We have rung in the New Year in some fantastic ways, but there is nothing like ringing in the New Year on a beach! We have been celebrating New Year’s Eve together since 2006 and always try to make it memorable. Before the RV, we celebrated in Chicago near my family. But now that we have our RV, the goal is to be somewhere warm!
Last year we were at Disney and they know how to throw a party, but it was cold in Orlando so this year we went even further south! I didn’t know how much I would love watching the sun go down with my feet in the sand wearing my best beachwear on New Year’s Eve. Besides the fireworks, and we’ll talk about those shortly, we loved eating dinner on the beach and just feeling like we are cheating on winter! For our NYE dinner, all we had was the light of our cell phones and the moon as we sat at a picnic table eating a ton of seafood at The Salty Crab Bar and Grill with our toes tucked in the sand.
Of course, it wasn’t all quiet moments shared in the dark, in general, it was crowded madness and expensive drinks. However, you can find quiet moments on the sand if you determined (and we usually are). Fort Myers Beach is crowded and everyone is hanging out until midnight. We came for sunset, dinner, and a bit of shopping but we had a different plan for the fireworks. We wanted to enjoy the crowd and see the party, but we didn’t want to hang out until midnight but we’ll get to that
There was a lot to see! Most of the stores were open so we enjoyed quite a bit of shopping. You could carry your drinks around in a designated area (we highly recommend the rum runners). There was live music, food in abundance, and so many people to watch. The best part was the ball they were going to drop at midnight was a beach ball that kept changing colors! You can see it in the photo above, it’s white and in the upper right corner of the photo. There’s a better picture of it below.
Don’t expect to be able to make dinner reservations on New Year’s Eve, everyone here is on island time. If you are coming to Fort Myers Beach for New Year’s Eve, it’s important to be ready for the crowds and just go with the flow.
So what was our plan for fireworks? We decided to go on a boat cruise with Salty Sam’s Sight Sea-R Cruises. They had 2 boats going out that night to watch the fireworks from the Gulf of Mexico. There were so many reasons this was a fantastic idea! First, the boat leaves from the mainland so when everyone is trying to leave the island, you are ahead of the game! We are so practical. Haha Second, the boat only had about 30 people on it so it was a nice relief from the crowd. Third, nobody was standing in front of us while we watched the fireworks. I mean, just look at that photo, we had an amazing view of the fireworks! The drinks, the ocean, the dolphin sightings, the music on the boat, etc. There were so many reasons that going on a boat cruise to watch the fireworks was the perfect ending to another romantic New Years Eve! Even if you don’t want to go on a boat cruise, the fireworks at Fort Myers Beach are epic! The fireworks lasted almost 30 minutes and our boat didn’t get back until about 1:00 a.m. It was breathtaking in so many ways!
We hope your 2019 has started out with fireworks. I can’t believe spring is almost here, but am so thankful, to see the signs of spring! We’ll be heading to the Great Smoky Mountains soon and we hope to post a lot of pictures of spring flowers and lush, green pastures. Make sure you follow us on Facebook and Instagram for the latest pictures.
Until next time!
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