Halloween on the High Seas is offered by Disney Cruise Line in September and October. We recently did a 4-night DCL itinerary with HotHS and wanted to share photos & info, plus our review of whether the experience is worth it or if we’d recommend a different sailing instead.
Let’s start with the basics. The Halloween on the High Seas sailings promise everything of a normal itinerary, including Pirate Night, and more. Aboard each Disney Cruise Line ship, there are regular entertainment highlights, themed activities for kids, youth parties & crafts, and interactive options. Halloween on the High Seas voyages are offered on select DCL sailings aboard the Magic, Dream, Fantasy, Wish, Treasure, and Destiny ships.
Halloween on the High Seas is basically a themed day aboard a mostly-regular sailing. You’re not missing anything that’s offered during a normal Disney Cruise Line sailing. If you compared an itinerary the week before HotHS started versus a Halloween on the High Seas cruise, they would be materially similar, minus the lack of Halloween stuff on the former. Right off the bat, this should signal the spookiness strength for Halloween on the High Seas.
Halloween on the High Seas is already announced as being offered aboard the Disney Destiny year, so we can only assume 2026 will set another new record for the most HotHS sailings (thanks to the ever-increasing fleet size). According to Disney Cruise Line, Halloween on the High Seas is offered on select domestic departure dates that occur in September and October.
This seemingly excludes the Disney Adventure, but we assume that’s still TBD. Halloween is popular in the Asia parks, and the Adventure doesn’t seem to have particularly strong bookings. Maybe it won’t offer Halloween on the High Seas in 2026, but our bet is that it is offered in 2027 or further down the road.
Halloween on the High Seas cruises out of Florida also include stops at Disney’s new private island destination, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, or Castaway Cay. There are even some sailing that double-dip at Castaway Cay or make stops at both private islands.
If you want help choosing the right itinerary for your family, we highly recommend working with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Be Our Guest Vacations is our preferred travel agency, and they have many agents with extensive cruise experience and expertise. Using a travel agency is incredibly advantageous when it comes to cruising.
Here’s the special themed offerings you can enjoy during Halloween on the High Seas sailings:
The Halloween Tree
The gourd-geous centerpiece in the atrium of each ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet during Halloween on the High Seas is a Halloween Tree. As the full moon gleams and witches fire up their brooms, these pumpkin-filled trees take root every September and October.
The Halloween trees each of the Disney ships are:
- Reap on the Disney Magic
- Bog on the Disney Wonder
- Grim on the Disney Dream
- Muckelbones on the Disney Fantasy
- Boo on the Disney Wish
- Ginger on the Disney Treasure
The trees aboard the Magic, Wonder, Dream, and Fantasy ships reflect a traditionally spooky tree one might expect along the dirt roads of Sleepy Hollow on a cold October night. Reap, Bog, Grim, and Muckelbones were inspired by the spirit of Ray Bradbury’s beloved story The Halloween Tree.
The Disney Wish has a tree blessed by the Wishing Star to grow very special carved pumpkins. Boo’s enchanting visage watches over the Grand Hall and legend has it that one of her pumpkins even grew to become the pumpkin carriage that carried Cinderella to the ball.
Ginger on the Disney Treasure is a unique species of tree, hailing from the city of Agrabah in Aladdin. Ginger has more elongated pumpkins, similar to the gourds found in that region of the world, with Ginger herself resembling a bit of a banyan tree.
Halloween Tree Lighting Ceremony
On the first night of the cruise, the tree lighting sets the tone. The tree’s branches hold the spirits of Halloween past, and the spirit of the Pumpkin King brings it to life.
This tree is watched over by a mysterious caretaker, who shares chilling tales of Halloween traditions and legends as guests gather beneath their canopy. As the ship sets sail, these once quiet, twisted trees burst into life—glowing Jack-O’-Lanterns flicker to life among the branches, eerie lights dance, and a deep, haunting voice fills the air.
“The Tale of the Enchanted Pumpkin Tree” is a lot of fun, offering a not-so-scary take on Halloween.
The caretaker gives a great and highly-animated performance, similar to what I’d imagine of the Haunted Mansion caretaker (too bad he doesn’t have a canine pal!). Although it’s a bit spooky, the mood is lightened with fun and recognizable music from Halloween at the parks, along with the caretaker’s exaggerated mannerisms.
On the Disney Treasure, this mysterious caretaker is replaced by the storytellers, Coriander and Sage, who are quite surprised that a tree has suddenly sprouted in the Grand Hall. They tell the tale of Ginger and learn how the carvings on her gourds were inspired by the transformations of the Genie. I’m really curious in the differences with Halloween on the High Seas aboard the Treasure; that’s my favorite ship and it has DCL’s best entertainment programming.
Halloween Decorations in the Atrium
Decorations are mostly confined to the atrium or Grand Hall, but you can find some other decor around the rest of the ship if you really look hard. This might include Halloween colors in floral arrangements, window-clings on the portholes, spooky towel animals arranged on deck, and more.
Although it doesn’t qualify as a decoration, per se, the background music loops in the hallways and stateroom televisions get a spook season overlay for Halloween on the High Seas. But in general, if you’re not in the atrium, you won’t spot many (if any) visible signs that it’s Halloween on the High Seas throughout your sailing.
Mickey’s Mouse-querade
Guests are invited to join Mickey and friends at this spellbinding, musical soirée on deck. Mickey’s Mouse-querade is probably the highlight of Halloween on the High Seas for most families. It either happens up on the top deck (weather allowing) or in the atrium, and features both a stage show and dance party component.
A lot of guests will stake out spots close to the stage far in advance, presumably under the erroneous assumption that Mickey’s Mouse-querade is something to see as opposed to something to do. There isn’t much point in showing up early to this. At least, not significantly so.
While the choreographed dancing on stage is well-done, it’s not really a stage show production. There’s only a brief opening and closing with all of the characters on stage.
For the rest of Mickey’s Mouse-querade, the characters–Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Dale–are all dancing around the deck, mingling with kids. There are opportunities for quick selfies and videos, but keep in mind that it’s dark and the lighting is going to be harsh.
Mickey’s Mouse-querade is cute and fun. Although it definitely skews older than toddler age (but much younger than adults), so we aren’t quite the target audience for it yet. We’d definitely recommend costumes for this, and lighter-weight ones are probably ideal. There was a cool breeze on this evening of our cruise, but it was still warm.
Halloween Character Meet & Greets
Disney Cruise Line guests can take a spooky selfie with Disney characters dressed in Halloween duds. Characters include Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in batty ensembles, Donald and Daisy Duck in spooktacular spidery garb, Goofy as a classic skeleton, Pluto showing his love for candy corn, and Chip and Dale in candy cauldron costumes.
The character highlight of Halloween on the High Seas is the Sanderson Sisters meet & greet, featuring Minnie is dressed as Winifred Sanderson, Daisy as Sarah Sanderson, and Clarabelle as Mary Sanderson. Each Disney fur character embodies their respective counterpart from Hocus Pocus, melding their own personalities with the Sanderson Sisters. This meet & greet is fantastic.
This might differ during longer sailings, but the Halloween on the High Seas cruises we’ve done have featured one day of these character costumes. They do mid-afternoon sets, and then evening sets. During our most recent cruise, this occurred during the Castaway Cay day.
Having done Castaway Cay many times, and having seen the demand disparity between the daytime meets and nighttime ones in the past, we opted to cut short our time at Castaway Cay to do these meet & greets. If seeing multiple characters matters to you, doing the earlier meet & greets is a must.
Our average wait time for characters was under 10 minutes, and that includes the Sanderson Sisters. We actually did that meet & greet twice, as it’s a bit too efficient at cycling guests through (no complaints as the line moves fast and no one can monopolize the characters for a lengthy TikTok video or private photoshoot or whatever) and were in and out of the line quickly both times.
We were able to knock out almost every character during the afternoon meet & greet sets, and all without trying our toddler’s patience too much. She loves the meeting & greeting characters portion of the equation, but is less keen on the whole “waiting in line” part. That’s not nearly as fun, and she doesn’t quite comprehend why that unpleasantness is part of the experience when she could simply spend all of that time hugging the characters.
We returned in the evening, and meeting the characters then would’ve been a complete non-starter. Lines were double the length or longer, and the whole atrium was just very crowded and chaotic.
Had we not done the meet & greets earlier in the afternoon, we would’ve done a couple, but for our daughter, characters are like a Pokemon situation: gotta hug ’em all.
Other Halloween on the High Seas Offerings
Halloween movies: Not-so-frightening flicks like Haunted Mansion, Hocus Pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus 2, and Halloweentown are screened at the onboard cinema or on deck.
Trick-or-treating: For happy haunting in the early evening before Mickey’s Mouse-querade, guests can don costumes and trick-or-treat onboard. This happens on the top deck right around the stage.
Crafts: Guests can relax and indulge their creative side with Halloween arts and crafts that make perfectly bewitching souvenirs.
Adult fun: Adults have their own haunts on Disney Cruise Line, with adult-exclusive spaces that offer special events like a costume contest or dance party and serve themed refreshments created especially for Halloween on the High Seas.
Pirate Night: Sailors of every stripe are encouraged to dress in swashbuckling costumes for pirate dining, a dastardly deck party patterned after Pirates of the Caribbean and other pirate-themed activities.
The fact that Disney advertises Pirate Night as being part of Halloween on the High Seas should signal something about these cruises. I mean, I guess pirate is a common costume, but so is construction worker. Are the walls around Rivers of America considered Halloween decorations now? They are somewhat scary!
Halloween on the High Seas Review
Our most recent Halloween on the High Seas cruise was a 4-night trip from Port Everglades, Florida on the Disney Dream, but these holiday cruises are offered fleet-wide in September and October. Prior to this, Sarah had done multiple Halloween on the High Seas cruises. She did one out of San Diego, California and another out of Port Canaveral, Florida.
Sarah was a fan of Halloween on the High Seas, even prior to this. She thought that the character costumes were adorable and unique, with the Sanderson Sisters being one of many highlights. The overall atmosphere of the ship was spooky thanks to quirky decorations, plenty of pumpkins, and the Halloween tree.
She’s previously reported that little touches, like unique food and coffee enhance the atmosphere, and imbue a Halloween atmosphere to the cruise. This is further than I’d go, and based on her description and praise for the overlay, I was expecting a bit more.
One thing I noticed from the reactions to our previous Very Merrytime Christmas Cruise Review is that opinions on these seasonal sailings are all over the map. It seems like the biggest determinant is frame of reference or expectations. Are you comparing these voyages to special events in the parks or are you viewing them as an enhancement on top of a regular cruise?
Admittedly, my expectation going into our first Very Merrytime Christmas Cruise was something on par with Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Walt Disney World or daily holiday season operations at Disneyland. In hindsight, this was probably unrealistic. A cruise is fundamentally different than a theme park.
The unique logistical challenges of being, ya know, on the ocean, present impediments to going ‘all out’ like the parks. There’s less turnaround time between sailings, space is more finite aboard the ship, and the seasonal stuff needs to slot in alongside the regular programming.
If you’re a critic of Halloween on the High Seas or the Very Merrytime cruises, you might view all of this as an excuse. That this is Disney we’re talking about, and if anyone could pull this off, it’s DCL.
If there were an appetite to make more happen, they could make more happen. And to your (hypothetical) point, it is probably fair to say that both of these seasonal sailings used to offer more and be better.
Nevertheless, when I look back at my memories of our first Very Merrytime cruise, they’re much warmer and fonder than what’s reflected in our review. Looking through our photos reinforces the same. Revisiting all of that is nice; if I could go back in time and experience it again, I’d appreciate it more in the moment. And that’s not just the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia talking.
I know this because we essentially did do this, setting sail on a Very Merrytime cruise aboard the Disney Wish last year. Despite paying significantly more for that than our previous Christmas cruise (we’re talking roughly double the price), and the experience offering less holiday programming, we enjoyed it more.
Part of the difference is undoubtedly that our circumstances changed. We have a daughter now, which alone has made us an ‘easier’ audience for sentimental experiences that generate those treasured ‘core memories.’ No sense in pretending otherwise. But I still find myself critiquing everything (impossible to shut off the ole Blogger Brain), so I really think the bigger change is one of perspective.
My view on the Very Merrytime cruise and (now Halloween on the High Seas) changed. Instead of making an undeniably unfavorable comparison to the theme parks, I started viewing these seasonal sailings as special themed enhancements to regular cruises. As the icing on the cake, as opposed to the cake itself.
I’m taking a long time explaining this because frame of reference really does matter here–it’s probably outcome-determinative on both Very Merrytime and Halloween on the High Seas cruises. This is a good way of setting pre-cruise expectations so you’re not disappointed with the seasonal sailings and reality that they’re icing.
Or alternatively, this could provide insight into what these cruises actually offer so you can opt against booking them if this isn’t enough “cake” for you to justify the cost. Because if you’re envisioning a whole cruise immersed in non-stop Halloween or Christmas, you’re going to be massively disappointed.
There are entire days devoid of Halloween programming and decorations are confined to a small area of the ship. One early bedtime and you’d miss three-quarters of the Halloween on the High Seas programming.
Ultimately, we were not disappointed by this because Halloween on the High Seas offered several experiences in one for us. There’s really no perfect Walt Disney World comparison, but it was like a very light version of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party one day, followed by a Pirate Party another night, the standard at sea experience another, and so forth.
The one day of Halloween on the High Seas certainly doesn’t hold a candle to MNSSHP or Oogie Boogie Bash (just to be clear), but as an included element to the cruise, it’s fun. Halloween on the High Seas gives you a taste of the spook season experience, like going trick or treating and having a few snacks as opposed to devouring the whole bag.
You get to enjoy entertainment and some decorations, meet characters and see other guests in costumes, and come home with photos of it all. It all makes for positive lasting memories that are clearly Halloween-flavored, and the atmosphere–thanks to the costumes, decorations, music and more–is better in person than it might sound on paper.
Even though Halloween on the High Seas is a ‘lite’ version of its theme park counterparts, there’s something to be said for the comparative ease and comfort of the experience. Which really is a bigger-picture comment on Disney Cruise Line vs. Walt Disney World, but it applies here, too.
But even so, you absolutely are not immersed in Halloween as part of Halloween on the High Seas. If you book the cruise expecting that, you’re going to be incredibly underwhelmed. Go to Disneyland instead.
Perhaps the best endorsement of Halloween on the High Seas is that this experience made me want to book a sailing aboard the Disney Wonder or Magic next fall. (It also made me even more curious about Halloween on the High Seas aboard the Disney Treasure, but those 7-night sailings are a non-starter for us.)
I’m still not quite sure about Halloween vs. Christmas, but we’ll definitely be doing one or the other. Even though Halloween on the High Seas and Very Merrytime Christmas cruises are not as good as they could be and don’t quite meet expectations, they are better than standard sailings; we’d recommend them on that basis. We’ll always take more icing on our cake!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of these Disney Cruise Line’s Halloween on the High Seas? Any of the special offerings appeal to you? Impressed by the Sanderson Sisters costumes for Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, and Clarabelle Cow? Any other tips to add or recommendations for Halloween on the High Seas? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
