mandyleighflies

Day 2!!! Freeport Bahamas 

We woke up early so we could attend mimosa brunch in the JWB dining room. 
 

Tropical brunch apparel was our personal dress code. When it comes to dress code there doesn’t seem to be one or at least one enforced. It’s a weekend booze cruise y’all…people watching is magnificent. 
 

Oh what’s this yet ANOTHER LTC perk? A bottomless mimosa brunch that doesn’t count against your drink package? Say Less 😆

Menu was extensive oh and bottomless bloody Mary’s too. 🙃🫠
 

I had the avocado toast minus egg. I will say the dish was good but it could have used some prosciutto and balsamic but overall didn’t hate it. 
 

Lauren had the French toast and once again ate it in happy silence. Yes it was delicious. 
 

We took full advantage of the bottomless offerings. 
 

Once again the staff were incredible. Anna Banana is a LEGEND. She is basically the assistant cruise director for the LTC VIP’s. We loved her. The energy. The joy. I need her on all my sailings. 

After shopping we returned to 5 O’Clock bar (once again not crowded) and enjoyed our diet cokes and the sunset. We were utterly exhausted. This location is also a burger joint and it smelled amazing. We didn’t get a chance to eat here this sailing but as you guessed it…next time. 
 

Pro tip. Bring a refillable water bottle. They charge $5 a bottle onboard and there is no water package nor can you bring bottles onboard. 

The old ladies were in our cabin watching crime documentaries by 930pm. The TV appeared to have ACTUAL CABLE as we were watching HLN and had a channel guide. IYKYK this is huge. 
 

We truly enjoyed our first day on Paradise. 

After dinner we explored the ship a bit and the shops/spa since they were now open. The LTC comes with $150 spa credit. We wanted to schedule a shampoo and blow out for both of us for the next evening but they had no availability. They were able to give us $150 in PRODUCT since they were unable to fulfill our spa request. We each got a serum and lip scrub. Amazing. That’s customer service y’all. 
 

The shops are small but well stocked and basic needs are not over priced!! The prices for basic toiletries were similar to land prices. They had the usual things and tons of margaritaville merch (duh lol). I bought my son the Paradise ship model and my daughter a keychain. There is yet ANOTHER LTC perk here…you get free lanyards at the shops. 
 

just buy the package. 

Dinner at JWB…y'all. I was Speechless. First off the room is so cute. It’s off to the side of the Fins dining room with decent sized windows. This was our sail away view. I will take photos of JWB room on our next sailing. 
 

Here is the menu. While it’s not extensive, the offerings are just fine. It’s not a Michelin rated space so let’s keep our expectations level here. 
 

Spoiler alert….expectations exceeded. 

We both started with the shrimp cocktail. The shrimps were decent sized tiger shrimp and that cocktail sauce was the perfect amount of horseradish zest.
 

I had the Waygu Short ribs with broccolini and cheese fondue. That meat was falling apart…the chimichurri was perfection. The broccolini was perfected cooked, snapped under the knife but the leaves were delicate. 
 

We both had the fondue. It was not what I was expecting, Lauren loved it, I was not a fan but I am also funny about texture. 
 

Lauren had the 6 oz filet and garlic mashed potatoes. She asked for rare and it was also perfectly cooked. 10/10

Dessert was amazing. I had the chocolate cake which was a coffee infused cake. She had the key lime and didn’t speak the entire time she ate it 😆❤️

Dinner and Breakfast at JWB are both included in the LTC package….if you take ANYTHING away from this review…buy it. 
 

The wait staff at JWB were amazing. This was on par with RCL Chops and honestly the service was better. 10/10. 

We did notice one giant negative and the only negative we experienced the entire sailing. 
 

The utter LACK of deck chairs. 
 

There were MAYBE 15 around the main pool and a dozen or so by the adult pool (I apologize for not getting photos of the adult pool). The pools were also murky and not something we were interested in taking a part in. If laying by the pool or swimming/lounging in the pool is your thing this is not your cruise.  
 

The 5 O’Clock Somewhere bar is a GEM. It is at the back of the ship and kind of hard to find…AKA not crowded. This is where we sat for what should have been sail away, MAS runs on island time apparently. We had 6:30pm reservations at JWB Steakhouse we did not want to miss so we had to experience sail away at dinner. 
 

After getting settled in our cabin we changed and went out to start using our 10 drink coupon. We purchased unlimited soda (Diet Coke for life) each for $20 for the whole sailing and one more 10 drink package (which we didn’t need and ended up giving to other people lol) They load the drinks onto a wrist band that is scanned with each one. They tell you how many you have left with each scan. 
 

I will be using LTC (license to chill) for every MAS cruise. The 10 drinks is perfect and drinks onboard are fairly priced if you want to just order ala cart. Our next sailing we will do the bucket of 5 beers for $39 and split them. 
 

Beers - $7-$10 

Cocktails - $12-?? (Idk how much the blender drinks were as we did not order any of them) 

I will say the cocktails are SMALL so if you can…drink beer/seltzer as they are tall cans therefore more product for your dollar. 

Enjoying my “shot” of Margarita 😆

They also still do a physical muster drill. You are required to report to your muster station and pay attention to the briefing. I suggested an APP for this in the post cruise review we were sent to complete. Our muster station was the casino…we were the lucky group I guess 😆

We were LOVING our muster experience. 

We had an interior stateroom on the 7th deck. It was spotless clean. No weird smells and spacious for 2 people. I’m that oddball who Lysol wipes every surface of a ship cabin. All the wipes were CLEAN after use. Our room steward Sashi was amazing. He introduced himself within 5 minutes of us entering our cabin. Any request we had he fulfilled nearly immediately. We loved him. One of my top 5 favorite stewards of all time. The rooms were ready around 2pm (1pm boarding) and we had both our bags (VIP tags) within 20 minutes of being in our room. Y'all I have been in several Grand Suites on RCCL and the bags took longer. The License to Chill package creates a TRUE VIP experience. They win in this category. 

The bathroom was the only part of the cabin showing the ships age. However, that is to be expected, she was built in 1991. The most important part to us was it was clean, no smells and functional. I will warn that when the main power is off (lights) in the cabin, the toilet doesn’t flush. It’s an odd design situation but it is what it is. 

Ladies will note this one…shampoo AND conditioner. RCL cabins that are less than JS have a shampoo/conditioner combo…MAS winning here too. 

They brought a cake for Lauren to our room after dinner. ❤️

This is what the room looks like when the bed is together. The bedding was honestly very comfortable and clean. 

In fact, when we went to strip the beds for Sashi (habit we both have being helpful) we looked closely at the mattresses. Yall they were brand new bamboo pillow top without a stain on them. Literally one of the most comfortable beds I’ve had at sea. 
 

I am still a balcony suites girl BUT for 2 nights? This was just fine. We loved our cabin and I will be booking another one. 

Yall lol. We had SO much fun. I quite literally forgot about the live. However, I do have all the photos and all the memories so here we go.

We are onboard!! All I can say is…

BUY LICENSE TO CHILL

We went from Uber to ship in about 30 minutes and they are running behind. Score. 
 

The ship is small and she’s not new but she seems well maintained from what we have seen. The buffet was chaos but the food was fine. It’s average buffet food and luckily, we only have to eat at once so that’s fine with us. 
 

We made it to Palm Beach!! We took a quick break to the Amex Escape lounge and now in the Uber to the Paradise!! 
 

Live from the Admirals club!!! 
 

Our hats and Golden Gals outfits are a hit!! Enjoying a little breakfast and a couple mimosas before boarding our flight south! 
 

Unexpected update. We had to put our beloved family pet to sleep the day prior to sailing. He was a 4.5 year old guinea pig who had developed pneumonia on top of dental issues (an unfortunate issue with some piggies) and he was actively dying so we made the difficult choice to help him cross the rainbow bridge. We will miss our piggy but he is happily reunited with his best friend Clover and we cannot wait to see them again one day. 

Back to cruise things!!

Lauren arrived last night and we toasted to our lost friend and enjoyed a chill night at our house. We are so excited to get vacation started!! We are flying out later this morning to PBI in our matching outfits!! Photos and live updates to follow! I am just up early unable to sleep from sudden loss of pet and vacation excitement.  

6 Days!!! I know it’s just a short 2 night cruise but I’m just as excited as I get for our longer ones! 
 

We have chosen to dress in our own “theme attire” for this trip for fun. Our flight to PBI and boarding outfits will be Golden Gals at sea. Then at night we are channeling 80’s Miami Vice vibes. Thank God for Goodwill!! 
 

Our Golden Gal’s outfits with our custom captain hats 

Miami Vice evenings. I actually Love both of these outfits and would honestly wear them again. 
 

Right now, the plan is for Lauren to fly to me in DC on the 3rd and us fly out together on the 4th. I never Fly the day of a cruise but chose to take our chances versus booking a hotel that costs more than the trip itself. 
 

We have a couple more custom things coming but I’ll show those when they arrive along with how I’m packing. See y'all in a couple of days!! 

Love y'all ❤️💃

Lauren (pink) and I (black) in Cancun this past February. 
 

Our Door decal arrived as well as our parrot towel clips!! 

Hello CC!! 

My name is Amanda (Mandy) and my best friend, Lauren (Lorie), and I randomly booked a 2 night Bahamas sailing on MAS Paradise June 4-6th as a gal's trip and to celebrate Lauren's Bday. Lauren and I are both flight attendants so we have a lot of travel experience and free airfare so going on a random trip is not unusual for us. We randomly went to Cancun for my birthday back in February because we were at the airport with time off after an annual training. Quite literally in the airport club with Bloody's, I looked at Lauren and simply said "you know we don't have to go home" and 2 hours later we were on our way to Cancun. 

A little bit about our cruising history. Lauren has been on 2 cruises, 1 with Carnival and 1 with Princess. I am Emerald with RCCL and sail 2-3 times a year with either my husband or my mom and kids. Admittedly, I have only sailed in a Junior Suite or better with RCCL since February 2018....yes I KNOW. We actually have Utopia in a JS and Symphony in a CLS booked in the coming year. Prior to sailing with RCCL exclusively I sailed with CCL through the Golden 90's and a couple sailings with NCL. That clears up our cruise experience and paints the scene for MAS Paradise experience. 

OUR MAS PARADISE EXPERIENCE 

We are sailing in an INTERIOR cabin on Deck 7. 😆 

We did purchase the License to Chill package, the Bottomless drinks brunch and an AI Cabana excursion in the Bahamas. 

We will be purchasing a couple extra drink packages at $99 per person...I know us. 

The License to Chill includes for 2 (according to website and I will be documenting the actual experience) 

"Priority Boarding"

Dinners and Breakfast plus a wine tasting at JWB Steakhouse

10 Drinks (that will last us one day between the two of us 😄🍹)

$150 in spa credit (FASCINATING)

Wifi for 2 devices 

Merchandise gift (i.e coupon)

AND MORE....TBD what and more is...could be like the beyond portion of Bed, Bath and Beyond. 

All for $359 per cabin. 

JWB Sparkling Wine/Bottomless Brunch - 63.00 (31.50 each)

Pirates Cove Private Cabana and DayPass

Private cabana for up to 6.

All drinks and Food

AND MORE...once again see above comment on Beyond. 

All for 269.98 (134.99 per person)

Cabin was $169 (plus taxes, fees, etc)

We will be sailing for basically $1400 All Inclusive or roughly $700 per person and this is an estimate of our onboard spending. It could be more but hopefully slightly less but as of now it's a grand total of $1080.00. Not bad given what I usually spend. 

All this being said, I am going to be fully transparent with my experience. I am going in with LOW expectations, in fact, the only expectation is to HAVE FUN WITH MY BESTIE and I think we are capable of that anywhere. 

Stay tuned. I will update with our pre-cruise gear, our outfit plans (Golden girls and Miami Vice thrift) as well as photos documenting our experience. Come sail away with us but bring your drink, you're going to need it. 

We were awarded a RoyalUp ONE TIME and that was our February 2022 sailing of Navi OTS. We received the "congratulations" email two weeks prior to sailing. The other few times we have applied we received the "sorry not this time" email the night before or morning of our sailing. 

5 minutes ago, mandyleighflies said:

We have this card also and had the same questions! Where do we redeem the points? Is it on the BOA site or the RCCL site? If we use this card as our sail and sign, do we receive additional perks? 

A simple google search answered my question LOL 

One of the options listed is a cabin upgrade for 5k points. Is that a for sure upgrade or a "bid" like RoyalUP? We have two upcoming sailings in JS, would that upgrade for 5k points get us a GS? 

We have this card also and had the same questions! Where do we redeem the points? Is it on the BOA site or the RCCL site? If we use this card as our sail and sign, do we receive additional perks? 

RCCL has a great mocktail menu! They can also make most of the frozen drinks virgin but you have to make it very clear with them you truly want a virgin drink. They have Heinkein 0.0 for NA beer and unsure if they have other ones yet. Our last sailing was in December and I know the NA market is growing fast so hopefully they add more options soon. If you purchase the refreshment beverage package it covers all soft drinks, mocktails, specialty coffee's/teas (not starbucks) and bottles/cans of water. That package does NOT cover Heinkein 0.0 however. 

We treated Nassau like our own “day at sea” as we have all been there several times and preferred to stay onboard. 
 

I took advantage of an amazing Black Friday deal on deck side casita’s so we booked one of those for the day. 
 

Winds were gusting 29 mph and our aft balcony was like a wind tunnel. Don’t put anything out to dry on these decks if you can help it. 
 

It started as a beautiful albeit windy day. 
 

We weren’t alone in port for sure. Allure was off our bow. 
 

Summit pulled in after awhile. Celebrity is in our future as the kids get older. 
 

We had Casita 6 right next to The Lime and the Coconut. 
 

It all started very well but soon clouds moved in and we were freezing so we chose to call it a day and head to indoor activities. 
 

It said 75 but it for sure did not feel like a 75 I was familiar with. 
 

We cleaned up and headed to our favorite cruise activities…trivia and lounging about the Schooner Bar. We didn’t do too bad!! 
 

Dinner wasn’t bad. It was Caribbean night in the MDR and after Giovanni’s kitchen the night before, well we were ruined. Nothing will ever be that great. 
 

We had an onboard moment with Rover and headed to our cabin to pack and get ready for our early departure. 
 

Bye until next time Nassau! 

21 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Congrats on reaching Emerald.  

Thank you!! It feels like a lot of work 😆 

After our Perfect day, we cleaned up and got ready for elegant night and dinner Giovanni’s kitchen. 
 

I received my Emerald pin last night! It is so pretty, 11 points from Diamond…next cruise is looking tempting for a sailing this summer. 
 

This one just explains it all. 😆😆😆 

The drink of the evening was apparently Espresso Martini’s…I had to join. Delicious and also dangerous. I had one during Trivia. Daisy the trivia host has been one of our favorites. 
 

Dinner at Giovanni’s kitchen..best meal I’ve ever had on a ship. Totally worth every penny. Valentina was our server and she was incredible. Lots of energy. Great food selections. Awesome all around. 
 

Just do it. Book Giovanni’s kitchen. We couldn’t touch our desserts. The kids did lol 

This meal put us to bed 😆😆

Perfect Day at Cococay….

….and it truly was 🌴☀️🌊

Rocking the new “waterproof” fanny pack. We shall see 😆 (fast forward to it IS waterproof until some some moron (me) opens it in the wave pool and a wave fills it) 

Long time no see Allure 

We rented a poolside cabana. Now I know this has been a controversial subject with pricing. We got a good deal and to us it was worth it as it also included tickets to Thrill water park. The only cabana class that included this perk I believe. 
 

The cabana included this couch, a comfy side chair and this storage table. One side was an empty cabinet and the other was a lockable safe. 
 

We had Cabana 34 by the wave pool which was perfect for us as my son spent most of his time in there. The sun loungers with shade were wonderful. 
 

The Menus. 
 

We walked around the island for a bit. Cococay is lovely as even with two large ships in port, it’s hardly crowded. 

Our room is circled. 
 

Also on our sailing is Rover, she is a 5 month old Golden Retriever and the CEO’s dog. I am guessing he is possibly onboard? Idk. We were more interested in the dog 😆 

We returned to the Cabana for some lunch. Each cabana also comes with bottled water and lots of it. I had the Greek salad with grilled chicken and mozzarella sticks for lunch. My mom and Ethan had the burgers and Ava the tuna wrap. Dessert was cookies, brownies and funnel cakes. We all enjoyed our meals thoroughly and brought them home with us. 
 

We returned to the ship around 3pm to get cleaned up for “elegant night”. We caved and have dinner at Giovanni’s kitchen tonight. 
 

We had a TIME last night 😆😆. 

We watched sail away from our balcony and I enioyed a glass of vino (or two 😆) 

Once out to sea we made our way to the legendary Schooner bar for trivia night. We made a bunch of new friends and indulged in more drinks. 
 

It was a little rocky last night and my mom was feeling it. The wait staff in the MDR was so kind! They brought her green apples and ginger ale. The waves calmed down around 10pm. 
 

Dinner was excellent! 
 

I had the prime rib. 
 

Then the Boston Crème Pie cake

We closed out the night at karaoke in the Viking Crowne followed by the 70’s night festivities in the promenade. 
 

Yes. Drink package is worth it. 😆😆