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@@daVii639 thank YOU for watching! 💙

@@user-re6lx3zh6k it’s a ton of fun! The boarding process begins after the ship has reached zero count, meaning all guests from the sailing that just ended have disembarked the vessel. The back-to-back guests are then the first to board, followed by Diamond, Platinum, and suite guests. Typically this happens between 10:30 and 11, but all depends on when the ship gets into port and how efficient port operations are.

It sounds like overall, we had a VERY similar experience on the ship! You even mentioned something that we thought but didn't call out - the canapés did taste a bit stale the couple times we had them! We didn't spend a ton of time in the Solarium this time around as we were with Rocky's family, but it did look quite lovely and any time we passed through I felt a little more at peace. :) Thanks so much for watching and sharing your similar experience with Solstice! We're hoping that 2026 dry dock can address some of the maintenance things we experienced (if not before) and look forward to giving more Celebrity ships a chance! I kind of want to try Concierge-class on one of the Edge-class ships for comparison. Curious if that experience is more elevated...? Decisions, decisions! -Mark

Happy to help any time! My hope is that you have one of the best cruises out there! In terms of what else to pack... we posted our entire "must have cruise items" on our website. Check it out. We need to add bug spray to our list - that's a great call! www.thiscruiselife.com/cruise-products/

Yes, we originally went out to the forward of the ship to our favorite secret space, but then realized, we were looking directly into everyone's balcony/terrace cabins. I'm not sure why the doors aren't marked with "crew only" for these, but we didn't want to encourage folks to go out there so wanted to give an alternative. Hopefully, they were nice when they asked you to leave, considering there were no "crew only" signs! ;) MAS Islander and all of her Spirit-class sisters have this beautiful space down on Deck 3. We've seen a bunch of wildlife from this deck over the years! -m

You're very welcome! And we agree; there's something special getting to experience local culture and meeting amazingly friendly hosts! :) -m

We didn’t see them checking any IDs while we were back there. ;) With that said, after an injury on the next to last day of our sailing, the water slide was shut down. I would imagine they are going to be more rigorous going forward on who can/can’t ride. Of course, we always recommend following all rules to ensure a safe and fun vacation experience! :) -mark

Carolina! It was a great surprise getting to sail with you on those inaugural cruises. Every time we saw you, our hearts will filled with joy and happiness. We miss you and hope to sail with you again soon!

Hey there! Thanks for checking out the full review!. :) Sailing back-to-back, we purchased the Ultimate Dining Chill on the second sailing so we could tell folks about the upcharge dining options - which were fantastic. However, for any inaugural voyage we do, we only eat at included options throughout the sailing as that is what the majority of cruisers will get to experience. Our first sailing, we loved the food - and this was before it started getting even better on the second cruise. We ate at Mexican Cutie Cantina, Cheeseburger In Paradise, Frank & Lola’s, and Fins every day and stand by our rating of love for the food. As we mention in the didn’t love, there were definitely some issues with breakfast and some buffet options, but we found that you didn’t need to eat there (and didn’t need to pay more) if you don’t want to. Similar to what we love about Carnival food: we love all of the fast-casual options! We actively advise cruisers to avoid the Carnival buffet as there’s so much better food on board. With the options I mentioned above, we ate well every day of the inaugural sailing with enough variety across 4 days never to get bored. Fun fact, even when purchased the Ultimate Dining Package on the second sailing, we still ate at the included options every single day. I might recommend skipping the buffet options on board and going for the included fast-casual ones as we had a great dining experience. Again, thanks for watching through and sharing your own experience. Hoping the buffet options (both Port of Indecision and the MDR breakfast you reference) continue to improve. We’ll spend more time checking them out next time we sail Islander for sure! -mark

@@thiscruiselife I am happy to support the other channels and love your videos! I wanted to meet you onboard however every time I say you guys you were filming and I did not want to interrupt. I was beside you at breakfast at the Cutie Cantina but you were filming the breakfast burrito! LOL. I agree that, at least for the near term, guests need to skip the buffet for everything and go for the Cheeseburger in Paradise or Cantina for lunch, upgrade to the Islander dining room for breakfast and either do the Fins MDR or Islander for dinners! I, too, believe that Islander will get the processes improved and learn from their growing pains. I think this is a great competitive product out of Tampa but not for a cruiser looking for an upgraded or even partially upgraded experience. This is a low price cruise but if you have to upgrade everything, from dining to boarding and disembarkation, it now is no longer becomes a budget cruise. Keep up the great work!

@seemoreseascruises3791 darn it! Just interrupt next time; we literally don’t use even a quarter of the stuff we record anyway. lol ;) As for who this experience is for… I agree; if someone loves the Edge-class ships from Celebrity for their new cutting-edge design, or Seabourn for the over-the-top service, this probably won’t live up to expectations. I do think the market they can draw from has more potential than just budget-conscious consumers tho. Those looking for a smaller ship that’s been gutted and redone will love this ship/experience. In fact, Islander was in better condition than the newer Celebrity Solstice we sailed earlier this month! With that said, it’s pretty clear to us they’re going after a Carnival consumer with a very similar lineup of offerings. Lastly, and I might get flack for saying this, I actually think I prefer MAS drinks and variety over Carnival. 🤯 We didn’t get to try many these two sailings because we wanted to experience everything else, but the drinks we did try were all absolutely fantastic. We also very much enjoyed them on Paradise. Next time we go back, I think we’ll invest in the drinks package so we can try each of the bars and drinks on board - for research purposes, of course! :) -m

Hi Anthony! It's Mark! Refresh my memory... which dinner place? :) Sorry, it feels like all we did was EAT on board the ship! LOL ;)

@@thiscruiselife The one at the back of the ship, fins dining. You gave us and another table a lesson about the history of the ship!

They did have a comedian on board who did a couple shows. So many people said he was the funniest they had ever seen!! We thought he was pretty good. Comedy tasted vary widely, of course. Haha

Thank you for watching and for your lovely words!!! Really means a lot. And, yes, QMN definitely had us feeling all the feelings! Such a beautiful experience for us. 💙 -m

Hi there thanks for watching! You hit the nail on the head for one of the smoking sections on the ship. It’s deck 5, starboard, forward of Bonsai Sushi. Enjoy your cruise!

You just made our night! Cruise nerds unite!!! :) Thank you for the kind words - so happy you enjoyed the video and that you’ve become part of our little cruise community! 💙 -m

Woohoo! Thank you for sharing this cruise life of ours. Hope the video brought you a lot of smiles throughout!!

Thank you so much! We had some amazing human beings make epic cameos during our cruises and in the full review! ;) It was so amazing getting to meet and spend some time with you. Thank you for the kind words about the video and what we shared; sometimes we worry we’re the only ones that get excited about all the details! 😂 So happy to have you as part of our cruise community, GiGi!!! -m

That’s a great question. On the very first day, I had a fellow cruiser ask about veggie burgers - and so we found a crew member who escorted us to the deli where they serve them. I don’t know if it’ll always be at this location, but I can confirm they exist. As for the Main Dining Room, I just pulled up several of the menus from our sailing and there was always a (V) vegan option: STUFFED PORTABELLA (GF) (V) Pepperonata, chickpea crust, barley pilaf CAULIFLOWER STEAK (GF) (V) Roasted vegetable couscous, pomegranate chili dressing VEGETARIAN THALI (GO) (V) Cottage cheese, vegetables, lentils, pilaf Unlike other lines, you are not required to order this 24 hours in advance which is nice, however, we do always advise speaking to the maître d when you board to let them know about any dietary restrictions and preferences. We’ve always found the best luck accommodating requests with this approach. Sorry for the long answer; hope it helps! -mask

Personally, if you’re ok with losing out on some soda, I would risk it. The security guard in the terminal point blank said wine and cans of soda are acceptable. Now, this was also on the very first voyage, so she may not have been fully trained. That’s why I say as long as you’re willing to forfeit it, I’d try. As long as you report back on your results! ;)

Love all of your cruises! That's fantastic. Please let me know if you need any help with your booking (I am able to complete the booking process for you)! They don't have an LGBT meetup officially scheduled. ~Rocky

Haha. They really did a great job at creating events and activities for everyone on board! We were never bored over the entire two sailings. And thank you so much for your support of our channel by watching our videos. It means the world to us!

We really appreciated all of the little touches throughout and believe the plants (even if they're not real) step up the appearance of the ship. Given that we started to see improvements on our second sailing, we have confidence that things will continue to get better!

We don't believe that they'll be adding refrigerators to the interior cabins. When reviewing the website for the Islander cabin types, mini fridge is completely missing from the amenities for "Cozy Interior Staterooms".

Even though there's no fridge mentioned on website description for interiors, I still went ahead and called Margaritaville at sea to see if they'll put them in later. First representative in reservations said no plans to include fridges. I called back and second representative in customer service said they'll soon be updated to include fridges.

@@mariapinto5385 Sounds like we'll need to sail Margaritaville at Sea Islander again soon to get the true answer! The sacrifices we make for this channel... 😜

On Carnival’s investor call yesterday, an analyst asked if they had concerns about impact to the operations with new players and discounted offerings. The CEO shared he wasn’t concerned “Regradless of what some nameless brand chooses to operate.” With Carnival’s size and scale, likely true today, but who doesn’t love a good underdog story?? Excited to see what’s ahead for MAS as we really do believe they have the ability to swipe market share from the big guys! Thanks for watching! Hope it brought you a lot of smiles throughout!

Thank you for joining us for the review! We had so much fun putting this one together - a definite favorite! Glad we were able to give you a feel for the ship and the amenities. And we agree, Spirit is a classic! Fins up! -mark

You’ve got me feeling all 🥰🥰🥰! Thank you for the kind words and for being part of our cruise community. Hope you found a lot to love in the video like we did! -m

That’s amazing! We tell everyone about Walter ourselves; great guy. So blessed we had the chance to sail with him again and share several dinners together. Thank you for the kind words about the video and for being part of our cruise community, too! :) -m

It’s good to be back! Had soooo much fun with this video - hope it brought you lots of smiles along the way. Appreciate the kind words and support!! -m

Great point! Sadly the weather wasn't great for us when we were on board so we didn't have a chance to enjoy those features. Carnival Waterworks and Bolt: Ultimate Sea Coaster are identical to the experiences found on Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration, which we feature in our Full Review video from the Celebration.

You made our entire day today. It’s comments like these that honestly keep us going and remind us it’s more than just Rocky’s mom we can help out there!! (Tho we are super happy she subscribes! lol) Thank you for recognizing our focus on the positive. When we started the channel, we did so to bring the joy of cruising to others and have always believed in leading with positivity. We are always honest and share the other stuff too, but we always find something good about a cruise, regardless of the experience. Really appreciate you being part of our community and glad you found us. Can’t wait to keep sailing and sharing our journey with you! -mark

We're so excited for you to check this ship out! The Margaritaville team did a great job at redesigning her and we think you're going to love it. How awesome that you've booked one of the suites! They look amazing. We know we'll be going back on her, it's just a matter of when, so stay tuned!

Thank you for watching! We thought the launch party would be a fun way to get people excited for the premiere of the full review. We appreciate you joining in the fun!

Thank you for watching! It was great meeting you as well. Hope you enjoyed the cruise as much as we did!

It was really good! Ate there several times!

That's a great observation! We love the Spirit-class and as soon as we learned about that we recorded a video comparing this ship to the Carnival Miracle. You should check it out if you haven't already: th-cam.com/video/pHmWXKPmGv4/w-d-xo.html

Sounds great! Just an FYI, though the Islander sails from Tampa. West Palm Beach is the home of Margaritaville at Sea Paradise.

Thanks for watching! We'll be working on many more food reviews in the coming weeks as well, so be prepared to get hungry!

Thank you so much for watching! And that ship rating was all Rocky’s doing. He’s so creative! :)

Love the tribute to Jimmy Buffet. Was just reading about his life.

We learned so much about Jimmy from close friends this sailing. We had no idea all that he was involved with and how he gave back so much. Definitely have a new appreciation for the man and the legacy he left behind. 💙

Blushing! Thank you for watching! What was your favorite part about the ship that you saw?

@@thiscruiselifeThat answer is too obvious!