Sea Day #6 Crossing the Equator!

A solid sleep last night even though I have had some stomach issue the last 12 hours. Kelly was off to get coffee and upon her return, assumed her morning position on the balcony.

It's shaping up to be a very busy day for us with numerous activities squeezed together. Due to scheduling we may even have to forgo some of them.

We had breakfast in the dinning room this morning then headed upstairs to the Star Lounge for Trivia. We met up with Cathy & Bryan but they arrived too late to save our game :-)  We got a few answers but it was a bust.

Next up was the scavenger Hunt and we were given a sheet with about 15 items to obtain... in 15 minutes!! Well between the four of us we managed to get almost everything except one item so we ended up tying another team for first. Kelly is very competitive!!!

Next up... yes a busy day alright...  was the Equator ceremony up on Deck 11 Pool side.  A huge crowd gathered and after winding our clocks ahead one hour at noon, the event started. First was a flash mob by a bunch of cruisers whom obviously practiced a lot! Looked good from our vantage .

Flash Mob as the start of the ceremony.

 Now crossing the Equator for most people, especially for flight crew, can be a regular occurrence but for maritime folks it has a special significance the first time. Tradition dictates that a Pollywog, someone who has not crossed over yet, must go through a "ceremony" welcoming them to the other side. Variations of the actual ceremony can exist with some rather disgusting treatment of the Pollywogs takes place. Once completed you become a Shellback for your next crossing.  The details are explained much better here.

King Neptune and his entourage!

Things get ugly!

Lets just say I was happy not to have to undergo the humiliation of having to do crazy things in front of a huge crowd.... unlike several unlucky people!!

Lots of spectators!

The Cruise Critic gang have organized a Cabin Crawl today. This is an opportunity to look at various cabin layouts and locations that you would otherwise never get to see. Kelly offered ours up so we are part of today's "showing". We met up on Deck 12 and proceeded to go to various cabins for a look see. The Grand Suite was amazing!  We also showed ours to the group.

Forensic Lecture in the Star Lounge - Once again another interesting lecture of Forensic Science and police work. This one was about Crime Scenes and it was a bit dry... no pun intended. 

At 18:15 the captain came over the PA and advised us that the ship was about to officially cross the Equator so there might be a slight bump... then he jogged the ship a bit and it was done!

Kelly snapped a pic of our ship's wake as the "jump over the line" was made.

 Sunset once again was very pretty. We are blessed with a great view from our deck every night!

Tonight's sunset... a bit obscured but still stunning.

Pre-dinner drinks at Dizzy's then dinner with our group in the main dining lounge. This was followed by a quick casino visit but it was mostly spent watching some high rolling guys betting incredible sums of money on roulette. They lost a lot... we didn't :-)  Off to bed.