Recap 2014: Day 1 (Part 1)

How I wish I could snap my fingers and be back to the morning of the cruise. But I suppose I'll settle for reliving it through my blog. So here goes...

Boarding
I always like to arrive at the terminal pretty early, mainly because I can't sleep much anyway and I like to be there when the boys arrive. So my friends and I made our way to the terminal and waited in the chilly Florida rain.

Chrissy and I in the rain outside the terminal

As soon as they let us inside, we opened up our goody bags to find that they were doing a scavenger hunt this year. Well, I'm a fan of scavenger hunts, period. Let alone a Backstreet themed scavenger hunt with some really awesome Backstreet-themed prizes. So I was all over this like a fly on honey!

Scavenger Hunt Rules

After reading through the rules, I saw that you have to work together as a cabin and pick one of the boys to go after. Well, I was rooming with 2 Kevin girls, so there really wasn't much deciding that needed to be done haha. We knew we'd be going for Kev!

We waited, for what seemed like forever, for the boys to finally make their grand entry. I was not so patiently waiting for the elevators doors to finally open and reveal the 5 men I had been waiting to see. Of course the Carnival staff was having fun with us and kept popping out pretending to be the Backstreet Boys.

The boys finally arrived and we got our first taste of the the fun and screaming that was to ensue. Oh, and I totally had a fangirl moment when Nick walked by and grabbed my hand!

Me giving Nick a high-five of sorts

Kev arriving

Now it was time for us to board. Yippee!! I anxiously skipped up the gangway in anticipation of the 3 days ahead. I absolutely love that feeling of stepping on the ship for the first time, greeted by the big ole BSB welcome sign and the cardboard cut outs. Even Howie has fun with them!

"On board the BSB Cruise. Getting ready for a fun party weekend. Funning thing is one of the guys in the group looks like me. I think I'm better looking.... ;)" - Howie D

Things like this are why we love you, Howie. And I'm not even counting the fact that you just made up the word 'funning'.

Anyway, it really is like a kid walking into a candy store. I don't even know what to do first. I want to explore, eat, check out the cabin, catch up with friends, meet up with new friends, get my door decoration up, call my boyfriend back home before my cell service goes away, find the Backstreet Boys, watch Backstreet TV. The list is never-ending.

Scavenger Hunt
This year one of the first things I did after getting settled was play the scavenger hunt because I was just so excited!

Clue #1: Kevin may still think he is the captain from last years cruise, but he's not in charge of the Carnival Ectasy. Kevin left his Captain's hat from last year's cruise onboard and they sent it here for safe keeping. Go visit the Maitre'd and the hat could be near.

My roommates and I figured it had to be in one of the two main dining rooms. We probably spent a good 20 minutes looking through both of those dining rooms, asking clueless Carnival staff, prying open what I can only assume to be confidential cabinets, and scanning every possible area where this hat could possibly be hidden.

It was on our second visit back to the Wind Star dining room where I finally spotted that darn hat! I felt so stupid when we finally saw it, because we literally had to have walked past it like 15 times. In my defense, the white hat blended in very well with the table. Tucked under the hat was the next clue...

Clue #1: Kev's Captain Hat

Clue #2: Kevin hails from the state of Kentucky and is a huge supporter of the University of Kentucky teams. When trying to relax onboard you can find him wearing his UK Tshirt in the back of the ship which is the more SERENE area.

After a mistaken trip to the spa, we ran back the length of the ship to 'Serenity' and stood out there in the pouring rain trying to find our next clue. We scoured that tiny area for a good 15 minutes, at least, with no luck. I'm sure if any staff was watching us, they must've thought we were crazy, but I didn't care. We were on a mission. We tore up the area, searching every nook & cranny, and my roommate, Ana, finally found our next clue attached to a University of Kentucky t-shirt.

Clue #3: Kentucky might be one of Kevin's favorite places to be when he isn't grooming his eyebrows perfect for the fans to see. You're on vacation and deserve to be pampered too, maybe you need to schedule an appoint for an "updo" to look for the next clue. 

Kevin Clue #3

 
I barely had time to laugh at the eyebrow reference before we booked it over back to the spa, hoping to find our next clue. When we got there, lo and behold, Mr. Richardson was at the spa making an appointment! I actually thought that we had reached our grand prize- a spa session with Kev! Maybe he'd be giving us a facial or would we give him a seaweed wrap?! Ha, if only! But it turned out it was pure dumb luck that he was there as he quickly made his way in the spa....without us. *sad face* I have to admit though, I looked like an utter hot mess from running back and forth all over the ship, sweating profusely, and having been outside in the rain for 20 minutes. Seriously, I was quite the site. So it was probably for the best that he went on without us.

I was obviously distracted with Kevin in front of me, but not that distracted. We were still on a mission. I noticed one of the spa attendants putting together an envelope and sticking it on the wall. So I grabbed the envelope, which was hilariously taped to a pair of tweezers. I see what they did there....too funny!

Clue #4: Kevin tickled the ivories for all to hear on last year's cruise but did you know tequila is his favorite booze?!?! While he was in the middle of a piano recital he left his bottle so its location is vital. That is the last clue to find and that special time with Kevin where you can unwind awaits you.

Ana reading our 4th clue in the piano bar

Holy crap, we're actually almost done and actually doing well. I was so freakin excited and just going off of adrenaline at this point. Next we run to the piano bar and Ana spots a tiny bottle of tequila almost right away. Attached to the tequila was the following note....

We won!!!!

*Does happy dance* I'm in sheer shock and still don't believe we won!! So we make our way to the hospitality desk, and sure enough, they confirmed that we won. I wanted to jump behind the counter and hug the ladies!! Actually... I do think I hugged some Rose Tour staff at some point. And not only that, we were the first team to complete the scavenger hunt. I still can't believe it!

It's not a dream, we really did win!!

It probably took us an hour to complete the scavenger hunt. We were seriously on cloud 9! At this point I was pretty darn hungry, but still too excited to eat. I ran into a couple friends who were still working on the scavenger hunt, and because I had so much fun doing the Kevin one I jumped right in to help. My two roommates, Chrissy & Cory, from last year were working on the AJ scavenger hunt and were stumped on a clue that lead us back out in the rain on the pool deck. Since I was already wet, what's a little more rain? I helped them look for their final clue, and they both ended up winning 1x1 time with AJ. So happy for them!!

Chrissy & Cory winning the AJ prize

After helping the AJ duo, I ran into more friends working on Howie's scavenger hunt. So I figured I'd tag along on their adventures. Why, not? I helped Kristie & Callie for a little while, and they eventually won after hours of searching for their clues. I was equally excited for them as well. I'm planning to bribe them all to be guest bloggers so hopefully you can hear more about their experiences as well.

All the scavenger hunt excitement lasted several hours and when I finally stopped to take a breath, I heard my tummy grumbling. Thus I went to grab some lunch, and by the this point the lines had died down. Nothing eventful happened at lunch- no BSB sightings. Gosh, in what world is it considered a boring lunch if I don't see a Backstreet Boy?! But that's pretty much how it works on a BSB cruise.

Before the sailaway party, my roommates and I wanted to get our door decoration up, though we didn't have a whole lot of time. I already wrote a full post on our FRIENDS themed door. I wanted to thank everyone who came by our door and paid us such wonderful compliments. We are soooo incredibly happy that you all seemed to enjoy it. We heard a lot of giggling and many of you shared that you also told AJ that he had to come see our door. A HUGE THANK YOU to those of you who told AJ about the door. I really appreciate!

Our FRIENDS/BSB Door

Before I go on, I want to share my one and only goal/hope for this trip was that AJ would see our door. I didn't care about winning, didn't care about getting any pictures with the boys, didn't care about much else. This was my only hope. But it was still an incredibly tall order. Not to mention I was going against my own #1 advice- don't have any expectations or you'll leave disappointed. But I couldn't help myself as I really thought he'd appreciate it. Anyway, you'll hear more on my journey of getting AJ to see this door as the rest of my cruise adventure unfolds.......

Ana, me and Anne Marie attempting a selfie in front of our door