Margaritaville at Sea

[Nish]

Anyone use this cruisline before and if so what were your thoughts?

Wife is looking into a cruise and asked me to see what the hive minds thoughts were on this one.

She's spent months reading reviews of probably every cruiseline that operates in the Caribbean. She's asking for personal experience from people.

She's looking at some shorter, <5 night cruises. 2 college age boys that could entertain themselves in a cardboard box, her and I, and our 2y/I grand daughter.

[BLachance75]

I was on a Norwegian ship this past summer and the Margarita cruise ship pulled into port next to us blasting Jimmy Buffet music at 8 am and continued playing it all day until we left the dock at around 4.

[Nish]

Good note! Now I need to try to figure out how loud that is in the cabins.

[Brendanmcgowan2]

I have only done Royal Caribbean and do not plan on changing. Wonderful experiences on their ships, food is pretty good, entertainment is plentiful, ships are clean, and ports are great. Margaritaville is definitely on the cheaper side but it depends on what you want your cruise experience to be. Honestly, some Royal cruises are pretty dang cheap as well.

[Nish]

We've gone with RC in the past and had a great experience. Departure port and available cruises available in our current window to do this trip have narrowed it down to Margaritaville and carnival

[Kit352]

I have done them all. Many times each, except for Disney and Margaritaville. Only one and done with them. They are almost the same thing, just for different age groups. Everything is so in your face and over the top we couldn't stand it. So so much drinking and partying on board the margarita ships. I was very much aware I was in the key and pel sketch where they were trapped in a never ending party. Sleeping is difficult at night and impossible during the day. Every single person was drunk most of the time. It was like a frat house. One bonus I guess was there was an unbelievable amount of sex going on.
Norwegian is probably the one you want. Carnival can be good but it's very popular with the younger crowd. Your kids would have fun probably but maybe now you. Cunard is the opposite, better suited for you but dreadful for younger people.

[RPP]

I often read about experiences and have the alternate thought of how people might have smiliar thoughts about paintball...

"How on earth could people enjoy that?". Different strokes for different folks.

[cockerpunk]

one thing i will never understand is how Margaritaville is such a misunderstood song, they built an entire brand off of it.

Margaritaville is a *bad* place. its a song about a drunk slowly figuring out that he is terrible to women, and he is reason why all his relationships fail. and if he wants to have a successful relationship with a woman, he needs to change at a fundamental level, including stopping drinking. you do not want to be in Margaritaville, it is not a fun place.


and so many folks misunderstood this, THEY BUILT A RESTRAUNT/CRUISE FRANCHISE OFF IT.


we really need to be teaching adults remedial media literacy classes at this point. see also: RATM, born in the USA, escape (the pina colata song) ...

[Magmoormaster]

"I liked RATM until they got political"

[Chuck E Ducky]

Agreed it’s likely a song about self reflection. I seen him live and it was a massive disappointment. How they let him go on stage like that was criminal. Dude is a junky, and can’t even pull it together for a show.

[Nish]

Meanings evolve. Especially when you are an artist with 1 colossal hit that has a ton of marketing potential.

[cockerpunk]

Meanings evolve. Especially when you are an artist with 1 colossal hit that has a ton of marketing potential.

i actually think its the opposite.

i think people got it when it came out, but its so normalized to be shit to women, and only ever admit to yourself in the darkest of places, drunk and alone, that you are at fault for your own lack of relationship success, that it became normalized to the point where just the catchiness of the word became fun.

and then everyone promptly forgot the entire point of the song cause MONEY.

and now, in a world where we are trying to give women full personhood in society, does it come up again as obviously a song about being a shitty man, drunk and alone. the meaning didn't change, the normalcy of being shit to women changed.


another one i cringe at is when towns/cities/bars play martina mcbride Independence day on 4th of july, and people only seem to sing the title line, and forget that the song is a bout a wife with abusive husband, and everyone in town knows it, burning the house down to kill him, and she gets locked up. like this is not about the fourth of july guys. never was. thats kinda the bit.

[The Inflicted]

Surprised no one had posted this yet: https://youtu.be/xVujoz0_dTY?si=52dVKUFN8WZUveRG

[Chuck E Ducky]

I was given a tip from a friend who dose Cruise ships all the time. Be careful what location you’re leaving from as that will be the area you will be traveling with.

For instance my most local port is in close proximity to Zoo York City and that to me sounds like nightmare fuel being trapped on ship with that. Being in NC it’s likely not an issue for you people are generally nicer humans down there. Just something to consider, I would definitely stay away from the budget options.

After watching that documentary on Netflix I have 0 desire to take a Cruise.

[Kit352]

Cruises can be and generally are great. As long as you pick wisely. A Disney cruise would be maddening if your 70 and a Viking cruise would be equally so if your 15. Find ones with your people. If you love the bottle and are a functioning alcoholic your people are on Margaritaville and carnival. If you like science then that's an entirely different line, probably one of the artic ones.
Port locals aren't really a problem because they know what ships are best suited for them. They would be taking chances booking an unfamiliar cruise. If they are on the same ship as you its probably because they are your people, you just dont want to admit it.

[Jonnydread]

As someone who is very much an earth elemental this thread is fascinating to me.

[Drcemento]

Ha ha me to. Just not something I can wrap my head around. Same with Disneyland and resorts. That video did not help!

[The Inflicted]

I've only ever done Disney cruises myself, and never cruised at all before getting married a couple years ago. My wife and her sister (who has a bit of $) were/are big fans of Disney cruise lines, and after trying a couple different lines were only interested in ever sailing with Disney. According to them the service, cleanliness, and general absence of things like casinos or loud adults on board were worth the premium. That and they really like the retro "golden age of sailing" aesthetic on the ships.

At this point I've done 3, all with Disney, 2 in the Caribbean and one in the North Sea, all with our very young daughter (who was between 1 and a half to 3 depending on the cruise). I've really enjoyed them, both because it's fun to spend time with her and the general intrigue of watching the machine work and the experience of the open sea and the various stops, especially Disney's private Island Castaway Cay.

Disney has really exceptional kid's clubs on the ships. That's what I hear, at least- or kid never really took to any of them and just wanted to stay with us, though you can tour/play in them during various open houses they do. A lot of them have pretty exceptional theming like you see in Disney's parks. I've never been hurting for things to do on these ships, between all the food, live entertainment, and just watching for other ships/dolphins in the water.

I can't say for sure whether I would have had as good a time on the other cruise lines, but I will say that one thing I've appreciated about the Disney ships is that while there are plenty of bars and opportunities to drink the adults on board tend to be parents or geekier people in general so you don't have a lot of loud partying going on. Maybe it just comes from being a parent and former teacher but I can definitely tolerate loud noisy kids more than a can a bunch of loud drunk adults having more fun than me.

Whether or not you spring for the cost of Disney, I would definitely suggest going for a longer cruise- 5 days is ideal. I did a 3 night one most recently and you barely have the time to get settled before having to get off again. When it comes to your itinerary try to find places that are actually fun to explore and aren't horribly expensive- ie. Cozumel is a lot more enjoyable than Nassau.

This was the cruise we went on when our daughter was 2: https://youtu.be/JSLi2fuD4-o?si=h3xuttWCHlV8bM1u