09/17/2024
The review we have all been waiting for! Margaritaville at Sea Islander cruise ship. *PLEASE remember we all have our own opinions, & we are entitled to those.* We sailed on this for a 5 night itinerary traveling to Key West & Cozumel with a 3 year old. I will start by saying the ship was BEAUTIFUL! The details blew my mind! The views from everywhere you looked were amazing. It took my breath away honestly! Even the bedsheet had little parrot details. If you want a laid back & relaxing vacation, this is for you, let’s chat and keep reading!
Embarkation/Debarkation: We traveled with our birth certificates this cruise because we don’t have a passport for Ryker yet. We stood in line for around 30-45 minutes to get on the ship, and there was no line at all to get off. We got to our boarding time about 30 minutes early and had no issues getting on the ship. We give them a 10/10! They also told us during boarding that the ship could hold 2500, but they only had 942 traveling.
Food: What most care about 🤣
Breakfast (served until 10:30) was a total flop in our opinion, but I’m never a big breakfast fan. We had the buffet (pancakes, waffles, bacon, ham, sausage links, etc.), Fins dining room once, Mexican Cantina a couple times. The pancakes & waffles were so dry on the buffet that I couldn’t eat them.. the bacon was okay, but not fresh really. The banana bread & chocolate muffin from the buffet was my favorite dessert the entire cruise & my breakfast most mornings. The Vanilla French toast in the dining room was 10 out of 10! The pancakes & waffles were still dry, even in the dining room.. Mexican Cantina was pretty good and the only reason I didn’t starve LOL. They also had a speciality breakfast sandwich that was good.
Now onto lunch (started at 12, so from 10:30-12 there was nothing that I noticed) Burgers and fries were 10/10! They were on the thicker side, but not huge, and so juicy & good every time! I do wish they did a daily special burger, or had some sort of variety other than just a basic build your own burger. The only downside I had to the burger bar was they only had one line for toppings which could get pretty long, especially if you only wanted ketchup. They definitely need a double sided topping bar. I had the tacos from the Cantina one time and the three options were super good, fresh, & flavorful! The proteins were very tender! Another 10/10! Again, they need two topping bars. We never had lunch in the buffet, but I know they had hot dogs one day lol.
Dinner- We only had dinner in the Fins dining room one evening & did pizza and the buffet the other nights. I honestly was sad we didn’t do Fins more, but the menu just didn’t please all of us and Ryker never wanted to sit still long enough for a three course meal lol. The buffet always had 2-3 options or more that the dining room had, so we didn’t miss out. I tried a lot & while it never was bad, it wasn’t ever something I wanted seconds for or finished except for a couple things. The brisket Mac-n-cheese I had the last night in Fins was to DIE for. Pizza during the day was thin & so good every time. Pizza at night was thick & not as good as the thin. I’m not sure why they changed it for the evening honestly. Oh & of course the ice cream was amazing lol. I do wish it stayed open later than 8-ish, as well as the burger and taco bars staying open later than 6.
Kids Club: What we thought would be a fun thing for Ryker to do, was indeed not fun for him at all lol. This will be dependent solely on the cruise you’re on & the amount of kids traveling. They had a lot of activities, but when the kids 3-5 were small in numbers, they combined with the 6-9 year olds. This took away the more imaginative play toys like a toy kitchen, bean bag chairs, hopscotch mats, etc they had in the younger kid room. We left Ryker playing Connect 4 (they were playing board games & doing face painting/crafts when we dropped him off), and when we came to get him the staff member said she tried to come find us (we had only been in one place for the amount of time we had been gone) because he was crying really hard for us… which instantly made me feel terrible. They didn’t give us a phone, or make any announcements while we were in the shows for us, but she said she did come to try to find us. Even with ship being under capacity, it had to be hard to spot us since she couldn’t find us in the one auditorium we were in.. There should have been some other way for them to let me know my child needed me to pick them up & I really hated that because I think he would have had fun on another day. After that, he refused to go back because “it made him sad there.”
Activities/Shows: I understand this is Margaritaville & is laid back, but sometimes I felt like it was too laid back. A lot of activities were crafts, live music (steel pan player, guitarist, violinist, 1-2 bands, etc.), trivia, dance classes, bingo, & some others. They only had a couple games by the pool one sea day & didn’t have anything going on the big screen throughout the day except for a slideshow of pictures usually. They only had one show at 9:30 each night, which thankfully Ryker did good for except the first night we missed. They had a sneak peak show the first night, the magic show the second night, the country show the third night, the comedian the fourth night, & the Caribbean mix the last night. I wish they had a comedy show every night because he was really funny! I also wish they would have given the acrobats in the musical shows their own show because they deserved the entire spotlight. Ryker really enjoyed the playground, but let’s be honest, it was HOT. I wish it was enclosed so the littles could enjoy it anytime or weather situation. Our favorite place was the arcade. He LOVED to pretend to race on the games & play guitar hero lol. I honestly felt like we did the same things on repeat (arcade, playground, pool, show). They had three pools and three hot tubs: one adult only, one with a stage & close to the food, and one with the big screen and a bar. I loved that it wasn’t extremely crowded & the sizes were good. They had a sitting area around the pool with water in it to just cool off in, & then the pool part to swim. I believe the pool with the stage had the ability to be enclosed in case of bad weather, but I’m not 100% sure. Just like other cruise lines, the water areas closed at 8 which I still think is too early! They had a water slide, but it was hit or miss.. I heard more bad reviews than good on it mostly due to the speed and not being enough water to push you down. I also understand this may be considered more of an adult cruise line, but they do claim to be family friendly & I wish they had added a small splash pad/waterslide area with the playground area instead of two regular slide play areas.
Staff: Ending with our most favorite part of the entire trip… the staff went above & beyond! I have never felt more seen on a vacation. Everyone who looked our way had a smile on their face, & were genuinely happy to be on the ship! I even chatted with one girl who was sad to be leaving for her own vacation off the ship because she would miss all the holidays celebrated onboard that she doesn’t get to celebrate in her home. Please be kind to these people because they go MONTHS being away from their families to serve you, & then go home for 2-3 months and have to leave again.. it broke my heart to see them interact with Ryker and tell me about their babies back home. On one of the last days, Ryker had got the last ice cream cone of the night and dropped it right in front of the pizza stand.. well after we sat down with our pizza, the server who had saw him drop his ice cream brought him a personal bowl of three scoops of flavors from the kitchen & it made Ryker’s entire trip! They were so genuine & wanted to help any way they could!
Overall we had the best little family vacation & will definitely be going back on the Islander! If you or someone you know wants to try the cruising experience, have a more relaxed vacation, or just wants a killer good deal, message me & let’s get you on Island time! If you all have any questions or want to know something I didn’t touch on, please don’t hesitate to ask! Fins up! 🌊
