11 Mar 2017 – Crossing the Line at Sea

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Hello from the good ship Crown Princess. Today we reached, and crossed, the equator. In nautical parlance this is called “crossing the line”. In keeping with our previous practice of giving you references where we are north and south, we are a far from the North Pole as from the South Pole.



We got up about 8:00 and discovered we had actually crossed the equator around 4:00 in the morning, but there was to be a ceremony scheduled for 11:00 when it was more convenient for everyone. But we got dressed and went to the Horizon Court for breakfast. Tomorrow we are planning to use the dining room, but that’s a story for another day. After breakfast, Janet went to the Needlework Lounge and worked on her newest project with her friends. There weren’t very many people today in the knitting department.



They had cleared all the deck chairs away from the Neptune Pool on deck 15, and away from the overlooking rail from deck 16, so this was where the event was going to occur. David got to the rail at 9:30 and picked out what he hoped would be a good vantage point for photos. The area started filling up seriously by 10:00 and was packed for the next hour. Unfortunately there was a light mist in the air until about 10:45 when it started raining for real. But by that time, nobody was going to leave their chosen spot, including David. He had grabbed a pool towel and that kept the camera fairly dry. The rain stopped and started throughout the ceremony. The ride was also a little rough at that time, adding to some waves in the pool.



The “Crossing the Line” ceremony is where ships crossing the equator ask King Neptune and Queen Aphrodite to pardon their sins and to allow a safe transit of the oceans and seas. In keeping with this tradition, the king and queen, along with their court, came out of the crowd and assumed control of the ship. The captain (at least someone dressed up to be a captain) came forward and begged for forgiveness. As sacrificial offerings he produced 4 passengers (volunteers) – called Polliwogs - to receive punishment on behalf of the whole ship. Two were found guilty of playing pranks on fellow passengers and crew and they were doused with buckets of colorful liquids. One was accused on lusting after the gorgeous ladies around the swimming pool and was tricked (by one of the stage girls in a bikini) into putting his face in a large bowl of whipped cream. The 4^th was found guilty of gluttony by overeating at all the dining rooms and buffets, for which Neptune’s surgeon pretended to remove all his excess food in a pretend operation (removing a string of sausages, a whole watermelon, a full lamb shank, a whole pineapple, spaghetti noodles, a bowl full of Jello and much more). Anyway, he ended up covered with all the items. In addition, each of the 4 was required to kiss the royal fish (a full size whole tuna). Then Neptune agreed to pardon all the passengers but not the crew. A half dozen new crew members were sacrificed by kissing the royal fish and then they were tossed into the pool – they actually seemed a bit surprised by this. Finally Neptune and Aphrodite gave permission for the ship to cross the line in safety and to proceed to our next destination. Everyone is now called a “hard shell”. After that any passenger who wanted to could come forward and get their picture taken kissing the fish – David declined. It was all over about 11:30 but by then most people were fairly wet.



We had agreed to meet in the cabin and we did about noon. It was continuing to sprinkle but we wanted Hot Dogs & Burger w/ fries, iced tea, coke and cakes. David was able to bring some down from the Trident Grill and we had an indoor picnic in our cabin while we watched a movie. It was “Star Trek Beyond”, which had been shown outdoors a couple of nights ago, but too late for us to watch. Anyway, we had an entertaining afternoon inside. The rain subsided about the time the movie was over but we went down to the Internet Center for Janet to do some household business and then back to the cabin to rest.



This evening was our 2^nd Formal Night on this 2^nd cruise. We got cleaned up in our “formal outfits” and went to meet our friends in Club Fusion at 5:00. We skipped the appetizers but Janet had a glass of wine and David had a beer. Then in the dining room Janet had shrimp cocktail, beef bouillon soup and a lobster tail with crab cake. David had the roasted pineapple, chilled fruit soup, and both the lobster w/ crab & the chateaubriand. Janet skipped dessert but David had the French vanilla soufflé.



We went to the show in the theater – called “a swell party”. David had seen it before but Janet had skipped it on the first cruise. She agreed that it was a swell show. We were sitting in our seats waiting for the show to start and Jim Siebert’s buddy (Rich) came and happened to sit right next to us. Tonight was also the final program for this set of production singers/dancers so they got a special “thank you” from the audience. We had heard that one of the previous shows was their final performance, but this REALLY is supposed to be the last one.



David took quite a few pictures at the ceremony today, so there may be some attached below the text section.

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Photos

Pool Water
pouring back in after the waves splashed out

First two Polliwogs
being doused with goop

3rd Polliwog
face in the bowl of whipped cream

4th Polliwog
having food removed by surgeon - this was the spaghetti course

One of Ship's Medical Staff
being tossed in the pool