Since I first wrote about cruise matching in early 2022, my family has taken at least 13 “free” cruises, sailing Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Holland America, and MSC. Margaritaville at Sea is by far the smallest cruise line we’ve taken (they have just two ships in service at the time of writing, with a newly-acquired third ship set to begin sailing next year). After a 6-night cruise on the Islander, which Margaritaville at Sea acquired and completely refurbished in 2024, I am excited to get on a Margaritaville at Sea cruise again in the future. This won’t be the perfect fit for everyone, but I walked away pleasantly surprised at just how much we enjoyed this cruise.
I didn’t expect to love Margaritaville at Sea
I think it is important to start with my pre-sailing expectations, as they certainly frame the takeaways.
Margaritaville at Sea is a small cruise line with just two ships. They currently sail a lot of shorter itineraries, and they offer a lot of discounts. The two ships they sail are older ships without some of the bells and whistles of the flashier ships in the industry. As a result, my impression of Margaritaville at Sea’s reputation was that I should expect a lower-end experience.
And truth be told, we weren’t overly excited about the itineraries on offer. We chose an itinerary that sailed to Key West, which is a place I’d never been but always wanted to see, Cozumel (which we’ve visited on a cruise stop before), and Progreso, Mexico (which we knew nothing about). We’ve come to really love European cruises over the past few years for the ability to visit unique port stops each day, but have felt less drawn toward Caribbean itineraries in general (I love a Caribbean beach as much as anyone, but I’d rather fly to one and spend a week there than spend a week on a ship bopping from beach to beach to fight for a beach chair with other cruise ship passengers).
Beyond all of that, while we’ve certainly enjoyed cruising far more than we ever imagined we would (when we did that first Carnival match, I seriously thought we would be a one-and-done on cruising), we had more or less reached the limits of our enthusiasm for cruising after our experience with a Norovirus outbreak on the Holland America Eurodam. We enjoyed a subsequent cruise in Europe in late spring of last year, but I think my wife and I were ready to be mostly done with cruising for a while.
Then, Margaritaville at Sea entered the chat.
How we booked Margaritaville at Sea
We wrote a lot about cruise line casino offer matching over the past few years, and early in 2025, I caught wind of the fact that Margaritaville at Sea had revamped its own casino loyalty program and was matching offers for new players.
I emailed playersclub@margaritavilleatsea.com to inquire about whether they may have any casino players club offers available, and I attached a couple of casino statuses I had at the time, as well as the booking confirmation from a past complimentary MSC balcony cabin offer.
I soon thereafter received an offer for a complimentary Breezy Balcony stateroom aboard the Margaritaville Islander (the more recently renovated and larger of their two ships) or a complimentary Ocean View stateroom aboard the Margaritaville Paradise. In both cases, port fees, taxes, and gratuities were additional. I had to book within 30 days and sail any time through 2025.
We booked a December 30, 2025 to January 5, 2026 sailing aboard the Margaritaville at Sea Islander from Tampa to Key West, Cozumel, Progreso (Mexico), and back to Tampa (with a sea day in either direction for a total of 6 nights). The total cost at the time of booking for four passengers was $702.20, which consisted of $175.55 in taxes & fees per passenger. Gratuities added $20 per person per night ($480 total) to our onboard bill, paid at the end of the sailing. Margaritaville at Sea rings in on the high end for gratuities — most other major cruise lines currently charge $16-$17 per person per day for gratuities. I certainly didn’t mind the difference, especially given how hard the staff was working and how friendly the service was everywhere.
Margaritaville at Sea has all the chill vibe I didn’t know I was craving from a cruise line
I like a catchy Jimmy Buffett tune as much as the next person, but I certainly wouldn’t characterize myself as a Parrothead. I used to DJ weddings and once DJed the wedding of a member of the USA Luge team who met his bride in the parking lot of a Jimmy Buffett concert, but I’ve never owned a Jimmy Buffett album, watched a Jimmy Buffett concert, or even eaten at a Margaritaville restaurant that I can recall. I therefore didn’t give much thought ot the type of vibe that Jimmy Buffett’s music creates.
We weren’t even on board, but rather were in the elevator at our hotel (we stayed very close to the cruise port and almost everyone in the hotel was on the cruise!) when I realized what we were in for: a joyous, welcoming environment with a “come as you are” mentality. Wanna wear flip flops in the restaurant? You do you. Kids making some noise? Hope they’re having a good time, too. Care for a Cheeseburger in Paradise, or a build-your-own-taco bar? Gotcha covered.
Is this a fancy cruise line? No, it isn’t. If you’re into fine dining or exclusively healthy eating, Margaritaville at Sea probably isn’t your jam. If you’re comfortable eating wings at a sports bar, you’re probably going to be pleasantly surprised by Margaritaville at Sea.
The buffet is much more limited than any we’ve seen on another cruise line, but the food was surprisingly decent. Again, that’s not to say that it’s going to be on par with your local fine dining establishment, but we walked away saying that we thought the food was better than most mid-tier chain restaurants. We didn’t expect that.
Entertainment wasn’t the best we’ve seen at sea, but it was fun enough. Almost completely absent were the constant attempts to sell you something that you find on many cruise lines. Whereas cruises on Carnival and Holland America in particular seemed to constantly push “shopping events” or “art” events, or they take a million pictures or constantly push various “free consultations” by folks looking to sell you acupuncture or skincare products and the sort, we saw very little of that on Margaritaville at Sea. They did offer photos and sell art, but those things were not pushed.
Further, the attitude on board was relaxed and fun while being pretty respectful of the family-friendly atmosphere. That’s not to say that the clientele was primarily families, but rather just that it had a family-friendly feel for the most part. I think someone said that there were 200 kids on board, which is substantial enough while still being the clear minority.
There are things I might improve (mostly the variety of food on offer at the buffet), but the vibe was so relaxing. There were a decent number of families on board, so the kids made friends, and we all had a great time.
If you’re looking for multiple waterslides, climbing walls, and the latest cruise ship amenities, this isn’t the line for you (yet?)
The Margaritaville at Sea Islander is 25 years old, so it doesn’t have a lot of the latest amenities you’ll find on other ships. It was completely refurbished in 2024 before being put into service, and as such, everything is in far better condition than you would imagine for a 25-year-old ship (our room felt fresh!).
At the same time, there is only one water slide. While there are two main pools, they are identical mirrors of one another (and there is no retractable roof to enclose them when it gets chilly in the Caribbean in January). There is a third adults-only pool at the back end of the ship that is yet another exact mirror of the other pools.
On the other hand, we played several rounds of mini golf, and my family especially enjoyed what is essentially a cornhole mini golf course. Like, we really enjoyed it. I don’t know why I haven’t seen that anywhere else before!
That same deck also featured a pickleball court, though the waiting time to get on the court was excessive at times.
The arcade is a mixed story: It had far more games than some we’ve seen on cruise lines. However, about half of the selection (which is bigger than you’re probably imagining) were claw games that are over in 20 seconds. And they weren’t cheap: most games were $3 most of the time (during late-night hours, they were $1.62). On other cruise lines, we’ve pre-purchased arcade credit at a discount. Margaritaville at Sea didn’t offer that (I wish they did).
My kids really enjoyed a few trips to the kids’ club. The kids’ club never seemed very busy (at least for the age ranges of our kids). While our kids would have technically been in separate groups (one in the 3-5yr old group and one in the 6-9yr old group), there were so few kids in the club each time we dropped off that they kept all the kids together in one room rather than separating groups out (which was great for us as our sons wanted to be together).
The entertainment on board wasn’t bad. One of the two main pools had a band every afternoon, followed by a DJ. There were a lot of the other usual suspects: a piano bar, an atrium bar with a guitar player or violinist nightly, and a theater for shows, along with a stage for bands a few nights during the cruise. One slight disappointment was that there was only one show most nights. Since it started at 9:30pm, we missed it as our kids are in bed by then. On a couple of nights, they had an early show at 7:30pm. One of the show nights is “Conky Tonkin'”, which features country hits with a production crew. Another night featured a magician, another a comedian, etc. The main atrium flip flop bar alternated between a violinist and a steel drum player. The steel drum player was also at the pool many days, and by the end of the cruise, I felt like I had my fill of steel drum — they could use some more variety there.
One interesting way that Margaritaville at Sea probably saved some money was with two interesting show ideas: There was a crew “talent show”, where several crew members, some of whom were front of house and others of whom were in out-of-sight roles, sang, danced, and played instruments. I actually thought this was a brilliant idea as I found myself really rooting for crew members, who otherwise spend most of their days (for months at a time) working hard for long hours to serve those on the ship. It was great to see some of them get a chance to shine on stage in what was an absolutely packed house (I clearly wasn’t the only guest who enjoyed this).
Another night, the main show was the finals of the guest karaoke competition, with 5 guests who had won contests in the bar hosting karaoke events vying for the top prize. I hadn’t attended any of the other karaoke events, but I knew that in a group of a couple thousand guests, there were probably some folks who could sing. I wasn’t wrong; the five guests who sang absolutely brought down the house. I thought to myself that it was a great way for the cruise line to save money and also give a few guests (and their families/friends) a super memorable moment. On the flip side, I talked to one of the contenders for a while later in the night at a poker table. He was disappointed that after putting time into a couple of earlier rounds of competition, sound check/rehearsal, and the show, he didn’t even get a free drink (he didn’t win, though I had picked him as the winner). Two winners (picked by audience applause) each got a bottle of champagne, but the rest of the finalists didn’t get anything. That did seem something other than generous to me, given that the 5 karaoke finalists essentially saved Margaritaville at Sea the cost of a full production show that night (and they did put on a good show).
The cabin
As you can see above, we had one larger bed (queen size?) as well as a sofa and a pullman bed. Everything inside the room was in excellent condition.
The bathroom was pretty standard cruise ship style, with the shower being a bit more spacious than some we’ve seen at sea (but no bathtub).
Storage space within the room was pretty standard, with three main closets and some drawers / cabinets. The balcony itself was relatively small, though there were two chairs with a small table, and it was big enough for all of us to stand on it and waive as we left a port or two.
I found the bed to be perfectly comfortable. The sofa-as-a-bed was not very comfortable at all, but my five-year-old didn’t seem to mind much.
The food
The Islander has the following complimentary options:
- Port of Indecision Buffet: This is the buffet on deck 9 (what other cruise lines would call the “lido deck”), and it is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (note that the buffet lines do close between meal times). It’s worth noting that this was the smallest buffet we’ve seen on a cruise line. There were two mirror image sides that each had a small salad bar and a few entrées/sides on offer. We actually found a number of tasty dishes throughout the week, but there weren’t many options (and what was on offer more or less exactly mirrored the main dishes on the menu in the main restaurant).
- Frank & Lola’s Pizza: The pizza line was at the back of the buffet area. The pizza was made fresh and was surprisingly decent. This place was open late (I believe until 2am).
- Islander Dining Room: The main dining room is on Deck 2. Islander just does a completely open, first-come-first-served dining concept. There are no assigned seatings. There is also no notable dress code: even on the slightly more formal nights where some people dressed up, others were in t-shirts and flip flops and it was totally comfortable either way. Food was pleasantly surprising — both appetizers and entrées were well-prepared and tasty. The pace of dinner was slow as is typical on a cruise ship, though they did at least take our orders quickly and deliver my kids’ meals quickly enough.
- Cheeseburger in Paradise: There is a burger bar by one of the pools. The burgers were solidly decent. There was also a nice build-your-burger bar with all the toppings you might want.
- Mexican Cutie Cantina: The taco bar sits opposite the cheeseburger bar, making tacos with beef, pork, chicken, or beans. You could choose from toppings like guacamole, pico, cheese, and cilantro or add crema, several different salsas, etc. Somebody in my part had tacos almost every day of the cruise and we frequently commented on how good they were.
The Islander also has a couple of add-on restaurants with additional cost: JWB Steakhouse, a sushi bar, and a coffee shop are open to everyone. The adults-only pool area also has a seafood shack and a Tiki bar that feature various food options at additional cost. We only ate at the complimentary restaurants and walked away satisfied. The burgers and tacos were favorites, but my wife and I each had some dishes that we liked in both the buffet and dining room. While the menu mostly centered on easy crowd-pleaser dishes that were fine if not memorable, I had a vegetarian dish on the final night (the Vegetarian Thali) that I would gladly order again tomorrow if I could.
Parrots, Pirates, and Pancakes character breakfast (for children)
Margaritaville at Sea recently launched a character breakfast called Parrots, Pirates, and Pancakes. This occurred on the final sea day of the cruise and cost about $20 per kid and $30 per adult. It was really cute. While breakfast wasn’t anything special, the kids had a blast.
At your table, each person gets a pirate hat, pirate eye patch, and an inflatable pirate sword. There were also “gold” (chocolate) coins, and everything was decorated on-theme. The host is a pirate (with a belt of salt shakers, playing on the “lost shaker of salt” theme from the song Margaritaville). A number of characters visit throughout the breakfast, and they really took their time going from table to table for pictures and to be playful with the kids. They introduce two characters at a time who come in, dance around and play, and then leave. My wife and I had assumed that it was probably the same two people changing costumes and coming back each time, but then they brought all of the characters back at the end to dance around with the kids.
The food choices were limited (for the kids, the only options were cheesy scrambled eggs or pancakes; adults had more of a menu, though it was still pretty limited), but adults got mimosas (which I didn’t drink, but most people seemed to enjoy). Given that alcoholic drinks were about $15 each on board the ship, if you valued the mimosa, the breakfast wasn’t a bad value. Watching our kids belly laugh as the people dressed as salt shakers hid behind columns in the dining room while the pirate tried to find his “lost shaker of salt” was worth it. No, this certainly isn’t Disney, but for the price, my kids had as much fun (probably more since this wasn’t very crowded).
Casino
The casino is on Deck 2, and it was a decent size. There were both a range of machines and table games (including Blackjack and a variant or two, three card poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold’em, albeit without any progressive jackpots). Cards were hand shuffled and dealt at the Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em games. There was also craps and roulette.
Surprisingly, there was a poker table (which was actually an old baccarat table that they converted to a poker table). I’d only seen one other line offer a poker table for a live cash game. The game typically didn’t get enough players until after the evening show let out around 10pm, but it ran towards 2am each night.
Interestingly, Margaritaville at Sea revamped their casino loyalty program and has actually made it pretty easy to earn a free cruise through play. The loyalty tiers are Bronze (which is the no-status level where everyone starts), Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
You can find a full rundown of the program, including the requirements and benefits for each level in this post at Cruise Critic. They are billing this as a best-in-class, most-rewarding-at-sea program, and I have to say that they might not be wrong about that. Silver status gets you a free cruise, and that only requires earning 1,000 points in total, or you can earn Silver status if you earn 400 or more points in a single day. I easily earned Silver just by playing a few hours of table games on the first day (and then I went back testing some slot machine strategies and found it relatively easy to earn that much in a relatively short amount of time playing a baccarat or roulette machine or probably with 3-4 hours of video poker). Gold status is a harder bar to clear for a casual gambler at 7,500 total points or 3,000 points in a single day (I didn’t reach this, though your points do accumulate from one cruise to the next between July 1 and June 30th each year, so it is possible to cruise a couple of times to combine and reach a higher tier). That said, I have to imagine that somebody who considers themselves a gambler probably hits Silver and Gold pretty easily on a 6-night cruise.
Drinks were complimentary in the casino (for everyone) and service was frequent.
Unlike other cruise ships, you do not load the slot machines with your keycard and charge to your room. Instead, you need to insert cash. Before you do that, you’ll want to make sure that you have signed up for the players club at the host desk so you can insert your card into the machine to earn those points (otherwise, it is possible to put cash into the machine with no loyalty card). It is possible to get cash or chips at the casino cage using a physical credit card without a fee.
Bottom line
We really enjoyed Margaritaville at Sea. We went into this cruise without much expectation and walked away really pleasantly surprised. I’d gladly sail Margaritaville at Sea again for the laid-back vibe and relatively fun experience. We didn’t love the port stops on this cruise and would probably prefer different stops, but the good news is that the newly-acquired and currently-being-refurbished Beachcomber is scheduled to set sail in 2027, and they have cruises on the scheduled for the ABC Islands as well as a number of new-to-Margaritaville Caribbean seaports. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to use our Silver “free cruise” for one of those Beachcomber sailings so that we can compare the experience.
More photos
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Nick I’m glad to see you enjoyed this cruise so much! We took a cruise on the same ship in June thanks to the dying Wyndham Diamond->Caesars Diamond->Atlantis free stay. Ended up cancelling the Atlantis trip due to life circumstances but it was worth it for one more free cruise!
I want to add some of my notes and experiences, but pretty much echo Nick’s thoughts here – we really liked cruising with Margaritaville on the Islander, and of the handful of free cruise offers we took I think they were the best bang for the buck (other sailings were with Carnival and Holland America).
Here’s my notes:
This is long, but Margaritaville really made an impression on us. I was expecting a dumpy cheap booze cruise and instead our kid was asking a month later when we could go back again with friends of ours, and we were reminiscing on it.
Not sure if they still have the same offers as they are getting more popular but Margaritaville was heavily promoting very discounted sailings for service members and government employees last year (including public school teachers). If you have access to GOVX discounts you might be able to get a heavily discounted cruise with them without needing to bother with the casino status match route, which has become much harder after the merry-go-round broke down.
Totally forgot to mention that the casino offer included WiFi for two devices! That was *huge* for us as I’m always buying the Wi-Fi, so it easily saved us ~$200, as you said.
Thanks for this review. I trust your opinion and integrity to be honest about what your cruise was like. Other reviewers not so much. The Tampa based Islander seems pretty decent.
I love these cruise ship reviews and live vicariously through your trip. Some of my favorite trips have been the “didn’t expect much from ABC, but was pleasantly surprised!”
How does corn hole mini golf work? Most “hole in ones” wins each hole?
I would love to do a riverboat cruise in Europe one day since most ships stop in city centers and that sounds fun 🙂
Hopefully you will have other paid / free cruises and I look forward to reading those reviews too!
That’s a great review! Makes me want to reconsider Caribbean cruising again (I’ve found it to be too much of a cattle call on the large ships). Which credit card did you use at the casino (and for the cruise in general)? Did using a CC to purchase chips show up as a cash advance or something else that counted for points? Was there a limit to how much you could put on the CC?
Hi, you didn’t mention about drink package or how much it costs. Is it that you don’t drink alcohol?
I have a glass of wine now and then, on rare occasion, I may have a second. Not daily, and not nearly enough to consider buying a drink package – and I mentioned in the review that drinks were complimentary for anyone playing in the casino (someone in there lamented having paid for the drink package since it was free in the casino anyway. I didn’t even ask about the prices, sorry!
I appreciate your timely post about Margaritaville at Sea. I’m a big fan of Key West and go often. Twice last year, in fact. At some point during my visits there, usually 5 nights due to 5th night free for Hilton or Marriott, I will see the Islander in port. Like you, I never previously considered pursuing a “free” cruise with this company thinking that it would most certainly be a sub par experience akin to a booze cruise with slot machines. I’m so happy you and your family “took one for the team” and ventured into unknown waters, so to speak. I’ll certainly be checking this out further!
Yeah, I had the same booze cruise-with-slot-machines impression. And don’t get me wrong, the bars were busy, but it wasn’t the boisterous, overly boozy atmosphere that I feared it might be. It was more like being at a summertime BBQ than a Las Vegas pool club, if that makes sense.
I should add that the ship had some unique features — like a tattoo shop. I saw some pictures in a Facebook group I was keeping an eye on about the cruise, and while I’m not personally looking to get a tattoo, I was impressed with the quality of work in some of the photos. And it was less like “let’s get drunk and get a tattoo!” and more like, “Let’s remember this!” type of a thing, I think. Not for me either way, but kind of a different atmosphere than what I might have assumed if I hadn’t cruised with them. Like I said, I’d do it again.
While this is just a function of the guests on my cruise, I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun at a poker table than I did on the Islander. It was like the wild west, with “rules” being a little flexible and a lot of good laughs (and some of the wildest hands I’ve ever seen in terms of the amount of money getting thrown in the pot with no hand at all — at some point, the dealer actually said, “I wish I could play so bad. I would make so much money at this table!” — which really ought to have been a big insult to the people playing unhinged, but they just laughed right along with it). It was like being at a home game with some big personalities, but in a casino, which probably has its drawbacks, but it was reflective of the sort of “just have a good time and be nice to each other and we’re all good” atmosphere of the cruise.
I don’t know Nick, I really think you should take an FMI poll to see if you should get a tattoo when you’re on your next Margaritaville at Sea adventure! In fairness, I don’t have any ink myself, but I’ll bet a number of people in our group would have some pithy design suggestions!
Enjoyed the story and feedback about this cruise. I think that your kids had a great time over the New Year holiday, and it will be very memorable for them.
This cruise line has some appeal, although as you mentioned – the ports could be better. I did took advantage of match offer with Princess and went on a 7-night cruise over Christmas to Caribbean islands – turned out one of the best cruises so far!
As for river cruises – I partially agree with you about sailing rivers in Europe, as you’ll mostly see touristy cities along the way. So better option would be a river cruise in Asia or Africa (for the same cost).
Happy travels!!
Nick,
Have you applied for the NCL match? https://www.casinosatsea.com/s/
Please let us know if any other potential matches.
Yes, I did. And I booked something, though I’m not 100% sold that we’ll do it as the only cruise that fit for us mostly goes to ports we’ve already visited, and we really want a balcony cabin, so the additional cost was more than I generally want to spend on these.
have a personal question if you dont mind- have you ever discussed your policy regarding “never travel without the kids?”. Personally i need at least 1 trip per year with just my wife to recharge/relax. curious if theres a specific reason you’ve decided your policy, as you seem to be an expert with handling the child-related minutiae
Are you offering to babysit? :-).
The main reason is that I want to travel with the kids. My wife and I traveled together for more than a decade before we had kids. Now, I’m happy to bring the kids.
ha! great answer
There goes your statement of your last free cruise from casino matching 😉 We all knew you could make it happen. Interesting read even if I will never likely take advantage of this.
I’m not a gambler and I have to admit this is the first or second time I’ve read one of your articles about these cruise ship casino matching things. I really enjoyed it. Especially the rare unicorn credit car er purser stamp edition pre couponification.
Well done on pioneering the game into the ocean. Have you done any euro river cruising?
Glad you enjoyed it! Really loved that Shipwreck Museum. It’s small, but so interesting.
No on the Euro River Cruising — there are no casinos on those (so no “free” cruise offers) and the price point isn’t appealing to me — I’d rather just fly to Europe and then fly or train to several cities than pay the price for a river cruise. I have immensely enjoyed the cruises we’ve taken from Italy to France, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Sicily, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey with casino offers though. Unpopular (and truthfully, underinformed) opinion, but I think I liked those more than I would enjoy a river cruise. Here’s why: my impression is that the river cruises primarily go to cities that I have visited or would visit anyway (like I know some go to places like Vienna and Prague that I’ve visited a couple of times before, or they go to cities like Bratislava that I’m likely to visit someday). I’m just not willing to pay what they charge. On the flip side, Mediterranean cruises have brought us to places like Cadiz, Spain, Marseille, France and Kotor, Montenegro that we probably never would have known to visit otherwise. Maybe I’m wrong, and the river cruises stop in many cities that we don’t know as well, but I’m not willing to pay the price to find out. The casino offers on MSC, Carnival, and Holland America have made the European cruises cost so little as to be no-brainers. I’m not really interested in paying the sticker price to cruise though, even on the ocean liners.