i keep remembering when…

Final thoughts from the cruise…

In addition to the videos I’ve posted here on the site, all the rest from the cruise (as well as some other random stuff) can be found here. Please enjoy & feel free to share!

As soon as I got back, I started putting a playlist together of songs that would always remind me of those moments on the Lido Deck, at Half Moon Cay, or even just in my cabin with the girls. Most of these will get the same reaction from fellow cruisers, but a couple of them are specific just to the three of us. Even so, I’ve chosen to share my playlist in case anyone either wants it or at least wants a good jumping off place for starting their own. Without further ado, here’s playlist “6196:”

“Tonight (I’m Fucking You),” Enrique Iglesias
“Fuck You,” Cee-Lo Green
“Shout,” Isley Brothers
“My Prerogative,” Bobby Brown
“Rocketeer,” Ryan Tedder w/Far East Movement
“Shots,” LMFAO
“We Speak No Americano,” Yolanda Bee Cool & D-CUP
“Summertime,” NKOTB
“Let’s Go Higher,” NKOTB
“O-Face,” Jordan Knight
“Up & Down,” Jordan Knight
“Hey Mickey,” Toni Basil
“Dirty Bit,” Black Eyed Peas
“I Got a Feeling,” Black Eyed Peas
“Dude Looks like a Lady,” Aerosmith
“Let’s Get Physical,” Olivia Newton-John
“Baby Got Back,” Sir Mix-a-Lot
“Poison,” Bel Biv Devoe
“Material Girl,” Madonna
“Like a G6,” Far East Movement
“Apache,” Sugar Hill Gang
“Dynamite,” Taio Cruz
“Kiss,” Prince
“Black & Yellow,” Wiz Khalifa
“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” Brian Hyland
“Livin’ on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi
“Push it,” Salt & Pepa
“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Cyndi Lauper
“Games,” NKOTB
“Call it What You Want,” NKOTB
“Party All the Time,” Eddie Murphy
“Super Freak,” Rick James
“Hip Hop Hooray,” Naughty by Nature
“Low,” Flo Rida
“Party in the USA,” Miley Cyrus
“Jump Around,” House of Pain
“Ladies’ Night,” Kool & the Gang
“Iesha,” Another Bad Creation
“Just Dance,” Lady Gaga
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” Whitney Houston
“Sweet Child of Mine,” Guns ‘N Roses
“Rock with You,” Michael Jackson
“One Song,” NKOTB
“Good Vibrations,” Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch
“I’m on a Boat,” the Lonely Island ft. T-Pain
“Motown Philly,” Boyz II Men
“Mony Mony,” Billy Idol
“I’m in Miami, Bitch,” LMFAO

And lastly, I think my cruise posts would be remiss if I didn’t include a little list of some things I’d do differently next year/if I get to cruise again. Whether this is a list of things to remember for myself for the future, or advice for future first-time cruisers, here they are, in some kind of order of importance:

1.) Easily the most important: for two seconds, stop taking picture after picture of the guys and take pics with and of your girlfriends. You’ll never forget what the guys look like, and others will get the shots you’re missing. No one will have backup photos of you and your friends if you don’t stop for a second and capture those memories. Trust me. I don’t have near as many photos of me & the girls (especially of me with the girls) as I wish I did. Furthermore, this goes double for anywhere that’s remotely as beautiful as Half Moon Cay (as I expect Nassau probably is, too). Places like that are literally surreal, and made for photo ops. Take them. Come home with a camera, memory card, or computer full of pics of you, your friends, and the guys. Trust me.

2.) Visit wherever you’re scheduled to go. As I said, we didn’t get off the boat in Nassau. If next year’s cruise destination is different, who knows when my next chance will be to see Nassau, and I was just there. I do have a tiny regret about wasting the opportunity, even though the day was lovely. In addition to not missing rare and beautiful sights like these, my point is to perhaps spend a little time with your roomies in advance budgeting your time and figuring out what’s important to each of you so that you can make it all work. (Hint: it is okay to split up if necessary.) If next year’s trip is to Bermuda & Jamaica, I’m coming home with stories from both. If it’s from Europe, Mexico, or hell, Alaska, expect to read stories from wherever we go. Don’t give yourself the opportunity to wish you’d at least gone for a quick walk around the port.

3.) Take advantage of the sun. I didn’t bother to get a base tan before I left. (I did have a good base color thanks to an amazing spray tan I do myself, but it was just color.) Besides the day I spent at HMC, and a few hours at the pool at the Lido Deck one afternoon, I didn’t really come home as brown as I could (and should) have! And believe me: I packed plenty of sunscreen (enough for the three of us, in fact), so that wasn’t a factor. I just take the sun where I live for granted, and it wasn’t a big lure. As a result, I came home much lighter than I’d have liked to.

4.) Unpack! When we first got to our room, we were just sort of sitting around, waiting for Donna and for our luggage to show up. Next year, I’d make a priority of getting (and staying) organized as soon as is possible. That way, we wouldn’t be tripping over suitcases for the length of our trip. (We did get sort of organized eventually, but none of us ever completely unpacked, so there were always neatly folded suitcases in the way. Our room was like an obstacle course.)

5.) Bring an extra camera battery. Though I charged my camera every night (and often during the day, too), I could only take pictures until I had one bar left (just in case I happened to run into one of the guys on my way back to the cabin, of course). One of the girls I know said she bought several extra (generic) batteries on eBay before the cruise and always had charged back-up batteries on her. Genius! Why didn’t I think of that? I’ve already bought a spare charger, so next year I plan to have an extra camera battery or two wherever I go so I don’t have to worry about it.

6.) Plan door decorations as soon as possible. This is a challenge because if you want to win the contest (and I do…prizes are usually good!) you have to follow the theme. In our case, we had an idea and stuck to it, but we weren’t organized about communicating. I emailed the girls with my idea, they both said it was fine with them, and we made plans to bring materials of our own and do it in the hotel, or on the boat, or… Next year, I’d like to have one person collect everything before we even leave for Miami, or at least plan all together what we’re going to do and also the when & where we’ll actually be doing it, so it gets done and up on time.

7.) Have a photo group ready ahead of time. Lots of people did this one. I admit, I thought last year when they were putting groups together months before we left that it was silly. Turns out, the choices are simple: either do it early, be organized, and breeze through the process without drama, or else don’t care who you stand with or what happens…otherwise, there’ll be drama. I don’t really care about meet & greets, so I could stick to the latter…but who doesn’t want a chance to hug & chat with their fave? Especially because in my case, that was the only face time I got on the whole cruise. That’s fine, because the NKs were just a perk for me on a fantastic cruise, but if you’re going expecting to talk to the guys, take my advice here & plan ahead.

8.) Stay up on the Lido Deck all night on the last night. Watch the sun come up with your friends, with or without any NKs present, and with or without going back to your room to change into PJs. This one’s simple: you’re already dead from lack of sleep, and wherever you’re about to go you’ll be sleeping (on a plane, shuttle, or in a hotel). Stay up and watch the sunrise. Say goodbye.

9.) Hit the breakfast buffet. I didn’t even think about it, or realize it existed, until after the cruise was over this year. Given the way Donna & I attacked the hot buffet when we got back to Miami, it would have been nice to know we had the option while still on the ship, too. I even heard they serve breakfast until 11 or 12. Good to know!

10.) Meet as many friends as you can. Okay, I did this one this year too. It just was such a great experience, this one’s a reminder to myself to do so again next year. Whether they’re Twitter friends, friends of friends, or just new people – where else do you find a boat full of really amazing people who already have the rarest and most amazing, beautiful thing in common. As Donna said, we’re home on the ship. Go meet the family! Make some memories!

And that’ll do it for me with this year’s cruise wrap-up. Unless anyone has questions…feel free. Otherwise – hope those that have already had the chance to see NKOTBSB (Chicago, and moving forward) have enjoyed the hell out of it. I know I can’t wait!

Edited: May 26th, 2011

i’ll be trippin’, can’t wait till the next time

When I got on the Destiny, I was pretty sure it would be my only New Kids cruise. Why? Because what I want to do is be a travel writer. I already do it, but I want to get paid to do it. In the meantime, though, I travel and write to get experience. And I do that with money out of my own pocket. So, one New Kids cruise gives me enough Miami/Bahamas fodder for my travel blog one time, but can I do it multiple years and still rationalize spending the hard-earned money I should be using traveling somewhere new instead? Probably not.

I know lots of girls work 40 hour work weeks, Monday through Friday, and get a week or two of paid vacation a year, so they can afford to make this their annual vacation. Believe me, I’m rife with jealousy. I just didn’t have any real designs on doing this more than once. And then…the cruise started…

I don’t know what point it was that we started debating (Michelle, Donna, and I, that is) going again. It didn’t take long, that much I know for sure. We liked the idea that we would already all know each other and there would be less awkwardness, and we’d be much more familiar with how everything works as repeat cruisers. We also are all already familiar with the payment process, so we know that we really only have to decide so far as to each save up a $300-ish deposit, book our cabin, and figure out what happens next if one or more of us can’t actually go. After a day or so, we started talking about “next year.” By the end of the cruise, we’d all pretty much decided to at least think about it, plan on it, and get real as soon as we had a better idea of whether or not it was an actual possibility.

Monday morning came hard and fast. Both Donna and Michelle had willingly missed a chance to have porters take their luggage off the boat, opting to do it themselves. I, the seemingly “early bird” of the group,” stuck my bag out before 4am so it’d be picked up. That gave me a zone number to listen for in the morning, a clue as to when I could debark. Michelle originally planned to leave first thing, but ended up sticking around long enough for Donna and I to get ready and out of the room, and then we wandered to the photo gallery and looked through what was left of the group shots. (We know you’re not supposed to, but we each bought one or two of those taken of us so that we could share them all. Doesn’t everyone do that? Sarah at the cash register actually told me, “today, I don’t give a shit. Yesterday I might have.” I liked her.)

Somehow, they went from calling zones 9 and 10 to 11 and 13, skipping my zone 12. By the time they were calling 14 and 15, we were beyond ready to get off the boat and somewhere that we could sleep. Michelle had a flight out of Fort Lauderdale later that day, but Donna and I had a hotel near Miami airport. We said quick, half-hearted goodbyes at baggage claim, I grabbed my bag, and then we had to wait in a massive line for a cab (coincidentally, Michelle and the girl she was traveling with ended up directly behind us anyway). After what seemed like forever, we got a cab and left the port and the ship behind. We were too tired for it to be emotional. We (and everyone else, I suspect) were just trying not to bite each others’ heads off out of crankiness due to sleep deprivation.

At the hotel, they’d been fully booked the previous night, and we were there before check out time, so there weren’t any rooms ready. Thankfully, though, they offered to keep our bags for us and directed us to a nearby hotel with a restaurant. We got there to discover a hot breakfast buffet, realizing it was our first real hot breakfast of the entire trip. Let me tell you, with less than seventeen hours of sleep for the entire cruise under my belt, I was thrilled to have scrambled eggs with cheddar, bacon, sausage, and french toast to dig into, complete with a pot of coffee and lots of water. We were pretty sure breakfast had never tasted so good!

We still had about another hour to wait for a room to be ready, but Donna made good use of the hotel’s internet access while we waited, and then finally a little after noon they gave us keys. Our room was supposed to have had two double beds, but when we went in we found a big king sized bed instead. I asked her if she cared, and neither of us did, so we passed out for four hours without ceremony. We got up just so as to not completely sleep the entire day away, and Donna went down to the whirlpool to enjoy the sun one last time (she tells me Toronto doesn’t get sun like we do here in California, so I can understand her soaking it up), and I had to unpack and repack my whole bag so that I wouldn’t have to worry about being over the weight limit with my luggage. All I wanted to do was shower and relax, but somehow pictures seemed much more alluring. (You’ve seen them. You understand, right?)

There isn’t a whole lot more to say except that we decided “when in Miami…” for dinner, and went next door to a little Cuban hole-in-the-wall. I convinced Donna to be adventurous, but the food was just okay. We were both asleep by ten and the next morning she woke me up to say she was leaving. Tired, sad, and missing everyone already, we hugged goodbye at the door and then she was gone. At the time, we were convinced that the three of us would soon be reuniting at the Chicago show for the NKOTBSB opener that Donnie had given us tickets to, but it’s taking place as I write this and none of us managed to get there. There is, of course….always next year?

I have heard talk from at least two different people that the rumor is next year the destination may be changed from the Bahamas to Bermuda/Jamaica. I for one really hope this is true, because then it’s a new place for me to write about, and I’m that much more likely to be able to go! See you all at Fenway, on the next boat, or sooner! Thanks for reading, stay tuned for our personal NK Cruise 2011 playlist!

Edited: May 25th, 2011

baby, don’t let this be the end…

Waking up on Sunday was bittersweet, since it was our last day on the boat. We had the photo op first thing (well, not early, but it was the first thing we had planned), and unfortunately, so did everyone else on the entire boat, so it went really long. We only had half a photo group, so we decided to just get in where we fit in and not really worry about it. We were pretty sure that since we were group B, by the time we got to the guys in any group, they’d be beat.

We ran into Amanda and Nina, who had somehow miraculously found room for us in their photo group. One of the girls gave up Joe for Donna, which left Michelle and I to Jon and Danny (but we were both pretty much okay with whomever). We sat at the bar near the end of the line, deciding to be last. After a drink or two, a little relaxation, and some nice conversation, a Rose Tours employee started barking that if we didn’t get in line we wouldn’t get our photo op. (Who knows if that would have actually turned out to be true…we obeyed and got in a line.) We stood in a line that was moving at a decent pace for the next hour, working our way from the casino into the room where the guys were all standing, and already obviously exhausted, having been meeting fans and smiling for pictures for hours on end (and the line was still out the door behind us). Girls who’d made it through before us had been so excited to report that they got hugs and conversation with all five guys, but there wasn’t a chance for any of that at this point in the day. Some of the guys were stretching, others barefoot, all clearly already wiped out. I asked Jeannie from Rose Tours why they schedule all the photos for the same day; we were told that that is all handled by NKOTB’s management. (What the…? Wouldn’t it make more sense to break it up & do a few hours each night? If I ruled the world…)

Donnie was the first to greet us, and I was toward the back of the line. As I (finally) got to him just to pass him, the guy running the show yelled “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!!” so I made a mock-concerned face and said “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!!!” to Donnie, who hugged me and said, “no, baby, take your time.” Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that I really could take my time. I told him, “nope, I gotta hurry!” and ran off just in time to get to Danny. Somehow, Donna found herself without a New Kid at all, which Danny noticed in time to stop the photo and grab her (so much for her getting Joe!)! I asked Jordan if I could have a squeeze, and he gave me a look like “really?” and patted me on the back half-heartedly. I don’t blame the guy, though. It was painful just to watch; I don’t know what somebody was thinking making them stand for an endless line of girls who want more than half-assed smiles. It was a hot mess, but I don’t blame the guys at all.

After the photo op, Donna was really upset at having been nearly edged out of the photo entirely and having missed her chance to connect with any of the guys. We found Amanda and Nina and decided we’d try to get into the Back Rub, even though there had been girls lining up for hours. We split up after making plans to meet up on the Lido Deck either way and were directed by some other girls to a guy who was randomly handing out 250 wristbands to a bigger crowd of girls from group B. It turned out to be the same rude guy from earlier, but…beggars can’t be choosers, right? I knew that the chances of all three of us getting in were slim to none, but Donna declared it was every girl for herself and we wouldn’t be mad if any of us got in without the others, just before the d-bag guy put the 250th bracelet around her wrist. I was disappointed, but within 30 seconds several girls came forward, crying. It turned out that they had gotten bracelets, but weren’t going to go in without their entire groups. The guy cut the wristbands off of each of them and turned everyone away, saying he couldn’t re-use their wristbands because he couldn’t fasten them now. Three empty, unused seats.

Donna left us shortly after that, feeling guilty that she was going alone. Michelle & I were both bummed but it wasn’t her fault she’d been randomly chosen, and we headed up to the Lido Deck to try to meet Amanda & Nina, hoping our tardiness hadn’t kept them from getting wristbands of their own. I beat Michelle up there and realized Jordan’s Stretchify had started, and waited for her, just watching from the back (the place was packed). I wanted to leave, she opted to stay, and I couldn’t have made it across to the bar where we were supposed to meet if I’d have tried. I stayed in the back against a wall, watching from a great distance, and somehow Michelle found enough room for her tiny figure to join in the yoga fun (without a mat and still in her maxi dress from the photo op, even).

I’ve never seen Jordan like this. Let me say, I adore him. I also know that when he doesn’t know what to do or say, what comes out is often cheesy, but I love him all the more for it. For some reason, what I saw that day seemed to me to be the the real Jordan, and though my body didn’t take part in his yoga exercises, my mind and soul were thoroughly relieved by the time it was over. Stretchify was one of my favorite moments on the ship. He was sweet, silly, and took time and concern that no one would hurt themselves. And um…he looks freaking fantastic in a tank top.

I don’t know why I somehow expected he might be calling poses by their names, but he didn’t. Instead, he just sort of described in the easiest way possible what it was that he was doing, and kept emphasizing the importance of slow movements and lots of breath. In addition, he kept pulling girls up to his little stage with him to suggest poses for the group to do. In between stretches, he treated us to songs from Unfinished. (I took a video of “O Face,” for audio’s sake, but out of respect to him I don’t want to leak it until the album’s actually released. I’ll update later.)



(I chose this pic over the nearly exact one I have because, while you can’t really see that he’s pulling his leg up, you can see the disgusted face of the girl in it. She’s making that face because, as I said, he was being silly. He told everyone to be careful, because this stretch in particular is one that can release a lot of gas. )




I love this pic in particular because you can see JK in the top left corner, and that’s Michelle right in the forefront in the right corner. I took it for her, because it’s fun to have a pic of yourself doing yoga with a New Kid, but I also wanted to post it because it’s cute.

Oh and yes. He really did the wiggle. Stretchify left me with a yogic glow, even without stretching. It was one of those moments where everyone’s just relaxing and enjoying themselves, and no one was freaking out over celebrity or anything. It was really chill, and I’m a yoga lover anyway – what better way to do it than on a boat with a Caribbean breeze, surrounded by other BHs and led by a New Kid? Plus…I never thought he’d really do it when he joked about teaching the class on Twitter months ago…I’m really impressed!

After a quick costume change, Donna was still in the Back Rub, so Michelle and I went back up to the Lido Deck and grabbed drinks and cards to play NKOTB-I-N-G-O with Jon. His attitude was much like Jordan’s, relaxed and fun. He didn’t totally know what he was doing, but we all learned together & it was fun. I was determined to win, because the prize was $1200 & I wanted to put it toward next year’s room with a balcony. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, and some other lucky girl won instead! They decided to let us play one more game with the same cards, and the prize was $800 plus Jon’s Double Dare t-shirt, but I didn’t win that either. Still, it was fun just to play, and I did win $5 on the “scratcher” things we bought, but I never redeemed it.

We finally caught up with Donna, got something to eat, and got ready for Red Carpet Night – sadly, our last party with the New Kids before we had to leave early the next morning. I had brought a much fancier dress to wear, but after the first three parties, decided that we were really all dressing up for each other, and comfort was sort of key. If I was planning on dancing and jumping around, fancy wasn’t really the way to go. I opted for a comfy maxi dress instead and dressed it up with accessories, and we were out the door. This time, thanks to the red carpet and backdrop set up before the entrance to the Lido Deck, we actually remembered to stop and take a group shot!


And then it was time to let the good times roll!

And ohhhh, the tuxedos…(Except for Jordan, that is. Maybe he missed the memo?)

Not long after the party started, Donnie had an announcement for us: they’d all had so much on the cruise with us that they couldn’t imagine starting the NKOTBSB tour without us all there. They were giving a ticket to Chicago’s 5/25 opener to every cruiser!! The crowd went wild like we’d just won the lottery…hadn’t we? A few songs later, and he was back, hanging his head. He said he’d gotten wrong information, and he was so sorry, but they weren’t giving us each a ticket….they were giving us each two tickets! I can only speak for me and the girls, but we thought their generosity was outrageous. Shortly thereafter, they were down partying with the crowd (and of course, crowd-surfing)!






At this point, Joe pointed out that if “us bitches” dropped Donnie, the tickets would be worthless…




Then Jordan decided to crowdsurf…


(Protecting his package after having it grabbed at…)

And the only one on that side left to catch him was Donnie!



Joe had an announcement he wanted to make, too:


This was such a great moment…to watch Joe’s joy, and to see that he cared to share little details of his life like that with us…I’ll never forget it. The song he dedicated, by the way, was “Material Girl.” Interesting pick if you ask me, but no one did.

Eventually, I stopped seeing any of the guys around except for Energizer-Bunny New Kid Donnie, who declared he wasn’t going to bed until the sun came up (I believed him, I just wasn’t sure I could say the same).



When I had to bow out, reluctantly leaving my favorite New Kid and both of my roommates still dancing the night away (somewhere between 4:30 and 5am), I returned to our empty (yet semi-packed, thankfully) cabin to find this sticky note on our door:

At first, I didn’t get it. Luckily, the girls across the hall were up and taking their door down, and pointed out that we’d had visitors:


Danny, Chance, and Vega had stopped by! We’d missed them, but I thought it was so freaking cute that they all had left notes, that I didn’t care. Unfortunately, my pic with Danny was below knee-level, so it didn’t get signed like the others, but I still fell asleep happy.

(Vega’s note was my fave, I thought the heart and the “he he” were so cute!)

Donna made it back to the room first, just after I fell asleep, looking for Michelle. She left again in a minute to find her, but came back without her and went to bed. Michelle came back after 6am and never did go to sleep at all. None of us got so much as three hours that night, and the girls insisted that I should’ve stayed up on the Lido to watch the sunrise. I have to admit, in retrospect, I regret that I didn’t. I certainly have a few things I’d do differently next year, but that’s another post. Debarkation/saying goodbye awaits!

Edited: May 25th, 2011

you’re talkin’ to my heart without makin’ a sound

Prior to waking up on Saturday morning, two things happened: we debated at some length about whether or not we even had a ton of interest in getting off the boat and seeing Nassau (without making a final decision), and we forgot to make decisions on our room service breakfast for the following day. Because I made it back to the room before Michelle & Donna, I hastily scribbled a few choices down on the room service list, stuck it on the door before 5 am, and forgot all about it. (By the time they came back 10-15 minutes later, it was gone, but they were both just happy to have anything in the morning that was ready to go, so yay!)

We got to sleep somewhere around 4:30 or 5 am, so we slept till about 10-10:30, and decided we shouldn’t do anything until finally finishing the door decorations. As I already said, we were pretty sure it was too late to be in the running to win, but we’d already done enough work that we thought we should see it through, and it was turning out cool. Since the theme was “through the decades,” the idea was to use four mini posterboards and make each one a different decade: 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s. Interestingly, I was sure the 10s would be the hardest to fill, since we’re less than two years in, but it turned out that 80s was harder to come by. My idea wasn’t just to use the New Kids’ pictures and memorabilia, etc, but that which related to us personally, too. I asked the girls to bring pics of themselves (with or without friends/family) throughout the years, and then we picked & chose from among those to take up whatever room we needed to/could. Donna, amazingly, has quite a collection of ticket stubs from across the decades, which was perfect for accentuating the various years. 80s was my favorite because there were really sweet, old pics of the guys, a cracked 45″ of “The Right Stuff,” and pictures of us as little kids. To finish, we put each of our Twitter names on a posterboard and then added NKOTB magnets to the door frame, miscellaneous pictures that hadn’t fit into the posterboards around the surrounding wall area, and “thought bubble” sticky notes with NK-related inside jokes (things only BHs would get like “sweaty ballz,” “o u bad,” “hashtag just sayin,” “and shave, bro, shave!”) all over it. Here are pics of the finished product. I say, better late than never!



This is to the right of the door if you’re facing it. A note on the “JOE is SEX” sign, though I wish she could tell it herself, as she’d be more accurate than I: see the No More Games tourbook with the “JOE is SEX” sign, right next to the new one? That’s Donna at 12 or 13. Every time I’ve seen that pic since we were 12, I wondered why she made a sign that said that…on the cruise, I found out: the night before, a girl took a sign that said “JORDAN is sex” and got onstage. Donna thought, why not? and gave it a shot. It might’ve seemed to her like it didn’t work at the time, but I say, ok – that girl got onstage. My girl is immortalized in the tourbook forever – you both win! Anyway, so she decided to make the same sign again and take it to the party. Joe ended up seeing it and loving it, so she changed her Twitter name to @JOEisSEX almost immediately.

This is to the left of the door. As we worked, we came up with what we thought was a fantastic idea…we’d heard complaints/feedback that last year’s boat, the Imagination, was “better” than this year’s Destiny. My suggestion? Let’s just have them get on building a “Joe-ah’s Ark” all our own so we can cruise wherever, whenever we want! (And if it happens, our vote for the door decorating theme is “heavy petting zoo!” Just sayin’!)

When we had finished to our satisfaction, the girls went up to the Lido deck to enjoy the whirpool and the sun, and I at first thought I’d sleep a little, but then decided not to waste a cruise sleeping and went wandering around the ship with a list of friends’ room numbers. While I was out meeting friends, I stopped to snap some pictures of other really great doors. This one is Amanda’s (a different Amanda than “my” Amanda, this one is @DonnieForPres‘:

Those are giant marshmallows, and I had to stop laughing long enough to actually get a clear picture!

This one was amazing – not only were the dolls decked out and the door itself looked great, but there was music playing and a note attached that said to come back daily to check out the wardrobe changes! I love creativity!


This one was made for @CoachVolleyball with love by @BlancoDiddy, who couldn’t make the cruise.

This one belongs to @stephiebutton and @Miss_Tattoo, though I think the part to the side of the door was just as cute as the door itself:

See the “memory lane tour bus” at the top”? Love it!

This guy and his pole (I think they called him Merle?) belonged to @DDubsMyFix and @M_Vizzle!

This one is hard to see details of, but a really cool idea: the records are all the various CD releases over the years! (Solo, group, etc.) It belonged to @JKsFoxEyes (who I ran into while I was running around, the Jennifer I mention in this post. We managed to catch up a bit and set a date to have a drink later that evening).

Finally, I went up to the Lido Deck to have a drink with the girls and relax in the sun for a while, where I ran into Marcy (@DDubsMyFix) in the flesh and later met the girl who’d bravely chosen to have this temporarily tattooed on her body:

Several drinks later, the sun was starting to go down and we realized that the last of our free hours were dying, and we were unlikely to make it to Nassau without skipping the evening’s events. Oh well, um…next time? We headed back to our room instead and decided to order room service for dinner, which turned out to be a good choice: the portobello mozzarella sandwich on foccaccia was fantastic!

Our next event was the Acoustic Wood and (Broadway) Joe Show, and I’m going to be honest: I’ve never been super crazy about Danny’s solo projects, so I didn’t expect to be interested or even very entertained. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything, but what I wasn’t prepared for was him letting his guard down and absolutely blowing me away. He has a tendency to sort of let his “inner 12-year-old,” if you will, run his mouth (or at least his Twitter) from time to time (think “ballz!” and “douche or no douche,” and you’ll know what I’m referring to), and sometimes it’s a little off-putting. This was a different side of Danny, and one I wasn’t expecting, if I knew it existed at all. It was refreshing and so endearing. My roomies and I were in tears through most of it, and since we’d failed to successfully put a complete photo group together (and therefore were likely to get lumped in with another group with a similar problem), I made a mental note to thank him for his vulnerability with us if I stood with him the next morning at the photo op. There isn’t much else left to say except that it was a beautiful moment, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that side of Danny, and I’m grateful for it:

Here, see for yourself:

Joe came out in a birdcage, which I heard later was for “shock value” because he’s discovered that nothing he does shocks us anymore. (Hey Joe? It’d shock me if you stopped trying & just enjoyed yourself! That’s all I want! But I digress.) A Broadway lover like Joe, I thoroughly enjoyed a full set of his showtunes, even though several of them were ones I didn’t really know. The fact remains, the guy could sing me the phone book and I’d still be swooning. Suffice it to say, by the end of the show, I think every girl in the Palladium was happy!


This was a highlight for me personally, as a huge Wicked fan! Joe’s guest was Sasha Allen, who’s fresh off her own run on Broadway, as well as the fiancee of Rob Lewis, Joe’s accompanist for the evening. He also sang “Soliloquy” from Carousel, about a guy who finds out that he’s going to be a father, and the first half of the song is all about anticipating life with his future son…until it occurs to him that it could be a girl, and he’ll have to be a father to a girl. In addition to foreshadowing a future announcement, it was a really sweet moment (and I won’t try to pretend it didn’t actually make me cry: it did)!

Back in our room after the show, we never did figure out what exactly this animal was supposed to be,

but we got pretty silly discussing it. Talk amongst yourselves…

While the girls were finishing getting ready for Pink Night, I was late for my drink date with Jennifer. In the years since we’ve lived in the same city, the two of us often photo message each other pictures of drinks we’re having when we’re out. Jennifer’s got a thing for a lemon or lime twist, so while I wanted a glass of champagne, I asked the bartender to put a twist in it for us:

We had a good long chat and then headed upstairs to the Lido decks to find our respective groups of friends. Check out my gorgeous Juliana Marguiles-lookalike roomie (Donna) decked out for Pink Night:

Unfortunately, I forgot again not only to have someone take a pic of me with my roomies in our Pink Night gear, but we’d also let another day go by without putting our PJs back on for a pic in them. (And never remembered to do either before splitting up!)

I think of all the theme nights, it was Pink Night that most excited me…there’s something about seeing a hot guy in pink that just really works for me…but five? Yes please!

And props especially to Joe for being so ridiculous and awesome in his pink spandex and eyeshadow! What a dork, and I mean that with all love! Here are some favorite pics from this night (well, before my camera battery died, anyway):


(Danny and Chance with his birthday cake at the close of his birthday)
It was really awesome to see such a sea of pink on the Lido deck. I hope they repeat this theme every year; white night just doesn’t have the same effect or the same cause!



Joe’s face in that one makes me crack up every time!


The guys like to crowdsurf, and that night I was in a prime position to give Donnie a hand…I couldn’t (and wouldn’t!) turn down a chance at a handful of marshmallow as I helped him from one side stage to the other, but we know he doesn’t really mind such a thing!

Eventually, the clothes started coming off (of Donnie, anyway, and when he ripped his shirt open, buttons flew over our heads!)

and the drinks kept flowing…the guys talked Jon into singing “step 5,” but he barely had the voice for it:


There were issues with the DJ that night, too, and he was eventually “fired,” though whether literally or more in the Donald Trump colloquial sense, I’m not sure. Donnie’s the boss, though, and at one point stopped the show to yell at the DJ for playing a song that referred to women as bitches, saying he wasn’t having it. He also wouldn’t let the DJ play another song until he took the videos/logo off the screen and put the fans on it, because it’s what he/we wanted to see, and he said repeatedly that it was our party, not the DJ’s. My guess is, that guy won’t be back.

With one last lingering look at the Mac in his pink tights, I bid my girls, the boys, the Lido deck and the bubble machine good night and headed off for pizza at 4 am with Nina:

(Those are bubbles in the sky, in case you can’t tell!)

I was in bed by 5:30ish and the girls followed around 6. Michelle was drunk and kept telling us about “Jack and Coke.” She passed out before we could get all the lights off in the cabin, and Donna and I quickly discovered that neither of us knew how to turn off one of the lights. We tried to wake her, but she was out. Donna shook her, and she shouted “NO!!” with a violence neither of us expected. We tried again. “Michelle, how do you turn the lights off?” “I don’t know!” Luckily, we figured it out and slept quickly (albeit briefly, of course). Day 4 (stuck at sea!) to follow.

Edited: May 24th, 2011

let me take a mental shot of this moment

Before I make a big statement, a little qualification: I’m not married, and I don’t have children. So when I say that from start to finish, day 2 of the cruise was quite possibly one of the most perfect days of my life, please believe me.

Before crashing the previous night, I’d managed to get the girls to tell me what they wanted for breakfast and put the request thing on the door, so we woke up to a little room service: fruit, coffee, and toast. It wasn’t much, but we were happy to have it and we didn’t have to make it (and better still, it was free)! We put on our swimsuits and coverups and made our way to Deck 0 to get on a tender (a smaller boat that would carry us to the private island of Half Moon Cay, because the Destiny would stay anchored a bit of a distance from the shore instead of docking at an actual port). From the tender, you can see how unbelievable the color of the water is: it looks like it does in the movies! It’s light turquoise, and surreal. I didn’t do anything to enhance the color of this photo, if this helps:

I didn’t think I was going to be excited about Half Moon Cay, but I was wrong. It was so awesome to have a little island all to ourselves, and it was so beautiful!


My sentiments, exactly!

We bypassed the chance to waste much money on souvenirs, but all three of us stopped to buy underwater cameras (surprisingly reasonably priced, too, they were $16 and the waterproof case can be reused with disposable cameras in the future), just in case. At least for me personally, this was the best meal we had on the cruise. It felt very “4th of July,” they served barbecued cheeseburgers, couscous, Russian potato salad (which I’ve never had before but is made with whole grain mustard and is delicious), coleslaw, loads of fresh fruit, and brownies!

We were even joined by lots of little birdies (okay, they were pillaging the discarded remains of those who’d already eaten, but…look how cute!)

Now I know they teach you not to swim until you’ve waited half an hour, but…I’m not sure we did, and hell – we’re big girls. We laid our towels out among the many on the beach, put on sunscreen, and pretty much headed straight for the water. We lost Donna along the way somewhere (but having learned the night before that while she’s prone to running off on her own, she always comes back eventually) but found Amanda, Alyse and Allie in the water. We stayed there for hours, enjoying the sun and our private NKOTB concert, and I’ve heard since that some were complaining that it wasn’t a “real” concert, but it was hot. I’m okay with what we were given, and I’m sorry I don’t (yet) have any pictures of it for you. Suffice it to say, though, that I’m just happy when we get to see them, and when they bring water guns and spray the fans in the sun? I love it. What I’m really hoping I got a decent pic of was Joe in his short shorts again, but this time a red pair! It seems Mr. Mac has been working his legs out and is quite proud of them. After the concert were some beach games (a limbo contest) and races from the water to…well, Danny’s pecs, to be perfectly specific about it. Winners won front row tix and backstage passes to a show of their choice, and the rest of us just had fun watching.

Eventually the guys took their boat back to the Destiny,

but by then (though we hadn’t yet found Donna again), Michelle & I had spied a server with a tray of coconuts and decided we had to have a drink out of a coconut before we left the island. After walking all the way back to where we’d gotten off the tender, we found a bar that still had a few and were delighted to discover that we could keep the coconuts (which, upon closer inspection, had little monkey faces and “have fun” carved into them) and that even with a drink, they were only $16. Seriously: best pina colada I’ve ever had. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. We found Donna, got her a coconut too (she wanted a Bahama Mama, which quickly became her cocktail of choice for the rest of our voyage), and reapplied sunscreen to lay out, though we never really did. I got showered in sand that wouldn’t wash off (I guess that suncreen really does stay put), and before long decided to go back to the boat.

The girls wanted a little more time in the sun; I wanted to shower off the sand and sticky sunscreen. We tried to decide if we should wear our pajamas to dinner for the party so we could try to get good spots on the Lido Deck to watch the Blue Bloods season finale, but spent so much time debating it that we ending up postponing dinner for so-so “seats” anyway (Michelle found a spot sitting on the deck, Donna & I leaned on a giant basket of towels). The episode was so good, though, and we were all having so much fun watching it live with Donnie’s commentary, that we couldn’t have cared less where we ended up. After Blue Bloods, we had a quick bite in the buffet since we were already comfortably dressed for the Pajama Party (which, technically, was also a Toga Party, depending on one’s preference). While we were there, I commented on how awful and random the music they played in the buffet was…just in time to overhear one of the servers walk by singing it.

While we ate, we were enjoying checking out the PJ/toga outfits of other cruisers, especially this one Denise had made from an old New Kids sheet:

It wasn’t until later that I realized we’d forgotten to get a picture of ourselves in our jammies, but I made the girls promise they’d put them back on later so we could make up for it…and we didn’t. For the record though, I too had used very vintage material for my homemade PJs – I saw several pairs of PJ bottoms from the New Kids sheets like mine, but the only pair of pink ones I saw were my own: from the curtains! I got more than a few compliments on them, and who doesn’t love to stand out just a little?

While putting finishing touches on our outfits for the PJ party, we were also piecing together our door decorations, even though we were fairly sure we’d missed our chance to win any prizes. (As lack of sleep was already starting to set in, Michelle reminded Donna & I to “dot your T’s and cross your I’s,” which caused us to veer off course for several minutes because we had to laugh until we cried!) Every evening at turndown, Amung and the other stewards would arrange towels into animal shapes on one of the beds and leave mints for us. I think this one was a dog:

Back up on the Lido Deck, this girl caught my eye because she had the Barbie-style New Kids dolls dressed up in togas like hers, and I thought it was silly and adorable:

And then…we beheld the New Kids’ togas…and God saw that it was good!

And Joe in a mini-skirt toga, thank you sweet baby Jesus! (Those legs really are something to be proud of – good for him! He looks great!)

(This isn’t the best pic of these three that I took that night, but it is the only one where you can actually see Jon’s face!)

While I would have loved seeing Earl in a toga, too, I was pretty excited that he’d participate by wearing his jammies!

Then it was time for some strange and hilarious performances…Joe and Jordan took to “rapping,” which I use the quotes for because a lot of it was not only non-sensical, but downright incomprehensible. See for yourself:
And then “Here We Go Again” had more of it, and lots of great backlighting if you watch carefully:
Then, Donnie told us to sing this chorus to everyone who’s ever judged us for liking the New Kids. We had no problems complying:
As we were dancing the night away,

it was well past midnight and Danny was officially 42 (which Jon admitted made him quite happy)!

Once again, I was the first to call it a night somewhere after 3:30, and the girls came in about an hour later. So to wrap up as I began: a day that starts with room service, continues with a private concert by the New Kids on a private island full of fans, good food, drinks, and surreal scenery, then Blue Bloods with Donnie Wahlberg and an all-night pajama party with the New Kids in togas? Yup. Best. Day. EVER!

Day 3 is next!

Edited: May 23rd, 2011