Thursday – Meeting with King Neptune
Word is; there’s snow back home. It’s hard to visualise here, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, only hours away from crossing the equator, sweltering under 35-degrees heat in the middle of the afternoon. It was so hot that extra umbrellas were brought out, to try and keep as many passengers out of the direct heat as possible, so that everybody could enjoy the ‘Crossing The Equator’ ritual that is ‘I’m an Entertainer Get Me Out Of Here’.
Essentially; anyone who wishes to cross from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere is expected to ask permission of King Neptune himself. The bearded one did, of course, make an appearance on our upper decks, and watched the collection of tasks put before our chosen members of crew that make up the entertainments team. At the end of each task, one participant earned themselves immunity from eviction, whilst the remaining participants stood blindfolded at the edge of the pool, awaiting the sounds of cheers determining who would be pushed into the pool and leave the competition.
It was a fun-filled hour of entertainment, appreciated by everyone. King Neptune granted us leave to cross the equator at sometime just after 5am tomorrow morning, and insisted that we have a party to mark the event…. now there’s a good idea!
Our ‘Equator’ celebrations resumed in the 9 o’clock quiz; a wild and anarchic quiz designed to encourage everyone out on deck to singalong with as much gusto as they could muster, and eventually form two competing conga lines that snaked their way around the Lounge Deck. At 11pm, the party really started, with live music and boogying; even at that time of night, the air was muggy and the air temperature hot. There might, at one point, have been a bit of a passing shower, but nothing could dampen the spirits of The Marco Polo!
