5 Night Halloween on The High Seas Cruise on the Disney Magic – Halloween Day at Sea and Mixology Class

One of the best feelings on a cruise, in my opinion, is waking up to a beautiful day at sea. I woke up pretty early after a very restful night’s sleep and made my way to Cabana’s for a light breakfast and most importantly…coffee!

Hot take about the coffee on Disney Cruise Line: It isn’t the best. I am a coffee-haulic and have found through trial and error that the cruise coffee ranks as follows:

1. Coffee from Cove Cafe – I know, it’s an extra cost, but sometimes it’s required when you are 5 days into a cruise and you just need real espresso!
2. Coffee from Palo – Again it is an extra charge, but the beans are ground fresh each order and the coffee tastes like everything else at Palo…amazing! Pro-tip: You can order coffee and other beverages at the bar in Palo without making a reservation.
3. Coffee from Cabanas – As far as drip coffee goes on the ship, my favorite dispensers are located at the beverage stations at the very aft of Cabanas. The coffee tastes better there, though I have no idea why.
4. Room service coffee – This coffee is better than no coffee…and it is delivered straight to you!
5. Deck 9 Beverage Station coffee – Awful. Avoid at all cost.

After breakfast, we headed to the Cove Cafe to check out the ship location and trip progression. I was surprised to see how far away from shore we were while heading around the Cape Cod area.

Next we decided to drop by the Anyone Can Cook class! The chef was different than the one we had on our Mediterranean cruise in June, but the dish was the same. The sea bass and risotto were excellent.

After the cooking class we tried attending the port shopping talk because there were no other adult activities going on. Long story short: I would not go back to another one of these unless there were absolutely no other activities going on. The woman heavily advertised bamboo sheets, UV color changing shirts, and sunglasses for the first 40 minutes (very weird for a New England/Canadian cruise), but then finally gave information about locally-crafted souvenirs at the very end.

The last 10 minutes when she talked about souvenirs specific to Bar Harbor and St. John were the most interesting to me. Overall, I would probably skip this activity in the future since it is mostly a huge sales pitch for the brands paying to be showcased.

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime! We met the whole family at Cabanas and caught up with what my sisters were doing in the teen’s club.

The halloween desserts available at lunch were so beautiful. The worm and dirt was delicious, and the cupcake was too cute! My husband did not care for the icing (it was very butter-flavored), but the cake was super yummy and tasted like pumpkin spices!

I actually forgot what I ate for lunch because the dessert was the true showstopper.

Maria hosted a fun drawing class in the afternoon where we learned to draw Captain Minnie! She even drew in such a way that you could make your drawing a Minnie or Mickey, which was very cool.

At 3 PM it was time for our mixology class! We registered for this event onboard, but we got the final 4 spots in the class so I strongly recommend reserving online prior to the cruise if possible. Also, make sure to have some food in your stomach going into the class because it does include 5 alcoholic drinks!

We got signed in and chose our seats in the Keys lounge on Deck 3. Some of the drink components were already set up on the table in front of us, but no alcohol had been added yet.

My mom and husband – ready to learn the art of mixology!

The entire class was really fun and included a good variety of drinks. It’s less of a hands-on mixology class (I will talk about our experience with doing a mixology class on the Fantasy soon!) and more of an informative experience. We learned some of the history of the different spirits used in each cocktail, and we made (and enjoyed!) the following drinks:

1. Mai tai
2. Mint Mojito
3. Martini
4. Kir Royale
5. B52 shot

My favorite drink: the pomegranate martini!

We enjoyed the beautiful sunset over the ocean before getting ready for the nighttime festivities of Halloween on the High Seas!

I really enjoyed the Halloween decorations throughout the ship. The attention to detail is truly amazing, and is especially noticeable in the main foyer area. The Halloween tree lights up during Haunted Storytime and the Halloween dance party, and the Storyteller was extremely spooky in a very Sleepy Hollow way.

The Halloween Party had finally begun! There were so many cute characters dancing, kids screaming, and most of all…TRICK-OR-TREATING!

There were several candy stations set up on decks 3 and 4 as well as games to play while you waited in line! Overall I think the party was very fun for all ages, and it was fun to see how everyone went all out with their costumes!

Delicious candy!

I dressed up in my dragon onesie for the party. My youngest sister dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, my middle sister dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, and my mom dressed up as a Medieval princess!

In more modern fashion, my dad dressed as Iron Man and my husband as Kylo Ren!

They really got into character.

We danced at the Halloween dance party, but also took a break and watched the party from the balcony. Everyone was having such a great time; the joy was infectious!

When we got back to our stateroom, we found a sweet towel pumpkin waiting for us!

We changed into some comfy clothes and then headed to our last event of the night (with candy bag in tow).

One of my favorite things about Halloween on the High Seas is that they show a sing-a-long version of The Nightmare Before Christmas in the Walt Disney Theatre! There were some other “4D” elements to the movie as well, which made it an experience only possible on Disney Cruise Line.

That wraps up our first day at sea! Next we have our first port day in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Thanks for reading!