BARCELONA — The Oceania Riviera was our christening christening, which is to say our first. If you're like us and you've never been able to enjoy the spectacle of seeing a cruise ship become official, what follows will give you a rough idea what happens…
The ceremony begins with the pre-ceremony. Acrobats tie themselves up in fancy curtains while the music plays and assembled guests, in this case about 500 strong, take their places. Local artists perform — for Riviera's coming-out, two opera singers and a flamenco dance troupe. Following two national anthems, two local politicians and two cruise-line dignitaries, the captain of the Riviera says a few words and the ship is blessed by a local spiritual leader, in this case a deacon.
All of this is a run-up to the "magic moment" when the Godmother (Cat Cora) pronounces the ship be called "Riviera" — the name has been on her bow for weeks so the ship clearly knew what she was called — and a behemoth bottle of bubbly smashes against its starboard side. There's enough bubbly in this to leave a whole deck of passengers smashed.
And that's it.
The process takes about 90 minutes, more if you arrive early to secure a seat in the shade. On this gorgeous day in Barcelona, to the locals the capital of Catalonia, that means 
basking — or baking — in sunshine. A cruise line's worst fear is that it will rain on the parade, or the christening, so umbrellas are always on standby. On this day, they were suddenly called into action to protect the VIPs from the UVs.
For cruise owners and passengers alike, it's quite a spectacle that at times can be both celebratory and moving.
Cat Cora is the world's only female Iron Chef, among other things, and the mother of four boys.
"Finally I have a girl," she cried before pulling the trigger on the champagne, "and isn't she a beauty!"
The Riviera is that. Three times in his short speech, Captain Luca Manzi referred to her as "this beautiful lady." Her older (by one year) sister, the Marina, is a near-identical match and much-respected by cruisers in what is known as the "upper premium" class of cruising. The Marina's Godmother, by the way, is another TV personality, Mary Hart.
The most moving moment was when Oceania founder Frank Del Rio introduced something of a male equivalent to the Godmother…the Honorary Commodore. This is an Oceania tradition of sorts and the choice for Riviera is Andrea Aere, Oceania's first general manager until a stroke left him fighting for life in an Italian hospital.
"He was 42 and he was paralyzed," recalled Del Rio. "His prospects for recovery and for life were very much in doubt when I visited him. I leaned over and told him what I've always told my children, what I'll tell my grandchildren, and what I tell everybody who works with 
us: 'Never, ever, ever give up. Fight this.'"
Now in his seventh year of recovery, and not there yet, Commodore Aere struggled to accept his new jacket…while everybody else struggled to stay composed.
The ceremony's final stage was witnessed by many of the 790 crew members, leaning on railings of 29 balconies on the starboard side, including ours. As the bubbly hit the bow's right side, they were engulfed in a sea of confetti.
That's also what they do when a new ship like the Riviera is, officially, off to live in the sea.