Disney Cruise Line offers special seasonal itineraries that include festive holiday entertainment centered around either Halloween or Christmas. Today, we’re going to talk about the Halloween itineraries, called Halloween on the High Seas, and specifically discuss whether or not it’s worth it to plan your trip around these sailings.
Admittedly, the question of whether or not Halloween on the High Seas is worth planning around is extremely subjective. Your personal enjoyment of Halloween and dressing up will influence the answer to that question.
Let’s talk about the different activities, food and entertainment offered during Halloween on the High Seas and whether it’s a drastic improvement or change compared to the regularly scheduled events.
Entertainment & Activities
One day during your Halloween on the High Seas cruise will be dedicated to celebrating Halloween. The vast majority of the entertainment will take place in the late afternoon and throughout the night, so don’t worry about missing any of the fun if Halloween occurs during a port day.
Mickey’s Mousequerade Party is the heart and soul of the Halloween fun. Disney characters put on a small show before joining guests for a big dance party. Guests can also show off their creativity with their own costumes and everyone is welcome to trick-or-treat around the atrium. Seeing all of the characters in their Halloween costumes is a lot of fun (Donald Duck makes a great superhero) and the event is a blast if you enjoy people watching and seeing the amazing costumes guests create.
We also enjoyed the 4D presentation of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which ends with a special meet-and-greet with Jack and Sally. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t take place until pretty late at night (it began at 10:30pm on our previous sailings), so you may have to sacrifice some sleep to experience it.
There’s also great fun just for adults. The adults-only costume contest is held late at night and is a ton of fun even if you didn’t bring a costume and just want to spectate. The Disney Cruise Line cast members in charge of the adult entertainment are seriously awesome. #TonyFromSpain for the win!
Other activities include spooky stories on the top deck (a bit cheesy, but possibly too scary for youngsters), Halloween-themed cooking classes and drawing classes, and more. We love that Halloween music is played throughout the ship during the voyage as it does add a bit of extra magic to the journey.
Food & Drinks
Outside of some themed drinks of the day and some special desserts available in a couple select locations around the ship, food doesn’t play too big of a role during a Halloween on the High Seas trip. You won’t find any special menus at the rotational dinner restaurants. That’s a bit surprising considering how important food is during any cruise and the fact Pirate Night does receive a unique menu.
The alcoholic drink of the day for Halloween – Spooky Juice – was a nice twist on the usual alcoholic offerings with its deep purple color and fake eyeball.
Is It Worth It?
Halloween on the High Seas is a great feature of a cruise you may have already planned. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing how amazingly creative fellow passengers are and their incredible costumes. But, we wouldn’t go out of our way to specifically book a Halloween sailing unless it matched the dates and destinations we were already hoping to book.
It’s important to note the Halloween fun is mostly contained to a single day on the ship. Sure, there are Halloween-themed decorations around for the entire voyage, but it’s not like Halloween becomes to dominant feature of the cruise. The Halloween element is also easy to avoid/ignore if you’re not particularly interested.
We consider Halloween on the High Seas a nice bonus, but not something we’d say you should plan your vacation around.
