Recap 2016: Day 1 Part 2

BSB Game Night (Group B)
After the deck party it was time to go to the game show. First thing I noticed upon entering the theater is that I liked the setup much better than Carnival's because they don't have those annoying cocktail tables in the way. I was fortunate to have a good seat, but from what I could gather there were far less obstructed views than we've experienced in the past.

In case you missed it – the game show was structured by dividing the boys into 2 groups and having fans join each team. Kevin & Brian were on the Kentucky cousins team while AJ, Brian, and Nick made up the Florida team. Once in teams – both sides were competing in a bunch of mini games similar to what you’d see on Hollywood Game Night. Trivia games.

Highlights of the game show

• A lot of the boys trying to hit each other in their private areas. What else is new?
• During the coin flip, as the teams were calling it, Nick makes the joke “Howie wants head.” This would be the start of a string of similarly themed jokes. 
• Jen explains the rules of charades, a very common party game in my opinion.
  Jen - “Does this make sense?”
  Nick (with a clueless look on his face) “Not at all.”
  Only made funnier by Howie and AJ sitting next to him nodding and clearly understanding the rules.
  Nick’s lucky he’s good looking.
  

  

  Clueless Nick

• Nick had a mini outburst that the other team during charades “Are you freakin’ serious!? Why did you give them elementary school words?”
  (I totally agree though. You can’t really compare words like ‘Bane’ and ‘Two-Face’ to ‘frog’ ‘glasses’ and ‘broom’.)
• After this round – Nick got serious. He rearranged the furniture, took off his shoes, and was uber-focused on winning this round. I found it endearing.
• Howie trying to act out the word ‘condom’ followed by the word ‘sex toy’ were the highlights of my night. And in context, he is the only one who got dirty words!
• The boys try to guess world capitals...I suppose they did better than I thought but there were a few gems:
  Brian thought the capital of Singapore was Malaysia
  Nick, Howie and AJ guess every other city in Canada except Ottawa
• AJ teaches Brian ‘real dancing’
• Nick logs an official dispute over whether or not King Kong won an Oscar. Gets very heated over the issue. Later in the show a fan in the audience looks it up and says it won 3 Oscars. He proceeds to victoriously jump around the stage yelling it ‘suck it!’
  
  
  Nick getting himself quite worked up
• Kevin shares a story about how the boys backed out of meeting the pope, which prevented Howie from being able to meet him because the pope would only meet them if all 5 boys were present.
  Geez, pope is greedy! I would gladly take any 1 Backstreet Boy no questions asked.

And the most infamous moment of the game show that would later become an inside joke of this cruise. Just watch....

2 Words. Eddie. Murphy

Game Show in a Nut Shell
Since we never did get a survey, I get to let all my thoughts and critiques out here. So buckle up!

My overall take of the game show. It was good, but a few little nits or suggestions for improvement for next time. During certain games we were watching their backs as they acted out things to the rest of their team. And its funny because at one point they even realized that, said it aloud, but nothing was done to fix it. While generally I don't have a problem starting at a Backstreet Boys' back side, we definitely missed something as a result.

The other problem I realized this time around  is there was definitely a language barrier with some of the fans on stage.  I'm not saying that to put anyone down, but unfortunately the games required knowing English and as a result, it seemed like the majority of fans didn't really participate. As a spectator, I didn't overly mind because it meant more BSB. But I think if they were going to do this again in the future, staff needs to be cognizant of this when designing the games or selecting fans who are fully able to participate.

Aside from those 2 minor things, I really did enjoy it. The game show is always good for a laugh and this was no exception. And with that, here's a random picture of Kevin doing some odd dance during at the game show....

Honestly not sure how to caption what Kev is up to here

In a World Like This Deck Party
For this event I didn't put a whole lot into this outfit. I decided to whip out Nick's 'All American' T-shirt and call it a day. Plus, I figure this would be the only place I'd actually wear this article of clothing, so may as well take advantage.

Well, this event was a little bit wet. And by a little bit, I mean it POURED! I felt so bad for the girls standing in front of the stage without an umbrella. I was standing on the upper deck, huddled with 3 friends under the 2 umbrellas we had to share between us. We were using each other to keep warm that night. I kept looking over to the security guard standing near us, trying to get an inclination as to what was going on. If history has taught me anything, I knew it would be moved inside. But he kept insisting that they still intended to hold it outside. Ugh!! So I continued to wait.

I'd say after 45 minutes of standing in the cold rain I finally had enough and started to make my way inside. Well as timing would have it, just as I was headed to my cabin to dry off, I noticed a bunch of fans were scurrying inside and headed downstairs. So I aborted my mission of going to the cabin and was able to find myself 1st row (though quickly pushed back to the 2nd row) in front of the stage in the atrium.

When the guys came out, I was happy to see that they chose to represent their hometowns, as opposed to the last international night we had, where they each chose to dress from a random country. Nick was a Tampa Bay Bucs football player. Howie look like Disney World threw up on him (and i mean that in the nicest possible way!) Kevin wore an Abe Lincoln get up. And sadly it took me waaay to long to realize that Abe Lincoln was born in Kentucky, hence the outfit. AJ wore an Orlando Magic jersey. Lastly Brian wore a US boxer outfit.

So serious, Mr. Lincoln

A few highlights of the evening:

Boys arriving during In a World Like This Night

 

Brian fighting himself

I got a shot from Nick!

Me and Brian

This night brought mixed emotions for me. It was exciting to be in the front and get a chance to be up close and personal with the guys. Grab a few decent snapshots and videos.

BUT...

I can't even begin to tell you how uncomfortable I was in the crowd. There was SO much pushing and shoving :( I was repeatedly slammed into the stage and surrounded by a couple drunk girls. One by one my friends had to have the bodyguards remove them from the crowd. Yeah, it was that bad. Given how much time I had already put in....I really wanted to get a picture with Howie and get the heck out of there.

A few bruises later, I was finally able to get my picture with Howie, which I was so excited about! But then I went to look at it, and this happened....

Me, Howie, and a Selfie Stick.....

My motto has always been 'any picture with BSB is a good picture'. But how disappointing that I put myself through so much discomfort to have another fan ruin my picture. Bla! After I got my picture, I had the bodyguards remove me from the mob. I just couldn't handle it anymore and I vowed that from this point on, I' wasn't going to bother trying to get up front. Just not worth it on this cruise. Fortunately this was the first and last time I experienced the crazy pushing this cruise.

At this point I was beat and wanted to go back to my cabin and recuperate a bit. I must've tried 4 different exit strategies but the mobs of crowds and security made it nearly impossible to get back to my room. I kept getting blocked by a Backstreet Boy. (Hmm, well there's something I never thought i would ever complain about! ha!)

I finally made it to my deck but was on the opposite end of my hall. I was struggling to get my bearings because the hall was blocked off because of the boys security. Well as I was standing there talking to the security guard explaining my dilemma, lo and behold Nick walks right up. There were only 5 of us fans there so he stopped and took pics with all of us!! I was so grateful because he is notorious for being tough to get a picture with. Major score!! I just hope he didn't think I was sitting there waiting all night for him. That was pure dumb luck.

Nick and I during 'In a World Like This' Night

I was on a crazy roller coaster of emotions towards the end of the night. Had some great highs getting pics with the boys. But a few lows with all the pushing. Alas I finally reunited with the rest of my roommates and was so disheartened to hear that their night was not going well. Apparently the staff told a bunch of fans that half of the Backstreet Boys would go up to the club and the other half would stay in the atrium. Great in theory, but that never happened. All they got was a 2 minute appearance from Nick. It put things into perspective for me....yes I was pushed all over the place, but at least I got to see the boys.

In efforts to make the best of this night, we all went back out to assess the situation and see what was going on. And by assess the situation, get a GPS coordinate on each boy:

• Howie in the club
• Kevin downstairs taking pictures side stage but with a mob
• Nick - who the hell knows
• Brian - Probably asleep
• AJ - Taking pictures with a nice orderly line.
  Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner folks! 

Sidebar - I feel like every hour on the hour my friends and I are constantly surveying where each boy is at any given time..... "Nick was last seen heading to his cabin." "Howie's currently in the casino." "I heard Brian's taking a few pictures in the atrium. Move, move, move!"I know that can't just be us. We need trackers on these boys and just make it easier on everyone!

Anyway, even though I already received a picture with AJ earlier in the day, it really seemed like the best option at time. There really wasn't anything else going on so I hopped in line. I had probably been waiting 20 minutes or so when Robbie (AJ's bodyguard) said that AJ was going to leave in 10 minutes. Noooo! There was no question I was still more than 10 minutes away.

Yet another sidebar - I thought Robbie was super awesome!! He did his primary job to keep AJ safe. But he also made sure to keep the fans in order, which I SUPER appreciated. He made sure that no one was cutting in line and really did a good job of enforcing that. I wish we could have more of this!

Back to AJ!

So when Robbie made his announcement, a good number of girls left the line but I figured I'll stay put. Knowing AJ, he's so good about doing pics with fans. And I definitely made the right decision. I finally made my way up front and got a hug from AJ and got my pic. My roommate, Cory,  went before me and told him about our door again. Another seed planted! So when it was my turn, I thought it would be fun to switch up the poses and I asked him to do a 'Friends' pose. So we did the 'F-U fist bump' or whatever you want to call it.

AJ and I doing a 'FRIENDS' pose

Didn't turn out to be my favorite picture but it's something different :)

In a World Like This in a Nut Shell
So, as much as I hate to say it, logistically - this whole night was a mess. They kept us out in the pouring rain for, what felt like forever. They clearly weren't well prepared to move us inside because the atrium space couldn't accommodate everyone, forcing them to shepherd a bunch of fans to the club. A good number of fans never got to see the boys as a result. Meanwhile those who did stay in the atrium - the space (including the stage) was way too small to do much of anything with.

Personally - I clearly had a lot of luck that night getting pictures and brief interactions with the boys. And for that I'm very thankful!! The boys themselves did a good job of mingling with the fans, but as a result there was no entertainment or anything beyond getting selfies and I think that's partially why I was able to have so much luck. I've mentioned it time and time again but my favorite deck parties are actually the ones where the guys do a mix of entertaining the crowds AND mingling. This party was very heavy on the mingling and not so much with the entertaining. It worked out for me, but still not my favorite deck party.

The Itinerary Has Arrived for #BSBCruise2016!

It's my favorite day of the year! It's like Christmas in April! Without further ado...the Itinerary. My thoughts and analysis below.

BSB Cruise 2016 - Itinerary

Day One: Tuesday May 10, 2015

12:00PM- 2:30PM                   Arrival Onboard Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas

4:15PM                                    Mandatory Emergency Boat Drill

5:00PM                                    Anchors Away Sail Away Party – Pool Deck 11 & 12

6:00PM                                    Dinner Group A

6:00PM                                    Doors Open Group B* Pacifica Theatre Deck 5 & 6

6:30PM                                    BSB Game Night Group B Pacifica Theatre

8:15PM                                    Dinner Group B

9:00PM                                    Doors Open Group A* Pacifica Theatre Deck 5 & 6

9:30PM                                    BSB Game Night Group A Pacifica Theatre

11:30PM                                  IN A WORLD LIKE THIS deck party – Deck 11 & 12

Day Two: Wednesday May 11, 2016

CANNES FRANCE
Arrival at 9:00 AM
All guests must be back onboard by 5:30 PM

6:00PM                                    Photo Session Group B – Colony Club Deck 5

6:00PM                                    Dinner Group A

8:30PM                                    Dinner Group B

9:00PM                                    Doors Open Group A* Pacifica Theatre Deck 5&6

9:30PM                                    Show Em What You’re Made Of Acoustic Hour Group A Pacifica Theatre

11:30PM                                  A NIGHT AT THE CINEMA Deck Party – Deck 11 & 12

Day Three: Thursday May 12, 2016

LIVORNO ITALY
Arrival at 7:00 AM
All guests must be back onboard by 6:30 PM

6:00PM                                                Dinner Group A

6:30PM                                                Mix it up with Howie D – Pool Deck 11 & 12

7:00PM                                                Doors Open Group A

7:30PM                                                Dead 7 Screening and Q+A Group A

8:30PM                                                Dinner Group B

10:00PM                                              Doors Open Group B* Pacifica Theatre Deck 5&6

10:15PM                                              Show Em What You’re Made Of Acoustic Hour Group B Pacifica Theatre

12:00AM                                             CASINO ROYALE DECK PARTY – DECK 11&12

Day Four: Friday May 13, 2016

DAY AT SEA

10:00AM – 2:00PM                             Blackjack Tournaments – Casino

11:00AM                                             Photo Session Group A – Colony Club Deck 5

2:00PM                                             Feed the Body & Soul with the Littrell’s-Pool Deck

2:45PM                                                One on One with Kevy Kev - Pool Deck

3:30PM                                                The Friday Tease with AJ McLean - Pool Deck

4:00PM                                                BSB: Behind the Scenes– Pool Deck

5:00PM                                                Just to be Close to You: A Guinness World Record Attempt – Pool Deck

6:00PM                                                BSB Trivia with Rose Tours

6:00PM                                                Preferred Event – Colony Club – Only those who booked Suites, D1, DP or DAS cabins can attend

6:00PM                                                Dinner Group A

7:00PM                                                Doors Open Group B Pacifica Theatre Deck 5&6

7:30PM                                                Dead 7 Screening and Q+A Group B Pacifica Theatre

8:30PM                                                Dinner Group B

8:30PM                                                Blackjack Tournament Final Table– Casino

11:00PM                                              50 Shades of BSB Leather & Lace Deck Party – Deck 11 & 12

Other Royal Caribbean activities are available to all guests, please check the dailies for times and locations.

*all events subject to change*

Day Five: Saturday May 14, 2016

Day of Debarkation
8:00 AM                                              Arrive at Port of Barcelona Cruise Terminal

Additional Information

* Guests with Early Dining are in Group A.
* Guests with Late Dining are in Group B.

* You will receive your dining room assignment at check in.  Seating in the dining rooms is open.
Please arrive at assigned dining room with your party, the Maitre D’ will seat you. Reservations can be made to any of the specialty restaurants.

Merchandise Store Hours:
The merchandise store is located in the Gift shop on Deck 5.

Day One: Tuesday May 10, 2016
5:30PM – 11:00PM

Day Two: Wednesday May 11, 2016
6:30PM – 11:00PM

Day Three: Thursday May 12, 2016
7:30PM – 11:00PM

Day Four Friday May 13, 2016
10:00AM – 11:00PM 

Hospitality Desk Hours:
The Hospitality Desk is located near the Royal Caribbean guest services desk on Deck 4.

Day One: Tuesday May 10, 2016
4:00PM – 8:00PM

Day Two: Wednesday May 11, 2016
9:00PM – 10:00PM

Day Three: Thursday May 12, 2016
8:00PM – 10:00PM

Day Four: Friday May 13, 2016
8:00PM – 10:00PM


My Thoughts/Pre-Cruise Analysis

I am THRILLED with the itinerary. Seems like Rose Tours and the staff have really listened to feedback and are trying some new things and bringing back some fan favorites.

Solo Events
I love that they brought back solo events for each of the guys, which is very exciting! It really helps fill up the day and give us cruisers a ton more activity, while still giving the guys not as much work. You figure while any given Backstreet Boy is doing his event, the other 4 can rest. Win/Win in my mind!

We already have details on Kevin and Brain's solo events. Mix it Up with Howie D....not sure what to fully expect here. But I'd be willing to bet a hefty sum that alcohol will be involved in some capacity. I really loved his last solo event, so that will be tough to top, but I'm loving where it's headed. 

'The Friday Tease with AJ McLean' is super intriguing! I literally have no guesses here, but if its at the pool deck, I'm sure we'll have a great time no matter what he's doing. Any guesses??

Nick's Dead 7 Screening....as a Nick girl I'm slightly disappointed. I think there's a good number of fans who've already seen the movie, myself included. Thus I'm personally not anticipating this event as much as the others. But hopefully the fans who haven't gotten a chance to see it yet will enjoy. And I'm optimistic that the Q&A portion will be a lot of fun!

Game Show
I always love the game shows, so glad they're keeping a cruise classic. I do find it very interesting that they don't have details on the game show announced yet. Generally for past cruises, they've told us in the itinerary what the game would be. Maybe they're still trying to figure it out ;)

BSB Behind the Scenes
This sounds super exciting!! Obviously not sure what to expect here, but based on the description, it sounds like an event I've always wanted. I think it may be my business/marketing background, but I'm just fascinated by the business of the Backstreet Boys and what goes into their brand - the marketing, the legal, the finances, all of it! Heck, Howie always says that being a Backstreet Boys and being in show business is just as much about the show, as it is the business. I hope we get a glimpse into this.

Concert
We already knew we were getting an acoustic concert. I suppose the new piece of information here is they're clearly calling it "Acoustic Hour". Thus I suppose we should psyche ourselves for an hour-long event. I was hoping for a little longer, but then again, can we ever have a Backstreet Boy concert that's long enough? I'd always want more!

Blackjack Tournaments
Seems like they're bring back blackjack, which is good. Hopefully my luck from last year will continue. I do wonder which Backstreet Boy will be hosting though, as the itinerary didn't state. In years past its been Howie and AJ. So we'll see if they keep taking turns, or perhaps Howie & AJ are the resident card sharks.
Also - keep your eyes peeled for another email from Rose Tours on this. They've generally done sign-ups in advance.

Just to be Close to You: A Guinness World Record Attempt
The Backstreet Boys do seem to like to take after the New Kids, and on the last New Kids cruise they tried to break the record for the most number of selfies in a given time. If I was a betting woman, I'd say the guys will try to do this. Plus with the event name 'Just to be Close to You'...I think it adds up. It'd be great if all the Backstreet Boys participate, but I for some reason I bet AJ would be the host of this event. He does like his selfies!

BSB Trivia with Rose Tours
I have mixed emotions. I am really happy they've finally added in bonus events like this that don't involve the guys, but still are Backstreet related. It sounds like sooo much fun! The reason I have mixed emotions is because they scheduled the 'Preferred Event' at the same time so I won't be able to go #SpoiledBSBFanProblems

Preferred Event
I'm glad they didn't forget about this one! No further clues as to what the event will be, except the fact that its held in the Colony Club. See picture below. If nothing else, the room size tells us about how many fans to expect at this event. I'm really excited though!

Overall 
I am sad that there's no beach party. Even though we already knew that, I suppose I still had some hope they might change their mind. It's definitely a bit different that we have 2 entire days with no events during the day. Depending if you're in Group A or B....one of those days at port will be pretty light on BSB. 

I'm also sad there's no Q&A. That's always a favorite event of mine. But I most certainly not going to dwell on that. I realize they can't do everything, even though I wish they could. 


The other thing I noticed about the itinerary is that for Group A, a couple of events conflict with dinner: the Preferred Event as well as Howie's solo event. Fortunately I'm in group B so it doesn't impact me. But even if I was, hands down, I'd choose the BSB events and skip dinner. Just part of the sacrifice of a BSB cruise.


Also - I'm already anticipating how tired I'm going to be on that last sea day! Its going to be so busy but so much fun! Its really starting to feel real!

In it to Win It Unabridged (Group B)

Since I was in Group B- I'm going to recap Group B's game show. I still haven't decided if I'll do a version for Group A or not, I'll see how the mood strikes me later. But since the shows were quite different, there's a good chance I will. For now let's focus on Group B's In it to win It. I'll run through the boring stuff real quick and explain how the game was set up. Then we'll get into the good stuff.

This was the first event that took place in the main lounge and it was based off the TV show- Minute to Win It. So for this Backstreet version of the game show they brought up 4 fans and 4 Backstreet Boys (obviously) to participate in various challenges that each lasted one minute. They were split into 2 teams. Yellow team consisted of AJ, Howie and two lucky fans. Blue team consisted of Brian, Nick and two lucky fans.

Now for the fun stuff.

Of course the boys start off with some general antics. I wouldn't expect anything less. Brian enters in a life vest. Then they start by stretching out.

AJ- "It's like jazzercise with the Backstreet Boys."

Then the smack talk beings.

Nick- “Hey, team pee pee because of the yellow shirts. You guys are so dead.”
AJ- “Team blue balls. Whatever. Its all good. We got this.”
Nick- “Hey at least we got the cajones man.”
Then enters the voice of reason, Brian- “You know what. My wife is here.”

And Brian effectively ends the smack talk...for now.

1.  Nervous Nelly - The first game was called Nervous Nelly and the goal was to see which team could rack up the most mileage, measured by pedometers worn on their arms and legs. Nick and AJ went head to head in this round. Without having even been there, you probably could guess who won. AJ isn't exactly the most in shape, as he would later point out himself joking that he "needs to quit smoking."

Howie also joked that he wanted the song "we work out" to play during this challenge. Nick also asked if anyone has seen Black Sheep before the game began. I haven't seen it, so not sure what the reference was getting at.

During the game the AJ and Nick were running around stage flailing their arms. Nick tried laying down at one point (not sure his logic there) and also tried jumping jacks. Brian tried to go hold AJs arms down at one point, thus AJ went and tried to do the same thing to Nick. Unfortunately AJ's efforts didn't pay off and the blue team won.

2.  Nose Dive - This was quite the interesting game to watch. No idea who comes up with this stuff. The rules for this game was to see which team could get more cotton balls from from a bowl A to bowl B in 60 seconds only using their nose covered in petroleum jelly. So random.

Howie- “Wait, my nose never gets between balls. That’s for sure. AJ, you gotta do it”

So all the boys are running back and forth on stage with cotton balls on their nose. After time was up, Brian started arguing that the yellow team didn't technically have all their cotton balls in the bowl, they were spilling over the side. I never realized just how competitive he was before!

AJ- “I have to say for once, I’m actually glad my nose is as big as it is.”
(Picture from Justin Segura)

Oh by the way, the muppets song was playing while the game was going on, which made Nick happy. Nick and AJ started singing some muppets at the end while they were tallying up points. Winners were finally announced- yellow team ended up winning this one.

3.  Orange Pass - Here's where the games started taking a turn into a more sexual direction. As the name suggests, basically you had to transport an orange from one end of the stage to the other. The twist is that each BSB was paired with a fan and they had to move the orange by keeping it in between their chins. Both teams took a different approach on how to go about this, causing the judges to want to throw this round out. Blue would've won, so Brian didn't want to redo the round. He claimed they "played betterly." Nick chimes in and repeats the rules because he felt they obeyed the rules. AJ wants the audience to vote. Jen declares it a tie. Nick starts whining that it isn't fair.

The only simple conclusion- play the round again. Now they decide to play the game as it should be played. Thus they do it relay style and pass the orange down from chin to chin to chin to chin to bowl. Blue team still doesn't get the concept and does the exact same thing as last time. Nick's solution- steal the yellow teams bowl of oranges and run away with it so they can't play. The whole thing turns into a cluster but its incredibly amusing. I don't think they ever ended up declaring a winner for this game, so moving right along...

4.  Coconut Smoochie - This was the highlight of the event and all hell broke loose. Each Backstreet Boy was paired with a fan and they had a coconut placed between them and...well you know what. Just watch:

Highly entertaining to say the least

Nick and his partner ended up winning this round, giving points to the blue team. Brian can also be seen after the game juggling the coconuts, and then holding 2 coconuts inappropriately. Seriously- who is this man and what did he do with Brian?

5.  Wreath Relay Pt 1/ Pt 2 - The boys started getting us in the holiday season with this event, donning their cute little Christmas hats. Once again the boys lined up, this time holding hands and the goal was to pass a Christmas wreath through all 4 people and back without using their hands (notice a theme). Before the game got started, Brian had fun serenading a tiny Christmas tree. In a high pitched voice he started singing "oh Christmas tree." The whole room was laughing, with the exception of the other Backstreet Boys. I think since they're around each other practically 24/7 they are just so unaffected by Brian's antics. Brian also starts imitating Justin Bieber, with the fake hair flip and all. I find that quite amusing. He then starts singing Jingle Bells to the tree during the yellow team's round. Then he starts making fun of AJ for clarifying the rules, so he does his imitation of AJ with no butt. Basically a lot of Brian antics this round. I was too busy laughing to actually watch the event.

Brian looking cute in his santa hat

Yellow team did relatively pretty well. Howie ended up dropping the wreath at one point. Blue team went next and they skipped a person. You could very easily see AJ and Howie making a hubbub in the background over the blue team cheating. They weren't about to let them get away with that so easily. Their complaining must've paid off because yellow team ended up winning.

6.  Laundry Day Relay - This was certainly a fun one to watch. Each member of the team had to wear a bunch of articles of female clothing, run to the other side, undress, and then their teammate would do the same. Nick goofed briefly in the beginning and ran over with just 1 article of clothing on but he recovered quickly from his mistake. In the end, Brian was the only BSB who didn't have a chance to go.

I never thought I'd see Howie in a bra. AJ yes, but Howie no.

I found it most amusing to see the Backstreet Boys operate the bra. Nick actually put it on properly and even hooked up in the back. I was impressed. Though in the end he slipped it off like a pair of pants. Why he didn't go over the head, we'll never know. Howie seemed to slip it on from the back, like a jacket. And AJ seemed to know how to get it on properly as well. No surprises there.

In the end, yellow team prevailed this round.

7.  Mini Bikes - Yet another fun game to watch. The players had to pedal a mini bike across the stage and back, through a few minor obstacles. They were almost going to let them carry the bikes across the stage, but Brian immediately yelled "No! No, no, no, no, no, no." as if we were trying to commit some sort of felony. Nick offered that since he is the tallest and still felt he could pedal, that they should be okay. Then the game began.

Howie fell twice. Nick fell three times and was clearly struggling. I couldn't really count AJ's mess-ups because in essence he walked his bike across the stage. And Brian rode that bike like a pro. Made me think that when he's not being a Backstreet Boy, he's practicing mini bike riding in his free time. He literally completed his whole portion in the time AJ went 2 feet. He put everyone else to shame.

Brian was also very sweet and helped his teammates steer the bike/stay on. This match was too close to call so they had the audience vote- causing the blue team to win.

8.  Balloon Pop - As the name suggests, the team who could pop the most balloons in a minute would win. After Jen explains the incredibly simple rules, she states "Now lets make sure Nick understands this." Now that she pointed it out...he really did need a further explanation for the majority of the games. Meanwhile AJ got very concerned over the fact that the blue team had 2 players wearing heels and the yellow team only had 1 player with heels. Jen dismissed his concerns and the game commenced...

Brian and AJ randomly start 'wrestling' in the middle

Im pretty sure the blue team ended up winning this round.

9.  Flip Cup - A college classic. However as they pointed out, not all the Backstreet Boys went to college to know their way around a flip cup game. So in case you're like any of those boys- the idea is to drink all the liquid inside a cup, in this case water, and then you have to flip the cup 180 degrees so its standing up right on the table.

Howie apparently was complaining that his water had ice in it. Though he ended up having bigger problems than the ice. It took him 21 attempts to get it flipped over. Despite Howie's set back, the yellow team took a commanding lead. So Brian thought that would be a good opportunity to cheat a bit and blow AJs cup over as he was trying to flip it over. Enter Howie to jump on top of Brian to prevent the blowing. Despite Brian's best efforts, yellow team ended up taking the win on this game.

Howie somewhere around attempt #17

The final score ended up being Team Blue with 3,375 points and Team Yellow with 3,400 points. Thus team pee pee won. The boys were good sports about it though.

Brian and AJ hugging it out

Overall this was a ton of fun to watch. They also did little commercials in between the mini games, which was a nice touch. They mostly consisted of commercials from their earlier days; a lot from overseas. Nick seemed to really be into watching those.

I'm truly surprised Brian participated in some of these events, but so glad he did. I wished they had switched up the fans in between the events to give more people a chance to play, especially since they did that for group A. Could've increased my odds ever so slightly getting a chance to do something amazing like that with them.

What I learned from this event. All the boys are very competitive. They also are willing to cheat on numerous occasions to make that happen. Many of the boys also don't know the rules to seemingly simple common knowledge games.

2010 vs 2011

Happy New Year everyone! Before we kick off 2012, I wanted to take a look at the 2010 cruise vs the 2011 cruise. Now for my reviews I really tried not to compare the two cruises. But there were definitely a bunch of differences, both positive and negative. So I'm getting it all out there now.

Most Improved

• Kevin. Don't think I need to elaborate much on this point. Loved having him there.
• Beach Party- All around this event was a much bigger success than last year. Logistically I thought the venue worked better because they had a nice big stage and anywhere you stood you pretty much had a good view. They also did a ton more events.
• Sail Away Party- This was a new addition in 2011 and I really liked having a proper start to the cruise. Sure it helped I was front row for this event, but still a great way to get everyone pumped for the cruise to come.
• Pajama Night- Probably the most successful theme night across both cruises. I loved how they added the truth or dare element to it to make it more entertaining for everyone in attendance.
• Had a nice event/last evening to bring the cruise to a proper end. Last cruise that was a huge complaint.
• Concert- LOVED the unplugged concert this year and the fact we could vote on the set list.
• Lots of fun banners and signs around the ship, which they couldn't do last time.
• The Backstreet Boys themselves appeared to be a lot more interactive with fans and comfortable with the whole experience AT the events. Last year you could tell they were very apprehensive, but by this year they definitely let loose.
• I thought they did a much better job of trying to give everyone their “special moment” with the boys. Lots of opportunities at the concert to go on stage, at the beach party to play games, karaoke, game shows, even at deck parties. Even though I wasn’t so lucky, its nice that a lot of girls were.
• Game Show- Debatable if this was improved or not. I thought the quality of the show was better and more entertaining than last year. Though last year we had 2 game shows. So I suppose it about evens out.
• Howie! Don't know where that Howie has been hiding all these years but I want to see more of him.

What I missed from the first cruise:

• Obviously 2010 was a day longer and I personally felt a huge difference between the 3 and 4 day cruise. I think they packed 4 days worth of activities in there, but it was a lot less relaxed.
• You seemed to run into the Backstreet Boys more around the ship last time around. I definitely missed those random run-ins with the boys.
• I really missed the Q&A or really just any event that was solely the boys.
• I miss not eating dinner with them (though a few boys were spotted in the dining room some nights) but no where near the same experience.
• As a whole, I thought the deck parties were better in 2010 (with the exception of pajama night) I liked how the boys were more interactive and engaging for everyone last year.
• Karaoke was clearly better last year. In my opinion, I don't think they should've done it again.
• Can't say this applies to everyone, but I felt like people were friendlier last year. I think most people had their friends established by this cruise and didn’t seem as open to meeting new friends.
• The hallways seemed deserted this year, or maybe it was just me. But I missed the feeling of walking down the hall and always running into people . Not sure where everyone was.
• Door decorations were waaaay better last year. No one really did them this year and the few that dad weren't nearly as elaborate. I felt like I saw every one's door decorations in 30 minutes where as last year I dont think I even got to them all.
• I even missed all of their entourage not being there. It was nice last time that if you weren't running into a Backstreet Boy, you'd run into one of their friends or family members. I missed not chatting with Howie's mom or Rochelle this time. 
• Not in anyone's control, but the ship wasn't nearly as rocky last year. At least I don't remember it being that bad. Seems like a lot of girls got seasick this year.
• Backstreet TV seemed better last cruise. Lots more fun videos I hadn't seen before. This year they cycled through the same 5 or 6 music videos. Got old pretty quick.

It's really tough to say which cruise I enjoyed more overall. They were both so different in their own ways and I had such memorable experiences on each that make them both my "favorite." If a genie granted me one wish to go back and relive only one of the cruises, I'd have to pick the first one. My reasoning though is because it was the first cruise and everything was new, exciting, and no one knew what to expect. My level of excitement on the first cruise was probably 10 times that of the second cruise and regardless of what actually transpired on each cruise- that feeling could never be replicated.

Once again, Happy New Year everyone. To a happy, healthy, and Backstreet-filled 2012!

Recap 2011- Day 1

After a long sleepless night it was finally time to get ready and make our way to the port to board the ship. We headed to the port rather early, all looking fabulous in our matching cruise shirts (thanks Danielle!)

OMG We're Back Again!

I not so patiently waited for the time to pass until it was time for us to board. Though I didn't have to wait long before we saw Howie sneak around the corner to check in. The rest of the boys were soon to follow. Eventually AJ and Nick walked past us to the restroom and I stole a handshake from Nick. Though in hindsight I probably should've done it before he went to the bathroom and not after.



Me happy after my handshake with Nick

 BSB boarding

After the Backstreet Boys boarded, it was finally our time to board the ship! Walking up that gangway is one of the best feelings in the world because you have the whole trip to look forward to. Love that moment. Only got better when we were greeted by life-size Backstreet Boy cardboard cutouts on the ship. I decided to hold off on grabbing a picture because my first order of business- get lunch. The restaurant was empty so it wasn't hard to spot Brian eating with his family. I felt odd sitting right next to him so we sat a table away. Otherwise it reminded me of going into a  movie and sitting directly next to the only person in the theater. It was definitely cool eating lunch next to Brian again, I had a slight feeling of deja vu because that's how I started off the cruise last year as well. Though I was significantly more calm this time around.

Second order of business- door decorations. This year it took us a little longer to put up but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Our theme was based on the song 'Color my World' so we did coloring book pages around our door and even put crayons up for people to color as they walked by.  To be honest I'm surprised we didn't get more vandalism because I knew we were asking for trouble putting crayons out. Our bonus giveaway was a little mini coloring/activity book that you could take home.

Color My World

Yet again I didn't win, but we had a lot of fun with it. I had a blast putting the decorations up with my roommates, meeting our neighbors, and blasting the BSB channel in the background. And the experience wouldn't have been complete without getting repeatedly run over by the luggage carts going up and down the hall. Note to self- don't put up door decorations while they are still delivering luggage to the cabins.

Sail Away Party

Next activity on the agenda was life boat drill. That's boring so let's move right along to the Sail Away party. Soooo much fun! I particularly enjoyed this because I was in the front row for this event. At least I started off that way, I'm really not sure how I ended up in the third row by the end. But I still enjoyed every moment of it and was able to take some great pictures and fun videos. I love being so close when you hear them talk without the microphone (and of course because they're so close you can reach out and touch them) 

    The boys kicking off the whole cruise with a bang

Lots of fun banter and interactions with the guys. I had a few favorite moments from the Sail Away party. I liked when AJ dedicated Nsync's song 'Tearin Up My Heart' to Nick and they did spoof dancing to it. Apparently Nick like's that song.

I love Brian's ridiculously bright shoes. They're barely in this shot and you still can't miss them.

Also enjoyed Nick and AJ playing with those streamer shooter thingies.

Another favorite moment was getting our first taste of Howie wiggling it up.

Cruise 2011 Anthem

In it to Win It (Group B)

After the sail away party there wasn't too much time before we headed to the Dynasty Lounge to get ready for our game show. I was so happy to see my seats were more centered this year, so I actually had a decent view. Since the boys were running on Backstreet time, I decided to take some pictures while we waited, in typical Laura fashion. I take way more pictures than necessary. Let's not even discuss what my final picture tally came to at the end of the cruise.

Me and Natalie. Im also wearing my dress that I bought when I thought we'd be having white night.


The boys finally came out and the games began. Lots of funny moments. I really enjoyed this game show. Anyone else notice how competitive the boys are? I liked how they did lots of little mini games because it stayed fresh the entire time. The games got progressively more entertaining.



This doesn't have much to do with the game but I couldn't NOT post it

I laughed so much that all of my videos came out shaky. I just like seeing the boys be themselves. We saw Brian goofing around singing to a tiny Christmas tree, Howie ironically not so good at flip cup, Nick excel at kissing a coconut, and AJ really out of shape after Nervous Nelly.

Coconut Smoochie

My only minor issue is that I wished they switched the girls up in between the games as to give more people a chance to get on stage. But again, a minor complaint in an otherwise really fun event. I think they learned their lesson by Group A.

After In it to Win It, we tried to make our way to the merch booth but it was just way too crowded. I peaked my head in at the overpriced merchandise and spotted a few items I'd pick up later. But I have to ask why everything in that shop had a picture of a naked mermaid on it? I really don't know what they were thinking when they designed this logo. That's going in my recommendations for next cruise.

I made my way to the dining room and was quite pleasantly greeted by my friends sitting off to the left and Brian sitting off to the right. I was truthfully shocked to see Brian eating in the main dining room, but no complaints from me. I felt like I was getting spoiled eating near Brian for both lunch and dinner. Why can't all my meals be like that? Plus it would make a great diet. Called the 'Too nervous around a BSB to eat diet'.

Me and the gals at dinner

It was so nice to sit down to a relaxed dinner and catch up with my friends, whom i haven't seen in a while. A moment where we came together after months of anticipation and just enjoyed each others company with Brian only a feet away. It just doesn't get much better.

80's Night

After dinner it was time to tease up the hair and put on those neon bracelets to get ready for 80's night. I had a lot of fun getting ready for this night and seeing how other people dressed up.

Me and Cinzia rocking our side pony tails.

I was pretty excited for 80's night because it was our first deck party and I thought it would set the tone for the rest of the cruise. I ended up having a lot of fun dancing with friends and not getting smushed in the front row this time. The boys were running on Backstreet time, per usual, and showed up around 12:30am. I was so excited to see them all decked out as sphynkter. They looked fabulous! I was so impressed with how much effort they put into the costumes.



Sphynkter!

As for the deck party itself, I thought it was good, not great. I don't mean to sound negative, but the boys did such a good job of spoiling us last year. Though they did a good job of making their way around the deck and using the stage up top, the stage in the middle, the bar, and making their way through the crowds. So it seemeed everyone had a front row at some point. I really only was close as they walked around the deck, which was fine by me. I just wish they had done more activities or went on the mic a bit more to entertain us. I did enjoy seeing Nick struggle with his hair.

By 3:00 my tummy was grumbling so my roommate, Chrissy, and I hit up the pizza place and stole a glimpse of Nick at the bar inside. I swear I'd never get sick of watching him. Even standing around doing nothing I'm in awe of his hotness. We were surprisingly energized and were far from ready to go to bed. Lucky for us Howie shared the same mindset. Seriously though, where has this Howie been hiding all these years? He was up partying until 6 or 7 in the morning. We didn't make it quite that long, but close to it.

I was even able to snag a picture with the wiggle king himself. And the great thing is I finally broke my Howie curse! Finally able to get a picture with him :)


Chrissy, Howie, and I

Realizing that the night couldn't get any better after this, we hit the cabin to get a few hours of sleep and prepare for Day 2 of our Backstreet adventure. 

Backstreet Cruise Dictionary

I’m taking a little bit of a different approach on this one, hope you enjoy it.

Merch- Short for merchandise store/booth and it’s a place where your credit card will hate you because will easily spend $100+ on some cheaply made items plastered with the Backstreet Boys faces. Also a place where you seem to throw all sense of logic out the window and you think that $40 for a t-shirt seems perfectly reasonable.

Deck party- A better version of an after party except there isn’t much dancing but rather masses of girls are just standing around awkwardly gawking at the Backstreet Boys. A deck party also has an assigned theme which gives women yet another excuse to dress in brazenly slutty clothing to try and desperately capture the attention of their favorite BSB or crew member who could allow them access to their favorite BSB.

Full Charter- A cruise containing 93% females (primarily between the ages of 18-45); 2% gay men; and 5% reluctant obliging boyfriends/husbands/significant others.

Half Charter- A ship where half of the people are emphatic Backstreet Boy fans and the other half are poor unsuspecting souls who didn't have a clue what they were getting them self into.

Meet and Greet- The place where your dream of meeting the Backstreet Boys finally becomes a reality. Though it seems go down a little differently than you envisioned because your entire 20 seconds with all of the boys is clouded by the sounds of the photographer yelling at you to speed it up and security cutting off your almost hug with Brian because “only handshakes are allowed!” You can also expect that the years of rehearing what you would say if you met the boys seems to all go out the window causing you to sputter off some nonsense. Thus you leave feeling dejected as you miserably trudge to the buffet and drown your sorrow with some cheesecake as you sadly replay how your 15 year long dream of meeting the Backstreet Boys actually played out.

Goody Bag- Found in your cabin on the first night, a bag which you almost throw away. Then you open it and wonder to yourself why you the cabin steward put a bag of random knick-knacks in your room. Then you realize this is actually meant for you. The entire contents of the bag could not be worth more than $1.23, which seems about right considering the average cost of this cruise is $1,300.

Door Decorations- A display of elaborately decorated doors where the vast majority of them look like an issue of Teen Beat threw up all over it.

BSB Game Show- An event where you spend the bulk of your time thinking how much more you deserve to be up on the stage than the girls who they selected because it is clear that you are a much bigger fan and ten times wittier and nicer than the girls who got picked.

Wristband- A colored paper bracelet you keep on your wrist the entire cruise which is basically a way for people to either smugly show off how good their seat is; or it’s the source of why you are crying yourself to sleep in your cabin every night.

VIP  Wristband-  Another wristband that allows you entrance into designated VIP areas. Side effects of this wristband include a surge of people suddenly wanting to be your best friend because they think you can get them into VIP as well. And when they find out you can’t, they will call you a myriad of degrading names.

What to Expect- Game Shows

This is a tricky entry to do because we had 2 game shows last year, and I presume we will have a different set of game shows for the upcoming cruise as well. I fear that whatever information I could share based on last year’s cruise will not be relevant for the next one. So bear with me on this, and I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t bore you with irrelevant info.

Last year they had 2 different game shows combined into 1 mega session. The entire event lasted about 1.5 hours with a brief intermission to change the set. The first event was a Family Feud game and the second was the She’s a Dream dating game. For those of you who don’t know how to play Family Feud, don’t worry because Nick was up on stage and admitted to not knowing how to play either. So you aren’t alone. But in case  you were never sick as a child and had the chance to watch reruns of Family Feud, the game is basically split into 2 teams where you are given a question and have to guess the most popular answers based on poll of 100 random people. For example: Name the Most Popular BSB Song. Answers might include- I Want it That Way, Quit Playing Games, All I Have to Give, etc. You will most likely not get too many points if you pick a song like Roll With It.

Family Feud BSB Style

The cruise did this game Backstreet style and selected 4 girls from the audience to compete against the 4 Backstreet Boys- with all of the questions pertaining BSB. The part that I enjoyed most about this game was that we were emailed a few weeks before the cruise and we were asked to answer about 20 questions, which were then asked during the game show. This allowed the audience to feel part of the game, even though they were not actually called up on stage.

The second game was the She’s a Dream dating game. This was based on the Dating Game show and for the Backstreet version they had 1 BSB on stage at a time with 3 of his potential dream girls. I actually found this not quite as exciting to watch (unless you had a friend up on stage) because all the Backstreet Boys had to do was ask the girls questions and the fans were the ones who had to come up with the witty responses. They asked the girls various questions or to do their best Backstreet dance. My view of this event would have completely changed if I was actually on stage, but from an audience perspective it was not all that exciting. I’d probably rate this as my least favorite event of the cruise last  year.

Brian taking over Howie's Dating Game

Okay, so I’ve provided a quick rundown of last year’s events. But I’m sure you’ve got to be asking yourself- How do I get up on stage? Good question. Last year there were members of the Rose Tour staff scouring the auditorium before the event started to randomly select girls to go on stage. I noticed even the president of Rose Tours, Hal Roseman, was in the audience and selected a girl 2 rows in front of me. It didn’t seem like they did anything special except be there early and get extremely lucky. I’m always torn if I would actually want to get selected. And it’s not that I don’t want to have the opportunity to play with the Backstreet Boys, but I’m incredibly shy and HATE being up on stage. Let alone with my dream men. I fear that I would be way too nervous.

They have not indicated what the games for the upcoming cruise are. Frankly they still haven’t announced that they would actually do a game, but I’m hopeful they will. AJ has hinted at a few ideas they’ve been kicking around like Whose Line is it Anyway or Pictionary. I think Pictionary wouldn’t be very exciting to watch. They need a game that lets the boys really showcase their personality and give them the freedom to adlib.