Carnival

A week before we arrived in Rio, the HR Manager was in the Officer's Day Room and asked Akis and I if we were going to join them in the parade. I was surprised that ordinary folks could join in the parade and thought it would be kinda neat. We hemmed and hawwed for a couple of days and then decided that yes, we did want to do this. Due to the increasing numbers, the original date, Embarkation Day at 10:30pm was no longer possible. The only option was to go at 6:30pm. Once discovered we were very disappointed to learn that we were not going to be able to go ~ so much so that I decided we needed to see if there were any other alternatives. As it turned out, we were in luck and we were able to get 3 costumes for the Monday night. Myself, Akis and the Environmental Officer Panos were all in and had our official Carnival costumes delivered on Sunday for the school Undios Tijuca.

A few things about Carinval...

The Sambadrome (Sambódromo in Portuguese, full name Sambódromo da Marquês de Sapucaí) is a purpose-built parade area in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where samba schools parade competitively each year during Carnival. The parades attract many thousands of Brazilians and foreign tourists each year.

The venue
The Sambadrome was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and built in 1984. It consists of 700 m stretch of the Marquês de Sapucaí street converted into a permanent parade ground with bleachers built on either side for spectators. Its capacity is 65,000. The complex includes an area located at the end of the parade route, the Praça da Apoteose (Apotheosis Square), where the bleachers are set further back from the parade area, creating a square where revelers gather as they end their parade.

Outside Carnival season, the Praça da Apoteose is occasionally used as a venue for international music concerts. Notable artists who performed there include The Rolling Stones, Roger Waters, Eric Clapton,Phil Collins Oasis, Avril Lavigne, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Carlos Santana. In December, the samba schools begin holding technical rehearsals at the Sambadrome, leading up to Carnival.

The Carnival parade events
The official Carnival parades take place just before the start of Lent. They are held for four consecutive nights, during which schools parade one after another from 8pm until the morning. Grupo de Acesso A samba schools are hosted on Saturday, Grupo Especial on Sunday and Monday and Grupo de Acesso B on Tuesday. The Grupo Especial nights are by far the biggest attractions. The parades are televised nationally and are watched by large audiences.

Each samba school has a preset amount of time (80 minutes) to parade from one end of the Sambadrome to the other with all its thousands of dancers, its drum section (bateria), and a number of floats. Each school has its own unique qualities according to its own traditions. Schools are graded by a jury, and the competition is ferocious. On Ash Wednesday (quarta-feira de cinzas), grades are gathered and one school is declared the winner. A Desfile de Campeões (Parade of Champions) is held the following Saturday featuring the five winning samba schools in the Grupo Especial category.

The day had been raining on and off while we were on the crew tour and we were crossing fingers/toes that it would clear up in time. Prior to leaving at 8:30 for the Sambadromo, we had a small viewing for a few people on the ship. We negotiated the taxi fair and managed to get to the correct location although we were about 30 minutes late.

Our costume:

We were told that when we arrive we find our 'school' or group and then we walk along to find all the other dancers that look like us. We walked, walked, passed more floats, walked some more and FINALLY found someone who looked like us... Here are some of the floats along the way.

As it turns out, we were the second group of dancers behind the first float. The gathering of all of us Leiderhosen Beer drinkers

Preparation of the floats before we started:

Preparation of the group:

Carrying nothing but US dollars, we weren't able to partake in the pre-parade beers. Imagine, some folks don't take US dollars!!! So this is us, waiting to start:

About 45 minutes before the parade they started to get the dancers on the floats and the ground dancers into lines. There were 9 of us to each line. In terms of numbers, each float has approximately 500 dancers, and 8 floats for a total of 4000 dancers per school. As we approached the parade route, we started made our way onto the street.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get pictures of the crowd from inside the parade as the school loses points for the dancers having cameras inside the parade route... But this gives you an idea of the crowd.

This was us, at the end of the 45 minute march!



Had you been in the stands, this is what you would have seen. Our group was behind the peacock and the dancers with the feathers and before the penguins. Who would have thought you could miss all of that beer carrying leiderhosen.


Upon returning to the ship, we needed to put our feet up and rest them from our cheap gold shoe experience!