Experiencing Holidays on a Disney Cruise!

Any time is a great time to do a Disney cruise! The only way to make a Disney cruise more magical is to sail on or around a holiday! Disney has designated certain sailings in the fall as Halloween on the High Seas cruises with a Halloween theme. Most cruises that sail in November and December are Very Merrytime Cruises with a distinctive holiday theme!

Some holidays don't get a lot of recognition, but they do celebrate for holidays like Easter, too. You'll mostly only see a little bit of Easter decor if your cruise actually sails during Easter.

Chocolate bunny inside a giant chocolate egg and a Happy Easter Day
message on the Disney Magic 2015.

Halloween on the High Seas can be lots of fun, too. The characters will wear their costumes, chefs carve amazing jack o'lanterns, and a special deck party and costume contest adds to the fun. On the day designated to celebrate Halloween, there will be candy out in all the main dining rooms and lots of fun. Sometimes Disney does a few trick or treat stations, but don't expect too much from those. Ha!


The most amazing holiday sailings are probably the Very Merrytime cruises. On these you can find a gingerbread house, a beautifully decorated tree, and Minnie, Mickey and friends in their best holiday wear! During the Princess Meet and Greet, Belle was out in her holiday dress. Santa Claus even made an appearance!

Mickey and Minnie dressed in their fancy party clothes!

Daisy wearing her holiday dress accessorized with a big green bow and bows on her shoes.

Stitch wearing his Hawaiian holiday shirt

Kasey & Susan meeting with Belle

There is a tree lighting ceremony one night. Mickey, Minnie, Santa Goofy, and Pluto (wearing reindeer ears) joined the cruise director in singing some songs and lighting the tree. On another, Santa made his way down to the tree, and the children were able to sign his "list" and add what they wanted for Christmas! Stitch even had a holiday deck party one afternoon and led a Conga line all around the deck.

On all four ships, a huge gingerbread house is created by the chefs and built in the atrium. Not only does the atrium smell like gingerbread, but it's absolutely gorgeous. It's different each year and can vary by ship.

Gingerbread house on the Disney Wonder in 2016.

Around the ship there are various activities to participate in as well. Gingerbread house decorating is very popular, and there are fun activities just for kids in the Oceaneers' Club. In the shops, the Cast Members will even wrap your gifts in holiday paper!

A gingerbread house pictured with a Captain Mickey
nutcracker (available in the gift shops).

Holiday wrapping in the shops.

The Christmas tree and the decorations just make the ship absolutely beautiful! (The gingerbread house is just behind the tree in the picture below.) As you can see, the tree reaches up nearly to the third deck, so it's huge! It makes such a fun background for photos, and lots of families had their holiday pictures taken in front of the tree or with a character and the tree in the background.

Other holidays don't get much a mention. Don't expect anything huge for Valentine's Day or 4th of July or even Thanksgiving, but do enjoy these big celebrations if you can.

Now is a great time to be booking for September through December 2018! Stay tuned for fall 2019 as we should see those out in a few months!

Susan Burks is a military wife and a homeschooling mom to a chess playing space-loving 12 year old! In addition to many Disney World trips, Susan has done nine Disney cruises and one Disneyland trip! Her next venture will be Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa in Hawaii!