The Margaritaville at Sea Islander balcony suite room exceeded my expectations, but the casino left some to be desired.
I booked a comp cruise on the Margaritaville At Sea Islander ship through a promotion on their website asking for casino loyalty statuses and cruise offers. I submitted my MGM Platinum status (earned from MGM credit card spending and BetMGM play) and a balcony cruise offer from Celebrity (from MGM Platinum status) and received an invitation to a balcony suite, including wi-fi and casino match play.
Great Room
The room was easily the most spacious of any cruise I had taken, and the bathroom was especially large. I had a large couch next to the king bed, a spacious balcony with four chairs, and multiple closets. The bathroom had a large sink area with two sinks and a large shower. Housekeeping was on point with two room refreshes a day and fun towel animal art. Two large water bottles were included and regularly refilled or replaced.
Inside The Casino
The casino wasn’t busy, but offered some opportunities for +EV play, including the ability to use a credit card for cash with no fee or cash advance at the cashier cage. The Video Poker was horrible with the best being 6/5 Jacks or Better. Other paytables shorted the usual two-credit two pair payout to one-credit. I skipped Video Poker, but would have played if the playtables were better.
3:2 Blackjack was okay at the single $25 minimum bet table. Surrender was not an option, dealer hits on soft 17, but double after split and resplitting were permitted. 6:5 ‘Blackjack’ was also offered with lower minimums, but I can’t possibly recommend playing this horrible game. Craps was another option with a $10 minimum bet.
When Blackjack was busy, I played Blackjack. When Craps was busy and Blackjack was a deadspread, I played Craps, betting just the pass line. My approach was to charge to my Altitude Connect credit card giving 4% cashback (RIP Chase Sapphire Reserve 3x) and play for about an hour, gambling a little to appear to give action rather than just taking cash and walking away, which would likely back me off. I also had comp drinks while playing and was happy the casino was entirely non-smoking.
War on Happiness
I stopped after three nights of play because I noticed additional attention to my play from casino staff. Rather than coming back and getting limited or backed off, I wrote this article, edited videos, and worked on other tasks. The cruise was nice with a large room, good food, and stops in Cozumel and Progreso.
As always, gamble and use credit responsibly and intelligently.
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