5 Reasons To Make Groove Cruise Your First Cruise Ship Festival

There aren't a whole lot of things that dance music doesn't go well with, but it's safe to say that cruise ships are nowhere near that already short list. It doesn't take a neurosurgeon to figure out that if you pack a few thousand free spirits into a seafaring vessel with a handful of world-class DJs and whisk the lot of them away to exotic locations, they're going to have a good time. What takes a little more finesse, on the other hand, is figuring which cruise ship festival to attend in the first place. Lucky for you, we've figured that out for you - and all signs point to Groove Cruise (GC). Whether on land or at sea there are a number of factors that go into making any live music event memorable, and Groove Cruise appears to have all of those pieces in place. To see what we mean, read on for 5 reasons to make GC your first cruise ship festival. 5) Groove Cruise Predates Other Popular Cruise Ship Festivals If you haven't figured out that tenure is everything in the world of electronic music, you must be new here. Don't worry about whether or not the music you like is actually any good; as long as you were into it before this whole movement blew up, you're automatically better than everyone who wasn't. That's dance music 101. So, if you take take that concept and apply it to cruise ship festivals, it should be obvious that GC is the best by a wide margin. While Holy Ship! will only be adding a fourth exclamation mark to its title next year and Mad Decent Boat Party just wrapped up its second annual sailing, Groove Cruise boasts a whopping 11 consecutive years of marrying luxury cruises with face-melting beats - and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. 4) There Are Annual Groove Cruise Sailings In Both L.A. And Miami Out of all the cities in the U.S., it's not too bold an assertion to suggest that the two with the highest concentration of electronic music fans are L.A. and Miami. Even though house music originated in Chicago, the former two cities' booming entertainment markets made for a perfect storm by which the advent of dance music became intertwined with each one's local nightlife culture for well over two decades. As such, if you're the kind of festival goer who prefers to build the rest of each trip around music as well, you can't go wrong with either sailing. Upon its first departure from Long Beach in September of 2013, GCLA became the first fully chartered cruise ship festival on the West Coast - and while GC's organizers have yet to announce the 2016 dates for GCLA, GC Miami is slated to take place from January 22nd-26th. 3) Groove Cruise Takes Customer Service As Seriously As The Festival Experience Itself It's not exactly like the inaugural edition of GC in 2004 was these guys' first rodeo. The Groove Cruise brand was started by a charter cruise company called Whet Travel, and a brief visit to their website proves that they're accustomed to dealing with a far snootier clientele than your typical, thrill-seeking millennial. While we were probing the website to gather research for this very list, an instant messaging window popped up. To our delight, an actual, real-life human being on the other end amicably responded to every single obscure question we had about GC until our queries fell entirely outside their area of expertise - at which point they graciously referred us to the brand's publicist (whose actual job is dealing with pesky bloggers). If GC's customer service reps can exercise that much patience with somebody who didn't even suggest that they were going, you can bet they'll go out of their way to make a confirmed festival goer's customer experience priority #1. 2) The #GCFam Is Real You know that friend of yours who went to Holy Ship! last year and is suddenly part of some kind of crazy cult whose version of L. Ron Hubbard is HARD Events Founder Gary Richards? Well, if you'd prefer a cult that wasn't started by a guy who recently filed an obviously greed-driven lawsuit against a beloved rave scene icon, GC is, once again, the way to go. In all seriousness, though, the camaraderie shared between attendees of any festival is itself a compelling reason to explore the festival landscape - but the tightest-knit rave families take time to form, and as we've already pointed out, #GCFam has had over a decade's worth of festivals under their belt. When you're in tow with veterans like that, you can look forward to learning a thing or two... Or, if you're not the kind of person who's all that keen on incorporating things like learning into your festival experience, you'll at least have some folks who have been there and done that keep an eye on you after you overindulge. 1) The Music, Of Course At the end of the day, a festival is really only as good as its lineup. While Dash Berlin may be the most well-known name on the 2016 edition of the GC Miami's lineup, it fills the absence left by the lack of main stagers with a who's who of dance music's more sophisticated side. In addition to old schoolers like Stefano Noferini, Roger Sanchez and Boris, more contemporary envelope pushers like Chocolate Puma, Autograf and Chus & Ceballos will represent electronic music's cutting edge. At present, there are 46 names on GC Miami's roster and they will be spread across four stages: Theatre, Bon Voyage, Sunset Sessions and Abyss. With so many entertainment options in addition to stops in scenic locations, it's a surprise that Groove Cruise hasn't received more recognition for being a trailblazer in the North American cruise ship festival market. As more and more fans grow increasingly discerning of the electronic music brands they support, though, it likely won't be long until the merits of the festival become better known.