Midnight at the Oasis, send your camel to bed. Shadows painting our faces, traces of romance in our heads. Heaven's holding a half moon, shining just for us. Let's slip off to a sand dune, real soon, kick up a little dust.

Or so I was singing (thank you writer David Nichtern), long about midnight, on the amazing new Oasis of the Seas.

Camels? Sand dunes? Dust?

No. But romance was in the salt sea air.

We were sailing off the coast of Florida. Most passengers had returned to their pillows, and the largest cruise ship ever –  a bustling, floating mall of bars, shops, restaurants, and sporty diversions such as a zipline — grew quieter in the early morning, moonlit shadows, like a big city at rest for a few hours before the tumult of a new day.

Now, finally, the big ship was mine. And I went for a long walk.

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