Mardi Gras Excel Corner Aft Suites

[funshipcruiser2]

We have an Excel aft suite booked for next fall. I am having second thoughts about it. I originally thought they had small hot tubs but I have recently seen pictures where the hot tub is just a jetted bathtub. I'm also not sure I like overlooking the lower balcony. Can someone please give feedback if you've stayed in one of these rooms?  thanks

[Pellaz]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:16 AM, funshipcruiser2 said:

We have an Excel aft suite booked for next fall. I am having second thoughts about it. I originally thought they had small hot tubs but I have recently seen pictures where the hot tub is just a jetted bathtub. I'm also not sure I like overlooking the lower balcony. Can someone please give feedback if you've stayed in one of these rooms?  thanks

 

We didn't stay in one but our friends did, and needless to say we spent a lot of time in their cabin and on the balcony. 🙂  

 

The balcony "overhang" isn't too bad -- if you're out by your aft railing you're visible to decks above, but if you're a bit further back you can't be seen from above.   There's plenty of room to "hide" -- there are 11 places for people to sit on your balcony, not including the hot-tub.  

 

Note that the side of your balcony -- which includes the jetted tub -- may be visible from the Summers Landing lanai below you -- the higher your stateroom, the less that can be seen.  Deck 9 and 10 are pretty visible from Deck 8, so don't plan on any nekkid hot-tub excursions if you're in one of those.   Further toward the top, there isn't much of your side balcony visible.

 

The tub IS a jetted tub and is fairly small (two people or so, max).   But it's 100% more hot-tub than any other balcony in Carnival's fleet.  

 

[jimbo5544]

41 minutes ago, Pellaz said:

 

We didn't stay in one but our friends did, and needless to say we spent a lot of time in their cabin and on the balcony. 🙂  

 

The balcony "overhang" isn't too bad -- if you're out by your aft railing you're visible to decks above, but if you're a bit further back you can't be seen from above.   There's plenty of room to "hide" -- there are 11 places for people to sit on your balcony, not including the hot-tub.  

 

Note that the side of your balcony -- which includes the jetted tub -- may be visible from the Summers Landing lanai below you -- the higher your stateroom, the less that can be seen.  Deck 9 and 10 are pretty visible from Deck 8, so don't plan on any nekkid hot-tub excursions if you're in one of those.   Further toward the top, there isn't much of your side balcony visible.

 

The tub IS a jetted tub and is fairly small (two people or so, max).   But it's 100% more hot-tub than any other balcony in Carnival's fleet.  

 

Well said, we are in one Jan22 floor 15

[Pellaz]

4 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Well said, we are in one Jan22 floor 15

 

Yeah, y'all should be good.  Before heading to your hot-tub "skyclad," in your birthday suits, take a walk on Summer Landing deck 8 and see how much of your balcony is visible from below.  🙂  

 

[jimbo5544]

4 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

Yeah, y'all should be good.  Before heading to your hot-tub "skyclad," in your birthday suits, take a walk on Summer Landing deck 8 and see how much of your balcony is visible from below.  🙂  

 

Already checked that out on our first cruise on the MG, we are good.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

For us, the port side aft corners would be preferred. We had a starboard one over Thanksgiving (deck 12) and there was extra noise many times from the two hot tubs below.

 

 

 

[dbrucern]

We had one for our Jan 22 cruise 15th floor but gave it up after looking at the amount of time we actually spend in our room and on our balcony so now we have $$$$ OBC, casino here I come

[funshipcruiser2]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We're still debating about the room. We have it booked but are considering giving it up and going with 2 balcony rooms that connect

[sunshower9]

13 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Well said, we are in one Jan22 floor 15

I'm very interested to hear your thoughts about your room.  I've got one of these booked on deck 15 port side on the Celebration.  I chose deck 15 so no one can look down on us, but I'm mostly wondering about the noise from the lounge chairs up above in the pool area.

 

I'll actually be on the Mardi Gras the week before you, but in an extended balcony this time. 🙂

[jimbo5544]

15 minutes ago, sunshower9 said:

I'm very interested to hear your thoughts about your room.  I've got one of these booked on deck 15 port side on the Celebration.  I chose deck 15 so no one can look down on us, but I'm mostly wondering about the noise from the lounge chairs up above in the pool area.

 

I'll actually be on the Mardi Gras the week before you, but in an extended balcony this time. 🙂

I will wave as we get on.  I will do a review with tons of pics.

[sunshower9]

7 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I will wave as we get on.  I will do a review with tons of pics.

Can't wait!

[sailingships]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:16 AM, funshipcruiser2 said:

We have an Excel aft suite booked for next fall. I am having second thoughts about it. I originally thought they had small hot tubs but I have recently seen pictures where the hot tub is just a jetted bathtub. I'm also not sure I like overlooking the lower balcony. Can someone please give feedback if you've stayed in one of these rooms?  thanks

I was in a balcony on Deck 16 Starboard and looking back I could see right into the balconies of those corner Excel suites Theres little privacy. I thought them to be poorly planned. Personally I wouldnt book one myself. 

[Pellaz]

14 hours ago, sunshower9 said:

I'll actually be on the Mardi Gras the week before you, but in an extended balcony this time. 🙂

 

Aft extended balcony?  We really liked ours on the Mardi Gras back in October.  

There were initial reports that the aft extended balconies on MG didn't include lounge chairs, but there was one on ours.  Since it was a clashing blue color, it had pretty obviously been "purloined" from the pool deck upstairs.  🙂  

[sunshower9]

11 minutes ago, Pellaz said:

 

Aft extended balcony?  We really liked ours on the Mardi Gras back in October.  

There were initial reports that the aft extended balconies on MG didn't include lounge chairs, but there was one on ours.  Since it was a clashing blue color, it had pretty obviously been "purloined" from the pool deck upstairs.  🙂  

Actually it's one of the ones on the side of the ship.  But we will be in an aft extended balcony on another Mardi Gras cruise.  I hope ours has a lounger too.  I'll take one in any color. 🙂 

[Pellaz]

2 hours ago, sunshower9 said:

Actually it's one of the ones on the side of the ship.  But we will be in an aft extended balcony on another Mardi Gras cruise.  I hope ours has a lounger too.  I'll take one in any color. 🙂 

 

I was curious about that previous dearth of loungers that had been reported here, so I'd looked around from our balcony and every balcony in view had been "retrofitted" with a lounger, plus the standard table and chair.   You should be good to go.  

[sunshower9]

2 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

I was curious about that previous dearth of loungers that had been reported here, so I'd looked around from our balcony and every balcony in view had been "retrofitted" with a lounger, plus the standard table and chair.   You should be good to go.  

Good to know!  Thanks!

[BabyJacks17]

On 12/23/2021 at 6:11 AM, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

For us, the port side aft corners would be preferred. We had a starboard one over Thanksgiving (deck 12) and there was extra noise many times from the two hot tubs below.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for the pictures and sharing your experience of the room.  We have your exact room on our upcoming cruise on the MG January 15th.  Since there will be 4 of us in the room our options were limited regarding cabins - at the time of booking I believe only other cabin that allowed 4 that was open was on deck 9 so we opted for semi higher on 12.  I had been very curious as to the view looking Portside so this cured my curiosity right up! 🙂