Lessons Learned

I always stress that I am by no means an expert on cruises or more specifically- Backstreet Boy cruises. I learned a ton of new things from this past trip. Some of these are regrets and others are things I’m really happy I did. In hopes that you can continue to learn from my mistakes for the future, here goes nothing:

• I’m so happy with my decision to buy a new camera for the trip. I was able to take some great pictures and videos and thought the camera was well worth the investment. On the flip side, one thing I learned was to pack more memory than you think you need. Or at the very lease know your camera. Because I wasn’t used to my new camera, I didn’t realize just how much memory I needed for all the HD videos I took. I ended up having to borrow memory cards from 2 friends and sadly still had to buy a memory card on board, which was an incredible rip-off. Not again.
  
  
• Twice as many girls on board equals ten times as much drama. Did anyone else feel an exponential increase in drama this year? I suppose this isn’t really a lesson learned, but rather something I wasn’t as well prepared for. Jealousy doesn’t exactly bring out the best side of people.
  
  
• I also realized just how important it is to share the experience with girls who are on the same page as you. What I mean is that you and your friends need to be in agreement on what is acceptable behavior in any given scenario. You don’t want to hold someone back if they want to go camp outside of Nick’s cabin and you find that a little stalkerish; nor do you want to feel guilty camping outside Nick’s cabin while your friends give you weird looks. I’ve been on both sides of the equation before and it’s not fun. I found this cruise I surrounded myself with people who were all largely on the same page as me, which made the experience a lot more enjoyable.
  
  
• Things never happen as they play out in my head. Sometimes it goes better than I ever could’ve dreamed, and other times my crazy imagination led to me feeling disappointed. Don’t allow me to do any fantasizing before the next cruise.
  
  
• Despite my best efforts, I still wasn’t able to meet up with all the girls I had wanted to on the ship. I regret not making a better effort towards meeting some of my friends I had been talking to for months, and sadly now I may not get the opportunity for another year and half. Next time I need to come up with a better system than just ‘winging it’ on the ship.
  
  
• Don’t go away on any sort of strenuous vacation before the cruise in attempts to prolong your trip. Next time I’ll probably still do something before the cruise, but it will just be good ole rest and relaxation. Nothing where I can risk getting myself sick again.
  
  
• I’m really happy I decided to stay up every night and not miss out on any of the excitement. I have no regrets with missing anything this year because I was sleeping instead.
  
  
• I regret not trying harder (or at all) to participate in any of the games with the Backstreet Boys. I knew the drill of what to do to get picked for the events, but I didn’t even bother out of fear. I’m a very shy person and I didn’t want to get myself on stage in a situation that I was uncomfortable with. Even though I probably wouldn’t have gotten picked anyway, I regret not even trying. Next cruise, I vow to at least try!
  
  
• My biggest lesson that I wouldn’t say is newly learned, but rather reinforced is that life isn’t always fair. This cruise is the epitome of that statement. 

 Anyone else going to do things differently next time? I know I can't be alone on this.