Heather Donovan

My virgin voyage – October 2015

Going on a cruise has never really been anything I have been interested in but, I had seen how much fun my friends have had on the NKOTB Cruises in the past so decided to give it a try this year.  I decided after the fact so I was able to take the spot of someone that was not able to go on the cruise.

I have to say they keep you busy and by the end of the trip you will be more exhausted than you ever have been in your life.   Donnie Wahlberg especially I am convinced never sleeps.  The photo below is the oath Donnie has everyone do together at the sail away party.

Each night on the cruise they have theme nights.  I must admit that they were a lot of fun:  Theme’s on this cruise included 80’s prom night, white night, GPS night and TV Character night.   These parties were held out on the main lido deck each night and it was fun to see all the creativity that went into them both by the other cruisers and the guys.

One thing that became very obvious to me the in the first hours of being on the ship was the extreme selfie madness that was about to happen.  It almost became this challenge.  Can you get a selfie with each New Kid and it left you feeling like if you didn’t you were some sort of cruise failure.  It truly took away from a lot of the theme nights in my opinion.  It was also frustrating when you were waiting or wanting to get a selfie with a New Kid to see someone else that had already had 5 with them were trying to get in for another one.  All you saw were cell phones in the air and it’s almost like those circling the various stages cared less about the performance of the guys and more about pushing their way into location to get a selfie.  I ended up getting a selfie with 4 out of the 5.  I never had an opportunity with Danny.  Joe,  I thought did something great, after one of his performances he said I will be sitting in X spot anyone that still needs a selfie with me line up and he sat there for an hour or more but, everyone got their selfie in a much more controlled environment.

The rest of the time on the ship you were kept entertained with NKOTB Game show which was funny and it was nice to see the guy’s fun personalities shine.  I didn’t have good seats at all for the seated performances so sorry I can’t share any pictures from those events for this year.  We also had a concert one night and were able to check out a taping of Jenny McCarthy’s Dirty Sexy Funny Sirius XM show that she taped on the ship.  There were a lot of fun surprises that occurred during that taping with guest appearances by the guys.  Danny also did a cooking demonstration and probably one of my favorite extra activities was Joe’s Duets at Dusk.  That was just a beautiful part of the cruise and so many extremely talented individuals were showcased.  We also were entertained by comedian Adam Ray.

The day we got off the ship and had the Grand Turk Pool Party was just ok.  I thought it was a very short time period the guys were there interacting and just didn’t seem to be well organized.  I am not sure what I was expecting as a first timer.  I know they tried to deal with the selfie madness by doing pool games and the winning team got a selfie but, then other games were played and the winning team never received the selfie.

The group photos of 10 with the guys also took up a significant amount of time in the schedule over the course of two days.  I was very lucky and in a great group of 10 with a few girls I had met at a NKOTB show in Vancouver earlier in the year.  It was a nice no drama group.  You wait in a huge line in your group of 10, get your photo and that’s it.  I have thought since what could improve it or make it better.  I almost think why not allow people to get their selfie with each guy as they go down the line because you are already saying hello and hugging each guy quick.   I know it might take a bit longer but, if everyone knew that was the one time they could ask for one it might make the rest of the cruise more pleasant and everyone would have one with each guy.  I do however realize that would be a lot for the guys.  They are all very sweet and a lot of fun.

It was wild too on the last night to stay up and party and dance with Donnie all the way into port.  Many of the other guys turned in at various points in the night.  Jon and Donnie both kept it going all the way until the sun came up.  It was quite the experience.

Final thoughts/suggestions:  Overall I had fun, I met up with my friends and made new ones!  I do hope either Rose Tours or NKOTB can come up with some way to solve the selfie madness.   I am going to go on the cruise this year.  I was pretty luke warm on the idea of doing it again.  We unfortunately didn’t pull the room type we wanted either so hoping this year will be a lot of fun.  I would love to see the night parties start on time or at least close to on time.  Selfie madness have a solution whether it be we take them at the group photo time, each guy sets up a time like Joe did and if you want one you wait in line for it or give us colored bracelets one for each guy, when you get the selfie the bracelet gets ripped off.  Truly the best option would be the line up like Joe did or at the group photos.  Maybe spread that over 3 days instead of 2 so it’s not so many at once for the guys.  I would also love to see a special event by Jordan and Jon too.  Jon is so sweet and so much fun and it would be fun to see him shine!  A solo performance by Jordan or something along those lines would also be a great addition to the schedule.

Tips for cruise virgins:

1. Come well rested because you will be going, going, going.
2. Be prepared for something to help with motion sickness. I had used the arm bands and was fine.
3. Take advantage of what you can bring on the ship. I am a red bull drinker and was glad I was able to bring on a package because they didn’t have any on the ship.
4. Pack lots of comfortable shoes
5. Get into the theme nights they are a lot of fun
6. Try to get in a photo group ahead of time but spend time getting to know people either on the fan club boards, the various facebook pages etc.
7. Be prepared that you may deal with sea legs/motion for days after you get off the ship. I keep the arm bands on but, still dealt with that for a good 4 days after I was home.
8. Don’t stress, just live in the moments and have fun.

Until next time,

Xoxo

Heather