Travel Blog

Royal Caribbean threw a coming out party last night for its new ship Oasis of the Seas, even though the behemoth - 16 decks, over 6,000 passengers - won't be launched for another 241 days.

The event was held at the International Swimming Hall of Fame and had the feel of a cruise. There was the obligatory buffet (though the food - soggy egg rolls, crumbly quiches - was much worse than you get on a ship). There was the obsequious staff. There was even a show, out by the pool, emceed by a real live cruise director.

The catch phrase of the evening was "Why not?" which the cruise director, in time-honored cruise director fashion, got people in the audience to shout on cue. Why people actually follow the directives of a cruise director is beyond me, but they do. Or at least the people who take cruises - and go to cruise line parties - do.

The "why not?" had been coined to encapsulate the Royal Caribbean philosophy. Rock climbing on a ship? Why not? Ice skating in the tropics? Why not? Yet it seemed, to me at least, already passe, if not immoral. Isn't "Why not?" what got us into this recession? Didn't the banks that approved bad mortgages ask "Why not?" Didn't the people who invested with Bernie Madoff ask "Why not?" Didn't the folks who ran up credit card debt ask "Why not?" Isn't it time we started asking "Why?"

As in: Why build a ship for 6,000 passengers?