Recap 2014: Day 2 (Part 3)

I'm still on cloud 9 from the Howie and Kevin interactions that I just had, but the day was far from over. We still had the In a World Like This Redux concert as well as Halloween night.

In a World Like This Redux Concert

This concert was sooo amazing. Not at all what I was expecting, but absolutely for the better! I was expecting the In a World Like This concert, with just a few modifications. But this was an entirely different show. It was very laid back and reminiscent of the 2011 cruise concert. They did a few classics but a lot of songs we rarely get to hear. And some songs we haven't heard in ages!

A random picture of Nick from the concert for no particular reason

Set List

Backstreet's Back
Hey Mr. DJ
(AJ Talk)
If I Knew Then
ALAYLM
(Brian Talk)
Undone
That's the Way I Like It
Permanent Stain
(Nick Talk)
Siberia
Just to be Close
More than That
(Howie Talk)
Hot Hot Hot
IWITW
IAWLT
(Kevin Talk)
STMH
The Call

There were so many awesome moments of this show:

• Brian messing up his intro. I absolutely love how many goofs they have during the cruise concerts! And somehow this segued into a random chorus of DMXs 'Up in Here'
  
  "Oh crap, I got the wrong one." - Brian
• Nick's incredibly cheesy introduction of Siberia, "In this place, on this next song, it's very cold."
• Howie's equally cheesy intro of Hot Hot Hot, "Nick sang a song that had a cold temperature. Now this song has the opposite temperature."
  Seriously boys?! Good thing I love cheesy intros.
• Brian's tale on how rehearing for Just to be Close was a "trainwreck."
  
  
  Brian explaining how Just to be Close made the set list
• AJ- "Is it me or was Ariel like the sexiest Disney princess ever? Oh and Elsa was pretty hot."
  The best part of this line is the sheer randomness of it. It came out of nowhere.
• Kev brought out his 'INBYH' deep throaty voice at one point
• Hearing songs we'd never thought we'd hear again (Straight Through My Heart & Undone)- and with Kevin!
• Hearing songs we REALLY never thought we'd hear again (Just to be Close)
  
  Just to be Close a capella

My personal highlight of the show was actually As Long as You Love Me. Now this is a song I would never expect to be at the top of my list as I've heard it hundreds of times. But during this particular rendition, none other than Nick came down the aisle and stopped to sing to me for a few lines. In reality it lasted probably 2 seconds, but in the moment it felt a lot longer than that. Thank you, Ana, for capturing that moment!

Oh you know, Nick singing to me. No big deal

I think it was right around 'That's the Way I Like It' I actually got quite emotional and got a little teary eyed from being so happy. It was a culmination of all the events of the day - playing blackjack with Howie, chilling with Kevin before the show, having Nick "serenade" me during ALAYLM (albeit super brief, but I'm counting it!) ...and then experiencing this amazing one-of-a-kind concert. It just all caught up to me. I just felt like the luckiest girl in the world and I didn't know what I did to deserve this kind of luck.

Just to be Close

Bri singing his heart out (eyes closed of course)

This concert ranks up there as one of my top BSB concerts. I think it was partly due to the experiences I had early that night, but it was so nice singing and dancing to this phenomenal set list without a care in the world. Even the little things like taking my shoes off and having carpet under my feet. How often does that happen at a concert....never! There was just such an energy in the room and I love being at a concert where everyone is a die hard fan like myself. There's no judgment. Everyone knows all the words to all the songs. There's nothing like it. I reallllllly hope they do something like this again.

Post-Concert

After the concert I went back to cabin to change for Halloween night. Well soon after I got there, a fan whom I never had met approached me. I figured she was going to look at the door or perhaps recognize me from my blog. But instead she shared some exciting news...

She was a few cabins down the hall from me and told me that AJ was headed in the direction of my cabin. She overheard him say, "I've gotta see this f*ckin FRIENDS door." Apparently he was headed our way, but there was a mob of fans that deterred him and he retreated back down the opposite hall his own cabin. Queue me freaking out!

I had mentioned the door to AJ earlier during the meet & greet, but based on my interactions, he didn't seem to fully process the information. And understandably so, I was just a number in a sea of hundreds of girls he was meeting. Meanwhile I had several friends and fans tell me that they mentioned the door to AJ or planned to tell him. So based on this amazing update, I'm inferring that he must've heard about it enough to the point where he actually intended to come see it.

I really hoped he would get to see the door, so now I'm super excited and my dreams are starting to turn into a reality. And with all the luck I've already been having on the cruise thus far, I was really hopeful my good luck would continue just a little bit longer! The only downside of this news - there's no way I was going to miss him if he came to visit my cabin. So from this point forward, I knew I would be glued to my cabin until he came.

Halloween Night

Given the recent update about AJ and my door, I decided to stay back and hang around my cabin in the hopes that AJ would come by before they went up for the deck party. Plus it was cold outside, so I didn't have any problem being comfortable and resting before heading up to the lido deck.

Alas, he did not show up. So I went up to the deck party, clad in my repeat outfit from last year. I went as Spudnik, from FRIENDS. It seemed very fitting and I didn't have much creativity (nor budget) to come up with anything different for this cruise.

Chrissy, me, and Anne Marie

By now I'm sure everyone has seen the pictures. But in case you live under a rock, the boys came out dressed as the cast of Wizard of Oz.

AJ- Scarecrow
Brian- Lion
Howie- Tinman
Kevin- Wicked witch
Nick- Dorothy

BSB as the Wizard of Oz

My fave was of course Nick dressed up as Dorothy. He was complete with the red ruby shoes and even lipstick. AJ, "It's not every day you see Nick Carter in drag." Very true, AJ, very true. Nick on the other hand didn't look as happy with the costume assignment...

Why does no one seem happy except for AJ?

Once again, the Halloween party didn't have a whole lot of meat to it. It's pretty clear that the boys are really shifting their deck parties to a more 'after party' type of atmosphere where it's basically selfie-hour. Which I inherently don't have a problem with as they're coming to hang with us, but in all honesty, there isn't a lot to do other than chase down the boys for a picture. 

I stayed put on the upper deck, waiting patiently for one of the boys to come upstairs. And AJ was the first and only boy to come up my way that night. Thus I was able to get a picture with scarecrow AJ. Yippee! So now I have 2 pictures with AJ dressed up as Spudnik. Go figure! Not only is AJ actually looking at the camera this year, but I also didn't poke his eye with his antenna this time :P

The scarecrow and Spudnik

Halloween Night from the 2013 cruise

He was very nice and immediately recognized my outfit, "Spudnik, right?!" He appeared excited at the reference and said he loved my costume. He then went on to quote a few lines from that episode and I just remember he kept saying "Doody!" Which again is a reference to the episode, for those of you don't watch the show. I was super tempted to bring up my door decoration, after all, I had the perfect segue. But I didn't want to beat him over the head with it.

So basically both times I've interacted with AJ on this cruise involved potty talk. The first time during 70s night he made a joke about balls. The second time he jokes about doody. I'm not really sure what to do with that random factoid, but just felt the need to point that out. Ha!

Unfortunately Halloween night was just getting going and the sky opened up. Rain, rain, and more rain. I held my ground for a bit, but then the rain really started coming down. One by one the boys fled as well. Such a bummer! I really wanted a picture with Nick as Dorothy. Obviously they cant control the weather, but I found it funny that the night prior they moved the event inside and no rain. The night it actually rained they held outside.

They moved the party indoors to the atrium, but sadly none of the Backstreet Boys returned to the party. Definitely a shame that the night had to be cut short, but I went to bed that night with the biggest smile on my face from all the excitement of the day.