VAVi’s NYE Beach Party at the Catamaran

I was beyond impressed with their NYE extravaganza.
Glass of champagne upon entry. Coat Check. Plenty of delicious food, which never ran out. 3 levels of music, dance floors and bars. No lines for drinks. All top-​shelf alcohol. Photo Station with fun props! Gorgeous deck with view of fireworks. Gourmet donuts. NYE hats, necklaces, etc provided.
Beats any other NYE event I’ve been too! I’d definitely recommend this for years to come.

I have made it to the Vavi NYE bash a few years in a row now.
I will have to say this was the most organized one yet.
Last year the lines for drinks were a bit tough to handle, this year was pretty smooth on the wait time.
–I got hammered
–Danced
–Laughed
–Hung out on a boat
–Counted down
–Got a midnight kiss
–Somehow woke up with a fridge full of Coconut Water the next morning.
Big thanks to the Catamaran and Vavi for another awesome NYE.
Hope to do it all again next year.

Really fun party and, considering the large number of people, very well organized and executed. I never had to wait for a drink or a plate of food, and the staff were super friendly and helpful — both Vavi staff and Catamaran staff. The atmosphere was fun, lots of really friendly good-​looking people, décor was a bit cheesy for sure but hey, its New Year’s Eve.
The boat cruise was great, but unfortunately it was foggy that night so we couldn’t see anything. I enjoyed the casino games though and the DJ on the boat was really good. The only thing is — they didn’t tell us that the bar shuts down for like 15 – 20 mins before the boat docks back at the Catamaran (because they don’t want people walking off the boat with drinks since no alcohol is allowed on dock). Would’ve been helpful to know this, but it’s ok — we needed a break from the drinking anyway.
Inside the Catamaran — 4 rooms of dancing. The largest room was all EDM music, which can get tiring after a while, a little variety would’ve been nice. Also, that room was the one with all the balloons on the ceiling so we tried to squeeze in there for midnight but it was nearly impossible — dance floor was so crowded it was ridiculous! We got outta there and went into the next room over which was just as fun and way less people. The DJ’s were all good — some better than others IMO. I would’ve preferred more «dance» music like hip hop or top 40 stuff. While they did play some, most of it was somewhere in the house/​EDM/​techno category. Regardless, we danced the whole night and had a blast!
A few suggestions to Vavi for next year:
1. Better beer selection — SD is the beer capitol of the country, you can’t just be serving Miller beers… and that Red’s apple stuff was gross. Gotta get some local brews!
2. Better food selection — I would say that the quality of the food was somewhere on par with a fast food joint. Soggy buffalo «Wings» aka chicken balls didn’t even taste like chicken.
3. Better party favors — step it up just a little bit — many of the favors came out of the packages already broken, and the glow sticks were the absolute worst — they leaked that glow fluid all over us! what a mess! I would suggest quality over quantity. You don’t have to have 1000 diff types of favors, just having a few quality hats/​noisemakers/​glow sticks would have been better.
4. There were lots of great photo booths and photographers all over the place — but where are the photos? Only one photo booth actually gave you photos to take home. no idea where the other photos can be found (ie photo at entry, etc). Would be nice to know.
Overall, we had a great time! I would recommend this party to friends for sure.

Once again, another great year and my previous review says it all. This really is the best way to spend NYE in SD and I will stress that forking over a few extra bucks for the VIP boat ride is absolutely worth it. This year it was foggy on the bay and very pleasant to hang on the top deck as the music played below.
Nice work, VAVI. You’ve knocked it out the park once again and sent us into 2014 in style. See you next year!