It's a rare chance to let your hair down. A mate is getting married and having a buck's party cruise.
There's plenty to drink -- that should go without saying -- and what kind of farewell to bachelorhood wouldn't have strippers? Heading home, the effects of those drinks and the heady Brisbane sun catch up with you.
Someone suggests a fairly innocent prank and you and some of your bolder friends oblige. You abandoned your good sense untold drinks ago -- and now you too lose your clothes.
Whether it's a buck's party or a hen's party, we've all been there or been close, haven't we? Now, imagine that scenario sees you stood down from your job and potentially facing criminal charges -- that's the spot of bother five Queensland police officers are in.
On Sunday, a shocked motorist called police after spotting two naked men running around a bus stopped at traffic lights -- not realising the men were actually the boys in blue.
While the nude romp and the approval of police vehicles to take the men to the party are being investigated, a public debate has arisen over how much should be expected from law enforcers when they're off the job.
The strong reaction of the police hierarchy hints at the tough year the state's police service has had in the battle for public confidence.
The buck's party shenanigans are among 144 matters the ethical standards command is investigating, a police spokesman told AAP.
Most of the cases involve alleged "incivility, procedural non-compliance and inaction", while others concern criminal allegations, misconduct and breaches of discipline.
This should have been the year the Queensland Police Service got to show how far it had come since the Fitzgerald Inquiry, set up 20 years ago to weed out rampant corruption among the state's police and politicians.
Instead, a po-faced Commissioner Bob Atkinson this week admitted it was shaping up as his force's annus horribilis.
"This has been the worst couple of months for us that I can recall for many years," he told reporters north of Brisbane on Tuesday.
"It's a nightmare in a sense that you just hope there's nothing else coming." In July, the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) wound up a two-year investigation into officers who allegedly offered inducements to prisoners in exchange for evidence -- just as Tony Fitzgerald gave a rare but explosive public speech about the lack of progress since his landmark inquiry.
The unfortunate timing of the CMC's report had many asking how effective the 20 years of reforms had actually been.
Another blow to the service's image was the death of a man who had been hit 28 times with a Taser stun gun.
Police had first reported Antonio Galeano was stunned only three times in a confrontation with police near Townsville.
The revelation that he was, in fact, stunned many more times prompted the police service to put the statewide rollout of their new weapon on hold, and a review of its Taser policy.
Another policy reviewed this year focused on police caught drink-driving, enforcing a "sliding scale" of disciplinary action from dismissal to reprimands.
Nine officers have been charged with the offence so far this year, which shows, according to the police union, that officers are doing their job without favour.
But perhaps most damaging to the service's image was the February death of 16-year-old Ipswich boy, Andrew Bornen.
An ethical standards command investigation continues into the circumstances of the teenager's death. He was struck by a car while handcuffed and face down on the road.
This week, the police nude romp story that has made headlines sounds more like something Queenslanders would expect of their trouble-prone footballers.
Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers has defended the officers involved, pointing to a high-stress job that includes being on-call (and sober) for up to a month at a time.
Mr Leavers says the officers made a silly mistake but not one that's outside the realm of community expectations.
"Had they been police officers who were corrupt, dealing in drugs, serious assault matters, criminal behaviour, that would be different -- but this is a stupid prank," he told AAP.
"The public are quite supportive of the police.
"I think what they do see here is the same as they did with the prime minister going to a strip club -- police are human." Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman agreed the official response was exaggerated.
"A distinction has to be drawn ... between police conduct of an officer who is engaged in official duties and police conduct of a police officer who's off-duty," Mr O'Gorman told AAP.
"That makes this something of a storm in a teacup." But Mr O'Gorman does have concerns about the way internal police matters are dealt with, claiming the ethical standards command is handing many complaints back to police stations to deal with.
"It's reached the farcical stage where frequently enough it's sent back to the very station where the officer who is being complained about is based, and he's investigated by his fellow officers," he said.
If anything, the way the police service has come down on the officers seems to have distanced it from the public, who do draw that distinction Mr O'Gorman points out.
On a popular Brisbane website, most bloggers were either bemused or amused, like Gail of the Gold Coast, who wrote: "Sounds like the guys had a really good time ... of course, they shouldn't be sacked, I think they should make a calender (sic) and I am sure it would be a seller!"
