Where to start? I didn’t find out I
was cruising with NKOTB till my 19th birthday on April 2nd.
Mind you, the Cruise was May 11th!
I had very little time to plan! Talk about impulse buy. ;) Best purchase
ever though. I bought my plane tickets, and started shopping soon after finding
out I was going! Now, let’s talk about
the good stuff, NKOTB Cruise 2011!
The day I was flying out to Ft.
Lauderdale from Detroit… I was still packing. Talk about procrastination. I
waited till the night before to finish all the door decorations, and only
packed a few things before I finally fell asleep. I wake up in a rush, I shower, finished
packing, had a panic attack because I was hoping I didn’t forget nothing. The
fact that I was flying by myself without anyone that I literally knew longer
than a ½ hour scared the hell out of me! Haha. But thankfully Jennifer and I
had talked on twitter before, and we met up at the airport! That made me feel
more comfortable. My mom dropped me off at the airport, and it finally hit me,
I’m going to Miami with people I have NEVER met in my life, to spend 5 days on
a boat with them and NKOTB. Crazy, right? Far from that. The flight was smooth; we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 2:30pm I believe. Jennifer, her husband and I all took the same shuttle to Miami to get to our hotels. I was dropped off at Double Tree Grand in Biscayne Bay. I met up with my cruise roomie Kelly, who is from Vegas, and some other BH’s! Thanks to Carrie (@DWsbitch) she hooked me up with 2 awesome BH’s that had room for me to stay with them at the hotel! I got all settled in there, and then headed to the Hard Rock CafĂ© for dinner with about 30 BH’s, Thanks Rhonna! Let me tell you, never have I enjoyed a dinner so much in my life!
We all were in a separate room away from non-bh’s, enjoying each other’s company, while listening to NKOTB, and talking about our lives like we have known each other forever! I sat across from two amazing BH’s from I believe Minnesota, and let me tell you, they were the funniest! This is when it got interesting for me. They weren’t carding anyone, I mean, why would they? Most NK fans aren’t under 21… well here I am! J Allison (@iluvddubzMM) was kicking back some Mojitos, and the manager/owner came in… noticed that, and brought her shots. I opened my mouth teasing her after she took one of the shots, and he said “I’ll be right back with something for both of you.” Sure enough, he came back with a double shot of Jager. -_- I just stared at the shot glass. LOL. Everyone behind me were cheering and chanting “do it!” Allison and I threw them down… never in my life have I wished I would’ve been carded. I hadn’t ate nothing since 10:30am that morning, it was 9pm, 11 hours of no food in my stomach, that shot hit me like an 808. ;) Things started getting dizzy, and I felt like shit. Oh, and to chase that double shot of Jager, I had a strawberry daiquiri. NO BUENO! Thank God the food came soon after. The party ended soon after, and we headed back to our hotels.
Rise && Grind! I woke up at 7:30am, pulled a Danny Wood, and tweeted out a picture of the view from my hotel room! I went out on the balcony and looked to my right; I instantly noticed the cruise ship! Talk about getting excited! I updated my Facebook, tweeted that I was getting ready, and about to Cruise with NKOTB! I packed all my things, took a quick shower, and headed down to the lobby of the hotel and waited for all the Blockhead’s who were taking the same shuttle as me to the Port of Miami!
Holy Blockheads! We definitely invaded the Port! LOL We got off the shuttle, gave the guys our luggage so they could put it in our cabins for us, and we headed to the security line. Who do I notice standing behind us, Mark Porter and Kdub! I’ve heard about them on twitter, but never met them. Yup, some of the most down to earth guys ever! Never would I have thought I would meet MEN Blockheads. Shit was getting real; I gave the one security lady my Birth Certificate, license, and my notary letter from my mom, she cleared me, then I headed to the other security stop, and put my carryon through the scanner…. yup, went through, no issues. I waited for my roomies, and then headed up the stairs to go get my bracelet, sign and sail card, ect. Who do I run into?! World of Johnny! I didn’t say anything because I was in shock. I could hear a lot of chatter going on in the area I was about to head into. I turn, and see a gigantic crowd of Blockheads. I smiled ear to ear, and started searching for one’s I had met on twitter throughout the last 2 years! I found many of them, and noticed some that most consider BSC. Haha. I said my hello’s then headed to check in. I got all of that together, and headed to some familiar faces! It was my MI Blockhead’s I said I would meet up with! Jackee, Ashley, Megan, Angel, and others! Talk about welcoming! I received hugs from all of them. We were all standing there chatting, and from the left I heard hundreds of loud screams! The guys were starting to tease us by poking their heads out of the room they were in! It had finally, officially set in! The five guys from Boston, that I had wanting to meet were going to be on a boat with me and thousands of other fans for FIVE days and FOUR nights!
After about 45 minutes of teasing, it became real. The guys headed out of that room, and headed up the escalator, and we started getting hyped! I stood on the chairs, as well as others just so we could get a great view of them going up the escalator. Things we do just to see a glimpse of our guys. There they were, walking across the platform heading towards the boat. Donnie had on a black fedora, jeans, and a black wife beater, Jordan was wearing a light blue shirt, and jeans, Danny was wearing a dark grey tank with some kind of white art on it, and dark shorts, Jon had on a Navy color shirt on, and jeans, and Joe was wearing a white t-shirt with a open light blue button up shirt, and tan shorts, all were wearing sunglasses. Sorry for all of their wardrobe description, but some care. *shrugs* The screaming was insane, once the boarded, security started calling the letters we were handed so we could get on the boat in orderly fashion. Yeah right, we’re Blockheads; I don’t think orderly fashion happens too often.
My group was called, my roomies and the rest of the Las Vegas Blockheads we were standing with headed up the escalator. We get to the top and I noticed we were taking group pictures before we got on the boat. Eh, whatever. Lol. I just wanted on the boat at that point. After the picture, we headed for the entrance of the boat. FML. Just an FYI, I HATE heights, I start to feel sick and panic. The damn entrance to the boat was see through, the floor was cement. I walked so slowly, for being so excited. The fact that I could see people, HARD GROUND, and all of the luggage under us, freaked me the hell out. People behind me probably hated me at that point, oh well! Lol! After what seemed to be a 15 minute walk, I was finally on the boat! Not what I expected at all! It was decked out in NK pictures, cardboard posters of the guys, a bar, elevators, and stairs to different levels of the boat! Amazing!
First thing I did was run up to the lido deck to explore. That was what everyone was talking about after EVERY Cruise! I walked out there and fell in love! It was so open, and so many Blockheads were already out there mingling! I explored more of deck 9, and walked into a small mob in the buffet dining area. It was Danny Fckn Wood! I help my composure and just stood there in awe! I noticed Megan, a MI Blockhead, and she told me to get a picture with him. Danny took pictures with fans, I walked up to him, didn’t say a word. He gave me a huge hug, and took a picture with me. I told him “Thank you,” and he responded with a HUGE smile and said “No problem!” *Dead* I had just met my first NK ever! Cloud 9 after that! I took a picture with my phone of the actual picture on my camera and posted it on Facebook! After I calmed down I walked over to one of the bars and got my Soda sticker, had a coke, and then went down to deck 1, met up with my roomies, and started decorating our doors. This is when I met Jenn (@CocoaColaJenn)!
I never thought one person could be as much fun and crazy as her! No filter at all! She was the one that told me how to handle the safety drill, and told me I needed to be ready to haul ass up the stairs for the sail away party because the elevators wouldn’t be useful! Hahaha. Our door was decorated, I had watched some NKTV (Not that there was variety! Only about 5 different videos!) and it was time for the safety drill. I went up to deck 3 with Jenn and her roomies. Talk about feeling like a can of sardines! It was so packed, I couldn’t hear any of the tips; guess it was a good thing nothing bad happened in those five days! LOL They released us, and it looked like something out of the Kentucky Derby… just about EVERYONE ran to the stairs and hauled ass up to the lido deck! We get to the deck (out of breath mind you) to hear A-Ha’s Take on Me…. Not knowing we were about to hear it NON-STOP for the next 45 mins. -___- Finally, the DJ put on some NK’s to get us pumped, then put on Like A G6, and here came our five guys from Boston!
Donnie was the first to come out, he changed from all black to all white for the sail away party, Danny and Jordan were right after, wearing the same thing they wore when they got on the boat, Joe came next with short black shorts, and white wife beater on, then Jon with his dark blue shirt, and plaid shorts. Let me tell you, they looked amazing! They stayed up by the DJ for a bit, and then headed down to the B-stages! I was standing about six people back from the stage. Most of the sail away party is a blur, because I was in shock that I was actually there. Donnie didn’t help me focus either, especially when he said “ We got the backrub together, you’re gonna do some yoga together, Joe Mac is gonna serenade you with Danny Wood, we’re gonna do a concert on a private Island, we’re going to the 80’s we’re going to the Red Carpet, we’re gonna represent the Betty Wood and the Komen foundation, we’re gonna have a toga party, and after all the stuff that’s on the agenda, the rest of it happens after hours, in the showers…” that’s when Donnie started cracking up. After that, my mind had gone to the gutter. ;) I don’t remember much of the sail away party after that.
