A former Princess Cruises crew member who once dismissed Christmas sailings as a holiday escape for family outcasts now calls it her favourite way to spend Christmas, and this December she's inviting clients to join her on the Coral Princess.
At a Glance
Christmas cruising aboard Princess Cruises ships offers a quieter, more intentional holiday experience than traditional home celebrations. The ships maintain full seasonal decorations, Christmas dinners, caroling, and traditions like Christmas pajama breakfasts, creating warm community among passengers who have chosen an unconventional holiday path together.
There is a certain kind of credibility that only comes from having been wrong. Amanda Swan, travel advisor and former Princess Cruises crew member, will be the first to admit she had Christmas cruising completely figured out. She had worked on board ships. She had watched the holiday sailings come and go. And she had drawn her conclusions. "I used to think that Christmas cruising was for people that hated Christmas," Swan says, laughing, "or for that oddball in the family, where the family wanted to get together without, you know, crazy Uncle Jim." The rest of the family would gather at home, Uncle Jim would sail away, and everyone would be happy. It was, she thought, a perfectly reasonable arrangement. She just never imagined she would one day be Uncle Jim.
Now, years removed from her time on the crew side of the gangway and firmly seated on the passenger side, Swan says that cruising over Christmas is actually one of her favourite ways to spend the holiday. It is a line she delivers not with the polish of a sales pitch but with the quiet conviction of someone who has genuinely surprised herself.
The Misconception That Melted Away
Swan grew up in Northern Ontario, which means she grew up with white Christmases. The idea of trading snow-dusted pines for a beach chair and a bathing suit felt, at first, like a kind of seasonal betrayal. But what she discovered on her first Christmas sailing, and on the several that followed, was that the ship does not abandon Christmas. It carries it with you.
Princess Cruises vessels dress themselves fully for the season. Decorations run from bow to stern. There is Christmas caroling. There are gingerbread-making contests, the warm, spiced scent of them drifting through common areas. There is a proper turkey dinner available in the dining room on Christmas Day, and for anyone whose festive loyalties lie elsewhere, the menus offer plenty of alternatives. Santa himself makes an appearance, so the smallest passengers do not miss their visit. And then there are the Christmas pyjamas. Swan lights up describing this particular tradition. "People are there looking to connect. You'll see people walking around the ship in their Christmas PJs, some people even go to the dining room for breakfast in their Christmas PJs on Christmas morning. There's just a lot of everybody tries to bring their own traditions to it," she says. It is one of those details that sounds small until you picture it, a dining room full of strangers in festive flannel, passing the syrup, and the image lands with a warmth that no brochure could manufacture.
What the Calendar Cannot Capture
Swan is careful to point out something that surprises even seasoned cruisers. The Christmas sailing and the New Year's sailing, back to back on the calendar and departing from the same ports, feel like entirely different voyages. The New Year's cruise carries its own energy, celebratory and forward-facing. But Christmas, she says, has a texture that is quieter and more intentional. Passengers are not there to ring anything in. They are there to be present with each other. The spirit on board is notably warm, the pace a little softer, the conversations a little easier between strangers who have all, in some sense, chosen the same unconventional path through the holiday season.
It is also, Swan notes with the practical eye of someone who has coordinated multi-generational travel, a genuinely flexible way to gather a family. She has taken these Christmas sailings with multiple generations in tow, and the ship's structure, with its range of activities, dining options, excursions, and quiet corners, means that togetherness can be chosen rather than enforced. Families can share a shore excursion, meet for a formal Christmas dinner, and still find their own pockets of the day. "Whether it is spending time in the spa, doing an excursion together, relaxing on the beach," Swan explains, "we set time aside to make sure that we do the things that are important to each of us."
The Year They Stayed Home
The clearest measure of how much these sailings have come to mean to Swan is not found in the highlights. It is found in the one year she did not go. "Last year we stayed home for Christmas and it wasn't the same," she says. "We missed our Christmas away." It is a simple sentence, and she does not linger on it, but it carries everything. A trip that began as an experiment had become a tradition. A holiday that was supposed to happen at home now felt most like itself at sea.
That shift, from vacation to something closer to ritual, is at the heart of why Swan recommends Christmas cruising the way she does. "Instead of things, we build experiences and memories," she says, and it reads less like a tagline than like a philosophy she has tested and kept. For clients who are tired of the logistics of gift-giving, the choreography of visiting multiple households, the pressure of hosting, she presents the cruise not as an escape from Christmas but as a different and arguably truer version of it.
Who It Is For, and What to Book First
Swan is clear-eyed about who thrives on a Christmas sailing and who might not. Travellers who need their entire extended family gathered under one roof, every branch of the tree accounted for, may find the ship an imperfect substitute. For everyone else, particularly those craving connection without the friction of the traditional holiday season, she considers it close to ideal. Adventure seekers can zipline at port. Pool devotees can claim their deck chair. Spa-goers can book their treatments. Families can share what matters and drift apart for what doesn't.
Her insider tip, delivered with the authority of someone who has watched Christmas sailings fill up year after year, is to move early. Specialty dining reservations, shore excursions, and spa appointments, including hair appointments for Christmas Day's formal night, disappear fast. "Christmas Day is typically going to be a formal night," Swan notes, and anyone who wants to look the part should secure their booking well in advance.
An Open Door on the Coral Princess
This December, Swan will not be staying home. She is boarding the Coral Princess out of Fort Lauderdale on December 19th for a seven-day Christmas sailing, then remaining on board for an eleven-day New Year's cruise departing December 26th. Eighteen days of holiday cruising, total, and she has group space reserved on both legs.
Clients can join her for the Christmas sailing, the New Year's sailing, or the full eighteen days. For anyone who has been quietly curious about whether Christmas at sea might suit them, Swan's invitation is about as good an entry point as exists. A former crew member, a repeat passenger, a convert who arrived at her conviction the hard way, she is not guessing at what the experience will be. She already knows. "Anybody who wants to spend Christmas with me," she says, "this is a good time to do this trip." The Coral Princess departs in December. Uncle Jim's seat is waiting.
