Well, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve (Micha) posted on the blog. YouTube has gotten some love, but life has been busy. And while I’ve got TONS of footage from various trips and adventures, I’ve been shit at posting them. We have sailed the last 3 times, and found ourselves on the 4th installment of the E.N.D. cruise with Sixthman in January of 2026.

This year, I did not take the video camera. In a past life, I was a live event and concert photographer (think film days). But, as everything started going digital, and more folks discovered photography, I stepped into the live event promotions and marketing space. But for Christmas, I got a new camera and my dream lenses (if you’re a Canon photographer, you know which two I’m talking about). So, for year 4, I traded in the Sony video for my Canon stills.

Because this was year 4 on the cruise, I’m going to go backwards and start with day 4! Day 4 was a ton of fun, but also bittersweet. Scenior year brought us to a bigger boat; the NCL Joy. I was initially very excited about this, but as it turned out, the boat has some venue capacity issues. And, with so many more people on board compared to the smaller Jewel series ships (~1,600), running into friends did not happen as often. So, barring a stellar lineup for year 5, this may end up being our last emo cruise for now. And, that hit hard on day 4. By the end of the day, I was a ball of emotions; crying every time someone hugged me. Not knowing when I will see them again.

But enough of my emo rant. Let’s get to the good stuff: the music! On day 4, I got to shoot Hot Mulligan, August Burns Red, Shane Told of Silverstein, The Used, and Saves the Day. Since this was my first time back out with the camera in nearly 15 years, I didn’t request a photo pass. So I shot everything behind the crowd with my 70-200 L 2.8 lens.

First concert of the day for us was Hot Mulligan….at 11:30 am. This was the earliest pool deck show I’ve ever seen. But holy moly was it good! This was my first time seeing Yacht Mully, and I think they made a lifelong fan. It was such a fun set. And Tades gave us my favorite quote from the cruise after explaining that ICE sucks:

“If you have a differing opinion, I encourage you to come find me…so I can spit on you!”

Anyways, here’s some photos from their set.

Shortly after Hot Mully, August Burns Red took the Pool Deck stage. Now this is a band I have been following for many years. I thoroughly enjoyed their sets on the 2024 sailing, and was super stoked to see this set on the main stage! The band is so tight, and so technical…it’s mesmerizing watching the guys play. If you ever have a chance to see them, make sure you’re close enough to the stage that you can actually watch them play!

After the ABR set, we took a short break to play Battleshots at H2O (think a boozy, oversized game of Battleship), and then headed to the Atrium stage to watch Shane Told do some acoustic Silverstein songs. Shane did an acoustic set on the first sailing as well. And while this time did not feel as intimate or special, it was still awesome (minus the drunk woman spilling her drink and pushing kids and harassing Shane until he played the song she wanted to hear).

Once Shane successfully had us all in tears, we headed back to the Pool Deck to see The Used close out the main stage performances. Since this was our second time seeing them headline on this ship (they also headlined in 2025), we opted to only see one of their three Pool Deck stage sets. It was a good time. If you’ve ever seen The Used, you know Bert loves to throw the “bird” up on the air. He came out, middle finger held high, and declared, “FUCK ICE!” It was awesome to hear the crowd yell it back, while raising their fingers in the air. Here are some of the photos from their final set of the cruise.

I finished off the cruise with the band I was most excited to see: Saves the Day. I have been listening to Stay What You Are since the album came out when I was only eighteen years old. I’ll be honest and say, that’s the only Saves album I’ve ever really played on repeat or gotten into. At nineteen, Freakish was the first song I taught myself how to play on the bass (because come on, that bass line is FIRE). So to end the cruise with them playing, and surrounded by my cruise fam (shout out to Regina, Kaila, Kevin, Crystal, Liam, and Amanda) was pure magic. I am holding back tears now just thinking about it. So enjoy these final pictures I took of the final set of what may end up being my final emo cruise.

And here’s a few of the cruise fam too, just because.

Would you sail on a concert cruise ship? Have questions about our experience? Let us know in the comments! You can also watch our 2024 recap in its entirety in the YouTube video below. *Please note that coverage is mostly limited to song clips only out of respect for the bands and Sixthman’s rules.

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Related Posts:
Emo’s Not Dead Cruise | Prep Day, Elder Emo Disney Pre-game & Night 1
You also might want to check out Micha over at Pinkhathiker.com

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