Tales from Margaritaville at Sea

We booked a Margaritaville at Sea cruise to celebrate Linda’s birthday. They were offering a “Heroes Sail Free” package that looked enticing, and it was a short getaway for us to enjoy my first cruise, and Linda’s first in a while. Since we’ve spent lots of time in the Bahamas, excursions in Freeport didn’t interest us as much as just getting away and relaxing on the ship. The promotions appear to be quite fluid; for example, right now they advertise ocean view available on promotion whereas we paid $25 each to upgrade. The travel blogs talk about the ship and go into more detail, but since we’ve been asked about it, and since we haven’t blogged in... ages, here’s our chance to put up some content! Anyway, here’s what we paid in Feb 2023 and some commentary:

• “Hero” sailing free with paid passenger in same cabin, upgrade to ocean view:                      $25
• Paid passenger on 3 day, 2 night cruise          $123

(board day 1 around noon, depart day 3 at 9, so about 45 hours total)

• Taxes and port fees for two:                           $177
• Fixed stateroom steward gratuities for two:      $60
• Fuel surcharge:                                              $48
• Valet (mandatory) parking (plus gratuity):        $44

 We booked the “License To Chill” package, which included a $150 spa credit, 10 drink credits, 1 breakfast and dinner at the steakhouse, onboard wifi for 2, and some other stuff including a concierge. At $300, we felt this was a good deal. The concierge service turned out to be more valuable than I thought, as it got us private seating while waiting to board, including pastries and juice/water, and priority boarding. The priority debarking had us meet in the lounge, where we finally took advantage of our free “premium” coffee at the coffee shop, and then the concierge escorted us to debark while the loudspeaker was calling individual floors to assemble, and the lobby was packed with people. We even got a special line for getting through customs! The package included reserved seating for the evening shows in the theatre, which I thought would be good because of the short time between dinner seatings and show times, but it did not appear to be necessary based on the number of open seats when we arrived.

Our room was more than adequate, with a comfy bed that we could walk around on three sides, more than we have at home 😉. It was nice to be able to see out the ocean view window during the times we were in the cabin, easy to tell we didn’t exactly make it to Freeport when advertised since we couldn’t see land yet. There was some crusty salt spray on the window, but I guess they’re harder to clean than balcony doors, and I suppose fire hosing the exterior of the ship as guests, and luggage, and supplies are being loaded wouldn’t go over very well.

Beer ran between $7.50 and $9 plus 18% gratuity, Linda’s prosecco was $9 to $12, so if the drink credits weren’t included, it probably would have been a wash since the 10 credits on their own sell for $99, likely aimed at the margarita or mixed drink consumers.

We had one breakfast and both lunches at the buffet, which had a good selection and was well run. Dinner at the JWB steakhouse was very good, with a perfectly cooked filet. Linda’s fish had a small bone which she didn’t detect while chewing; that caused a bit of a stir for a while until she got it down. We wound up with a second dessert when they found out it was her birthday and brought out a birthday dessert, after we had already had dessert! As if that wasn’t enough sugar, there was another “Happy Birthday” dessert waiting for us when we returned to our stateroom!

Despite our intentions, our JWB steak house dinner reservations at 6:30 didn’t allow us to attend the early comedy show at the theatre, so we attended the late “adult” comedy show which was pretty vulgar and not our cup of tea. Our second dinner at the Fins restaurant was at the 6:00 seating. As this restaurant is open to all cruise guests who don’t opt for the buffet, service was a bit slower and the menu not as good, but it was still a tasty meal and we finished in time for the Tales from Margaritaville ship show which we really enjoyed, definitely the highlight of the cruise.

There wasn’t as much live music available as I would have thought. We caught some nice jazz prior to dinner the second night, and later recognized the musician as the lead in the Tales from Margaritaville show. There’s a sing-along piano bar, but the hours were limited. The house band that played by the pool was ok, mostly music that some younger guests were singing and fist pumping to, but the primarily older clientele like us chatted, read their books, or went on about their business.

After disembarking, we met my sister Lindy (birth day twin to Linda) and husband Rich, as well as nephew Conor and his girlfriend Dorina for lunch, then drove down to Ft Lauderdale to take in the evening light/music show at the Hollywood Guitar Hotel (Hard Rock Casino), which was fun, albeit short. Linda made a few bucks at the slots, but the gaming tables were too rich for my blood, so after a few drinks and dinner at the Hard Rock Café, we called it a night.

We hit Joe’s Café, quickly becoming our go-to spot for breakfast in Ft Lauderdale, prior to the drive back to Troubadour, patiently awaiting our return.