The brand new Oasis and Allure of the Seas cruise ships can thank Handling Specialty for creating the three huge underwater lifts, two tilting diving boards and one rotating trampoline for Royal Caribbean's newest ships.

These innovations are what make the AquaTheater shows possible.  These systems, manufactured in Canada were shipped to Turku, Finland, where they were installed over the course of about 18 months to create the AquaTheater stage area for the largest and deepest freshwater pools at sea.

"This is very high profile and very exciting," said Handling Specialty president Tom Beach, adding the devices have already been featured in a couple of documentaries, including a Discovery Channel show, The Mighty Ships.

Royal Caribbean is tapping famous Hollywood actor James Brolin to star and direct a new series of video clips that can be seen online. Called "Ocean Views", these webisodes will be available on March 14 on the Royal Caribbean's web site as well as its YouTube channel.

The episode Brolin will star in and direct is called "Royal Reunion", which will tell the story of how many different generations of family are taking a cruise on Allure of the Seas.  Joining Brolin in the cast will be other actors such as Dean Cain and Amy Yasbeck.

Brolin's episode is one of many in the video series that will feature actors starring and directing in their own episodes.  Jenny McCarthy will act in and direct a video called “The Allure of Love,” which also takes place on the ship; it is a comedic look at a star-crossed romance.  Other stars set to appear include Samantha Bee, Adam Carolla, Paula Deen and Albert Pujols.

A video is circulating around the Internet showing Disney Cruise Line's brand new Disney Dream coming very close to hitting Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas on January 17, 2011.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez issued this statement regarding the incident, "Monarch of the Seas was anchored and the Disney ship casted off and drifted close to our vessel".

Disney says the captain of the Dream was in control and the ships never got closer than 20 or 30 feet.  

This past Friday, music superstar Taylor Swift performed aboard Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas and as you might expect, tickets for the show were a little hard to come by.  Luckily, POPSTAR! Magazine & PopstarOnline.com posted this video they took from aboard the ship.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain is trying to learn to surf again at the fourth annual "Chairman's Challenge" aboard the Flowride Surf Simulator.