Day 19 & 20 ~ Neptune's Revenge

After much hazing and shenanigans, the Wogs were brought in front of King Neptune and the Royal court for worthiness inspection… Anonymous

Yesterday, January 28th, the poor pollywogs, those who hadn't crossed the equator before, were trotted out for ritual abuse and shame. Our Shellback ceremony was short on hazing and long on hijinks. The main goal seemed to be to make as big a splash as they could after being pelted with colored meringue. 

Unlike on the Princess world cruise, there were no passengers involved in this ritual, though doubtless some would have volunteered! All the victims were officers, our cruise director Aaron in the guise of King Neptune was the judge and we spectators were cast as the jury. Every "wog" was summarily pronounced guilty of never having crossed the imaginary line around the world and subsequently received their punishment. After they climbed out of the pool, they were offered a jigger of aquavit, which is punishment of its own. This strong spirit (80 proof!) is aged in casks on ships and is expected to have crossed the equator twice before it's bottled.  

Then after the reviving drink, the pollywogs had to kiss a couple of dead fish, which really wasn't as bad as it sounds. In keeping with the Covid protocols, both the fish were masked! 

In the afternoon, we attended a rehearsal for the Viking's Got Talent show that will be held in a couple of days. The DH and I sang an acapella duet we've done for years and it was was very kindly received. There's a nice mix of talents on offer--a couple of pianists (one who played a very tricky Chopin waltz!), a ukulele player, a drummer, a story teller and a lovely hula dancer. There were a few others who weren't quite ready to practice yesterday so I don't know what else we'll see, but it's a good variety.

Our evening entertainer was Amy Jo Slater. She was the Adele tribute artist we skipped earlier because I'm not a fan of that style of vocal production. It turns out that Amy Jo is a classically trained soprano and she did a wonderful rendition of "O, mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi. But before that, she'd hollered her way through a number of rock anthems. Like Lady Gaga and Cindy Lauper, both of whom have trained voices, Amy Jo mostly uses a very small portion of her range and stylistic abilities.

Today, Jan 29th, we started our day with a lecture about lost cities given by , Phillip Creaser, resident geologist. Forget Atlantis. There have been plenty of cultures that have suffered from earthquake , vulcanism, and flood. When we were on the Amalfi Coast in 2018, we visited Pompeii, but Herculaneum was also destroyed by Vesuvius. Several mega-eruptions have disrupted the climate world wide, causing precipitous drops in the mean temperature in the past. It's always amazing to me that so much of the changes in the world have been due to cataclysmic events, yet Sir Charles Lyell, the father of geology whose grave I've seen in Westminster, is hailed for his theory of uniformitarianism, which posits that everything pretty much putters along as it always has...

Until it doesn't. Then it's a very interesting day.

Our executive chef put together a German brunch for us today starting at 10AM, and the food was very good, if a little heavy. We started with appetizers of cucumber salad, slaw, & potato salad following by a rich pea soup. The main course was a shared platter of thin steaks, sausages, and potatoes. Dessert was an apple strudel with vanilla gelato.

We tackled palm trees at our art class. The last time we painted this subject was on the Queen Mary 2 when the DH was suffering from a migraine. His palm trees were very angry that day. We're still trying to pick our two favorites from all our endeavors to submit for the art show that's looming. 

Dave and Kristy made reservations for the four of us for Manfredi's tonight, so I'm already looking forward to my favorite dessert on the ship--Dark Chocolate Amarone Cremoso. 

The pianist is coming back for another show tonight. Sincerely praying he forgets to bring his other instruments. One should really lead with one's strengths. 

Sorry. My musical snobbery is showing. But I feel like all this one-man-band stuff detracts from his main talent on the keyboard. 

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Okay, my worst fears were realized. Instead of playing with the very talented Viking band as his backup, he played with canned semi-orchestral accompaniment. He also trotted out both the accordion and the trumpet. Then when he played a piano piece without those distractions, I realized why he leaned on background tracks and other flashy things. He couldn't play a legato line to save his soul. There was no shape to his phrases. Every note had the same value as every other note. When both hands were supposed to be moving in chords, there was a slight rabbitting--the left hand striking just a hair before the right. I suspect he has been a very fine pianist in the past, but his reliance on soundtracks, back-up musicians and gimmicks has made him sloppy. I hope he returns to his first love and ditches the distractions because there's some real technical talent languishing there.

More soon...