Crossing the Equator and International Dateline (and other strange time changes)

We crossed the international dateline. I’m pretty sure this is all just a wicked mind game played by the Captain. It’s truly like entering the twilight zone. The big debate in the retreat area yesterday was whether it was Saturday or Sunday. Without stopping in Fanning Island, there really wasn’t much need for all the hoopla, but I suppose the bridge needs entertainment too. Even the cabana crew was at odds trying to define what day it was.

We have officially moved into the southern hemisphere. If you do that by ship it means the famous king Neptune ceremony and you will earn the honorary title of a “Shellback”.

You will get two certificates on this voyage. One for crossing the international dateline and one for crossing the equator. HAL gives each passenger a nice hardy certificate. I’m sure many onboard appreciate the jester. I’ll be filing mine with the “Mossback” certificate I earned last month when I rounded Cape Hope by ship.

For many passengers. the Neptune ceremony is a big deal. Any crew who is crossing for the first time lines up (by department) for a good ol whip cream hazing and a jump in the pool. Of course they must kiss the fish first.

Word of warning- this event it packed. I mean sardine packed. I tried to walk toward aft on deck 10 only to be completely turned around by the mess….

Grab your seat long before 9:00 because this event draws a serious crowd-

The event goes on for about an hour. If you’ve never done it, I think it’s a must do. If you’ve done it, you can be like me and snap a few photos and then hang out in the empty seaview pool until the party is over.

Here’s DeCan with a scoop of blue gunk ready to haze a pollywogs.

Of course, the lido pool is out of commission for the day as it needs to be emptied and cleaned from the gallons of colored whip cream. They will have the lido pool open again first thing the next day.

*** fish kissing photo was from the 2024 equator crossing - no need to be kissing fish more than once :)

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Other Tidbits and abnormalities-

You will move clocks forward one half hour before reaching Nuka Hiva and then move another half hour after leaving Nuka Hiva (which apparently is in its own time zone).

Because this trip is more than 30 days you will

Need to do muster twice. Super easy process.

We changed the clock 9 times over the course of the itinerary. Move three times forward from San Diego to Hawaii. Move twice to accommodate Nuka Hiva, and then 3 more times from nuka Hiva to San Diego. Note that during the trip, North America moved clocks forward for spring, but Hawaii doesn’t observe DAylight savings time so three hours different when your get on the ship and four hours different when you get off in March.