HAL and Halloween

I've just realized that Halloween takes place during my Westerdam TA later this month. I've never cruised on Halloween before and really don't think much about it. Will we be expected to dress in costume?

TIA

Expected to? No. If you want to, yes. Some Staff may be.

Expected to? No. If you want to, yes. Some Staff may be.

I agree with CruiserBruce, definitely not expected! But some passengers may dress up too, anything from Halloween colors to full costumes. I have an orange top to wear, but it's just part of my normal travel clothes. There will likely be decorations in the buffet and the MDR, and you may see cabin doors decorated too. Our last cruise was a long one and was over Halloween. There was a dance in the Crows Nest and I recall the Cruise Director and staff went all-out in costumes. It may be different on a shorter cruise. m--

It will vary by ship, captain and cruise director.

Very few people dressed in costumes on our cruises. The Lido and main dining room had a few decorations.

One cruise there was a Pub Crawl. About 20 people took part in that. Depending on the ship, sometimes there will be a party in the Crow's Nest -- not sure if there will be on the Westerdam now that the Crow's Nest has been done over.

I have been on HAL ships for at least 6 Halloweens. Of course I realize that things have changed - in my experiences, when there are some sea days before Halloween, some ships have provided materials to many your own hats or such. Sometimes as an organized activity and sometimes the stuff is just left out for a few yours to use. It seems to just have depended on who the CD was and/or the Cruise staff. The ship organizer has been the old "cruise staff" and more recently anyone from a dancer to the person who organized the cooking shows/activities. Perhaps this is all past now - 2016 was my last on board Halloween.

I have never been on a HAL cruise at Halloween but have been on several Carnival ships with ~ 2000 passengers. I'd say at least half were in costume on Halloween night. Some purchased; some homemade, but most all were very creative and impressive. The staff walked around among the guests and chose 30 for a best costume contest later that evening. The deck was just full of people walking around in costume from 8-10, followed by the contest. So much fun! We came in 3rd.

Dont forget to decorate your door too.

Often the crews will carve pumpkins and have a display for the guests to pick best one and they give winner something

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Thanks so much for the replies, everyone. It looks like I don't need to stress about Halloween. :D For me, it is all about the candy corn and that's about it.

Cheers!