Brian at Sunset.

Coming up......... The MIXED NUTZ on ADVENTURE of the Seas.

The planning for this cruise started way back......almost two years earlier. I was finally able to convince my brother Bruce and his wife Sharon to come with us an a Caribbean cruise. Being that we booked it so early, we had a choice of cabins. We wanted 7688 and we reserved 7388 for Bruce and Sharon.
As usual, we started a thread on Cruise Critic.

Thats where it started............again.

The whole story next time.

And then there was Freedom.............

I was intent on being on the inaugural sailing of Freedom of the Seas. We booked it well in advance to once again secure a cabin of our choice and this time it would be a corner Aft cabin on deck ten. The itinerary was once again going to the western Caribbean with only Montego Bay being substituted for ocho Rios. Regardless, I was ready to cruise. But then.......... something came up.
It turned out that our son Brian who was still in High School at the time was scheduled for finals during our cruise week. So, we needed to change the booking. Luckily we discovered this soon enough and we were able to move our booking to the 4th sailing of Freedom. As it turned out, by the 4th sailing the bugs were worked out of the systems and we had a fabulous time aboard.

Coming up....... getting a crowd together for Freedom.

A Tune up cruise before FREEDOM.

The best secret on the Seas.

Our Freedom cruise wasn't until June 25th of 2006 and we found ourselves in late February without our customary cruise booked in April. We were poking around the RCCL website just to see what was going on when we noticed that Enchantment had a four night cruise for a very inexpensive price. We booked it for April 6th, departing from Fort Lauderdale for four nights stopping at Key West and Cozumel.

I phoned George and Marie ( original Mixed Nutz) to see what they were doing in April. George told me they had plans to go to Florida for business. We told them what we were doing and they liked the idea so they booked.

We communicated on the roll calls with a few others and we met them all at the pool bar. Not like the Mixed Nutz cruises, but still fun.

We discovered that Enchantment of the Seas, since it was stretched was quite a delight. The pool deck was large and spacious. The area above the added piece of ship had a steel bridge with flared out sides. They called them Sky Bridges. They were lit up colorfully at night and it emphasized the expansion by making the ship unique in looks. Everything about the ship was like that...... nice.

When we were at Cozumel we took a cab to Paradise Beach. All of Cozumel was just beginning to crawl back to life after the hurricanes of the year before. The piers were destroyed..... most of the beach areas were messed up. The day we were at Paradise Beach they were still working on the structure and were working on the landscaping around the property.

The food at the restaurant was affordale and the food tasty. The weather was superb as usual in April in Cozumel.

The four nights flew by of course. We really don't like short cruises because they end too quickly but it was cheap and we wanted a tune up cruise to get ready for THE FREEDOM CRUISE.

The next Cruises.

It is quite difficult to organize a re-union cruise or plan a new group cruise adventure. The best way I have found has been to book the cruies wayyyyyyy far in advance so it gives prospective cruisers time to think about it and book it. So when you don't do it that way, the group will be smaller. So if you do something with really short time, well...... it will be what it will be.

I did plan for the inaugural cruise of Freedom. There was quite a group gathered on the Cruise Critic boards even earlier than me. What was different about this ensemble of cruisers was that for the most part they were veteran cruisers who were remaining un-affiliated with a group. As the months were winding down we finally were able to get a school schedule we were loooking for. And of course it showed that son Brian had finals on the week of the inaugural Freedom of the Seas cruise. We moved our booking to cruise number four instead.

The Mixed Nutz cruise on Serenade was done.

There are no pictures of us saying goodbye. We don't take those. We only take ones saying hello. So until the next MIXED NUTZ cruise............ come back soon and see the next cruise with the next batch of Nutz.

Hello.

Chilled out on the last day.

Dave taking a snooze.

Sandy and her Purple Monkey. How a tradition begins.

Cheryl and Chris

Put a fork in Bob........he's done!




The Purple Monkey winds up on Sandy.

And finally.......

Never fall asleep with my camera around.

The Final Day of the Cruise

Carol chillin'

Chris on Deck

Bob and Sandy

John, Teri and Chuck

Lava flow on Martinique

The last day for the MIXED NUTZ on Serenade of the Seas.

The last day of on this port intensive cruise was a sea day. This was a chance to chill out and enjoy the ship for one last day and night before returning to San Juan. We had visited St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbados. This was certainly a great isand hopping itinerary. The southern caribbean Islands have some of the most fantastic waters to see and playThe in. In addition to that, the weather was as near perfect as it gets.

A group of us sat together on the pool deck soaking up the final sunshine of our vacation. We chatted about the success of organizing a second MIXED NUTZ cruise and the prospect of more in the future.

The pictures below are from the final day at sea. We passed close to Martinique which had been the scene of a major volcanic eruption a few years back. Check out the massive Lava flow that engulfed the homes on this side of the island.

The MIXED NUTZ Serenade Cruise was nearing the end. ( but not quite yet)
The cruise that was accicently dubbed the "Marinade on the Serinade" was coming to the end. And like every cruise we have been on, the realization that seven nights have gone by as in Hyper Drive was beginning to sink in.
The Mixed Nutz have spent days and nights together doing lots of fun things or just hanging out.
We still had a sea day to go on our way back to San Juan, so we all got up on deck to enjoy yet another spectacular weather day. We planned a balcony party on one of the last nights. It was called the "Leaving St. Lucia " balcony party. The Captain was supposed to sail us past the Pitons ( mountains) after departing St. Lucia. We had a great view from our corner aft balcony (9256) and we packed in all the MIXED NUTZ that wanted to be there.

The Staff got into it.




PARTY TIME HOT HOT HOT!
Chris

Limbo Time

Chuck and Jen

Deck Party on Serenade.

The music was playing up on deck late at night so we went up there to join the party. The weather on this cruise was really nice and the nightime conditions were wonderful. The girls jumped right into the line dances. Here's a few photos.

Main Dining room pictures




Dessert time.




Flower Bouquets

Bob and Sandy and

Christine

Sisters Jen and Liz.

Dinner in the Main Dining room.