Is Margaritaville at Sea Good For Kids? Our Thoughts

I first heard about Margaritaville at Sea on TikTok. Given that we live in Florida and run a Florida-based TikTok account, I think I was pretty late to hear about this cruise line.

To be honest, it doesn’t have the best reputation. People have complained about… well, basically everything. I’ll cover all of this throughout this article, but spoiler alert – we didn’t really have any major complaints. And this is coming from people who almost always splurge on the nicest rooms and stayed in an interior cabin on the cruise.

But you’re not here for that, necessarily. What you’re really want to know is is Margaritaville at Sea good for kids?

Before we start, it’s probably helpful to know that we had little kids with us on our recent sailing. At the time of sailing, our kids were 10 months and 21 months old. We also took the Paradise ship out of West Palm Beach on a three night cruise.

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Is Margaritaville At Sea Good for Kids?

While I do feel it’s important to talk a little more about the company itself, I’m going to just get right to the point. Truthfully, whether or not this is a good cruise line for you depends on a number of things.

• Age of your kids
• What the other guests are like (this is unpredictable, of course)
• Are there certain things you’d like to shelter your kids from?

At the time of the cruise, we had very young travelers. They were 10 months old and 21 months old. In some ways, this was easier (they were easily entertained) and in some ways it was harder (we found the cabin rooms to be difficult to baby-proof and they wanted to get into everything).

If you’re more of a video person, you can check out our YouTube video of embarkation day onto Margaritaville at Sea. And while you’re there, it would mean a lot to us if you’d subscribe to our channel.

Activities on Board

There are kids and teen clubs on board, which is a kid friendly activity. However, our kids were too young to attend. Margaritaville at Sea has two ships, the Paradise and Islander. We were on the older ship, the Paradise, where kids have to be 6 years old to attend. The Margaritaville at Sea website indicates that they have care for ages 3-5, so it’s possible that younger kids are eligible for care on the Islander.

Outside of that, I would say that overall, Margaritaville at Sea is kid friendly but not kid oriented. We completely expected this going in and were fine with that because we absolutely love family vacations. However, this might not be the best cruise line to expect to have a lot of built in entertainment for the kids.

With that being said, a lot of the older kids we saw on the ship loved swimming. Do know that if your child is not potty trained, they are not allowed to swim. This is a pretty standard rule amongst all cruise ships I’m aware of.

It’s also a tradition to hide rubber ducks throughout the cruise ship. You could bring some to hide but also hope that there are some to search for. Someone on our cruise ship brought quite a few and these ended up being fun toys for our kiddos.

Overall, the onboard activities are geared towards adults. Shows involved things like making margaritas, game shows, trivia, and naming songs. But we also saw a lot of kids who seemed to enjoy people watching these events.

There is an arcade on board and our kids had a great time here every single day. This was such a fun way to spend time for our young kids without spending money because they were young enough to be entertained by looking at the lights. With older kids, this would still be fun but it won’t be a cheap option on board.

My personal opinion is that there are much more kid-friendly cruise ships out there. But kids can absolutely have fun on Margaritaville at Sea. We were far from the only family on the ship.

Crew members seemed to love our kids. They were so welcoming, understanding, and friendly towards them.

Food

Food on a cruise ship (or anywhere, really) is always going to be subjective depending on your likes. So it isn’t surprising that some people love it and some people hate it. Your free options on the cruise include the Port of Indecision Buffet and also the Cheeseburger in Paradise Burger Bar, which is a hamburger/cheeseburger bar.

There are a few paid options as well, such as a pizza and the JWB prime steakhouse restaurant. And the very important coffee shop that pretty much every parent will appreciate (drop coffee is also free at the buffet).

We never paid for our meals and always ate at the buffet/main dining room or cheeseburger bar and were very satisfied with the food options. The buffet had different food options each day. A few options repeated, but the major food options were different. Our whole family thought the food was very good.

We also came in with zero expectations because we have never found the food on a cruise ship to be anything special before. We figured the food would be terrible since this was more of a “budget” cruise and it is possible that having low expectations could have helped.

The only negative thing I can say about the dining experience is that they had limited high chairs. Their plates are also all breakable, so we had to put the food directly on the table for the kids. Next time, I’d pack these disposable placemats that stick on the table.

Exposure to Non-Kid Friendly Things

In a lot of the public areas, it smelled like weed and/or cigarette smoke. Our room had a very slight hint of the smell of weed once. It was only once and it was faint.

The music is loud. A lot of the kids loved the loud music, but some parents might not like how loud it is.

People are partying and might be drunk. We have heard complaints of obnoxiously drunk people fighting and being loud. That never happened on our trip. But we were also in our rooms pretty early due to having a toddler and baby bedtime.

All of this really comes down to what you’re comfortable with. What is “kid friendly” to one person might not be to another. We didn’t have a problem. Everyone on the ship, both guests and employees, were so nice and welcoming to our kids. I feel like all of this is could technically happen anywhere you stay, although a cruise environment does increase the likelihood of partying compared to, say, a cabin in the mountains.

Shore Excursions

I could have a whole separate blog post on each of the port destinations and their shore excursions. But overall, the shore excursions aren’t much different on Margaritaville at Sea when compared to other cruise lines. There are kid-friendly excursions at every single port.

Rooms

We found the rooms to be roomier than many of our other cruise experiences in the past, which was a huge benefit since we brought our Guava Lotus Travel Crib with us for the kids to sleep in. There was actually plenty of room, even with the travel crib.

We had an indoor stateroom but you can also book Breezy Balcony Staterooms or one of the Grand Terrace Suites. The Grand Terrace Suites are the nicest rooms on board.

General Tips for Traveling with Kids

If this isn’t your first cruise then you probably already know this, but it’s important so I’ll mention it.

If you are in a similar situation as us where your kids’ age group means you typically bring a double stroller, don’t bring it. Bring a carrier and a single stroller or two single strollers. Or basically anything but the double stroller. You’d probably be ok if it is tandem, but if it’s side-by-side, let me just say it again – don’t bring it.

It had been so long since we last cruised that I didn’t even consider not bringing our Zoe side-by-side double stroller. That thing comes everywhere with us. I just happened to be scrolling Facebook when I saw someone else ask which stroller to bring on a cruise and was told to absolutely not bring a double stroller. I am so glad I happened to see that.

Our single Zoe stroller (which is so compact that it can fit on the overhead bin on an airplane) barely made it through the hallways and onboarding ramp at times. It would have been literally impossible to bring a double stroller, I think we would have had to each carry a kid and carry the double stroller in some situations.

Travel Documentation You Need Traveling With Kids

Before you go on your trip, you definitely want to make sure you have proper documentation. It would be really disappointing to show up and be denied access to board.

If you are a U.S. citizen, you technically don’t need a passport if you are leaving from the U.S. and also returning to the U.S. on the cruise. But while you can bring your birth certificate, I would recommend getting a passport for a couple of reasons.

First, if you happen to miss getting back on the ship and are stranded in the Bahamas or Mexico, it’s going to be a lot harder trying to figure out how to get home without a passport. Even though this might be unlikely, it would be such a nightmare that I wouldn’t want to chance it.

Second, when you get off the ship there are two lines. One is for passengers with passports and the other is for passengers with only birth certificates. The line for passengers with passports moves significantly faster.

Margaritaville at Sea Ships

Margaritaville at Sea has two ships, the Paradise and the Islander. Both ships are refurbished from other cruise lines, so they’re a bit older.

The Paradise was the first ship to join Margaritaville at Sea’s fleet. It leaves out of the Port of Palm Beach. Overall, the itineraries are a short cruise, typically 2-3 nights with a stop in Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas. There are a few other itineraries sprinkled in there that also go to Nassau. The ship has 658 rooms, 8 dining options, 5 bars and lounges, a spa, and a fitness center.

Margaritaville at Sea is a new cruise line to Port Tampa Bay. The Margaritaville at Sea’s newest ship, the Islander just had its maiden voyage in June. Overall, itineraries are a bit longer, typically 4-5 nights to Key West and Mexico. The Margaritaville at Sea Islander is bigger than the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise with 1,100 rooms and 13 bars and lounges. The ship also has a spa and fitness center.

While kids probably don’t care much about Jimmy Buffett, we thought that the ship had tasteful odes to him and was very consistent with the Margaritaville brand. Everything that could be connected to his vision of a tropical vacation was done. From the decorations to the names, like the St. Somewhere Spa or the Coral Reef Lounge, we appreciated every touch. It definitely put us into a Margaritaville state of mind!

I think every cruise experience is what you make it, but that doesn’t mean that they’re for everyone. Some people love cruises and some will never step foot on a cruise ship ever again! If you’re considering a Margaritaville cruise as your family vacation, I hope that this article was helpful in you deciding whether or not you’ll enjoy it. We really enjoyed it and found it to be a great, short trip for the weekend. If you’re nervous about whether or not you’ll like it, you could easily book one of their two-night cruises to test it out!