Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Crossing the International Dateline — Day 38 of 138

Today we crossed the International Date Line (IDL) and became members of the “Domain of the Golden Dragon”. This is an award traditionally given to sailors who cross the date line for the first time. The IDL was established in 1884 and is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at about 180 degrees east of the Greenwich Meridian. I say about 180 degrees, because the line does deviate from the 180 degree mark in several locations to allow islands or land masses from a single nation to remain together in the same time zone. As the name suggests, this passage works as a separating line for the two calendar dates. When sailing west, as we are, we actually jump a day forward, we went from Sunday, 28 January to Tuesday, 30 January so, last night we partied like there’s no tomorrow. Yes, for the moment we have lost a day, but we will gradually get part of that day back because as we continue sailing west, we will move our clocks back one hour for every 15 degrees longitude traveled. By the time we get home we will turn our clock back 19 hours.

Executive Chef and I (Kully photo bombing)

The ship celebrated the occasion with a huge brunch buffet on the pool deck; truly a labor of love by the culinary team. The food was beautifully displayed and of course more than one could possibly imagine. Shortly after 12 Noon, the cruise director read the order of the Domain of the Golden Dragon and we all jumped (to signify jumping from one day to the next) and drank a toast as we crossed the imaginary line in the sea.

“Adventure is worthwhile.” Aesop

Donald Gutknecht

3 responses to “Crossing the International Dateline — Day 38 of 138”

  1. cliffroomb51df6c11c Avatar
    cliffroomb51df6c11c

    I am an avid reader of your posts who will be going on the 180 day world cruise this Dec.  The descriptions of what you are seeing is certainly building excitement for the experience but it is your tips and tricks that I am finding most helpful as I figure out how to approach this long voyage. One topic I don’t think you have addressed (or at least I haven’t seen it) is trip insurance.  I am trying to determine if there is a cost or coverage differential using Viking insurance or another carrier.  Any info you have and care to share would be appreciated, especially as it requires a pause in all the fun you are having. Cliff

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    1. Donald Gutknecht Avatar
      Donald Gutknecht

      Cliff,
      Thanks so much for your kind words, happy to know you’re finding the blog helpful. I don’t have an answer to your insurance question beyond what we are doing, but it is very important that you have insurance for a trip this long. I’m assuming you are from the USA and of Medicare age (forgive me if you’re not), I’m sure you already know Medicare does not provide coverage outside the USA, so you absolutely need medical coverage of some sort. I’m retired military, so TRICARE is my Medicare supplement and Tricare does provide coverage outside of the USA, but we also bought the Viking coverage which covers medical, trip interruption, trip cancellation etc. In addition, we carry an Emergency assistance policy which is an annual policy that covers medical evacuation and medical referral assistance when away from home.

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      1. cliffroomb51df6c11c Avatar
        cliffroomb51df6c11c

        Yes, I am over 65 and on Medicare so no apology needed. Thanks for the information, it’s appreciated. Look forward to seeing what comes next on your trip. Thanks for sharing.

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