I'm going to be taking my Panasonic HMC-40 and Comer 1800 light with me on a Halloween cruise. On past cruises, I've used various Sony AVCHD cams without lights and suffered through the horrible grainy indoor videos. This year, though, I'd like to get some nice, well-lit footage of my group's Halloween party in the main lounge and other on-board activities like the disco dancing, dining, in-cabin partying. I'm still learning when it comes to using the 40's manual settings in conjunction with the Comer, so does anyone have any cruise-ship-specific lighting/shooting tips that they'd like to impart?

I don't know that this is 'cruise specific', but my general recommendations is to diffuse the light source as much as you can so that you can be closer to the action without blinding your guests. If you're bold, try shooting some footage at 1/30th or even 1/15th for effect (and better low-light performance). Take some dramamine for you (and some for your friends) and have a good time.