Some cruises include whale-watching excursions.

Autumn in the US is renowned for its gorgeous colours, as trees shed their leaves and make streets look like film sets.

While the sun continues to shine on Malta well into October, cruisers can see mother nature put on one of her best shows with sailings on the coast of New England and Canada.

Ship passengers can also celebrate Halloween complete with ghosts and ghouls and enjoy elaborate shipboard feasts to mark the traditional US holiday, Thanksgiving.

Autumn is also the time when cruise lines reposition their ships from summer to winter homes, including Alaska and Europe, to warm destinations, and these repositioning cruises provide both unusual itineraries (with a combination of port calls and days at sea) and attractive prices.

See leaves fall

Holland America Line, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, American Cruise Lines, Seabourn, Princess Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line are among lines with autumn sailings in New England and Canada, embarking from cities including Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Bayonne (New Jersey), Montreal, Quebec City and Baltimore.

Leaf-peeping combines with other delights such as whale-watching, eating lobster, seeing lighthouses and absorbing US history.

Some of the cruises are one-way and others roundtrip, with sailings ranging from five to 22 days, so guests could combine a shorter cruise with a stay on land to get the most out of the airfare.

Celebrate all things spooky

Disney Cruise Lines’ ‘Halloween on the High Seas’ expands this year, with the whole fleet featuring themed decorations, activities and events from late September and throughout October.

Try ‘spooky juice’ and ‘spider cakes’, hear haunted stories under the stars, watch scary movies and participate in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Sing Sing and Scream experience – where you can meet the characters Jack Skellington and Sally. Bring a costume or make one shipboard.

Or join the group KISS and rock out on KISS Kruise IV onboard the Norwegian Pearl, embarking October 31. This year's cruise includes a Halloween pre-party on the ship on October 30.

During the sailing, theme nights include KISS Around The World, Dress As Your Favourite KISS Song, I Was There and Dressed to Kill. Pack your face paint, costumes and sunscreen.

Give thanks at sea

Thanksgiving cruises allows non-American citizens to begin the festive season early and experience this unique holiday.

On Princess ships, the chefs prepare dinner with all the traditional fixings for an easy feast.

For a less traditional, yet memorable cruise, try Crystal Cruises’s Crystal Symphony in Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef, or Crystal Serenity in the sunny Caribbean. Both ships will host an elaborate holiday celebration onboard.

Treating the family to a Disney ship means guests can enjoy an array of holiday festivities – including a turkey dinner.

The line’s four ships will be decked out with holiday decor, including special Thanksgiving towel animals in staterooms. Mickey and other characters will, of course, wear their holiday attire.

Leaf-peeping combines with other delights such as whale-watching and eating lobsters

Help feed the hungry when booking a holiday cruise on American Cruise Lines. The line is making a donation of €38 to the Connecticut Food Bank for every booking on the Thanksgiving sailings of the Queen of the Mississippi, cruising from New Orleans to Memphis, and the Independence, sailing from Jacksonville, Florida, to Charleston, South Carolina. Both ships will feature a feast of Thanksgiving favourites.

Do a repositioning cruise

You can typically snag a deal when a cruise line moves a ship from one destination to another for a season and that's certainly the case this autumn – with ships repositioning from places including Alaska, Europe and Bermuda to the Caribbean, South Pacific, Asia and South America for the winter season.

Some of the itineraries cut from the Pacific to the Atlantic through the Panama Canal. Transatlantic itineraries include port calls at fascinating cities in Europe, while transpacific cruises can get you to the tropical paradise islands of French Polynesia.

For more information on cruises and the Cruise Lines International Association, visit www.cruising.org.