Recap: Day Two Key West

I woke up on Friday still unsure of whether or not I wanted to get off the ship to see Key West. Figuring I could decide over breakfast, I grabbed my bacon and eggs and sat near the pool under the beautiful Key West sun. Somehow that quick breakfast turned into an hour just relaxing, chatting with friends, making a few phone calls, etc. Thus I decided to stay on the ship and skip out on going to explore Key West. I just needed the time to unwind do nothing.

I turned out to be quite happy with my decision. I took the time to explore the halls and check out everyone’s door decorations. I had put mine up the day prior:

Not going to lie, I was kinda upset that I didn’t get at least an honorable mention.

I had tons of fun making this, even though it took quite a while. It’s basically thousands of pictures of the guys that are arranged to make up one larger picture. I just knew I wanted to do something different than your average collage. Though I probably should have taken my own advice and done some sort of theme as those were the ones that seemed to catch the judges eyes. I really enjoyed walking down the halls and seeing how creative people got. I could have spent 5-10 minutes at each door appreciating all the subtle nuances of each one, but I didn’t have quite that much time or energy.


For future reference, these are the doors that received an honorable mention/won

• Pirates themed
• Now Showing Backstreet Boys' movie theater theme going all out with curtains
• iPod
• Love Boat
• 3D Diorama of the I'll Never Break Your Heart Rooms
• Disco Ball stage
• And the Grand winner of front row seats to the concert did a locker theme

Here are some pics of the doors that caught my eye:

INBYH door

Everybody themed door

Pirates of the Caribbean Theme

My Neighbor's Door with their concert tickets

Winning DoorInside of Winning Door

Q&A

This was another one of my favorite events (Yes, I realize I say that about all of them, but they were all great!) I was pleasantly surprised how long this event ran and how thoughtful and unique most of the questions were.

I found the Q&A to be quite an informative hour and a half. I learned not to get Howie an ironing board; that Nick has a ‘high crack’; AJ’s drag queen name would be Priscilla Queen of the Desert; and Brian bought his wife 2 cars in the span of a week . I was seriously laughing for the entire time. I just about lost it when Nick got up to pee in the middle of the event.

Here are a few of my favorite clips:

Howie's Ironing Board Story

Brian Emulating Kevin

Nature calls for Nick

After the Q&A, my tummy was grumbling, though I wasn’t nearly as hungry as Nick seemed to be. Unfortunately I was not the only one who had the idea to head to the grill so the lines were crazy long. However, as I was headed across the pool deck to go wait in line, I bumped into Nick and his bodyguard which was absolutely delightful. There were no other fans around, so I shook his hand and had my fleeting moment with Nick. Even though I wasn’t going to ask for a picture, his body guard still yelled “No pictures!” He should just record himself saying “No pictures!” so he can save his voice.

Next item on the agenda- hit up the BSB merchandise store. They had lots of fun goodies- tshirts, hoodies, key chains, shot glasses, tote bags, beach towels, etc. I did some major credit card damage in here. I had always wanted the ‘This is Us’ hoodie , so I decided to splurge on that along with a few other cruise themed items. Toting all my loot, I headed back to my cabin and got ready for the Captain’s dinner.

Waiting for the Captain's Dinner

This night, dinner was slightly more chaotic, and would get increasingly more crazy as the days passed. Once people realized where the Backstreet Boys were sitting, people got pretty agressive and were fighting over where to sit.

We managed to snag another great table near the Backstreet Boys and met some other great fans at our table. The best part of the evening was when AJ came over and danced with our friend Jessica, who happened to be sitting next me.

Masquerade NightThis was my favorite deck party of the cruise. It was nice to see everyone dressed up including Nick in his scary mask. Overall just a great vibe. They were throwing out bead necklaces into the crowd and I was able to catch one from Brian :)

Masquerade night

Nick with his creepy mask

I thought they did a nice mix of their songs, music by other artists, and even some stuff not released to the public yet! They played a new NKOTBSB song- 'Don't Turn out the Lights Now' and a few songs off of Nick's new album. The fact that they played these new songs for us made me feel really special. One of my highlights of the whole trip was when AJ sang London. Something about this song- I just love it!

My absolute favorite song- London

New NKOTBSB song- Don't Turn out the Lights Now

After the party was over, I headed to bed with the anticipation that AJ may come knocking on my door to wake me up. By the way, that's such a fantastic way to head to bed. Wish I could do that every night. And I'm not going to lie, I got slightly dressed up to sleep that night, but unfortunately I didn't have any luck. Though from what I understand AJ did hit a few decks that evening and treated many fans with a surprise. While I wasn't one of the lucky ones, I thought it was just great that he did this. They really do care about us fans :) I don't think I managed to get to sleep until 5:00 that night due to the anticipation.