By: Sarah Swetz

The 4th annual Emo’s Not Dead (E.N.D.) Cruise facilitated by Sixthman set sail to Costa Maya in January. This was be my second time cruising with END and Sixthman, I had boarded the Norwegian Pearl with them in 2024. So, on January 22, 2026 a few thousand of my closest friends and I boarded the Norwegian Joy to start the party. I do want to clarify that this review is strictly done as a fan and a cruiser, I was not part of the media team for the cruise.

For those unfamiliar with the END Cruise, basically think of your favorite nostalgic emo bands rocking away in the middle of the ocean plus a million more oddities that I will get into below. Each band (~20 + some special acts) performed 3 sets during the course of the cruise, performing from 11 AM until 2AM. If that wasn’t enough, time could be filled with amazing restaurants, the casino, waterslides (yes plural), go karting, mini golf, the spa, the pool and hot tubs, or jamming out to karaoke. In short there is always something going on – its up to you to make the most of it.

I will break down a day to day layout of the events – with a few pictures to capture the day. You can see a full gallery of photos from the cruise here.

Day 1

We embarked around 1PM and headed right to fuel up for the evening of concerts ahead. We started the afternoon off with Daisy Grenade, who rocked the socks off the boat before we even left port. These girls belted out and even brought out a fan to sing karaoke. After that the rain had other plans for us and while we planned to join Anberlin for a set, their outdoors performance was rescheduled until later in the evening. We instead headed to Hot Mulligan who brought in a large crowd – standing room only in the Joy Theater. We stayed for a few great songs and then went to explore the ship (and investigate the beverage package and its offerings). Around this time our room was made available and we headed down to deck 5 to check out our Family Oceanview room. The bright window to outside and the spacious setup was a big upgrade from our interior room on our last cruise. We settled in and then got ready for our “Sail Away” photo and performance from Underoath. Underoath had hyped up their set since prior to to the cruise – boasting to perform 40 songs, no repeats, across 3 sets. The first Underoath set of the cruise was their “Storm” set – heavier music from their catalog. I loved every minute of it. They never disappoint. Next on our agenda was watching Knuckle Puck and their play though of “Copacetic”. Well everything about the set was copacetic and it was one of my favorite sets from the cruise. We then ended the night by running over to catch the last 45 minutes of Escape the Fate. We caught some great songs and their energy did not disappoint! I even was given a setlist after the set. All this to say night one was a success and more to come over the next three days.

Day 2

Day 2 is where I got my shit together and remembered to bring along my camera to start snapping some pics of the sets. Well after I sat in the hottub all moring and cought Senses Fail on the pool deck with my fellow “Sexy Hot Tub People” – Buddy Neilson’s words not mine. They always bring it and I will never get tired of catching a Senses Fail set. Then we changed and grabbed gear and dove head-first into the rest of the day, and the bar. Those Norwegian bartenders sure do know how to make a drink, make sure to pace yourself if you ever partake. We had an ambitious day planned, most of it spend on the pool deck, the biggest venue on the boat. We caught Hawthonre Heights, who proved that Ohio is For Lovers. Then we headed for a uniquie. show on the cruise – “I Hate My Family Feud” where we watched members from Senses Fail and Story of the Year along with several cruisers battle it out in a strange version of family fued. Safe to say I didn’t stop laughing the whole time. Then we ran back up to the pool deck for Silverstein and started immediately jamming out. We then went to check out a late (but great) addition to the lineup – Saves the Day. They were truly amazing to see live. We then traveled back up the pool deck to party with Your Broken Hero aka Matt Cutshall- the host of the cruise. Matt has built and amazing community and has developed his alter ego along with some banging songs. The set was full of special guest and amazing music – and ended with Matt crowd surfing all the way out of the venue and to the casino (yes you heard right – even in the elevator). After yesterday’s Daisy Grenade set I was obsessed and simply had to see them again – so we headed to the Manhattan and they crushed it, yet again. We then ran back up to the pool deck to check out Dance Gavin Dance and man they were fantastic. And again somehow I managed to get a setlist at the end of the set. We had again thought to go see Anberlin but their set was moved so we went to Story of the Year and I am glad we did. During the set, frontman Dan Marsala asked fans to join him in a circle pit on stage and my husband jumped right up, along with Jason Milbank, guitarist from Senses Fail ,right behind him. Thats the beauty of this cruise, artist and fans are jumbled together and just enjoying great music together, while on vacation .

Day 3

The the day started early today since we had docked in Mexico at Costa Maya port. We booked an excursion to view the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins and then spend the afternoon at the beach. This was a nice change of pace from how busy the last day had been, running around the ship making it to as many concerts as we could. I have never been someone who enjoys just sitting still on a vacation, but this one can be particularly exhausting.

About 50 of us ventured out on a bus and drove about an hour into Mexico to go visit the ancient ruins. The whole experience was truly special and really breathtaking to see such old structures, built by people that lived so long ago. We saw several structures and then took the bus over to a beach where we had lunch and drank drinks and lounged near the water until it was time to re-board the cruise ship. We even managed to not get sunburn this year!

When we re-boarded the boat we headed to the pool deck too watch Story of the Year rock out as we set sail. They put on a great show consistently and I’ll never get tired of watching them. We then checked out a special set for the cruise, August Burns Red performing Christmas at Sea. This set is not something that they perform often so it was really cool to be able to check it out. It was filled with instrumental Christmas songs with a twist, a special guest (Shane from Silverstein singing Rudolph, the red nose, reindeer), and then a visit from Santa (Jake the frontman) at the end to sing/scream, some ABR hits. This ended up being one of my favorite sets of the cruise. We continue to keep busy, going to go check out the headliners on the pool deck – The Used. They put on an amazing show and I never thought I would get the opportunity to see them live. Truly a special experience. We then stuck around on the pool deck to check out Underoath’s second set of the cruise – a play through of their album “Define the Great Line”. They never disappoint and brought an amazing energy. The entire crowd was utterly hypnotized by the music. Then as a special surprise, enough people asked for State Champs to be moved to the bigger stage and Sixthman made it happen. So we partied until 2 AM with State Champs on the pool deck. All in all, a long but fantastic day at port and at sea.

Day 4

The last day of sets 😥 Had to make the most of it despite my aching feet. We started at the pool deck with Hot Mulligan for a playthough of their album “The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still” They were amazing despite a difficult set time (middle of the ocean mid-day sun anyone? *Equip Sunglasses*). We then headed to the Joy Theater to see Senses Fail presenting their jazz alter egos Martini Kiss. This was our second time watching Martini Kiss as they made it on Year 2 of the END cruise as well. They are perhaps my favorite set, emo meets jazz meets pure chaos. They start off mellow and by the end Buddy Neilson is shirtless and headed for the crowd, Jason Milbank is in the crowd dressed as George Washington, and Steve Carey is banging a gong and screaming behind his drum set. And I loved every second of it.

From there we returned to a bit of normalcy and we caught Underoth with their third and final set – “Float”. This was packed with some of their more emotional songs and was such a unique experience. The musicality was truly impressive. We then got to check out We The Kings on the Spice H20 Stage – all the way at the top of the boat. Despite being able to feel the ship rock, they brought it. We finished the night watching an “acoustic” set from Story of the Year. The first acoustic set i have seen using a whole drum kit but I enjoyed the chaos thoroughly.

And with that there was no more sets to enjoy – but the party went on until the early morning at the Emo Social.

Day 5

We disembarked early the next day and said goodbye to our emo vacation, for now. You can bet we will be along again in the future.