My Long Mardi Gras Story (with pictures and Funtimes) 01/29 to 02/05

[mirglip69]

5 hours ago, archer_310 said:

I'll be on the Mardi Gras in 3 weeks.  Where do you sign up for the cooking classes?  I don't see anything on the website.  Is it just done once you get onboard?

Classes should be available under specialty dining in your cruise manager.

[mlshum]

5 hours ago, archer_310 said:

I'll be on the Mardi Gras in 3 weeks.  Where do you sign up for the cooking classes?  I don't see anything on the website.  Is it just done once you get onboard?

You’ll love it!  I booked our classes way back in Sept so I don’t remember exactly where I found them but I think I found them just browsing through the website when I was reading about Carnival Kitchen.  You can also book on the ship.  If nothing else, i’m sure you could call Carnival and book it.

[mlshum]

2 hours ago, #55worktoplay said:

Great review.  I have not been in Carnival since 2010 but this ship is definitely on my list

You won’t be disappointed!  It’s a beautiful ship!

[mlshum]

1 hour ago, Posesmom said:

I'm really enjoying your review! We are on Mardi Gras in November and I can't wait.  Also, we are in WV 10 miles from the VA border so we are neighbors! Thanks for sharing! 

Hey, neighbor!  We are in Princeton, how about you?  I know you will love Mardi Gras!

[WorkerBee74]

Thanks so much for this great review - it is so refreshing to see a review with a positive attitude and not have to hear about how many other times you've cruised and all the terrible things that weren't up to par on this one... LOL.

 

I just love your Mardi Gras duck - so cute!  You put a lot of work into it 🙂

 

We sail April 2nd - can't wait!

[WKUTopperFan]

How can you book Emeril's? It is not offered on the Fun Shops web page.  I dine exclusively in specialty restaurants when aboard Vista Class ships and pre-book most dinners before sailing. One can't pre-purchase much of anything on Mardi Gras...I've booked steakhouse, Chef's Table, Teppanyaki and some seafood restaurant but those were the only options. No Emeril's, no Cucina, and so on. My sailing is next month. Is this a glitch on the website? 

[EllaDuChien]

1 hour ago, WKUTopperFan said:

How can you book Emeril's? It is not offered on the Fun Shops web page.  I dine exclusively in specialty restaurants when aboard Vista Class ships and pre-book most dinners before sailing. One can't pre-purchase much of anything on Mardi Gras...I've booked steakhouse, Chef's Table, Teppanyaki and some seafood restaurant but those were the only options. No Emeril's, no Cucina, and so on. My sailing is next month. Is this a glitch on the website? 

Emeril's does not take reservations, but when I was on in November they were not needed.  As far as Cuchina and ChiBang, those are treated as Anytime dining at the moment, with no charge so you would just put your name on the list when you are ready to dine.  Again, we never waited more than 5 minutes on the Thanksgiving cruise.  After the "inaugural season," Cuchina and ChiBang will go to regular specialty restaurants available to book ahead of time.

[x lindsay x]

Thank you for sharing your experience! I really appreciate the information about Your time dining vs. set dining time when it comes to the current free specialty options. I think you might have nudged us into YTD for our Mardi Gras trip in May. 

[mlshum]

19 hours ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Thanks so much for this great review - it is so refreshing to see a review with a positive attitude and not have to hear about how many other times you've cruised and all the terrible things that weren't up to par on this one... LOL.

 

I just love your Mardi Gras duck - so cute!  You put a lot of work into it 🙂

 

We sail April 2nd - can't wait!

Thank you for your kind words!  I love going on cruises and traveling with Ron in general.  I feel so blessed to be able to do it.  There are a lot of people who can't, for whatever reason.  I've never found a reason to get really upset even when things didn't go the way I thought they should.  Ron firmly believes that everything strange that happens becomes "a story to tell".  I agree with him.

 

Thanks for liking my duck.  LOL  I had fun making him.  I fixed them at a time when I needed something to occupy my mind and they were a good outlet.  One of my good friends was in the hospital suffering with COVID.  Sadly, I attended her funeral the day before we left on this cruise.  Those little ducks were a good project for me during that time.

 

I know you will love Mardi Gras!

[bumbs4cruising]

great ship

[mlshum]

14 hours ago, WKUTopperFan said:

How can you book Emeril's? It is not offered on the Fun Shops web page.  I dine exclusively in specialty restaurants when aboard Vista Class ships and pre-book most dinners before sailing. One can't pre-purchase much of anything on Mardi Gras...I've booked steakhouse, Chef's Table, Teppanyaki and some seafood restaurant but those were the only options. No Emeril's, no Cucina, and so on. My sailing is next month. Is this a glitch on the website? 

Emeril's is just a "walk up and order" venue.  It's a really pretty area of the ship but I am not a fan of that type of food so I didn't eat there.  I never saw a huge line.  Cucina, ChiBang and Guy's Pig and Anchor are all booked on the app when you get on board.  That's where the "your time dining" is important.  If you have Your Time Dining, you can book (once you're on board) for any time during the business hours that have an open reservation as shown on the app.  When you have assigned dining, you can't book it until after 7:45.  That was true with both Cucina and ChiBang, at least on our sailing.  You could go to Guy's pretty much any time you wanted.  You did need to check in on the app.  Cucina and ChiBang are both available for lunch but you also have to check in on the app then as well.  

 

Hope that helps!  Enjoy Mardi Gras.... I know I did!

[mlshum]

12 hours ago, x lindsay x said:

Thank you for sharing your experience! I really appreciate the information about Your time dining vs. set dining time when it comes to the current free specialty options. I think you might have nudged us into YTD for our Mardi Gras trip in May. 

Thanks for reading along!  If I had it to do over again or if I knew then what I know now, I would have definitely opted for Your Time Dining.  We have done assigned on literally every sailing we've ever done except one and it's always worked just fine but on this ship, Your Time Dining is definitely a better option.  

 

I may just make the switch myself on a permanent basis.  LOL  Enjoy your cruise!

[mlshum]

4 minutes ago, bumbs4cruising said:

great ship

Absolutely!  She's beautiful!

[Posesmom]

21 hours ago, mlshum said:

Hey, neighbor!  We are in Princeton, how about you?  I know you will love Mardi Gras!

Princeton! How about that?!

[mlshum]

February 1, 2022 – Sea Day

 

Although I was disappointed that our port was changed from Puerto Rico to Nassau, I did like the fact that we now had a “sea day followed by port followed by sea day followed by port” type of schedule.  It was nice to break them up a bit and enjoy both types of days.

 

We slept in a bit.  I don’t think I awakened until about 8:30, which is pretty late for me.  We got up, showered, dressed in shorts and t-shirts and headed up to find some breakfast.  Throughout the day before, we could tell that it was beginning to get warmer and today it was finally summer again!  Yay!

 

It's looking like a good morning!

 

It continues to improve

 

Beautiful sky....beautiful water...

 

...and before long a few people even came out to use the pool.  Definitely summer!

 

 

We decided on Big Chicken for breakfast.  I have read multiple reviews and watched several vlogs with different people expressing different opinions about Big Chicken.  As I stated earlier, I liked their lunch offerings very much.  Breakfast?  Not quite as much.  First of all, although I love French fries, they do seem a little out of place for breakfast.  Also, the biscuits they were serving had sort of a cornbread taste and texture.  I like cornbread but I like buttermilk biscuits much better than these.  Also, I’m not a huge fan of sweet flavors with chicken so the chili/honey sauce didn’t work for me.  Still, it was a good breakfast  and it was filling so….mission accomplished and breakfast completed.

 

As you’ve probably guessed by now, we really enjoy the trivia games and there are typically several games on sea days, so we headed down for some morning trivia.

 

There were several trivia hosts throughout the week, but we probably saw Sin more often than anyone else.  Sin likes to say he was “made in Mexico” and he was also the comedy club manager.  He was the host again today.  On our first game, we were one question away from winning.  Our second game I lost on a tie-breaker.  As always, we had a lot of fun but still had not managed to capture that elusive “ship on a stick” to add to our collection.  Fortunately, there was still time.

 

 

Limelight Lounge

 

 

After trivia, we headed over to Pixels to claim our loyalty pins and to Bar Della Rosa for our bottles of water.  Having to go and ask for these things is new since the restart, and we had been forgetting go stop and get them up until now.  We thought it was probably a good idea to go ahead while it we were thinking of it rather than potentially forgetting again.  We took those things back to our cabin, grabbed our Kindles and made a reservation for lunch at Cucina.  As always, we enjoyed the pasta bar lunch there.  In an ordering system still very similar to ordering at Guys Pig and Anchor the night before, they brought us a small sheet of paper and a pencil so we could make our selections.  There was a “make your own” option where you chose a pasta, sauce and protein or you could choose from a couple of other entrees.  I chose an alfredo, pasta and chicken combination while Ron ordered the lasagna.  Both were very good, and we enjoyed lunch. 

The aerialists were practicing as we went by.

 

I know this is random but I love the carpet in the Alchemy Bar area.  It's clever!

 

 

After lunch, we took our Kindles and went up to the upper Lido deck to find a place to settle and read a while.  It was still windy so we again located an empty clamshell and settled in.  This was the first time we had been able to really enjoy reading on the deck, which is something we really like doing.  We stayed there for quite a while just relaxing and enjoying the day since it was finally warm enough to be outside comfortably.  While we were there, we tried to book Bolt again but it didn’t seem to be running that day.  We tried to go back to the ropes course but it was closed due to the wind.  We played another round of golf, I snapped a few pictures and we dropped of the “duck of the day”.  By that time it was after four and time to go get ready for dinner again. 

 

Ready to read

 

We scoped out a clamshell....

 

...and settled in.

 

We went back to the main dining room and would continue to have dinner in the MDR for the rest of the cruise.   One thing I’ve been forgetting to mention is something that happened during dinner the second night and sort of brought me back to an inside joke that occurred with our friends, Aaron and Liz, who joined us on the Sunrise cruise in October.  On that cruise, the maître-de would announce the dancing and singing every evening with a dramatic stage whisper in the microphone, “It’s shooooowtime!”  I had never heard anyone else on any other ship do that before.  I thought is was specific to that person.  It has become a running joke among the four of us that, no matter what’s going on, someone will invariably say, “It’s shooowtime!”   Well imagine my surprise when Borris did that, too!  He didn’t do it the first night, but he did the second night.  I thought it might be an anomaly but then he also did it on the third night.  At that point, it became a personal mission to record that phrase and send it to Aaron.  The first time he did it, the lights in the dining room blinked and a few minutes later he made the announcement.  It didn’t go that way after I decided to do my recording!  When the lights blinked red, I grabbed for my phone but Borris was already saying, “It’s showwwtime!”  I missed it!  It went too fast!  I’d have to try again the next night.  I WOULD get this recording!

 

Tonight, our head server, Severo, sang “Sweet Caroline”.  I think it was one of the first times, if not the first time, he had performed during dinner.  He seemed really excited.  All of our waitstaff and the waitstaff in surrounding areas seemed excited, too.  Severo did a great job!

 

After dinner, we headed to the Mardi Gras Theatre to catch the new M-Theory show. It was awesome!  I had never seen a show quite like it.  It was sort of a combination of magic and mentalism.  The show involved several audience members and the magician (for want of a better term) weaved it all together into a story.  There were lots of video and lighting effects to further enhance the experience.  I really enjoyed the show and highly recommend it if you have the chance.  I won’t tell you much about it so I won’t spoil it for you in case you haven’t seen it and DO decide to go.  I will only say this….it was a unique show and well worth the time.

 

 

The beginning of M-Theory

 

The show was pretty well attended but still plenty of seats.

 

 

When we finished M-Theory, we headed to Center Stage where “Deal or No Deal” was getting ready to start.  As I said before, I enjoy the games and, although I had seen this before on other ships, I was more than happy to watch it again.  They played two games.  In each game, everyone who attends has the option to purchase game cards to play along for prices.  You win by matching the amounts on your card to the amounts shown in the various cases on the screen.  First of all, a random number from all of the cards is selected.  The person who holds that card gets to go up on stage and be the contestant.  Everyone else in the audience will open one the same case on their card as the numbers are called.  If the amount in your case matches the amount of the case on the screen, you win a prize beginning on the second correct match.  The prizes go from $25 of casino credit on up to several hundred dollars.  I honestly don’t remember the top prize.  On the second game, someone from the audience won $300.  It was a fun show. 

 

Center Stage

 

Chris "The Flying Scotsman"

This lady had a pretty good round.

 

After Deal or No Deal, we wandered back out to Deck 8 to check conditions.  It was still very windy but was much warmer than the previous days.  I’ll take it!  It was so windy that we only stayed outside for a few minutes before deciding to go to Hero’s Tribute Lounge for ice cream and settling in to listen to the Backyard Band which was playing at Guy’s Pig and Anchor.  It was a fun, relaxing evening.

 

After a while, we decided to call it a night and went to our room.  When we got there, an envelope was stuck in our “mailbox” outside the door.  Someone had canceled their whale watching excursion for Grand Turk!  Our whale watching tickets were inside!  Woo hoo....we're going to see the whales!

 

 

 

[mlshum]

Here are the Fun Times for the second Sea Day

 

sec sea day 1.pdf

sec sea day 2.pdf

[TNcruising02]

Thank you so much for providing so many details of your trip!!  This really helps me mentally prepare for my cruise on the 26th.  Also, love the nail polish.  So cool!

[mlshum]

1 hour ago, TNcruising02 said:

Thank you so much for providing so many details of your trip!!  This really helps me mentally prepare for my cruise on the 26th.  Also, love the nail polish.  So cool!

Thanks!  It’s Color Street.  I’m not very creative on my own.  Lol

[crucero]

Thank you so much for your positive and thorough review! I have booked Mardi Gras for next spring break (March) after several cancellations...you know! Your review is making me SO EXCITED for my trip!

[mcgore83]

I am really enjoying this review and pictures!  Thank you for sharing!

[archer_310]

On 2/15/2022 at 9:11 PM, mirglip69 said:

Classes should be available under specialty dining in your cruise manager.

 

I see them now.  I wish I had known about these earlier as everything except the Morning Hustle class is sold out.  Maybe next time!

[peteandpris]

Great review thank you Wanting to here about your cooking class.

[mlshum]

6 hours ago, peteandpris said:

Great review thank you Wanting to here about your cooking class.

Thank you!  We truly enjoyed the class.  I'll be happy to try to answer any questions you might have!

[mlshum]

9 hours ago, mcgore83 said:

I am really enjoying this review and pictures!  Thank you for sharing!

Thank you so much and thanks for reading along!

[mlshum]

10 hours ago, crucero said:

Thank you so much for your positive and thorough review! I have booked Mardi Gras for next spring break (March) after several cancellations...you know! Your review is making me SO EXCITED for my trip!

Thank you!  I know you will have a fantastic time!