It was movie title day…The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
The good: We crossed the Equator! A first for us (not counting the flight down under)! We actually crossed at about 2:03 AM, but it’s hard to get a crowd of people on deck for a celebration at that time of day. The crossing ceremony was at 10:00 AM, poolside. Ron got into the line to be christened with the rest of the crew’s first-timers (a la the navy) and was doused with pasta, green whipped egg-whites, flour and chocolate syrup. He was then forced to kiss a large fish and was thrown into the pool. A total of about thirty people went through the process leaving the pool looking like a very large bowl of cheap stew. Big crowd and a lot of fun! More on the pool later.
We have been loosely associated with a group that has been collaborating with Celebrity to deliver a large amount of donated school supplies to the children of Kiritibati. The New Jersey-based company shipped nearly two tons of supplies to Auckland where it was picked up by the Mercury and transported for free to the island.
Celebrity chipped in and donated hundreds of bed sheets, nearly a hundred pairs of new shoes and other items as well. We were invited along to help document the delivery of the supplies and the various thank-you ceremonies. We were taken on a tour of several schools and it was very eye-opening. The country is very poor and the school facilities were reflective of that. It would have appeared tragic except that the people and children seemed to be very happy. No price on 
happy, is there? It was a moving experience and we were pleased to be a part of it, however small. Oh, yeah…we got some great pictures!
The bad: Tendering to the island did not go well. Hundreds of people that were given tender tickets were denied passage to the island due to the extreme shallowness of the harbor (our tender boat was grounded briefly on a sand bar on the way in!) and some really bad logistics on the part of the people in charge. This was compounded by some incorrect and somewhat misleading announcements made trying to explain why some people were going ashore and most weren’t. Most of the crew was given the day off since port days are usually light so there was minimal staff available to control the crowds. We heard stories of crowds so bad that the elevators full of people would open on deck 4 and the people could only wait and choose another floor, being unable to exit. When it got near riot level it was announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience.
The ugly: They announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience…
This, of course caused a rush on the bars. All the folks that had been restrained in their drinking because of $6 drinks suddenly loosened up a bit. Since the staff had the day off in expectation of a light day, there were only a few waiters and fewer bartenders on duty. More lines…long ones. When the people in those long lines got to the front and ordered the $10 premium martini, they were told that free drinks were limited to house wine and domestic beer. This, of course, hadn’t been part of the announcement and was made worse by the fact that the main bar on deck seven hadn’t been given the wine and beer memo and was serving any drink asked for (word spread quickly by the folks that were bar-hopping to collect as many freebies as possible). Late in the period, the bars were instructed to loosen up and serve anything in response to another near riot fuel by cheap wine and beer. Many people, frustrated by the inability to reach the island, went to the pool. It still had spaghetti and such floating in it from earlier since it now was classified as grey water and couldn’t be drained until the ship was twelve miles at sea.Only one fist-fight that we heard of…
We, of course got back late and knew nothing of these goings-on. We wore the flower headdresses that were given to us by the grateful islanders and were greeted with withering looks and sharp questions from surly fellow passengers wanting to know why we were allowed to go to the island and they weren’t. Indignant attitudes softened when we explained that we were part of the donating group and then were regaled with their tales of woe. On seeing what the minimalist infrastructure on the offered (port-a-potties were a luxury), most people would have just turned around and gone back to the ship had they been allowed to go. Having no way to know that, the loss of the opportunity to visit another port brought caused some excusable bitterness.
At sea tomorrow. Plenty of time for the indignant masses to write their letters to the cruise line.
The good: We crossed the Equator! A first for us (not counting the flight down under)! We actually crossed at about 2:03 AM, but it’s hard to get a crowd of people on deck for a celebration at that time of day. The crossing ceremony was at 10:00 AM, poolside. Ron got into the line to be christened with the rest of the crew’s first-timers (a la the navy) and was doused with pasta, green whipped egg-whites, flour and chocolate syrup. He was then forced to kiss a large fish and was thrown into the pool. A total of about thirty people went through the process leaving the pool looking like a very large bowl of cheap stew. Big crowd and a lot of fun! More on the pool later.
We have been loosely associated with a group that has been collaborating with Celebrity to deliver a large amount of donated school supplies to the children of Kiritibati. The New Jersey-based company shipped nearly two tons of supplies to Auckland where it was picked up by the Mercury and transported for free to the island.
Celebrity chipped in and donated hundreds of bed sheets, nearly a hundred pairs of new shoes and other items as well. We were invited along to help document the delivery of the supplies and the various thank-you ceremonies. We were taken on a tour of several schools and it was very eye-opening. The country is very poor and the school facilities were reflective of that. It would have appeared tragic except that the people and children seemed to be very happy. No price on 
happy, is there? It was a moving experience and we were pleased to be a part of it, however small. Oh, yeah…we got some great pictures!The bad: Tendering to the island did not go well. Hundreds of people that were given tender tickets were denied passage to the island due to the extreme shallowness of the harbor (our tender boat was grounded briefly on a sand bar on the way in!) and some really bad logistics on the part of the people in charge. This was compounded by some incorrect and somewhat misleading announcements made trying to explain why some people were going ashore and most weren’t. Most of the crew was given the day off since port days are usually light so there was minimal staff available to control the crowds. We heard stories of crowds so bad that the elevators full of people would open on deck 4 and the people could only wait and choose another floor, being unable to exit. When it got near riot level it was announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience.
The ugly: They announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience…
This, of course caused a rush on the bars. All the folks that had been restrained in their drinking because of $6 drinks suddenly loosened up a bit. Since the staff had the day off in expectation of a light day, there were only a few waiters and fewer bartenders on duty. More lines…long ones. When the people in those long lines got to the front and ordered the $10 premium martini, they were told that free drinks were limited to house wine and domestic beer. This, of course, hadn’t been part of the announcement and was made worse by the fact that the main bar on deck seven hadn’t been given the wine and beer memo and was serving any drink asked for (word spread quickly by the folks that were bar-hopping to collect as many freebies as possible). Late in the period, the bars were instructed to loosen up and serve anything in response to another near riot fuel by cheap wine and beer. Many people, frustrated by the inability to reach the island, went to the pool. It still had spaghetti and such floating in it from earlier since it now was classified as grey water and couldn’t be drained until the ship was twelve miles at sea.Only one fist-fight that we heard of…
We, of course got back late and knew nothing of these goings-on. We wore the flower headdresses that were given to us by the grateful islanders and were greeted with withering looks and sharp questions from surly fellow passengers wanting to know why we were allowed to go to the island and they weren’t. Indignant attitudes softened when we explained that we were part of the donating group and then were regaled with their tales of woe. On seeing what the minimalist infrastructure on the offered (port-a-potties were a luxury), most people would have just turned around and gone back to the ship had they been allowed to go. Having no way to know that, the loss of the opportunity to visit another port brought caused some excusable bitterness.
At sea tomorrow. Plenty of time for the indignant masses to write their letters to the cruise line.
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