I’ll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue
and it’s hey to the starboard heave ho!
Look out madam mermaid be waitin’ for you in mysterious fathoms below…
This year, King Neptune was not as kind to us a usual. Hours before the Line Ceremony was due to start the sky turned grey and it opened up and poured. A hot semi-tropical rain that did nothing to break the oppressive humidity that lies over us like a blanket in this part of the world, but did mean we had to close up the dome for the ceremony. Sadly this meant that fewer people could witness the sacrifice of our latest batch of vile pollywogs and I’m afraid to say that as a result the celebrations felt a bit flat. That and the fact that the slime wasn’t very slimy this year (no one is quite sure whether that was on purpose or not), it seemed to lack some of the punch of previous crossings. Perhaps that’s just because I’ve done it a few times now? But I think it was more to do with the heat of the closed dome combined with the dreary weather. Be that as it may, our entire ship’s compliment has now been elevated to shellback status and we may proceed safely on our way to our next destination.
The rest of the day was spent mostly in preparation for the Under The Sea Ball later in the evening, which – like all balls – was a fun-loving glittering affair. In this case it was overseen by our very own King Neptune who sat in repose on the stage alongside his mermaid queen for the entire duration of the evening to allow the guests a rather unique photo opportunity. I cringed for the CD and the Party Planner who had to sit up in those hot costumes under the stage lights all night, but the guests seemed to love it J The rest of the ballroom was decorated in equally nautical themes: fish shaped balloons and fancifetti that was all in the shape of multi-coloured shimmering seashells. There were fish nets draped everywhere too, with seashells and starfish and such caught up in them. Combined with the blue and green lighting the effect was similar to being underwater or in a very large very glittery fishbowl. Was pretty nifty! And…very sparkly….as usual, I’m sure that housekeeping hates ball nights, as the fancifetti always gets dragged all over the ship.
It was a tight fit to get from decorating the ballroom (which I technically wasn’t scheduled to help with but I wasn’t sure if that was a glitch in the schedule or not so I showed up and was immediately put to work for an hour before we all realized that I actually wasn’t supposed to be there), to getting ready to actually attend the ball. My dress for tonight had never been worn before (seriously it still had the tags on it!) and the only time I’d tried it on was once before I took it to the tailors for the last minute tuck in the seam, and once after to make sure that the alteration had been done right. All I knew for certain was that if I had gained so much as an ounce, the dress wasn’t going to fit. Like the dress I wore to Prom on the Grand Asia, the gown was custom made for me. In fact, I think of this more as my actual prom dress than the other one (there’s a story behind that, which got told many many times last night, but which is too long to relate here. Long story short: my dad bought it for me, and one day soon I’ll pay him back for it, but that’s so not the point) – anyway, the thing with custom made dresses is that you have to give them your measurements, from which they then make the dress. So if those measurements change at all, they won’t fit. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten too much ice cream 
the dress fit like a glove, and I was most pleased with it J
For me the ball was a bit more of a challenge than usual though, as it’s hard to be the belle of the evening when you have a driving migraine thrashing behind your eyes. I’ve always prided myself on being able to act through anything, but migraines remain a challenging one, particularly in a circumstance where the music is loud, and you have to talk to people and you can’t leave the room! Thankfully near the end of the evening the aspirin kicked in and my eyes went back into focus, just in time to actually enjoy dancing my last turn around the dance floor.
That said, I was exceptionally glad to kick off my shoes at the end of the night and crawl into a nice warm bed. Cinderella was very very tired this time…