Championing a just cause (or something like that)

Back in high school, a gifted fellow student, Ian Healy, wrote a hysterical little play called The Maniac Upstairs.  I was fortunate to be cast in that show and some of my best high school memories are of the antics and fun that went into making that show a reality.  So, I was not terribly surprised, when Ian came back on my radar 20 years later, to learn that he is now a novelist.  (and all of you cruise fans can hold your horses, I will be back with Oasis stateroom photos tomorrow, alright?!).

For now, back to Ian and his novels.  Ian has several novels out, in a genre that, well, I don't even think there are many novels written in.  Comic books yes, but full on novels, well not many that I have heard of anyway.  He writes Super Hero fiction (Ian, please forgive me if I have the name wrong!).

Ian has created a whole universe of Super Heroes and Villains called the Just Cause Universe.  Generally, people with super powers are not my thing.  I never read comics, have only seen some of the movies (mostly because my kids love them) and only know random things like most people are big fans of either Marvel or DC but few are really big fans of both (sort of like Star Trek and Star Wars, I guess) because my kids throw these tidbits into conversations often enough that they stick.

So last year, when I squeezed some space into my ever jam packed reading schedule to try out what was, at the time, Ian's latest novel, truth be told I really did not expect to like it much.  I was so pleasantly surprised to be drawn in and enjoy a good read in a very different genre for me.

Here is the review I wrote at the time for Deep Six (the fourth Just Cause book but they all stand alone and do not need to be read in order):

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Just-Cause-Universe-Book-ebook/product-reviews/B00GYBPZZY/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_pop_hist_4?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFourStar&showViewpoints=0

You've probably guessed by now that Ian has a new novel about to come out, which is why I am doing a little write up for him here--besides, apparently Germany is his biggest international sales base, so that is a fun little tie in for me.

So, if Super Heroes are your thing, or if you are just looking for a fun read and want to try something different, might I suggest giving Champion, or one of Ian's other  Just Cause books a try? I have found his books to be reasonably priced (I think all are under $5 and he often runs one or more for a mere .99).

Ian has even kindly offered to give away a free advance copy (oh, that would feel so VIP-ish, to have an advance copy, wouldn't it?  Or maybe that is just me lol) to one of my readers who comments and shares their post.  So make a comment by Sunday 5 Oct and on Monday the 6th a random name will be chosen to receive a free digital download of the book to be sent same day.  Free books--it is hard to beat that.

 Champion is available for preorder starting today (with a release date of November 25) and links to all the places you can buy it (and his other books) are here:

http://localheropress.ianthealy.com 

In the meantime, apparently books have trailers these days (I learn something new every day) and here is Champion's:

http://youtu.be/PaYM-OWJakE

Back to cruise ships tomorrow, I promise!
--Hadley

Oasis of the Seas transatlantic (part 5: pools and sports)

Royal Caribbean has made a name for itself largely by selling their more "active" cruise style--starting with rock walls and ice rinks on ships and just growing that as the ships have become bigger and that branding has proven to work well.

Oasis has lots of areas to be active, or watch others being active, as well as some nice spots to just relax poolside.

In order to provide light for the Central Park and Boardwalk areas, and make all those "interior" balconies possible, the top decks of the ship are split into two sides, with just a few "bridges" connecting them.  This means the main pools are smaller than you might expect, but we found that to be really nice---it broke the crowds up and also allowed different pool using styles to be going on simultaneously without interfering with others (so, the beach pool was for lounging, but the sports pool could be used for laps or volleyball).

There is the "main pool" and directly across from it, the "Beach Pool."  I really liked the Beach Pool area.  There was lots of shade, an area with just ankle deep water to cool off in and fun beach style music playing at all times (often piped in, but also a steel drum band played fairly often during the day).  It was the most fun pool area I have encountered on a ship:

There was a fun little contest to build a sailboat on board and compete in a regatta, those boats sailed in this pool:

Back in a shady corner there is the "sports pool" which is set up for laps in the morning hours and had volleyball games and the like most afternoons:

The main pool:

There is also a kids' pool and sprayscape area called "The H2O Zone:"

There were many hot tubs scattered around near all the various pools, as well as two big cantelevered ones between the main pool deck area and the adults only Solarium Pool and deck area:

The Solarium, for ages 16 and up, is huge (two stories) and has sweeping views of the ocean (finally!  somewhere on the ship looks out), two hot tubs and a bathtub warm little pool for just relaxing in, plus tons and tons of seating, much of it in shade (hurrah!), a bar and the Solarium Cafe (which serves healthy options as a buffet for breakfast and lunch and becomes an upcharge restaurant at dinner time).  

This is the best solarium area I have seen.  We saw a pod of dolphins one day as we lounged in the hot tub, which was a real treat.  Mostly, I liked all the shady spots.  I would have liked to have seen more of those circular loungers--they sure looked comfy, but we never managed to snag one for even a few minutes.

The little pool

upstairs seating and bar

one of two identical hot tubs

the much in demand circular loungers on the main deck

Those seeking more activity can generally find it in the aft section of the ship.  

The ship has twin rock walls to climb, and one or the other was open for most of the day on each of our many sea days.  Rio and I both climbed a few times.  This ship uses an automatic belay system, which felt freaky to me--it was hard to trust a machine to keep me from falling, but I did, and it did bring me down slowly and safely (with a bit of a "gulp" inducing drop right at first) once I reached the top and rang that bell and let go of the wall.

Up top, still aft, are twin Flow Rider surf machines.  One was used for boogie boarding and one for stand up surfing and they ran for many hours every sea day.  It was a lot of fun, and also fun to watch others try.  We didn't like that the lines were in full sun, but that is a small issue.  You also have to have a wrist band showing that you have signed the release form, in order to ride.  So, you either wear it all cruise, or stop at the window for a new one each time you go up to give it a try (we cut ours off and got new ones as needed).

In the rear area there is also a little snack cafe (the Wipe Out Cafe).  This is the place for made to order Omelettes at breakfast time.  This is a very good little thing to know (if you like fresh omelettes anyway)!

I failed to take any photos of the sports court (where games of basketball, soccer, etc were played) but it was nice.  There is also a little 9 hole mini golf course that Rio and I enjoyed playing in the evenings.  It is open 24 hours, with soft lighting at night.  I never went out in the daytime to get photos, but it was nice and the best part, a stroke of pure genius on the planners' part was an extra "green" with little clubs, colorful frog and duck statues and lots of holes, much more appealing to young ones than the "real" course, so it gave them a place to mess around without hindering actual play :).  

Hmm, I seemed to have missed a lot of photo ops in this category (sorry all).  There is a zipline that goes far above the Boardwalk.  It is HIGH--which was rough for me (but I did do it--no one was there to photograph, sadly).  It is short, so goes very quickly and the thrill was not worth a repeat to anyone in our group.  You have to wear tight fitting closed toed shoes (which for Rio and I both meant putting on our gym shoes) and wait in line, so the bother of making a special point of wearing certain shoes and waiting was not worth the 30 seconds of fun for us.

Also in the same area are ping pong tables.

Other active things are a shuffleboard court back behind the Aqua Theatre, the nearly half mile long walking and jogging track I wrote about in a prior post, a full gym (open to ages 16 and up) and the ice skating rink (a very small rink made available for free skating sessions once in a while.  You must wear long pants and socks--again, the fun of skating was not great enough to hassle with changing into our jeans, yes we are LAZY on vacation lol).  

I was really happy with how often everything was open and available to us on all of the sea days.  For our group, the pools, rock wall and Flow Riders were the really fun things worth multiple visits.

I think I am just about done with my write up of the cruise, so I will throw in Marika and Rio's impressions of the teen club here, as it never really fit anywhere else. 

Sometimes my kids love teen clubs and other times not so much.   A lot seems to depend on the staff running it on any given cruise.  

On Oasis, the kids were very impressed with the space on day one.  It is big and has lots of nooks and crannies and seemed inviting.  They went up for the initial meet and greet and met some kids and thought everyone seemed nice.  So, things got off to a good start.

Things went a bit downhill when the kids were told there is no "teen compass" (schedule of activities) on Oasis.  The schedule is made on the fly each day and posted on a chalkboard--so they have to go up to the club to find out what will be happening.  

Hmm, well, yeah.  Okay, that probably works great for lots of teens.  Mine happen to like schedules and prefer not to miss something on the normal schedule while they head up to check if there might be something better going on in the teen club.  So that right there was enough to cause them to not spend loads of time in the club. 

 As is, the schedules that were made ended up being about 50-60% "video games" of one sort of another (Wii tournaments, free arcade time, Minecraft, etc, etc).  I thought the kids were exaggerating and started checking the board myself (it is visible from the hallway).  They weren't.  It was very video game heavy.  Niether of my kids much care for video games, especially when they can be doing more group things on a cruise, so Marika and Rio ended up just hanging out with adults most of the trip.  Which was fine.  

Up next, photos of the staterooms from our cabin crawl :)

--Hadley

Oasis of the Seas transatlantic (Part 4: entertainment, the good, the bad, the debacle)

So, one of the things we were most looking forward to on the Oasis was the entertainment.  I love live shows.  I especially love it when I can relax and enjoy them in my native tongue and not miss little plays on words or innuendo, etc.  One of the coolest things about the Oasis class ships (for me) is that they feature a full Broadway production show.  On Oasis this is (soon to be was) Hairspray.  I really like Hairspray and was super excited to see it.  There are also lots of other shows on the ship, including a comedy club, ice show, and the dive shows I mentioned before.

All those entertainment options on such a big ship come with a price (not a monetary one, don't worry, the cruise fare includes all the shows).  Oasis holds far more passengers than can be seated in any one venue at a time.  To insure that everyone has the opportunity to try see everything a "ticket" system has been set up.  Guests can prebook shows online before cruising, or at designated times on the ship the first day. Booked guests can enter the theatre up until 15 minutes before show time and be guaranteed a seat.  At 15 minutes before curtain, non booked guests are allowed in to fill empty seats.

 It takes away some of the total relaxation that a cruise ought to be, but it does mean you don't miss out on something you really want to do.  So, I made sure I was online and made all of my reservations in advance, and then worked out my dinner time reservations around the show times (we had flexible "My Time Dining" seating--which was important as there is no way to work out the shows around one fixed time, that I could find anyway).

There were a lot of glitches before the cruise with this online booking system.  Shifting from the typical 7 night cruise to one 12 night seems to have thrown the Oasis prebook system into chaos.  Our sailing was not able to book until much later than the norm (and even after 5 night Med sailings going on after us were) and when we were finally able to one of the major shows (Come Fly With Me) was not available.

When Come Fly With Me finally came online about 3 weeks before the sail date, several of the previously booked things were moved or cancelled, which meant many of us suddenly found ourselves double booked and had to spend an hour or two online (or the phone) again trying to sort out everything to see all the shows and dine nightly.

Thankfully it was all sorted (or so I thought!) and by the time we left for vacation I had printouts showing all of our prereserved showtimes and dinner times for our group of six.

Our first night onboard we had prebooked Oasis of the Dreams, the fully produced dive show with dance and all kinds of interesting stuff going on.  We had dinner, saw the show, and all in all felt it was a great evening.  David and I spent a bit of time just enjoying the ship and finally headed back to the room around 11:00.

After crawling into my PJs I did something I rarely do onboard a ship, I flipped on the TV.  There is a whole system to see your onboard account and your reservations and get messages on the TV.  It looked interesting and I thought I would click around on it and try it out.  It showed a message, which I figured would be welcome message of some sort.  Clicking on it, I read that the Day 5 showing of Hairspray had been cancelled and we had been rebooked onto the Night 1 show at 8:30-----so, in other words, we had just missed it!!!!  I am not really sure how RCI expected me to be at both Hairspray and Oasis of Dreams simultaneously anyway.

So, we got dressed again and went down to guest services to sort things out.  Showings of Hairspray had been paired down to just the one on night one (that no one had prebooked, as prebooking had it on night 5), a matinee on day 2 and a very late night (starting at 10:30) showing on day 2.  Yep, a 12 night cruise and all 3 showings are jammed in to 2 days!  (I realize some of the performers are in multiple shows and other shows happen in that same space, but even at that there would have been a possibility to spread it out among at least 3 days, and really should have been a better booking system).

I had offered to lead and organize a cabin crawl on day 2 at 2:00 so we were not able to book the matinee and had to settle for the very late showing the next day.  We were lucky though.  By mid day the next day, more people were finding the messages and no tickets for either show remained (others did not realize there was an issue until they arrived at the theatre on days 4 or 5 at their prereserved times).

The whole thing was a complete debacle and that one piece of stress was truly a failure on RCI's part.  To the credit of the onboard staff, eventually a fourth showing was added one afternoon midtrip (and while it played to a nearly full house, there were enough empty seats that we felt justified in seeing it a second time ourselves).

Of course, this was not a huge deal and we still saw the show(s) and had a great cruise.  I tell the story anyway both because it IS a story after all, and because it highlights the recurring issue that RCI seemed to be having in scheduling activities and entertainment for Oasis while on a longer, sea day intensive cruise.  There were a number of odd scheduling choices, with activities stacked at times and then big lulls at other times.  Strange choices were made as well; an example would be that on the typical 7 night itinerary the improv comedy show runs twice.  On our 12 night one it only ran one time (to a full house, clearly the interest was there).  I got the feeling that the cruise director is probably excellent in knowing the types of passengers who book 7 night Caribbean sailings on the biggest ships on the water, but he fell flat in how to mange a longer sailing with perhaps a bit different cruiser type.  This is something RCI really needs to improve for the return sailings and Allure crossings next year.

Scheduling issues aside, we were impressed with the level and variety of entertainment offered (I think we saw it all).

Hairspray was very well done with a really good cast. It's a shame that the show is being taken off the ship next week, to be replaced with Cats.  I imagine Cats will be much easier to cast and work better for non English speakers in the audience, but I personally feel it is a less interesting show and also far too long to work well with meal times on a ship.  We were told by a couple of people that RCI just renewed their royalty contract with Hairspray for 5 more years, so I am crossing my fingers that it will be moved to another ship.

The Improv Comedy Show was held in Studio B (the ice rink, but with a floor over the ice) and featured three of the comic actors from Hairpsray as well as the stand up club host, Simian (I am totally guessing on that spelling!).  It was a lot of fun and we would have happily gone back a second time had it run.  I doubt it will keep happening when Hairspray is gone, as Cats does not have comic actors, but who knows?

Come Fly With Me, is the other big production show that runs in the main theatre.  It was written for the ship and is not going anywhere.  It has lots of interesting aerial effects, lots of good, uptempo music, dancing, etc.  We all really liked it and were happy to be able to snag seats (shortly after curtain, being sure to let those who might not have seen it get seats first) to see it a second time.

Frozen In Time is my favourite of the various ice shows I have seen on Royal ships.  It has a Hans Christian Anderson theme that works really well.

I've already written about the dive shows, Oasis of Dreams and Splish Splash, both of which were really fun and different to watch.

There is also a stand up comedy club which featured to comedians as well as the host.  We enjoy stand up and went several times.  It should be noted that this shows is more adult oriented and no one under 16 was admitted.

We had more than the normal amount of "headliners" (guest performers who perform on the main stage--many of whom frequent the same ships and are known to a lot of repeat cruisers):
 Earl Turner  was a signer who did mostly older, Motown, tunes, but he did do a mix, all more upbeat and interspersed with some gentle comedy, etc.  He had lots of energy and performed with the RCI band on stage and was quite enjoyable to watch.  This is one of those shows that we sat on an aisle for, thinking we were likely to want to leave early, and ended up staying for the whole thing.
The Jerome Bell Idol Experience showcases the singing of the actor who played Seaweed in Hairspray, Jerome Bell.  He was a semi finalist on American Idol and does several songs, with back up dancing from other cast members, etc.  This is another show we really enjoyed.
There was also a ventriloquist and a band that sampled songs from several decades and artists (yet billed themselves as "the ultimate tribute band"  --o.kay.).  We did end up leaving early from these shows; they were just not our thing at all.

Additionally, there were smaller shows featuring the singers from the main shows in various clubs, generally held late night, the usual slate of trivia, silly games, etc run by the cruise staff and 4 presenters brought on just for the longer sailing (this is typical in the industry.  There were:
1. A speaker on forensics who gave several talks.  This is just not a topic which interests us, so we never went, but it seems many people enjoyed them.
2. A set and costume designer who also gave several talks.  This IS a subject we tend to really enjoy.  Sadly, we walked out 20 minutes into the first talk and never tried again.  There were lots of photos of things he had done with him patting himself on the back for doing something that was hard, but not going into any explanations of what challenges he faced and how he went about working out the set anyway, etc.
3. A couple who taught Chi Kung, they were really good presenters and I was surprised to truly enjoy this.  I ended up going more mornings than not.
4. A woman who "taught" water coloring.  It was fun to use the materials and dink around.  The presenter gave almost no instruction, did not stand where many people could see her, and often got irritated when passengers did not already know water color basics--so that was an activity I enjoyed (and it was popular, the space was full every time) but run by someone who could use some improvements.  I got the feeling she had never tried to teach her hobby before.

I apologize for the complete lack of photos in this entry.  Next up I'll have plenty of pictures the pool and sports areas.

--Hadley

Oasis of the Seas Transatlantic (Part 3: The Promenade)

The third neighborhood on the Oasis is a feature that is on several of the larger RCI ships: The Promenade.  I am always a little torn about the promenades on the various ships.  On the one hand, I love a well lit, climate controlled space that I can count on to always have food and drink available, etc (it is so nice to be able to grab a snack when I am dressed without having to go to the pool and risk getting splashed or dripped on, as is the case on a few other lines).  On the other hand, these spaces are totally indoors and designed to feel like a city street, NOT a ship.  There are no views of the water or any hints at all that you are at sea.  It fits very well on the Oasis though, as the Oasis is NOT a ship that you go on to feel like you are at sea (I found I enjoyed her much more when I adjusted my thinking to acting like I was on an all inclusive resort on land and just being happily surprised when I saw the ocean once in a while).

The Promenade on Oasis looks pretty much like it does on other ships, only large and with the excellent addition of natural light from those skylights in Central Park:

It is a big, open space (2 stories) that does not feel cramped.  Unlike the Boardwalk or Central Park, the Promenade had a steady stream of people at nearly all hours (we lost an hour at noon for 6 days in a row on the transatlantic sailing and many Americans seemed to not even be trying to adjust, which makes sense to me if you are just going to fly home at the end, so by mid cruise the places was still hopping at 2:00 a.m. every night).  Nonetheless, on this not fully sold sailing it only really felt too crowded when there was a party (70s party), parade or big sale going on.  I don't really understand the allure of the sales, but 100s of people would stand behind rope barriers around central kiosks waiting for those ropes to drop so they could paw through t-shirts that were "only $10" for "one day only!"  (note: an hour later the Promenade was nice and quiet and there were still tons of t-shirts to be had at that price if you wanted one).

The Promenade features:

 -Shops.  There were many.  I am not a big shopper and find the merchandise on RCI cruises to be rerepetitiverom ship to ship and rather boring, so I did not even enter most and have no comments on them

 -Guest Services.  The biggest I have seen on a ship.  There were often multiple lines (like McDonalds) and confusion about where to wait, which I did not care for.  I wish they made one queue like on other ships.  It was also pretty busy nearly all the time, but the times I had a need to speak to them, lines moved quickly.

-The Champagne Bar. In much the same was that Vintages was the "staff bar" on our cruise, The Champagne Bar was the "gay bar" on our particular cruise--so perhaps if you are ever looking for "friends of Dorothy" when a meeting is not scheduled, this could be an excellent starting place (I am pretty sure the actual meetings were scheduled here too, which might be why it evolved as it did).  We're not Champagne drinkers, so we were not in often, but it was pleasant and the staff were very nice when we were there.  

-The Rising Tide Bar.  This is the big elevator platform with a bar on it that rises and sinks slowly between the Promenade and Central Park.  It stops for 10 minutes or so, with posted times for the next lift off, to let people on and off and then starts again in the opposite direction.  It was sort of interesting to sit there and have a drink in transit once or twice, but really pretty much a gimmick with not much atmosphere to speak of.  We were also surprised that it quit running around midnight every night--even with many people out and about and ordering drinks.

--The Promenade Cafe.  This is the source of 24 hour snacks and drinks.  Water, iced tea, coffee, instant hot chocolate and hot tea are available here (at no extra cost) day and night as are light snacks (morning fruit and pastries and small sandwiches and lots of bite sized sweets the rest of the time).  I really liked that the sweets were truly bite sized (except the cookies, which were standard sizes).  I liked being able to try something without feeling wasteful (and they were always happy to give you several of something if you asked).  I wasn't very fond of any of them other than the oatmeal cookies.  Most of our group really liked the cheesecake "lollipops" though.  I should mention that you can also buy better quality coffees and teas here (these are included on some of the drink packages as well).

--The Cupcake Cupboard.  Where you can pay extra for a variety of cupcakes offered for sale (and also sign up for a decorating class, for a fee).  I have a weakness for cupcakes and bought two during the trip.  They were good.

--The Globe and Atlas Pub.  Modeled on a classic British pub, this is the place to find a huge variety of beer on board.  We were always able to get a seat during the daytime, but it was never empty.  At night there was always some sort of live music (most often a guitarist) and we were never able to get a seat but it could usually hear it pretty well from the tables at Sorrentos, right across the way.  

--Sorrentos.  Sorrentos served pizza by the slice from midday until late at night (I am not sure how late, it was always still serving when we were up).  They also have a "make your own" option with a variety of toppings to choose from.  It takes about 15 minutes for a "make your own" to be brought out to you, and we found that the crusts for these were not very good.  We did like the pizza slices ok.  There were nothing fantastic but were fairly tasty as a late night treat.  Parmesan , peppers and oregano shakers were on the tables, which we liked.  There is a bar here, which almost never had a wait, and two freestyle soda machines to fill up your cup if you bought a soda package, as well as dispensers kept full of ice water and iced tea.  We found ourselves at Sorrentos, enjoying a bite to eat and people watching for some point of nearly every evening.

--The Shore Excursions desk.  I never stopped by it, and likely would not have done so even on a trip with more than one port, so I can't say much about it.

--Starbucks coffee where you can pay for that taste that it seems many people love.  You can also pay for pastries here.  I do know that this coffee is not included on any drinks package.  No one in my group drinks Starbucks on land so no one felt a need to pay for it at sea.

--Boleros bar.  There was a good Latin band here most nights, but it was so LOUD that we tended to just scoot in for a quick drink and leave again.  If they had cut the volume in half I would have happily danced the night way many times.  

Perhaps this is a good point to mention that often the volume levels on the ship were painfully loud, much more so than we have encountered before and many people were complaining about it.  If we ever sail Oasis again we will bring quality ear plugs for all of us.  It was outrageous in this club, at the cabaret singing shows, at parties, etc.  The one time Dave happened to have his phone in his pocket, he used the decibel reader ap and got a reading of 97, and this was a simple cabaret act, not in the loudest part of the room or near the speakers, and that was not even the loudest event on the ship by a long shot.  (that was in the Dazzles nightclub).  I found this surprising, especially given the number of people complaining about it.

--On Air Club.  This is a small venue built primarily as a karaoke club and used for that as well as some trivia games and other games, presentations, etc.  Anything that needs to use a video screen is done here.  It's an odd space.  The chairs are not that comfortable and large support poles block the view of the little stage from several areas.  A short wall running through the middle of the room and used for bar seating makes it an odd choice for participatory games as it keeps half the room from being babe to participate and the space is not being enough to have enough willing guests in only the front section.  On the bright side, having a dedicated karaoke space and equipment meant that the sound and visuals for that actually WORKED, which was pretty awesome.  

On deck 6, a few spaces are off to the side and look down on the promenade, so I will include them here in my discussion of the area.  

--The Diamond Lounge.  This is a space for frequent cruisers who have gained Diamond (or higher) status to relax and enjoy better quality coffee, cold breakfast items, evening snacks, etc and also have access to a staff member who can help with dining reservations and the like.  We had heard a lot of hype about how wonderful this space was on Oasis, having been built for the purpose (many such lounges are later additions on older ships).  We were not impressed.  This may be partly due to the very high number of Diamond and higher cruisers onboard (the highest ever), meaning it was always full, there was generally a line 10 minutes long for coffee (I am not exaggerating) and longer to talk to the staff members, etc.  RCI had not really done much to prepare for the (known to them long beforehand) onslaught of Diamonds on this sailing and really needed more staff working in there.  However I think my lack of enthusiasm was more that the furnishings were bland and it just did not feel in the least bit inviting.  

--Focus photos.  Most cruise ships have umpteen photo opportunities and on most cruise ships they print out all of those photos for people to browse and consider buying.  We nearly always refuse to have our photos taken because the wastefullenss of printing all of those unwanted photos really bothers us.  Oasis has a system similar to Disney's Memory Maker (which I posted about here: http://hadleyswanderingsandramblings.blogspot.de/2014/09/disneys-memory-maker.html ) in which photos are all only digital unless you specifically want to purchase one, and then it is printed.  Everything is on a facial recognition system, all you do is scan your card and all photos that the ship's system recognizes as you pop on a screen.  Pretty cool.  Here is the Focus area on deck 6:

--Schooner's Bar.  On every RCI ship we have been on there is a Schooners and on each one this is the place where most of the trivia games are held.  We love trivia, so we end up spending a lot of time here.  Schooners on Oasis is not nearly as big as on some ships (it was huge on Serenade) but it was big enough to be crowded but not intolerable for trivia (even if some of us did sit on the floor from time to time).  The bar staff in the area was also very nice and did a great job winding around through trivia teams who kept reorganizing chairs.  The sound system was very good, for a change, so it was pretty easy to hear questions no matter where in the room we were.  

We were impressed with the cruise staff who made a real effort to not repeat questions and quizzes and to create some new and different trivias just for the long sailing (note: progressive trivia was 10 days' worth and held in a larger venue, Dazzles.  Rio loved it, the rest of us opted out of having to be there for a team every.single.day).

Schooners is also the traditional piano bar on the ship.  We never went up in the evenings to listen so I have no idea of the quality of the player, nor of crowd levels to report.

(The awesome thing about trivia is that you meet great people.  Here we are with the group we drifted in and out of all week.  Groups are limited to 6, so depending on who all was there we might split into two or have some of us join other teams, etc--but this was our core gang and they were awesome.  Hi Andrew, Angie, Debbie, Pia and Chris!)

That's it for the spaces in the Promenade.  I think I will wrap up this post by saying that one other "venue" on deck 5 is the nearly half mile long jogging and walking track that circles around the outside edge.  It was a nice track and I walked several laps over the week.  It was well used and lots of people took part in the Make a Wish fundraiser, donating and then recording their laps to see if passengers could "walk the distance" to Malaga faster than the ship could sail it (we did, much faster, and we were told it was a record setting Make a Wish fundraiser for the ship).  

On the far aft end of the ship, where the outside area widens a bit there are some chairs set out between the deck and the rail--this is an excellent place to enjoy the view of the ocean once in a while.

--Hadley

Oasis of the Seas Transatlantic (part 2: Central Park, with dining reviews)

In addition to the Boardwalk area on Oasis, there are two other "neighborhoods" on the ship: Central Park and The Promenade.  The Boardwalk is on the far aft end of the ship, and on deck 6.  These others two areas are in the center of the ship, sitting one directly atop the other. 

 Up on deck 8, in the open air, is the very un-shiplike Central Park.  I really liked this area with it's many plants and some trees and a very calm and relaxing feel.  It was a great place to just take a stroll at any time of the day or night.

Other than during tours of the park itself with the groundskeeper (which were very well attended and looked too crowded to be worthwhile in my opinion), the park area was never overly crowded.  There are a variety of things to do in this area, other than just stroll and enjoy the atmosphere. 

 The counter service restaurant (Park Cafe) serves both breakfast and lunch.  We have eaten at the copies on other ships (not the same feel when not in  park!) but did not end up eating in the real thing.  The serving space is small and cramped and always had a pretty long line at meal times (I did bop in to grab some chips mid afternoon a couple of times, by then the lines are short).  It was also hotter than Dave and I like for eating in, and nearly all of the seating is outside in the park (which would be lovely on a cooler day in the Med, and seemed to be just fine by most people; we are wimps about the heat).  The few seats in the a/c were all full any time we went in.  The food looked good though and is the same as on other RCI ships with a salad bar (they mix it up for you) and a variety of hot and cold sandwiches.

If you are wanting to pay an upcharge for some fine dining, you have four options in Central Park.  The first, Vintages, is actually a wine bar, not a restaurant.  It has very pleasant seating both indoors and out (lovely at night with the soft lighting in the park) and serves an array of tapas at decent prices.  David and Marika split the combinations a couple of times and enjoyed them (these cost anywhere from 8 to 11 dollars depending on which set you choose and include several small servings).  They also have a very large wine list, and many good choices (as well as several that are included on the drink package, if you have one).  We found ourselves drifting into Vintages often in late afternoon or late night.  We jokingly referred to it as "The Staff Bar" as, at night time, there were always more officers and entertainers in there than passengers; we figured you KNOW you have found the quiet and relaxing spot onboard when that is where the officers are hiding out (we never could get a cozy table off to the side--staff had them every time we were in and would hand them off to other staff before leaving).  

If you are looking for a real meal in Central Park, you have three upcharge places to choose from: Giovanni's Table (an Italian place, we did not dine at), Chops Grille and 150 Central Park.

We've eaten at Chop's Grille on some other RCI ships and it is always a favourite of Rio's.  Rio and I had one dinner there (at a price of $35 per person--it's gone up) and it was very nice.  Rio thought the steak was excellent, and my chicken was quite good.  The menu has changed some and several of the side vegetable side dishes that I really enjoy are gone now, replaced with pretty much nothing but starches (about six varieties of potato and also a creamed corn, the only green veggie was a creamed spinach that tasted canned).  The potatoes and corn were good, but I missed green beans and broccoli and, well, just about anything that felt like it had some nutritional value.  Contrary to things I had read online, Red Velvet cake was still on the menu.  It is a different recipe, a smaller portion, and not nearly as moist and good as it once was, but it was still tasty.  Rio had fresh baked cookies for dessert which tasted heated in a microwave and were very dry.  He didn't much care because he was so full of Filet Mignon anyway.  Overall, the food ranged from good to great (other than the cookies), and the service was absolutely top notch--striking that perfect balance of being attentive and friendly without being smothering or unprofessional.  We enjoyed our meal very much.

150 Central Park is the most expensive specialty restaurant in the RCI fleet (other than the Chef Table meals that are not technically separate locations).  We decided to treat my in laws to a meal there for their 50th anniversary (and, we selfishly wanted to give it a try ourselves). I knew going in that the menu was very limited, and that was going to mean I left hungry (I am pretty picky), but I chose that and can't comaplain.  The starters (everyone gets them, no choices) were various tapas (4 bite sized items), asparagus with grapefruit, then mushroom tortellini (this was the starter that got very high marks from our group).  This was followed by two half portion entrees.  For the first you could choose a fish in clam sauce or chicken and for the second boneless ribs (that everyone loved) and I think the second option was a pork, but no one ordered it so I am not sure.  For dessert there was a choice of Lemon Tart and a Chocolate something that was really good.  

Overall, three food items were standouts as excellent (the tortellini, ribs and chocolate dessert) and the look of the restaurant was nice.  We had the bad luck of getting a particularly bad waiter though.  He came up immediately as we were seated (we were still figuring out where to sit our purses) and wanted to know what we thought of the menu and had we made any decisions yet; we hadn't even opened the menus yet!  .  Even though the restaurant was only half full the entire time, and we had a very early reservation (so it was not near closing time) he continued to rush us.  We ordered drinks and then I ended up having to leave suddenly  to sort out a minor issue that came up for what turned out to be 7 minutes (I happened to glance at my watch on the way outm then checked on the return since he was being pushy); David tells me he came by several times while I was gone, pushing for our order and Dave was actually trying to guess what I wanted when I got back because he was not taking "wait" for an answer.  There were multiple (three, I think) times in the course of the meal in which plates were removed with half the food remaining and fork still in hand (once we did call him back and insist on getting to finish that course).  It was a frustrating and odd experience to be pushed through a 6 course meal in about an hour and a half and very much the polar opposite of how we were treated over at Chops.  So much for the flagship restaurant!  

Other things you will find in Central Park are an small outside bar, The Trellis Bar,The Rising Tide Bar which moves up and down between Central Park and the Promenade (yes, a giant elevator which is a bar), a photo studio and a couple of high end shops (Coach, etc).  Mostly, it is just a pleasant place to wander.  Here are a few photos for you:

(the large glass "bumps" are skylights that let in lots of natural light to the Promenade Deck below)

(outdoor seating at Park Cafe)

(My favourite little relaxing spot on the ship--it was always quiet)

(wall of plants across from the Trellis Bar)

(The Trellis Bar)

(View from our balcony)

Looking up at our balconies (we had those two in the lower half of the photo)

Central Park view balconies are generally the least expensive of the three views (the others being Boardwalk and seaview).  I guessed, correctly, that for our group we would really enjoy looking out over this calmer area and we truly did.  It was particularly nice in the evenings with the low level lights on.  We also found, down on deck 10, that the live music up by the pool was a very pleasant volume when we sat on our balcony in the day time--it drifted down just loud enough to hear clearly but soft enough to easily carry on a conversation.  They also brought a piano out into the park one night for a concert (I have no idea if this is typical, or was special for the crossing) and we had the BEST place to enjoy that.  If we were to sail an Oasis class ship again I would book Central Park views a second time around.

--Hadley

Our transatlantic voyage on Oasis of the Seas (part 1; history of the trip and the Boardwalk)

Oasis of the Seas, and her sister ship, Allure of the Seas, are the biggest passenger cruise ships afloat.  She can carry over 6000 passengers and carries a crew of more than 2000--meaning that on any given week there are nearly twice as many people onboard as the entire population of the town we lived in in New Hampshire before moving here.  Her amenities include a nearly half mile long running track, two climbing walls, two Flow Rider surf machines, a zipline, a carousel, a full Broadway production  and a park with numerous living plants and trees.  She is truly a floating city in every sense of the word.

Rio has had his eye on the Oasis and Allure ships for the past several years.  He very much wanted to sail on these engineering marvels and try out all they have to offer.  The rest of us suspected that the ship would be a bit too much like a resort and too little like, well, a SHIP for our tastes--and we were not willing to pay the premium prices for a week long sailing, nor pay airfare to fly out to Florida and sail around to the same old Caribbean ports that we have seen plenty and do not appeal overly to us (we are not sun lovers and rarely want a full day at a beach), so it seemed like a pipe dream for poor Rio.

As luck would have it, the Oasis is approaching her fifth birthday and must undergo a mandatory dry dock inspection.  Nowhere in the Americas can handle a ship of her size, so she has been moved over to Europe for this requirement--and Rio was quick to realize that the transatlantic sailing to bring her over here was being offered at a bargain price (TAs usually are) and (MAJOR luck here) fell entirely into the last two weeks of his school summer holidays.  With the 12 night sailing coming it in at about half the price of a typical week long in the Caribbean, and Dave's frequent flyer account holding just enough points for one way tickets for the family, Rio's dream suddenly became a reality--and, hey, if you are going to enjoy the ship, what better itinerary than 12  nights that includes 10 full sea days and only one port?

So that, my friends, is how we found ourselves sailing off on a huge, warehouse like ship, on Labor Day of this year.

I am not going to try to talk about the cruise day by day--it would take a novel!  Instead, I'll just give some overall impressions of various things about the ship and cruise, along with some photos of the spaces.

One of the unique features of the ship are the various "neighborhoods" that it is broken into.  These do a fabulous job of dispersing the people so that it rarely felt crowded onboard (though, our cruise was a rare Oasis sailing that was NOT sold out, which may affect that some).

In the back (aft) of the ship, is the Boardwalk.  Here you will find the Aqua Theatre where two shows are performed (incorporating high dive acts, quite stunning at sea, and both good shows).  This is also where outdoor movies are shown.  I MUCH prefer this to the movies over the pools on other ships.  It is easier to hear, the seats are comfortable, and the pool area does not have the intrusion of movie dialogue.  Here are some shots of the Aqua Theater taken during the comedy dive show called Splish Splash:

It was a cute show and high dive acts are not something you see often, so it was extra fun to see this show and the more elaborate nighttime show "Oasis of Dreams"  I had to wonder who came up with the idea of a 17 meter high dive act, with a deep enough landing pool, that would have movable platforms that come to the surface with dancers on them (who breath through scuba masks while awaiting cues) and how on earth they ever successfully pitched the idea--but it was fun to watch!

(the highest dive boards are all the way up on those side poles, barely in the photo--and they dive from those on a a moving ship!  Yeah, not for the faint of heart)

Just above the theatre, still near the back of the Boardwalk area, are a couple of small play areas for children (note, behind these are the entrances to the stairwells which go up to the climbing walls--those can be tricky to find):

Here's a view of the Boardwalk when standing between those play areas.  You might notice the many balconies on either side; a unique feature of the Oasis Class ships are the "interior balcony staterooms"  Not only are there balconies overlooking the sea, there are fewer interior staterooms than you would expect and "inside" rooms on levels 10 to 14 can have balconies overlooking this Boardwalk area, or the Central Park neighborhood (which I will get to later).  That's a pretty cool feature!

There are two "upcharge" restaurants out here.  On one side is the Seafood Shack (rumor has it this will become something else during dry dock next week.  We never saw anyone in there and looking at the menu that is not surprising.  It was cute, but the per item prices were about on par with on land, which seemed like a lot when you have already paid cruise fare).  

On the other sides is Johnny Rockets.  They do a cooked to order breakfast here on the big ships, with no upcharge, that was delicious.  I really liked the potatoes with cheese and onions and peppers.  Mmmmmmm.  Lunch and dinner costs an extra $6 (milk shakes not included) and that is for all you care to eat from their menu of burgers, hot dogs, chicken melts, fries and onion rings.  For dessert ice cream sundaes and apple pie are included.  

We never saw more than a handful of tables occupied at lunch or dinner (it was generally busy but with no wait for breakfast).  We did have lunch there once and the food was good, but you pay the extra for the atmosphere really and perhaps this is why it was mostly empty for the cruise; our waiter could not have been more bored and slightly irritated to have to do his job if he had tried.  The music cut off half way through the meal for no known reason.  We were there well over an hour and the trademark dancing never happened.  The atmosphere was downright dismal -- very much not what Johnny Rockets is supposed to be all about.  The food was good and had the atmosphere been fun we would have gone back several times during the trip--as was, we left disappointed and confined our visits to breakfast time only thereafter.  Oh well, RCI's loss in revenue there.

There is a candy store, ice cream store, photo studio for doing silly photos in costumes and a couple of shops (all carriyng extra charges):

The donuts in the donut shop (below) are included as part of your cruise fare and were surprisingly good (much better than donuts in the buffet on other RCI ships).  I liked the Strawberry ones and grabbed one for a quick breakfast when I slept in on several occasions.

Finally, there is a handcarved wooden carousel (no brass rings though).  It is really a kick to ride a carosel out at sea.  Marika and I took several spins and rode about half of the animals throughout the trip.  Rio and Dave joined us a few times as well.

(thanks Pia for this awesome photo)

I really enjoyed this area.  It was bright and cheery and surprisingly quiet, with lots of fresh air and some of the few glimpses of the ocean from public spaces on the ship (back behind the theatre).  It is a nice place to walk around or catch a movie or take a spin on the carousel.  

--Hadley