The holiday season has a special kind of magic, one that brings people together to share warmth, joy, and tradition. This year, I had the incredible opportunity to serve as the Show Director for some of the experiences aboard the Sun Princess for its inaugural Christmas season. This project was a blend of immersive storytelling, technical precision, and heartfelt holiday spirit, tied into the values of the Princess brand.
From the very beginning, our goal was clear: to create a wide variety of entertainment offerings that would bring guests together in a shared experience that would ignite the holiday spirit. And as a team, we rolled our creative sleeves up and got to work in a wonderfully collaborative creative process where we each supported each other’s visions.
My main project was the Christmas Tree lighting Celebration, a mix of live performance, audience participation, and technology - one of the most rewarding challenges was ensuring that the energy of a live event blended effortlessly with the large-scale digital storytelling on the LED screen, and the dramatic lighting of the gorgeous Christmas tree.
This was the first time I participated in the programming of a Christmas tree and it was such an enjoyable learning experience to have a say in the choice of colors, and rhythmic changes in time with our beautifully orchestrated holiday medley.
I also loved directing the ship’s “Merry Moments”, five different short media shows involving only visuals and music, displayed on the towering three-story LED screen. These moments were separate from the tree-lighting show, designed to evoke nostalgia and joy through beautifully composed imagery and sound.
Working in a dynamic cruise ship environment meant adjusting to factors like venue constraints, timing coordination, and ensuring that the technology behind the media elements ran flawlessly. The collaboration between the technical team, performers, and media designers was key in bringing everything to life.
This production was a perfect example of the importance of storytelling, the beauty of shared moments, and the power of bringing people together through immersive entertainment.
Wishing you all a season filled with light, love, and a little bit of holiday magic.