The 2 for 1 Sale Intrigued Me

[Fla Mike]

The 2/1 sale intrigued me, so Lovey and I spent quite a bit of time looking at all the boob tube reviews on the reimagined “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise”, (yes, that is the ships official name now) these last few days and we decided to give it a try in September.

 

I know there has been some discussion surrounding price, with some pointing out that a three or four nighter on Carnival or MSC is just about the same price, and I did find that to be correct…for the base price.

 

But we took a few other factors into consideration as we pondered our cruise fate.

 

A three-night cruise on the Carnival Liberty, the same weekend, was exactly the same price. Now that is taking into account my VIFP discount and also adding the $12.00 pp per night fuel surcharge that BPCL (it really is the same line) is adding to the bill.

So, $129.00pp base cost, for an Oceanview makes the Liberty a no brainer?

 

Well, not so fast we discovered.

 

A few things that helped sway us towards “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise”

 

On the Carnival cruise the port charges are approx. $40pp more

Onsite parking is $24 more, (we don’t do off site) YMMV

An extra day at the kennel for the pooch, $65.

We also figured about and extra $50. on booze as one ten drink coupon will do us on “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise” as opposed to paying on Carnival. (We just do not drink enough to justify Cheers).

 

So, the way we looked at it the extra night would actually cost us around $219 more.

The final thing, for us at least, was, do we really want to do a weekend cruise on Carnival?  In my opinion that is just asking for too much.

 

We do cruise Carnival, at least once a year but on four-night minimums. We just came off the Freedom last month on the last cruise before “The Fire”. The crowd on that sailing obviously has not had much outside contact other humans. Never saw a crowd like that one before, and that was our third Carnival cruise since the restart.

 

I will not even mention our last MSC cruise on Meraviglia.

 

Anyway, this was just going to be a short getaway until our November cruise on Celebrity Edge and since we live in St Lucie County anyway, “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise” won.

We haven’t been on a BPCL ship since the Grand Celebration a few years ago.

 

Do a boob tube search on “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise” you may come away surprised.

 

I’ll let everyone know what WE think afterwards.

[linaka625]

On 6/28/2022 at 6:50 AM, Fla Mike said:

The 2/1 sale intrigued me, so Lovey and I spent quite a bit of time looking at all the boob tube reviews on the reimagined “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise”, (yes, that is the ships official name now) these last few days and we decided to give it a try in September.

 

I know there has been some discussion surrounding price, with some pointing out that a three or four nighter on Carnival or MSC is just about the same price, and I did find that to be correct…for the base price.

 

But we took a few other factors into consideration as we pondered our cruise fate.

 

A three-night cruise on the Carnival Liberty, the same weekend, was exactly the same price. Now that is taking into account my VIFP discount and also adding the $12.00 pp per night fuel surcharge that BPCL (it really is the same line) is adding to the bill.

So, $129.00pp base cost, for an Oceanview makes the Liberty a no brainer?

 

Well, not so fast we discovered.

 

A few things that helped sway us towards “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise”

 

On the Carnival cruise the port charges are approx. $40pp more

Onsite parking is $24 more, (we don’t do off site) YMMV

An extra day at the kennel for the pooch, $65.

We also figured about and extra $50. on booze as one ten drink coupon will do us on “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise” as opposed to paying on Carnival. (We just do not drink enough to justify Cheers).

 

So, the way we looked at it the extra night would actually cost us around $219 more.

The final thing, for us at least, was, do we really want to do a weekend cruise on Carnival?  In my opinion that is just asking for too much.

 

We do cruise Carnival, at least once a year but on four-night minimums. We just came off the Freedom last month on the last cruise before “The Fire”. The crowd on that sailing obviously has not had much outside contact other humans. Never saw a crowd like that one before, and that was our third Carnival cruise since the restart.

 

I will not even mention our last MSC cruise on Meraviglia.

 

Anyway, this was just going to be a short getaway until our November cruise on Celebrity Edge and since we live in St Lucie County anyway, “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise” won.

We haven’t been on a BPCL ship since the Grand Celebration a few years ago.

 

Do a boob tube search on “Margaritaville at Sea Paradise” you may come away surprised.

 

I’ll let everyone know what WE think afterwards.

 

I mainly cruise on Princess, but I'm giving Margaritaville a try for a quick getaway.  Before I booked, I also took a look at MSC, as we've never cruised with them, and they seem to have some good prices.  I've never been on Carnival, so I did not check their prices.

 

Can you tell me why you won't even mention MSC Meraviglia?  Is it really that bad?  I don't know anyone else that has cruised that line, and I'm curious. 

 

TIA

[Fla Mike]

34 minutes ago, linaka625 said:

Can you tell me why you won't even mention MSC Meraviglia? 

 

We did two MSC cruises in the past year.

One on the Divina, and on on the Meraviglia.

 

The Divina cruise was hands down one of our favorites... gorgeous ship, absolutely beautiful.

A fantastic crew, with service to match. Beautiful stateroom, (aft facing balcony)

 

The Meraviglia on the other hand was a loser from the minute we walked into the terminal, (both cruises left from PC).

From the mandatory COVID test (cruise was in Feb during the last surge) that they "must have misplaced" after we sat there for an hour, to the check-in agent insisting we had four people in our room because he had four key cards.

Of course, after we got it straight, he gave us the wrong ones.

Had to go back to the desk twice to get the cards to work cause they couldn't figure it out either.

 

I asked our room steward for a sharps container as I am diabetic, he had no clue. Had to find another steward to explain it to him.

 

The topper was the drink package, It was included,

We are not big drinkers but I like Jamesons on the rocks.

No Jamesons.

OK give me a Jim Beam.

They come back with a Canadian Club and tell me they are out of most of the booze on the plus package and to drink this or upgrade, very snotty and left.

This was at dinner.

So now this waiter totally ignores us for almost an hour before he takes our order.

I get the Maitre'd and he also had a major attitude.

Finally, after we left I got hold of the hotel manager and he comped the upgrade to our beverage package. 

 

You get the picture

[rikitikitavii]

2 hours ago, linaka625 said:

 

I mainly cruise on Princess, but I'm giving Margaritaville a try for a quick getaway.  Before I booked, I also took a look at MSC, as we've never cruised with them, and they seem to have some good prices.  I've never been on Carnival, so I did not check their prices.

 

Can you tell me why you won't even mention MSC Meraviglia?  Is it really that bad?  I don't know anyone else that has cruised that line, and I'm curious. 

 

TIA

We have been on about 20 of the cruises out of West Palm Beach, on the 3 ships that have sailed out of there since 2010 or so.  It is a matter of convenience, living about 20 miles from the port.  I figured that Margaritaville at Sea would eventually have the 2 for 1 fares, to try and fill the ship.

Since you primarily sail Princess, it would be best to not have high expectations for Margaritaville.  It is a 30 yo ship, with few of the amenities that the larger, newer ships offer.

A couple of things that we do like:

Wine tasting on first day, champagne breakfast first morning, (if still having these) and usually a decent band in the evening in one of the lounges.  Also the cabins are rather large for the size ship.

Over the years, we have gotten to know several crew members and look forward to seeing them.  Look at a lot of review videos, as there were several media cruises, with opinions positive and negative. Good luck!!

 

As for MSC, is one of my favorite cruise lines, having been on 4 MSC cruises, 3 booked for next year. They are very international and a lot of the guests are from  Europe.    They have a very different pricing structure than other cruise lines.  I could go on, but this is not the MSC forum.

[linaka625]

23 minutes ago, rikitikitavii said:

We have been on about 20 of the cruises out of West Palm Beach, on the 3 ships that have sailed out of there since 2010 or so.  It is a matter of convenience, living about 20 miles from the port.  I figured that Margaritaville at Sea would eventually have the 2 for 1 fares, to try and fill the ship.

Since you primarily sail Princess, it would be best to not have high expectations for Margaritaville.  It is a 30 yo ship, with few of the amenities that the larger, newer ships offer.

A couple of things that we do like:

Wine tasting on first day, champagne breakfast first morning, (if still having these) and usually a decent band in the evening in one of the lounges.  Also the cabins are rather large for the size ship.

Over the years, we have gotten to know several crew members and look forward to seeing them.  Look at a lot of review videos, as there were several media cruises, with opinions positive and negative. Good luck!!

 

As for MSC, is one of my favorite cruise lines, having been on 4 MSC cruises, 3 booked for next year. They are very international and a lot of the guests are from  Europe.    They have a very different pricing structure than other cruise lines.  I could go on, but this is not the MSC forum.

Thanks so much!  A lot of good information.  I've been reading good reviews about Margaritaville at Sea, but I'm still being careful with my expectations.  My thought is that any day at sea is better than a day doing nothing.  I plan to enjoy myself!

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

I booked for Labor Day weekend.

We'll see how they do and I'll report back.

[Fla Mike]

7 hours ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

I booked for Labor Day weekend.

We'll see how they do and I'll report back.

 

We are going the week after.

Looking forward to your review.

 

[havanadaydreaming]

Huge parrothead fan.  Moderately fanatic cruiser.  

 

Freeport is our alltime least favorite port.  Cruising out of west palm, for us, is a bit inconvenient.  

 

But the main reason im hesitant to book is the youtube reviews from opening sail.  The big inhibitor were the sewage smell in cabin reports. 

 

Id love to see the mini musical of jimmy songs.  That i would dig! 

 

 

 

 

[Fla Mike]

1 hour ago, havanadaydreaming said:

The big inhibitor were the sewage smell in cabin reports. 

 

 

Wow,  I must have missed those reviews.

Can you like to one please?

[rikitikitavii]

2 hours ago, havanadaydreaming said:

Huge parrothead fan.  Moderately fanatic cruiser.  

 

Freeport is our alltime least favorite port.  Cruising out of west palm, for us, is a bit inconvenient.  

 

But the main reason im hesitant to book is the youtube reviews from opening sail.  The big inhibitor were the sewage smell in cabin reports. 

 

Id love to see the mini musical of jimmy songs.  That i would dig! 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been on the Grand Classica (before renamed Margaritaville) 4 times and have never noticed the sewage smell in cabins.  We try to get a cabin on deck 5 or 6, not dec 4.