FlowBro Ty

With my artistic juices flowing (the wine in the Solarium Bistro at dinner was really good) I was inspired to take more night photos around the ship.


The Perfect Storm slides were still open.


Inspired by the color changes within the art in the Solarium that I saw during dinner in the Solarium Bistro I knew I had to try to capture it.








It really is pretty spectacular and something anyone who sails Symphony needs to experience.

Today I Was Looking At https://www.cruisemapper.com And Found That Mariner OTS Stopped In Labbde This Week. Is This A Glitch Or Did It Happen
 

By FlowBro Ty 
Hi Every One. Welcome To Oasis Of The Seas Western Caribbean Blog. So Let Get Started.
If You Are New Here. Here Is My Last Blog Of The Mariner OTS. Check It Out.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9405-mariner-of-the-seas-blog-72718-to-73018/
 On This Voyage On The Oasis The Port Of Calls We Will Be Stopping At Are Labbadee Haiti, Falmouth Jamaica, Cozmel Mexico
So We Have Three Port Days And Three Sea Day
The Room We Booked Was A Jr Suite On Deck Eight.
Our Friend's Also Have A Jr Suite Right Next To Ours.
Also On This Sailing We Were Joined By @Twangster Fan
This Blog Will Take A Few Weeks. ATo Post. So Let The Blog Begin  

Day Two 
I Got Up At Seven Thirty Because I Had A Private Flowrider Lesson Booked For Eight. So I Skipped Breakfast And Headed Straight To The Flowrider. I Was Looking And Found That We Were Hugging The Bahamas For Most Of The Day. Here Some Photo Of The Flowrider
       
I Rode The Flowrider Until  11:30. Then Headed Down To Wipeout Café To Get Lunch And Meet Up With @Twangster Fan For Lunch I Had Two Cheese Burgers And Fries And A Cup Of Ice Cream. After I Went Back To The Flowrider And Rode Until 1:30.
 

Then I Went To Sorrento's To Check How Better Sorrento's Got And I Was Shocked. The Pizza Is That Much Better. I Got The Cheese And Boy It Was Good.
 
 

10:00 Am Day 2 Location

  

By FlowBro Ty  -Day One Port Canaveral Part Two-
At 4:30 I Went To Muster. My Station Was In The Royal Promenade In Café Promenade. It Was Really Fast And They Did Not Play The Wash Your Hand Song Yay. In Ten Minutes We Were Sailing Away From Port Canaveral.  After Viewing Our Sail Away I Hit The Flowrider Until Six. Then I Got Ready For  Dinner At The Main Dinning Room On Deck 4.For Dinner We Had Table 678 And For Our Waiter We Had Sattyyendra And For Our Assistant Waiter We Had Vincent. One Of The Best Wait Staff Out There. Every Time I Was On The Oasis I Had Some Of The Best Dining Staff In The Fleet.
 
After Dinner I Went To Bed Because Tomorrow Will Be Full Of Fun.
       

By FlowBro Ty  -Day One Port Canaveral- 
Today Is Cruise Day! I Sleep In Today Because It Is A Perfect Way To Start A Vacation. For Breakfast I Got Up And Drank A Smoothie For A Snack Until I Got On The Boat. We Loaded The Car The Night Before To Save Time. We Left The Home At Ten And Next Stop Turkey Lake. The Port Is An Hour And A Half Away From My House. After A Hour And A Half Being Cramped In The Back Of The Car We Arrived At Park Port Canaveral. This Is A Nice Place And This Is My Second Time Using Them. It Is Less Than Five Minutes Away From The Port. And We Always Had A Good Experience Here.  Today They Where Boarding At Twelve Forty Five Because The Coast Guard Were Doing A Routine Inspersion On The Boat. Because We Were In A Suite We Used Suite Check In. It Took Us Five Minutes To Get Past The Security People And Upstairs. When We Got There Then We Where Past Check And Headed On The Ship In Less Than Ten Minutes . So We Were On The Ship By 12:50. For Lunch We Tried To Go To The Windjammer But There Was A Line Down The Stairs So We Went To Wipeout Café. Not Disappointed The Food Was Good And Had No Line. I Had A Hamburger With Cheese And My All Time Favorite Free Drink Strawberry Kiwi Water. So Good.Then Since We Were Near The Flowriders I Had To Go On It. So I Did. There Was No Line For Stand Up Or Bogie Boarding Until 3:00. One Of The Workers Was Blown Away Because I Did Every Trick He Told Me To Do And I Did Not Wipe Out. Also Had A Great Chat With One Of The Worker. Now It Is Time To Head To Muster Drill. 

                     

By FlowBro Ty 
Hi Every One. Welcome To Oasis Of The Seas Western Caribbean Blog. So Let Get Started.
If You Are New Here. Here Is My Last Blog Of The Mariner OTS. Check It Out.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9405-mariner-of-the-seas-blog-72718-to-73018/
 On This Voyage On The Oasis The Port Of Calls We Will Be Stopping At Are Labbadee Haiti, Falmouth Jamaica, Cozmel Mexico
So We Have Three Port Days And Three Sea Day
The Room We Booked Was A Jr Suite On Deck Eight.
Our Friend's Also Have A Jr Suite Right Next To Ours.
Also On This Sailing We Were Joined By @Twangster Fan
This Blog Will Take A Few Weeks. ATo Post. So Let The Blog Begin  

The selfie @twangster took of himself as he soared through the air dangling from one of the drones was amazing.  It's a shame you and @Matt missed it since you skipped the photos. I can't believe they took a volunteer from the audience for that role. Shows a lot of natural athletic ability, obviously.  

Day 9 - Galley Tour
A benefit of being Diamond Plus is a free galley tour.  Today a Sous Chef would be conducting the tour.

We meet one of the cooks who is responsible to make bread.  Lots of it.  





Meat cooking station.

Pickup station where wait staff retrieve food once it is ready to go.

Dishwashing

This particular tour was one of many they had to do because of the large numbers of Diamond Plus on board.  It was a little rushed and we were in the way in the galley during a busy time.  Consequently it's probably a good thing it was short.

So many Flight spoiler photos in one message board! ?

Day 8 - Noon Update
Our progress...

Captain's Corner

Given the large numbers of C&A Top Tier they figured this would be well attended and moved it into the main theater.
Captain Rob has a unique and dry sense of humor.   It was used extensively during this session much to the crowd's delight.
Just as he was about to begin, some guests in the crowd broke out in "Happy Birthday to you...".  Apparently today is his birthday.

Symphony has a number of innovations including a slightly different hull shape that along with the air lubrication system (and other changes) make her 25% more efficient than Oasis.  According to Captain Rob if you could see both ships in dry dock side by side the differences in the hull would be pretty apparent.
Captain's Rob first ship (at Royal) was Grandeur.  He was a Bering Sea fishing captain before joining Royal.  Moving to Royal he accepted a pay cut and joined as a junior bridge officer.  He worked up through the ranks to eventualy become a Captain again here at Royal.  
There are currently two Masters for Symphony, Captain Rob and Captain Rick.   They work a 10 week on/off cycle.  They keep in touch with each other at all times and let each other know what's going on around the ship.
According to U.S. Health Department code that the ship follows even in international waters, any food that is once placed out for consumption but not used is destroyed and run through the waste management process.  It is not, despite rumors, fed to the crew or used the next day.
The little deviation we did last night was due to cleaning out the ship's economizers in the stacks.  They need to be cleaned periodically and the zig zag course was executed as part of the cleaning process according to Captain Rob.
Captain Rob is not aware of any four sisters meet up.  He thinks it may happen, but at some future point.  He was on Oasis during the planning of the three sisters and that planning started months before it occurred. As he offered "Photoshop works really well and is a whole lot cheaper".

An enjoyable session with the Master of the vessel.

Solarium Bar Update...
Still closed but a couple more glass panels installed.

 
Water slides:

 

Day 8 - Dinner
My Time Dining

Caesar Salad

Braised Pork shank

I was placed at a table for four by myself.  This seemed to generate the fastest service I've ever experienced in the MDR.  (they wanted the table).
Food and service were both good.

 

On our last Harmony cruise, we got a private Central Park tour with Laszlo.  He is such a nice man and as Twangbot said, he loves his job !!  To date, that tour of CP is the most interesting and enjoyable Royal Caribbean tour we have ever done.  BTW,our Genie arranged this tour (he and Laszlo are good friends) so this is another great example of the kind of personalized service you get when you cruise Star Class !

Day 8 - Sea Day
It seems we did two 'Crazy Ivans'  last night.

Breakfast at Johnny Rockets again.  Followed by a Walking Tour of Central Park with Laszlo, the Landscape Specialist on board.  

Laszlo is very familiar with Central Park and those with some historical knowledge of the Oasis class will recognize Laszlo since he has played a critical role in establishing all Central Parks across the Oasis sisters including the first one on Oasis.

With an April in service date in the Mediterranean Central Park had to be outfitted differently with plants designed for the European climate since it would sail for seven months there before this transatlantic.  Now that she is heading to the Caribbean, Central Park will slowly be changed to feature more plants that are designed for a tropical climate.  That will occur slowly as plants die or otherwise need to be replaced through 2019.  With over 12,500 plants on the ship they can't possibly change it all at once.  
The trellis should begin to grow with cover over the coming months with it's permanent plants in place.

A few weeks ago the ship encountered some nasty storms that were responsible to coating the ship with layers of salt water kicked up by the storms.  That included Central Park and Laszlo was quite sad when he returned from his scheduled vacation a few weeks ago to see the damage within Central Park done by those storms.  Plants don't like salt water.  Along with his three assistants they've been busy trying to bring it back to it's former glory.  The Living Wall has some bare spots as a result.

The Central Parks across the Oasis fleet have evolved as they learned what works better in an environment like Central Park.  Many plants are actually now in special 'pots' or steel cubes much like a planter that can be lifted out on demand to access electrical and plumbing lines that weave under the fabric of Central Park.  That's an evolution compared to Oasis where they routinely had to dig up plants and soil to access and do maintenance.   

Now that I know to look for them, I can see the planters most plants are contained in.

You can tell Laszlo loves this job and doesn't even view it as a job, it's a passion.


Winds in Central Park tend to come from aft.  As the ship moves forward air passing over the upper decks hits the aft glass wall and curls around in a forward motion closer to deck 8 level.  During her encounter with a storm a few weeks ago these winds actually knocked over some of the trees within Central Park.  Laszlo has never seen that on any Oasis ship before.

Plants used within Central Park and subject to the agricultural restrictions of each country visited.  Even though she was first built out in Europe they had to choose plants that are approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for her arrival in America.  Upon our arrival they will send inspectors to the ship to check each and every plant to confirm it meets USDA regulations.  
Many countries do the same on a periodic basis, even some smaller Caribbean nations although Laszlo suspects some of them just want to see the ship and enjoy a lunch aboard.  None the less protocol requires they allow these inspections to occur for every country the ship visits.
Australia has some of the toughest agriculture regulations and for this reason it is unlikely they will ever send an Oasis class to Australia because they would pretty much have to strip Central Park bare and start all over with local Australian vegetation.   For similar reasons they won't take Oasis class to cold climates like Alaska because Central Park's tropical plants would be devastated and it's a significant investment in the serious six figures ballpark.  The 2018 budget to begin migrating Central Park to tropical vegetation is around $250k according to Bobby Brown our CD.  That's just to begin the job.  
Central Park has a fire break zone in the middle just in case a fire were to break out.  In this manner the fire would not spread the entirety of the park.  This fire buffer includes height restrictions for trees and distances from sides and balconies.  There is a lot more to Central Park then just some plants.
The tool shed for the landscapers.  This is the entirety of the space the have on board.  The irrigation control panel is located here where they can water the many different irrigation zones that cover Central Park.

On surveys Central Park often ranks near the top of favorite neighborhoods on the ship.  
Our 30 minute session turned into 90 minutes due in no small part to how passionate Laszlo is about Central Park and it's vegetation.  


It was a very interesting tour and I'd like to see Royal invest a little more into it such as giving him a microphone and portable speaker or offering it more than once a cruise.

Here Are The Ships Stopping In Port Canaveral In November  
Navigator Of The Seas
  https://www.portcanaveral.com/Cruise/Cruise-Lines-Schedules/2018/11-November/November-17,-2018/Navigator-of-the-Seas
Symphony of the Seas
https://www.portcanaveral.com/Cruise/Cruise-Lines-Schedules/2018/11-November/November-08,-2018/Symphony-of-the-Seas
Grandeur of the Seas 
https://www.portcanaveral.com/Cruise/Cruise-Lines-Schedules/2018/11-November/November-25,-2018/Grandeur-of-the-Seas
 
 

Hope It Is A Alaska Cruise On The Ovation Of The Seas
    

Yes They Have No Place To Put Skypad  And Slides Are Not A Problem To Install 

Yes They Have No Place To Put Skypad  And Slides Are Not A Problem To Install 

I'll go, just as long as they provide me a Barrett M82 and plenty of ammo.

Twangster At The Look Of It I Will Miss Seeing You In Port Canaveral Because My Sailing Out Of The Port Is On Sunday And You Will Be There On Satday     

Keep Up The Good Twangster

Day 3 - Cococay Certified Scuba Dive
The certified scuba dive was on sale a couple months before sailing for $11 off so I jumped at it.  It is single tank shore dive but it's inexpensive and it's always good to keep current by diving often.  
After we arrived from the tender it's a short walk to the dive shop. 
 
There they match you up with the equipment you previously identified.  I brought my mask and snorkel but didn't want to pack my big scuba fins for just one dive so I requested fins from them.  The tank, regulator and buoyancy compensator were all included as well.   They had defogging spray on hand.
They locked the shop while we were diving so we were able to leave anything we needed to inside.
We all prepared our own gear and then our dive master brought us to a picnic table to go over the dive profile and confirm hand signals.  We were assigned dive buddies even though we would stay in a close group.
 
Next we put on our BC's and carried our fins and mask over to the beach.  We waded in waist deep and put on our fins and mask.  From here they have a couple of Jetskis with floating baskets they towed behind them.  We slid on and grabbed a rope to be slowly pulled over to the dive site away from the snorkel area.
There our instructor verified we had appropriate weight and could control our buoyancy before signaling for us all to submerge.
Soon we began to see various marine life and our dive master led us along the route she had outlined in the briefing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Maximum depth was around 37 feet which is nothing.  Visibility was good and there was little to no current.  We had been advised we might see nurse sharks but there were none on this occasion.
After the dive the Jetskis returned to pull us back one by one to shore.
I did not wear a shorty but had brought my full rash guard which is a lightweight lycra material good in case of jellies or accidentally brushing against coral.  Some of the women wore shorty wet suits.  
It was a very easy dive and for the money well worth it.  We were done by 10am so it left lots of time for people to join back with family and still have ample time to enjoy Cococay.
Condensed video here: