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I stayed on the ship today and that decision would pay dividends for me.  In my last live blog I talked about a venue that is unique to Quantum class ships - Two70°. 
Here is the Two70° venue on Anthem of the Seas during its first ever visit to the Port of Miami with Miami as a backdrop:

With Royal Caribbean's Headquarters right here they took an opportunity to introduce this Quantum class ship to many HQ employees and local travel agents who may not have had an opportunity to set foot on board one before since the other two in this class, Quantum and Ovation, are not based in North America.   Walking around the ship I saw numerous employees taking it all in.  Just before noon our cruise director announced that none other than Nick Weir would be doing a presentation in Two70° and guests were welcome to attend.  
For those that don't know Nick Weir, he is the Vice President of Entertainment for Royal Caribbean.  If you've seen a show on a Royal ship lately, you've likely experienced the work of Nick Weir and his team.  I follow him on twitter @NickWeirShowbiz where he occasionally leaks tidbits about the new entertainment coming to Symphony of the Seas.  For those that saw Project Atlantis, the RCTV production about the last time Allure went to the Freeport dry dock - that was Nick Weir hosting it.
Walking into Two70° today the room was rotating through some background scenes.  The room was filling up, my daily KümmelWeck from Café270 would have to wait. 



Have you noticed how the color of the house lights change based on the content that is being displayed?  Also note this was at noon during full daylight outside.  Consider my first photo above and how this room has transformed since, in the middle of the day.  Cool stuff here.
Nick took the stage and began his presentation.



Today Nick would be showcasing the incredible Two70° venue to an audience that consisted mostly of Miami employees and local agents - there were only a handful of ship guests other than myself in attendance.  The room cost an estimated $27M per ship plus the cost of content.  He discussed not only the evolution of these Quantum class rooms but the need to create content for them.  With eighteen individual projectors synchronized to produce the 'Vista Display' as it's called, it amounts to a 12k screen with a 5:1 aspect ratio (if you thought 4k was impressive, ha!).  The problem is no one has content for this screen size or resolution so Royal Caribbean Entertainment had to create it from scratch.        

During Top Tier events I've seen the virtual fleet presented before.  Nick explained this was created for a Royal Caribbean Board of Directors meeting that took place on Ovation a few years ago.  Since it was such a hit, they have kept using it and made it part of the Crown and Anchor Society Top Tier event.

During the presentation more and more of the fleet, old and new are brought to life on the screen sailing virtually behind us. 

Nick stepped us through various pieces that were produced for this venue some of which simply don't photograph well since they combine both the Vista Display and six robotic screens that move and are choreographed with content on the Vista Display and each other.
One piece that stands out is called 'Dance In A Box'.

They literally made two boxes the size of two robot screens and recorded dancers in a studio constrained to dance within those dimensions.  The robot screens move and rotate, separate and come together in three dimensions all choreographed to music.  This had never been done before.  It's one thing to make a robot that can build a car on an assembly line but Nick explained frankly it's quite boring watching a robot repeat the same move over and over all day long.  They needed to make the robotic screens performers themselves and that is what they have done. 

I've seen many of these productions before on previous Anthem cruises but hearing their origins and how Nick and his team produced them brought new respect for each show.
I'm really not doing the entire presentation justice in this blog.  It's something you have to experience which is the magic of this room.  It's not just a video played on a big screen, it's the manner in which the technology of the room is used to immerse the audience into the production.  In the interest of brevity I'm skipping several pieces of great entertainment but Nick brought it to a close with a virtual fireworks show his team created for New Years Eve one year that was so popular they play it on all Quantum class cruises now.  Watch your cruise compass for it when you sail on one.

 
Our Miami visitors had a lunch to get to in the dining room so the few guests like myself that attended then saw the virtual symphony orchestra on the Vista Display.

I had an opportunity to meet Nick after the event and talk briefly with him.  Nick if you ever read this, I decided to spare you from displaying how you showcased the rotating stage using yourself as a prop in the process.  Well done sir!

Awarded by online voting, huh?  That's a good balanced way to do things.  Hopefully Carnival uses that to also name their next boat so we can finally get the Carnival Boaty McBoatface.

Hi, I'm Christine from Toronto! 
So, my first RCI cruise was on the Sovereign of the Seas in February 2008, but, due to work commitments, wasn't able to book another cruise for a while. Flash forward to a number of years later, and my mom has completed three cruises with Carnival and fell in love with crusing. Instead of taking a WDW vacation which my nephew and niece would be too young to enjoy, my sister recommends a Disney Caribbean cruise on the Wonder in 2015...and then another Caribbean one on the Magic which we completed this past March LOL. Anyway last month, while out on my lunch break at work, I happened to pass by a travel agency, picked up cruise literature on a whim, and decided quite impulsively to book a solo RCI cruise for December 2018 on Adventure of the Seas :D 
I really want to take another solo cruise next winter to escape the cold Canadian winter, but I'm not sure what itinerary I would take. Wherever I decide to travel, I try to make a conscious decision to  visit new ports, new cities. We'll see, I'm in no rush :) 
(Matt, if you're reading this, just wanted to thank you and your team for all of your hard work with RCB.com! This site and the podcast are a great source of information, enjoyed your recent episode on embarkation day :D)
Happy cruising everyone!