Margaritaville at Sea Paradise - Key West & Grand Bahama from Palm Beach
New for 2026, Paradise stretches her Palm Beach schedule beyond the quick Freeport hop with this 4-night loop that adds a full day in Key West. A lazy sea day of duty-free lounging leads into Duval Street and the Hemingway Home, then the ship doubles back east for a day on Grand Bahama before returning home.
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Ship Details — Margaritaville at Sea Paradise
View full Margaritaville at Sea Paradise details
Year Built
1991
Tonnage
52,926 GT
Passengers
1,680
Crew
590
Decks
10
Class
Classic
Itinerary & Route Map
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Where this cruise calls, day by day
4 ports and 1 sea day over 4 Nights.
- Day 1
Port of Palm Beach, FL
United StatesDepartNot Palm Beach - the port is in Riviera Beach, a working cargo harbour with one small cruise terminal that handles short Bahamas runs rather than week-long ships. Embarkation is quick and low-key compared with Miami. Palm Beach International is about 20 minutes away, which is most of the port's appeal.
- Worth Avenue in Palm Beach for the window-shopping and the vias off it
- The Flagler Museum, Henry Flagler's 1902 Whitehall mansion
- Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach for dinner near the port
- Peanut Island, a short boat ride from the port, for snorkelling and the Kennedy bunker
- Getting ashore
- A single small cruise terminal at the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach; Palm Beach International is about 20 minutes south and Fort Lauderdale roughly an hour.
- Best months
- Nov-Apr
Day 2 · At sea
- Day 3
Key West, FL
United StatesPortOne of the few Florida stops that is a genuine port call rather than a turnaround. Ships berth either at Pier B on the old Navy mole or at the Mallory Square pier, and both put you within a few blocks of Duval Street. The island is small enough to cover on foot and crowded enough by noon that the early hours ashore are the good ones.
- The Hemingway Home on Whitehead Street and its six-toed cats
- Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, the best swimming beach in town
- The Southernmost Point buoy, if only to get the queue over with
- Mallory Square's sunset celebration - only worth planning for if your ship stays late
- Getting ashore
- Ships dock at Pier B (the former Navy mole) or the Mallory Square pier depending on size; both are a walk of a few blocks into Old Town, with no tender involved.
- Best months
- Dec-Apr (Sep-Oct is hurricane peak and midsummer is airless)
- Day 4
Freeport, Grand Bahama Island
BahamasPortFreeport's cruise berth is Lucayan Harbour, an industrial container port with nothing around it - Port Lucaya Marketplace, where the shops and bars are, is a 15-minute taxi away. Grand Bahama never fully recovered from Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and the big resort at Lucaya has stood largely shut since. Carnival's Celebration Key, further along the same island, has absorbed much of the traffic.
- Port Lucaya Marketplace and Count Basie Square
- Lucayan National Park's caves and Gold Rock Beach
- Taino Beach
- Snorkelling Deadman's Reef at Paradise Cove
- Getting ashore
- Ships dock at Lucayan Harbour; nothing is walkable and a taxi to Port Lucaya takes about 15 minutes.
- Best months
- Dec-Apr is dry and cooler; Aug-Oct is hurricane season and this island sits in a frequent storm track
- Day 5
Port of Palm Beach, FL
United StatesArriveNot Palm Beach - the port is in Riviera Beach, a working cargo harbour with one small cruise terminal that handles short Bahamas runs rather than week-long ships. Embarkation is quick and low-key compared with Miami. Palm Beach International is about 20 minutes away, which is most of the port's appeal.
- Worth Avenue in Palm Beach for the window-shopping and the vias off it
- The Flagler Museum, Henry Flagler's 1902 Whitehall mansion
- Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach for dinner near the port
- Peanut Island, a short boat ride from the port, for snorkelling and the Kennedy bunker
- Getting ashore
- A single small cruise terminal at the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach; Palm Beach International is about 20 minutes south and Fort Lauderdale roughly an hour.
- Best months
- Nov-Apr
What to know about this sailing
The one traveler thread about Paradise on this run is a news post about the line's unlimited pass; these notes draw on it, 8 threads about the ship, 10 about Key West and Freeport on other ships, and the itinerary data.
Freeport is on this itinerary because Key West cannot be sold on its own: the cabotage rule that puts Victoria on Alaska loops means a foreign-flagged ship out of Palm Beach needs a foreign call to carry passengers to another U.S. port. So the four-night goes out to the Keys first, with the sea day on the way, and doubles back east to Grand Bahama before the short hop home. It is new for 2026, which means nobody in the archive had sailed it by February; the one thread that touches Paradise's longer Palm Beach sailings is a 2025 news post about an unlimited-cruising pass that covers them, and its two replies were a jab at the line and a joke about a retirement home. What exists otherwise is the two-night Freeport loop this ship has run for years, plus a mention of a Nassau stop on another Paradise sailing, and those reports transfer to the ship half of the experience. Key West is the added value and the reason to pick this over the two-night, which lists at barely less. The one rival in the catalog on the same U.S. port is Virgin's Scarlet Lady four-night to Key West and Bimini at more than three times the fare, adults only, and it is the ship posters kept naming in 2023 when someone who had enjoyed a calm, all-ages two-night on Paradise asked for a three- or four-night with a younger crowd and fewer drunks; the consensus was that any short Florida cruise brings the booze-cruise crowd unless it is Virgin.
Key West advice in the archive is a decade old and consistent, mostly from Carnival passengers doing the same Key West and Freeport pairing from Miami: the Hemingway House tour ends beside Blue Heaven, which fills to capacity and can mean a long wait; Kermit's key lime pie gets named in every thread; there are no beaches worth the day, so the plan is Duval Street, the Southernmost Point and Mile Marker 0 on foot, or the ship's bar-crawl excursion, which one poster had repeated on three visits. Freeport advice is older still and predates Hurricane Dorian, so the 2016 and 2017 threads about banana boats and the straw market describe an island that has changed; the port notes above are the current picture. Nothing in the ship threads changes the ship page's account of Paradise. This suits South Florida drivers who want Key West by ship at the lowest fare in the catalog, and groups celebrating something who care about price more than polish; it does not suit anyone expecting the ship to match Virgin's version, or a beach day in Freeport without a taxi and low expectations.
Questions about this sailing
Are there beaches in Key West worth planning a cruise day around?
No, according to posters in 2016 and 2018 threads on the Key West and Freeport pairing, one of whom said flatly that there are no good beaches on the island. The day people describe is on foot: the Hemingway House, whose tour ends at Blue Heaven where the wait can be long, Duval Street, the Southernmost Point and Mile Marker 0, a slice of Kermit's key lime pie, and for the sociable, the ship's bar-crawl excursion, which one poster had taken on all three of their Key West calls. The 2017 advice was to plan the beach day for Freeport instead, which predates Hurricane Dorian.
Is a 3- or 4-night on Margaritaville at Sea Paradise a booze cruise?
The archive is split. A poster who took the two-night with family in 2022 found all ages and a respectful crowd with few party people, and when they asked in early 2023 for a longer trip with a younger but sober crowd, the replies said three- and four-nights from Florida draw the drinking crowd on every line except Virgin. Others in 2023 had watched the YouTube walkthroughs and called it a drunken booze cruise on an old ship. A group booking it for 40th and 50th birthdays in 2025 was mainly asking about the bar's drink cut-off.
What is the cheapest way to cruise to Key West and Freeport?
This sailing's lead-in fare is the lowest in the catalog for a Key West call, and the two-night Freeport-only loop on the same ship is only slightly less. For comparison, a 2024 thread from a solo traveller with a five-hundred-dollar budget found MSC's three-night Miami, Key West and Freeport sailing achievable for two people in an interior cabin, with the advice to search by departure port rather than by ship. Solo travellers pay close to double on most lines, so per-person lead-in fares only hold for two sharing.
Onboard Amenities
Cruise Highlights
About the Ship
What Travelers Say About Margaritaville at Sea Paradise
Reviews of the ship itself — the same for every Margaritaville at Sea Paradise sailing. Distilled from 9 traveler threads, Cruise Critic member reviews and travel blogs.
Margaritaville at Sea Paradise is the budget end of cruising done with a Jimmy Buffett wink. The ~1,680-passenger ship runs short 2-night round-trips from the Port of Palm Beach to Grand Bahama/Freeport, and its whole appeal is selling a cheap, no-pressure island getaway wrapped in tropical theming, live music, and frozen drinks. It's an older vessel - built in 1991 as the Costa Classica - so the vibe is small, casual, and party-friendly rather than sleek or modern, and it draws a mix of first-time cruisers, partiers, and South Floridians wanting a quick escape.
What People Love
- Genuinely one of the cheapest ways to cruise from Florida, with 2-night fares sometimes around $150 per person before extras
- Warm, attentive crew is the standout - repeat guests cite friendly bartenders and dining staff who remember them
- Short, low-commitment 2-night Palm Beach-to-Bahamas itinerary is ideal for first-timers testing whether they like cruising
Common Complaints
- The ship is a 1990s-built vessel (former Costa Classica) and frequently reads as worn or dated - chipped paint, tired finishes
- Heavily polarized reviews: experienced cruisers who've sailed major lines often rank it at or near the bottom
- Low base fares are offset by stacking extras - port fees, fuel charges, Wi-Fi, mandatory valet parking, and no included soft drinks or alcohol