Lee Cruiser

Yes. This was our third cruise since the start back. On our January cruise, our room was ready and our cards were waiting when we boarded around 10:45. It's just inconsistent now, even on the same ship some will be ready and others not. I'm thinking you are probably right about the grapevine, but who knows.

I would completely agree with that assessment. That was my point as well with the playlist shows. They could have been much better talent wise. Though I felt the three Center Stage singers were good.

We definitely enjoyed our cruise, even with some things we didn't like. We are already booked on Mardi Gras for the same week next year, as well as both of the coming sister ships (Celebration next September, and Jubilee in 2024). I'm curious because I mentioned to my wife that the outdoor Cucina seating looked nice. How did you get that seating since the app just assigned a table? Did you request a change when you got there?

Our music preference falls more in late 70's and 80's. We are in our mid 50's. There were a few songs in the RR show that we knew, but we weren't really impressed with the performers.

The three main Center Stage singers were some of the best we've seen in all of our cruises.

You are right, entertainment preferences are definitely subjective. However, we only wish we were still in our 30's, we actually have children in their 30's 😀

Since they are staying in your room a simple solution would be to just put one of your luggage tags on their bag. I know that a lot of people are saying it doesn't matter, but on all three of our cruises since return our luggage has arrived quickly. On Mardi Gras cruise last week, our luggage was there around 12:15 even though our room wasn't ready then.

For the return trip we've used Cortrans Shuttle Service several times, including last week on the Mardi Gras. We've always had good results from them. We did their 8:15 am shuttle last week. Their charge is $25 per person each way. For the trip to the port: We always fly in the day before. Many times we've rented a car and dropped it off near the port. Last week we were arriving later, so we decided to use Cruise Control private transportation to get from MCO to our hotel at Port Canaveral. It was expensive, but worked out really well as they picked us up and the door right after we had our luggage.

That's interesting. I wonder if it is based on responses to other questions>

Yes, I completed it as well. No doubt they are trying to find out if you are willing to pay for for certain styles of restaurants. It was $65 for a dinner show. They probably won't like my response to that one.

On our Mardi Gras cruise last week, we did the dining room four nights. The other three we did Cucina, Chibang and Guy's Pig and Anchor. All three of these are included right now. As someone else said, you use the hub app to check in for Cucina, Chibang, as well as the main dining room. Something to keep in mind is that the check in started earlier on Mardi Gras than on most other ships. You could start checking in around 5:10, even though they didn't really open until 5:30. With Guy's Pig and Anhor BBQ you just show up. There is no check in for it. Had the Filet there the first night, but my wife and I were not impressed with the BBQ. The desserts were really good though. I put together some other thoughts about our cruise. You can check it out here if interested:

I know that this is a lot of information. We had a great cruise and looking forward to being back on the Mardi Gras again! I am going to give some likes and dislikes first, followed by some details. I will try to answer any questions that I can. Dislikes: 1. The inconsistency in having rooms available for priority folks. We are platinum. Our room was not ready until right at 1:30, though we were allowed to drop off our bags. However, many other platinum cruisers’ rooms were available when they boarded. They were allowed to get their keys and stay in their rooms upon boarding. 2. Main theater design/ layout. The main theater is on just two levels and stretches back further with very little room between rows, unlike many ships. Good luck trying to have a good view of the stage if anyone is sitting in the two rows in front of you, which is very likely as the theater is not really large enough for the crowd on the ship. 3. Shower Pressure. This was perhaps the weakest pressure we’ve had in some time. 4. Elevators: (While I would prefer to take the stairs most of the time, my wife cannot physical take the stairs for more than one flight or so.) Not sure why you would put the buttons to one side of the elevator instead of at the entrance. In a full elevator, it’s impossible to see what is already pushed. Most of the time others would check for you, but on two occasions, we were told that our floor was already pushed only to go right by that floor. Also, the mid-ship elevators aren’t nearly large enough. They always seemed to be packed. They had 8 in that area, but it probably would have been better to split these off into two banks as having 8 together caused other problems. As usual, lots of people had no elevator etiquette. When we approach elevators, we typically wait on those who were already waiting before us. However, many people could care less that people had been waiting for some time. They would walk right up and jump right on elevators in front of others who had been waiting. Most of the time not even giving others time to get off. Having 8 elevators together really doesn’t help. If you wait in the middle for elevators to arrive and the one that arrives is on the end, others are right at that elevator as they walk up. 5. Main Theater Shows: With the exception of Family Feud, the main theater shows really weren’t good. The playlist team wasn’t nearly as good as the center stage team. 6. Magician: He was used several times throughout the week, including the M Theory show which was horrible. Likes: 1. Muster Drill 2. Abundance of Comedy Shows, in our case, Family Friendly Comedy Show 3. Having numerous evening dining options 4. Premium Internet was really very good, much better than most previous cruises 5. Debarkation (See more below) 6. Ringmaster Rhapsodies (and really most of the center stage shows) 7. Extended Balcony Room (10355) on the side of the ship. This was a great balcony room. We spent lots of time all three seas laying down and enjoying some peace and quiet. Embarkation: Check in went smoothly. We had the earliest check in time (10) and A1 boarding zone. Our Uber arrived early (9:25) at our hotel, so we were there early. When we arrived they were already allowing people to check in. We breezed through check in without any issues. We did not do the Verifly app as we hadn’t had any problems with our previous embarkations at other ports. We were through with check in and sitting in our seats about 9:45. Platinum guests sit out in the main area. Boarding started a little later than most cruises we have been on, about 11. We went straight to our room to drop off our carryon bags. Our room was not ready. It wasn't ready until 1:30. More on that later. As with previous cruises since return, we love the current muster. Dining: Pig and Anchor: First night we went to Pig and Anchor since the Filet Mignon is on the menu that night. Didn’t really like that you had to go wait in line there to get a table instead of checking in on the app. That area was packed the first night between guest services and people waiting for some type of alcohol tasting. I ordered the steak and my wife ordered ribs, pork, and brisket. Service was just okay there, nothing to brag about. The steak was good, though it was very overcooked for my taste. My wife said the ribs were the only thing that was really good. I had some of her brisket and it was just okay as well. I’ve certainly had much better. The dessert offerings were great. Though we had originally planned to go there another night, we ended up not doing so. Just nothing to brag about. Cucina Del Capitano: We went there for lunch one day as well as for dinner. Enjoyed both very well. Certainly recommend checking it out. ChiBang: Also went there for lunch and dinner. Lunch was not really that great. Dinner was better and would certainly go again. Main Dining Room: We ate in the main dining room the other four nights (first elegant night and nights five through seven). Service was good each night. We were able to be in and out in under an hour. We didn’t order dessert as we have never really been wild about the main dining room dessert options. We never had a wait for a table as we went as soon as the dining room opened each night. Just a side note: the dining room opened 30 minutes early (5:00) on the first elegant night. Food was normal Carnival food. We always found something we liked, though we both ordered from the grill menu at times. The only thing we didn’t like was that, like many other ships, tables for two were sitting right beside each other. They really weren’t tables for two at all, more like tables for four and six. Entertainment: Comedy Shows: We loved that there were many family friendly comedy shows offered. We saw all of the comedians at least once. Here were the comedians on our cruise: 1. Jim Brick: Decent comedian. Saw him more than once and would go back again. 2. Tommy Drake: By far our favorite of all Carnival comedians. We have seen him several times in the past. 3. Vince Morris: Not a good family friendly comedian. He used several words that shouldn’t be in family friendly shows. He kept pushing his R-rated shows. We wouldn’t go back to see him again. 4. Jersey: He was a little better than Vince Morris, but you could tell that he just wasn’t really comfortable with family friendly shows. 5. Jason Blanchard: He was pretty funny. Saw him twice and would go again. 6. Vince Taylor, Jr.: He was funny and did a lot of impromptu jokes with the audience. Would go see him again. Main Theater Shows (the ones we saw): 1. Rock Revolution: This was really just not our thing. It featured a lot of slow rock songs from the late 60’s and perhaps early 70’s. We really didn’t enjoy it and would not go back again. 2. M Theory (with the magician): Perhaps the worst Carnival show we have ever seen. It nearly put us to sleep. Just really didn’t enjoy the magician in any of his performances. 3. Broadway Beats Show: Again, it just wasn’t entertaining. The playlist team was not very good in our opinion. 4. Family Feud: The only show we saw in the main theater that was entertaining. Enjoyed it very much. Center Stage Show: Hint: If you want to attend Center Stage Shows you need to show up at least 30 minutes before show time. It filled up every night and people were often having to look hard for seats 20 minutes beforehand. 1. Ringmaster Rhapsodies: This featured many songs from the movie, The Greatest Showman, and was by far our favorite show of the whole cruise. We watched it twice. The center stage singers were extremely talented and put on good shows! 2. Celestial Strings: Was a decent show, though not as good as many of the Center Stage shows. Probably wouldn’t go again. 3. Vegas Shows (Wed night)(Residency and Lovin Vegas): These shows were great! They had lots of great singing and high flying acrobats. Singing and dancing was very good. 4. We Are One (Friday night): Again, this was a really good show with singing and dancing. Debarkation: Debarkation went very smooth for us, though we did not bother with elevators. We did checked luggage and had zone 3 priority tags delivered to our room with the letter. The priority letter had self-assist meeting time at 7:30, though they started calling regular self-assist by muster station by 7 am, so priority obviously were allowed to start shortly before then. The meeting time for priority checked luggage was 8:00, but in our experience it has always been earlier than that. Since the other was over 30 minutes ahead, we went down about 7:25. As we reached the bottom of the stairs, other priority guests were leaving the theater already with very little luggage. We asked some of them and they said that they had allowed all priority zones to go. Traffic flow went pretty good. The terminal was designed in a good way. Instead of having a lot of escalators and stairs like some, this terminal was designed with a ramp that made traffic flow smoothly. There was one problem. A lady had fallen on the concrete and was very bloody. Bless her, hopefully she was okay. They had called EMS to check her out. They just had everyone move to one side. We did have to walk a ways to our shuttle bus because the firetrucks had the drive blocked. After going through customs and getting our luggage, we were outside to meet our Cortrans Shuttle at 7:54. We were off to the airport about 10-15 minutes later. After checking our luggage and going through security at the airport, we were at our SW gate at 9:35 waiting for our 12:15 flight.

Just returned from a cruise on the Mardi Gras. Will share a review as I have time. But just wanted to warn others about porters lying to people upon debarkation. As I was collecting our luggage to leave I overheard a porter tell someone that they could not get their own luggage. Here is the exact quote: "You cannot collect your luggage by yourself. You must go back and get a porter to carry out your luggage for you. You cannot roll it out yourself." I ignored her, because I knew she was telling a bold face lie. The man seemed confused, so I told them that was not the case. You do not have to get a porter. It sometimes makes things easier if you have a long ways to go with your luggage. But for them to flat out lie to people just to get tips is terrible!