Halloween Festivities on Paradise

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There isn’t much on the boards about Halloween cruises, so I thought I’d post a little info based on our experience this past weekend on the Carnival Paradise. This is a long post, but it pretty much covers everything that happened onboard in relation to Halloween.

 

Myself, and my two daughters, stayed at the Queen Mary pre-cruise and took advantage of the early check in. That went quickly with no lines. All three of us were in costume to board the Paradise. We weren’t sure how that would be accepted by Carnival employees but it turned out that they all seemed to love it. None of us wore any face makeup though, which I’m sure helped. We only saw a very small handful of people wearing costumes to board, but we saw a lot of people carrying costumes on!

 

After we boarded the ship, we wandered around. The only Halloween decorations were in the casino (very limited decorations there) and in Carnival Blvd. on the Promenade deck. The decorations there extended from right outside the Rotterdam Bar down to the casino area. Most of the decorations consisted of animated blow up items and cobwebs. Some of the blow up decorations were very large. In the evening they put up several different backdrops for photos. They took normal photos and when they printed them they put a Halloween theme over them. They looked good.

 

We changed into our other costumes for dinner. There were a lot of people in the dining room wearing costumes. The most I saw from the dining room staff in the way of a costume was a pair of fun sunglasses or a headband or necklace. The only staff that I saw that REALLY got into the spirit of Halloween was the entertainment staff…and they were dressed up from head to toe. There were two Halloween deserts offered in the dining room that night. A Batman Chocolate cake and a Ghostly Cheese Cake. The meal itself was no different than any other cruise.

 

In the evening hours (I believe it was between 7 and 10:25) the entertainment staff (who were also in costume) were on Carnival Blvd checking out costumes. If they liked what they saw, they handed you a paper congratulating you and inviting you to participate in the costume contest that was held in the Normandie Lounge at 10:30. There were a few members of staff also scoping out the dining rooms for the late seating people. They had three categories: Funniest, Most Creative and Scariest.

 

The costume contest was a blast! Each group had about 40 people (or groups of people in some cases). They started with the Funniest, then did Most Creative and finished up with the Scariest. The 40, or so, people got up on stage and marched around in a big circle trying to show off their costume in the best way. The idea was to impress the audience and get the most applause while still impressing the judges (the entertainment staff). The staff picked the top 6 finalists and those 6 stayed on stage to introduce themselves and to try to get the most applause. The winners got a bottle of champagne. After all three groups had their top winner, those three went against each other for the grand prize, which was a tote bag full of candy. Obviously the whole thing was filmed and there was a photographer there taking a lot of photos. There was fog on the stage as well to add to the mood. The more outgoing and fun you are, the better.

 

After the contest, most everyone seemed to head to either Rex Dance Club, the Queen Mary Aft Lounge to see the comedian, a bar or to their cabins. We went to see the comedian and then headed to the club. When we woke up the next morning all the decorations were gone.

 

The photos were up the next day and like I mentioned, they looked good. Even though the photos were marked Platinum, the guy told us when he rang us up that all Halloween photos were half price. This was the day after Halloween. I don’t know if that price was only good that day, or if they were that price for the duration of the cruise.

 

I think that pretty much covers everything. If you’re thinking about going on a Halloween cruise, I HIGHLY recommend that you go! It was so much fun and we laughed so much that our stomachs hurt. Some of the costumes were very creative!

 

I’ll post a couple photos for those that are interested.

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Here are three of the decorations that were onboard:

 

 

 

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And here are the two Halloween deserts that they offered in the dining room on Halloween night.

 

Batman Chocolate Cake:

 

Ghostly Cheese Cake (the cheese cake is under the ghost pastry):