this is my very favorite Christmas tree ship – my aunt had it made for me one from one of her photos one Christmas after we sailed on the Veendam and I was disappointed that they did not have any ship model ornaments in the gift shop that cruise

The first thing I look for on a cruise as soon as the gift shop opens is a ship model Christmas tree ornament of that ship. They are far more likely to be available on wintertime sailings than other times of the year, though it would definitely be nice if they were always there. Many cruise lines have them, but not all. On MSC Divina they had an entire shop dedicated to models of the ship in many different sizes and varieties, yet out of all that not one ornament ship. None of the other MSC ships we’ve been on ever had ship ornaments either, though they too had numerous other ship models. On P&O the shop workers had no idea such a thing even existed, yet other lines in the Carnival family like Holland America, Princess, and Carnival have them – at least seasonally.

Carnival Breeze

Carnival Magic

Carnival Splendor

snorkeling Santa found in Carnival gift shop

I have more Carnival ships than any other line, too many to post photos of them all so this is just a sampling. One cruise near Christmas I found more than just the cruise ship model. They had an array of other ornaments to choose from as well. I love to snorkel, so I couldn’t resist the snorkeling Santa. I also bought a pirate hermit crab there, which is photobombing the Oosterdam’s picture.

Holland America Oosterdam

Holland America Westerdam

I did not get a ship model ornament on my other cruise on the Veendam either, but did get Holland America ornaments of the Oosterdam and Westerdam while on those ships.

Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas

Norwegian Sun

Norwegian Pearl

Celebrity Infinity

Other lines not affiliated with Carnival have ship model ornaments too. I have found them on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian as well.

kayaking Santa

if you’re a fan of A Christmas Story you will totally get this leg lamp ornament.

Not everything on my tree is cruise ships. There’s lots of Santas doing all sorts of things, some other boats, and a whole lot of other stuff. Just no single color undecorated plain round balls.

Ruby Princess

Royal Princess

Princess ships have a name stand at the bottom that none of the other lines’ Christmas tree ship models have.

Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas – biggest ship and biggest ship model ornament

Not all the ships are made to the same scale. Even within the same line some ships that are smaller in reality have bigger models, but the biggest ship I had ever sailed on at the time had the biggest ship model ornament. It is considerably bigger than any of the others, far more so than the actual ship in comparison to other ships.

Wonder of the Seas ornament

Symphony was the biggest ship in the world when I sailed on it, but now Wonder of the Seas is bigger. It however did not have any ship model ornaments available on the recent cruise I took on it. It did have some ship ornaments, just not any that were also ship models. I got one of what they had when we first boarded just in case those sold out and they didn’t have anything better once they unloaded whatever new stuff had come in for the shop that cruise. Looking again later they still didn’t have any ship model ornaments, but they did have a wooden one that I liked better, which was also cheaper than the first one, which is just a flattened plastic ball so I bought the wooden one too.

nicer, but cheaper Wonder of the Seas ornament

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