Holiday Spirit Inhabits Water Excursions

[Jason]

Holiday spirit inhabits water excursions

Cruise lines offer traditional and exotic ways to celebrate

Source: Arline and Sam Bleecker, Orlando Sentinel

One of the most enjoyable holiday gifts to give someone you care about won't fit under the Christmas tree. Consider giving a cruise.

On holiday cruises -- which can take in celebrations from Thanksgiving to New Year's -- no one is obliged to stuff the turkey or bake the pumpkin pie. Or clean up after meals! Super chefs and staff on board cater to everyone's needs.

Taking a holiday cruise doesn't mean missing any of the fixings, either -- whether your loved one's holiday hankerings run to traditional menus or to sushi.

Cruise lines have more to offer than a conga line and good cheer. They ramp up the entertainment and set tables for the holidays with special sailings. All a passenger needs to bring is the spirit.

Here's a sampling of holiday cruises:

On Carnival Cruise Line's Christmas sailings, passengers can sit down to a traditional oven-roasted turkey dinner and pecan pie on ships adorned with trees, wreaths and mistletoe.

Kids get a special treat. Don't expect Santa to shimmy down the line's signature fantail smokestacks, but he'll hand out gifts to youngsters. There's even snow to enjoy -- churned out by special machines just for the occasion. Budding child stars also will love participating in special productions that welcome kids on stage and use the decorations made by them at Camp Carnival.

Italy-based MSC Cruises has a great holiday gift for parents. On an 11-night cruise departing Dec. 18 round-trip from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., kids 12 and younger sharing a stateroom with two full-paying passengers can sail free. (Some restrictions apply.) Another Italian-style holiday offer: yuletide cruises aboard either the Costa Magica or Costa Mediterranea on Costa's seven- or eight-night Caribbean itineraries. Santa will make an appearance there, too.

Leave it to Disney to have some holiday tricks up its sleeve, such as transforming its 1,000-acre private island, Castaway Cay, into a snowy "Magical Wonderland."

For Disney, it's not just boughs of holly. The line plans to dazzle celebrants with carolers, a gingerbread house and a cast of Disney characters throughout the month of December. Even the island's tram gets decorated to resemble a reindeer, complete with antlers and tail. And Disney's Santa is no potbellied cherub but a slim doofus named Goofy, dressed as Santa. Mrs. Claus also makes a debut on Disney's two ships, Magic and Wonder, for a reading of " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Kids on Disney's holiday sailings also can make decorations. For Thanksgiving, there will be turkeys and Pilgrim hats; for Christmas, think candy-cane reindeer, paper-plate angels and snowflake mobiles.

On Crystal Cruises' holiday sailings, gourmets get more than plum pudding, according to spokesman Shawn Magnuson. "For Thanksgiving, a traditional five-course meal will be served," he notes, including, "a maple-glazed Tom turkey with apple cider and fig gravy, a tower of Dungeness crab and palm hearts, cream of oven-roasted curried yellow squash with grilled bay scallops, and modern-style honey pecan tart."

As it does every year, Crystal will go all out with decorations.

"For our Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year's voyages," Magnuson says, "hundreds of thousands of dollars of seasonal decor such as handcrafted ornaments, ornate sleighs, Old English toy soldiers and a dozen twinkling Christmas trees will adorn each ship."

A very busy Santa will give gifts not just to kids, but to adults as well.

Crystal's entertainers will perform "A Christmas Carol," and the line's big screens will light up with holiday-themed films such as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Miracle on 34th Street," "A Christmas Story," "It's a Wonderful Life," "Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Live" and more.

Crystal celebrates Hanukkah by lighting the menorah and with traditional foods including latkes and loukoumades, deep-fried pastry puffs dipped in honey or sugar that symbolize the magic of the holiday. Crystal also creates traditional butter cookies and pretzels shaped like Hanukkah symbols. A rabbi will be onboard each ship to conduct services.

Norwegian Coastal Voyages' northern Europe itineraries won't take the chill out of the holidays, but the line does plan to warm hearts with a traditional Norwegian Christmas and a gala New Year's Eve celebration on seven- to 10-day cruises plying Arctic waters starting Dec. 20.

NCV's ferrylike vessels offer a choice of Christmas and New Year's festivities at sea and unusual attractions on shore: a Christmas pre-cruise visit to Copenhagen and its famous Christmas market in Tivoli Gardens; New Year's celebrations at the North Cape, Europe's northernmost point; a Northern Lights Festival concert at the distinctive iceberg-shaped Arctic Cathedral in Tromso, Norway; or fireworks and traditional singing in Karasjok, capital of Norwegian Lapland.

On NCV ships, traditional Norwegian yuletides include Christmas Eve celebrated together by passengers and crew with holiday specialties at dinner, carols by the tree and a visit from Santa; a lavish Scandinavian smorgasbord on Christmas Day; and an after-dinner dance on Boxing Day.

Looking for something equally exotic during the holidays but closer to the equator? Consider Silversea Cruises' offerings in the South Pacific. Silver Cloud's 16-day "Along the Barrier Reef" voyage sails Dec. 22 from Singapore to Sydney. It calls in Darwin, Thursday Island, Cairns, Townsville, Whitsunday Islands and New Castle, Australia; and Semarang, Indonesia.

Another enticing option: Silver Whisper's 14-day "Burmese Interlude" on Dec. 22, sailing round-trip from Singapore with calls in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Phuket, Thailand; Belawan, Indonesia; Penang and Malacca, Malaysia, plus a three-night visit to Yangon, Myanmar.

Even that far off the beaten track, holiday fixings come with the territory. Passengers enjoy Silversea's typically lavish gourmet meals. The repast offers such tantalizing appetizers as layered Russian Sevruga caviar blinis with marinated Maine lobster salad.

And nobody will have to do the dishes!