Has anyone sailed across the Equator on Princess?

[Nautical but Nice]

Will be doing so in May on the Tahitian Princess. This will be the 1st time. What should we expect, or what normally happens to mark this event? Should we plan to attend, or just pretend we've already done so before? :)

 

Thanks in advance,

Christine

[Toto2Kansas]

This all depends on the cruise director at the time. We have sailed across the equator with Princess three times now. Two of them we had the normal equator crossing ceremony with King Neptune and his court, but on one crossing the cruise director did not want this so had what he called the Equatorial Olympics. :( For those crossing for the first time, the Olympics disappointed them greatly. It was more on the line of pool and deck games attended by the entire ship.

Although the normal ceremony can be kind of silly, it is often fun for first time passengers crossing and also expected.

 

Hopefully you will have a cruise director that believes in tradition. :D

[crusdiva]

Christine,

 

On our sailing we were witness to the whole King Neptune thing, which as Toto states is rather silly (and messy ;) ), but it's something that you'll always remember.

 

We also got a Crossing the Equator certificate mentioning the date, time and the ship, it was signed by the Captain and Cruise Director.

 

It's a nice memento.

[rkacruiser]

I crossed the Equator at least twice on Royal Princess and they did have the King Neptune ceremony each time. It is a riot and one should attend! The Captain ended up in the pool, walkie-talkie, shoes, and all and a good time was had by all! Most of the inductees" were crew members, although I do recall each time that a couple who were passengers had been chosen to be "initiated" as well. (Don't worry about this, though. One would not have to participate if one did not want to do so.) Arrive at the site of the ceremony early if you are interested in taking alot of pictures. And, as cruisediva stated, everybody receives a certificate showing that you have "crossed the line"!

 

It is alot of fun!

[derf5585]

I crossed the Equator at least twice on Royal Princess and they did have the King Neptune ceremony each time.

 

KING NEPTUNE - A SEAFARING LEGEND

from

http://www.boatingoz.com.au/articles/neptune.htm

 

Members of Neptunus Rex's party usually include Davy Jones

from

http://www.desausa.org/pollywog_to_shellback.htm

[Druke I]

Have crossed the Equator several times with Princess - and they have always made a production of it, for those who wish to attend. As noted above, it can be great fun - albeit somewhat silly and messy, but not as demeaning as crossing the Equator on a Naval vessel.

[Nautical but Nice]

So, when everyone is saying "messy", just how messy? Should I plan to wear something that I can throw away? Will something gross be thrown on me, or will I have to submerge myself into something? I'm thinking of something slimy, or equally as yuck. Am I way off base?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Christine

[derf5585]

Is there a similar ceremony when one crosses the "International Date Line"?

[Toto2Kansas]

derf, never seen a ceremony for that one, but I can tell you that the Princess Patters skip a date. lol I only know as when I returned from a 25 day cruise that did cross the dateline, I just couldn't imagine what I did with one of the patters that was missing. I finally realized that I had them all, but I was missing the one where we crossed the date line and skipped a day entirely. LOL

[Toto2Kansas]

Nautical but Nice-There are usually only a very few passenger that are invited to participate so I wouldn't worry about bringing anything you have to throw away afterwards. 99.9% of the passengers are there just to watch, the staff chooses the ones that are to be sacraficed. :D