Have you ever wondered what it is like to spend Christmas on a cruise ship?
Here’s a look at the highlights on our Christmas Eve on Holland America’s Volendam, as we sailed between Penang, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand on the 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise.
The dress code of the evening was formal; I love seeing Mr. Jones in a tux. As I was in the cabin getting ready, (Mr. Jones gets ready first, and then disappears to the bar), our friends Rick and James lured Mr. Jones to the casino. In a streak of Christmas Eve good fortune – they are won handily at the Black Jack table.
While there was a special menu in the dining room with a global celebration of Christmas foods, we had planned a special evening in the Pinnacle Grill.
If you are curious about what might be featured on a global Christmas celebration menu, here (above) is a look inside the Rotterdam dining room menu.
Our friends James and Rick, enjoying the Pinnacle Grill on Christmas Eve, fresh from winning at the Black Jack table in the casino.
I found the guys in the casino, and we headed off to the Pinnacle Grill. Jakay, the Pinnacle Manager is a charming and gracious host. He was originally from Mumbai but now resides in Budapest.
All of the waiter and waitresses wore Santa hats. We made this young lady’s evening when we brought her a “sparkle” hat.
In the Pinnacle Grill, we kicked off the evening with one of the bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne we brought onboard in Singapore. For appetizers, we loved the prawn cocktail.
The crab cakes were perfect also with our chilled champagne. (We found our favorite bartenders CJ and James in The Mix were willing to chill our red-sticker bottles a few hours ahead of dinner. When you bring on wine or champagne in excess of 1 bottle per person, you pay an $18 corkage fee at the time of boarding, and the bottles are red stickered.)
For our main course choices, three of us enjoyed petite fillets (which were cooked to perfection) while Mr. Alaskan “James” had King Salmon with a side of Béarnaise sauce.
Both were perfect with the special wine that we’ve always wanted to try – the 2011 Leonetti Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington’s Walla Walla Valley. (One of our favorite winemakers, Dave Rafanelli from Dry Creek Valley in California once told us that if we liked his wines, we had to try his friend Leonetti from Washington State’s wines.) It seemed like a good way to “spend” casino winnings rather than “donating” them back to the casino.
For dessert, our table tried: The Not-So-Baked Alaska that is filled with Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia® ice cream.
We also tried the Lemon Crí¨me Brí»lée with blueberries that is a new addition to the Pinnacle Grill’s dessert menu. While it tastes okay, it is like a very thin custard pie in a crust – not at all like Crí¨me brí»lée as we know and love it.
After a fabulous dinner, we headed to the Sounds of Christmas, the International Christmas Choir in the Frans Hal Lounge. This is always one of our favorite events on a holiday cruise as it’s festive and you can tell the selected crew members pour their hearts into performing. First, the International Choir – which appeared to be mainly junior officers, cruise staffers and the professional singers and dancers performed a few numbers.
Then they moved to the back of the stage and the Filipino crew members sang a few carols, and got us rocking to Jingle Bell Rock. Finally, the Indonesian singers and musician’s performed.
Meanwhile, in the Atrium on Decks 3, 4 and 5 there was an Around the World Buffet with Christmas treats of all kinds and eggnog and spiced run. At midnight, there was both a Midnight Catholic Mass for guests and crew members in the main show lounge and Interdenominational Christmas Service in the Wajang Theater.
Back in our stateroom, we found our Conrad bears artfully arranged arranged on our bed, along with a unique towel animal.
We headed to sleep with sweet dreams, planning to sleep in a little on Christmas day.
The next morning we missed Santa’s scheduled arrival to the ship at 7 am, with presents for all of the children on the ship.
Have you spent Christmas at sea? What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Please share in comments below.
Learn more about our 14-Day Asian Cruise Holiday in these posts:
- Experiencing the Best Food of Penang, Malaysia with Heritage on a Plate
- Exploring the Port of Malacca, Malaysia on Foot
- A Look Inside Ocean-view Stateroom 2641 on Holland America’s Volendam
- A Post-Dry Dock Look Around Holland America’s Volendam Cruise Ship
- A Close-up Look at Holland America’s Dive-In at the Terrace Grill Menu
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