Oasis of the Seas–Introduction to the Aqua Theater

Edit:  There we go, photos are working now!



It has been almost two weeks since I signed onto Oasis of the Seas as the Aquatheater Light Technician. I have to say, I love this ship so far. I had heard from so many other technicians that this ship wasn’t so great to work on due to the massive number of small venues and a lot of maintenance to be done. However, in the last few months I was convinced by a few individuals that this was the ship for me and they were exactly right. I was lucky to just happen to be offered this particular ship as I did not have much of a choice except that I requested not to do a 4^th contract on Voyager of the Seas out of sheer boredom of being on the same ship for nearly two years. Currently I am finishing up the last two days of a two-week handover period with the light technician I am replacing, Henrique. I worked with him when we were both stage staff on the Explorer of the Seas and it has been nice coming here to Oasis and seeing not only Henrique, but also many other production staff that I have worked with in my 3 years with Royal Caribbean. On Oasis, the production team is quite large and consists of 3 Stage & Production Managers, 3 Rigging Specialists, 3 Light Technicians, 3 Sound Technicians, 2 Lounge Technicians, and (I believe) 10 Technical Stage Staff. This would make a total of 25 members of the production team, up 10 from the 15 staff specified for Voyager-class ships. With so many productions staff on the team, it is inevitable that I will continue to see familiar faces from previous contracts.

Working as a Light Technician in the Aqua Theater
As I am getting settled into the Aquatheater environment, I am beginning to appreciate even more how unique this venue is to the Royal Caribbean fleet and how fortunate I am to have secured one of only two Aquatheater Light Technician positions in the entire fleet. Unlike most Light Technicians, I have the unique task of also being responsible for the operation and partially the maintenance of the fountain system built into the Aquatheater stage. This consists of approximately 190 individually-controlled nozzles, all accompanied by individual LED lights to highlight them. These are used not only in the production diving shows, but also in standalone fountain shows complete with synchronized music, lighting, and video to go along with them. The system was programmed from takeout with 26 individual fountain programs (22 in regular usage, and 4 more that are just for the holiday season). Among the regular lighting fixtures within the Aquatheater are the following:
· 2 High End Systems DL3s (basically LCD projectors that move)
· 2 Martin MAC III Profiles
· 2 Martin MAC 700 Profiles
· 2 Martin MAC 700 Washes
· Approximately 40 Philips ColorKinetics ColorReach (LED wash fixture)
· 9 Philips ColorKinetics ColorGraze (also LED)
· 18 Selecon spot conventionals, 10 of which are equipped with Wybron Coloram IT scrollers
· 2 ETC Source 4 EFS conventionals
The ColorKinetics fixtures above are all designed to be used outdoors and don’t require any special type of enclosure to do so. The two 700 Washes and all of the conventionals live in a special catwalk above the Aquatheater on deck 14 with windows to allow the light to reach the stage but otherwise they are protected from the elements. The remainder of the fixtures live adjacent to the rock climbing walls on either side of the theatre on deck 7 and are housed in Tempest enclosures. These allow the lighting fixtures to be mounted within transparent domes so that they are protected from the elements and also provide air filtering and heating (as if the latter will ever be needed on Oasis’ Caribbean cruises, but is nice to have) to keep the fixtures in a relatively normal operational environment. The domes are a bit of a pain to remove in order to access the light fixtures for maintenance and repairs but they do provide relatively good protection (the salty air from the sea still gets in) against the weather. The real pain here is getting to the domes as there isn’t really a pre-conceived access point for this purpose so the process involves climbing over the adjacent railing wearing a safety harness and is not easy at all. Luckily there are only 6 enclosures in total so even if it takes a while, this isn’t such a big deal.
In addition to the Aquatheater itself, I am also responsible for the maintenance of all show lighting on all open (outdoor) decks, and in Dazzles, our secondary lounge.

What I do During Each Cruise
The following are the events for which I am responsible for running lights every cruise:
· Oasis of Dreams aqua show (6x per cruise). This is the primary show in the Aqua Theater and consists of diving, synchronized swimming, flying, and acrobatics. It has a runtime of approximately 40 minutes and is the first ever diving show produced on a cruise ship. This is something that should not be missed by any guest on Oasis of the Seas.
· Splish Splash comedy dive show (2x per cruise). This is the secondary Aqua show which also features diving and synchronized swimming.
· 50s and 60s Rock ‘n Roll night in the Aqua Theater
· DreamWorks Sail away Party in the Aqua Theater
· 70s night on the Royal Promenade
· Rockin’ Rhythm Nation and Move It! Move It! parades on the Royal Promenade (operation alternates every other week with Studio B Light Technician)
· Fountain Shows in the Aqua Theater. These are split up between the Aqua Stage & Production Manager, Aqua Rigging Specialist, and me. As I mentioned above we have 26 pre-programmed fountain shows lasting between 2-7 minutes each. For the scheduled fountain shows, we attempt to combine a few of these into one session between 15-20 minutes in length. Generally the fountain shows tend to be unique because the three of us choose different combinations each time.
· Family Comedy Show in the Opal Theatre every Friday
Aside from that, the rest of my time is taken up with maintenance and repairs. At this point it seems that things are in good condition for the most part, but Oasis is just starting to reach that age where things begin to break. As that happens, it will be crucial to be on top of the repairs as this ship has a lot of technology (or in other words, things that can break) and the to-do list could become quite long very quickly.

Aqua Theater In-Depth (pun 100% intended)
So what actually is the Aqua Theater? This venue contains diving platforms, flying apparatus, and a trampoline all centred around a huge kidney-shaped pool. The pool contains 3 hydraulic stage lifts topped with perforated “Mondo” flooring to allow water to flow through the top stage surface of the lifts. What this means is that the whole pool can be turned into a solid stage surface in only seconds, without the force of the lifts causing any displacement of the water in the pool. There are two 3 metre motor-retractable springboards, two 10 metre platforms connected by a bridge across the pool from which diving is also possible, and two 17 metre dive towers on either side of the pool. There are also 3 motorized flying points over the pool and one transverse flying point that can travel from the port side rock climbing wall to the port side 10m divw platform. Additionally there is a motorized trampoline platform upstage of the pool that can be flipped over between the trampoline surface and a regular stage surface. While in a typical theatre setup on Royal Caribbean ships, the Stage & Production Manager calls the show and runs all the automation, in the Aqua Theater there are more safety aspects and this requires the SPM’s full attention. Therefore a rigging specialist runs the automation (stage lifts, springboards, and trampoline) leaving the SPM free to call the show and make sure everything is safe, especially for the divers. Another rigging specialist operates the Foy flying motors. Located across from the pool are 3 “traffic lights” that allow the SPM to indicate for the divers that it is safe to proceed. As the moving stage lifts obviously cause the depth of the pool to vary, being able to communicate to the divers that the lifts are fully retracted and there are no obstructions below is very important. The SPM pushes a button for each traffic light to turn it from red to green indicating that it is safe to proceed, however the automation system will not allow a green light unless the sensors in the lifts indicate that they are fully retracted to the bottom of the pool.

A Bit About the Opal Theater
This week I had the opportunity to see both of the full-scale production shows in the theatre, Hairspray and Come Fly with Me. Both of these shows were awesome and far from anything I’m used to seeing on ships. While the Aqua Theater is a revolutionary venue for cruise ship entertainment, the Opal Theatre shows a tremendous evolutionary step forward from the previous class of ships from Royal, the Freedom class. This is especially evident in Come Fly with Me. As the name implies, this is a show focused on flying, and there is certainly a lot of it. Throughout the show there are performers coming in from above, up from the orchestra pit, from the sides of the stage, and just about anywhere else you can imagine. This venue has one of the most sophisticated flying rigs I have ever seen, and that includes Cirque du Soleil performances and they are known for having a lot of flying in most of their shows. Without a doubt Come Fly with Me shows off every one of the “toys” in the Opal Theatre and is really a visually-immersive show. After having watched these two productions, even I have a lot of unanswered questions about how certain things were done and I really enjoyed that because I get tired of having “seen everything before”. I have no doubt that those questions will all be answered soon enough and then there won’t be anything to surprise me with until the “Project Sunshine” ships come out.

That’s about enough for one post I’d say,  I should be back in the next week or so with more.  See below for additional photos from my first two weeks.

		Oasis of the Seas October 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

A proper update is coming soon... I promise!

I'm just beginning my third week here on Oasis of the Seas in the Aqua Theater, the technician I am replacing has just left, and I am now properly responsible for this position.  I know it's been forever since I posted anything.  I promise, I am still around on this blog, and I am working on a very large post with lots of pictures and whatnot.  It is taking some time to put it all together but what can I say, Oasis is big and writing about her tends to turn into big paragraphs and lots of photos to take it all in.  All is well here and I will work on getting this darned post finished in the next two days...

Next contract

Life continues to be a little bit all over the place here on the Voyager of the Seas.  With so many different itineraries, all of different lengths, some full charters, some half charters, and some regular cruises, it is very hard to keep track.  We have gone from the usual ship life of routine week after week to simply being ready for whatever comes next.  I don't try to keep track, I take it one cruise at a time and wait and see what happens.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been onboard this ship for her inaugural Asian season, and have been able to visit so many unique and interesting ports, unlike anywhere else I've been in my life.  Just yesterday I was in Okinawa and we visited Shuri castle, went to the duty free mall and found a tasty lunch at the food court, then went to a cafe for some coffee and to use the free wifi for a couple of hours, and finally ended the day with a quick dinner at a Japanese BBQ place where you cook the meat at your table.  As with most of the restaurants I have been to in Japan, the menu didn't have any English translations but did have pictures of most of the dishes which makes things a little easier.  I ended up ordering the pork belly and some cut of Kobe beef, which of course I then cooked to my liking on the grill at the table.  It was a great way to end the day and the Kobe beef was amazing.

Now, in other news I have been waiting on information concerning my next contract for a week or so as there have been some complications to sort out.  Those however are now in order and I have accepted a contract to join Oasis of the Seas as the Aquatheatre light technician on October 6.  Since this would mean a very short vacation for me with my original sign-off date (sometime in September), my vacation has been bumped up and I will be going home August 11, which will mean I actually have some time to enjoy summer at home, complete with BBQ and nice weather (hopefully).  Also it coincides well with my sister's university co-op work placement program as she will be leaving for Alberta for 6 months in October and it will be nice to be home together for the full length of my vacation.  Then we'll both take off in separate directions for 6 months and hopefully be back home around the same time.  It's nice when timing works out well like this.   Of course, it was a major surprise to be finding out I would be going home a month early but this is a very welcome surprise and I am looking forward to going home in only 24 days!

In the Aquatheatre on the Oasis of the Seas, I will be running lights for two shows: Oasis of Dreams, an evening show featuring diving, synchronized swimming, and acrobatics, and Splish Splash, a daytime comedy-diving show that features a completely different style of diving and synchronized swimming.  The control booth is located on deck 12 and looks out over the stern of the ship towards the ocean, providing what will certainly be the best view I have ever had while performing my job.  I am really looking forward to this opportunity as Oasis is the second-newest vessel in the fleet and offers so much technology that I am very excited to get my hands on.  In addition to the two aqua production shows, which are each offered multiple times per 1-week cruise, there are also fountain shows that feature the automated fountain system built into and around the diving pool.  This system also falls under the responsibility of the light technician in terms of day to day operation and I look forward to working with such different equipment from my usual routine so far on ships.

Well, I have a magic show rehearsal to prepare for so I'd better go do that.  More details about Oasis to come soon.

Shanghai: it Begins.

The past 2-3 weeks we have been sailing out of Singapore, with calls in Port Kelang, Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, and Phuket, Thailand.  Singapore was an amazing experience and I definitely plan to go back some day and spend a decent amount of time there.  Everything is new, clean, and just done right in Singapore.  Plus the selection and quality of the food there is amazing.  I really only visited a handful of Singapore and quickly realized how I would easily be able to spend days.

While in Singapore I visited the Marina Square mall at the Esplanade, and it was a very nice mall with the kind of shops that I could actually afford to purchase things in.  We had some amazing Korean BBQ for lunch there, and the only way I could imagine that it gets better is to have it in Korea.  The next turnaround day myself and the theatre sound tech, Doug, went to explore the Marina Bay Sands complex, including the mall and hotel.  The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands is the name of the mall and they had mostly high end brands of everything.  Not a lot there that I would be interested in buying but just going and wandering around is quite an experience in itself.  Everything in that mall is just beautiful and new looking.  I can't even imagine the cost.  Just the fountains and lighting displays must have cost millions of dollars on their own.  Upon leaving the Marina Bay Sands hotel we ran into the ship's Schooner Bar entertainer, Matt Yee.  We ended up spending the rest of the day with Matt and his cousin (who lives nearby).  The highlight of this day was the Singapore Cable Car which we rode end to end, stopping for Starbucks in the middle.  Then we made a quick trip to Chinatown and headed back to the ship.

Unfortunately I never made it to Kuala Lumpur  in Malaysia as the schedule during the day just never allowed enough time to get out there.  Luckily, in Port Kelang there was a little food court outside the terminal with delicious Asian cuisine and free (very slow) wi-fi.  I got fried calamari, Chinese fried rice, and a huge mango smoothie for only about $12 US which was very reasonable considering the portion sizes.

In Phuket Doug and I headed out with Matt Yee for an awesome meal at Tunk-ka Cafe.  The restaurant is located at the top of a hill, has spectacular views and the food was incredible.  We all shared about 7 different Thai dishes including curries, noodles, and a whole fish with lemongrass sauce.  If you only have a few hours to spend in Phuket, I would highly recommend visiting this place.  The view and the food, coupled with very decent free wi-fi internet ended up being a very worthwhile way to spend the little time we had free that day. 

Along the way to Shanghai, we had an overnight in Hong Kong.  The port time was a little unusual as the ship was to spend the first day from 4pm til midnight tendering, and then move to a pier and open the gangways at 7am.  I only had the first day available as I was to be on duty the next day, so I headed out at around 8pm, and Doug intended to take the next tender and meet me at the terminal.  Unfortunately he got tied up doing something onboard and didn't end up making it ashore until much later.  So I headed off with some other coworkers who happened to come off another tender.  We ended up going to the Temple Street Night Market.  We took a taxi over, and what an amazing place that was.  Vendors selling all manner of different things but there was something for everyone.  There were numerous electronics stalls for me to look at, and I did end up buying a few items to bring back with me.  We also stopped for a quick meal at a local seafood restaurant which was very tasty and also very very cheap. 

Anyway, here we are now in Shanghai, China.  It has been a very long time coming to get from New Orleans to our main home port for the summer.  Today marks the end (mostly) of any English-speaking guests onboard.  Now that we are in China, 98% of our guests will be Chinese and speaking mostly Mandarin only.  In fact, most of our cruises here are resale charters sold through various travel companies around China, so on those cruises especially it is going to be Chinese guests only, with a handful of guests from nearby countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.  It's going to be a more challenging environment for sure but I think we're up to the task.  The ship now has about 75% Mandarin-speaking staff onboard, and they are filling the majority of the front-of-house positions. The best strategy us non Mandarin-speaking staff really have is to just avoid guest areas when we don't need to be there.

It is definitely going to take some time to get used to the culture over here.  We've all been through cultural sensitivity training for our cruises in Asia but of course actually putting it into practice is something completely different and that is what we are getting to right now.  There are some things Westerners are just not accustomed to.  To give a simple example, last night during the welcome aboard show (which was actually one of our production shows, Music in Pictures), the audience talked quite loudly throughout the entire thing.  In western cultures that is quite unheard of and of course usually would be considered rude behaviour.  However in China it is quite commonplace and this is the sort of thing where we (as the outsiders) have to take a step back and go "OK, this is normal, just accept it and move on".  There was also a constant barrage of flash photography, another expected occurrence.  It was like there were more flash bulbs going off in the audience than I had lights onstage.

Thus begins my Asian experience on a ship.  Hopefully there will be a lot more news to come.  So far I have had some incredible experiences here and I'm looking forward to what's still to come.

Finally in Asia

OK, so a lot has happened in the past 6-7 weeeks. It's been way too long since I last posted anything. I don't even know where to begin really...

In the last 6 weeks, we have completed the 3 transition cruises from New Orleans to Singapore (New Orleans > Barcelona > Dubai > Singapore). During that time the Voyager of the Seas underwent some serious refurbishment in preparation for her new life in Asia. Here are just a few of the things that were done:

• Massive casino refurbishment and change of layout. We now have a lot more game tables and a lot fewer (maybe half as many) slot machines.
• Cigar bar was converted into a VIP Casino.
• Carpet replacements all over the ship extending to public areas, guest cabins, crew cabins, and more. Not all of it was replaced but certainly a large amount was.
• Lots of upholstery work all over the ship.
• The previous Royal Caribbean logo shop has been converted into two new shops: a perfume shop and a Dreamworks/RCI logo shop.
• The previous Perfume shop has been converted into a watch store.
• All staterooms received new 22" LED TVs

The installation of the Dreamworks Experience program was completed, which includes: Dreamworks 3D movies in the theatre, a new Dreamworks parade that replaced Party Around the World parade, Dreamworks family photo opportunities, Dreamworks family breakfasts, and a few other things


The production show Music in Pictures (previously named Music in Motion) has had some big changes. Most of the original second half of the show has been re-worked or replaced. The new version has been very well-received so far. It now features Jai Ho as the finale Bollywood number, among several other changes. This change was scheduled during a cast install so we have now installed the cast for Music in Pictures and for Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme.

The transatlantic cruise from New Orleans to Barcelona was fairly uneventful. Very typical, and the sea conditions were very calm. I managed to get off the ship in a few of the ports, something very unusual for me. Usually on a transatlantic I am stuck onboard the full 14-16 days. Following the transatlantic my mom came on in Barcelona to cruise for two weeks which was nice. I was able to go out in Cairo, Egypt with her for a full-day excursion and spent time with her on the ship on all the other days. It was a busy time but manageable. She departed the ship in Dubai and thankfully I managed to get a few hours in Dubai myself. I went to the Dubai Mall with Doug, the theatre sound technician, and we did the At the Top experience at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. I knew it would be busy there so I booked our tickets online the night before. Dubai is amazing and even though I only visited the mall and the tower, I still got a very good understanding of what the city is like. I will definitely try to come back sometime in the future and see more. Heck, I could even end up working there one day; I hear good lighting technicians are in high demand in that area.

Following that cruise we lost our Studio B light technician. A new one has not been able to be brought out to the ship until June 2nd (hopefully). As a result, I have been running lights in almost all venues onboard by myself. It's been a little stressful but I'm trying my best not to think too far ahead. Just thinking a few hours ahead about what I need to do next is helping to keep everything in perspective.

Of course, while I've been doing everything by myself that is normally done by 2 people, we have also been going ahead with cast install in the theatre, doing all the changes to the Music in Pictures production show, and installing the Dreamworks parade on the Royal Promenade. I'm definitely ready for a break now, so I'm really hoping our new tech will show up in 2 days as planned.

In addition to everything else going on, we are also installing a long term magic show onboard. This is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time because lighting magic shows tends to be a lot of fun but also a challenge. Unfortunately time has been rather tight for me so I've been having to program at night when time permits. His first show is tomorrow and I still have lots of work to do so I'm thinking tonight is going to be yet another late night for me.

We still have 2 more cruises out of Singapore and then we move on to Shanghai. I really want to be able to go out in Singapore but so far that hasn't been a possiblility with all that is going on. Unfortunately the job does come first so I haven't been out yet there; the view from the ship is incredible though. Hopefully I'll make it out there.

Following Singapore we head north to Shanghai and will be doing many cruises there all of different lengths. Many of them are resale charters and for those I don't really know what to expect, although I hear it will mostly be business as usual with few changes.

Anyway, time to get to work... Hopefully I'll have more updates soon.

The ever-changing Voyager of the Seas

What an incredible 6 weeks it's been so far!  Just as I suspected, time is just flying by here on the Voyager.

This week we have the install team for the Dreamworks parade onboard, they are here to ensure everything needed for the parade in terms of props and costumes gets loaded on properly and has a place to live onboard the ship.  The costumes for Dreamworks are massive and in most instances there are more than one per character as one is reserved solely for parades and the other is to be used for all other Dreamworks character events around the ship.  As well there has been a lot of worked involved with removing the previous parade, Party Around the World.  Everything from that parade has been all packed up and is ready to be landed when we reach New Orleans for the last time on Saturday.

Speaking of our last time in New Orleans, we will be setting sail at 9pm with a massive party up on the pool deck in place of the usual welcome aboard show.  This will be a great final sail-away from NOLA and we are all looking forward to it.  The 6 week repositioning cruise to Asia will be long and challenging but so far it looks like everything is coming together nicely in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. 

This past week we had FUNA and LCL Engineering onboard to install our new Barco projector for our upcoming Dreamworks 3D movie experience.  We are all really looking forward to this new offering and so far we have only been able to watch short 2-3 minute trailers on the new system and are already blown away.  It is quite remarkable how few pieces of hardware were really needed in order to upgrade our existing sound system to Dolby 7.1 surround sound, and add the 3D projector.   Our new projector is the Barco DP2K-20C with Dolby 3D installed.  The projector itself is large but still remarkably small for the image it produces.  We were able to install it alongside our existing Christie projector and still have room for ventilation and whatnot.  An interesting fact is that the 3D color wheel needed to produce a 3D image actually reduces the brightness of the projector output quite a bit.  For that reason, this projector is actually overly bright when watching regular 2D content but since 3D content will be played the majority of the time, the extra brightness offsets the difference created by the 3D color wheel.  The resulting image and sound is simply unbelievable and has breathed some new life into our 13 year old La Scala theatre.

 Around the ship, lots of other changes are underway as well.  Currently the Deck 4 outdoor promenade is receiving a new floor surface installation (same as was installed during the Explorer drydock when I was there) and all rooms are receving new LED flat-panel TVs.  Coming up in the next couple of days the casino will also begin undergoing a huge revitalization. 

Getting packed and ready to head back

Just another day packing to leave for a 6-month contract.  It's never fun nor is it easy.  I've learned from my many years of travel with my family since I was a child not to over-pack and to really consider each and every thing I'm going to bring.  Unfortunately packing for half a year is not that easy.  Often one must pack clothes for multiple seasons, for work and for relaxation, and many more little bits and pieces than would be needed for, say, a 1-week vacation.  Luckily I did leave a rather large box on the ship full of my belongings but I still always bring home anything meaningful that will fit in my luggage, in case my contract were to get changed or something prevented me from coming back to the ship (you just never know).  Of course, then I still have to pack up all that stuff and bring it back to the ship with me.  It really gets to be an ordeal trying to sort everything out.  For me, the clothes are not the problem, it's the electronics.  Being the geek that I am, when away from home for months at a time, I of course need an entire arsenal of electronic gadgets and whatnot, not to mention small bits like the chargers for said electronics, any medications I think I might need over the course of 6 months, my tools, and any number of other things.  I think I'm about 75% packed right now.  It's getting easier with each contract but I hate it just as much every time.

It's been a very busy vacation for me.  For starters, being home for Christmas was great.  Then I went for a week trip to Aruba with my family to stay at our timeshare which was awesome.  If you get a chance to visit Aruba for New Years', do it.  It's unlike anything you've ever seen.  I also visited my friend in North Carolina and we took a road trip down to Florida to go to Disney World and Busch Gardens.

Other  than those two trips, much of my time has been spent installing a new smart home system in my mom's newly-renovated house.  This involved installation of security, lighting control, multi-zone audio, surveillance cameras, controllers, and all the wiring and programming necessary to tie it all together.  I can safely say that I've almost been working as hard at home as I would be on the ship.   It's been interesting though and a means of keeping myself occupied.  Gotta do something for 2 months to keep your brain from melting into mush due to non-use :).

Tomorrow at the crack of dawn I will be flying back to New Orleans, via Atlanta, to re-join Voyager of the Seas on Saturday morning.  I have the day in New Orleans from about noon onwards to explore, of which I fully intend to take advantage.  All I have explored of New Orleans previously is the Walmart, Starbucks, and the mall at the cruise terminal.  Shameful, really.  But with nearly a full day to explore (and more importantly the evening, which I don't get when I'm on the ship), I think I can cover some more interesting territory.  I will hopefully be joined by one of my co-workers from the ship, Evan, who is coincidentally re-joining the ship the same day that I am, after a week of leave due to family reasons at home.  Should be a good day in NO.  I just hope the weather isn't so bad in Toronto that my flight gets cancelled or something, it's supposed to be a rather crappy day weather-wise tomorrow.

This contract promises to be the most interesting one so far.  Starting on April 14, Voyager of the Seas will begin a series of 3 two-week cruises to cover the distance from New Orleans to Singapore.  Itinerary for the crossing cruises:

New Orleans, USA (turnaround port)

• Nassau, Bahamas
• Ponta Delgada, Azores
• Malaga, Spain
• Cartagena, Spain
• Valencia, Spain

Barcelona, Spain (turnaround port)

• Alexandria, Egypt
• passage through the Suez Canal
• Aqaba, Jordan
• Safaga, Egypt

Dubai, UAE (turnaround port)

• Goa, India
• Cochin, India
• Penang, Malaysia
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Singapore

I can't wait for these transition cruises, followed by the actual voyages within Asia of which there are many different itineraries and I will post those later on closer to the date.  If you're really interested in knowing, a quick search on Royal Caribbean's website will get you the info.



Alright, I think that's a sufficient update for the moment.  Time to get back to packing.