2025 is starting off as a year of firsts! This was my first cruise ever, and it was a blast. The JoCo Cruise is a week-long music and comedy festival / nerdy convention / floating community, all happening on a Holland America ship sailing from Fort Lauderdale. Jonathan Coulton – the folk/comedy singer-songwriter who wrote “Still Alive” for Portal and hosts the NPR trivia show Ask Me Another – has been running this thing since 2011. It pulled me right back to my Harry Potter convention days.
The thing that struck me most was how welcoming the entire community was. There are folks who’ve been on every single JoCo cruise since the beginning, and they were so excited to share their experiences and help me get the most out of the week. There’s even a group called “New Monkey Ambassadors” – folks wearing visible sashes specifically to help people on their first cruise. This is exactly the kind of intentional community design I love seeing.
The people working aboard the ship really seemed to enjoy the event too. One evening, our server mentioned how the JoCo crowd was his favorite group of the year because everyone treated the crew with such respect and kindness. You can tell a lot about a community by how they treat service workers.
Part of what made it feel so welcoming is how inclusive and queer it was. There were a ton of LGBTQ+ folks on the cruise, and it was so nice to be in a space where I could be myself and not worry about it. There were people in various stages of transition or identity exploration, and it was just so normal. I noticed pronoun ribbons available at check-in that people could attach to their name badges, making introductions smooth and respectful. The cruise had several LGBTQ+ meetups scheduled throughout the week, creating even more opportunities to connect.
Also, lots of moms.
I found some new-to-me artists that I really enjoyed, like Daphne Always (who covered TWO Björk songs! the talent!), and got to see some of my favorites like Aimee Mann who spent the entire cruise looking effortlessly cool. The cruise has attracted performers like Rachel Bloom and Wil Wheaton over the years, and this year featured They Might Be Giants as special guests.
The Pink Pony Party was a definite highlight – the energy on the back deck was electric as everyone danced in various shades of pink attire. Daphne Always came out in a beautiful wedding dress and killed it.
There was a ton to do. The puzzle hunt had us rushing to get the new page every morning – these were puzzles that were hard! We didn’t finish solving them by the end of the cruise, but we knew we’d found our people whenever we walked through the halls and saw folks huddled around a table with a pencil and paper.
The improv comedy shows featured some of my dropout.tv favorites, Rekha Shankar in particular. And there was an incredible discussion led by Nadine Smith of Equality Florida about the fights that have been happening in Florida over the last ten years, and how they’ve been winning them. Nadine co-founded Equality Florida and was named to the Time 100 most influential people in 2022 – getting to hear her speak about the work was genuinely moving.
The “shadow cruise” – events put on by attendees themselves – was another highlight. People ran panels or workshops on anything they wanted. The nerds even created a ship-only app called Twitarr, a web-based JoCo Cruise-specific messaging and social service that works over the ship’s wi-fi without requiring an actual Internet connection. It has an LFG tab where you can organize board games or activities and specify how many attendees you need. Huge games of werewolf sprang up powered entirely by this app. This is my favorite kind of community technology – folks building tools for each other because they want to, not because there’s money in it.
I didn’t count on how much I’d be walking around the cruise ship every day, and how much of a workout just from going between activities, exploring the ship, and dancing at night.
I also didn’t count on how much I’d eat every day, but I guess that’s what you get when you have a buffet available 24/7. The food was consistently good, and I ate my weight in eggs.
The day off the boat in Puerto Rico was a nice break. We wandered through Old San Juan, taking in the colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. We went on a food tour, where I found out what mofongo is, and that I’ve been missing it in my life.
The other stop was Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private island in the Caribbean – it’s a protected nature preserve where I rode a horse! Into the water! We also stopped in St. Maarten which I did not love.
We didn’t expect to make best friends on the cruise, but we did! We met a couple who live in the same city as us, and we’re already making plans to hang out. Our other two friends, who we just sat next to at dinner the first night, are already planning for returning as a group in 2026.
This is what good communities do – they create the conditions for connection without forcing it. The JoCo cruise clearly learned the same lessons I’ve learned: treat people with respect, give them tools to find each other, and get out of the way.
