Myself, husband and 17yo daughter went on the MAS June 4th to the 6th sailing and this is our review. We went in with realilistic expactions and knew it was a budget cruise and just wanted to get away for my 40th birthday. We have cruised 7 times with Carnival, NCL and Royal.
Boarding: We arrived at the Port of Palm Beach around 10:30am. The line for valet is mixed with the line of cars from the valet of people still getting off of the ship so it was about 10 minutes to get through that line. In the building and through the Xray machines and upstairs we went. The check in process was seamless besides the young guy didn't know where we picked up our drink package at. Then they push you through the row of their extras, shore excursion desk on the left and drink package and dining package purchases on the right. Then they push you to the back corner with limited seating to wait till you can board. The area is too small for the amount of people and not very well thought out. But none the less you wait. And wait. We got to our seats around 11am and didn't board till close to 1pm. And they board you by group numbers of your muster station not the way you arrived at the port. And then the line was cut off by people just getting check in and walking right into the line. This is definitely an area they could change and improve on. Once we had our key cards scanned and walked the terminal to board we were finally in front of the big flip flop and on vacation. The welcome party was unimpressive compared to other cruise lines.
Port of Indecision buffet lunch: It was busy as expected and we knew that the burger bar was now included so we by passed the buffet and headed to the back. The burger was good with toppings to choose from and hot off the grill. The fries were fresh. So no complaints there. Bar tenders coming around frequently but the one we got didn't understand much english. So that was interesting ordering virgin drinks. None the less, our first virgin drinks on the ship were yummy. We had Mango daqurai and a Pina Colada. We explored the ship after this and walked all the decks and such. Not a bad layout and areas were all very cleaned and maintained (minus the area where the ping pong table was). The only other negitive we found was the only decks with walking areas outside was the pool deck and walking deck. Nothing below that.
Room: We had an ocean view room for 3 people. It was very spacious and had adaquate storage for the 3 of us. We did take a multi plug adapter for the wall as from previous reviews we knew the american plug was only one. They did have a USB and C by the make up table. The 3rd bed is like a murphy bed that we had to put out ourselves at night. And our room was not set for 3 people for towels and wash cloths but a quick trip and no line at guest services and we had our towels within the hour. The bed was super comfortable and there was not noise from other rooms around us at all. We did hear a group or two during the night but nothing that was bothersome. The port hole was wonderful with and we enjoyed watching out of it whenever we were in our room. The only negitive we had for our room was there was a bad smell around the toilet but I had essential oils with me, as again I read a review about that, and just put the oils on tissue and laid it on the back of the toilet and that fixed that.
Dinner at Fins: We had both dinners at Fins dining room. The food was very good both nights minus a pork chop. But who orders a pork chop when there was shrimp and grits and salmon? Just my husband. 😉 The first night we each had two appitzers, the gumbo was the highlight for that. And for the meals the highlight was Shrimp Skewers. The second night the highlight was the mac n cheese. And the Key Lime pound cake was the best dessert both nights. Our waiter on the first night, Sean was amazing going above and beyond to make sure we were taking care of and celebrated for my birthday. The second night we sat by the windows for the view instead of going back to Sean's section and our waitress there was horrible. Both nights we were in and out in time for the shows so that was good.
Shows: The first night we went to the early seating of the new Caribbean Heats show. It was really really good. Looks to keep up with in the dancing and acting and the songs were all really good. Then we went to Karaoke and the Dueling Pianos. Both were very good as well. The second night we went to the family friendly comedian, the Margaritaville at Sea show and karaoke. All again were very well done and surprised with them both being new shows and only have 10 days to learn them in, we were impressed. The highlight of the trip were the shows. So don't miss them!
Port Day: We decided since it was such a short cruise we would just stay on the ship and relax and enjoy the activities onboard. Well relaxing we did, activities we did not until 2:30pm. This is our one huge complaint. Nothing on board the ship organized by the crew until 2:30pm even though a few things were advertised nothing was done. Cornhole and pickleball were advertised open play from 10am to 10pm both days however, for cornhole, the boards were out but no bags and no one could find them or knew about them until the 2:30 (advertised at 2:45pm) competition on the second day. And we never did find or see anyone play pickleball and I didn't pack ours thinking since it was a new upgrade for sure they would have all the things and it would be open. There was a skelaton of a crew on the ship on port day and not much cleaning going on when they needed to be cleaning tables and areas that were used the night before and during the day that day. The bar guys at the bar by the pool were not very friendly and my daughter even heard a waitress complain about them and say this is why I never come to get my drinks at this bar. It was like they were inconvenienced for people being at their bar. But still made the drinks and they were yummy just with a bit of attitude towards workers and passengers.
Coffee shop: I am a early to bed person so if I wanted to stay up I needed coffee. On other cruise lines I am able to make a hot chocolate/coffee mix from the buffet but MAS only had coffee, decaf and hot teas. So to the coffee shop we went. And what a good decision that was! It was around $5 for a frozen coffee and it was super yummy! So we ended up having coffee each day and the morning of debarking.
Casino: We enjoy roulette and the quarter pusher machine. Well roulette was popular and a good time besides it is not current with a screen or tracking system of the numbers that have been called previously like other ships have. And the quarter pusher was in the hallway and was so old and junky I didn't put any money into it. The casino had a funky smell but not from smoke as they don't smoke in there but it was a weird smell. You also have to walk through the casino to get to where the Karaoke and dueling pianos and comedian are behind it, but that room didn't smell.
Disembarking: This seemed like it took forever on all the levels. We were on deck 4 and you leave off of deck 5 so we didn't want to take our luggage up to deck 8 or 9 to have to come back down so we stayed in our room until 9am at which point only deck 5 had been called. So we decided to go up to deck 5 and see what the lined looked like as we had heard a few times for people not to come to deck 5 as it was congested and after 5 to 10 minutes we should be moving, well that was like 30 minutes before that and nothing was called so we took a chance and so glad we did. We got in a group that was just waiting for the next shift to go off of the boat and shortly after we were standing there they put a line for people not to come behind us so we did get lucky and got off about 15 minutes later. But oh it gets better. Our daughter only traveled with her birth certificate as we were waiting for her to turn 18 before getting her passport. With that being said. Get your passport if you can! The passport line had 4-6 custom agents working for them and the birth certificate line only had 1. And the majority of passengers were traveling with their birth certificate so we spend over an hour in life to get off when the passport people had a 15 minute or less wait to get through customs. We had a gentlemen behind us that his wife was waiting like 20 minutes with him with her passport and him with his birth certificate and she finally left him and went and got their truck and then still had to wait for him.
Overall view: We had a nice relaxing time. We went in to it with low expectations and were surprised by the food and shows both were very good. The ship overall is well taken care of minus a few areas and the room was very comfortable in size, bed and temperature. The activities outside of the shows, dueling pianos and karaoke were lacking. The layout of the ship is easy to learn and there was enough seating around the pools and such. Would we do it again, possibly if we just want a really short cruise. Wasn't long enough for a vacation feel but did have some positives.
Any questions feel free to ask. And I have attached a flyer that you can get at guest services but I am not sure if it is the same as the online version as some times were off. So just a word of caution that they don't do everything listed here and some may not be at the same time.
MAS sailing 6.4-6.6.2023.pdf
