A common theme with Groove Cruise is, surprisingly, the inability to find the words to truly capture the magic of the experience. In 2024, I called it an “escape to utopia“, and I still stand by that. In trying to cover some new ground, I was struck by a short review written (shown at the end) by a 2026 attendee and posted to the attendee-only Facebook group. She explained that despite going to Ultra Miami, EDC Vegas, and Tomorrowland in 2025, by the end of Groove Cruise 2026 day 1, she knew it was going to be a “forever festival” for her and her partner, and didn’t mind dropping all of the major festivals to continue going on Groove Cruise every year. And in fact, it’s well known that Groove Cruise “virgins” return in very high numbers, and a surprising number of Groove Cruisers keep coming back year after year. So what is it about Groove Cruise that engenders this type of adoration? The unique aspect of having a shared journey aboard a gorgeous cruise ship is certainly one part. Groove Cruise 2026 set off aboard the largest and newest ship to ever host such a charter, let alone a music festival. The Wonder of the Seas was completed in 2022 and has a capacity for almost 7000 passengers. The only ship class that is newer or larger is the Icon of the Seas, but frankly, those ships don’t have the fan-favorite Aquatheater outside at the back of the ship. And yet, the ship is only one small factor in what makes Groove Cruise so magical that it defies explanation. What I found is that it’s a million different things (big and small) that all come together at once to create this incredible feeling within all Groove Cruisers from beginning to end, almost like a high, but without a downside. It’s a feeling that Groove Cruise’s faithful leader, Jason Beaukema, has coined the “Groove Effect”. Groove Cruise is way more than a music festival or a party. It’s a community, it’s a spiritual pilgrimage, it’s a family reunion – all united by good music and good vibes. Once you go, you’ll understand this on day 1 as described above. The Groove Cruise experience has become so astounding that Jason (@traveljason) has been invited to SXSW to give a talk about the Groove Effect. To him, the Groove Effect is like a blueprint for how to create a similar event-based interest community. In fact, Whet Travel, which hosts Groove Cruise, also produces cruises for farmers (yes, really) and is debuting an Emo music cruise in 2027. This is an event where a 2026 couple met, got engaged, got married, and hosted a gender reveal on all Groove Cruises over the years. During the course of the voyage, there were numerous proposals and weddings, with Jason Beaukema officiating the wedding ceremonies. There was even one divorced couple that managed to rekindle their love during Groove Cruise 2026 and remarried onboard! I’ll admit that Jason’s explanation for the Groove Effect has become so detailed that it could be its own book, but here’s what the Groove Effect means to me. The Groove Effect is a feeling that is reached early and sustained for all throughout the entire Groove Cruise voyage. It’s a feeling that can only happen because everybody at Groove Cruise checks their problems, stresses, and hassles at the gangway when they board the ship. Groove Cruisers embody the work hard, play hard mantra. While all the Groove Cruisers have very busy personal and professional lives, there is an agreement to forget all problems for a few days and live life to the fullest. For these 5 days, nobody will dull your shine! Think of the moments early in your raving/music festival career where you’re settled in with a good spot at your favorite set of the event, you’re in the best mood, with good friends around, watching a musical journey unfold before your eyes, and you think to yourself “this is just an incredible moment and it’s hard to imagine being any happier”. Nowadays, at a DJ show or festival, this moment is usually short-lived because of all the little hassles that kill the vibe before, during, and after the feeling sets in. It’s a hassle to gather your crew and get there, dealing with pre-spots, Uber, driving, and parking. Once you get to the event, the hassles continue. You fight through the crowd, wait in long lines for drinks, search for enough space to dance, deal with people who have never heard of PLUR, and wait for the openers to play before your favorite DJ so that you have a decent spot. Eventually, the time comes when you want a drink, food, or the bathroom, and you have to go through more hassles. Maybe you just skip them altogether, causing more stress. Then the set(s) end after a few hours, and you have to fight through the crowds to get home. It’s because of these things that many people slow down on music festivals and club nights as they get older, and many quit altogether by their 30s. At Groove Cruise, nobody has to worry about any of those things. Food is free and all around you. Stop by the buffet at the top decks and grab some delicious McDonald’s McNugget clones. They look and taste exactly (even a bit better) than the real thing, paired with some tasty fries, a burger, or dozens of other things. Otherwise, you can grab a pizza down on Deck 5 at almost anytime and you can bring the entire pizza with you to the set. There’s fine dining available, and you don’t even have to dress up. There are bars everywhere and ample cold water that you can keep in the awesome metal water bottle provided to you when you board. There’s always a bathroom nearby, and if there’s a line, you can literally go to your room for the bathroom in about 5 minutes. Ever wanted to watch Max Styler from a hot tub? Done! With a pina colada in hand? Done! With a soft serve ice cream cone? A minute away from the hot tub. You can watch Cassian and SCRIPT as the sun comes up, and then hit the breakfast buffet before going to sleep. There is never a scenario where you have to spend more than one second at a set you don’t want to be at, and yet you’ll find yourself discovering so much new music incidentally during the trip. It’s truly a “choose your own adventure” in every sense of the word. I know people who barely slept and others who kept things very chill. Everybody is able to get everything they could want easily at any time, and the majority of people come as a duo or a group so they all have strong connections with each other that radiate positivity. As the Groove Effect takes hold, everybody becomes incredibly friendly and fun. If you enter an elevator with somebody, they will start a conversation with you, and it won’t be small talk. People will high five you as you walk by. You will definitely leave with more friends than you arrived with, and many people make lifelong friends on GC. Everybody is meeting eachother in the highest spirits, having the time of their lives, including the artists. Beyond that, there is literally no time during the entire voyage when there is not a party going on. That’s not to say that there’s no rest or peace. The cabins remain quiet and there are always areas of the ship that are quiet. After some feedback in 2025, Groove Radio, which plays chilled out trance and house music throughout the ship’s speakers (think the ones playing Bob Marley normally) has been tweaked so that it’s not necessarily in every space onboard (spa, gym, etc). But Groove Cruise is also a forever festival in the sense that there is never a moment without live music to go see. There are so many stages with totally different vibes all around the ship, and you’ll want to experience them all. You have the amphitheater-style Aquatheater at the back of the ship with stadium seating and grand production. This is basically the “mainstage” of Groove Cruise since it’s the most epic and largest in terms of capacity. During the day, you also have the top-deck Pool, which was amazing on Wonder of the Seas. The music was projected to both pools on either side of the ship and also down into the Central Park area of the ship down below, which created an awesome effect while people partied in the pool or lounged on daybeds. There’s the ship’s huge Promenade area down on Deck 5 with the colorful ceiling lights overhead (and a pizza joint right there). After the Pool winds down at night, the Theater and Studio B start popping off. The Theater used to be the main attraction on smaller GC ships, but now it’s just one of many. However, the production there is awesome. Then there’s fan-favorite Studio B, which is essentially a Boiler Room setup with lasers galore. For the afters vibes you’ll want to hit up the Solarium for a fully enclosed ocean view, complete with pools and hot tubs, and loungers where you can watch the sun rise. New for 2026 was the Ultimate Abyss stage, which brought back another GC classic, the intimate stage at the top rear of the ship, where you can be one with the sky. This is the perfect place for emotional sunrises or sunsets. And there’s even more stages beyond that. They’re all a few minutes from each other, so you can go back and forth as much as you want. You can catch Joel Corry in the gym before his set, or have a conversation with Markus Schulz around the ship. The best personification of this vibe comes from Le Youth, who is known for his crowd interactions. During his 2 sets, he came into the crowd numerous times to say hello, take selfies, and just hug the fans. Each time, it was an indescribable moment, and attendees were brought to tears at the beauty of these moments. I left Groove Cruise, counting Le Youth and SCRIPT as new friends (Joel Corry and Devon James were already friends from a prior GC). And that’s not just because I’m with EDMTunes, you’re welcome to respectfully interact with the artists onboard. On Groove Cruise, it’s not just famous DJs and the paying customers. Everybody is equal, from the crew to the attendees, to the artists and the Groove Cruise leadership. You can chat up Jason in person or DM, and he will respond, and better yet, he will listen! Beyond that, GC offers several artist activities you can sign up for, from dinners to liquor tastings, and even excursions in Nassau. Because everybody is feeling the Groove Effect, everybody respects each other and supports eachother. You can put your things down and feel secure that nobody will take them. Attendees actively reported any lost items that were found. There is no judgment, and you can feel comfortable being your fullest self. People take the costume themes to hilarious and even absurd extremes. Even if you’re somebody who feels too rigid for that type of thing, I bet you’ll end up getting into it eventually. Here, you’re allowed to be the person you’re too uptight to be in the real world. People will constantly compliment you on your costumes or your vibe or whatever, and you’ll pay it forward. So there really is this sense that the ship is full of 7000 of your friends. People will give you little trinkets or card holders for your room key, funny stickers, or a million other things. Don’t tell Royal, but people with a drink package will happily get you a drink if you want one. Those friendships extend before and after Groove Cruise, too. As soon as the cabins go on sale, there is a Facebook group created for the attendees. The group becomes extremely active in the months leading up, almost in the way it was before you started college (if you’re a millennial). You’ll make friends before you even step on the ship and people will post all sorts of helpful information or offer to make trinkets for you or whatever. After GC, you’ll find that if you wear Groove Cruise merch at any other event, you’ll find some GCFam there, and you’ll become fast friends. I have friends now that I’ve seen consistently every January since 2023, and it feels like we pick up right where we left off every time. As if a nonstop party with everything at your fingertips is not enough, Groove Cruise provided a real treat on Saturday. The ship docked in Nassau at 8am and did not leave until Midnight. Once again, the Groove Cruisers had all the choices in the world. There was enough time to explore Nassau during the morning and afternoon, with a full-on amphitheater concert right next to the ship at the port beginning around 2pm, running until 11pm. It’s pretty rare these days for a cruise ship to dock for that long or to stay into the night. We got both! Better yet, we got an intimate show with John Summit without the hassle of dealing with an aggressive and packed crowd. There is no better way to see John Summit than with a small crowd of all your friends. Another reason the Groove Effect sets in is that the Groove Cruisers know that they are being heard. If they have any feedback, good or bad, Jason and the rest of the team want to hear it. You can tell Jason, DJ Adam Scott, or “Skeeter” directly on the ship or via DMs and they will read them. They are constantly striving to improve and make tweaks where needed, especially now that GC has settled into the Royal Caribbean Oasis ship class for the foreseeable future. Now, each year the experience iterates on its success without rewriting the formula. The stages and ship stay relatively the same, but with improvements. The team takes this so seriously that they always send out a voluminous attendee survey to take in that feedback. The survey might seem intimidating if it came from a marketer, but the GCFam is excited to fill this out because they want to share their feedback, good or bad. Best yet, they want to share their artist requests for 2027, since Skeeter is reviewing the lists and using them to book talent for 2027. Jason reads every single one of the thousands of surveys sent in, and the results really speak for themselves. The result of the Groove Effect flowing through everyone for 5 days is plain to see. You will likely book your next GC within a week of getting home, if not during the trip itself. If you’re a GC virgin, you will probably come away with an afterglow like few other events can provide, and you’ll chase that feeling each January. There’s a reason so many people and artists come back year after year. I perused the attendee-only Facebook group to grab some attendee reviews in the days after 2026, and you’ll see what I mean. The Groove Cruisers (myself definitely included) will not stop trying to convince you to give Groove Cruise a try. It’s such a magical experience that they want to share it with their friends, and GC is the type of experience that anybody over 21 can enjoy, so anybody is a good candidate Groove Cruise is fun for the entire family, seriously. I met multiple people there with their adult children over the years, having a blast every time. Your friends who retired from partying? This is the perfect place for them to let loose once more. Groove Cruise 2027 is already 84% sold out, and prices increaseon Friday night, so don’t lose your chance! GC 2027 returns to the Allure of the Seas, which was upgraded extensively in 2025 to match many of the features of the latest ships. Best yet, 2027 will feature a full takeover of Royal Caribbean’s brand-spanking-new Royal Beach Club in Nassau. Just imagine a global headliner DJ performing on the beach with the crystal blue ocean behind, while you sit at the largest swim-up bar in the world.Why Groove Cruise Will Be Your “Forever Festival”
The Groove Effect
Convenience
Choose Your Own Adventure
Artist Interactions
Everybody is Your Friend
The Destination
The Responsiveness
The Results
Groove Cruise 2027
