vacruisin

Yes, the Alchemy bar on the Celebration is a very tight fit. We only went there twice the entire cruise partly because of the crowded location but mainly because of all the new bar options on the ship; We enjoyed trying new drinks. Carnival was in desperate need of introducing new bars with different options to the ships and they definitely delivered on the Celebration (and apparently the Mardi Gras too). Oh yeah, in case you hadn't noticed yet, we spend a good amount of time at the bars so of course the CHEERS package is a must for us!

Excellent! Thanks for the feedback. We are usually Alchemy bar fans but on the Celebration we pretty much camped out at Latitudes every evening after dinner. If the Brass Magnolia and Fortune Teller are better we may just stowaway on the ship! lol

Hello my fellow cruisers. A group of about 20 of us will be sailing on the Mardi Gras the week of July 4th and we are anxiously counting down. DW and I sailed on the Celebration in January and for the most part we really liked the layout of the ship so we are excited to board the Mardi Gras. My questions are to those who have sailed on both the Celebration and Mardi Gras: 1.) Are they laid out pretty much exactly the same? I know that a couple of the bars are different but is that all that's different about the 2 ships? 2.) And speaking of bars, is the Alchemy bar in the same place (we were not too impressed with the Alchemy bar location on the Celebration). 3.) Also, we particularly enjoyed Latitudes, Bar 820, and the Golden Jubilee bars but we know they are not on the Mardi Gras. What bars are in those locations on the Mardi Gras? 4.) Are the food venues located in the same place (Guys, Shaq's Big Chicken, etc)? Thanks in advance for all responses and Happy Cruising to all!

Same here. I've been on about 15 or so Carnival cruises and I've only smelled weed on one of them and I've never witnessed a fight or unruly drunk person; and we tend to always go to the Caribbean and all but one of our cruises have been 5 days or longer. I think some people love to put down Carnival because it makes them feel "elite." Also, just like with overpriced clothing and jewelry, some people think spending more money on a cruise with another line automatically means they are getting better quality. It's about ego for some of them. Also, people tend to just go along with "narratives" (i.e. Carnival is the "Walmart" of cruising) so after hearing those narratives repeated enough some people come to accept them as fact. To each his/her own but I enjoy cruising with Carnival and I could afford to pay higher fares with other lines. It ain't about spending more money for me...it's about getting the best value for my money. And for me, Carnival is the best value for my money. We'll all different though!

Totally agree with all you said but it has definitely been our experience when trying to buy fishbowls particularly. I wanna say we have even been denied trying to purchase bucket of beers. I've had to get them individually with my CHEERS and then stock up to make a full bucket. It may just be different crews with different understanding of the rules but that has been our experience.

Wifey and I get CHEERS all the time and for the most part it works great for us but there are a couple of limitations. We never have tried to get a drink that costs over $20 so I can't speak to that BUT we have had issues when trying to get fishbowls. We've been flat out told that we can't get a fishbowl period! We can't get one using CHEERS but we also are not allowed to purchase it outside of CHEERS just paying for it ourselves. I believe we've had that same issue when trying to buy drinks in the souvenir glasses also (its been quite a few cruises since we have tried to do that and I believe that is the reason we stopped trying). I don't understand why Carnival would limit CHEERS purchaser's options for buying drinks. My only thought is that they have not figured out a way to count the drinks outside of CHEERS combined with the drinks purchased using CHEERS to ensure people don't go over the 15 drink per day limit.

When wifey and I are on Carnival cruises Cheers is a definite MUST. When we price our cruises we include Cheers as part of our cruise cost. We get our money's worth probably twice over. My drinking alone more than covers us for Cheers for the week (especially the first day onboard and the sea day that usually immediately follows). And we never feel drunk because we pace ourselves and stay hydrated (we don't just sit around taking shots back to back)! It's all about your drink tolerance and vacation habits. Some people are light drinkers (which is not a slight on anyone) so they can't fathom how someone can average 10 drinks a day and still function. Trust me, it ain't that hard at all if your drink tolerance is high. It varies from couple to couple. Only you can make that choice for yourself.

Wish I could give this post 10 thumbs up. Nothing like a Crown Apple with ginger ale or Peach Crown with Sweet Tea.

I am not withholding anything from them. I pay my cruise fare and gratuities in advance. Choosing to not tip extra is not punishing anyone. This is the mentality I am talking about. If you don't tip EVERYBODY, ALL THE TIME you're somehow punishing them. You do you...I'll do me.

I agree. For all the people on CC who say they leave tips, I sure don't witness too many people tipping when I'm onboard. I guess all the tippers come to CC to brag about it. 🙄

Thanks for the explanation. Still, I choose to not tip after every drink. Our society has becoming "tip happy" to the point it is now EXPECTED for EVERYTHING! Literally every time we order food online to go PICK UP there is an option for a tip...many times it's auto-populated at 15 - 20%. I mean, I'm literally ordering food and then driving to pick it up myself and a tip is expected. Still, we tip because it's become the norm now. We have a service with Frontline Pest Control where they come to spray around our house outside once a month. We never even see the tech but after the service is complete we get a text asking us to rate the service and they recently added a tip option which is not really an option because you can't complete the survey unless you select a tip. I mean it's the service we are paying for on a monthly contract and now we are being asked to tip. I am willing to give the tech a 5 star rating just to be nice but I refuse to tip for a service I honestly do not even know was actually performed. Tipping has just gotten out of hand and it's largely because everyone feels obligated to tip for EVERYTHING. We tip when we are served at restaurants and bars (and we tip very well at that) but there is a thin line between tipping for good service and tipping just to be tipping. I guess it makes people feel good to tip everyone for any old thing. Now it's EXPECTED. To each his/her own.

It's up to you if you wish to tip extra. 18% gratuity is already included with each drink on Cheers. I very rarely tip for each individual drink. Sometimes I will tip a dollar but not too often per drink. Not sorry for that, Cheers is pretty expensive as it is and the whole point of purchasing Cheers is for you to have your drinks AND GRATUITIES automatically covered for the duration of the cruise. However, at the end of the cruise we give a nice cash tip to our room steward and a few others who have served us well over the course of the cruise. Usually we will tip a couple of alchemist at the Alchemy bar since we tend to spend A LOT of time there. Also our favorite barista because we love our morning coffee. And sometimes we'll tip another bartender if they gave us exception services (like a bartender at the Atrium bar or casino bar). One time we had a server who was just incredible at taking care of us while we were having drinks at the aft pool so we tipped him better than our Room Steward! Ole Savio made that one of our best days ever on a cruise! lol

Have to disagree on the deli hot dogs being great BUT I do agree that the deli fries are better than Guy's. A couple of times on my past cruise I went to get fries from the deli to go with my Guys burger. That's a nice combo indeed. 🙂

Hey Sailor....the grape MD 20/20 was pretty good. I went through quite a few bottles of those back in the 90s! 😆

Yep. My upcoming Baltimore cruise on July 23rd stops in Grand Turk. It's one of our favorite ports. Of the 4 cruises we have booked, 3 of them will stop in Grand Turk! Margaritaville is our spots for those loaded nachos and great drinks!