Juniors and seniors will board the San Francisco Hornblower Cruise ship for their prom on May 18 and see sights such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridges during their 4-hour cruise around the Bay.
“We were looking at many different venues and [the cruise] just seemed like the most interesting,” senior class president Paul Hulme said. “It was the most out-of-the-box idea and all the other ones seemed more basic.”
The ship has three decks: the first deck is reserved for dinner and drinks provided by the cruise line company, the second deck will be transformed into a dance floor and photo booth and the third deck is an open outdoor area meant for pictures and sightseeing the San Francisco night skyline.
Inspired by the boat’s triple-deck structure, the senior class officers decided to make the prom theme “Princess and the Frog.”
Said Hulme: “[For the prom theme, the senior class office] was considering some other themes like “Titanic” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” but we ended up with Princess in the Frog because [the boat] looked like one of those ferries from the movie.”
While the school hosted a prom in 2002 on the Hornblower, the senior class officers ran into a roadblock at the beginning of the planning process: the venue’s high price. The officers then sought sponsorships from the community and found two who greatly reduced the cost: the company Humanize Her and local realtor Andy Tse.
“We feel like it’s a win if we can keep prices $200 or less,” assistant principal and activities director Kristen Cunningham said. “It’s rare these days with all the venue and busing costs being less than $200 a ticket. So the fact that we were able to get it to $130 is incredible.”
From the week of April 1-5, tickets were $130 with ASB and $150 without ASB. Starting after spring break, prices will increase by $20 each week, and sales will close on April 24. Due to a strict venue capacity, the number of sales is limited to 488. As a result, Cunningham encourages students to buy tickets early.
Students who have not fulfilled their assigned Saturday School requirements will be placed on a no-go list and cannot purchase a prom ticket unless they attend a make-up Saturday School on April 6.
On the day of prom, students are expected to arrive at 3:45 p.m. at the high school and will be transferred by coach buses to the dock. All students attending must travel with the school-provided transportation, except the badminton and boys’ tennis teams, as they have a CCS game scheduled the same day. Students in those respective sports teams will instead receive instructions from the administration to receive permission for their parents to drive them to the dock by 6 p.m. All students will return to the school around midnight.
The administration advises students prone to motion sickness to take medication two hours before departure, as staff are not permitted to give students medication at any time. There will also be a security check before boarding the boat.
“There is a potential that there could be a little bit of a walk from the buses and the dock,” Cunningham said. “We just recommend that students not wear super high heels or anything that will make walking uncomfortable, especially because once you’re on the boat, it will be moving.”
