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 4th 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.
