Fun day of activities and celebrations on the Serenade for Christmas. Super anticipated by many onboard, but we passed the equator as well today on day 16 of the ultimate world cruise.
Passing the Equator
Unpopular opinion, but I wasn’t super interested in when we passed the equator. It’s cool, but my sleep was more important to me, so I was definitely sleeping when we passed. BUT…I definitely woke up to the captain’s announcement THREE times at 9 AM. Even though the announcement wasn’t in the stateroom, I could still hear it and it woke me up, and the second and third time definitely made it worse. Oh well.
Apparently we crossed around 9 AM, and did some donuts (which would’ve been pretty cool to see) and pass three times, leaving around 9:30 AM (a little earlier).
Did find this, before I had even left the stateroom…which is great.
I tried to think about it a little bit, and even with all the traveling I’ve done, I don’t think I’ve ever been to the southern hemisphere, so this is a first!!!
Waking Up (Finally)
I attempted to go back to sleep and was on and off until around noon. I could tell my head was hurting, and fighting the beginnings of a migraine at this point, so I tried to sleep it off as much as I could. Took some drugs and wandered up to start the day.
I ended up getting over to the centrum to squat and find a spot for the christmas caroling (for the World Cruise Choir that I didn’t join). Apparently, it’s not too late to join the choir and they’re going to try to meet on each leg of our trip, so maybe I’ll see if the rehearsals and stuff work with my plans.
The recital itself was a lot of fun, lots of people, and fun to see our fellow cruisers bringing the festivities as well.
International Belly Flop Contest
As I was heading back to the stateroom, I heard that the Belly Flop was about to happen, so I headed up to the deck to see if there was any room. The last cruise we were on, there was no room along the railings to stand at all, and it was hard to see.
No worries on this cruise, plenty of space, and I got prime viewing area right above the pool. Really, really fun belly flop contest, everyone brought their A-game.
For the second round, they even had to bring out an extra block to get more height (feels safe :P).
We even had to go to a sudden death tie-break after 2 rounds. Great sports content, with live feeds, and instant replays and the like as well. Really funny moment when we all realized that one of the finalists is actually in the Beatles band that played last night.
Final winner was incredible (all three times). Got a great shot of the winning flop.
Sunset
Set up to do some more chilling and editing on the aft side of the boat, sheltered from the wind and sun (mostly). Really lovely back there.
As the sun was setting, get some really nice photos of the sun setting, and I *think* part of the green flash over the horizon.
Moon also made a nice appearance. I looked it up and tomorrow appears to be the full moon.
Picture Gallery
Finally got a gallery site to work through pic-time (after doing some research), and have started to set up galleries for ease of download and prints for people that want to purchase.
Looking to perhaps have that as an option on the patreon to get free high-res downloads as a tier. For now, web size resolution and social sharing is enabled for everyone to download as they want and desire.
Will start adding the other days as I have time.
https://pics.mattichan.com/portfolio will bring you to the portfolio and you can now click around (Day 1 and Day 16 loaded so far).
Food
Absolutely delish. I should probably really eat lunch during the day sometime :D. Sweet and Sour soup to start, the special (Pork Chop and Thai Fried Rice with Coconut Curry) and the Beef Short Rib, and an Espresso Soufflé to finish (love me a soufflé).
Towel Animals
Saw these cute critters on the way back to the stateroom for the night…
Vibe Check
4 parts joy
1 part anger (or annoyed — at waking up and then having a mini migraine)
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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