Meet and Greet (Post #7)

Our final sea day before arriving in Hawaii started with crossing the Tropic of Cancer at 7:20 in the morning.  I’m not sure of the significance of the Tropic of Cancer, but there are several people up in the Crows Nest paying close attention to the screen and taking a photograph the exact moment we crossed.

Here is more about the Tropic of Cancer from Wikipedia

The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead.  This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun to its maximum extent.^[1]  It also reaches 90 degrees below the horizon at solar midnight on the December Solstice.  Using a continuously updated formula, the circle is currently 23°26′11.1″ (or 23.43641°) north of the Equator.

We will cross the equator twice this cruise, but we only have a ceremony as we cross for the second time going north.

As we proceed south towards Raiatea we will cross the International Date Line twice.  This is unusual as you a cross usually crosses the Dateline and continues on, either westerly or easterly.  On this cruise, we will be transiting from the north to the south, and the way the dateline juts out easterly we will cross it twice over a period of several days.  Here is our cruise map which makes it a little easier to see what is happening regarding the International Date Line.

The captain decided to not adjust our date twice as we make this transit, since we would simply end up in the same spot a few days later.

I played Texas Hold‘em today and came in third place.  It was a fun game regardless and well worth the $60 for two hours of gambling entertainment.  While I was playing Texas Hold‘em, Judy was with the Stitching group in the Ocean Bar.

After my game was over we both went up to the Retreat to enjoy lunch and some fresh air.  At the Lido, today’s special was Filipino dishes.  The two attendants in the Retreat are able to get any food item on the ship from any venue that is currently open. Marcos, one of our cabanas waiters is from the Philippines so we asked him to bring us a selection of his favorite Filipino dishes.

Here is a photo of his food selections:

Our Cruise Critic Meet and Great was today at 2:30 PM in the Crows Nest.

For those not familiar with Cruise Critic, it is a website with a vast amount of information about cruising as well as specific sections dedicated to each cruise line.  There is also a section called “Roll Calls”, where people on a particular cruise can meet virtually to discuss excursions and other items of interest.  Roll Calls often start over a year prior to the cruise and people may be interacting online for some time prior to the cruise.  A Meet and Greet is usually scheduled on the first sea day and this gives people a chance to meet face to face, often for the first time.

Roger was the coordinator of the roll call for this cruise and he produced a huge spreadsheet to keep track of people’s interests and scheduled shore excursions.  About 100 people gathered in the Crows Nest for the Meet and Greet.  Roger made a few brief announcements about future activities and a couple of other folks also announced a few events that may be of interest to others.  The Meet and Greet lasted about 30 minutes before it started to break up.

Here are some pictures: of other cruisers:

Tonight’s show was scheduled to be a show called “Tandem” which would have been Step One Dance Company’s final performance.  The show was canceled because one of the tracks for the large LED screens was damaged and could no longer safely lock the LED screen in place.  In place of the originally scheduled shows, the Polynesian Cultural Team performed at 8 PM and they showed the movie Aloha with Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone at 9:30.