Margaritaville at Sea's 'Luxurious Grand Terrace Suite': my honest review
Welcome onboard ‘Paradise’, the first ever cruise ship in the Margaritaville at Sea fleet. If you haven’t found me before, then hello - I’m Fraser and (long story short) I love to cruise. In this post today, I’m going to share with you my thoughts on the Suite-grade cabins onboard this cruise ship, which might just help you decide if this is a room you’d like to try in the future. On their website, Margaritaville at Sea advertise this room as a ‘Luxurious Grand Terrace Suite’ - will it live up to this name? Well, keep reading and let’s enter the room together…
Before we get started with having a look at the room, please do support my content creation journey by heading over to my YouTube channel and clicking subscribe - every single view and subscriber over there helps my channel to grow, so thanks a lot! While you’re here, why not SIGN UP to my newsletters? These are a really easy way to keep in touch with everything that’s changing here at ‘Fraser at Sea’ - there’s so much more to come - just CLICK HERE to sign up now!
If you would like to see my reviews of other cabins onboard this cruise ship, just click here to head to the Margaritaville at Sea section of this website, where you can find all of my reviews! There’s Interior (also called ‘inside’) cabins, Oceanview cabins, and a range of Suite options - you won’t be short for choice on this little ship!
Let’s get started with a few pictures of the room. I should warn you before you look at these pictures - this is an old cruise ship (launched back in 1991) - I think you may be a little surprised. Best put your drink now, incase your jaw hits the floor…
Before we go any further and explore the bedroom, can we remember that this room is an a budget cruise ship? Margaritaville at Sea are advertising some incredible fares on this ship (granted, not in this cabin type), but can you believe this room exists on a ship you can cruise on for $99?! To find out more about the ‘small print’ of some of the deals on offer from Margaritaville at Sea, click here and let me explain…
First impressions of this room? Pretty impressive, right?! I couldn’t believe how spacious this room felt, and how ‘homely’ it felt. I’ve been on so many ships where the furniture feels quite could and really lacks personality, but this place feels like it could be a little apartment on land - really nicely done! It’ll be interesting to see how this ages in time - I’m not convinced that these fabric sofas, for example, are the easiest to keep clean, unless they carry stock of additional covers etc. In a world where you’re constantly applying sun cream etc, I’d worry this could be a bit of a nightmare.
Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and stay tuned for my room tour of this suite - would you believe there was also a large digital screen for you to complete workout classes on?! I’d never seen this before - you can see it in the above photo - it’s the thing that looks like a mirror to the left of the sofa. Impressive, isn’t it?!
So, let’s talk amenities. Margaritaville at Sea explain that each of these Suite cabins features:
Private balcony (we’ll come to this shortly)
Deep spa jetted tub (again, stay tuned - we’ll get to this)
Separate shower
Living room with pull-out sofa bed
DVD player (when did you last even see a DVD player?! I thought these were a thing of the past, but apparently not…!)
TV
Desk
Private ensuite bathroom with shower
Hair dryer
Storage space
Phone
Now, let’s head into the bedroom for a look.
Again, a really lovely space. A few thoughts from my side on the bedroom:
Bedding - this looks to be the same as what was available in the other cabin grades - I’d have hoped that guests paying for the top suites on the ship would have a higher quality of bedding, but this didn’t seem to be the case
Lighting - I found the bedside lights to be quite a harsh, bright light. That said, I rarely use a bedside lamp, so not a huge issue!
The wood - I mentioned this in my Oceanview cabin review, but there’s lots of wood in here! I suspect this wood has been untouched by Margaritaville at Sea. While not a huge issue, I do feel it dates the room - updating this wall tone could really elevate the room against what is a lovely, light colour palette everywhere else in the room!
Ready for a great bathroom? Here we go…
There it is - the jetted tub that I referred to earlier in this article. My only question in here - how nice is this for a budget-friendly cruise ship?!
I particularly like the double sink opposite the bathtub, and I also really love the fact there’s a separate shower, so you don’t have one of those awkward ‘over the bath’ showers as your only option. Big thumbs up all round in here!
Let’s finish by moving to your outside space - it’s time to check out your private balcony…
It’s a big space, isn’t it? It’s worth noting that very few cabins onboard this ship have their own balconies (infact - it’s only the suites that do!). If you scroll up to the image at the very top of this post, you’ll see that most cabins on Paradise are Oceanview - I guess it’s probably to do with the age of the ship itself.
I thought this balcony was a really nice size (and shape!), and it felt pretty private due to the curve. As you can see, if you’re sitting on the lounge chairs, your next door neighbour could see you, but they’d have to be deliberately looking around the side. However, it would be very difficult for them to see into your room (helped by the privacy glass that’s been used for the suites here.
Now, you need to remember that you’re on an older ship here, so don’t be alarmed if you see areas out here needing a re-paint, or if you see black marks on the furniture. On older ships, you tend to find they can leave little ‘deposits’ around the decks of the ship, which appear as little black marks. This is nothing to worry about, and I actually thought these balconies were in pretty decent condition in this area - much better than the top decks of the ship.
There we have it - a full look around a ‘Grand Terrace Suite’ onboard Paradise, the first cruise ship in the Margaritaville at Sea fleet. The million-dollar question - would I recommend this cabin to you? From what I could see, this is a great room, and I’d love to try cruising in it. If you can score this room for a good price, I’d say ‘go for it’, but remember you’re not on a new, fancy cruise ship. Your room will be beautiful if you opt for this cabin type, but it might be the nicest space that you spend time in during your cruise. I’ll show you more around the ship in due course - she’s a graceful old lady, so just keep this in mind when you’re pricing up your trip!
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Now, head over and check out the rest of my Margaritaville at Sea content - thank you, and have a great day!