Just recently, I had the pleasure to speak with, Rafi Leibowitz, one of the creative brains behind The Groove Cruise; aka the “world’s largest floating dance music festival” and soon to be, the “world’s longest non-stop floating dance music festival.” Rafi is the marketing director for The Groove Cruise’s parent company Whet Travel and has been with the team for years now. His experience from starting as a passenger himself to becoming one of the high-ups of the cruise of cruises, serves as an excellent tool for providing veterans and new-comers, alike, with all the information one could need when it comes to these fantastic voyages. Here’s what he had to say:
Rafi Leibowitz – Forever Working On The Groove Cruise
MFC: How Did You Start Working For The Groove Cruise?
Rafi: I grew up in England, then I went to ASU, Arizona State [University]. At the time of graduating ASU (2011), I was applying for jobs and shopping around in affiliate marketing; I knew I wanted to be in the marketing realm, but I didn’t really know which specific application. I decided right before I graduated that I was going to take a trip and blow off some steam to clear my head a little bit. The trip I decided to go on was The Groove Cruise, ironically. So, I went on the boat and fell in love with the experience, the concept, and the people. At the time, there wasn’t anyone doing anything like this anywhere in the world, and, I just completely fell in love with the overall vibe. While I was on the boat, I hit it off with Jason [Beukema], who was the CO of the company (Whet Travel). So much so, that when the time came–I was graduating only a couple months afterwards, I kind of went out on a whim and contacted him. He flew me out to my Miami to interview and I never left.
MFC: Is It True You Attended The Groove Cruise With Your Dad?
Rafi: I did; he was actually the one who turned me onto the trip in the first place. When I was looking to go on a trip, I didn’t know what to do, so I hit up my dad up and was like, “yo dad, give me some inspiration; I need to know what to do.” He said, “have you heard of this amazing party they’re doing in Miami?” My dad, actually, he was living in Miami, too, so he had been there for a couple years longer than I had, and the cruise was really growing at that point. He said, “you know, I think you should check-out The Groove Cruise. I’ll go with you, if you want to check it out.” So I brought a girlfriend I had at the time, and my dad brought his girlfriend. We went and had an absolute blast; and, everything sort of fell in place from there…[laughs].
MFC: How Did The Groove Cruise Start?
Rafi: The first cruise I went on, was when the company was transitioning from doing groups on regular ships to actually doing full ships; chartered, take-overs. That was 2011 and 2012. The company actually started in 2004, when Jason started taking people on cruises. He basically was going on a lot of cruises, a lot of family vacations, and, was always really bored on the cruises; kind of lacked inspiration. When he would go on these boats with his family, he had a vision of what a cool playground it could potentially be if he had all his friends onboard, music, and, if he had full control over the boat. So that’s where the vision kind of started. The following year he arranged a little reunion get-together with all of his college buddies. It was about 100 people on a boat, they took some DJs and some speakers, and had a great time. The following year they did it again, but it was more like 250 people. The following year was like, 500 [people]. Then, it got to the point where he was seeing how much money these cruise-lines were making off of him, while taking these big groups. Then, he decided to cut them out and do it himself. That’s kind of how the cruise was born, pretty organically over the years.
MFC: Do All Of The Groove Cruises Leave From The US?
Rafi: As of now, yes. However, international expansion is on the horizon.
MFC: Do You Remember Which Headliners Played During Your First Cruise?
Rafi: The cruise I went on had like Thomas Gold, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Benny Benassi, Max Vangeli, Boris, Lee Foss–some pretty cool DJs. Obviously the lineups have grown exponentially since that time, but you know…that’s another cool thing about the cruise, too; because of the nature of the way these cruises began, it wasn’t really a business to begin with, it was more of a group of friends going on a vacation–so, because of that we have an absurdly high retention rate. Year after year we have people coming back, which really does help create a family-type vibe and you can feel it as soon as you step on the boat–just how much everyone knows everyone else. We even have a small group of people that has doing it for 10 years, which is pretty crazy when you think about it.
MFC: Has The Groove Cruise Been On More Than One Cruise-line Since Its Inception?
Rafi: Yea, we’ve charted nearly every cruise-liner imaginable since then. From Royal Caribbean, to Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, MSC…you name it, there’s a good chance we’ve been on one of their ships. The cool thing about being an independent company is that we have the freedom to work with any cruise-line really–that wants to work with us, which is most of them. We’re not necessarily handcuffed to a certain cruise-line, which helps.
MFC: As Of Now, Does The Groove Cruise Sail Twice Per Year?
Rafi: For The Groove Cruise, it is. There’s one in Southern California and one in Miami. With Miami being somewhat of the staple, then we started doing our west coast cruise in 2013. This will be our fourth…yes, this upcoming Halloween will be our fourth consecutive year that we’re on the west coast; and, it’s on pace to be our fourth consecutive sell out year, which is great.
MFC: What Would You Say To Someone Who’s On The Fence About Committing The Time & Money To Attend A Festival On A Cruise Ship?
Rafi: Sure, I definitely understand there’s a substantial difference between an entry level price to a land-based festival compared to one that’s on a cruise ship. What I always tell people is that if you actually break it down, it makes a lot of sense because the value you can get on these cruises is actually substantially more than pretty much anything else you can get out there. What I mean by that is, if you take a 5-day Groove Cruise like the one coming up on Halloween, and you break it down per day, it’s less than around $200 per day, basically. And, you’re getting 60 DJs, all your food is included throughout the weekend, your accommodations are included, as well. There’s really no extra cost over the course of the weekend except alcohol. For example, if you’re going to go to Las Vegas for EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival), you’re paying $350 – $400 for the festival ticket, you pay for at least 3 meals a day on top of that, you pay for the cost of transportation to and from the festival, you’re paying for drinks, you’re paying for–pretty much everything as you go; it’s a la carte pricing. The Groove Cruise on the other hand is all bundled into one. And, that’s the motto that we try to build on more and more: that The Groove Cruise really is a one stop shop. So, when you buy tickets for The Groove Cruise, everything is already decided for you, you really don’t have to worry or think about anything. Everything is no more than 5 minutes away. It’s just a very comfortable experience and I think that while the pricing is, like I mention, it’s almost double a land-based festival, but you’re getting exponentially more back in value.
MFC: If You Could Book Your Ideal Headliners, Who Would They Be?
Rafi: We’re constantly trying to evolve, musically. It also depends on which market of The Groove Cruise (Miami vs. Cabo) it’s in. For example, in Miami, we tend to lean on more trans, techno, and underground stuff. The Miami crowd is a little older; the average age in Miami varies in age between 25 and 40, while in L.A. it’s about 22-35. So because of that we tend to program music accordingly; west coast being more EDM, little bit more like bass music, trap and dubstep, and incorporate those genres a little bit more. Although, generally speaking, The Groove Cruise as a brand, we tend to market to a little bit older clientele; the trans music and techno is the staple of our experiences. So based on that, we like to bring on guys like Solomun, Marco Carola, Maceo Plex–Guy Gerber, we just had on the west coast, it was amazing. We’ve got some really, really big acts set to come through for Cabo. The lineup just went up for that a couple weeks ago; we’ve got a big special guest as well that we have to announce still coming up. For Miami, we’re still in the initial stages for submitting all of our offers, but it’s moving together really nicely. It’s definitely going to be the biggest lineup we’ve ever put together, which is exciting.
MFC: What’s Different About The Groove Cruise Cabo Cruise Compared To Past Sails?
Rafi: This cruise is 5 days and it’s going to be 120 hours of non-stop music. From the time you get on the boat until the minute you get off, there’s going to be round-the-clock music, which makes it the longest ever floating music festival–non-stop floating music festival, I should say. It’s the first time we’re doing it in San Diego, as well, which is really cool because we’ve been trying to get down there for a long time. It’s also our first time going to Cabo, which is amazing because we’ve been trying to get there for a long time, as well; reaching the distance is only really possible on a 5-day sail. We’ve also got the ME Cabo, which is a part of some of the most exclusive resorts in Mexico! They’re going to be hosting a day and night hybrid pool party in Cabo and we’re actually going to be staying overnight in the port there. We’re also going to be hosting a bunch of nightclub events while we’re there, as well. We’ve never done an overnight stop before so that’s something new and cool that’s going to be–pretty ridiculous. Essentially, think about it as a floating hotel; guests can come on and off anytime throughout the night with no problem at all. There’s also going to be music and events going on in the ship, as well. At the same time, we’ve got Mark Knight who’s going to be hosting after-hours while we’re on the boat in Cabo and we’re going to have at least 2 official events going on at nightclubs onshore, in addition to the pool party going on at the ME, which is going to be the main day event while we’re docked.
MFC: What Have Some Highlights Been For You Since You Boarded The Groove Cruise?
Rafi: Starting with the company in 2011, once I saw how strong the brand was and how amazing of an experience it was, I always wanted to take that vision to the west coast. There was nothing like it of its kind on the west coast of America. That was my biggest goal, I guess from day 1 since working with the company: take that experience to the west coast. Eventually, we did that in 2013 for the first time. That was a super cool sail for me because of the time I spent in Arizona; I was able to get a lot of friends and family out to experience the cruise for the first time, which was amazing. They had seen me promoting it and working on it for a couple years by that time, and some people never really got what it was or what we did, exactly. But, the minute they got on the boat, watching their eyes light up and seeing them have the best time throughout the weekend was such a super cool feeling.
MFC: What Are The Main Differences Between Miami’s Groove Cruise And The One In Cabo?
Rafi: Still to this day I feel the west coast Groove Cruise still kind of feels like a homie crowd to me; just because when I first moved to the UK, that’s where I moved to. So I still get that connection from being on the west coast, while the Miami cruise is a completely different animal. It’s–I don’t want to say it’s a little more upscale, but it’s definitely a Miami-type of crowd…Latin, sexy, bottle service–all the Miami thrills and everything you’d expect stereotypically from Miami. It’s very much reflected on that boat, which is amazing. It’s not a bad thing by any means, it’s just one key differential between the west coast cruise and cruise in Miami. It’s a younger demographic on the west coast and they go hard–don’t get me wrong. It’s just Miami is definitely more of a professional party crowd. I’d describe the west coast cruise as more of a rager, everyone’s going hard. While Miami is full of sleek, sexy vibes–and, it’s not these people’s first rodeo who come to Miami, that’s for sure.
MFC: Final Question: What Is The Ratio Of Girls To Guys?
Rafi: Somehow, another key differential of The Groove Cruise [compared to other cruise festivals in general], and, I’m not sure how we do it to be honest, but we always seem to get a strong girl to guy ratio on our cruises. I’m not sure if it’s because Miami has a slightly older demographic or because women are also buying a lot of cruises on their own, or, if it’s because some of the guys are so rich, they’re buying 50 cabins at a time. I’m not too sure and that’s something we talk about internally, but we’ve been able to keep a strong ratio of women to men aboard The Groove Cruise. I would never talk bad about another competitor’s event and they’re all amazing and I had a great time, but one thing about The Groove Cruise is we’ve somehow managed to maintain that ratio, which has really added to the sexiness and overall vibe on the boat. And, I think if you talk to any attendee about the key differentials, they’ll tell you as well. Especially in Miami, for whatever reason, it’s about 60% – 55% female for certain events. We’re not offering big discounts or anything like that [for large groups of girls]. These girls booked the cruise and paid for it, which is a…win, win!
All and all, Rafi and I had a great talk. One thing Rafi did mention during our conversation is that The Groove Cruise Cabo is almost sold out (AS OF 8/1/16 THERE ARE ROUGHLY 100 SPOTS LEFT), but there’s still time to book a cabin. If you want to be a part of history and board the “world’s largest floating, non-stop dance music festival” then don’t delay and book today!
BOOK A CABIN ON THE GROOVE GRUISE CABO 2016