Comp cruise with Margaritaville at Sea with special guest Marc | Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast
How did I score a free (or nearly free) balcony suite cruise using a mix of credit card points and casino loyalty perks?
In this episode of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast, host Justin Vacula breaks down his December 2025 Margaritaville at Sea cruise and explains the strategy behind turning a comp cruise offer into a suite-level upgrade.
I cover the whole experience from start to finish: booking and pre-cruise planning, travel to the port, first impressions of the ship, and a detailed look at the balcony suite amenities.
You’ll also hear my honest take on dining onboard, what felt worth it, what I’d skip next time, and how Margaritaville at Sea compares to other cruises and travel redemptions.
We also get into the casino side of cruising: casino promotions, random drawings, rewards programs, and gambling strategy, including sessions of blackjack and craps, and how I think about offers and play when the goal is maximizing overall value.
If you’re into points and miles, MGM Rewards, casino comps, status matches, and travel hacking, this episode is packed with practical takeaways you can apply to your own trips.
Port days included Cozumel and Progreso, and I share what I did, what I noticed, and how I think about planning port time when you’re balancing relaxation, content creation, and value.
If you’re trying to learn how travelers consistently book discounted cruises, free cruise offers, and comped travel using a smart strategy, you’ll enjoy this one.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast
00:45 Margaritaville at Sea Cruise Experience
01:10 Meetups and Social Media
01:55 Booking and Preparing for the Cruise
02:17 First Impressions and Ship Details
05:22 Room and Amenities
06:33 Travel to Cruise Port
09:58 Boarding and Initial Impressions
12:40 Dining Experiences
21:57 Casino and Gambling Insights
28:15 Casino Strategies and Observations
29:56 Random Drawings and Rewards
30:46 Blackjack and Craps Sessions
33:04 Frequent Traveler University Conference
34:15 Cozumel Port Day
38:19 Progreso Port Day
40:50 Cruise Reflections and Future Plans
44:00 Upcoming Cruises and Status Matches
48:26 Holiday Plans and Rewards
52:19 Closing Remarks and Future Episodes
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Rough Transcript:
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures tales to be told, make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness. Pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world, at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. Today I’ll talk about my December, 2025 Margaritaville at sea cruise experience using a comp cruise offer from casino status and offer matching.
Mostly thanks to MGM rewards and the wonderful MGM [00:01:00] credit cards. Learn why Margaritaville at Sea was a good experience that exceeded my expectations and how you too can take a comped cruise and a balcony suite. Visit meetup.com/philly Miles and points to RSVP for monthly Greater Philadelphia Travel Credit Miles and points meetups I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
The next meetups in 2026. January 11th, February 22nd and March 22nd. That’s 2026 meetups. Find a link in the show notes for more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and x. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips and posts.
Find more information including select episode transcripts at HurdyGurdyTravel.com. On with today’s episode recorded December 21st, [00:02:00] 2025. Welcome back to the show, Marc. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is our eighth time together. Ooh, octopus or Octopi at Sea, and for today’s episode as well. Absolutely.
This was an interesting one. I took a bit of a gamble, pun intended to sail with Margaritaville at sea. People were down on Margaritaville at Sea. I was hearing people saying the food wasn’t so great. Uh, it’s kind of a dumpy cruise. I heard a lot of negativity, but I thought, you know what, this seems like a cool offer.
I can match. I can get a balcony cruise and let’s see how it goes. I think it went pretty well. Awesome. Yeah, I’ve been watching quite a few YouTube videos about Margaritaville. I know they’ve really stepped up their game. They’re really finding their strides in terms of becoming a premium brand.
I booked on the Islander ship, from what I [00:03:00] saw, this was with Costa or Costa Sailing, C-O-S-T-A. It was revamped in 2024 by Margaritaville, a refurbished ship, I suppose. And I thought it was really nice. But before we get into the details of the ship. I booked this with an offer match or perhaps a status match.
If you go to the Margaritaville at Sea website, they have a tab where you can submit an offer, submit status from casinos, cruises, and much more. You could even Google Margaritaville at sea offer match status match, and I was able to submit an MGM Platinum status that I gained mostly through spending on MGM credit cards.
Now both credit cards I have in 2025, and you Mark have both of them as well. So we’re looking forward to a prosperous 2026 with MGM rewards. Of course, I submitted my status. I submitted a celebrity balcony offer that I got also from MGM Platinum status, and [00:04:00] they gave me not only a balcony, but a balcony suite offer.
So I thought, yeah, let’s take this cruise looking what this would actually cost if you were to pay. Full price directly booking through their website. $3,949 for a 2026 cruise Double occupancy. I selected one guest and it was still showing 39 49, but if there was a way to get it to around 2000, maybe one can say I got about $2,000 in value for this cruise.
I only had to pay $200 in taxes and fees. $25 or so a day in Gratuities, but they gave me two devices, wifi, and the wifi wasn’t so bad. $40 in casino match play and an extra $20 in casino match play. They put the 20 in my room and then the casino, they gave me 40. So of course, America loves math. So [00:05:00] maybe after some of these rebates.
And items included maybe about what, 400 or so out of pocket for a comp cruise? I think a pretty good deal. That’s awesome. Yeah, for a week vacation, and this was solo for me, so I had this whole room to myself, and it was quite a nice room. I posted the video on YouTube. You saw the video as well.
What did you think about the room? That’s a massive bathroom, and that was a huge room bathroom alone. That’s crazy. The biggest bathroom I’ve had on any cruise ship, even compared to celebrity virgin voyages, this was huge. Two sinks. We had a huge mirror area with a heated mirror. I noticed after I took my first shower, it was jacuzzi elements inside.
That’s at least what the housekeeper called it. And the room itself was a very. Spacious king bed area, two nightstands. The plug setup [00:06:00] was right there next to the bed. I’ve gone on some older ships where you had to run an extension cord through the room to be able to plug things in. So it was definitely more modern, lots of different lighting throughout the room.
The balcony was really great. There were four chairs on this islander terrace balcony, so I think quite a great room to be in for that five night cruise. You could have invited some friends over. That’s right. But this was just me this time around and it w it went well overall, but let’s backtrack a little bit.
I booked a flight from Philadelphia to Tampa. It was Cruise Port Tampa Bay, and I didn’t find many great deals for direct flights. So I ended up flying with Delta this time for this domestic flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Tampa. It was about a two or three hour layover in Atlanta.
I don’t like having really short layovers or really long layovers, so about two or three hour [00:07:00] layover was pretty good. I used the Sapphire Lounge in Philadelphia using my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, and in Atlanta I used Delta Sky Club, the flagship lounge, the nicer lounge that they have there.
So that was nice. Got a lunch and a dinner out of that and not rushing in between flights. Got to the Hyatt, Tampa Bay. I used a. Category one through four free night certificate. This was well placed between the airport and the cruise port, and it included complimentary shuttle service. Checked in at Hyatt Tampa Bay in the evening.
I had complimentary breakfast as a globalist Hyatt globalist, which included ordering from the menu or the buffet. So it was very generous breakfast, a sit down restaurant area, and a buffet, and I think a high quality. Buffet. I could have gone to Clearwater, but that would’ve been in the opposite direction.
So that would’ve been ride sharing [00:08:00] from the airport to Clearwater, and then from Clearwater passing the airport and back to the cruise terminal. So that didn’t make much sense. A good experience at Hyatt Tampa Bay won’t go too much into that as this is more cruise focused, but I think that was a good option for that night before Cruise Hotel.
Did you do one of those stay in park nights before leaving Philadelphia, or did you fly directly, did you just drive to the airport and park there? I used Uber credits to go from my apartment to the airport. It’s typically about a 30 minute drive, so I just uber to the airport. I haven’t paid for airport parking in a while because Uber gift cards have been heavily discounted for a while through Costco online getting about 20, 25% off Uber gift cards.
I have American Express Super credit lift credits from the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Delta cards are giving me credits, so I mostly stick to the ride, share The convenience is pretty nice, and not having to deal with [00:09:00] airport parking, which has gotten quite costly too. Oh, for sure. Yeah. We just live further from the airport, so we’ve started doing that whole Hilton stay prior to a flight or cruise.
Then from the Hyatt, Tampa Bay, grand Hyatt, Tampa Bay. It was a quick ride share, maybe about 15 minutes, and I used Lyft this time as I had a specific Lyft credit to use, and the rates were pretty low. It had the terminal right on there. That was on my Margaritaville booking. So the Lyft driver was able to easily identify the drop off location.
I had some confusion in the past where the rideshare driver didn’t know where to go. There was no third party shuttle. Going to the cruise port. I like the third party shuttles because usually they know where to go and it’s usually about $10. And on the way out there was a $10 shuttle, so that was a really good deal.
But on the way there, I had to use rideshare and that went really well. Got into the [00:10:00] cruise terminal. Easy process. I even had a priority line, an express line, or lane as they called it. It was easy to get past security. It was easy to check in, get my cruise card. They took my photo and I got on the ship seeing lots of bird art and bird themes.
Jimmy Buffet music as This is Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet videos. There were birds on pillows, birds on the wall, bird art, and lots of Christmas throughout the ship. Sounds great. Yeah, lots of fun. It was definitely. The Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville theming throughout the ship. They didn’t take themselves too seriously.
It wasn’t pitched as a luxury cruise, and I don’t think it was pitched as a party cruise or like a budget cruise, anything like that. So I think somewhere in the middle would be pretty fair for this one, say Princess or not like that. Yeah, I think that would be fair. [00:11:00] Carnival usually has a lower reputation as being a booze cruise or a party cruise on a bunch of these.
But I think somewhere around like mid to higher range is pretty good. It was an older ship, but it was refurbished. The room especially as we mentioned, was really nice, and the rest of the ship was fine. It wasn’t at capacity either, so that was really nice. I think we were at maybe a half to two thirds capacity, so I didn’t seem to be crowded at all.
Sometimes the elevators had a little bit of weight, but I think that’s common, especially around peak times. So overall I didn’t feel crowded. It was easy to get on the ship, easy to navigate the ship. There were pools on the upper deck, one that was more of like a kid’s pool and more of an adult pool.
They had a hot tub. There were some water slides, not too many, and I believe a track on the upper outside of it, basketball court was there. So there were some activities, kids clubs that were inside. [00:12:00] They had different age ranges going up to teenagers. A lot of entertainment was there. They had a big theater, a lot of bars.
There were a lot of musicians on board, so a lot to do that they were providing for entertainment, dancing, and much more. So overall, I think a lot provided with this cruise. Did you go into shows like a daily shows at. Did not go to the shows, but I did hear some of the live music as I was walking throughout the ship, and I thought that was pretty good.
There were some comedians as well, and I did spend some time in the casino, which we’ll get into later in this episode. The food I thought was pretty good. Getting onto the ship was the customary lunch buffet. They had two bigger stations throughout. A lot of salad bar, veggie options, soup. They had the meat options like the hot dogs, the hamburgers, a lot of hot and [00:13:00] cold options.
Dessert area. I think the buffet wasn’t as spacious as some of the others celebrity ships I was on had multiple stations and some had something like a stir fry station or here’s some. Prepared salad stations where stuff is behind glass and they add ingredients, but this one didn’t have as many options in the salad bar, so I thought the buffet was below average, but there was also a Mexican station, which I thought was really good as they had tacos, rice bowls, quesadillas, and a lot of this was made to order.
There was also, I believe, a cheeseburgers in Paradise Station to go with the Jimmy Buffet theme, so you could get the burgers, the fries. And many toppings were there. There was a deli section, although this was additional cost if you wanted sandwiches, desserts and more. So there were a few options for lunch, but I think the buffet overall was below average.
But the food had good [00:14:00] taste. There was ample seeding throughout, which was a good plus. Yeah, a lot of folks complain about overcrowding, especially at a buffet on embarkation day. So it’s nice that you’re able to get in, get fed and get on with your day. And I was able to connect to the wifi pretty easily as well.
This came with wifi for two devices, as I mentioned, so it was nice. Didn’t have to wait to go to the room. Didn’t go to the room and wait for the luggage. I think the best play is to go straight to the buffet. Usually it takes some time for the luggage to be delivered to the room, so I just went straight to the buffet, waited, and it was ready when I got there.
The housekeeper greeted me soon after I arrived. I asked the housekeeper about when the cleaning occurs, and he said, it’s twice a day. You can pick times. So I set cleaning times for around breakfast when I left the room and there was a sign to say service room, and they were on it. I think the housekeepers did a really great job.
They’d make the bed in the morning. Later on, I would put [00:15:00] the service room hanger when I went to the dining room for dinner. So we had two a day. Housekeeping service, which was really nice. Nice. Some of the first cruises I went on, I thought it was excessive. What do you mean housekeeping? Two times a day on multiple cruises.
They really insisted on doing it. So at this point I just accept it. I think they want to be ambitious. They want to get more tips. They want to do the work. Good service. It’s nice to have it twice a day, especially if you’re a sweaty sleeper. Or you just want things done well after you get outta the shower, get new towels, have the area freshened, or for folks who get room service and they don’t wanna have like plates smelling up the room.
Yes. This one I didn’t get any room service that was all additional, but when I sailed with princess, room service was an option. And there were a lot of complimentary items on there that also had complimentary room service, at least with the higher package that I got. But I thought the princess packages were a really good deal.
You could get salads delivered to the room, [00:16:00] the veggie, burgers, drinks, and sides. So they did a good job with the room service, which gave some late night options, I think were pretty good. But that was princess. This one, the late night options were really low. It was basically pizza at one point. They wouldn’t even allow you to customize the pizza later at night.
Before the late, late night, they had the late night and you could pick whether you wanted mushrooms, four cheese, pepperoni, other toppings, and then later on it was just a square red pizza. So it was strange they did that, but at least they offered something. I’m not sure the deli was an option. I think the other stations were closed, maybe ice cream late.
Late, maybe not. But that was lacking because on other ships there would usually be at least a deli section, SA sandwiches salad bar. Dessert options and more that would be complimentary. But this one, as far as I remember, it was only the pizza late night, so around eight o’clock, 10 o’clock, it was just [00:17:00] pizza.
That’s pretty early to start cutting off like the rest of like food. Yes. Dinner I think was extremely generous because the main dining room was a big option and with the suite I got there was a separate suite menu, which had even more food options. Specialty seafood dishes, some extra vegetarian options.
I had Indian vegetarian at one point, which usually goes pretty well on the cruise ship. I usually go for the Indian, the Thai, the Asian food when I can, sometimes Mediterranean. And I found all of those throughout a lot of good food option, good taste, good portions. And if you wanted more you would just go to the buffet.
And the buffet had a lot of options. For dinner as well. It was unlimited starters. Then you would get one entree. They would charge extra if you got two entrees, but I’m good with one anyway. And then you would get the complimentary dessert and they had complimentary [00:18:00] black tea, complimentary drip coffee.
I think maybe the sodas were complimentary in the water, but I drank a lot of black tea throughout. The green. Tea was not complimentary, but the black tea was. I found that to be strange. That’s kinda interesting ’cause when you consider, when you buy ’em in the store, they pretty much cost the same. Yes. How much does the tea bag really cost?
They’re maybe trying to get you to get the drink packages where they wanted something like 20 or 25 a day for sodas. Maybe some coffees. But I’m not interested in that. I was fine with the complimentary stuff and the alcohol was included. In the casino as well when you were actively gaming. But from what I saw, the drink servers weren’t strict about it because there were watchers in the casino.
I suppose there’d be one person playing and another person who was not gambling, but just standing there and they were getting drinks too. So if you really wanted some alcoholic drinks, then the casino was the place to go for that. But not to get too far ahead, I had the Indian vegetarian. [00:19:00] There were some options like miso, salmon, cauliflower, steak, eggplant with couscous, lots of different dessert options.
They would change. Overall, I was really pleased with the dining room. They even gave me a solo table in a corner that was really quiet and had extra art next to a window, so I got a ocean view restaurant experience. I don’t like sitting at tables with other people or random people. I prefer to sit at a solo table.
I get some things done on my phone and just have more quiet, rather than being at a table of nine or 10 people, and that usually slows the service as well. I thought the service was really fast here as they would present water, ask you if you want drinks. They would come back, ask for the order, and maybe five minutes, and the starters came pretty quickly.
I think a weakness of other cruises was that sometimes you would have to wait even 30 minutes to start with the starters. Did you have a specified time to dine in the same service each night, or was it whenever you wanted to go? [00:20:00] That’s a good question. It was any time dining. I believe the dining room started for dinner at five 30.
So you would just walk in whenever after five 30 before maybe seven 30 or eight. Nice. I like that. I don’t like having the assigned time because with this, I used it as an opportunity for leisure midday, where I would take naps. I would just be in the room and. Not committing to a particular time. I like had the breakfast in the morning.
I thought the breakfast was also a good deal in the main dining room, although the menu did not change for breakfast or it didn’t change much, but they had many options. They had healthier options as well. They had customized omelets, customized eggs. They had yogurt, they had oatmeal. The presentation on the yogurt I thought was funny is they brought the cup of yogurt.
They didn’t even put it in a bowl, but they made sure to slice vegetables and slice the banana. So there was a bit of a contrast there, [00:21:00] but I’m not picky about that. It was just funny. They brought out a cup of yogurt like I was at A IHG or Best Western that gave you the continental breakfast that you just have to pick it out of a bowl of ice.
And then did you have excursions at this point or were you doing as far as like during the day? Zero excursions. The arrival day was the launch buffet. Then we had a sea day, then it was a stop at Cozumel, a stop at Progresso, and then the final Sea day. That was the five night cruises. I thought that was a fair mix to have a sea day at the beginning and a sea day on the way out.
Some of these can be. I quite packed, but I suppose it would be hard to be packed on a five night. I went on a European cruise and there were four port stops in a row with no break in between. My feet were really hurting towards the end of that, but I was determined. Absolutely. So what’d you do at your excursions when you were off the ship?
I mean, before that there [00:22:00] was the casino and that I think was the main thing, is this was a casino offer. I scouted the room, saw what was all available. It was mostly slots, so not playable house, edge of five to 10% probably. The video poker was extremely lacking. There was shorting in the pay table where typically most jacks are better video poker.
We’ll pay one credit for jacks or better, two credits for two pair. But a lot of the machines we’re only paying one credit for two pair, which really tanks the game to the unplayable. Territory. The best I found though had two credits for the two pair and the pay table as usual, but it was six five Jacks are better rather than The best we’ll find is probably nine six, which gives about a 99.5% return.
So the six five jacks are better, significantly lower than that, I believe, around the 95, 96, but to me that doesn’t even matter. It might as well be zero [00:23:00] because I’m not playing it. So video poker was not an option at all. There was a Texas Holden game. There was one table. I looked what the rake was, how much the casino takes out of the pot, and this was also unplayable.
I saw a $50 pot and the dealer took $10 out of the pot. So that’s a really extreme rate, and then a bigger pot. The dealer took $25 out of the pot. And if you’re a good player at a mid stakes game and you’re hourly, something around 20, 30 an hour, potentially higher, and they’re taking $25 out of the pot, that’s really wild.
I’ve played in games where they would take $5, $6 rake, maybe a promotional fund, and even with a total rake of eight or $9 compared to a rake of $25, I think the best player in the world is not beating that game. The strategy might be just win a pot and leave. But I didn’t even bother with that. It [00:24:00] was really bad.
So I didn’t play poker. I ended up with blackjack. They had a three to two blackjack game. So the regular payout, if you bet, $25 a hand below 25, they had six to five blackjack where they were promoting as blackjack, happy hour, $5 blackjack. But then they’re shorting you on the payout of blackjack and the game is unplayable.
So it was $25 Blackjack, decent rules. They did not allow surrender. And the dealer hit on soft 17, which is not good for the player. So the house edge of maybe around one to 1.5%. And the savior of this game was that you can present a credit card at the cashier cage and they straight up give you cash, no cash advance, and it codes as a purchase.
No additional fee. So for day one, I charged a thousand dollars to my Altitude Connect card. Which should give 4% back on cruises. If I’m charging a thousand dollars, gonna get $40 in cash back [00:25:00] on that transaction. So playing a game with a house edge of around 1% makes sense. Give them a little action for about 30 minutes to an hour and leave.
Because we’re not here to straight up gamble. We’re here to use this as a tool to generate positive expectation. We’re playing a negative expectation game. But the credit card to cash puts it over to a positive game. It’s a great plan. Concerned they, they want you to play to, to lower you back into getting more casino offers.
In the future, they do, but at a certain point, it’s probably not worth it if we’re playing a really high amount at the table because we’re getting that 4% cash back with the alts to connect. Or maybe listeners will use a card giving three x on cruises if they still have it. Or perhaps they’re working on a signup bonus or they have some kind of offer stack a lot of different ways to get an edge, but typically with the cruises, maybe around that three to 5% range.
Unless you’re working on a signup bonus, that also has a bonus category. But if you’re [00:26:00] only getting something like three or 4% back, you’re playing for hours and hours. The house edge is just going to eat you alive and it’s not going to be worth it. It gets to be a point where you might as well just pay for a cruise or get a different comp cruise rather than.
Straight up gambling and being in the casino for 10 to 20 hours on the ship, you’re just not coming out ahead on that and it’s a horrible deal. And with all the comp cruises we had the past episode about comp cruises, I’ve gone on eight cruises this year and could have gone on more. So being in the casino for 10 hours is just really lighting money on fire for sure.
With celebrity, it was a little different because you put your player’s card in the machine and you do a room charge. In this case, you can get a lot more down on video poker. And the video poker was much better on celebrity. Other cruise lines have better video poker as well. But when I’m handing a credit card to a cashier and they’re giving me cash, this is human engagement and they’re likely paying attention to how many times I’m doing [00:27:00] this, which led to night three of the crews where I noticed that there were suits, there were casino staff that were watching what I was doing.
They were walking around the room and I wasn’t doing anything special. I wasn’t counting cards, I wasn’t altering my bets in some interesting way. I was just flat betting $25 on blackjack and I noticed a lot of attention. And on previous cruises I would buy in multiple times at a table game and eventually they would back me off.
So after seeing the heat on night three of playing, I figured just not to play anymore and not deal with it. So how much did you get through as far as on the credit card? $3,000 in spend, so not what I wanted. I would’ve liked to do a lot more in a playable video poker game, but the video poker was not playable, and the human engagement limited the amount that I can do.
They’re on to you, Justin. They’re on to you. Yep. They think we’re doing something wrong, but we’re not. But what I’ve heard from other staff on other cruises was, we’ve seen you charge multiple [00:28:00] times, and we know you have the cash on hand. So why do you keep charging? To your cruise account when you already have the cash and they just view it as suspicious or bad.
And I told one of the representatives that the main reason I’m in the casino is because I’m getting a rebate on when I buy in. So that’s why I’m charging to my room because I’m getting credit card rewards, otherwise I’m not going to gamble. And they still said, oh we reserve the right to limit room charges and we’re not gonna let you play anymore.
They saw me as a skilled player, I believe, and if I was there and just. Making crazy plays like I saw with some other players. There was one guy who was doubling. He had nine and the dealer had 10, and that play is just atrocious. And there was another play where he had 11, the dealer had six and he didn’t double, so he made the super aggressive, bad double having a nine versus a 10.
But then when he had all the advantage in the world, an 11 versus a dealer six, he didn’t dump. So he really didn’t understand what was going on, and there were even [00:29:00] times where the dealer made like grunting noises or sigh noises, or there was one time where he probably should have hit, I say probably should, the strategy would recommend such.
He had a 12 versus a dealer 10, and he didn’t hit the dealer, put his hand on the shoe where all the cards were, and jingled the shoe trying to get the guy to hit is my understanding of it. And the guy didn’t. So if you’re standing on a 12 versus a dealer 10 and doubling nine versus dealer 10, all that money is going to go pooh in a matter of time.
Yeah. ’cause there’s absolutely no better time to double than when you’re holding 11 and dealers showing six. Some listeners may contest that, but that’s one of the best scenarios that we can have. 11 verse six. It is just really wild that he missed that opportunity, but it’s definitely up there and basic strategy.
Land for sure. There were some random drawings. There were times [00:30:00] where they called a, I think a random person on this random drawing. I didn’t see any signage about, oh, there’s gonna be a drawing at this time or that time. I could have missed something maybe in a flyer, but I would hear, oh, welcome casino guests.
We’re gonna call lucky winner for $200 in free play, and they’d call someone in the room and the prizes range 200, 100, 1 50. I remember. So that was nice of them to have what seemed to be a hot seat drawing. I didn’t win any of these drawings on previous cruises I did, so that was quite nice. One time I think I won a thousand dollars in free play.
I’d have to go back in the archive on that, but that was a nice little expected value booster. If I were to have won one of the drawings for a hundred or 200, that would’ve been quite nice. Absolutely. You can’t go wrong. I did play. I played sessions that were about 45 minutes to an hour to give at least some action and not seem like I’m just hitting and running, doing the room charge, and taking the cash and leaving.
So I gave some action for [00:31:00] longevity and at least I got three sessions out of it. So that was pretty good. But there were some times where the blackjack table wasn’t open or there was only one person. And I don’t like to play when there’s only one person at the table. I’d rather play. At a crowded table, so that way I don’t have to make as many decisions and I’m not giving up as much to the house.
So I ended up at the craps table. It’s been a while. I don’t particularly play craps. I don’t find it to be a positive expectation game, but in this case, giving up about a 1% house edge, just betting the pass line and playing when it’s a busy game, there were people doing all the center action. They were making all these parlayed bets, hedging.
Betting hard ways and just giving up so much in house Edge. You can play the pass line on Craps and be okay at around 1%, but once you’re getting into all this center action, these side bets all this stuff that’s just insane house edge. But they were doing it and I liked it because they were slowing down the game so I didn’t [00:32:00] have to make as many decisions and wasn’t risking as much.
A lot of folks will make that a social game too. I see a lot of chatter. When I’m seeing crap scheme going on, yeah, it was the blackjack table. There was some chatting here and there. That could be an element of it. I would’ve preferred to just play video poker by myself, had the quiet and played at my own pace and got more through.
But that wasn’t the case. So the casino probably below average, although it was interesting, they gave the direct cash and I mentioned the match play vouchers. I was able to put the coupon on the table. $10 match play, you put up $10 in money. Although at blackjack it was interesting because the minimum bet was 25, so 10 of your money was bonused.
So when you put up a $10 match play, it’s as if you bet $20 and then they pay you accordingly should you win the bet. So it was nice they gave the match play for sure. A little incentive there to get you in the door probably. And it definitely [00:33:00] was a contributing factor to getting me in the door.
Absolutely. A little break for announcements I’ll be speaking at and helping organize a frequent traveler university conference in Irving, Texas near the DFW Airport, FTU Dallas. Joining me May 1st through the third 2026 at the Nylo Las Colins Hotel by Hilton For social events and educational sessions.
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This episode is also supported by CardPointers. If you have multiple credit cards like me, CardPointers automatically activates bank offers and knows which card to use. For maximum rewards card pointer saves me time and money. Use my link card [00:34:00] pointers.com/HurdyGurdyTravel. For a discount on annual and lifetime plans, I’m here today once again with returning guest Marc.
We’re talking about my Margaritaville at sea Comp cruise experience. We’ve covered the food, we’ve covered the casino, we’ve covered the decor, and then the port stops. The first port stop was Cozumel in Mexico. I thought Cozumel was quite nice. It seemed to be. Extremely safe. A lot of people throughout.
There was the port area that was mostly shops, vendors, and then a taxi service was about 10 USD to get to the downtown area. I took that rather than just going to the shops and going back on the ship and there was a lot of Christmas, a lot of decor lighting, Santa Claus photo opportunities with Christmas characters.
[00:35:00] It was pretty cool. Christmas in Mexico, taking this cruise in December. Of course, quiet streets, an ocean front area. I saw a pelican. There was art on ships that were right by the boardwalk or waterfront area. Lots of restaurants. Lots of shops as usual. Some malls, some grocery stores. Downtown area was quite nice.
I suppose a freemium. Cruise port as you could have just walked and gone to the cruise port shops, but then if you were to walk from the cruise port to the downtown, that might have been about an hour, 15 minute walk, not so feasible compared to a taxi ride. That was about maybe 15 minutes. Did you have lunch off the ship then?
My strategy for cruising is to eat before leaving the ship. If I’m full before leaving the ship, I could explore the outside. I’m not buying anything. I’m not spending money there. I come back to the ship and then have dinner. In [00:36:00] some cases, I’ve found Starbucks locations, so it’d be a place to charge the phone, use wifi, take a break, sit down, have some air conditioning, and use some Starbucks credits.
Starbucks gift card balance, perhaps stars. This is work. Not all locations have accepted stars. I still have hard rock unity comps from the Hard Rock MasterCard that I no longer have, but the points remain, and unfortunately it got canceled on that one. But there have been hard Rock Cafe locations I’ve seen, and there was one here.
But again, if I can have lunch before leaving the ship and then just go back on the ship and eat, I don’t find much value in spending money on food, especially if I’m only off the ship for about three or four hours. I think this one. Maybe had four or five hours off the ship, so it wasn’t too much of a long time.
But on some ports we’d get there in the early afternoon or the [00:37:00] morning, and then the call to be back on the ship is around 6:00 PM or 8:00 PM So in that point, at that point it might be worth it. Gotcha. So you’re just like sharing some video and things like that. Looking around, ticking the sites.
Relaxing. Yes. I found two public square locations with a lot of the Christmas decorations, uploaded those on the Hery Gerdy Travel podcast, YouTube, and there was the waterfront area. So lots of sightseeing, some videos, lots of photos. I documented this as I was cruising. So definitely lots of art, lots of Christmas, and the waterfront area was really nice.
Sounds great. Some beaches too, for those that. I wanted the beaches. I think that was popular. You had good weather, I’m guessing. Yes. It was again, December and about 75 to 80 degrees, so I’m sweating, walking in Cozumel and Pennsylvania. It was maybe 30 degrees and windy. Yeah, we had snow too. While you were [00:38:00] gone I think.
Oh yes. I came back and there was melting snow, so that was funny to see. I missed the snowfall. But a nice time. I think if you live on the East coast in colder weather to cruise in December and January and get out of the cold and snow for sure. End February. We get snow then too. Yep. Maybe March Progresso was the other stop.
I think this one was really below average. There were people on the shuttle with me. You had to take a shuttle to get from the cruise stop to the area. Okay. And there was barbed wire on this highway and multiple security checkpoints to get there. And then once you got to Progresso, there were buildings that were boarded, more barbed wire, straight animals walking the street, and a lot of people just walking around and some makeshift shops that were in disrepair and getting off the shuttle.
There were people approaching me, massage. Massage, oh, come to my [00:39:00] shop, this and that, or people. Just approaching me very often throughout the time that I was walking. So I didn’t like that. I think a lot of people wouldn’t like that in Cozumel. People weren’t approaching me and it was very clear.
There were just storefronts and if you wanted to look, you wanted to buy something, you would simply go in the store rather than be walking and having all these people approaching you. Yeah. I find that Nassau was very when you get out of their port area and get on the main streets, then it becomes very much like.
Morning to sell me cigars and have Kelly get her hair braided and whatnot. A lot of people really trying to hustle to make money. Yes, so I don’t think a great stop, but I did leave the turn the shuttle area to go to the beach, walked around the beach. It was extremely windy. I didn’t record any video at that point, and there wasn’t too much to see on the beach anyway, went through the downtown area.
There was a lighthouse, there was some street art that I really liked when people weren’t approaching me every other minute trying to sell me [00:40:00] something or a walking tour allegedly that they want money for. Just went back to the shuttle. So I was maybe an hour, an hour and a half walking around.
Progresso, maybe even shorter than that. Cozumel, I, walked longer and felt safer there. Gotcha. Well, and kind of boring, well guess my introvert nature on this cruise. Let me sit alone in the dining area. I’d like to play video poker rather than being at the table and here just people approaching me and trying to sell stuff or potentially scam me or send me down in this alley or something is I just don’t wanna deal with it.
And you’re learning which ports of call you like. And then as you’re planning your next cruises, you’ll, if this is going to be for the long haul. You’ll know what cities you wanna return to, you had fun at and which ones you could pass on and never visit again. I think Margaritaville was really limited.
You didn’t have as many options compared to celebrity that I’ve taken many times. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, not as many [00:41:00] options, and the Islander ship was specifically leaving Tampa is my understanding. So it’s only going to go to so many places where a celebrity might have. Five or six ports or more ports.
Listeners chime in the comments how many ports they have. That’s just off the top of my head. Probably more, but definitely a lot more options. With the other cruise companies, they only have what, two ships for Margaretville with a third on the way. I think Tampa is their only departure city, so they’re, they are unlimited, but as they grow, maybe a lot more places.
I think the room got very high marks the nature of the offer, very high marks to get the balcony suite, the buffet, maybe average. The Cozumel stop, I think, was above average. Progresso definitely below average casino, below average coverage. Overall, I was happy, especially since it was a comp offer. I [00:42:00] didn’t come in with high expectations.
I didn’t come in with low expectations. I think that’s the way to go with these offers if you’re unfamiliar with the cruise ship, if it’s a comp offer, not to get your hopes up too much and then be disappointed. I think that’s a fair way to go into these. Absolutely. I would definitely do it. Again, if they gave me a comp offer like that, I would absolutely not pay 2000 or $3,000.
To cruise with them or really cruise with anyone in the climate of status matching. Offer matching, we might see more offers in 2026. We have the My Vegas offers. I’m still getting offers from celebrity from my video poker play with them. And I have MGM Platinum, MGM, gold giving me two more cruises next year, potentially.
Caesar seven star status, giving me another cruise. This’ll be a one-off unless they have another match or somehow invite me back. But I think it was a good experience overall, and I’m happy I did it. Did you [00:43:00] find any other folks that make to be hang out with or anything like that? I was solo throughout this, sat solo in the dinner.
I sat solo in dining situations, didn’t approach people didn’t approach me, didn’t go to the shows or any kind of social events, caught up on sleep midday. So I mostly kept to myself on this one. Chatted with the staff, the waiters and the staff was quite friendly. The housekeeper was good too. I know reading’s a hobby of yours as well, so I’m guessing.
Yep. I brought the Nintendo Switch, so that was later at night listening to podcasts, listening to YouTube, watching YouTube. So I had a lot to do. Did you check out the TV at all? I know Princess has a lot more channels than some other of the other. Cruise lines. Did you check the TV at all?
No, I didn’t check out the tv. There was a tv. I didn’t check it out. Yeah. About to say no TV at all. Really. That was ambiguous. I’m gonna cut that. Wow. [00:44:00] Zero. As we’re coming to a close, you have a cruise coming up as well? Yes. My girlfriend Kelly and I are gonna be on the Rapture of the Seas. We have a three night, a very short bruise from Fort Lauderdale.
It’ll go to Bimini and Nassau. They’ve been in Nassau before. Kinda know what to expect there, but had not been a biding before and have not been on Royal Caribbean in quite a while. We’re looking forward to Rhapsody of the Seas. And this is from MGM Gold status? That’s correct. I actually did just get under the wire for the end of the year.
I actually got the platinum status and we were anxiously awaiting for that second email to come around to offer the week long cruise to get with platinum status. That’ll be for Balcony Cruise. This is, the current offer is for Ocean View, and they did have bid opportunities to bid up for the chances to win higher or nicer rooms.
We did put things to short cruise. We did put in offers low offers, very low offers at the minimum for [00:45:00] larger ocean view rooms. Didn’t decide to go towards any balconies just because higher minimum bid, and that’s a very short cruise. So why bother? At this point, we have not won any of the larger rooms so we’ll, but we’ll be quite happy with whatever they give us.
And we’re recording this at the end of December, so you got the status in and you just have to book these, I believe by January 31st and take them at a later time, so you still have many months there. And congrats to you on the MGM Platinum status. I got back from today’s meetup in Willow Grove, and multiple people said the same thing.
Hey, I just got platinum status. Oh, I got platinum in November. So getting it towards the end, and I think with both MGM credit cards in possession, it’ll be even easier to earn status. You’ll be earning it faster than the final months. Absolutely. That’s the main goal. We also bundle that I have the Hilton Surpass cards, the bonus free night certificate that you get with [00:46:00] spend or hitting $15,000 spend on the card in a year’s time.
We actually make it even more of a adventure. So rather than just book some random hotel night at a cruise port hotel we actually look forward to making it an extra bonus night and kind of splurge a little bit as far as, doesn’t cost us any money, but splurge in the staying on a very nice property before cruise and you don’t have international travel coming up.
That’s usually what people do for. Certificates of international travel, but for domestic then you’re finding it was a Conrad property, right? Correct. The Conrad property including the night for the resort fee has a value of like $850. And let me tell you, there is absolutely no way I’ve ever spend $800 per night for a hotel.
I wish I had that kind of money to burn, but I do not. But I’m happy to put in the spend throughout the year. To state a property like that. I’ll make you a promise that if I suddenly had lots of money like that, I still wouldn’t spend [00:47:00] $850 on a hotel night. No. But to live like the rich folks for a night, absolutely.
Let’s do it. Certificate, yes. $850. Absolutely not. And the world of miles and points, it’s not only getting the comp nights and saving money on travel, but it’s the. Better experience with the travel with Margaritaville at sea. People might not rate it so highly if they had an interior room or a base room, for example, but the balcony suite made it a better experience and I’m sure your upgraded Hilton stay in a way, will also be a better experience versus the random La Quinta.
The furniture may or may not be from the 1980s, but it will be okay for a one night stay before a cruise. Gotcha. Absolutely. You will plug all of your devices on the opposite side of the room or use extensions that you’re probably not supposed to bring on a cruise ship. But La Quinta will work for all those wind points that we’ve been accumulating.
I do have to say hats off to the La [00:48:00] Quinta at Joliet, Illinois. I’ve stayed there and that was nice. Okay. We’ll make fun of another brand in the future. And of course, I really like the Wyndham Desert Rose and Desert Blue in Las Vegas especially. On weekends booking for maybe 8,000 or 9,000 Windham points and getting quite nice room with no resort fees.
So more cruises. More cruises to come for 2026. I’m looking forward to it. We’re recording December 21st, 2025. I’ll be heading to Lancaster, December 22nd, 2025. Wanted to get this recorded before going there. And after Christmas, going to Boston, staying at the Encore Boston Harbor property, and of course riding the MBTA, the T, and seeing the holiday trains out there.
So looking forward to that and meeting with some of the train fans in the area. Some had already reached out to me, so I’ll be happy [00:49:00] to meet them there, including past podcast Guest Purple Princess Perry. Of course, follow her on Instagram and listen to our past conversations on the podcast Perry from the Netflix show Love on the Spectrum, and that will be December 29th, flying to Boston, December 30th, flying back.
It’ll be a short trip. I have an Amex Fine hotels and resorts credit to use before years end, so I think Boston will be quite good for that, for a quick trip. Sounds like a lot of fun. Lancaster for the Strausberg or Strausberg Railroad, also holiday trains in that area. So looking forward to those adventures.
Anything else? Any Christmas plans coming up? Christmas plans. Yes. Such soap, family stuff. And then of course looking forward to the cruise. We’re in the shorter window as far as getting out of here and going down to Fort Lauderdale. Looking [00:50:00] forward to that. A little flurry of credit card application and success there.
So waiting for all that to come together. It’s Christmas brought to you by Giant and Weiss, as we’ve definitely received a lot of great grocery items and grocery rewards from both chains. So happy to have those once again as that’s been a Christmas tradition for years now. Yes, for sure. Just credits for everything.
And as far as. Free gas, I’m gonna pay for gas, and I keep that spreadsheet going, just one gallons of gas I’ve received over the course of the year. It’s been great. Highly discounted gas as we’re purchasing gift cards, getting points, and there’s a little bit of an exchange there, but definitely highly discounted gas and highly discounted groceries too.
Absolutely happy to do. My freezer is currently filled with frozen veggies. I’ll be working through those as they were completely free at Weiss with points. The Weiss points just earned from buying DraftKings [00:51:00] and other gaming gift cards, so that’s, free ish. As we’re getting credit card rewards, we’re giving up about a half percent to play these through an online blackjack, so that’s getting more towards that free territory, for sure.
The cruise, I’ll definitely call it a comp cruise, but I’m hesitating to use the word free. In many cases, it’s gotten wild for you that even you got extra freezers that you’ve been using to store some of these items and then give them to family members, bring them different social occasions. So that’s a funny problem to have.
The first world problem of lots of grocery rewards. Yes. Lots of, we, soda and Weiss, free frozen vegetables, taking them into work and for a potluck. We had recently the veg, not the vegetables, the soda. Also giving vegetables to friends and family and be like, Hey, here you go. I have extra.
I can’t use all this stuff. This is crazy. The Starbucks iced coffee that was free with points was far more popular than the vegetables, but the veggies are still free. Yes, [00:52:00] we love it all, but just we love saute more. Saute, roast ’em, add seasoning, do something and be all right. I’m still after you to make visual soup for yourself.
Maybe I’ll get you there eventually. Yeah, I’m just using the microwave. I’m just taking the easy cooking approach at this time. Alright, anything else? No, I think that’s about it. Alright. Thanks for coming on. Thank Thanks. Questions this time, and we will hear back from you, mark, soon for episode number nine if we’re keeping count correctly.
Absolutely. Sounds great. Thanks for having me. Maybe a desktop mic using your Dell credits for the next time, maybe. Everyone. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and x. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram.
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