OK, everybody has asked me about Margaritaville at Sea and Gina’s birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day; so off we went on a four-day jaunt to Cozumel instead of stuffing a turkey. Margaritaville sails a variety of itineraries from Port of Tampa and this one was a standard 4-day cruise with two sea days and one day in Cozumel, Mexico. As I have written before as I get older, I like sea days and Margaritaville had a nice 18+ back tiki-bar on deck 9. Believe it or not, we have been in the travel business for 40 years but we’ve never been to Cozumel even though we have had a few jaunts to Cancun and Playa del Carmen by airplane when we worked in the all- inclusive resort industry. Editor’s note, as we paid full price for this cruise, nobody onboard knew we worked in the travel industry, so this is a secret shopper view of Margaritaville at Sea. Book with our travel agency as we know the product as we live in a cruise port town. When we woke up on Monday morning I looked out onto a thick blanket of fog and said “uh- oh”. An email from Margaritaville at Sea confirmed my fears as they indicated at least a 4 hour delay with departure that would be updated by Coast Guard and the Harbor Pilots at 10A. Port of Tampa has difficult operations as it is a two-hour ride from the port to the bridge and vice versa. I took a look and both the Islander and the Carnival Paradise were anchored off of Fort DeSoto as the harbor pilots are unable to bring the ships under the Skyway when visibility is below a certain level on a foggy morning we have to wait for it to clear. Around 10A, the fog was clearing in Temple Terrace but the beach still must have been fogged in as they did not pull anchor until almost 1:30P as we watched on ship tracker. We got a second email stating that we should add 6 hours to our original embarkation time which would mean we should arrive at the ship between 6:30 and 7P. This was very early in the year for fog but this phenomenon seems to happen 2-4 days per year but usually in January or February. We changed plan to pick Mom up at Kings Point as it will be dark upon arrival at the pier and we stopped for dinner on the way to the pier as I figured the port was going to be a zoo. We were a few minutes early for our 6:30 arrival but good thing as traffic was backed up to Ybor City on Adamo. City of Tampa police needed to do more traffic direction but once we got into the port the Hillsborough Sheriffs helped us get settled at the curb so we could dump luggage an get Mom into her wheelchair embarkation during the melee. Intercruises at Port Tampa Bay does a pretty good job with wheelchair embarkation, so we were onto the ship fairly quickly with Mom. This was Margaritaville at Sea’s first experience with a fog delay and they struggled to get everyone onboard as id pictures, cards and passports are handled at the pier and also run a muster drill as people were still stuck in the terminal until 10P. We got Mom settled down as our cabins were ready upon arrival but we had two attempts to do a muster drill, both at 9 and 10 o’clock which was finally completed about 10:30. We departed at 11:15PM and went up top to see the lights of Tampa as we did the 360 in the turning basin. They did keep the buffet open until midnight so we ate again about 11:30P. I quipped to Gina “a midnight buffet this is like cruise shipping from days past”. The ship offered an abbreviated first night entertainment schedule, so we were back in the room by 1A and stayed up on our balcony for the lighted Skyway sail under at about 1:45AM. After a rough start, we woke up to a lovely morning and started enjoying our sea day on the way to Cozumel. Margaritaville is a budget cruise line and the Islander was originally the Costa Atlantica which was put in service in July of 2000. Margaritaville at Sea Islander is a Spirit Class ship similar to the Carnival Miracle sailing from Tampa that has capacity for 2114 in the lowers and 2680 passengers when fully loaded. The ship was actually laid up during the pandemic from 2019 until January of 2024 when it was sent to Belfast, Ireland for a four month refurbishing and put back into service as the Islander later in 2024 sailing from Port Tampa Bay. As it was a holiday week, we paid retail, but balconies were offered on a last-minute Pre Black Friday special for $550 per person with taxes and fees. Mom got a midship single occupancy balcony for less than $1000 which is a pretty good bargain. The drink package was $399 per person so we skipped as our bar bill was about $100 a day including bottles of decent wine with dinner. The Margaritaville drink package includes drinks up to $20 and allows 15 drinks per day including alcoholic beverages, water, sodas and fruit juices from the bar. Drinks add a 20% service charge so a la carte, Margaritas were about $15 each, beers ran $8.50-$10 and glasses of wine ran about $12 or $13 each depending on which bar. One of the bartenders suggested on day 2 that bottles of wine were cheaper than buying by the glass as Margaritaville does NOT allow the courtesy 750ml bottle of wine in your cabin as other cruise lines do. A couple of nights when we were bar hopping, we purchased a bottle took a glass of wine with us when we were heading out. In the restaurant, we were able to get access to ice water, iced tea and lemonade as well as brewed coffee. Even though this is an older ship, the rooms and common areas on this cruise line look good. My Mom is a frequent cruiser and announced these were the best cruise beds she had experienced including some of the upscale lines. Rooms are light and airy with a Jimmy Buffet theme and satellite tv channels with Jimmy Buffet mixed with reggae/island music. The theme carries through the ships including Coral Reefers music on the loudspeakers and a morning Jimmy Buffet concert on the big screen at the pool. I like Jimmy Buffet and have attended concerts when we were both young men in Miami but this might not be the cruise for you if you don’t have just a little bit of Parrot Head blood. To me when Costa built this ship in 2000, it was the classic time in cruising when boats were enlarging and adding balconies. We are thinking Carnival deferred maintenance on some of these ships that Costa sold to raise money as Margaritaville at Sea did a refurbishment on the Islander, but it is obvious there is ongoing work onboard by the seaman as they sail. On day one, we had a fairly cold shower and the temperature knob came off in my hand as I was trying to get some hot water. To their credit, our steward reported it and by the time we took our evening shower it had been repaired. We got in an elevator with a seaman that did repairs and it looked like he had a handful of work orders for minor issues in the rooms. Balconies do not have a sliding door, they have a heavy swing open door, but the balcony rooms were a decent size with a decent sized balcony and comfortable furniture. Older ships have larger cabins so we had a couch in our room and a decent sized bathroom. I like the layout of the ship as the buffet takes up half of deck nine and they have a taco bar and cheeseburgers in paradise plus the 18+ tiki bar back deck where we spent most of our free time as the Thanksgiving week sailing had quite a few families at the top deck pool. The ship has a lower and upper panoramic deck, a large 3 level theatre, 3 pools and a couple of hot tubs. They had a small gym that seemed to be behind the theater with a hidden passageway featuring Jimmy Buffet memorabilia including a picture of Jimmy at 25 with Governor Bob Graham when they named a stretch of A1A after Buffet in the Keys. Restaurant choices include the Port of Indecision Buffet, Fins and Islander (main) dining rooms are all anytime dining, first come first served with a beeper system if they are full. At 7:30 and 8P we were seated immediately with no wait but we did see them using beepers earlier when main dining was full. The Mexican Cutie Cantina served breakfast burritos and soft tacos for lunch. Cheeseburger in Paradise at the Landshark Pool served a really good cheeseburger and fries that seemed to be popular amongst the pool crowd with soft serve ice cream. Restaurants are rounded out by the Frank and Lolas Pizzeria (by the slice - included), Far Side Sushi, Island Eats (a la carte) and JWB Prime Steakhouse is $59 plus 20%. Food is always a question I get about cruise lines so I will start by explaining that Margaritaville at Sea provides all the basics, but not a lot of the extras that you may see with other cruise lines. We went to the breakfast buffet which had an omelet station and decent choices at the buffet but was a little thin compared to other lines. What I mean by that for example is a choice of Sysco food pastries/biscuits and Wonder Bread toast rather than employing pastry chefs like Celebrity and Virgin or another example, they had oatmeal but just with brown sugar, no honey, nuts or raisins like some of the lines but they did have both hot oatmeal and grits every morning. Again, with the dinner/lunch buffet standard cold cuts/cheeses rather than specialty charcuterie, olives, gourmet cheeses on a pretty plain salad bar. Lunch buffets had 3 entrees, choice of veggies and starch. At peak times the buffet could have used a little more staff to clear and clean tables but I frequently have that thought on other cruise ships too. Main dining was a very pleasant experience with great service. Main dining was a three- course menu that had quite a bit of choice and changed nightly. Appetizers included a good Caesar or and a nod to the captain with a great Greek salad and some interesting appetizer choices. Main courses included a seafood choice nightly, chicken, a flat iron steak and a vegan choice nightly. Desserts included Tiramisu, pineapple upside down cake and Gina had a decent vanilla ice cream. The menu was creative and had upgrades to filet mignon for $20 or lobster for $28. Mom had the lobster tail which was a decent sized cold- water lobster. Service was excellent in the main dining restaurant. Last night, we did visit the JWB Prime Steakhouse for Gina’s birthday, which was a four-course experience billed as “the best filet on the ocean”. It was a very good filet (all 3 cooked perfectly) with hot sides, creative appetizers and a solid dessert menu. This restaurant had an upgraded wine by the bottle menu and was worth the $59 charge ($66 with gratuity) for the experience with a very high service level. We had gone into this cruise with low expectations, so I must say for the money we spent, we were pleasantly surprised overall with the food and beverage product. There was quite a bit of entertainment including an island band at the pool, a 3 piece cover band and a couple of different one man acts including a steel drum guy, a slightly bawdy piano bar, 2 guitarists and violinist that did various genre at different times with taped accompaniment. On the last sea night, they had a white party in the atrium with a DJ and also a disco that had a DJ nightly. The ship had a large casino with plenty of machines and table games. They did have a $5 black jack happy hour and plenty of activities like bingo onboard. The Havana bar did not have much Cuban music and we thought they could have done more with piped in mood music in places like that and the tiki bar late-night. As usual, we were up way past our bedtime most nights when we are out cruising. Believe it or not, we have never been to Cozumel and we’ve been in the travel business for over forty years! Cozumel is a cruise port with 3 piers holding as many as six ships. Shop owners tell me they can cater to up to 9 ships with tenders in season. Each pier has shopping and facilities if you don’t want to go far. We docked at Terminal Maritima de Cruceros called Punta Langosta by the locals. This is the closest to town and you are immediately shopping once you leave the terminal. Like any cruise port it has some shopping pressure and too many t-shirt shops. We pushed on to Parque Benito Juarez (about 4 blocks) which had a more laid back feeling including open air statues and some more craft oriented shops and restaurants/bars offering deals. Every port has a jewel and we found Balam Arte where pictures are painted on actual feathers. Once we finished with this walk, we went to a taxi stand, got a taxi and headed away from the cruise ships to a local fish restaurant called La Conchita del Caribe. The taxi dispatcher said 100 pesos (about $6) or ten US. Once in the cab, we renegotiated for $20 including a wait and return trip to Punta Langosta. People are afraid of going out on their own in cruise ports, but taxi guys work with you if you are reasonable and we had an enjoyable day but just be sure you know “all aboard time” if you are doing your own thing. Conchita’s specialized in fried fish, shrimps and local lobster. We both had the local grilled Caribbean lobster platter which each had two good sized tails with sides of veggies and rice was about $81 including 2 Dos Equis. Everybody was friendly and spoke some English. The taxi driver checked in with the restaurant when dropping us off (probably for the tip) but the restaurant called him for us when we completed our meal. We were pretty sure he got a tip as he asked us how we liked the lobster and we hadn’t told him we had lobster but that’s how tourism works as we were all happy (the tourists, the taxi man and the restaurant) that particular day. Bottom line, Margaritaville at Sea Cruise Lines is a good value for the money. It is a budget entry-level cruise product that is sold at a decent rate but also includes a decent level of food and beverage. The crew is newer to the business led by experienced young officers and very enthusiastic. The ship, although older, seems to have a lot of class with wooden promenade decks and many of the original chandeliers and a funky European design dressed up with Margaritaville chic. Guests seem happy with the product except a couple of parents, we talked to; who expressed there was not enough for the teenage children to do, but their younger kids were good. Being that it does not have separate suite level lounges and restaurants and decks, there are more public areas for all passengers, than there are on the newer medium sized ships designed today. If you are desirous of value for the money Margaritaville at Sea Islander from Tampa will fill the bill and give you a good minimum level of services you will expect from a value- oriented cruise line. We thought the food was good and choices ok considering the price. The Margaritaville at Sea Islander does a variety of itineraries sailing from the Port of Tampa on 4, 5, 6 and 7 night voyages. If you want a brand new ship with all the newest features this probably is not your best choice for a cruise but all of the Tampa ships were built in the late 90’s and early 2000s as they have to fit under the bridge. If you (like I) enjoy a smaller vessel sailing from Port Tampa Bay with some panache of cruising past you will want to call us to book Margaritaville at Sea while the prices are low. They should be getting a little more for this product than they are presently but it is a competitive market and they are the new entry with an older ship. We enjoyed the trip and so did Mom. I will finish this review by saying Margaritaville at Sea Islander is providing a decent cruise experience and value for the money using an older refurbished ship from Port Tampa Bay.

Margaritaville at Sea Islander from Port of Tampa Travel Agent Review by John Rice

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Margaritaville at Sea Islander from Port of Tampa Travel Agent Review by John Rice OK, everybody has asked me about Margaritaville at Sea and Gina’s birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day; so off we went on a four-day jaunt to Cozumel instead of stuffing a turkey. Margaritaville sails a variety of itineraries from Port of Tampa and this one was a standard 4-day cruise with two sea days and one day in Cozumel, Mexico. As I have written before as I get older, I like sea days and Margaritaville had a nice 18+ back tiki-bar on deck 9. Believe it or not, we have been in the travel business for 40 years but we’ve never been to Cozumel even though we have had a few jaunts to Cancun and Playa del Carmen by airplane when we worked in the all-inclusive resort industry. Editor’s note, as we paid full price for this cruise, nobody onboard knew we worked in the travel industry, so this is a secret shopper view of Margaritaville at Sea. Book with our travel agency as we know the product as we live in a cruise port town. When we woke up on Monday morning I looked out onto a thick blanket of fog and said “uh- oh”. An email from Margaritaville at Sea confirmed my fears as they indicated at least a 4 hour delay with departure that would be updated by Coast Guard and the Harbor Pilots at 10A. Port of Tampa has difficult operations as it is a two-hour ride from the port to the bridge and vice versa. I took a look and both the Islander and the Carnival Paradise were anchored off of Fort DeSoto as the harbor pilots are unable to bring the ships under the Skyway when visibility is below a certain level on a foggy morning we have to wait for it to clear. Around 10A, the fog was clearing in Temple Terrace but the beach still must have been fogged in as they did not pull anchor until almost 1:30P as we watched on ship tracker. We got a second email stating that we should add 6 hours to our original embarkation time which would mean we should arrive at the ship between 6:30 and 7P. This was very early in the year for fog but this phenomenon seems to happen 2-4 days per year but usually in January or February. We changed plan to pick Mom up at Kings Point as it will be dark upon arrival at the pier and we stopped for dinner on the way to the pier as I figured the port was going to be a zoo. We were a few minutes early for our 6:30 arrival but good thing as traffic was backed up to Ybor City on Adamo. City of Tampa police needed to do more traffic direction but once we got into the port the Hillsborough Sheriffs helped us get settled at the curb so we could dump luggage an get Mom into her wheelchair embarkation during the melee. Intercruises at Port Tampa Bay does a pretty good job with wheelchair embarkation, so we were onto the ship fairly quickly with Mom. This was Margaritaville at Sea’s first experience with a fog delay and they struggled to get everyone onboard as id pictures, cards and passports are handled at the pier and also run a muster drill as people were still stuck in the terminal until 10P. We got Mom settled down as our cabins were ready upon arrival but we had two attempts to do a muster drill, both at 9 and 10 o’clock which was finally completed about 10:30. We departed at 11:15PM and went up top to see the lights of Tampa as we did the 360 in the turning basin. They did keep the buffet open until midnight so we ate again about 11:30P. I quipped to Gina “a midnight buffet this is like cruise shipping from days past”. The ship offered an abbreviated first night entertainment schedule, so we were back in the room by 1A and stayed up on our balcony for the lighted Skyway sail under at about 1:45AM. After a rough start, we woke up to a lovely morning and started enjoying our sea day on the way to Cozumel. Margaritaville is a budget cruise line and the Islander was originally the Costa Atlantica which was put in service in July of 2000. Margaritaville at Sea Islander is a Spirit Class ship similar to the Carnival Miracle sailing from Tampa that has capacity for 2114 in the lowers and 2680 passengers when fully loaded. The ship was actually laid up during the pandemic from 2019 until January of 2024 when it was sent to Belfast, Ireland for a four month refurbishing and put back into service as the Islander later in 2024 sailing from Port Tampa Bay. As it was a holiday week, we paid retail, but balconies were offered on a last-minute Pre Black Friday special for $550 per person with taxes and fees. Mom got a midship single occupancy balcony for less than $1000 which is a pretty good bargain. The drink package was $399 per person so we skipped as our bar bill was about $100 a day including bottles of decent wine with dinner. The Margaritaville drink package includes drinks up to $20 and allows 15 drinks per day including alcoholic beverages, water, sodas and fruit juices from the bar. Drinks add a 20% service charge so a la carte, Margaritas were about $15 each, beers ran $8.50-10 and glasses of wine ran about $12 or $13 each depending on which bar. One of the bartenders suggested on day 2 that bottles of wine were cheaper than buying by the glass as Margaritaville does NOT allow the courtesy 750ml bottle of wine in your cabin as other cruise lines do. A couple of nights when we were bar hopping, we purchased a bottle took a glass of wine with us when we were heading out. In the restaurant, we were able to get access to ice water, iced tea and lemonade as well as brewed coffee. Even though this is an older ship, the rooms and common areas on this cruise line look good. My Mom is a frequent cruiser and announced these were the best cruise beds she had experienced including some of the upscale lines. Rooms are light and airy with a Jimmy Buffet theme and satellite tv channels with Jimmy Buffet mixed with reggae/island music. The theme carries through the ships including Coral Reefers music on the loudspeakers and a morning Jimmy Buffet concert on the big screen at the pool. I like Jimmy Buffet and have attended concerts when we were both young men in Miami but this might not be the cruise for you if you don’t have just a little bit of Parrot Head blood. To me when Costa built this ship in 2000, it was the classic time in cruising when boats were enlarging and adding balconies. We are thinking Carnival deferred maintenance on some of these ships that Costa sold to raise money as Margaritaville at Sea did a refurbishment on the Islander, but it is obvious there is ongoing work onboard by the seaman as they sail. On day one, we had a fairly cold shower and the temperature knob came off in my hand as I was trying to get some hot water. To their credit, our steward reported it and by the time we took our evening shower it had been repaired. We got in an elevator with a seaman that did repairs and it looked like he had a handful of work orders for minor issues in the rooms. Balconies do not have a sliding door, they have a heavy swing open door, but the balcony rooms were a decent size with a decent sized balcony and comfortable furniture. Older ships have larger cabins so we had a couch in our room and a decent sized bathroom. I like the layout of the ship as the buffet takes up half of deck nine and they have a taco bar and cheeseburgers in paradise plus the 18+ tiki bar back deck where we spent most of our free time as the Thanksgiving week sailing had quite a few families at the top deck pool. The ship has a lower and upper panoramic deck, a large 3 level theatre, 3 pools and a couple of hot tubs. They had a small gym that seemed to be behind the theater with a hidden passageway featuring Jimmy Buffet memorabilia including a picture of Jimmy at 25 with Governor Bob Graham when they named a stretch of A1A after Buffet in the Keys. Restaurant choices include the Port of Indecision Buffet, Fins and Islander (main) dining rooms are all anytime dining, first come first served with a beeper system if they are full. At 7:30 and 8P we were seated immediately with no wait but we did see them using beepers earlier when main dining was full. The Mexican Cutie Cantina served breakfast burritos and soft tacos for lunch. Cheeseburger in Paradise at the Landshark Pool served a really good cheeseburger and fries that seemed to be popular amongst the pool crowd with soft serve ice cream. Restaurants are rounded out by the Frank and Lolas Pizzeria (by the slice - included), Far Side Sushi, Island Eats (a la carte) and JWB Prime Steakhouse is $59 plus 20%. Food is always a question I get about cruise lines so I will start by explaining that Margaritaville at Sea provides all the basics, but not a lot of the extras that you may see with other cruise lines. We went to the breakfast buffet which had an omelet station and decent choices at the buffet but was a little thin compared to other lines. What I mean by that for example is a choice of Sysco food pastries/biscuits and Wonder Bread toast rather than employing pastry chefs like Celebrity and Virgin or another example, they had oatmeal but just with brown sugar, no honey, nuts or raisins like some of the lines but they did have both hot oatmeal and grits every morning. Again, with the dinner/lunch buffet standard cold cuts/cheeses rather than specialty charcuterie, olives, gourmet cheeses on a pretty plain salad bar. Lunch buffets had 3 entrees, choice of veggies and starch. At peak times the buffet could have used a little more staff to clear and clean tables but I frequently have that thought on other cruise ships too. Main dining was a very pleasant experience with great service. Main dining was a three-course menu that had quite a bit of choice and changed nightly. Appetizers included a good Caesar or and a nod to the captain with a great Greek salad and some interesting appetizer choices. Main courses included a seafood choice nightly, chicken, a flat iron steak and a vegan choice nightly. Desserts included Tiramisu, pineapple upside down cake and Gina had a decent vanilla ice cream. The menu was creative and had upgrades to filet mignon for $20 or lobster for $28. Mom had the lobster tail which was a decent sized cold-water lobster. Service was excellent in the main dining restaurant. Last night, we did visit the JWB Prime Steakhouse for Gina’s birthday, which was a four- course experience billed as “the best filet on the ocean”. It was a very good filet (all 3 cooked perfectly) with hot sides, creative appetizers and a solid dessert menu. This restaurant had an upgraded wine by the bottle menu and was worth the $59 charge ($66 with gratuity) for the experience with a very high service level. We had gone into this cruise with low expectations, so I must say for the money we spent, we were pleasantly surprised overall with the food and beverage product. There was quite a bit of entertainment including an island band at the pool, a 3 piece cover band and a couple of different one man acts including a steel drum guy, a slightly bawdy piano bar, 2 guitarists and violinist that did various genre at different times with taped accompaniment. On the last sea night, they had a white party in the atrium with a DJ and also a disco that had a DJ nightly. The ship had a large casino with plenty of machines and table games. They did have a $5 black jack happy hour and plenty of activities like bingo onboard. The Havana bar did not have much Cuban music and we thought they could have done more with piped in mood music in places like that and the tiki bar late-night. As usual, we were up way past our bedtime most nights when we are out cruising. Believe it or not, we have never been to Cozumel and we’ve been in the travel business for over forty years! Cozumel is a cruise port with 3 piers holding as many as six ships. Shop owners tell me they can cater to up to 9 ships with tenders in season. Each pier has shopping and facilities if you don’t want to go far. We docked at Terminal Maritima de Cruceros called Punta Langosta by the locals. This is the closest to town and you are immediately shopping once you leave the terminal. Like any cruise port it has some shopping pressure and too many t-shirt shops. We pushed on to Parque Benito Juarez (about 4 blocks) which had a more laid back feeling including open air statues and some more craft oriented shops and restaurants/bars offering deals. Every port has a jewel and we found Balam Arte where pictures are painted on actual feathers. Once we finished with this walk, we went to a taxi stand, got a taxi and headed away from the cruise ships to a local fish restaurant called La Conchita del Caribe. The taxi dispatcher said 100 pesos (about $6) or ten US. Once in the cab, we renegotiated for $20 including a wait and return trip to Punta Langosta. People are afraid of going out on their own in cruise ports, but taxi guys work with you if you are reasonable and we had an enjoyable day but just be sure you know “all aboard time” if you are doing your own thing. Conchita’s specialized in fried fish, shrimps and local lobster. We both had the local grilled Caribbean lobster platter which each had two good sized tails with sides of veggies and rice was about $81 including 2 Dos Equis. Everybody was friendly and spoke some English. The taxi driver checked in with the restaurant when dropping us off (probably for the tip) but the restaurant called him for us when we completed our meal. We were pretty sure he got a tip as he asked us how we liked the lobster and we hadn’t told him we had lobster but that’s how tourism works as we were all happy (the tourists, the taxi man and the restaurant) that particular day. Bottom line, Margaritaville at Sea Cruise Lines is a good value for the money. It is a budget entry-level cruise product that is sold at a decent rate but also includes a decent level of food and beverage. The crew is newer to the business led by experienced young officers and very enthusiastic. The ship, although older, seems to have a lot of class with wooden promenade decks and many of the original chandeliers and a funky European design dressed up with Margaritaville chic. Guests seem happy with the product except a couple of parents, we talked to; who expressed there was not enough for the teenage children to do, but their younger kids were good. Being that it does not have separate suite level lounges and restaurants and decks, there are more public areas for all passengers, than there are on the newer medium sized ships designed today. If you are desirous of value for the money Margaritaville at Sea Islander from Tampa will fill the bill and give you a good minimum level of services you will expect from a value- oriented cruise line. We thought the food was good and choices ok considering the price. The Margaritaville at Sea Islander does a variety of itineraries sailing from the Port of Tampa on 4, 5, 6 and 7 night voyages. If you want a brand new ship with all the newest features this probably is not your best choice for a cruise but all of the Tampa ships were built in the late 90’s and early 2000s as they have to fit under the bridge. If you (like I) enjoy a smaller vessel sailing from Port Tampa Bay with some panache of cruising past you will want to call us to book Margaritaville at Sea while the prices are low. They should be getting a little more for this product than they are presently but it is a competitive market and they are the new entry with an older ship. We enjoyed the trip and so did Mom. I will finish this review by saying Margaritaville at Sea Islander is providing a decent cruise experience and value for the money using an older refurbished ship from Port Tampa Bay.

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