Time to go home. Boo Hiss!

It was still dark when I woke up and I went out to the balcony to take a look at where we were. We were already coming down the channel by the businesses and I was now wishing I had sat my alarm for earlier to see us pass under the bridge all lit up. Oh well, maybe another time.

This would be our last day of not having to cook and clean and my last day of having the same old breakfast consisting of an egg omelet and Danish. Oh how will I survive now?

Back to the room to finish our last minute packing and we were out by 7:55am.

On our way out, I noticed there are some rooms with hardwood floors. I actually liked them. I had to snap a picture. I wonder if it's just a luck of the draw if you get one of these rooms?

We decided to go down and see if we could find a place to wait for them to call our zone. As soon as we found some seats and I headed to the bathroom and came out, they were calling our zone shortly after that. We were walking off the ship at 8:22am and the process was so incredibly quick and efficient. We were dressed like we were headed to Alaska...long pants a tee and a hoodie. lol

When I seen our luggage sitting there waiting on us, that's when it hit me that we were not being walked back onto the ship again. Our vacation was officially over and that started to sink in.

We grabbed our bags, did our face recognition and off we went. Things are so different now than several years back. No waiting in line to talk to someone where they ask you what you are bringing back, where you are going and give them a list of the items that you purchased. No paperwork to fill out...nothing. It's just a look at my face and out you go. Super quick these days. We stepped foot off the ship at 8:22 and was getting in our Uber at 8:28 if that tells you anything.

It was a quick ride to the airport and would cost us $32.11 to get there.

Sakari yelled "Look at this fish tank!" It was so pretty.

Our flight didn't leave Tampa until 3:30pm and we were flying to Nashville for a layover and then on to Ohio. We had quite a bit of time to kill but managed to snag a table with chargers and spent out time watching movies and catching up on the outside world we left behind almost 2 weeks ago.

After flying to Nashville we had delay after delay and waiting on the flight attendants and Pilot to arrive that a flight that was supposed to land back home at 10:55pm turned into not arriving until 1:30am for something that was supposed to only be a 45 minute flight. Ugh! Coming home is always the worse. We didn't make it home until 2:30am and we all had work and school in the morning. I need to plan better.

So to sum things up. We really enjoyed the Margaritaville at Sea and our adventure to two new places for us. It was just what we were looking for.

The positives we liked

*The beautiful ship and great staff and service

*The shows were good (other than the first comedian for us)

*Being able to get an actual can of pop at the casino

*Free drinks at the captains toast

*Honorable mention of the size of the safe in our room on the first cruise

*All the lines moved quickly from the buffet/omelet station, getting on and off in port

*Embarkation and debarkation had to the the fastest, most efficient I've ever witnessed

*Free extra food options were yummy (pizza, cheeseburgers, tacos)

*Progreso excursion offered by the ship was one of the best

*The ship doesn't feel crowded

*Always finding a place to sit in the buffet is always a plus

*The refrigerators being empty and not filled with crap that you will never buy and is in your way.

*Adding a corn hole course to the ship was very different than others (haven't seen another ship with that yet-although we did miss playing ping pong like we always do).

I guess a lot of this has to do with the size of the ship and less people than we are used to cruising with. I'm not sure. But I would highly recommend this ship for sure.

The negatives:

*The entire buffet not being utilized with not many choices

*The hours that Cheeseburger in Paradise and the Mexican Cutie are open is just not long enough. They need more options open later at night other than pizza. Maybe even desserts would be nice.

*Daily Service Charge ($20/pp daily for a balcony) is quite expensive compared to other lines. I believe NCL and Carnival charges $16/pp and RCCL charges $18.50 for balcony rooms. What makes Margaritaville more special that they charge more? I mean this ship didn't go the extra mile with servers in the buffet going around refilling coffee or offering a Danish or just little "extras" that you will find on other ships.

*Missing the wet clothes string in the bathroom-I'm not sure why these were removed?

*No wash rags in the staterooms? Like why?

*Dingy/dirty looking towels and wash rags. I think it's time to replace them. They are old and give people the impression they are dirty even when they are clean.

*The beds are very hard. I like a firm bed but this is just too much.

I did want to mention something else I just remembered.

It has been reported that you pay your DSC and they will NOT allow you to remove them like other ships do. I have never ever removed them but I know you see a very long line at the end of the cruise of people trying to get theirs removed for what ever reason. Just know on this ship, that's not an option and they won't allow you off the ship if you try to stiff them.

I'm sure there's many other things I'm forgetting and wanted to mention but should have wrote them down.

I hope you enjoyed the review and I hope you get a chance to sail on the Margaritaville at Sea Islander. We may end up trying the Paradise and they are coming out with another bigger ship

Built for Costa Cruises, the Costa Fortuna will be the largest vessel in the Margaritaville at Sea fleet at over 102,500 gross tons and accommodating approximately 3,450 passengers. Featuring more than 1,340 staterooms, 13 passenger decks, expansive outdoor spaces, and a soaring 8-story center atrium, the ship will be reimagined by Margaritaville at Sea in the signature island-inspired design central to the line’s success.  

I wish everyone safe travels whether it is by sea or land and hopefully you all will find me again on our next adventure some time this summer...no matter where it takes us.