Day 13 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 10/08/16 - At sea to Samoa 4

Overnight was a turning point on this voyage. Around 1:30am we crossed the equator and we are finally in the Southern Hemisphere. As I write this, we are 3 degrees south of the equator.

To celebrate this occasion, the ship put on a King Neptune ceremony in the aft pool area. Kiki, the cruise director was the Prosecutor, someone played King Neptune, and the ship's senior officers were the jury. In groups of 4 or 5, various crew members (called Polliwogs) who had never crossed the equator were brought out of the 'brig' and had their charges presented to King Neptune. Examples of the charges included waitresses who spiked non-alcoholic drinks, or cabin attendants who called guests late at night, or the night auditor who padded guest bills with extra charges. King Neptune would hear the charges and sentence the polliwogs to kiss the fish (a frozen fish about 3 feet long) and lie on the table where they would be coated with a slippery slimey concoction. Then the Captain and the senior officers would pronounce sentence: thumbs up meant bake in the sun, thumbs down meant jump in the pool and remove the slippery concoction. It was all good fun and quite humorous. In the end King Neptune pardoned all of the Polliwogs and they all jumped on the pool. Now the polliwogs were considered 'shellbacks'

The rest of the day was much like the prior sea days: two lectures (Captain Cook by Sandra Millikin - not that good compared to other lectures including the one the day before & Barry Dreyer's excellent presentation on William Bligh and Mutinity on the Bounty). Ms. Millikin is doing a Bligh lecture tomorrow and we'll see how she compares with Mr. Dreyer.  

I got my 8,000 steps in walking deck 6 after lunch and saw a few more flying fish along with one White Sea bird (which must mean we're getting closer to land). There's been no trash or seaweed in the water since we left Kona 4 days ago. There's just been deep blue green seas with a slight chop and blue skies. Likely there will be some serious sunburns after today.

Here's a few comments about the ship after being onboard nearly two weeks. We're really liking stateroom 692 which is an inside room. We're virtually never there, but it's roomy and comfortable. Our stateroom attendant, Yudha, is very friendly. We have found all of the Lido (deck 11) meals to be fine with a good variety although I confess to eating the Asian cuisine for lunch and a standard fare for breakfast every day. The ship is in very good repair, the air conditioning works well in our stateroom in the heat. We are quite satisfied.

After dinner we went to deck 10 aft to watch the sunset and listen to Hawaiian music. The evening's entertainment was the cast stage show Droom which is a fairy tale stage show. Afterwards we watched Hologram for the King, a movie starring Tom Hanks.