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Mardi Gras / Live / Solo / Nov-27-Dec-04-2021...

sid_9169

By sid_9169,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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I'm adding another weapon to my arsenal in the hangover prevention department... Recently used successfully by MeaganGC1983, Liquid IV...

 

PXL_20211123_232623425.thumb.jpg.9ee245e9fb3f0c5e33e41c2c2b623a72.jpg

 

In addition to that, I'll also be bringing my "usual suspects", Flyby, DHM, and of course the Rebound patches... Pretty soon, it'll probably get to the point where I'm spending more money on hangover prevention than the money I spent to get drunk in the first place...

 

 

PXL_20211123_232817951.jpg

Edited by sid_9169
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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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10 minutes ago, darleean said:

Can't wait to be sailing with you!!!!  Awww have missed cruising so much!  This is the first of 4 that we have booked in the next few months!! 

 

15 minutes ago, GTO-Girl said:

We are on this cruise too!!! 😎😎😎

Wow, looks like half the readers will be ON the cruise!...

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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Around the middle of March 2020, I suddenly found myself laid off from work, with no estimate on our date of return… Soon afterwards, all of the cruise lines had ceased operations until who knows when… At first, they took an incremental approach, cancelling sailings about a month out. But, pretty soon, it appeared that it may be awhile before they resumed operations……

 

Work continued at the Meyer Turku shipyard, and I prayed that this vacation would even happen at all… My Virgin Voyages cruise set for mid May 2020 had already been cancelled, and it looked like the entire World was circling  the drain.  The daily news cycle became more grim by the day… For a while, time seemed as if it were standing still. Every day was exactly the same as the one before it. I tried to occupy my time by walking and riding my bike, but there was also a lot of day drinking going on as well… I started experimenting in the kitchen at home with both food and adult beverages. 

 

The news regarding the cruise industry as a whole began to be ever more uncertain… In April 2020, most of the cruise lines began the process of trying to get their employees back to their home countries, which spanned the entire planet… Carnival, in particular, used their own ships to transport their thousands of loyal crew members to every corner of the globe…  This was the point when I wondered if the entire industry would cease to exist… And, if it did survive, what would cruising even look like once it started again?...


 

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#55worktoplay

#55worktoplay

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4 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

 

“The Back Story”

 

Directly on the heels of my Norwegian Encore cruise in December 2019, I found myself without a future cruise countdown… For those of you that have been in this situation, you know there’s only one remedy for this type of situation: Booking another cruise…

 

My search included 3 different time frames: Memorial Day week at the end of May 2020, Mid / Late September 2020 (my birthday), and the first week of December, which is usually a bargain. Nothing really excited me until I ran across Caribbean sailings of what would be Carnival’s brand new Mardi Gras, out of Port Canaveral. It would be among the first several sailings following the Transatlantic. I found an inside cabin on Deck 14 that fit my criteria, which is non-connecting and sandwiched between passenger cabin decks above and below. The price seemed reasonable for a brand new ship, so I closed my eyes and held my breath as I clicked the “book now” button… My countdown at that time was 350 days, but it felt great just to have one going…


 

I’m joining the virtual ride. Can’t wait. 
 

Have a great time. 
 

So close to booking this ship maybe by the end of yours I will hit the go button.

Edited by #55worktoplay
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Sea Viewer

Sea Viewer

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Looking forward to this review,  this time you're not leaving from my hometown area so I won't learn of new exciting places to eat or drink!! 

 

Enjoy the cruise, I will be visiting these ports in 2 weeks so I will  be interested in what you do on shore.

 

Mary

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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And now, a little more of the back story...

 

The whole “shut down” lingered on for much longer than anyone had ever anticipated. My home state was among the first to open back up, and take the first steps into the unknown. This “strange new world” hardly resembled the one that had existed only months earlier… 

 

If I had any sense, I would have taken advantage of all this free time that I suddenly found myself with. Instead, I spent my days eating fatty, salty foods, and drinking adult beverages while watching TV… No matter how bad the daily news cycle tried to beat me down, I tried to remain optimistic about finally stepping on board a cruise ship once again. It was really the only thing I had to look forward to at this juncture. I started ruminating about past sailings, and the crazy situations that I had found myself in. How I tried to make the best of the situation, even when the weather was bad, or we missed a port or whatnot… Now, just stepping on board one of those magnificent vessels was the singular thing I longed for the most. After sailing 3 to 4 times a year, I had almost begun to take my vacation for granted… If, and when I am able to even attend another muster drill, was something that got me through those dark times…

 

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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Another of my Amazon acquisitions... A hundred pack of disposable black masks. I've heard that masks are required in indoor areas, and according to Carnival, even required outdoors in some cases. I really hope this isn't true, but I want to be prepared. That's one of the great things about my recent Virgin Voyages cruise. Once I was on board, the mask came off, and I never thought about it again until debarkation morning, where they were asking people to put them on going into the terminal. I REALLY hope that I don't end up in a situation where they're asking people to wear a mask at the bar, pulling it down to take a sip of my drink...

 

 

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