2009 NKOTB Cruise Day-by-Day: Saturday

When we left off, I had gone to bed sometime around 3 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning. One thing I was not really expecting on the trip was how much I would feel the boat moving. Part of it may have been that we were on the bottom deck of cabins, toward the back of the boat, but I felt like I was sleeping in a rocking chair. I WAS expecting that it would be dark with no window. We had a night light, but it's strange to wake up and have no idea if it's 5 a.m. or 2 p.m.

Turns out, I woke up around 9:15, which was good because I had hung out a request for room service at 9:30 before I went to bed. I think it was the sound and movement of docking in Nassau that woke me. There was soon a knock at the door and we had coffee and fruit delivered, which was awesome. I wish that could happen after every night of drinking.

Malina and I slowly came to life, and I mean slowly. By the time we had showered and gotten dressed in our swim suits and cover-ups, it was after 11. We went up to the Lido deck for a real breakfast.

The only thing on our schedule that day was the Q&A session at 8 p.m. We decided to go onshore and check out Nassau, which we did around noon. There were some girls that stayed onboard all day because we had heard that NKOTB would be on the ship, but neither of us had ever been to Nassau and we wanted to take the opportunity to check it out.

Leaving the boat is pretty easy. We had our room keys, and I had my passport. There were shuttles from the boat entrance to the end of the dock, but it was only a two minute walk so I'm glad we didn't wait. Walking through the welcome center, we were offered dozens of excursions, but we decided we most wanted to see Atlantis. Carnival offered an Atlantis excursion for something like $140. Ours was a total of $8, for round trip cab fare.

Atlantis is ENORMOUS. We wandered around the hotel for a bit, then eventually made our way to the beach area. Our plan had originally been to lay on the beach for a while, but the vendors wanted $15 for the privilege of sitting in a chair for an hour, so we just took a walk. The sand was so soft that our feet sunk several inches with each step so it was quite a workout. Both the weather and the beach were incredibly beautiful. I'm sorry to subject you to a picture of me in a bathing suit, but it's the only pic I have of our excursion. Pay no attention to me; look at the gorgeous sand and water.

After walking the length of the beach, we cabbed it back to the port and went shopping in the straw market. If you wanted straw purses, jewelry, or random knick knacks, this was the place to be. Finally we started to get hungry, so we walked back to the ship for lunch.

Herein lies the biggest problem to having early dinner scheduled at 6 p.m. and why I only ate in the dining room once. When you wake up after 9, eat breakfast at 11, then have lunch at 3 or 4, you are not remotely interested in a 6 p.m. dinner. Luckily, the buffet and pizza counter are always available.

Malina went down to the room for a shower. I followed a short while later, and walking back to our room, I had a New Kids sighting when I saw Joe walking around above the atrium. Unfortunately he said he was late for an interview, so he did not have time for pictures with anyone.

Imagine my surprise when I got down to the Riveria deck (where our cabin was) to see a bunch of security guards, lights, and a camera crew only a few doors down from our room. It turns out that Donnie and Danny had been going down the hallway and knocking on the door of everyone with decorations. Had we been only a few minutes earlier, we would have had them in our room laying in our beds, going through our luggage, and taking pictures like they did with several of our neighbors. (Our closest neighbor had been sleeping and got woken up. She wasn't even fully dressed when she answered the door!) Instead, I got to have a chat with Danny's daughter Chance while I waited to be let past. She was a sweetheart. She said she really liked our door, which was nice. Poor Malina was so upset that we had missed them.

After we had showered again, we went upstairs to . . . GET IN LINE! Yes, for the Q&A that wasn't until 8 p.m. But our friend Jennifer had booked her cabin really late, and she knew her only chance to get close to an event was to be really early for a general admission seating, so we wanted to help her out. We were not the first ones to line up, and it really wasn't that bad. For one, the waiters come around to the line and take drink orders (that would turn out to be a bad thing in this case, more later). Plus it was nice to just sit and rest out of the sun for a while. Here's the line.

Since there were three of us, we took turns having one person go get fixed up for dress to impress night while the others held down the fort. Doors were supposed to open at 7:30, and for some reason they didn't. I feel like we got let in very close to 8. Meanwhile the line had been growing steadily since we joined it, and some people had been taking full advantage of the drink service. You know where this is going, right? Well I don't want to talk bad about anyone, but I will tell you accurately what happened.

We ended up getting very good seats once the doors opened, just behind VIP. The guys were sitting onstage on stools, with Jared P. acting as emcee. Before the cruise, we had been asked to submit one question for the Q&A. The questions were written on index cards. Jared would read the name of the person who submitted the question, she would stand up, then Jared would read her question. The first question was something like, "If you were trying to convert a non believer, what one track from The Block would you play for them?" They answered Click, Click, Click.

After that, most of the questions were less interesting, at least to me. It was stuff like, "what five people would you want to eat dinner with," "what would you take with you to a deserted island," etc. Someone in the audience, who had had way too much to drink, decided to answer all of these questions herself with "me!" And when she would shout this answer, she would stand up and start dancing her way from her seat to the center of the theater. The first 1-2 times she did this, the guys were somewhat amused. In fact, when asked "what would you take to a desert island," Danny said "the girl in the red dress." Here's them pointing at her.

Then it got less amusing as she did it again and again. Joe told her more than once that "there's coffee in the back." He did not sound pleased. Jon, meanwhile, turned around and was facing away from the audience. He barely spoke the whole time. Jared tried to keep us on task, but it was harder and harder for everyone to stay focused on the questions. As it went on, fewer of the guys would answer a question, or they would answer it with only a sentence or two. None of them really seemed into it, and I can't blame them because I was getting increasingly annoyed myself. Really, if security has to come over to you twice, that's plenty of chances. To come over more than four times is pointless. By then you need to be escorted out. Abruptly our session ended after 45 minutes. Group B's Q&A lasted a full hour.

Anyway, after the Q&A, I hit the buffet for dinner. I preferred the buffet to the dining room. No tiny portions and I got to see all my options. Plus: a whole table of desserts. As a vegetarian, I ate very well on the trip.

Group B had their concert at 10 or 10:30. The only other event on the schedule was the 11:15 deck party. Unlike Friday night, none of NKOTB was scheduled to appear at this party, and I, for one, wasn't really expecting them to. (Okay, maybe Donnie.) So I relaxed with my girls from Minnesota and had a fantastic time. I also got to meet Wizbiff. Saturday was my favorite of the deck parties.

Eventually, everyone but Danny made an appearance at the party, from the VIP area. As I've said, this left you with the choice of 1) standing at the entrance to VIP hoping to be let in, 2) standing on the deck watching the party in VIP, or 3) mostly ignoring VIP and having your own party. We chose to have our own party. One of our group had such a good time (well, we all did), that Danny's dad became a little concerned for her, and came and told the rest of us to take her to bed. It's still a running joke with us that "At least Danny's dad didn't tell you to go to your room."

Best part of the night was around 3:30 a.m. when Jon came down from the balcony, took the stage and the mic, and sang Happy Birthday to Jordan.

I could have easily stayed longer at the party, but I went back to my room around 4 a.m. I knew we had our photo session early the next morning, and I didn't want to look bleary for my one guaranteed NKOTB meeting.

Whew, I think that's everything for Saturday! If you read this far, thanks! Hope it was worth it!

Did you miss the previous summaries? Here's Friday and more detail on Family Feud.