Margaritaville at Sea Paradise — Attraction in Riviera Beach

I had not been on a get away vacation in 3+ years, saw what looked to be an inexpensive booking...really all I wanted to do is listen to some Jimmy Buffet music and eat a "Cheeseburger In Paradise" just like the lyrics to the song. Simple right? Well, let me tell you about my experience... The first night of my cruise sailing to The Bahamas I had an unusual pain in my shoulders. It did hurt a lot...so they put me in a wheel chair and took me to the infirmary. I will say my admitting nurse was super kind and empathetic. Almost immediately upon arrival to the infirmary, my pain had subsided. Then a Doctor showed up and decided I was having "an active heart attack" and without my knowledge ordered an ambulance. I did not feel comfortable getting into an ambulance at 2:00AM in a foreign country when I was asymptomatic. (By the way, I sent all my medical records to my cardiologist when I got home, they basically said "nothing to see here and we will see you at your next appointment).

THEY CHARGED ME $1700 for an IV and monitoring.

Since I refused treatment (which is my right) an officer came down and told me I would have to sign a waiver that I did not wish further treatment. They said since I used a birth certificate to get on board they were basically kicking me off the ship without prescription drugs and without a passport. They indicated I would have to go to the US Embassy which was all the way across the island to get a temporary passport and make my own arrangements to get home.

I indicated I didn't want to do that, so an officer from the ship told me, I would need to go to a doctor and get a form completed indicating I was safe to sail.

The Bahamian people were nothing but kind to me, they helped me to the hospital/clinic helped get me in...they ran a number of tests, and signed off on the document from Margaritaville Cruise line. So literally after spending all day doing everything they asked me to do, I got on the ship was told to sit in a wheel chair and was surrounded by security people and taken back to the infirmary. I laughed at the security people and said, "What do you think I am going to do?" Some of them even laughed with me.. Now mind you, I did everything they asked me to do...had the form they gave me signed and presented it to them. The Captain of the Ship came down and said in so many words "I am the Captain of this ship and you are not sailing with us today" So they dumped in the Bahamas. Like who does that? They also made me sign waivers, that I wasn't holding them responsible for any type of malpractice. To shorten the story (I can't make this stuff up) once again, The Bahamian People from the Immigration Department/Border Security were so amazingly kind to me, they helped me with a place to stay, helped me get my prescriptions, gave me rides, and I believe if it were not for them I would have NEVER been able to get back on the ship. Once I arrived back to the ship the next time I was treated more like a prisoner than a customer, once again surrounded by security guards, forced to be in a wheelchair for the trip back to Florida, Upon arrival back to Florida I was then escorted off the boat, in a wheel chair and once again treated like a prisoner. I work in healthcare, if I would have allowed one of my patients to be treated like this, I cannot imagine the number of citations I would have received. I really can't tell you much about the ship, but I was treated in a sub-human manner. For a service that is supposed to give you food, fun and entertainment. I received rude, non-compassionate service. I truly could not believe they would treat any human being like the way I was treated. So here's your Pro-Tip...you get what you pay for, they lure you in with cheap prices and have little consideration for their passengers. The Captain was rude and I'm no expert on maritime law, but dumping a passenger in a foreign country does not seem like how one would or should handle a passenger. I would not want any other person to ever to be treated like this, so...

A friend having a birthday wanted to go on this two night trip to Nassau and after seeing negative YouTube reviews I tried to suggest another venue. Also, this cruise (Palm Beach to Nassau and back on smaller ship for two nights) was in existence back in the mid 1990s. Different boat and management then to now. Now in collaboration and themed under Margaritaville (the sadly now deceased musician,Jimmy Buffet) (the music, decor, style, is all Caribbean from some food dishes, salsa music, his classic songs and style. Even a Steel Pan musician from Trinidad was in the main show (but they need to get him out and about on deck so people who’ve never been close to and experienced a steel pan can experience it’s magic)! My point is, we went on this cruise back in the 90s and it put me off the idea of going on cruise ships for years. It was bad! So when our friends suggested it, then the reviews and our prior experience, suggested alternates. But our friend Nancy was stuck on this and we are such long time friends we couldn’t say no…so, booked the trip for mid August 2025 for her birthday. We got back yesterday and must say, though the boat sees a lot of usage running trips back to back to back…it was in impressively good condition. Some areas and furnishings need replacement…and there are inconsistencies in the caliber of service and food. The buffet is better than good, great on some dishes, and okay on others. Fins dining room was quite nice, some dishes better than others, but our lead server was wonderful. I read in some reviews about the “up selling” and $29 per person for birthday cake seemed the most jaw dropping example of this. But there was cake on the menu at Fins dining room and our lead server knew it was her birthday so they presented her cake with the birthday song and happy birthday written on the plate. Very nice, and we tipped them for this. But speaking of tips; they take mandatory tips two ways. When you book you must agree to a ship wide daily tip. That’s consistent with other ships. Then there is an automatic tip per drink—AND the opportunity on the charge slip (you can’t pay cash for anything at all—it all goes through management) you sign is for a tip you may add. Again, it’s a ship of inconsistency. Some wait staff are okay with you not adding a tip (where there is already an automatic tip) but others displayed “unhappiness” at $zero in the additional tip line you sign and hand back. It made me uncomfortable. So I spoke with an officer and then Reception to make sure I understood the tip arrangement correctly. Their tip system could use better management if the company wants to be in the middle on this. So my remedy and the one I suggest, bite the bullet on the mandatory tips, and I broke a $50 into ones and fives (at reception after talking with them about this) and handed out some small cash tips to augment the mandatory. It wasn’t a lot and made a big positive difference. Or, you could be indifferent to the wait staff and let it slide off your back. Of course, you could write in a couple of dollars on the tip line if you don’t want to carry cash. But here are some positives🙂: the musicians and dancers and Master Ceremonies at the first night Margaritaville show absolutely “are Punching Above Their Weight” for a ship of this smaller size. Great show. I play harmonica and on other cruise ships have had opportunity to play along a few songs with the ships musicians (in the smaller settings and where appropriate in consideration of other guests) but this was the first time I ended up in an impromptu “mash up”! I’d played music with the pianist and the steel pan drummer voluntarily came and joined in. Now, for musicians, that is one real piece of Margaritaville magic! All the bars were good, but the bar outside the Stars on the Water theater up forward was EXCEPTIONAL!!! The guys there have a menu of special cocktails that is fantastic and they serve with Panache!!! I forget its name, but the smoked whisky (literally smoke is applied in front of you) is just awesome…sorry, ran...

As a graduation celebration, my best friend and I booked a 4-day cruise on the Paradise Ship. We primarily picked Margaritaville at Sea because it was affordable. As a first time cruiser, I didn’t have many expectations going in. But when doing our research before booking, we did see some reviews from unhappy customers with lots of complaints. On the contrary, my friend and I had a great experience on the ship, from the dining to entertainment and more. Overall, I would definitely recommend this cruise, and I would not hesitate to book another cruise with Margaritaville in the future. That all being said, our experience wasn’t 100% perfect. Our biggest issue was the way our onboard credits were displayed. In each room, the TV gives an account breakdown for how much is owed. Since we started with having on-board credits, it completely skewed the amount due, reflected on the tv. It made it seem like we had less credits than we truly did. If you are aware of this ahead of time, it’s not a huge deal to keep track of the credit balance on your own. But when we brought it to the attention of guest services, all they really said was “the tv is not smart.” On top of that, we had pre-booked an excursion weeks before the trip. We found out the night before that it had been cancelled (by the cruise, not us) (also noting that we found out after the shore excursion desk closed). On a time crunch the next morning, we had to pick a cheaper excursion, and instead of getting the rest of the amount refunded to my card (how I originally paid), they would only send it back as onboard credit. This was the last day!! So we really did not need more credits. We discussed with both the shore excursion and guest services desks for a while, but no one was able to recognize why this was frustrating for us. Despite these two things, the cruise was otherwise very enjoyable, and I would love to come back again. I’ll include some more details below on different aspects of the cruise.

Dining- Loved it!! Tons of options at the buffet, and the allergens are clearly marked which is important to me as a vegetarian. There are always places open throughout the day. We loved dining at Fins, for more of a restaurant experience. I was very impressed by the rotating menu, and again, always having a veggie option. Make sure to get there early though, or you might be stuck in a long wait line.

Entertainment- I enjoyed all of the shows, but sometimes it was difficult to get good seats. On the last two nights, we showed up 45 mins early to ensure we got seats without a blocked view.

Excursion/Events- Honestly, the excursion we purchased for the Bahamas was probably not necessary. In Key West, my friend and I did our own self led journey to a state park beach. We had a great time, it was fun to explore on our own. It was quite the touristy area with lots of shops and food. In the Bahamas, as mentioned above, our excursion got last minute cancelled and we had to re-book something else. The excursion we ended up going on, offered almost the same features as the original, except for the buffet lunch. This was slightly problematic because the provided lunch was a very small menu (3 proteins, 3 sides, and dessert), so I ended up eating only sides. It wasn’t a huge deal, since we knew we could eat more on the boat later, but it was mostly just annoying since we had been planning for the buffet. The excursion itself was fine, we mostly hung out on the beach. We were not informed that the resort was ~30 mins away, so that ate up almost an hour of our time on the beach. But the drivers were awesome and gave us lots of info on the Bahamas! If I were to cruise again with Margaritaville at Sea, I would likely not book an excursion in the Bahamas, there were plenty of events happening on the boat at this time.

Staff- The staff we interacted with were incredible. Especially Ramdan on floor four!! Although, I would’ve expected the guest services and shore excursion employees to be a bit more understanding. My conversations with them were mostly...