THE MIXED NUTZ ON ALLURE IS NEXT

Here we are just before Christmas getting ready with buying gifts and making plans for the holidays. Soon all of the holiday business will be past and then it will be time to dedicate our energies to planning all our fun stuff on Allure of the Seas.

I'm looking forward to making this a big old happy time with our old & new cruising friends. Every cruise with the Mixed Nutz is always a mixture of prior Mixed Nutz cruisers and new folks that that join us for the fun. We hope to see plenty of new MIXED NUTZ joining us on this cruise.

This time we are planning on making a commemorative shirt for men and women. I'll be working on a new design shortly. Send your ideas in.

Specialty Restaurants

I now stand corrected. Prior to this cruise I have resisted dining in the specialty restaurants. I said, "how good can they be?" I mean really...we are in the New York metro area.... the city is nearby, they have the greatest dining establishments in the world...... but........

What I always said was that of all the places to eat in NYC, there were no cruise ship dining room restaurants. I always enjoyed dining with large groups in the traditional dining room at both early and late seatings.

This time however we ate at both Chops & Giovanni's Grill. Both were EXCELLENT!

More on this soon.

There is much to see on Oasis

In the seven days on this ship I did not see everything. You have to kind of choose to be an explorer and spend your time that way or be an enjoyer and use your time in a participatory way. That means laying in the sun ......Rock climbing...... SPA treatments..... miniature golf.....Bs'ing at one or all of the twenty some odd bars on the ship.......shopping....... mall walking....... track walking....... working out...... watching shows...etc oh.... and eating! lol. The Promenade has the Promenade Cafe and Sorrento's Pizza. Central Park has the Park Cafe. The pool deck has the Wipeout Cafe... and a couple of soft serve locations. And of course there is the Windjammer.

Next....... Specialty Restaurants

OASIS IS HUGE!

I can say now after experiencing this ship that it is all that it's cracked up to be. Nearly 6,000 passengers and never a crowd. ( except when they wanted to create an EVENT in the promenade like for a parade or a party. Otherwise it seemed to flow as well as any Voyager class or Freedom class ship. The biggest difference I saw was on sea days where there was enough pool deck seating for everyone.

I really enjoyed the pool deck with the multiple pool areas. Our favorite was the Sand Pool / Sand Bar area. We made that our regular sunning place and we were there often.

One week to go!

Just a week to go before we cruise on Oasis. I'm really starting to get into the details of the ship now..... studying the layout and such. Many people report that one week wasn't enough to really get around the whole ship. Okay then.... at least we'll be in good shape for the ALLURE in April. We'll pretty much have the layout committed to memory.

Tomorrow I will get the luggage out and start the process in our staging room . ( The guest room) Always get rid of the guests before a cruise....we need the room....lol ) ( sorry Christine)

Okay...more to come as we prepare.

ONLY 22 DAYS REMAIN...........

until our cruise on OASIS OF THE SEAS. ( Not a MIXED NUTZ cruise event)

All of our pre cruise stuff is done. We have completed the set sail pass........ received our luggage tags........ made dining reservations and reservations for the shows. That part is new. Now you start planning ahead 90 days for shows you want to see. To me, this is getting a bit crazy because it is taking away from the "spirit" of cruising , which was having many choices of venues to pick from at any one time. I personally like to be able to have the choice although I am a creature of habit and do see all the shows onboard anyway. But I like to have the choice. Now it's a plan ahead deal or..... show up and wait for standby seating. Of course with that you are either lucky or un-lucky and likely getting the worst seats in the house.

I will be spending my time checking out the ship so our April 29, 2012 cruise event for the MIXED NUT will be as smooth as possible. I'll be able to pick out meeting places... finding out which areas get overcrowded ( if any) .....etc.

Small detail from the Princess Cruise in June. As I have said before, the Caribbean Princess was a wonderful ship and was staffed with an abundance of helpful crew members. Service was outstanding on our June 4, 2011 cruise.

Posting will be more frequent now that the weather is chasing me indoors.

....John

September news

It looks like we have reached the end of summer on Long Island, NY.

It was a nice summer for the first half and then we had to deal with a medical issue with wife Carol in the second half. I had an excellent tan going up until that point. We were able to get a last beach day in a few days ago trying to boost the tan a bit. I don't think it did much. ( I may have to resort to FAKE BAKE....lol )

Now we are in the under one month countdown for the OASIS OF THE SEAS on October 15, 2011. This is not a Mixed Nutz event but a few of us ( two) are going to be looking over the layout of OASIS and be ready for the MIXED NUTZ on ALLURE OF THE SEAS on April 29th of 2012. We have a big event planned for ALLURE and there is plenty of room for new MIXED NUTZ. We always welcome new folks to join with us and create new friends that you will keep in touch with forever. Once a Mixed NUTZ always a MIXED NUTZ. ( there is no singular ....lol ) So if you want to have a good time..... come and hang with us.

Right now we are looking forward to OASIS and all that it is. It promises to be a wonderful time. It seems like everybody who cruises on OASIS...loves it. And now...... just 4 weeks away.

There is an active cruise critic thread for this cruise and we look forward to meeting our cruise critic friends there.