All Hail King Neptune

 

Today our shipboard community celebrated our crossing of the Equator with a ceremony known as Neptune Day.  It’s a day when those who have never crossed the Equator before, known as “polliwogs”, are initiated and become “shellbacks.”

 

It’s one of those shipboard events that bonds the community and is really a fun day.  Since Kelly and I had both been through the ceremony, this time we got to participate in helping put the program on.  The day starts with a 7AM wakeup call by the crew who walk the halls dressed as members of King Neptune’s court, banging on drums, blowing whistles and banging on doors.  Once the students gather on deck 7 they are entertained with short ceremony and then the initiation begins.  The students must profess their allegiance to King Neptune and then have “fish guts” dumped over their heads.  Of course we don’t actually use fish guts.  It’s more like a punch with fish oils in it. 

 

After the students jump into the pool to clean off, they climb out and give a kiss to both a dead fish and King Neptune’s ring.   Some, both males and females, also choose to have their head shaved in the traditional naval tradition.  Kelly and spent a few hours shaving heads and sweating in a sea of hair and body heat.  It was a crazy, chaotic scene that is tons of fun.

As if the day wasn’t good enough, tonight’s dinner was tacos.  I know that doesn’t sound like that big of a deal but on a ship where the 3 Ps, pasta, potatoes and pork, are the nightly norm, it truly is.  People were in line ten minutes before dinner service started.  And by people I mean me.  I won’t go into how many I ate but let’s just say it rhymes with heaven.  And I felt like I was in heaven right up until I stopped eating and felt like I had a taco baby in my belly.  It was still totally worth it.  What a great day.