Shiprocked

This is an annual rock cruise for 4 – 5 days with 25+ bands on the ship. My wife is the rock fan, I was along for support. I do like live music and don’t dislike the music, it’s just that I probably wouldn’t choose myself to immerse myself in this. All that being said, we had a great time. I’ll cover different areas:
The organization/​booking: 5-​stars. The organizers of this cruise know what they are doing and make it easy. An easy to navigate website (with lots of useful information) allowed you to select everything you needed. Pick your desired room classification, pick out your room, pay very easily online ($ 500 to book, the balance due 30 days before). The ship map was useful in picking a room that met our needs.
Getting onboard: 4-​stars. Any time you have to get thousands of people on a ship in a limited window, there will be lines and waiting. All that was fine and done as well as could be expected. There were times where the next step wasn’t apparent (we didn’t know to grab a laminated boarding group pass and got group 13 when we could have had group 6, for instance). The waiting lobby was very comfortable and announcements easy to follow. There was some entertainment watching the artists/​bands go through their process (via a VIP area). Our luggage was at our room by the time we arrived (we did hear some music guitars were mishandled overboard and we know one persons bag didn’t make it as they put out an announcement the last day of the cruise looking for these people’s bag).
The ship: 4-​stars. See my review for the Norweigan Pearl
The concerts: 5-​stars. Despite not knowing very many of the performing band’s songs, each brought a lot of energy and talent to the stage. You could tell all were genuinely excited to be there. All interacted with the fans, usually playing fan favorites, but many times debuting unreleased music, popular covers, or collaborating with members of other bands. A major credit to the crews of all the bands and they had yeoman’s work in changing out equipment day after day. Security was also done very well, you always felt safe when the crowd was getting excited. On the last day, rain eliminated the deck stage and the organizers and artists were all moved to different venues and times. You would have never known the difference. I thought going in that I might «skip» a concert or two and relax, but I found myself wanting to fill up my day as much as possible to see every band on the ship, many of which I had never heard of. Big credit to the organizers and bands for bringing so much energy.
The port (Stirrup Cay, The Bahamas): 3-​stars. The port, an NCL private island, is a tertiary aspect of the cruise. Essentially a place to go to get off the ship for a couple of days. To get on shore, a tinder boat was required. Which I understand, given the size of the island. But each way killed a good 30 minutes to an hour. The beach was fully equipped with food and drink (food as part of the cruise for free). The stage was the focal point, with two concerts each day. Seemed like the second day, either partied out or too lazy, many people didn’t bother getting off the boat. Which was a shame given the quality of shows that day. The water had a number of rocks and was cold (cold good, rocks bad). Made it so many didn’t venture out into the water. Just not a big addition to the whole experience.
The meet and greets: 5-​stars. One of the great things about this cruise is the accessibility to the artists. They’re hanging out in the lounges watching other acts, they’re walking the decks, they’re on the beaches with you, and sitting at the next table at dinner. While they are usually more than happy to snap a quick photo with you, the organizers set aside five different sessions of 3 or 4 artists each where you can get a more formal portrait made. For free. Downloadable from Flickr. And the artists were really nice and patient as hundreds of their fans shook hands and had their pictures taken.
The other cruisers: 5-​stars A very eclectic group, but you could not meet a more fun-​seeking group of people. Of all walks of life and age demographics. Everyone was simply there for a good time, nobody ruined the fun for everyone else by starting trouble or being inconsiderate. Many folks go year after year and know the routine and were helpful for us «Newbies». I certainly hope to go again and see many of them!
So probably more like 4.5 stars, if this type of trip is of interest to you, it would be hard for them to do it any better!