Any Liner tips and reviews of the Very Merrytime Cruises? I’ve booked a 4-night Very Merrytime Cruise on the Disney Wish for mid-December, departing from Port Canaveral and stopping in Nassau and Castaway Cay. I’m so excited about getting into the holiday spirit!
I’ve now read a few times that the theming/roster of dedicated Christmas activities is actually pretty light and would love to get first-hand experiences - especially recent ones - to manage expectations and make sure I don’t miss any highlights.
This’ll be my first time on the Wish (second time DCL, we sailed on the Magic last summer) and an adults only trip with my mom, two sisters and eldest niece (so ranging from 30 - 77 yrs old). Just a little more than 7 weeks to go!
First - I have not been on a Merrytime Cruise on any DCL, but we did do the Halloween on the High Seas in 2024. We don’t celebrate halloween as a family, but we had that week available and it was a low rate, so we went.
One of the splurges we enjoyed was the photo package. I don’t know if you would like that. Do you plan to meet the characters in their outfits? Everyday they would wear some different themed costumes. One day was their nautical wear. One day was traditional clothes. One day were halloween costumes. Also, each evening they set up backdrops in the atrium and we would make an activity of going to every station. We loved the magic shots.
Since your questions are Merrytime specific, I’ll stop now.
We did a Merrytime Cruise last December. I was a bit surprised at how little Christmas there was. Some decorations and a Christmas tree, of course, and characters dressed in holiday outfits (which we don’t care about). But there was still a pirate night and the shows were not any different.
It was fine. But I was glad we had the holiday parties and parks to go to at WDW for our Christmastime feels.
Oooh, good to know! I’m personally not crazy about staged photos, but my mom will definitely want some character photos and would love seasonal outfits, and my niece is active on social media and may want to do some backgrounds or magic shots. Thanks for putting this on my radar.
This seems to echo what I’ve read elsewhere - a bit disappointing, but good to know to manage expectations. I’ll still be happy to see the tree (I’ve read there’s a tree lighting ceremony) and listen to Christmas music on the ship, but will also try to pre-emptively soak in the holiday spirit at the MK Christmas party the night before the cruise!
Our Merrytime cruise actually included Christmas Day, so our experience might be a bit different.
There were lots of Christmas decorations. The big one was the Gingerbread House in the atrium. Photo opportunities were available there.
There was a special Christmas dinner menu. I think it was on Christmas Eve but it might have been Christmas Day.
Christmas morning Santa was meeting kids and giving out presents in the atrium. There were also cookies and hot chocolate (absolutely delicious) available there for everyone.
We didn’t attend, but there were carollers at least one night and characters in holiday outfits. There were probably other things that I have forgotten!
Glad to hear they pulled out a few more stops during the actual Christmas week!
I would LOVE to see carollers, will check schedules for that (I haven’t been able to find any recent Navigators online, but maybe there’ll be some once the seasonal cruises start in November?)
Yay, and YES ALL THE DETAILS! Somehow this didn’t pop up when I searched the Forum, but will start reading this now! Thanks so much.
I am booked on a Merry Time cruise next year on the Dream so I’m following along!
I actually am glad to hear the celebrations are not too extensive. I enjoy holiday decor and theming but I don’t want to feel like I have to overplan my time to get to different activities. That is one reason we decided to do Christmas instead of Halloween (which we have done twice) – the trick or treating was one activity too many and made the night frantic. (I’m probably in the minority thinking Halloween stuff is a downside )
Anyway, our cruise ends Christmas Eve so we won’t be on the ship for Christmas itself, but I’m hoping it gets us in the holiday mood and is a nice way to spend time as a core family (without extended family) for Christmas.
I was trying to figure out how I had never read this, but then I realized the date was January 2023 and that was one of the most difficult seasons of recent years. I can’t wait to sit down with my coffee and read this whole trip report today.
Oh, there was a Santa sighting as well as Mrs. Clause reading a story to the kids. I put those in the category of character meets, but if you have kids who are into that, they did that on our cruise which was earlier in December.
There was a Gingerbread house on our cruise as well.
Thanks for sharing this trip report! Very helpful.
It sounds like weather this time of year is a bit of a crapshoot (but isn’t it always? LOL). Hoping for warm temps on our Castaway / Lighthouse Point days.
We got extremely lucky on that cruise. It was the first time in a month that the Fantasy had decent weather for Castaway Cay. Ours was sunny and warm but earlier cruises had rain and/or cold.
Two years later (just after New Year’s) we had another successful Castaway Cay day but it was a bit cooler and a lot windier. It was fine at the family beach but Serenity Bay was so windy that the beach was unusable!
Honestly while I love a nice warm day on the beach, it’s not our priority necessarily for our cruise. Instead we want to enjoy the amenities on the ship, including the spa, rotational dining, shows, and kids’ clubs. But it would be better if we could hit some warm weather somewhere along the way!
We stayed on the ship when we went to Castaway Cay during our Fantasy trip. It was so nice to finally have the ship without a billion kids running around!
Ahh, DD has thermoregulation issues and can’t walk out in the hot sun very long without seriously overheating. She was sent home from summer camp in June because of this.
She does enjoy relaxing in hot tubs, however, for a limited time especially as we’re going straight back into air conditioning.
We’ve done several Merrytime cruises, not necessarily over a holiday, and we’ve had the following on every cruise: giant gingerbread house in the main hall, tree lighting ceremony with characters on the first night, characters in special winter outfits, photos with Santa, story time with Mrs. Claus, holiday themed crafts and trivia, and carolers performing a variety of winter holiday songs. Last year there was also a special holiday deck party with songs and characters, which I would guess is now part of the usual rotation.
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