What the Hallmark Christmas Cruise Is Actually Like, From a Passenger Who Went Behind the Scenestheinsiderinsight

The sold-out inaugural Hallmark Christmas Cruise set sail from Miami to the Bahamas and again on Nov. 5. PEOPLE’s Govt Editor of TV and Occasions (and unofficial Hallmark superfan), Breanne L. Heldman, was among the many greater than 2,000 followers aboard. The community has since introduced they’re going to be cruising once more in 2025.

Once I first stepped onto the Hallmark Christmas Cruise, I felt precisely as I’d hoped I would: like I’d stepped right into a floating Christmas film. The atrium of the Norwegian Gem was crammed with lights, wreaths, big ornaments and a tree of colourful stacked presents.

For the subsequent 4 days crammed with festive video games, panels with the community’s stars, a pajama occasion and even a ball, that feeling by no means actually went away. 

Simply earlier than the ship left the harbor, passengers gathered on the deck, the place a stage had taken the place of one of many two swimming pools. Imply Women alum and Hallmark common Jonathan Bennett, who served because the cruise’s official host, instantly had the gang chanting spirited phrases again at him. One after the other, he launched the extra 10 stars on board: his costars in The Groomsman trilogy — Tyler Hynes, B.J. Britt and Heather Hemmens — in addition to Rachel Boston, Brooke D’Orsay, Will Kemp, Hunter King, Brendan Penny, Kristoffer Polaha and Ashley Williams. Their enthusiasm was each bit as palpable as that of the followers cheering for them. 

Each good Hallmark Christmas film has a tree lighting, and the evenings on this ship have been no completely different. The evening one lighting was crammed with pleasure for the journey forward, and the ship shook as Mariah Carey’s “All I Need for Christmas Is You” performed at full blast proper after the evergreen was illuminated. Everybody from the followers and the crew to the actors, their companions and Hallmark executives, have been dancing and singing on the prime of their lungs. 

As I headed again to my cabin for the evening decided to remain in my vacation haze, I couldn’t consider what I noticed. The halls have been decked. Actually! My fellow festive cruisers had lined their doorways with tinsel and stockings and so many decorations.

Crusing proper alongside, the daytime schedule consisted of a mixture of holiday-themed actions like cookie and envelope-decorating, screenings of Hallmark films — together with an early screening of Williams and Andrew Walker’s Jingle Bell Run — and video games like Bingo, Discovering Mr. Ship-mas and Festive Feud, led hilariously by Bennett and that includes smaller teams of the actors. (Significantly, somebody rent him to host a recreation present stat!)

An evening two panel dialogue that includes the Groomsmen forged (Bennett, Hynes, Britt and Hemmens) noticed Bennett (someway nonetheless standing however beginning to lose his voice) get emotional as he talked concerning the assist of his costars and the community in telling a giant, romantic love story that includes a homosexual man and his two straight associates.

The second wasn’t all sentimental although: When requested by a fan to carry out the dance featured within the film, the gents politely promised they’d get to see it later within the cruise — it was taught step-by-step to all the ship the subsequent evening — and as a substitute performed a viral dance move from Dancing with the Stars.

The next night featured one other panel dialogue — moderated by me — to have fun the upcoming film Vacation Landing: A Chiefs Love Story. Hynes, King and screenwriter Julie Sherman Wolfe, who has written 27 Hallmark films, joined me onstage to speak about their expertise with the movie, from its inception to filming in Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas Metropolis, to working with Donna Kelce.

When requested about leaving notes in Travis Kelce’s locker at Donna’s urging, Hynes shared that he wrote a few of the lyrics to Garth Brooks’ “Buddies in Low Locations,” and the packed 1,042-seat theater burst into song. 

On the pool deck stage, Bennett hosted the nightly tree lightings and festivities, together with an unpleasant Christmas sweater contest and a bedtime story carried out chilly by the actors (shout-out to Williams and Polaha, who have been shocked with their lead roles and made it work). One evening, the star led an a capella sing-along of “Silent Night time” so Hallmark film magical I nearly thought it would begin to snow.

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From morning and effectively into the evening, I watched these 11 actors be unwaveringly type and beneficiant with their followers, taking selfies and sharing heartfelt tales and hugs. The care they put into having private moments with their followers is undoubtedly a part of the draw for this cruise. However I wasn’t the one one.

I spoke with a pair who obtained engaged on board — they met on Bumble after she discovered his profile confessing his love of Hallmark films endearing — and one other celebrating their fortieth marriage ceremony anniversary.

On the finish of every evening, the actors retired to the sequence of suites on greater flooring blocked off for them. However their lengthy days weren’t precisely over at that time. I used to be fortunate sufficient to hitch them every evening and witness a few of the preparation that went into every day’s exercise. On the third evening, pajama evening, Polaha and I have been chatting as Kemp and D’Orsay practiced their waltz for the subsequent evening’s ball round us.

Moments later, the actors — together with Wolfe, King’s fiancé Chris Copier and Bennett’s husband Jaymes Vaughan — gathered for the very first table read of a script written by Wolfe to be carried out at sundown the subsequent day. Seeing every actor step into a brand new function for the primary time, collaborate (they even let me make a suggestion!) and crack one another up abruptly was a singular expertise and a spotlight of my voyage.

Nevertheless it actually wasn’t the final spotlight of the journey. Pleasure for the Christmas ball swelled as the ultimate day progressed. That desk learn efficiency was a success, and so they even used my thought (that the “dance” the script known as for be the choreography from Three Sensible Males and a Child). 

Bennett’s last tree-lighting celebration had a touch of unhappiness that every one this enjoyable was coming to a detailed, however that ended rapidly when Vaughan took the stage to sing two tracks from his E.P., Feels Like Christmas, which was launched simply days later. The efficiency ended with an enormous group hug from all the celebrities he’d been cheering on all week. 

Because the actors and I headed to their quarters, it was clear nobody was actually prepared for the occasion to be over, and shortly a gaggle of us together with Penny, D’Orsay, King, Copier, Kemp, Boston and Wolfe, have been hitting the ship’s silent disco dance flooring. With crimson, inexperienced and blue lights flashing from my ears, a smile throughout my lips and sweat dripping down my face, I spotted that Hallmark had completed precisely what they’d got down to do: carry their particular model of film magic to life.

A second sold-out crusing of the Hallmark Christmas Cruise has since returned to port — and a 2025 cruise was introduced simply this morning.