Margaritaville at Sea (formerly ''Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line'') is a
cruise line that operates two-day voyages out of
West Palm Beach, FL
West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon
The Lake Wort ...
to
Grand Bahama Island
Grand Bahama is the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas, with the town of West End located east of Palm Beach, Florida. It is the third largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays. The island i ...
. The company was originally founded as Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line in late 2014, and began operating its first cruises in February 2015 with the now retired ''
Grand Celebration''. In May of 2022 the company was rebranded to Margaritaville at Sea following a partnership between Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville brand. Their sole ship the ''Grand Classica'' was refurbished and renamed the ''Margaritaville at Sea Paradise''. Before the cruise line's rebranding, ''Margaritaville at Sea'' was previously a small chain of Margaritaville style restaurants and bars that were included or later added to the newer
Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...
ships starting in 2015 with the ''
Norwegian Escape
''Norwegian Escape'' is a ''Breakaway'' Plus-class cruise ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), a subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. She was the fleet's first ''Breakaway'' Plus-class ship to be delivered and was designed with ...
''. The partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line ended in late 2019. The restaurants were later unbranded and converted into other dining venues.
History
The cruise line was formed after
Celebration Cruise Line ceased operations following a grounding incident that left its only ship, the , damaged beyond repair. Former Celebration Cruise Line executives formed Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and purchased the ''
Costa Celebration'' to take over the route formerly operated by the ''Bahamas Celebration''. The cruise line's first cruise was scheduled to depart on February 1, 2015. Due to technical difficulties, the voyage was cancelled. Repairs were made and the ship set sail on February 3.
The company is currently majority-owned by the family of former Norwegian Cruise Line President and CEO Kevin Sheehan.
On September 19, 2017 FEMA chartered the ship for a 90-day period through December 2017 to house the
National Guard in St. Thomas, which was devastated by Hurricane Irma. The ship returned to service on December 23, 2017.
It was announced in December 2017 that the cruise line purchased the former Costa ship ''neoClassica''. It entered service on 13 April 2018 as the ''Grand Classica''.
Beginning in September 2019, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line began running Humanitarian missions to Grand Bahama Island in the wake of
Hurricane Dorian.
In November 2020, the cruise line sold ''Grand Celebration'' to an undisclosed buyer,
and in January 2021 she was beached in
Alang
Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.
Demographics
As of the 2001 Indian census, Alan ...
for scrapping.
In September 2021 all cruises were cancelled as ''Grand Classica'' was chartered to
Entergy in
to house over 1500 workers restoring power to the area following
Hurricane Ida
Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 200 ...
.
Rebranding To Margaritaville at Sea
On December 8th, 2021
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is the name of a United States–based hospitality company that manages and franchises a casual dining American restaurant chain, a chain of stores selling Jimmy Buffett–themed merchandise, and casinos with lod ...
announced the partnership with the cruise line to rebrand it as Margaritaville at Sea while still retaining the same ownership and CEO as before. The last voyage under Bahamas Paradise is scheduled to take place on April 16, 2022. Upon the completion of the final cruise, the ''Grand Classica'' will sail to the Grand Bahama Shipyard for a rebranding and refit of the ship's interiors and venues to be themed under the Margaritaville brand. Also during the refit the ship will be renamed the ''Margaritaville Paradise''. It is scheduled to begin sailing for the rebranded line starting April 30th. It will continue to offer 2 day cruises from the Port of Palm Beach to Freeport, Bahamas.
Fleet
References
External links
Margaritaville at Sea Website{{Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line
Cruise lines
Transport companies established in 2014