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Groove Cruise review (2013)
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| Spin Laden |
So often in life when you make a decision on something, you are sometimes left wondering if the grass is indeed greener on the other side.
After seeing the amazing talent assembled at this year's BPM Festival in Playa del Carmen, I was skeptical about whether or not I had made the right decision in choosing to explore Miami's 72-hour Groove Cruise instead.
Managed by Whet Travel, the Groove Cruise Miami embarks from the bustling Port of Miami on the last Friday of January, with 2,200 partiers in tow from countries such as Canada, the UK, Australia, Norway and, predominately, the United States.
Similarly to the BPM Festival in Playa del Carmen, the Groove Cruise's draw is the ability to enjoy dance music in the sun, with sparkling white sands and the turquoise Caribbean Ocean as its backdrop. While there are over 40 djs playing music around-the-clock on the Norwegian (Sky), the luxury liner does make two daytime stops at the Norwegian Cruise privately-owned Great Stirrup Cay Island in the Bahamas.
With a cap of 2.200 people, there was room to move on the ship's deck, in its nightclub, its dance hall-transformed theatre and during the raucous private island party - unlike the BPM Festival, where many of its events were heavily congested.
And one cannot say enough about the wonderful service on the Sky. From the plentiful and tasty buffets, to the mouth watering dishes in the restaurants, to the prompt and friendly house keeping/cabin steward from the 800-person crew, one is very well taken care of and attended to from the minute you board the vessel.
So when I was reading the media reports about the extraordinary service provided on the Carnival Cruise "Triumph" vessel, despite it being adrift for five days with mechanical problems, I was not in the slightest bit surprised. The cruise ship industry is big business, with its second-to-none service a big reason for that.
Ferry Corsten, Sander van Doorn, Darude and Funkagenda were the big names on the mostly commercial Groove Cruise. But the floating festival did have some bookings for those who like their music with a bit of an underground grittiness, with djs such as Anthony Attallah, Ivano Bellini, Mind Control and Saeed Younan.
One of more interesting moments for me was when a 'random' saw my Canadian flag during one of the festival's theme parties and then, after a few words, proceeded to ask me if I knew who "Dead Mau Five" was. :p
Another interesting and rather sobering tidbit was seeing someone sitting about five feet from the dance area on the rear deck having their coffee, sausage and eggs while others were dancing away the early mornings wearing gaudy face paint or areola-covering pasties. Being on this cruise ship with dance music blaring at all hours affords oneself to eat, shower, sleep and dance at the time of his/her choosing, but it also makes for some odd juxtapositions like the aforementioned one.
The refreshing thing about the Groove Cruise is that it isn't only about electronic dance music on a luxury liner, it's about self expression as well. The show isn't only about the djs, it is also about its spirited revellers and their outlandish costumes.
In being a first-timer to this festival, I was anticipating a lot of hysterics .. but this Groove Cruise far surpassed that expectation even.
I was stunned :p
So at the end of the day, I really cannot say I enjoyed this over the BPM Festival or vice versa for that matter. It seems one festival has something the other one doesn't. The BPM line up is far superior to the Groove Cruise, depending on your personal tastes and at 72-hours, the Groove Cruise is rather brief. Also, it is an allure for couples, and there were many of them, but the guy-to-girl ratio was more even than BPM.
However, once you are on the Norweigan Sky, the whole experience feels very much like a VIP one. It is like staying on a floating five-star hotel but with even better service, better scenery and far more entertainment.
And after hearing about the viruses that swept through BPM and rendered many of its attendees sick during and after the festival, I've come to the conclusion that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
During the Groove Cruise the grass on my side was a very nice shade of turquoise :toocool: |
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| maddhatterradio |
| You couldn't pay me to step foot on a cruise ship ever again after the recent happenings. BPM however was the best most well produced festival I've attended in 20+ years of partying. |
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| jsweeney51 |
| Cruises in general are a great time. However, the Groove Cruise is not my thing at all. I went in 2012 and hated it. I quickly became annoyed with all the idiots on board and had nowhere to get away from them. Guess I'm a party pooper, but I don't care for people in room hallways screaming and being obnoxious 24/7 literally at 4 in the morning, etc. I guess that's what I should have expected, so part of it was my fault - but I will definitely never go again. I can see however why it would appeal to a lot of people though. |
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| KiNeTiC ENeRgY |
| quote: | Originally posted by maddhatterradio
You couldn't pay me to step foot on a cruise ship ever again after the recent happenings. BPM however was the best most well produced festival I've attended in 20+ years of partying. |
That's like saying you'll never fly because of a plane crash. The odds of that happening again are extremely slim to none. |
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| mindspin1 |
| God this thing sounds awful!! BPM was unreal this year. I'm actually liking it more than Ibiza now. |
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| Spin Laden |
| the Groove Cruise is a pretty cool concept to be tried at least once in a lifetime... now if the BPM promoters ran a cruise ship festival, I'd masturbate furiously to that idea. |
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| ucforange |
| I think this thing sounds ing awesome. Would love to go on one of these. |
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| mindspin1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by ucforange
I think this thing sounds ing awesome. Would love to go on one of these. |
I guess if I lived in Orlando I'd probably be saying anything looks awesome. |
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| ucforange |
Wow, you certainly are clever. How many continents have you been to?
I guess you're right, cruising around the Caribbean with non-stop house music parties and girls in bikinis sounds like a horrible time. I bet you guys in Canada have much better things to do than this. :rolleyes: |
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| Pantone199c |
| quote: | Originally posted by KiNeTiC ENeRgY
That's like saying you'll never fly because of a plane crash. The odds of that happening again are extremely slim to none. |
THANK YOU! Been on so many cruises as a child and now as an adult and never had any problems. It was horrible what happened to those people but those reports really sounded kind of blown out of proportion. When they were interviewing folks getting off a lot of them were just like meh, of course your always going to get the complainers like anything in life. |
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| Spin Laden |
| quote: | Originally posted by ucforange
I guess you're right, cruising around the Caribbean with non-stop house music parties and girls in bikinis sounds like a horrible time. I bet you guys in Canada have much better things to do than this. :rolleyes: |
We have our own party cruises up here.. this one only had 17 ppl but Armin and Dead Mau Five killed it.
There are some great parties in Canada, however,....namely Montreal. You guys would be pleasantly surprised at the vibe if you've never been. |
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