Μake us preferred on Google SOMEWHERE NEAR THE BAHAMAS—Thirty minutes into the world premiere of the new Hallmark movie “Forgotten Holiday,” the amnesia-stricken leading man pulls up to his decked-out home, confused by all the decorations.
“So. Much. Christmas,” he says.
A Hallmark sentiment has never hit so close to home. I was sitting in a packed cruise-ship theater in Grinch pajamas and matching headband, fuzzy red slippers and candy cane earrings. In October.
It was day two of the annual Hallmark Christmas Cruise, a sold-out, four-night extravaganza for superfans of the cheesy holiday movies. Yes, it’s a real thing, the vacation version of those 24-hour Christmas music radio stations and pop-up holiday bars.
Prices start at about $1,500 a person and run to more than $4,000 for suites. (As always, The Wall Street Journal paid my way.) The big draw: The chance to mingle with more than 18 Hallmark Channel stars including amnesia man Daniel Lissing. The Australian actor, on his first Hallmark cruise, called bingo on day four and stayed after for endless selfies.
Charters are a niche business for major cruise lines, a way to fill ships outside peak vacation seasons. Norwegian Cruise Line, which hosted the Hallmark cruise on the 4,000-passenger Norwegian Joy, offers about two dozen themed cruises a year through its Sixthman subsidiary.
Hallmark movie superfans line up to board the 2026 Hallmark Christmas Cruise in Miami. Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
Two cruisers from Arizona brought a cutout of fan favorite Tyler Hynes, who wasn’t on this year’s cruise. Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
It’s hard to imagine a more rabid fan base than the Hallmark devotees. Hallmark this week said 12 million people watched its holiday movies in the first two weeks of the annual countdown to Christmas marathon that began Oct. 16.
This isn’t just a jam-packed vacation on the high seas for them, it’s a passion project that begins long before the suitcases come out.
It starts with holiday merch, the tackier the better. There are Etsy shops full of Hallmark Christmas Cruise items, including one where I purchased $24 T-shirts for the Candy Cane Sail Away party the first night. (I was still underdressed.)
Craft store Michaels is an official cruise sponsor. But it didn’t take much sleuthing to discover Amazon, Shein and Temu are unofficial benefactors in the competition to put National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to shame.
In one Facebook group discussion about cruise attire, a fan joked that she planned on “throwing up Christmas all over myself all day every day!!”
Florida real-estate executive Laurie Reader , on her second Hallmark cruise with her mom and sister, estimates she spent about $1,500 on matching holiday pajamas, outfits, accessories and cabin decorations. They leave them behind for cruise employees.
She calls herself a Hallmark Channel junkie because she “loves love.”
“Every single Hallmark movie ends happy,” she says. “Why am I going to spend my time watching something that makes me upset or brings me down?”
Door decorating is a thing on all mainstream cruise lines. On this one, it’s an interactive art and easily consumes hours for die-hards.
Door decorating is an art on the Hallmark Christmas Cruise. Fans spend hours on the decor. Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
Hallmark cruisers in their holiday finest on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship. Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
Two Arizona women dressed in red tutus and holiday leggings on Deck 15 brought a photo of Hallmark heartthrob Tyler Hynes on a stick for fellow cruisers to pose with outside their door. There was major disappointment when the Canadian actor wasn’t in the star lineup released in June. (I didn’t know who he was until I watched the Hallmark Channel’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” in preparation for the cruise.)
You couldn’t walk down a corridor without seeing a cheeky holiday game or two on a magnet. Who knew my Candy Cane name was Ranger Dazzling Jingle Crunch, my Elf name Tootsie Silver Bells?!
Cruisers hang stockings on their doors and fellow passengers roam the halls stuffing them like Santa. By day three, mine was overflowing with tchotchkes, candy, lip gloss, ornaments, green and red bracelets and even a Bible-verse bookmark.
Don’t let gifting or 24/7 loungewear fool you, though. There is no time to relax on a Hallmark cruise if you’re all in.
The daily schedule is crazier than the color-coded calendar of a working mom. Trivia, festive family feud with the stars, cookie decorating, ornament making, Christmas caroling, Christmas karaoke, silent discos, Zumba and, of course, movie marathons.
One woman I met stayed on the ship during the stop in the Bahamas to watch rom-coms all day. There were even sold out Hallmark wine tastings.
Every cruiser gets a personal photo opp with the stars, and many prep for it like the prom. Christmas jammies or festive sweater? Matching shirts or holiday finest? The stars greet you like a close family member (“I love your sweater‘’), but the photo opp is over before you know it.
Actor B.J. Britt, one of the Hallmark stars on the cruise, posed for photos at the Hallmark wine tasting on the cruise. Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
The closest I got to the Hallmark actors outside the photo session: a fifth-row seat at 8 a.m. bingo. People started lining up at 5:45 a.m. to buy game cards because Jonathan Bennett , a Hallmark cruise headliner and “Mean Girls” alumni with one million Instagram followers, was hosting with Lissing. I was in my seat by 6:45 a.m. despite leaving the silent disco party around midnight.
They joked about less-than-glamorous Hallmark movie sets (Winnipeg, Canada) and how they don’t always sit through each others’ movies. Bennett, in a sleeveless red Christmas sweater, entered the stage twerking to NSync’s “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.” (He crowd surfed at another event.)
I’m no Hallmarkie and refused to stand in excruciatingly long lines or post up hours early for major events. I got a bigger kick out of the guests and the stories that brought them to a floating Christmas party.
Lyndsi Foster saw a TikTok video about the cruise last year. She sent it to her sister Whitney in Sweden as a Christmas gift idea for their Hallmark-movie-loving mom. They booked it the next day. Phyllis Crum , 67 years old, didn’t find out until she unwrapped a green Hallmark Christmas sweatshirt. She was in shock and soon set about buying $500 worth of matching merchandise they paraded around the ship in.
“It’s almost like summer camp for people that love Christmas movies,” said Whitney Andelius, 34.
Mark Tiedeman , who runs a manufacturing company in California, booked the cruise with his wife the second they got off a waiting list last year because she watches Hallmark movies year-round. He even watched some movies in preparation. Just don’t ask him the name of his favorite. He only knows it had a firefighter who meets a girl with cats.
The only bit of bah-humbug? An unhappy ending to the cruise when high winds delayed our return to the Miami port by several hours. Passengers with flights that day had to scramble to rebook.
Cruise organizers made the best of it in Hallmark fashion. They added another bingo session, handed out leftover souvenirs and showed movies on a big screen.
I walked off the ship in my Christmas slippers.
The ship’s return to Miami was delayed by bad weather so a makeshift theater was set up in the atrium playing Hallmark Christmas movies. Photography by Dawn Gilbertson
