfits!

I cannot say enough good things about this cruise. This was my eighth Disney cruise (and my second on the Wonder), but it was my first Very Merrytime Cruise. I've done Halloween on the High Seas twice and even sailed over Easter, but there's just something extra special about celebrating the Christmas holiday on Disney Cruise Line. This won't be my last!

Susan Burks is a Disney travel planner at WishdrawalsTravel, a military wife, and a homeschooling mom to a 

robot-programming, space-loving 12 year old!  

She and her family love visiting Disney World and taking Disney cruises. With eight Disney cruises under her belt, she is now preparing to embark on a ninth Disney Cruise--this time the trans-Atlantic cruise--and planning her next Disney World visit, too!