How a Music Festival on Water Handles ADA
By ~ Kristyn Edmonds, Disabled Author & Photographer
It’s been a little over a week since I went on Shiprocked Cruise 2025. Coming home and getting sick was definitely not on my bingo card, but here we are. This was my second time going on Shiprocked, and overall, it was better this year compared to last. Shiprocked has actually been around since 2011, and I had been wanting to go for years.
My dream became a reality back in 2024 and for the most part, it was a good experience. We aren’t here to talk about 2024, even though one of my absolute favorite bands in the world was on last year, Dayseeker. This year we had more lesser-known bands, but I’m good with that. How else do you expect to be exposed to new bands? Then you had staples of the metal community like Nothing More, Hollywood Undead, Parkway Drive and even The Struts!
There are two main locations on the Carnival Magic where shows are done ~ the main deck on ten and the theater down on three. There are two other smaller locations where bands do play, the Ocean Plaza and the Aft Lounge. Let’s talk about how Shiprocked handles ADA and ADA Laws, and the occurrences, both positive and negative, that happened this year.
The sail away was a nightmare, so my friend and I missed the welcome, family photo and Hollywood Undead’s sail away performance. They allowed the regular cruisers to overcrowd the ADA sections, and it was very claustrophobic. They blocked entrances and exits with no regard to ADA cruisers safety. Being previously trained in how to handle these situations and how to deescalate, I knew that if it happened again, the ADA cruisers would speak up. And that is exactly what we did.
Tuesday night at Nothing More’s theater show, there was a debacle before the show. There was confusion and we were advocating for our group as a whole. While we were trying to deescalate and get the issues handled, a female from the regular cruiser line yelled out, “I’ve been waiting for over two hours, and you all are ****ing entitled!” Trust me when I say, there is nothing entitled about being disabled. If I could remove my disability from myself and give it to you, I’d gladly do it. There are always going to be people like her in a crowd, and you just have to learn to overlook it. But, with proper education on ADA, ADA laws and disabilities as a whole, people like that female wouldn’t say stuff like that. I did speak with staff the following day and brought things to their attention along with my cabinmate, who is also disabled. We gave them a lot of suggestions on how to handle it, deal with it, etc. moving forward.
One thing I have to give Ask 4 Entertainment (the company that runs Shiprocked), is they outsource a security company that comes with them to handle security/safety issues. This company is Shield, they are based out of Texas, and this was their second time on Shiprocked as security. We honestly do believe there was some miscommunication between Carnival, Shield and the Ask 4 staff the first few days, and all it took was several ADA cruisers to bring it to their attention so they could address the issues, fix them and keep us safe. I never once blamed Ask 4 for any of the ADA issues that happened.
I specifically told them that they have to leave security at the ADA sections for our safety and protection, as I previously stated, both on the deck and in the theater, regular cruisers were impeding into our sections, and security would come run them off and walk away. After they walked away, the regular cruisers would just move back to where they were. To me, that’s just a blatant disrespect to the ADA community. Again, I think it should be a requirement for all cruisers to know and understand ADA Law.
There’s a really cool place on level five that they convert into The Music Experience. The Music Experience is super cool. TME is located out of Jacksonville, Florida and is run by a really cool guy who we call Squiggy. TME is for cruisers to go in and play instruments, as well as having some Meet and Greets in the area. They had a lot more M&G in TME experience. I do believe there was a total of 13 M&G in TME, and I did seven of those. When I get out of my shell, I can be very extroverted and doing M&G helps me come out of my shell. If I had the time, I would’ve done every single M&G they had this year, but it was virtually impossible.
After the first few M&G in TME, the bumps and bruises were fixed, and the ADA crowd knew what to do. ADA forms on the left, regular on the right. I had become friendly with the Shield security guard in TME because of my frequent visits, so he learned my name and face. I had gone later in the week, pretty sure it was for the Ghostkid M&G. Being that I cannot stand for a period of time due to my disability, I grabbed a chair and moved it to the left to sit down in it. When I did, a lady in the regular line looks at me and goes, “wow.”
I smiled at her; “I’m ADA.”
“Well, I’ve been coming for nine years.”
When I tell you these cruisers that have been going for many, many years (some would call these people lifers), they have somewhat of “entitlement” syndrome. Mind you, I’m not being negative towards this lady, but it was just her delivery of her statement that rubbed me the wrong way. Me, being the way I am, I let it go, and we were friendly with one another. My friend that was going to the M&G with me showed up and stood beside me.
When it was time for the Ghostkid M&G to begin, the security guard came and looked at me.
“Yes,” I said with a smile.
The lady in the regular line, from behind me says, “Really?!”
I heard the security guard respond to her, “Really.”
Again, people need to educate and learn how ADA Laws work, how they apply at concerts, land festivals and festivals on a cruise ship. We aren’t asking for privileges that are not offered to regular people, all we are asking for is respect and inclusion. We have just as much of a right to be there as you do.
One thing I do love about the bigger M&G sessions is they’re done in one of the dining rooms and you just shift around the room meeting the bands and getting your photo taken with them. The ADA for these M&G are great as we know where to go sit and wait. Loyalty members go first with ADA cruisers following.
I did notice that the ADA cruisers crowd was exponentially larger this year compared to last year. That was one of the things we asked Ask 4 and Shield to do for us in the theater. They did not have enough seating for ADA, and we had to ask for one more row, so we weren’t sitting on top of one another. I honestly think they need to move the ADA section in the theater to somewhere else or completely block out that entire section for ADA, so the regular cruisers aren’t impeding on us as a whole. Some of them would walk up and block our sight from the stage, as there are several ADA cruisers that cannot stand at all. The old adage is, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. How would you like it if someone stood in front of you and you couldn’t see?
With the exception of the bumps and bruises the first two days, and the random regular cruisers complaining that the ADA crowd was getting special treatment, and we were entitled, overall Shiprocked was much better this year for us. I have to give a huge shout out to Peggy Meyer of Ask 4 Entertainment, as she is their employee that predominantly works with the ADA crowd. She listens, never judges and helps us with our issues. It’s people like Peggy that make dealing with regular cruisers who do not understand what it’s like to be disabled bearable.
I, personally, cannot handle land festivals due to my disabilities. Shiprocked makes it possible for me to enjoy a music festival on my own terms, and for that I’m grateful.
** Kristyn is an author and you can purchase Book One of her Dirty Little Fairy Tale series from Kindle, Book a Million and Barnes & Noble.
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