Halloween at Sea: Piecing Together Costumes

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Since one of the things I loved most about college was dressing up for any occasion, you’d think I would have welcomed the chance to go all out for Halloween on Semester at Sea. But the problem is I’m one of these “go big or go home” type of people, so while I had planned to have something custom-made in Vietnam, the port came and went so quickly that before I knew it, it was the day before Halloween and I was costume-less. Instead, I figured I’d just skip dressing up altogether as I’ve done the past four years.

But Paula was having none of it. She had brought a genie costume from home—seriously, with the limited amount of packing space we had, she allotted a good portion of it to a padded blue costume she would wear once all voyage. Gotta love that. And she also happened to buy a mini-rug in Malaysia, so I pinned it onto my dress and went as her magic carpet. Easy peasy, no work required.

(Apparently, that’s my patented magic carpet pose. I didn’t realize until the camera started flashing in my face but I don’t actually know what face one makes when trying to pass as a magic carpet. What I did remember, though, was every word to Friend Like Me. It came in handy throughout the night during awkward lulls of silence.)

Then Josh and Trina showed up and unveiled their collective creative genius. They showed up as…Josh and Trina dressed in denim onesies. And not just any denim onesies, but tailor-made denim onesies with fur hoods and their initials embroidered on the front.

We were an eclectic smattering of costumes, for sure.

For the first portion of the evening, we welcomed trick-or-treaters. The 22 children on the ship had trick-or-treating hour where they could visit the cabins who had signed up to give out candy we procured from the various ports, so Josh, Paula and Trina convened in mine, and we marveled at the kids’ creativity. It’s not easy to create a costume out of limited ship resources, but I’d say they did a great job: There was a dragon trainer, a Luke in the Box, a fancy cat, a party (“part of an ‘e'”…clever), a bunch of balloons, a police officer, Tinkerbell and many others.

After the kids were done trick-or-treating, we headed to the ship’s social epicenter, Tymitz Square, where all sorts of characters were convening.

We saw foosballers.

One really fat guy.

A whole lot of Tom Cruises.

Some Vietnamese dudes.

And unicorns and students posing as other students pantsless.

My personal favorites were the two jellyfish, as well as the pair of students who dressed as Jim and Pam dressed as a cat and a three-hole punch. And in a stroke of brilliant luck, our work study student Maryum just happened to come as Jasmine! Lurking nearby was a tiger, who we dubbed Rajah.

We led Rajah around on a leash and made him pose with us all night.

To complete the picture, my ship son, Will—we were placed into shipboard families during early days; more on that later—showed up as Aladdin. It couldn’t have been more perfect if we had actually planned it in advance!

A two-hour Halloween ball in the Union—which was more like a rave, you know, sans booze of course—rounded out the fun, and SVV and I stayed until I was sweaty enough under my carpet to need to go home and take a shower. In retrospect, I’m glad Paula dragged me out of my cabin and made me participate. I don’t like to miss out on anything, particularly when it involves dressing up (and better yet, seeing other people dressed up).

How about you: Did you partake in Halloween festivities? What was your costume?

COMMENTS
  • November 1, 2011

    No costume for me; we just followed our little Blue Power Ranger grandson around the neighborhood. And loved doing it.

  • November 1, 2011

    That looks like fun. It takes some foresight to pack a costume on a trip like that.

    • November 1, 2011
      Kristin

      Next time, I’ll know to plan something well in advance so I can factor it into my packing 😉

  • November 1, 2011
    MOM

    Loved all the pictures of your friends. I wanna go Halloween… what can I dress up as?

    • November 2, 2011
      Kristin

      A loving Mom with her six little white dogs in tow!

  • November 1, 2011
    MOM

    PS: SIX WEEKS!

    • November 1, 2011
      Kristin

      Yay! Is Ella excited???

  • November 1, 2011

    Ha! You’re a carpet! Love it.

    Kyle and I found out Saturday morning that our even that night was canceled, so we also found ourselves at the last minute with no costumes. Several hours and $13 later, we were an exuberant St Louis Cardinals fan and a suicidal Texas Rangers fan.

    • November 1, 2011
      Kristin

      HA! Brilliant.

  • November 1, 2011

    The rug was a brilliant idea, even if a little warm. Hope you didn’t get walked on too much. Looks like a lot of great ideas with limited resources.

    I slept right through all, if there were any, local festivities in my birthday suit. And didn’t hear a peep from the cemetery next door.

    • November 1, 2011
      Kristin

      Next year, you could go as a park ranger! I’m sure that thought has never crossed your mind 😉

  • November 2, 2011

    I love the coincidence of all those costumes combining! Plus of course your rug face just made me laugh 🙂

    • November 2, 2011
      Kristin

      Sigh, I know. Next time when throwing together an impromptu costume, having the proper face is definitely a necessity. I didn’t even have any make-up handy to do anything to add to the lackluster ensemble!

  • November 2, 2011

    I’m glad you left your cabin and went out and had a good time! Halloween is the absolute best, as far as I’m concerned.

  • November 3, 2011

    Creative costumes are the best. I’m so glad my boys got a teensy bit creative this year. That’s the fun part of dressing up! How perfect was it that you had a Jasmine, an Aladdin, AND a Rajah? It’s like it was meant to be.

    • November 3, 2011
      Kristin

      Now I’m kind of thinking I need to be a Disney ensemble for every subsequent Halloween!

  • November 3, 2011

    I’m cracking up over the fact that my first reaction to your costume was actually “wow, the detailing and pattern on that dress is amazing!”

    • November 6, 2011
      Kristin

      Come to think of it, that WOULD make an excellent ensemble, costume or not!

  • November 4, 2011

    I was feeling the same as you, as I was traveling I felt like why bother? Back in New York I usually have my costume planned out in June and dedicate the month of October to executing it so I felt like if I couldn’t BE THAT CRAZY, why do anything. But in the end some friends convinced me to don a wig and silly skirt and I’m so glad! I would have hated to miss out of my fave holiday.

    • November 6, 2011
      Kristin

      Of course, after dressing up I still had the “I wish I’d thought to bring some awesome from home” regrets. But I’ve already started a mental packing list for if I ever do SAS again, which currently consists of “leave warm clothes at home” and “pack talent show and Halloween costumes.”

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