Strapped into harness and helmut, feet dangling from a pulley six stories above deck, I slide across the only zipline at sea.
“Yow!’’
It isn’t the long glide hundreds of feet above the Costa Rica jungle that most zipliners crave, but it’s more thrilling than the short span looks from the sidelines.
A lot about the Oasis of Seas, the world’s much-vaunted and largest cruise ship, strikes me that way: Better than I expect. I’m one of several dozen cruise writers aboard the ship.
Ship is a loose term: We can even feel the ship move, not when it leaves the harbor and not here at sea.
And this is, truly, more resort than sailing experience. Carrousel. Ziplines. A “central park’’ and a “boardwalk.’’ An elevated-bar that levitates so slowly between the promenade (home to shops, bars and a few eateries) and Central Park that you won’t even notice the motion while you’re sipping your martini.
As Gene Sloan, cruise writer for USA Today has put it, this is the first cruise ship that truly compares to the best of the Vegas hotels or Atlantis in the Bahamas.
That might not please diehard cruisers who are really seeking a seagoing experience that feels, well, like you’re at sea. But as Pembroke Pines travel agent Al Dobles said, “My wife and I have been to all the islands. So the ship really is the destination.’’
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