Live from Wonder of the Seas! March 4 to 11, 2022 Inaugural Cruise!

[island lady]

1 minute ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

 

 

That astronaut seems to be recurring art.  Saw one on the new bleacher area across from the big screen on the pool deck, too, in one of these reviews or on YouTube.  Wonder how many of them in total are featured on the ship?

 

Getting into the mood for new home port.....Port Canaveral.  😉   Viewing of rocket launches from the deck of the ship...no charge.  😄 

[NouCruzer]

4 hours ago, twangster said:

 

 

 

 

Nice pear...

[bobmacliberty]

Laszlo is the man.  We were fortunate enough to go on a CP tour with him as the guide.  He REALLY knows his stuff.  Thanks for posting all of the CP pictures.  Very interesting.

[bobmacliberty]

1 minute ago, NouCruzer said:

 

 

Nice pear...

 

I see what you did there. 😁

[bobmacliberty]

3 hours ago, davekathy said:

When @twangsterfirst posted the picture of the down pour all I could think about was that poor Mustang. The hell with everything else. 😁 1969 I bought a used 1965 Mustang. It was maroon, black rag top, 289 V8, 4 speed, pony package. I totally destroyed that car in less than 6 months. Abandoned it on the side of the road. Man would I love to have that car now! Hindsight is 20/20. 

 

Youth is wasted on the young.

[davekathy]

52 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Youth is wasted on the young.

Guilty as charged! But if that car could have talked. 😈

Edited March 7, 2022 by davekathy

[RFerrington]

Interesting side note on Laszlo.  In addition to being in charge of maintaining the plants in Central Park,  the head horticulturist on the O class ships are also in charge of pest control.  That is how we originally got introduced to Laszlo.  On Harmony, when Harmony was the brand new O class ship, we sailed on her in Star Class.  We were in 8330 which has an enormous balcony.  Our cruise just happened to be nestled in between a number of successive hurricanes, and our balcony was infested with millions (and I am not exaggerating here) of mosquitos.  Our Genie said he would take care of it and in a while, here comes Laszlo with a spray can of bug spray.  We laughed and said, "I think you're going to need a bigger can".  Once he got out onto the balcony and realized the extent of the infestation, he soon came back with a back-mounted pump nozzle which took care of the biggest part of the problem (although we had mosquitos with us for the entirety of that cruise !!).  We thanked him and had no idea who he was at the time.  Later in the day, Reyno (our Genie) came to offer us a private tour with Laszlo and that's when we found out who he really was....  So it's interesting to find out that even the officers often have collateral duties which may or may not be entirely glamorous.

[twangster]

Waiting while a video uploads from the morning entertainment event.  Using cellular here in PR so it goes quicker.

 

Fun fact - US Department of Agriculture comes aboard on turn around days to inspect Central Park for signs of infestation and bugs. 

Edited March 7, 2022 by twangster

[Surfguyxxx]

Thanks for all of the Central Park photos Twangster.  It's my favorite aspect of the Oasis Class ships.  I had done the inaugural of the Oasis in 2009 I think and went back on her 6 years later and was astounded by the growth that happened.  Just keeps getting better and better.  😉

 

[twangster]

The Making of Effectors

 

You have to be a fan of Royal Entertainment and Nick Weir to get this post so if you are not...

 

It's an interesting story of how this show from Odyssey was put together during a pandemic when Zoom calls was how the bulk of the everything was how for many of us.  It's actually very interesting but you have to love live entertainment to understand how monumental the task at hand was.  It was not simple at all.

 

Wonder will eventually have the sequel to Effectors.  There is a not so subtle hint about that at the end of Effectors on Odyssey.  "To Be Continued".  Effectors 2 will eventually come to Wonder or what I've heard to as "Crash and Burn". Crash is the villain in Effectors and his girlfriend is supposedly named Burn in the sequel.  That show will eventually be on Wonder and it's going through the same process right now in its development so not quite there yet. 

 

As a special event for top tier in Crown and Anchor Society Nick and his team put together this event today to talk about just how hard it was to piece together a full live production show during a pandemic, much of it occurring over Zoom and in cases Zoom over Voom.  They made a documentary about that which premiered today on Wonder (the documentary, not Effector 2).  

 

Champagne welcomed us for this "premier" of the documentary. 

 

 

 

Introduction from our CD Mike from Canada.

 

 

Nick Weir is very passionate about entertainment.  It's in his blood.  He lives for this and it shows.  

 

 

Nick is over so much more than just the production shows for the Royal Caribbean Group.  He has his hands in a lot of guest experiences that you might not realize.  The productions shows though are his baby and Effectors in particular is his creation or at least the concept of it was.

 

 

[Oceansaway17]

7 hours ago, twangster said:

Now back to Central Park...

 

Central Park has always been a feature that has always drawn me to Oasis class.  My understanding is that it is consistently a top favored area on guest surveys.

 

One of the aspects that I enjoy about Central Park are the live plants.  There are no fakes in Central Park.  This is an opportunity to capture Wonder's Central Park near its birth.   From here it will only evolve and fill in as new the plants take root and grow.  

 

 

 

on one of the video productions about making of Oasis class ships, the first captain Bill Wright was part of the design team for central park, and he made them make a few changes. So the way Central park is now was going to be a bit different.    Look for the video on ebay or wherever. It was a 3 part dvd set.  Bill Wright got to be included in a lot of various design decisions for Oasis.

[BecciBoo]

3 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Laszlo is the man.  We were fortunate enough to go on a CP tour with him as the guide.  He REALLY knows his stuff.  Thanks for posting all of the CP pictures.  Very interesting.

I spoke with him once about the live critters in the park too.  Hitch hikers mostly, birds, butterflies, moths and even lizards.  He showed me around the potting "closet".  Nice guy and really interesting.  You have to sometimes look really hard to see all that he is responsible for...like little secrets!

[twangster]

I have a video of the event to share that doesn't include the actual documentary but my Vimeo account doesn’t have enough free space left and YouTube heard a whisper of 3 notes from the Stowaway piano and struck it down for a copyright claim.  So no video.  Moving on..,

[bobmacliberty]

13 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

 

If Royal wants more of these for their Central Park areas, I'd be happy to bring some onboard.  They're everywhere by me.  My wife has even named a few that seem to always be in the same place in our backyard.

[bobmacliberty]

6 minutes ago, twangster said:

I have a video of the event to share that doesn't include the actual documentary but my Vimeo account doesn’t have enough free space left and YouTube heard a whisper of 3 notes from the Stowaway piano and struck it down for a copyright claim.  So no video.  Moving on..,

 

Any idea if/when/where the documentary might be made available to the public?  I'd be very interested.

[Longhorn Cruiser]

49 minutes ago, twangster said:

Nick is over so much more than just the production shows for the Royal Caribbean Group.  He has his hands in a lot of guest experiences that you might not realize.  The productions shows though are his baby and Effectors in particular is his creation or at least the concept of it was.

 

 

I believe he is the one who came up with the E Muster idea that is now being used not just on Royal Caribbean but other lines too.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/blog/royal-caribbean-changes-the-game-with-muster-2-0/

Edited March 7, 2022 by Longhorn Cruiser

[bobmacliberty]

10 minutes ago, twangster said:

I have a video of the event to share that doesn't include the actual documentary but my Vimeo account doesn’t have enough free space left

 

I've got space in my Vimeo account that I don't use.  It's a free basic account so only 500MB upload weekly/5GB total.  Any idea if I can give you some sort of guest access to upload and link?  I'm thinking I need a pay account to do that.  If 500MB will help, I'm happy to try if you want.

[twangster]

54 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I've got space in my Vimeo account that I don't use.  It's a free basic account so only 500MB upload weekly/5GB total.  Any idea if I can give you some sort of guest access to upload and link?  I'm thinking I need a pay account to do that.  If 500MB will help, I'm happy to try if you want.

Appreciate that.  If I compress it down to 720p I can squeeze it in but I was trying to get it done over cellular here in PR.  I’m out and about now so if I get time I’ll try.  Aqua Show and Voices tonight so no time to post right now 🤣

[CaroleC]

On 3/6/2022 at 12:40 PM, twangster said:

Chops Breakfast is a Pinnacle perk to avoid overcrowding Coastal Kitchen when Pinnacle numbers are high.  

It works very well and is a great way to start the day.  
 

 

 

 

Omelet exactly as I ordered it.   

 

 

Yesterday I had Eggs Benedict.  

 

 

This is a good example how Royal is adapting to protect the Suite product while providing a great breakfast experience for Pinnacle guests.  

May I ask a question, are the outside tables at Chops Grille being used at breakfast time? I’m interested as we are in an interior Central Park View cabin directly above this area and I don’t relish the idea of being woken up by the noise of them being set up (I’m an extremely light sleeper). There are lots of available cabins in this category on my sailing so I may request a move if the outside tables are open for breakfast.

[twangster]

While I’m on cellular in PR here is the day 5 cruise compass.  
 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Opening night for the Aqua Show inTENse

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Four rows blocked for media.  
 

 

[LATTELOVE]

Did you get off in Puerto Rico??

I was wondering if you took any pictures there.

[twangster]

With the backdrop behind the Aqua theater being filled in the gap above feels like a black curtain.  But it’s the sky. 

 

[twangster]

54 minutes ago, CaroleC said:

May I ask a question, are the outside tables at Chops Grille being used at breakfast time? I’m interested as we are in an interior Central Park View cabin directly above this area and I don’t relish the idea of being woken up by the noise of them being set up (I’m an extremely light sleeper). There are lots of available cabins in this category on my sailing so I may request a move if the outside tables are open for breakfast.

I have yet to see them used or the interior of Chops filling up.  Not every pinnacle shows up at the same time and some don’t come at all.  I think you are safe.