Thanks for visiting Cruise Talk Central! If you enjoy your visit here or find some useful information, you may wish to subscribe to our RSS feed or email notifications in order to stay informed of updates to our site. You can also read our About Page to learn more about Cruise Talk Central.
Oasis of the Seas Takes Shipboard Entertainment to a New Dimension
The new ship being built for Royal Caribbean, Oasis of the Seas will feature a pool deck entertainment venue like nothing ever seen before on a cruise ship. Royal Caribbean ship designers have created the Aqua Theater for their new series of super-mega ships previously code named “Project Genesis.”
During the day the pool and surrounding tiered deck will serve in a conventional fashion allowing guest to swim and sun the day away. However, the venue transforms into theater for shows featuring acrobatic diving, trampolining, synchronized swimming, cascading fountains, and laser light displays. The pool will have an adjustable floor to allow for the needed greater depth for diving. The surrounding deck chairs become theater seats for the ship’s passengers. Royal Caribbean pioneered the “alternative” style entertainment venue with the first ever shipboard ice rink and ice show. This concept seems to take that idea even further.
The Shows
The shows sounds amazing, if it can live up to its hype. Circus style acrobatics delight and amuse people of all ages and backgrounds. On many ships, I’ve often had other passengers enthusiastically taking about how much they enjoyed the featured aerialists in the theater. The planned trampolining and acrobatics should bring about the same reaction from the crowds. The synchronized swimming, an increasingly popular spectator sport, should be a hit with the shipboard audiences. Cirque de Solie features synchronized swimming in its “O” production. Several, other Vegas venues have also featured synchronized swimming in their shows or special events. Finally, this planned production takes another cue from Vegas and Disney with the planned light and water shows. Tourists from around the World gather in front of the Bellagio Hotel to see the cascading fountains shows. Disney features shows using lights and water in many of their parks. Passengers looking for something totally different and innovative on a cruise ship will certainly find it in this venue.
Will I be there?
As a cruise traditionalist, I have been hesitant to cruise one of these mega liners. They do feature many more options and attractions, but I still prefer the intimacy and charm of the smaller vessels. I’m also concerned about crowds aboard a ship that will hold over 5000 passengers. I’m just a little worried that it might seem more like a trip to an amusement park during prime season, than a relaxing get away.
We went to Disney World during the summer three yeas ago. Long lines and crowds required careful by the minute planning in order to ensure we could do as many activities as possible at the different parks. One of the joys of traditional cruising is not having to worry or plan anything. Passengers can show up for their dinner seating, and their table and wait staff are waiting for them. The shows and evening activities are planned around meal times, so passengers can do as little or as much as they like without having to plan and schedule every activity.
By contrast, to use the Disney World vacation as an example, we actually made dinner reservations 6 weeks in advanced so that we could take advantage of a special package providing dinner and reserved seating for the popular light, water, music and character show “Fantasmics” at the Disney MGM Studios park. Without those special reserved seats we would have had to arrive 2 hours early to the show’s grandstand in order to guarantee seating for the show.
I can’t imagine that the crowds, even on a cruise ship this big, would affect planning and scheduling as much as they did for our Disney World trip. Lets face it, Disney parks could have over 100,000 people visit in a day, compared to Oasis of the Seas’ about 5000 passengers. It won’t be as crowded, but I have to think that crowding will factor into certain venues, especially ones like this that will be sure to be popular with passengers. I can’t wait to hear back from passengers who love the Mega Ship experience. I’m sure that they will enjoy this innovative entertainment experience.
In the meantime you’ll still probably find me on smaller ships enjoying a more subdued vacation.
Loading ...
Hi Cruise Arizona & Papa,
I love your articles. You do an excellent job at writing and explaining things thoroughly. We’re looking forward to the Oasis of the Seas, it’s really going to be an interesting experience.
We have cruised Royal Caribbean’s largest ships for many years and I’ve learned that a smaller ship is even more crowded simply because the ship is smaller and the result is you’re always dealing with the whole crowd because there’s no where else for them to go.
On Royal Caribbean’s Voyager class and Freedom class there are so many places for people to go that they’re seldom all in one place. The result is that it feels less crowded!
The larger ships even have more little quiet nooks and corners for when you want peace. When you’re out of your quiet mood and want something to do - there’s always a place on a large ship to find some fun.
You’re gonna love it!
Leland
Thanks you so much for your comments. I almost booked a cruise on Voyager this year. I was going to break free from my small ship mentality and give Voyager of the Seas a try. I blogged about it a few months ago. My main objection was the closed in shopping mall feel that I thought I might get on the Voyager. Some of my extended family have cruise Voyager and Mariner many many times and they love it. But they did confirm that the ship had a more interior feel.
In contrast, one thing I noticed about the Oasis was that it is definitely more open to the sea. The board walk balcony cabins will actually have sea views!!! and they are on the interior of the ship. Amazing design!!!
Still, I guess I’m just old and set in my ways. If I could find a ship with a traditional dress code, cruising the Pacific Coast or Caribbean with around 1000 passengers or less at the same price as what the current mainstream lines are charging, I’d jump at the chance to do the more intimate cruise. My budget has me on the medium to large ships of around 2000-2500 passengers.
I wonder how the whole “Chair Hog” problem will play into this venue? Hopefully RC will have some SOP in place to prevent people from reserving an unoccupied lounge chairs all day long.
Hi Leland! Thanks for stopping by!
As you have probably noticed, we tend to be more Celebrity folks than Royal Caribbean folks. For our upcoming trans-Atlantic cruise this fall we had a hard time deciding between a very similar itineraries on the Voyager of the Seas and the Summit. We eventually chose Celebrity and the Summit. One of the major reasons was the size of the ship and accessibility of the ocean.
As Cruise Arizona mentions, my Mother and Sister really like the Mega Ships but enjoyed a recent cruise to Alaska with us on Celebrity. They mention, like you do, no issues with finding their own space.
However, the one thing they don’t find on the larger ships, that we find to be very pleasant on the smaller ships, is the ability to meet folks and see them every day. We still have folks that we keep up with many years after the cruise just because we met them on the cruise and were able to establish a friendship.
But, that’s one of the great aspects of cruising these days. There are enough choices and variations out there today to please just about anyone. To me, everyone needs to just get out there and cruise! They will enjoy it.
btw, nice site you have there yourselves… we should throw a link back at each other (already added one to your site)…
Royal Caribbean has now gone on the record of saying cabins on the Oasis of the Seas will have a premium on them and cost more than cabins on their existing ships.
Read the USA Today article.