Holy Ship! This is Our Home
Excited is an understatement for how we felt returning to our favorite music festival in the world on this sunny and humid January day in Orlando. What makes this festival our favorite? Why do we trap ourselves on a ship for four days and risk gnarly seasickness (at least Claudia does)? It’s unlike any other festival we’ve been to.
Besides the fact that you are on a luxury cruise ship, sailing around The Bahamas, with beach parties on private islands and unlimited hot dogs, you find yourself running into and hanging out with your favorite DJs because they’re “trapped” on the ship, too. The Norwegian Epic becomes a small world full of the silliest, most loving, down-to-earth people you’ll ever meet.
This was the first time we attended together since 2017, and this time, we were bringing two virgin sacrifices with us (Mark and Rossi). We were probably more excited for them to experience the magic of Holy Ship than we were to be back!
Here goes reminiscing on another four best days of our lives…
Shipfam headquarters
That Friday night, we arrive at the Palm Springs in Orlando pretty late. The place is packed with Shipfam who have already started the party. As much as we want to join, we know we’re better off holding back for one more night. Instead, we try to go to sleep to prepare our bodies for the ultimate four days of straight sending ourselves, but the fear of bed bugs keeps us restless. Apparently, this hotel is known for them. Thankfully, the only critters we end up bringing with us to Holy Ship are the mooshies.
As we grab breakfast at Denny’s across the street in the morning, we hear one of the servers refer to Holy Ship as the annual techno cruise (LOL). Then, our Uber driver to the port asks us if this is a religious thing. Spot on! After all, there will be a sunrise sermon.
The stairway to heaven
We get to the port around 12:30pm and are surprised that the line isn’t long at all! The energy is already incredible: everyone is super hyped up, bumping music from speakers, dancing, and pasting “Ready to Ship” stickers all over themselves. It only takes about an hour to get to the stairway to heaven: the escalators that take us up to the ship! As we go through security, we see Claude VonStroke and Justin Jay! The anticipation hits us full force. We pick up our room keys, head to our room, and (try to) take a quick nap before the fire and safety drill.
Sail Away
With our techno cat suits engaged, we head upstairs to carb up before the sail away sets begin and mark our official departure from real life. We check out the Pool Deck stage first for NGHTMRE’s set. It’s a little too heavy for us after about fifteen minutes, so we hop over to Justin Martin at the Spice H2O stage at the back of the deck. This is way more up our alley, and we run into all of our Chicago family there.
There are seven stages on the ship, but Spice H2O is our favorite. It’s also the most dangerous due to the insane amount of bass constantly pounding out of the speakers. Seriously, the bass is no joke, but fortunately, we have our Eargasm earplugs to filter out the harmful levels of beautiful noise assaulting our ears. The bass seems to find its way into every single pore, though, and there is no stopping the side effect of uncontrollable dancing we experience every time we are at Spice.
Champagne fiasco
Casey: We preordered 12 bottles of champagne for our room, but never got them by the time everyone else had. The concierge promised they’d be delivered by 8:00pm, but when Mark goes to check at 8:30, they still aren’t there. We call guest services, and they say they’re sending it right away. We wait another half hour, and still, nothing. At this point we are missing Joyryde, but we don’t want to spend a bunch of money on alcohol after buying all this champagne!
We decide to go down to guest services, where there is a huge line. I end up going over to the bar to try talking to a staff member there. He gets on the phone and says to go up to the room and he will have someone send it right away. Again, we are waiting in the room with the welcome sign on, and it never comes. We receive a phone call from the same guy from the bar saying that our room was on “do not disturb” and that no one was inside. We tell him that’s a lie and that we’ve been in the room the entire time! He says he is sending someone a second time, so I stand out in the hall to wave him down. We finally get our champagne, just in time for REZZ. Fortunately, guest services ends up refunding us for all of the champagne to make up for the fiasco!
Jauz LOVES house
The last time we saw Jauz was at Ultra Miami 2018, when his set went off, so we are pretty pepped for a similar experience as he takes over the Pool Deck. Sure enough, this turns into one of our favorite sets of ship!
Claudia: Between this set, his b2b with Zeds Dead, his second set, and his Bite This family set throughout Ship, I’ve come to the evidence-based conclusion that Jauz LOVES house music. Anytime he was on, he was dropping house. He also dropped my all-time favorite mid-tempo track, “Won’t Let Us” (also known as “One Lettuce”) by Snavs. Still not over that one, either. Fortunately, I was able to let Jauz know he should play more house music when I spotted him in the cafeteria after his final set. He has since announced he’ll be releasing more house music soon! Thank heavens!!
Holy Ship Day 2
We decide the beach party during the day isn’t worth losing sleep for, so we sleep late into the afternoon to prepare for another long night. There’s no way we’re missing Redlight B2B Gorgon City at 4:15am (music goes until 6am every night!). It’s pretty much go-to-sleep-at-sunrise-and-wake-up-at-sunset for us from now on.
Casey: We go to Redlight at 6pm, and it’s my favorite set so far. It’s his typical, super upbeat, dancey, “ice cream jungle” vibes. There’s also almost no one there, so we are front and center of the stage, dancing and drinking champagne.
Mark and the rest of our Chicago fam join us at Spice H2O for Chris Lake. They just got back from watching the Eagles beat the Bears at the ship’s sports bar, so they definitely bring a mix of energy with them. The Bears fans are a little down while Mark (huge Eagles guy) is on one. It isn’t long into Chris Lake’s set before everyone else is on one too!
6 straight hours of house music
Claudia: I tell my new friend, Oz, who always has a cup of straight rum in his hand, that I’m going to Holy Goof, and he thinks it’s slang for going to sleep. What that actually means is I’m heading to the first set out of six hours’ worth of straight house music. (Ironically, we end up running into Holy Goof later that night.)
Oz convinces me to check out Subset at the Theater, and we catch Honeycomb jump onstage to do his thing during the set:
Spiegel hosts my personal house party for the rest of the night, from Chris Lorenzo (during which Chris Lake takes a cowbell from someone in the crowd and plays it to the beat) to Habstrakt (super intense guy while on the decks) to AC Slater B2B Jack Beats to Redlight B2B Gorgon City. I am just so lost in the music for that entire block of time, completely in my element. And yes, Redlight B2B Gorgon City was as spectacular as it sounds; the highlight of their set was when they dropped “Redlight” by Marten Horger and it lit the stage on fire.
What Spiegel lacks in lights, LED screens, and lasers, it makes up for in intimacy and good vibes. This place never gets too crowded yet is always full of people moving and grooving and shaking bottles of mouthwash. There’s a balcony level as well if you want an aerial view, but we prefer being deep in that crowd on the dancefloor.
Casey: Mark and I jump back and forth between house music in Spiegel and dark techno in Manhattan. While Nicole Moudaber is on, we play a game of human bowling. I also have the pleasure of buying A-Trak a drink because his room key isn’t working!
Claudia: After Redlight B2B Gorgon City, the final official set of the night, I join some shipfam for Subset’s renegade set on the deck of the ship, a tradition he hosts on every sailing he’s on. I’m out dancing ’til almost 8am and end up with 15 miles logged in my health app to show for it.
Holy Ship Day 3
Even though we all had a really late night, we get ourselves up and at ‘em by noon for the Dirtybird Beach Party because no way in hell are we missing this. We’re definitely still a little drunk, and we keep it going with mimosas at breakfast. The line to get on the charter boat is long, but we successfully make it onboard, along with NGHTMRE and Jauz.
Is this heaven? A private island, overrun by shipfam, white sand, crystal clear blue water, frozen pina coladas, with the Dirtybird artists providing the most perfect musical backdrop? Yes, yes it is.
Claudia: We lucked out with the weather this year (no rain at all!). I couldn’t even get off the ship last year due to poor conditions. Instead, we had to evacuate the island super early our first stop and spent the rest of our days at sea. I popped seasickness pills every day.
Casey: My favorite part of the day was getting up and dancing onstage during Walker & Royce. I was definitely making a fool of myself in the best way possible.
We frolick in the water, have a twerk-off contest, play volleyball with giant blow-up balls and flip cup off a floating human body. There are definitely multiple beers and a few tequila shots involved. We’re swimming in the water when Justin Martin drops Rufus Du Sol’s “Innerbloom” into his “Anchor” remix. It’s a blissful moment that perfectly captures the spirit of Holy Ship.
Casey: We leave a little early, before Claude’s set ends, in order to catch a charter boat back quickly. NGHTMRE is sitting right next to us again and we end up chatting with him and his friends! They are so nice and down-to-earth. They absolutely love the little mooshies we give them!
Getting our sea legs back
After a nap, we are in pretty rough shape for the night. The only solution: more champagne! Mark’s friend, Vipul, is always there for us when we need him, though. He is the most energetic, spirit-raising, positive person we have ever met. After 20 minutes of hanging out with him and a few shots, we are ready for our third Walker & Royce set!
These guys kill it every single time we see them. Again, “Dance” by Noizu is played, and so is that Ratchet Disco (or Where’s Your Disco) song that we can’t get enough of! Definitely the theme songs of Ship!
Claudia: Gorgon City comes on after Walker & Royce, and I leave most of our crew there to go check out Valentino Khan with Vipul. We end up running around and missing most of his set (classic), but we get back just in time to catch “Deep Down Low,” which is basically all I want to hear anyway!
I meet back up with everyone for a quick dinner, but I’m antsy, so I venture back out to Zeds Dead B2B Jauz on the Pool Deck on my own. Next thing I know, I’m blown away by all the house music coming in hot at me! I’m talking “Puffy” by Mason Maynard and “Right Here,” my all-time favorite Billy Kenny track. I actually could not believe it. (Once again, Jauz LOVES house music.) I danced so hard I lost one of my earplugs, so there’s that!
It takes me until nearly the end of their set to be able to pull myself away and go back to our room to grab a foam replacement earplug. Just before I reach the room, I run into Oz and the whole crew of my new friends. Someone has extra foam earplugs on them, so I turn right back around and join them on their journey to DJ Z-Trip, an artist I would have normally never gone to see. His mixing and throwback, hip-hop song choices are super fun, but I’m ready for more house music (what else?).
That time I touched Chris Lake
Luckily my friends are just as into house music as me, and we go to Christian Martin B2B Ardalan to groove right in front of the DJ booth at Spiegel. I can see the sweat on Christian’s face as he selects the next banger.
My friend Kayla and I pop out of Spiegel to take a quick break and get some air, and I don’t remember exactly how it happens because I blacked out, but next thing I know I’m looking up at Chris Lake as he’s walking towards me. I freeze and just start rambling about how I’m such a big fan, and he doesn’t say anything, just knowingly gives me and Kayla hugs. Chris, if you’re reading this, I don’t even get starstruck and I promise I’ll be normal when we interview you one day!!!
My night ends with Jauz’s second solo set, followed by the Bite This family set at Bliss, which is essentially a nightclub venue. It seems like Jauz cannot give up the decks he is sharing with Holy Goof and Skepsis during the family set because he has so much house music he wants to play. To our disappointment (not actually though, it’s 5am and I’m fricken exhausted), Jauz cuts the family set an entire half hour short, citing back pain and getting old as the reason he has to shut it down. Bummer, but okay, I get it – I’m about to go to sleep instead of to the sunrise sermon…
Sunrise Sermon
Casey: Don’t be mad… but Mark and I decide to take a 4 hour disco nap after Gorgon City and wake up for Claude VonStroke’s Sunrise Sermon. We are awoken by Rossi and our friends we met at Buku, Dillon and Blayne. We listen to some hilarious room voicemails as we get ready, our favorite being indistinct mumbling followed by the word “cowgirl.”
It’s still dark as we make our way to Spice H2O, which is packed with people who have already had a whole night of partying and are ready to keep it going. Claude has an entire family of artists up on stage with him. He lets so many people jump in to guest DJ: A-trak, Mija, Roman Flugel, Will Clarke…
What puts the ‘holy’ in Holy Ship
The sky begins to change as the ship rotates, causing the sunrise to hit each angle of the boat until it settles right behind the stage. The sunlight beams through the laser-filled smoke about 2 hours into the 3-hour set. It’s beautiful. The energy emitted from the crowd reflects the warm glow of the sun beaming on smile-stricken faces.
The sunrise sermon is something so special and unique to Holy Ship. It really is a sermon. There’s something spiritual about watching someone play music that forces the sun to rise over the ocean, which seems to stretch on forever. You feel fully disconnected from the outside world and fully in touch with your present self. I think this is where the holy in Holy Ship really comes in.
Holy Ship Day 4
We wake up at sunset for what is sadly our final night. Maybe we can hide in the pull-out bed and stay on 13.0? We are so ready to make this an amazing grand finale though (and Vipul is only making us even more hyped)!
Casey: We start off the night on the pool deck with Jai Wolf, who brings all the feels—so much Porter Robinson and Odesza. Only 5 minutes in, both Mark and I are crying.
Claudia: Feels are cool and all, but I love the new direction the set takes as Jai Wolf starts going a little harder. I lose my mind when I hear “Notorious” by Malaa fading in. He automatically gets five stars for that one, and this was my first time seeing him!
We then kicked it up a notch at Spice H2O with the Desert Hearts family. Next thing we know, we’re onstage during Mikey Lion. We meet Lee Reynolds, who greets us with a big hug while the sound “BLERrRrGhheehhh” comes out of his mouth. Such a silly guy. He is obviously obsessed with the little mooshy we give him. More mooshies are given out to our new friends onstage and pulls from a patron bottle are offered in exchange. We graciously accept.
Next, the Dirtybird Players take over the Theater, which is tied with Spice for our favorite stage due to the copious amount of lasers. Seriously, green lasers blast us the entire time Worthy is on. Worthy, Christian Martin, Will Clarke, Walker & Royce, Justin Martin B2B Ardalan, Claude VonStroke… it’s nothing short of a party.
We bounce back and forth between the Theater and the Headliners stage, where Jack Beats, AC Slater, and Redlight are throwing down, but we end back at the Theater for Claude VonStroke for our final set of Holy Ship 12.0. We are so happy when he finally plays “Walay.” Mark was waiting to hear that song the entire festival, and his reaction was priceless. It is the perfect ending to another perfect sailing.
Ship without Gary
You know the saying, “Shipfam is the best fam.” Well, this is true, but not everyone on Ship is Shipfam. With the absence of Gary and a lot of OG shippers, who sailed on Friendship instead of Holy Ship this year, we were hoping we wouldn’t see a decrease in Shipfam values and an increase in Chad-like behavior. However, this is exactly what happened.
A little background on this: Holy Ship is part of the HARD Events brand, which was created by Destructo (Gary Richards) back in 2007. HARD (and Holy Ship) was acquired by LiveNation back in 2012, and Gary was signed on by contract. This contract ended and was not renewed in 2017, and Gary announced a new brand, All My Friends, and his own cruise music festival, Friendship.
A lot of shipfam stayed loyal to Gary, boycotted Holy Ship, and attended Friendship this year. This left a ton of room for newbies, many of whom did not understand or care about Holy Ship values. There were numerous accounts of people disrespecting the ship, stealing bottles from the bar, yelling at staff, following people, forcing themselves onto and groping women. Some infamous 12.0 losers are yellow Versace robe kid (calling women whores, throwing himself on women while groping them, stealing from the bar, and yelling at employees) and Shaggy (making people extremely uncomfortable, making rude gestures, and known for date raping at past festivals).
We heard 13.0 was worse. Our guess is most of the OG shippers went on 12.0. 13.0 never sold out, leaving cabins open for non-veterans.
Cloud 9 Adventures does a good job of banning people who disrespect the ship and its people for life, but it’s impossible to know what first-time Shippers are going to be like. It’s extremely important for us to continue to spread Holy Ship values and educate first-timers in order to keep what is meant to be such a special, safe, magical, and life-changing experience alive.
We still had such an incredible time and will still dub this as our favorite music festival and “coolest thing” we’ve ever done. But we hope others aren’t deterred by negative people they encountered this year. Shipfam is still alive and strong. Although there were a few bad stories, there were a thousand more positive ones about fun little gifts and stickers, dance partners and new friendships, and simple acts or conversations that made someone’s experience special.
With all that said, this has been another amazing sailing. Let’s keep this wonderful festival what it’s meant to be!
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