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Cruise-mas trees and Cruise Cookies

It’s that time of the year to decorate our homes for the holidays in between our holiday cruises!

If you’re planning a holiday pre-cruise party, be sure to include some cruise cookies for your guests. You can get cruise ship cookie cutters on the internet. One source is the Cruise Gift Store and another that I found is at KitchenCollectables. Cruise ship cookies are sure to impress your guests! And if you don’t feel like making your own you can purchases them already made from Alis Sweat Treats!

Cruise ship cookies from Alis Sweat Treats

If you’re decorating a Christmas tree this year, don’t forget to make your tree a “Cruise-mas tree” to stun your fellow cruise crazies! Every cruise addict should have a “Cruise-mas tree” to enjoy the holidays. Watch my video to see how to make a “Cruise-mas tree.”

If you collect sand dollars from your beach cruise vacations, remember that you can make fantastic sand dollar ornaments for your “cruise-mas tree” that will keep you remembering those wonderful beach cruise vacations. Watch my video below to see how.

Dr Kruz Nutty

More on the Port of Boston

Several fellow cruise crazies sent me emails and asked questions about the port of Boston.

To answer one question – no, there wasn’t any ships in the port while I was there. (ding dang!) I would have loved it and definitely would have taken pictures and posted them.

I was also asked about how much a person can see during a port stop in Boston. I think it all depends upon how much a person would like to see and how long you’re in port. If you want to do everything — well you can’t. But you can certainly see A LOT with proper planning and a good port-of-attack plan with a minimum of eight hours to do it. If you do your research and know what you want to see and do (and stick to your plan) then I believe that you can see all the major attractions that Boston has to over in a single port stop.

I was also asked to post more photos, so they are below. Enjoy and thanks for the questions!

A sidewalk marker for the Freedom Trail

Downtown Boston near the waterfront

On the Freedom Trail near Quincy Market

Historic old City Hall downtown (see Ben Franklin statue)

Historic neighborhood near Copley Place

Historic Harvard University

More historic Harvard University

Dr Kruz Nutty

Port of Boston

Have you sailed on a cruise that departed from Boston? Or has this city been a port stop on one of your cruises?

I was recently in Boston for a few days and I loved it. I wasn’t on a cruise (darn) but I highly recommend this city as a port stop of port of departure.

Currently 15 cruise lines stop in Boston. The pier where the ships dock is less than two miles from Boston’s neighborhoods, including historic Back Bay, the trendy Newbury Street and Copley Square. The New England Aquarium is located in the city’s downtown as well and also the Museum of Science. The city also has the Freedom Trail that is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that leads you to 16 nationally significant historic sites.  

Getting around the city is easy too using the subway and the red line stops right at Harvard University. I really enjoyed visting and walking around this historic Ivy League university.

I felt as though the city is safe and the locals were very friendly. If you depart on a cruise out of Boston, I recommend you spend an extra day there either pre- or post- cruise to make sure you get to enjoy all this historic city has to offer.

Hope you enjoy a few of my photos below.

Downtown Boston

Downtown Boston on the Freedom Trail

Historic north end

Quincy Market place

Harvard University

Dr Kruz Nutty

Is the new Port Everglades terminal ready?

There’s an interesting video now available on the Oasis of the Seas web page. It includes information about the new terminal at Port Everglades made just to dock and then service future passengers of the Oasis of the Seas. This terminal is also known as Terminal 18.

Check out the video on their main page here.\

I found this video interesting because just like I have in the past, I’m wondering how effectively RCCL will be able to get 5,000 plus passengers off the Oasis of the Seas and then ready 5,000 plus more to board.  WHOA!  That’s no small undertaking. 

The reason I wonder how smoothly this will go is because you know that we cruise crazies rush the cruise port terminal early to be the first to board. So there will obviously be at least 1,000-2,000 cruise crazies — at a minimum — rushing to the terminal to board before 5,000 plus passengers have reluctantly been forced off the ship. That means there will be at least (according to my calculations) at least 6,000-7,000 cruise crazies in various depressed or exhuberant cruise-state-of-mind personalities either boarding or disembarking ONE ship!

But what will happen when disembarkation of the Oasis of the Seas passengers is delayed for example due to - customs issues? Or if the Oasis experiences a norovirus outbreak so this mammoth ship must be sanitized before any new passengers can board?  

Then we’re likely to see many more passengers all converged at Terminal 18 (5,000 PLUS) all waiting anxiously and IMPATIENTLY to board. That’s a lot of cruise crazy people to have sitting and waiting to board a cruise ship in one spot!?    

I truely hope it all goes well. But I’m also anxious to see how it does go in the beginning and in the future.

Below is also another video I think is great of the arrival of Oasis of the Seas in Port Everglades.

Dr Kruz Nutty

Oasis is here!

The much awaited Oasis of the Seas sailed into it’s home port of Ft Lauderdale this morning.

There’s a great story with photos and a video of the ship arriving on the website of the Sun Sentinel News.  Click here to go directly to it.

Here’s a great video too. It gives me chills just watching it!

Dr Kruz Nutty

 

My biggest pet peeve

I have one very BIG pet peeve when it comes to talking about cruises and cruise ships.

My pet peeve is referring to a cruise ship as a boat!!!  ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…………………..

Cruise ships are not boats. They’re SHIPS!! 

Please don’t call a cruise ship a boat.

The reason is this. You can put a boat on a ship, but you CANNOT put a ship on a boat. There is a difference!!

A boat is something such as a “row boat.”  A boat is: a small vessel for travel on water. Note the word “small.”

Recently, RCCL and USAToday held this contest for a “Reporter at Sea” where the winner would get a free 4-day cruise aboard the Oasis of the Seas on a “preview” cruise departing Nov 18th. The “reporter” would provide reports about this new SHIP.  Note ship — not a boat.  Ship, ship, ship!!!

Oasis of the Seas is the BIGGEST cruise SHIP ever built. It’s phenominal. It’s unbelievable in size. Yet the winner of the USA Today contest repeatedly refers to the Oasis of the Seas as a BOAT in her winning video. What is wrong with her? I cannot believe she won when she refers to this amazing ship as a boat.  It’s a SHIP!

Uggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………it drives this cruise addict in sane.

Watch for yourself by clicking here.

I just don’t get it. How can you win a be a reporter when you refer to this amazing SHIP as a BOAT!!!!

Dr Kruz Nutty

Unique book about cruising

Have you heard of this book, “The Truth About Cruise Ships” by Jay Herring?

This is a new book and Jay was a ship’s officer for Carnival Cruise Lines . In his book he shares his views on what it’s like to work on a cruise ship for almost 10 years. And his book is unique because it’s written by a ship’s officer who had access to the entire ship and also other high-level officials on Carnival’s ships.

Check it out if you’re interested. It’s available in electronic version for $10.95 by clicking here.

Dr Kruz Nutty

Oasis under the bridge

Have you seen the lates videos or photos of Oasis of the Seas passing under the Storebaelt Bridge? The ship had to pass out of the Baltic Sea and make it under this bridge that connects the islands of Zealand and Funen.

RCCL and the Captain that it would be close as the ship passed under the bridge and the Oasis made it just fine. The ship even lowered it’s smoke stacks to clear the bridge. 

There’s a great video now of this event posted on the Oasis of the Seas web site. Check it out by clicking here! The also have a Google map on the web site now showing the ship’s position as it heads to Port Everglades.

Below are some awesome new photos of the Oasis of the Seas. Enjoy!

This is a photo of the ship as it passed under the bridge

The ship is over 20 stories tall!

Dr Kruz Nutty

Comparing size

I’ve been thinking lately about how much larger the Oasis of the Seas is versus other ships.

The Oasis of the Seas is at least 60,000 gross tons larger than either the Freedom of the Seas or The Queen Mary 2. It’s also around 60-70 feet longer than either ship too.

Below are some graphics which compare the ship sizes. I like to look at these types of comparisons. I’m anxious to see the Oasis of the Seas next to other ships so that we can see a real-life comparison.

In any case – they’re all really big ships!

Dr Kruz Nutty