North America's Worst Cruise Ship

I've had an interest in cruise ships all my life and I've been fascinated to watch the industry evolve and grow in North America there are plenty of Cruise vacations to choose from from the Ultra Luxury to the budget all of which have their own Market demographic along with massive modern ships but there's always been one outlier in the mix here a cruise line that has been sailing out of Florida for decades and has rebranded multiple times following bad press most recently changing their name to Margaritaville at Sea so I traveled to South Florida to find out what sailing on board this somewhat Infamous Cruise Line is like and how the oldest Cruise liner sailing out of a North American Port fits into the modern industry this is North America's worst cruise ship [Music] foreign has a long history of ultra short and Ultra cheap cruises the company's lineage dates all the way back to 1999 with the creation of the Imperial Majesty Cruise Line a budget Cruise company that offered two and three-day cruises the line ultimately rebranded following the retirement of their very old ships in 2008. with the new name Celebration Cruise Line they purchased an Old Ferry that had been converted into a cruise ship and renamed it to the Bahamas celebration the line continued to operate these very cheap cruises until 2014 when disaster struck the celebration was departing Freeport Bahamas when it collided with underwater rocks the ship was able to return to Port but clearly taking on water all passengers were evacuated and the flooding was contained however the ship was declared a total loss past passengers who were on board were not happy and the company received a lot of bad press from this event so much so that by the next year the same Executives have formed a new company called Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line in doing so they purchased a former Carnival ship and renamed at the Grand celebration they also purchased the Costa classica and renamed it to the Grand classica now this new Cruise Line continued to operate with varying degrees of success They carried on with the ultra budget business model with these older ships following the pandemic though it seemed as though their occupancy was extremely low sailing some voyages with under 200 people on board by this point it looked like they were interested in yet another rebranding and they apparently found the right partner for that in December of 2021 when it was announced that Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville brand would partner with Bahamas Paradise cruise line for a total rebranding now this was essentially a branding only partnership as the cruise line would retain ownership of the vessel and keep the original executive team the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but the companies did announce that the remaining ship in their Fleet that being the grand classica would undergo a multi-million dollar renovation Margaritaville already had a partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line with their restaurants on a few of their ships but they decided to pull all of them in favor of this new Direction now the grand classica is an interesting ship on its own she was commissioned in the late 1980s by Costa cruises and completed construction at fin cantieri in 1991. she continued to sail under the cost of flag for many years to come navigating the Waters of the Mediterranean and eventually Asia in the year 2000 Costa had planned an extension for the ship and commissioned the construction of a massive 146-foot midsection the plan was to cut the entire ship in half slide in this new section for added capacity and length but the shipyard who was contracted to complete the job essentially went bankrupt and this huge section was ultimately just scrapped now the ship did see some other incidents like in 2005 when it suffered a pretty large fire in 2008 the classical collided with an MSC ship off the coast of Croatia suffering only minor damage the same could not be said for its second Collision two years later when she temporarily lost power in a busy Chinese shipping Lane and collided with a cargo ship the result was a massive gash in the sight of the classicus whole so yeah the ship had a storied career and by 2018 The Vessel was brought to North American Waters and began her second life as a cruise to Freeport Bahamas and back it became one of the oldest major cruise ships to operate out of an American port and one of if not the smallest to do so at just 53 000 tons and 722 feet long but even after its multi-million dollar renovation and transformation into the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise yes that's its actual name the ship was given a no sale order by the Coast Guard in July of 2022 after they found quote several issues that put the safety of the passengers and crew in danger knowing all of this I was very hesitant to book our Voyage on their only itinerary a two-night three-day trip from the port of West Palm Beach to Freeport Bahamas and back we booked what would essentially be their version of a mid-tier cabin which is a lower deck Ocean View room and we received cabin number 4145 on deck 4. at first glance you can tell this is where a lot of the money from the renovations went as each cabin got a fresh look that is admittedly pretty clean looking I like the large TV in the corner and the bed linens actually feel pretty nice and were also clean there's also a nice side chair and a small desk area we got a mini fridge more than enough closet space for a two-night trip and of course a portal the artwork in here was nothing special but was definitely on brand as was the wallpaper however then there's the bathroom which did not get the same treatment as the rest of the room just a new coat of paints a new floor that already looks very worn and an awkward picture frame everything else is basically the same as the Costa classica and that's Apparent from the 90s-esque vanity and sync which has a design flaw that won't let you turn the faucet handle all the way to cold since it collides with the mirror it also has a tiny shower with an exposed dirty drain by day two there was a pretty strong sewage odor that was emitting from this train and it all just felt really gross the finer details within the main space were also suffering from its age primarily with a major lack of any plugs we only had one North American socket under the desk but also surprisingly A usba and C Port above the desk water was in the room but at an extra charge as was a bottle of wine the ceiling in our closet had some mysterious splatters and possibly mildew or mold growing on it and the rail for our bathroom sliding door I don't think has been clean since 1991. there's also just a few quirks about this cabin that dated back to a different time and while it wasn't unlivable I think a further renovation could be a benefit for all the cabins here but we were also traveling with our friend Michael and he had a cabin on the other side of the ship also on Deck 4. so we went to go see what his room was like which on paper was the exact same category as us but his room also had a few quirks that completely puzzled us like his cabin for some reason had two seats rather than R1 but a smaller bed overall unlike our cabin his did come with some charging ports on at least one of the bedside tables as well as a full blackout drape his bathroom floor was also for some reason different than ours but just as worn so his cabin was also just missing a mini fridge and when we put a black light on it uh well it wasn't great most concerning of all though was that we noticed the smoke detector above the bed was completely sealed over with tape something you'd see in like a 40 motel room and it's not the most compelling case for a safe ship anyways this General room layout applies to the vast majority of the ocean view and interior cabins on board but there are two other categories those being a junior suite set up in a somewhat small living room and bedroom layout and the Grand Terrace Suite the only category that actually has a balcony on board there's only 10 of them on the ship so they're by far the most expensive food on board was honestly not very good at all there are three complementary eateries on board those being the main dining room restaurant called fins the Five O'Clock Somewhere Burger Bar and the port of indecision Buffet why it wasn't called the Jimmy's Buffet we will never know almost everything I tried from the buffet was a aggressively average or just terrible the only dishes I actually enjoyed were the rice based ones everything else like the lasagna with corn in it for some reason and the breaded fish were just not good borderline terrible selections there were also pretty lackluster and most of it just didn't look very appealing like the pasta bar which had pre-cooked pasta just sitting out in the open air they did have a panini section that was made to order and they were pretty okay I would say everything else tasted slightly lower quality than a good airport lounge around back was the Burger Bar which prior to our Voyage used to be at an extra cost now they're complementary and our Burgers there were also okay the patties were actually pretty decent but the Buns were very stale though they were somehow still better than what I had on the Celebrity Solstice finally there's the main dining room fins we ate there both nights and I think the consensus was that all of our meals were below or just average there were really no standouts but the shrimp I had was pretty good despite it being a little uninspired and the Jimmy's jambalaya was also pretty okay Michael's pasta came out cold which was really a theme for all of the food on the ship and on our second day I ordered the blackened salmon which was ironically the most flavorless salmon I've ever had we would have ordered other dishes to try out but to our surprise you can only order one entree per person anything additional would be at an extra cost so on top of the complementary options on board there are also three other upcharge food venues those being frank and Lola's Pizzeria the Margaritaville coffee shop and the jwb Prime Steakhouse since there was no casual complimentary snack options in the hours when the buffet was closed we opted to pay for a pizza one night and it was actually pretty good it was around twelve dollars and it was by far the best thing we had on board the ship for the whole Voyage partially due to it actually being hot across from that is the coffee shop which has a variety of coffees all at an extra cost they also have desserts for five dollars each as well as ice cream and gelato Michael got a bowl of their alcoholic chocolate ice cream that didn't really taste like chocolate more like crushed up Cinnamon Toast Crunch it was really weird and not very good Michael and Emmy both got coffees on both days of the voyage and the consensus came to be that the quality was unpredictable with a slight chance that you'll end up with an undrinkably milky drink finally there's the jwb Prime Steakhouse which we had planned to go to but after hearing some poor reviews we decided against it since it was sixty dollars a person now bars as you can imagine are plentiful most of the bars are mixed in with the larger public venues like Euphoria and keys on the water there's also a few up on the pool deck but the very best is the Five O'Clock Somewhere bar where it's actually a decently themed atmosphere perhaps the best on the entire ship this was a cool space and at 5 pm um I don't know if this was a coincidence but they actually played the Jimmy Buffett's Five O'Clock Somewhere song that's genuinely fun and A Creative Touch now I'll talk a little bit more about the actual design of these spaces later but as for the drinks themselves well they're expensive we got a few during our time on board and all of them were very pricey we did find some friendly bartenders later in the trip who gave us generous pores but at most bars you can find similar mixed drinks that are smaller than a salt shaker for 17 the quality of them ranged from good to just okay but what is there to do other than getting drunk well not much if you take a look at their daily activity list the actual activities are pretty sparse most of them are just things you can already do around the ship like play table tennis the majority of the rest are all music related with a few DJs and a few live performances but there's also just some that are truly baffling like the margarita DeVille TV Jimmy Buffett concert video we were morbidly curious and decided to go check it out what we found was a room playing exactly what it described just a projector set up playing old Jimmy Buffett concerts except the venue's music playlist was also playing at the same time so it was just a horrible mashup of two music tracks playing over each other equally as weird was the character meet and greet with the ship's mascot I don't know what it's actually called other than your favorite parrot which might actually just be its name it only makes one appearance through the whole cruise and only for 45 minutes now the actual entertainment was pretty okay the headlining event though is two major shows Caribbean heaths and the new Radio Margaritaville live at Sea both were more or less jukebox musicals with the latter being their new flagship show from the recent renovation considering this is all Margaritaville themed I was expecting a lot more Jimmy Buffett action but instead good we got a lot of unrelated music through the decades like in the 70s portion they just played lizzo The Last Song of the show was Margaritaville but this was a little confusing since I know I had seen a stage show that seemed a lot more Jimmy Buffett themed well it turns out there originally was a show that did that but it has now been replaced by this now you might have noticed that the theater this was all being shown in looks very small and it definitely is it's also one of the last places on board that really shows the Costa Origins with its walls adorned by quite beautiful Italian mosaics now looking at all of this from a design perspective the paradise is wearing a pretty ugly liffery and in true Margaritaville style it has large Jimmy Buffett quotes painted on the side you'll also notice that this is one of the last few ships still sailing in North America that has its lifeboats towards the top decks most cruise ships now have them lining a Promenade deck around four decks above the water this isn't the case here as the only public debt closest to the water is all the way up on Deck 10. you might also notice the lack of any balconies as I mentioned earlier there are only 10 of them on the entire ship the rest of the cabins in public spaces on board all get their light from these rather small portals and I found that to be an issue in the larger spaces that are meant to be gathering points for a lot of people as they all feel very dark and closed off the larger windows on Deck 8 are much better but the whole lobby area feels very dark as is the buffet which is already very tight with a weird table layouts and windows that are facing directly into lifeboats it doesn't help that most of the furniture is all a dark red and beige just adding to the dreariness of the space the majority of this furniture is literally from the Costa classica so a lot of it is damaged or heavily worn in fact there's a lot of references back to the Costa classica with its logo still on a few signs the elevator are still announcing the decks in Italian and perhaps most obvious on the funnel itself notice that Big C on the funnel back inside I did like the openness the large Windows gave inside keys on the water a rare place to see out of full windows likewise the hemisphere nightclub was actually really fun in the evenings with a lively nightclub scene and even a pool table which I loved but part for the course with the ship the table was kind of just broken it's supposed to cost two dollars a game but sometimes the balls would just get stuck or fall down the wrong holes when we boarded someone had already broken a hole in the side to essentially hack the game and get the balls out so given the machine was just broken most of the time we just did that on the last night one of the security guards figured out this hack and called down a man who proceeded to abruptly collect all the balls from our active game into a Coors Light bucket said game's over and left anyway the rest of the indoor public spaces all retain a lot of the original design characteristics like the wood paneling the ceilings and the furniture the stars on the Water Bar is almost completely unchanged from the ship's Costa days and was actually my favorite bar on board there was also a flex space from what I think used to be the ship's library today I guess it's still considered a game room in library but with the worst selection of both activities there's maybe five deteriorating games and like 25 books though most of them are an Italian and not exactly the reading material you think would be a page Turner on your two night cruise there's also some shops with tacky cigarette shelves and gold by the foot music being played on personal speakers and a photography studio that lets you take your picture with the backdrop of Club 33 in Disneyland or the staircase of the Titanic there's also a spa with a surprisingly well-equipped gym but not much else the relaxation room is right beneath the very loud pickleball court which isn't very relaxed speaking of which up on Deck there isn't a whole lot the paradise only has two pools and two hot tubs the main pool deck is pretty sparse with the decently sized square pool with some seating around it that includes day beds underneath a very long and weird catwalk thing towards the after the ship is the second similarly sized adults-only pool though it's really showing its age with a tiled entry and very limited seating it's also surrounded by five foot steel walls that block any Ocean View though I will say the two hot tubs that are directly it's aft do provide some pretty decent views on the deck above you'll find the running track but that entire deck is fitted with AstroTurf which I don't really get and it's pretty slippery up there if it rains things are not much better below though as the teak deck around the AFT pool is in very rough condition and could be pretty hazardous for someone walking barefoot over it and that's a very common theme I found across this ship the severe level of wear and tear this vessel has sustained the paradise is now over 31 years old and in a lot of ways outside of the physical design it shows many of the larger Windows around the vessel have clearly been replaced or repaired over time and besides them looking very dirty some just don't have their UV protection on and that causes smaller spaces inside to become very warm when the sun is on them a great example of this is the gym which should be set cooler than any other space on board since people are being active inside instead it's far warmer than any other space due to the heat from the windows plus it doesn't even have any accessible drinking water likewise many spaces suffer from a lack of adequate air conditioning really the whole ship suffers from spaces that are rough around the edges and in many places it just looks dirty and stained in that Spa area there was green moss growth on the saturated stained carpet under the windows and there really is so much more from Emmy getting locked in a public bathroom stall to the very dated look of said bathrooms the stained carpets everywhere to a taped on fire sprinkler there are just too many things to note but really none of this is that surprising since this was a half-baked renovation for a ship that has had 30 years of guests abusing it really it all feels so cheaply put together and while this ship claims to be a Margaritaville Resort on the water very few spaces actually provide the same level of theming as you would find at a Margaritaville Resort everything else is just the spaces they inherited with a slight color change some added Jimmy Buffett quotes and some tropical stock photos it feels very corporate and like nobody actually cared that's best exemplified by this artwork hanging outside the specialty restaurant I mean someone seriously thought this looked okay to hang in a public space I it's embarrassing this really hint hinders the experience as a whole and it doesn't help that you're being bombarded at every chance for an upsell on the first day you board that upselling begins at the terminal as you're whisked over for a photo op and pitched on various shore excursions premium dining and drink packages once you get to the buffet for lunch you're asked numerous times if you want to buy drinks or better yet get a whole package everything else is just done on the cheap throughout our entire cruise I was wondering where I could find water and it turns out for a cruise that is all about relaxing and drinking your cares away it's very hard to actually hydrate the only way you can get water is either from one place at the buffet or at the bars which they'll proceed to give you a plastic cup and a plastic straw that's actually very aggravating to me since during our muster drill which was a Chaotic episode in of itself where they said they would prioritize women children and the sick first like it's the Titanic sick people women and children will have priority in boarding they also said they would strive to be an industry leader in preserving the environment ladies and gentlemen we at Margaritaville at Sea are completely committed and to preserving the environment our goal is to be the industry leader in these Endeavors which is just such a stark corporate load of crap those words mean absolutely nothing this is a diesel-powered chip with 30 year old engines where they serve plastic cups and straws I literally don't know how they could be any more worse in that sense now like I mentioned at the beginning of this video the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise only sails to one destination and that's Freeport on the island of Grand Bahama now I love the Bahamas and many parts of it but this was by far the worst cruise port I have ever been to Margaritaville actually owns their own terminal there and it just so happens to be in the middle of nowhere there are a few touristy vendors at the Port but other than that it's essentially just a staging area for paid excursions otherwise it will be no joke close to an hour's worth of a walk to get to a nice Beach so it's basically pay a high price for a curated Excursion or facilitate your own transportation which will also likely be quite expensive not sure how helpful this is for people looking for an affordable vacation okay so let's actually break down the price of what we paid and what this whole experience actually costs so for our lower decks Ocean View cabin we paid 452 USD for two people now you can get cheaper than that with voyages and an inside cabin during a last minute cruise being as low as 282 dollars for two people the higher cabin categories though get much more expensive with the cheapest balcony Suite being over sixteen hundred dollars for two people I think that's a pretty terrible value for what you're getting here getting a luxury room on a ship that is the most Bare Bones is like getting a Lufthansa business class seat on a Spirit Airlines flight the rest of the experience will not match what you're paying especially when there are so many other ways to spend that money on a a much more Superior ship now for the value on the lower tier rooms well it's actually kind of interesting it's important to note though that the ultra low fares when browsing the website are a bit deceptive as their price per person and in both our cases for the cheapest voyages I can find the port taxes and fees were more expensive than the base fares so with our 450 dollar cruise I kept thinking about why this product exists at its core this is a vintage cruise ship that has been branded as a floating island one that brings you to Paradise that being Freeport but I really see this more like a Budget Airline now you're either in the market for at least one of three reasons by choosing to do this either you're looking for the absolute cheapest way to get on a cruise ship you only have a short time off of work for a micro vacation or you want to find the cheapest way to get to the Bahamas I actually take issue with all three of these reasons since there's actually cruise ships already out of Florida that are cheaper than this like MSC which also sales two night cruises out of Miami to NASA a far better Port of Call and arguably a more convenient departure Port the total cost for a cruise aboard that would be 338 dollars for two people which is actually a hundred dollars cheaper than what we paid now there's something to be said about the quality of MSC as well but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that a voyage on the MSC Divina would be far superior than this that also aligns well with those who can accommodate a two-night trip as well but if you're willing to stretch your budget and vacation time you can find the cheapest cruises aboard Royal Caribbean for 598 celebrity for 675 and Carnival for 687 which is somehow the most expensive of all of these for a much worse product regardless my issue with the pricing for Margaritaville is that it contradicts the reasons why someone would want to go on this if you have a tight budget but also want to cruise and see the Bahamas you're not really getting either of those your import for the majority of the daylight hours and even when you are moving you'll probably wish you weren't when you arrive in Freeport you have no choice but to spend more money to experience the actual Island and it's not like seeing it from the ship is all that picturesque if you care more about partying and enjoying some food then stay at an actual hotel and go to a local bar where drink prices and quality will be way better than what you'll find here you'll also skip the stressful embarkation and debarkation process it really is like spirit and Frontier where the ultra low-cost fares seem appealing but if you want to actually do anything or go experience the destination then you'll need to spend hundreds of dollars more to do so we ended up paying another 250 dollars just on a few drinks and pizza so at that point why are you making the sacrifice of the quality of the ship cabin and food when there are better options out there now In fairness to Margaritaville they do offer some unique deals like a cruise and stay package where you can take the transit to Grand Bahama stay for as long as you want and then take the the cruise ship back to Florida they also introduced the ultimate Paradise pass and for nine hundred dollars you can cruise on the ship for an unlimited non-consecutive amount of times through the year it's a very interesting system acting essentially as a season's pass for a cruise ship which is an industry first okay so let's get the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise an actual numbered score I call my system Jake's isn't any good score and it's based on five different categories each out of ten for a potential perfect score of 50 out of 50. let's start with estate rooms our cabin was decently sized with comfortable appointments though as we've learned not all are the same and there are a lot of old and tired looking fixtures mainly the bathroom which was small and kind of disgusting it's a 3 out of ten food was honestly the worst part of the experience for me with breakfast and lunch offering slim choices and bad quality dining room food took a long time to be served was Bland and uninspired cold and left me hungry afterwards even the upcharge offerings weren't very good so it's a 2 out of 10. the ship itself has not been designed to operate in the modern cruise market and that's honestly most apparent since Costa drastically upgraded her sister ship and even then scrapped her in 2020. it's a one out of ten The Experience however does have some upsides regardless of the bombardments of upselling and the bad smells and the just overall lack of Margaritaville on a Margaritaville Cruise the crew on board were actually some of the best I have ever met on a cruise ship and we did make some friends with a few passengers at the club I'll give it a 3 out of 10. finally there's value with the context of this being one of the cheapest cruise ships you can possibly go on it does put everything into perspective but at the same time you're just on a polluting ship that you can do very little on that goes to a place that you can also do do very little I think there are better options out there and because of that I'm giving it a 5 out of 10. that brings the total score to 14 out of 50 which uh yeah that's that's pretty bad it's by far the worst out of anything I have yet to review despite my horrible score my concluding thoughts are honestly not all that negative it does help that I went with my incredible partner Emmy and my good friend Michael and I'm glad that we got to meet a few people on board I am genuinely leaving with some good memories from our trip like our time playing our janky pool in the nightclub for hours and hours until staff came and took all of our balls as a person who takes interest in Ocean Travel it was cool being on the oldest cruise ship I have yet to travel I mean it's borderline a converted Fairy like a floating Dive Bar really but I still like that and really you're not even moving through the ocean most of the time you're on board now these are probably not things Margaritaville at Sea wants me to take away from this but those were the only highlights for me everything else was below average or just bad mostly due to the state of the ship and really no matter how many times they send it in for light Renovations it won't fix the problems The Vessel needs a complete refit probably in the range of 110 million dollars but that would make absolutely no sense to do as the ship itself is probably worth less than 25 million dollars so I don't know where they'll go from here maybe another new ship will be brought into the fleet to replace this one or maybe the company just won't be able to find a continuous stream of people willing to spend money on this micro Cruise experience from my perspective though this really is North America's worst cruise ship my name is Jake and thank you very much for watching thank you foreign

Channel: Bright Sun Travels

Views: 1,279,771

Keywords: Margaritaville at sea, Margaritaville, paradise, cruise ship, freeport bahamas, west palm beach, bad cruise, honest cruise review, worst cruise ship, costa cruises, costa classica, hd, clean, party cruise, cruise ship review, cruise review honest, old cruise ship, party ship, bahamas

Id: xVujoz0_dTY

Length: 31min 27sec (1887 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 15 2023