Groove Cruise Miami 2014 Review – 96 Hours of Amazing Part 4: Day 2

I’m still in bed and I can feel how sore my legs are from dancing the day before. We didn’t wake up in time to party while the sun comes up. No worries, there will be other opportunities. What’s the plan now? Get breakfast, go to the pool area, pace ourselves (spoiler: didn’t happen), and enjoy the day at sea aboard this crazy floating festival. We won’t arrive in Mexico until tomorrow, so today it’s just the Groove Cruise family, the ship, and tons of music.

This post is part of my Groove Cruise Miami 2014 Review series. See the full list at the end of this post.

“Hey, Batman!” the cafe host shouted as I turned the corner. I knew he was talking to me. That’s because I’m dressed in a sweet Batman robe complete with a hood/mask combo. Today’s all day theme is superheroes and vixens. It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to walk around in a robe, or dressed as Batman, so I’m taking advantage of this. “Washy washy happy happy!” he says as he sprays hand sanitizer for us. I still say that before meals to this day. It sounds silly, but it has become a defining quote from Groove Cruise X!

After enjoying my french toast, we head up to the sun deck. My girlfriend wants to lay out. I want to get some pictures and timelapse video of the view. We’re laying out, the sun is bright, music is blasting, and I watch the pool area begin to fill as people wake up and rage on. There are beach balls being thrown around the crowd, what looks like a 6 foot inflatable Corona bottle bouncing around, and a plethora of superheroes.

It begins to rain again, but, like before, that doesn’t slow anyone down. We head to the hot tub where we are instantly treated to a bit of Cristal by a fellow generous Groove Cruiser (thank you!) and later joined by a guy wearing bunny ears. As we’re getting out of the hot tub, two guys wearing blow up doll floaties are getting in. Only on Groove Cruise!

The weather was getting a little worse, so I decided we should check out the Stardust Theater, another one of the main stages on the ship. Here, the Groove Cruise organizers yet again exceed expectations by providing another high production audio and visual display. The stage in the theater contained several LED walls and lasers (I love lasers!), the sound filled the room effortlessly, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the viewing area. Unlike festivals and most club environments where you are on a flat surface below the stage, we were presented with traditional theater seating. This means there was a relatively open standing area right in front the stage, as well as rows and rows of raised seating and balcony seating. Again, there was not one bad view! The seats folded up, so the issue of “no room to dance” was non-existent. I’m enjoying the set and my excitement for this event as a whole continues to grow. I’m in a theater-turned-rave miles from anything that resembles a responsibility!

I signed up for a blackjack tournament the night before. At some point, the tournament was going to include a couple of the more well known artists. Where else do you get the opportunity to play blackjack against a couple of your favorite artists? I sit down among the competitors in my round. I’m still dressed as Batman. Two thousand dollars in chips and seven hands. Highest chip count proceeds to the final table. I tie for the highest chip count at the end of the seven hands. Luckily, I’m tied with my neighbor from the cabin across the hall from me. It’s pretty understood that if either of us place well in the tournament overall, we’re all partaking in the bottle of Grey Goose that’s included as part of the top prizes. That’s the neighborly thing to do, right? I lose the tiebreaker and wish him luck in the final round. I enjoyed playing blackjack…dressed as batman…with my mask on the entire time.

We pass out early again, probably around 8:30pm. Eventually, I’ll learn how to pace myself…hopefully.

It’s about 3:30am, and we just woke up. Naturally, we’re rested and ready to go. We head up to the ship’s Sun Deck, where the Incorrect Afterhours party takes place from about 3am-10am, and I’m thrilled to see how many people at up here. The vibe at this party was perfect given the timeframe in which it runs. It’s obviously dark out, and the lights were tinted this bluish-green color giving the dance floor this underground feel. The fact that the DJ setup was basically on the dancefloor and consisted of a table, decks, and a set of standalone speakers also contributed to the small rave feel – and that’s definitely a compliment. Around the perimeter were some plush seating arrangements. Add that to the fact that the only thing above us were the stars and a nice breeze was sweeping through, and you got yourself a party at 4am that has an underground-rave-meet-rooftop-terrace type feel to it. It definitely made an impression.

A bit later we grab some food at the afterhours buffet located on the second floor of the Atrium. The DJ in there is just finishing up his set. After some late night chicken wings and tortilla chips, we make the call to get just a bit more rest in before the Playa Mia beach party that was occurring in a few hours. We knew we were going to need it. Tomorrow has a lot in store for us: an open bar, a floating water park, and a whole day at a private beach party.

This post is part of my Groove Cruise Miami 2014 Review series. Here’s the full list of posts in the series:

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Pictures from top to bottom:
Huge inflatable Corona bottle.
Guys with blow up doll floaties.
View from a balcony in the Stardust Theater.
Blackjack tournament dressed as Batman.
Shot of DJ setup at the Incorrect Afterhours party.

My review of Day 3, the beach party, is coming up next!