Margaritaville At Sea Islander: My Views
As a perk for being a travel agent, I was able to experience a cruise on the Margaritaville At Sea Islander for a greatly reduced rate. I was cautiously optimistic going into the cruise as I had heard that there were a lot of pros and cons to going on the Islander. And, well, this turned out to be the case. There were some pros and there were a lot of cons. I am, however, aware that our opinions of the cruise are shaded deeply by the fact that we cruise more than most and tend to stay away from the budget cruise lines. For someone who this is their first cruise, they might feel entirely different.
The Great: the music found throughout the ship. As the ship is an older ship it is more sectioned off instead of having a lot of big open spaces. Because of this, you will round a corner and find yourself at a new bar and in a new space. In many of the spaces, especially at dinner time, you will hear different musicians playing. Whether the violinist, guitarist, or singer in the atrium or the pianist in the champagne bar or the music trio outside the dining room, you will not be disappointed with their talent and ability to entertain the crowds. We also found that all of the musicians, really all of the crew, were very friendly, personable and down to earth. Many of the musicians that you could find throughout the ship also would preform in the stage shows. While the headliners could be very hit or miss (mostly miss), the country show and the tropical show were loads of fun and very enjoyable. The music on board the ship was a definite pro.
The Good: the really cool and chill decor and vibe on the ship. For fans of Jimmy Buffet, the decor and theming on the ship is especially fun. All of the bars and common spaces, such as the Five O’clock Somewhere Bar and Flip Flop Atrium, are named and themed with Jimmy Buffet in mind. When they remodeled this ship, they took a lot of care with the design to give it a chill and unique vibe. Instead of the older look with the dark wood and cramped design, the ship has a lot of aquas and blues with cool and comfy decor, which makes hanging out in the open spaces a lot nicer.
The Meh: the hit or miss food on the ship. The food itself is fine at best and bland at worst. What makes the food hit or miss is that there simply are not as many options as most cruisers are used to. Outside and within the buffet is the pizza place, Mexican offerings and Cheeseburgers in Paradise (all of which are complimentary and pretty tasty) but the actual buffet only has about 10 items on the hot bar. The dining room serves decent food but you are limited as to how many appetizers and entrees you could order. There are about 6 items each to choose from and once again they were okay, some better than other. The overall presentation of the dishes and the ambiance in the main dining room is really relaxed, which might be a plus to some but if we are going to sit down for a served meal we expect a bit more. We also ate upstairs in the Islander dining room, which is included if you are in one of the suites or you can enjoy for one night if have a dining package. The Islander has the same menu as the downstairs with about 5 added more premium items.
We had the dining package so aside from being able to eat in the Islander dining room we also enjoyed the Sparkling Brunch during one of the Sea Days. The food was good and the service was nice. The dining package also gave us credits at the a la carte places throughout the ship. The sushi bar was good but the ambiance was weird because there was nowhere to actually sit and dine as it was located in the room where many of the activities took place. At the Tiki Grill, we got some tasty wings and a rice bowl and at Island Eats we got some ceviche that was fine. Once again the area to eat had some tables but it was the same area as the adults only area, so we were eating next to people just sitting and chilling, which was fine but weird. The shining star of the dining is their one specialty restaurant, JWB Steakhouse. This was a really nice dining experience and comparable with fine dining that we have found on other ships. The service was very attentive and the food was excellent. So, all in all, the food was very hit or miss.
The Bad: the activities found throughout the ship. As a cruiser who typically stays on the ship at port or only goes off for a short time, I am used to enjoying a variety of activities while on the ship. One might argue that Royal Caribbean has too many activities to offer and that often cruisers feel overwhelmed by this. I definitely do agree with this to a certain extent. On board the Islander, however, there were not many activities to choose from during the day, or night really, and sometimes those activities were not executed all that well. We found that the Harry Potter trivia was not only way too difficult for a casual fan, but also the crew running the trivia struggled with pronouncing some of the questions. The crossword puzzles put out each day were all really difficult and the arts and crafts time was not very inspiring. All of the crew were nice and friendly but, with the exception of the cruise director, they simply were not well polished with their activities. The Heroes Salute was a wonderful way to salute those who are veterans and was done very well. Another activity that we did and enjoyed was The Speakeasy. This was great but had an additional cost of $90 per person. So, generally, we found ourselves to be a bit bored and wanting more to do around the ship.
The Ugly (Really Ugly): Cleanliness on the ship. The ship simply did not feel clean. It has become increasingly important, in recent years especially, to have the cleanliness of the ship to be a priority. There were not many, I saw one maybe, hand washing stations and the hand sanitizers were seldom found and sometimes didn’t work. Because of this, I am surprised that we have not seen more Norovirus outbreaks on board. Also, the bath towels and the pool towels all had stains on them. Yuck! And, all of the deck chairs in the adults only area were stained and/or dirty. The coconut chairs where you could relax were stained and gross. Typically, I have no problem walking around barefoot on the pool deck, but I did not have the confidence that the decks were clean. I generally really enjoy hot tubs on cruise ships, but the overall upkeep of the ship made me rethink this. As if to agree with me, the statue in the adults only area is holding a margarita that clearly has mold in the top of it. Gross! To us, this was pretty shocking. Yes, this was an older ship, but we were told that every single area had been refurbished, so for this ship to have only been in service for a year is pretty shocking.
In summation, did we have fun on the Margaritaville At Sea Islander? Yes. Can I recommend a cruise on board the Islander to others? No, I can’t. For many, especially those living near Tampa Bay, a cruise going out of Tampa with such a fun theme and such a low rate sounds great. But, since we purchased the drink package, the dining package and the internet, we discovered that at the end of the cruise that we were paying roughly the same as a cruise on Virgin Voyages would cost. All of those little extras, many that you could do without, added up making it actually a fairly pricey cruise for what it was. I certainly can’t recommend Margaritaville At Sea until they get the cleanliness under control. I would say that I am hopeful that they will get all of this figured out, and that I will someday find a more enjoyable experience on board. But, nah, you can find me on Virgin Voyages next time.
