The 2005 Groove Cruise Returns

Recent News Articles Groove Cruise in the New York Times...Again! Press Release: Whet Travel Inc.’s Groove Cruise featured in New York Times A Dance Party Niche in the Cruise Industry Hurricanes and Cruising....what you NEED to know. Flying Somewhere? New Airport Guidelines...

Whet Travel’s Fall 2005 “Groove Cruise” survives Hurricane Wilma while exploring the islands the Eastern Caribbean and making waves of their own onboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas®

All I have to say is that I have created a monster!! I cannot tell you what a surreal feeling it is when people come up to me on the cruise and thank me profusely for putting the Groove Cruise together and that all of this is because of me and a dream that I had. Chills run down my spine when Groove Cruisers come up to me and say that the cruise was the best time of their entire life and they really mean it. It's not the cruise ship, it's not the destinations, it's not the music; it's about the people...the life-long friendships that are created and the memories that only we will have together. It creates a bonding of friends from all different walks of life unlike anything else I have ever seen. When done correctly, that is what traveling does. It opens you, expands your mind and excites every aspect of your life.

We started of with a huge bang in South Beach the night before the cruise...we rented two big party buses and went to dinner at Taverna Opa where we ate awesome Greek food and belly danced on tables. From there, we hit up the ultra-chic Champagne Lounge at Nikki Beach called Pearl. Next up was one of the highest profile bars in the city at the Shore Club. By this time, the buses were bouncing through the streets...people standing on the seats, dancing uncontrollably, laughing; the energy of everyone cutting loose was incredible. The last stop was the world famous Crobar Miami...You can imagine the scene we create when there is a huge line outside to get in and here comes these 60 seater tour buses slammed with people about to cut in VIP right in front of every single one of them! You know how we do!!

The next day, we geared up and jumped on Royal Caribbean's monstrous Explorer of the Seas. 7 whole days to Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Nassau Bahamas. While on the ship the first day, we had a welcome reception with free drinks where we got everyone together and went over everything for the week. That night three of our 7 DJ's took over the two story onboard club and rocked out all night long.

The first day we were at sea and everyone pretty much kicked it at the pool all day and some gave it their all in the men's belly flop competition (small scale tsunami's). That night we set up all of our equipment outside in the solarium under the stars. Lavelle from San Diego got the crowd jumping for more by the end of his set and then came Lee Burridge from London. Many of the Groove Cruisers have never seen him before and Lee absolutely brought the anchor down! The funky beats, the vibe of the crowd, people dancing in the 20 person hot tubs, the ocean breeze blowing through the air, standing on lounge chairs and at the pools edge just letting it all go...hands pumping in the air to the beats. This is what everyone wanted...the setting was perfect and Lee commanded the entire audience into a dancing frenzy!! Next up came Chicago's John Curley who surprised many and had the crowd begging for more until close to 5AM!!

San Juan, Puerto Rico:

We made the most of short time in Puerto Rico...2:00 pm – 8:00 pm was all we had. Half the group came with me and did a rainforest tour to El Yunque Rainforest. It was beautiful, but a bit boring for our crowd. The rest of the crew set up the speakers and DJ Equipment at the Wyndham El San Juan and started a party at probably the most beautiful setting imaginable for a party...right on the beach, palm trees, white sand, sunset, Scooter and Kalendr ripping the turntables. AMAZING!!

St. Maarten:
We rented a huge catamaran and headed off around the entire island and stopped at a deserted French Island called Tizwana (something like that). UNREAL setting!! A bunch of people jumped in and snorkeled, some hopped in the natural mud pits and rolled around (just say some exfoliation mumbo-jumbo and people will do anything!). And for the first time in Groove Cruise history, Mike from Oklahoma took his girl April for a walk down the beach of the island and dropped down on one knee and proposed!! I was in the bushes snapping pictures!! We had been planning it out for a couple of months of how he should propose to her and well, what better way than on the beach of a deserted island in the Caribbean that he picked out personally!!  That episode will be the talk of many, many conversations.
 
St. Thomas:
We took all of our DJ equipment off of the boat and set up our speakers and turntables right smack in the middle of the beach at Magen's Bay. This beach is consistently voted by several magazines as one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world!!  And the setting was absolutely perfect…crystal clear water, powdered sugar beach, beer, wine and rum punch were flowin’, Scooter and Lavelle from San Diego blasting beats through the palm trees, and once the drinks started flowing, one of the most amazing vibes of the whole trip. Everyone raved about what a success the party was. Later that night after dinner, for those that were still standing, we did a hilarious tacky tourist pub crawl to a couple of bars on the ship (you should have seen some of the outfits!) and then DJ Kalendr and Greg Bauer took over the Chamber well into the night.

Nassau, Bahamas:
I have always had trouble finding an amazing and memorable shore excursion in Nassau. Well, that search is OVER!!  Stuart's Cove snorkeling with sharks!!!  Oh my LORD!!!  There is NOTHING like this anywhere!!  This was straight off of the Discovery Channel folks!!  They took us to two reefs where we snorkeled a bit…it was OK, nothing spectacular.  But then, we head out towards the middle of the ocean and stop in the middle of nowhere and shut off the motor.  The guide steps up and starts talking about the reef sharks that we are about to see.  Then he points at the water and there must have been 40-50 sharks hovering around the boat dorsal fin in the air and all!!  He says that there is a cliff where the ocean drops from 65 feet to 6,500 feet and that is where the sharks hang out!!  GEEZ!!  So, they throw out this buoy and line and say to swim out to it and they will lower the food and keep the sharks about 40 feet deep.  So, a couple of us go out there and there is a decent current and jellyfish everywhere…enough to make a new snorkeler very uneasy.  And of course a couple of the 7-8 footer sharks got a whole lot closer than 40 feet!!  We were out there for 5 minutes and they brought us in.  Now came the fun part!  They took a rod and put a fish at the end and dangled it through the water.  You should have seen the frenzy when the sharks started violently attacking everything in sight!!  The food, the rod, each other – a couple of them even attacked the boat!!  They had those sharks jumping out of the water, going nuts.  AMAZING!!

If all this weren’t enough, we ended up coming to Port in Miami hours ahead of schedule on Sunday morning, because, imagine this, Hurricane Wilma was about to rip through Florida and we were right in its path! So, despite many people having to change their flights (as the Miami airport was getting shut down the night we returned) and pack up their staterooms early, we threw down in the Chamber one more time…leaving the ship and ending the week with a bona-fide bang! No worries – everyone made it home safely! Wilma rolling through was just one more wild and unique memory to add to the weeklong collection we’d created since the start of the trip!

Pictures are also up on the website...click here to check them out.  If you have not been to the site in a while, let me know what you think!!!  There will be several changes in the VERY near future including a booking engine, cruise deals and email blasts that will be going out as well as to special offers on other cruises that we do. Keep an eye out – Whet Travel has lots to bring you in 2006!