The opposite of the Paradise: 620 balcony cabins
Out of 1100 cabins, 620 open onto a balcony. More than half the ship. Add 52
suites, 179 ocean-view cabins and 228 inside. The balconies are small, three to
five square metres, but they exist and you can step out, which is not the case
everywhere in this fleet.
One reservation, and it matters: the eight cabins adapted for a wheelchair
are all inside or ocean-view categories. None has a balcony. A wheelchair user
therefore cannot get a balcony on this ship, whatever the budget. The line
publishes none of these numbers itself: they come from third-party databases and
are not contractual.
Ex-Costa Atlantica, rebuilt in Belfast
Built in 2000 at the Kvaerner Masa-Yards yard in Helsinki, Finland. Two
hundred and ninety-two metres, twelve decks of which eight carry cabins, 16
lifts, Bahamas flag, home port Nassau. She left Costa on 12 January 2020,
changed hands again, then was refitted at Harland and Wolff in Belfast in the
spring of 2024. First cruise under this name on 14 June 2024.
A refit does not make steel younger. The specialist press says so plainly:
for all the work, the Islander remains a ship designed in 2000 and it shows in
places. The interior layout, inherited from another era, makes finding your way
confusing, and the buffet is named as the weak point of the food.
Spring 2020, and a live lawsuit
Under Costa colours the ship went through a major outbreak alongside at
Nagasaki, Japan, in April and May 2020, during repairs. The peak reached one
hundred and forty-nine crew. That episode belongs to her history, not her
present, but it is part of what should be sayable when a client asks.
More recently, a passenger filed suit in Florida after a fall on 16 April
2025 on a pool step described as loose and wobbly, with worn anti-slip tape. The
allegations have not been decided. They bear on routine maintenance, and that is
why they are mentioned.
Where she sails, and the other hulls
Four to seven nights out of Port Tampa Bay, Florida, towards Key West, Mexico
and the Caribbean, with longer voyages announced for 2027. Our inventory counts
one hundred and seventeen dates, twenty-three in 2026, seventy-four in 2027 and
twenty in 2028.
The Paradise is smaller and has almost no balconies. The Beachcomber enters service in
January 2027. The Costa Atlantica page tells this hull's earlier life, and the la flotte au complet page brings
the three together.
A brand licence, not a subsidiary
The Margaritaville name belongs to Margaritaville Enterprises, LLC. The
cruise company is called Classica Cruise Operator Ltd. and operates under
licence. It is not a subsidiary of the hotel group and it is not Jimmy
Buffett's company: it is a shipping operator that bought the right to use a
name.
It started at the end of 2016 under another marque, with a single ship out
of Florida. The licence agreement dates from December 2021, the current marque
from May 2022. Three ships today, all former Costa hulls.
The advertised fare is not the final fare
Two daily charges stack on top of it. The first is the service charge,
posted automatically to the onboard account each night, higher for suites. The
line writes that it is fixed, applied to all guests, and that it cannot be
adjusted or removed. That is the exception in this trade: most lines let the
passenger adjust it at the front desk. The latest increase, on 1 February 2026,
was not announced and was found by guests who had already booked.
The second is a fuel supplement, per person and per night, on the Paradise
only. Since February 2025 a service charge also applies automatically to
optional services: cabin service, spa, specialty restaurants, drinks. The rest
is standard: meals, shows, kids' club and fitness in the fare; alcohol, Wi-Fi,
excursions and casino extra.
Reduced mobility: what the line writes in black and white
Courtesy wheelchair to get on and off, not aboard. Maximum width of
sixty-six centimetres for a personal device, stowed in the cabin to keep
corridors clear. Above eleven kilos, a powered device will not be lifted by the
crew. Companion required if the traveller cannot dress or eat unaided.
The notice periods are long and firm: ninety days for a sign language
interpreter, forty-five days for specialised equipment or a dietary need,
thirty days for pier assistance. At the tender calls, Belize, Grand Cayman and
Roatan, a missed call is neither refunded nor credited. And the line itself
writes that its ships do not offer full medical services.
Where a dispute is heard, and how fast the clock runs
In Florida, Orange County, under the general maritime law of the United
States. The contract provides for mandatory arbitration of non-bodily claims
above a threshold, and a class action waiver written in capitals. Bodily injury
claims go to court, not to an arbitrator.
The real trap is not the venue, it is the clock. Thirty days' notice and six
months to sue on an ordinary claim; six months' notice and one year for an
injury. No Quebec licence is established for this line. It is the agency that
brings the protection from here: a licence from the Office de la protection du
consommateur, a separate trust account, and the Compensation Fund for Customers
of Travel Agents.
