Itinerary/Beach Party

Now that I’ve been able to digest the fact that we there will actually be another cruise, lets start diving into the fun stuff!

Invitation from the Backstreet Boys

If you are a member of the fan club, you should have received an email yesterday around 1:00 with the official invite. In case you missed it, you can access the email here. My favorite part was where they say "Please block off Dec 2 - 5th. Let your friends and family know you won't be answering their calls because you'll be too busy hanging with us as we play, eat, dance and drink the nights away!" I immediately forwarded this email to pretty much everyone I know, even my grandparents. Figure I'd spread the word early in case anyone didnt know what to get me for my birthday or the holidays :) Most people were excited for me, but I think my dad is just sick of hearing about this cruise already haha. I'll have to try and scale back on how much I bring this up around him...

Anyway, here is an accompanying video with the Backstreet Boys inviting everyone to attend the cruise.

"Spring Break Ain't Got Nothing on us"

Itinerary

Friday, Dec. 2, 2011 Miami, Florida- Boarding at 12:00pm and we set sail at 4:00pm
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011- Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. Arrive at 10:00am and depart at 6:30pm
Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011- Fun Day at Sea
Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 Miami, Florida- Debark at 8:00am

First thing that obviously stands out is that it’s a 3 day cruise so we’ll have to do our best to pack all of the fun in during the shorter time frame. The next thing that I noticed is that there are no public ports of call and really no time for excursions. Since the beach party is included, I would assume most cruisers want to participate in that and shouldn’t need to do any excursions. Plus, I doubt they will even offer any, but I could be wrong.

I'm very excited about going to Half Moon Cay. I’ve been, years ago, and I really enjoyed it. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Half Moon Cay, it is a private island owned by Carnival. We may also see Holland America ships there as well, because Carnival owns Holland America. Personally I prefer a private island as opposed to other ports because I feel like its exactly what you would envision traveling in the Bahamas to be. Beautiful beaches, pristine waters, and white sand. Its gorgeous. Plus there’s no commerce and dirty buildings, just beaches.

Another thing to note with Half Moon Cay, we will have to tender in. This means we cant just walk off the ship, but have to take little boats over. This will be time consuming, just so something to factor into your timing. These boats can also be pretty choppy, so if you're prone to sea sickness, be warned.

Beach Party

Well the good news is that not only will they be doing another beach party, but it will be included in the cruise price. In my opinion, this was a wise move by Rose Tours considering last year’s debacle. Its nice that they are not charging extra, but I imagine it will be quite chaotic with probably 2-3x the number of people as last year considering not everyone went last time. We will be getting a buffet, but I wonder if we will get an open bar again? One can hope, but I doubt it since we are not paying extra and since they didn’t indicate we would.