Bougie Babes take on MAS Paradise ***LIVE June 4-6th***

[mandyleighflies]

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. 

 

 

 

[mandyleighflies]

 

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

 

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

[Cherful59]

@mandyleighflies I for one am glad you let us know you were posting as I have followed you before and have enjoyed your posts. 
 

I will need to read up about the ship and cruise line after I get off of Freedom however as I am cruising with family on a 4 night starting 6/3.  Enjoy your cruise and time with your friend.  
 

 

[dbancroft]

@mandyleighflies I too am glad i saw your post on Royals page. Just ignore the naysayers over there. I am looking forward to seeing the difference between the 2 cruise lines.

[mandyleighflies]

Love y'all ❤️💃

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

On 5/20/2024 at 7:55 PM, mandyleighflies said:

Love y'all ❤️💃

Mandyleighflies, I've done this cruise twice so I feel pretty confident in saying you're going to have a great time. You've got the right attitude which is low expectations. It's an old ship with zero bells & whistles but it is well-maintained and very clean. Since it's only a 2-nt cruise, that means just one day at Grand Bahama. The cruise begins and ends so fast, it's over in the blink of an eye.

 

If you'd like to read my non-commercial Blog about the music/fun on the ship, check it out here and this will give you some idea. I don't think they do "Jimmy's Ship Show" onboard anymore.

https://www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com/?p=19312

 

Have a great time; will look forward to your report.

BobK/Orlando

[mandyleighflies]

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!! 

 

Edited May 29 by mandyleighflies

[mandyleighflies]

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.  

[mandyleighflies]

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! 
 

[mandyleighflies]

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

[mandyleighflies]

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. 
 

 

 

[mandyleighflies]

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.

[mandyleighflies]

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. 

[mandyleighflies]

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

[mandyleighflies]

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. 
 

 

 

[mandyleighflies]

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. 

 

 

[mandyleighflies]

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. 

[mandyleighflies]

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. 

 

 

[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. 

 

[mandyleighflies]

We booked the Pirates Cove Cabana excursion. You really have no choice but to book an excursion as the port is in an industrial area and nothing is within walking distance. I’m sure there are taxi’s available but not sure if their price would be cheap enough to justify not booking a MAS excursion. 
 

 

We took a tour bus to the beach which was about a 20 minute drive. The driver told us fascinating things about hurricane damage and local economy. We also saw Enchantment in dry dock, yes I did look at sailings lol 

 

Once we arrived at Pirates beach we were briefed by the staff on locations of food, drinks, bathrooms and activities. We learned with our cabana we had 2 free drinks and one free meal. We upgraded to unlimited drinks and food for $35 per person. They did double charge Lauren’s Amex so watch out for that. The upgrade was well worth it as we had a dedicated cabana attendant who was lovely and brought us drinks and food without even asking. The bathrooms were clean and close by and so was a food station. The food was bbq, greens, local favorites and fries. No complaints here. 
 

 

 

 

Snorkel equipment for 2. Chairs with umbrellas for 2. A giant float. Dedicated attendant. Shade. Call button. All for $135 each…RCCL cabanas are $2-5k. 
 

 

 

[mandyleighflies]

We had a TIME on the beach but that’s what a bday girls cruise is about right? 
 

 

We left Pirates Beach but this time in a school bus. I’m guessing this was due to all of us who had been in the sand and water all day. No complaints here. It was air conditioned and clean. 
 

 

It truly was a beautiful day on the beach. Highly recommend the pirates beach excursions. 
 

We headed back to the ship and cleaned up for dinner. We had pizza at the pizza place and it was amazing. Lots of variety and made fresh. Unfortunately lots of sun and Bahama mama’s meant no photos of food as we were starving and ate before we thought about it. Just trust us…it was amazing. 
 

We spent sail away at the Euphoria lounge where they played Jimmy Buffett classics and we danced for a bit. As I said earlier, we had no interest in our remaining drinks so we were giving ours away to whoever wanted one. We were not about to waste them. 
 

I went to bed around 8:30pm and Lauren stayed up to see what the evening activities looked like. Her report was the following “the show was cute but not her thing and the club was hosting a twerking contest” do with that information what you will. 

 

Oh yeah! When I returned to the cabin that night I found paperwork on my bed. It was a free 2 night cruise compliments of MAS. I’m not sure why I received this but I am for sure going to take advantage of it!! We never let a free cruise go to waste. The only catch is that it expires August 27th 2024 so I need To plan quick. 
 

The next morning was go home day. Short cruises are always so bitter sweet. We stripped our beds for our cabin attendant and bid him farewell. 

ONCE AGAIN BUY LTC. 
 

We gathered in a group on deck 5 around 815am. There was some minor waiting while but by 9am we were off and on our way. We were escorted to the front of an easily 2+ hour line and in an Uber by 920am. 
 

 

Overall experience? Excellent. I will Gladly sail MAS Paradise again and look forward to some Islander sailings as well. They have a great thing going here and with newer and larger ships I think They are about to make waves (some puns intended). If you’re curious, try them out!! It’s not RCL but it’s not awful either. Go in with realistic expectations and be ready to have fun. 
 

BUY the LTC package. Ask for more deck chairs in review and sail on Parrotheads 🦜⛴️

 

[BoundForSea]

Thanks guys! A couple of us fellow Industry types love this review and are gonna book! “Go home day” Blah! Usually that’s the greatest thing, not so much on the ship!

 

Got it. LTJ. You guys did it right. Good times!
 

 

[BoundForSea]

1 hour ago, BoundForSea said:

Thanks guys! A couple of us fellow Industry types love this review and are gonna book! “Go home day” Blah! Usually that’s the greatest thing, not so much on the ship!

 

Got it. LTJ. You guys did it right. Good times!
 

 

Whoops. LTC. Couldn’t edit it. 
Quick question, if you did it again would you shell out the 270$ and do the Cabana or would you hang on the ship for the day? 

[mandyleighflies]

I would do it again if I was going on a trip with 2 or more other people for sure. My mom and I are taking the next "free" cruise with Paradise and since she is not a drinker and it's just the two of us, we are going to be doing something more laid back. This next cruise we are experimenting with the Ultimate LTC package which includes shore excursion credits. I will be reviewing that one similar to this one so stay tuned! 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

On 6/12/2024 at 8:10 AM, mandyleighflies said:

We booked the Pirates Cove Cabana excursion. You really have no choice but to book an excursion as the port is in an industrial area and nothing is within walking distance. I’m sure there are taxi’s available but not sure if their price would be cheap enough to justify not booking a MAS excursion.

Please be aware of the following for any future visits to Grand Bahama:

 

1) There is a small festival marketplace within walking distance of the ship but it is only open for business when a regular cruise ship is also in port. It has numerous kiosks, shops and restaurants including a Senor Frogs. It's about a 10-15 minute walk. Check the port calendar when planning your next MAS cruise to see if another ship will be in port that day. Update: In the pic you posted of the ship in the drydock, all those huts and buildings you see in the foreground is the place I'm talking about. 

 

2) A regular taxi to the beach would be expensive but there are shared taxi vans in front of the cruise terminal that charge somewhere between $10-$15 roundtrip to either to the beach in Lucaya or to the Port Lucaya Marketplace, another venue with shops and restaurants.

 

Glad you all had a fun time!

Edited June 17 by KINGBOBOFTHENORTH