Mardi Gras Back to Back February 5-19 2022....The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, BennyBrun said:

Ohhhh… just as you disembark we will be embarking on 1/8.  Need a little break in between from the 12/19 Christmas cruise.

On January 8 we start our side2side on the NCL Encore.

[Pellaz]

14 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I'm driving myself crazy trying to pick between a couple of choices to Panama while I'm in miami next spring. MSC divina goes there and fits my dates. So does rcl vision. I'm tempted to try msc. Its 14 days .. a long time if I hate the food. I'm not a fan of Italian but like the ports.

 

Uh-oh.   

 

I was next to a family in Lido (on the Sunrise) on embark day and I overheard them say "Already the food on this ship is MUCH better than on the last ship!"  

Fearing their answer I asked them which ship they had been on before, figuring it was another Carnival ship, but no.  "It was MSC.  The food was really bland!"    😮  

 

On 2/26/2022 at 7:59 AM, Saint Greg said:

Thanks for the review! I think sea dogs is hidden gem. I loved trying something different there each day. I haven’t seen many people mentioning it in their reviews though.

 

I was really happy to find it and try it on Mardi Gras, and it was good. 

I'd heard rumors of Seadogs being on other Carnival ships but it was always some lonely kiosk up in SportsSquare that was only open from 1 - 1:15 pm or something.   😄 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Pellaz
to boldly go

[Knights on the Beach]

1 hour ago, shiner6 said:

I second this---the pier is far too touristy and pricey, even though it has a great view!   Grills and sandbar have great prices, ambiance and staff.

I can see why visitors like it - it feels like you're on vacation. When there's a good bartender working, that also helps a lot. But we preferred the way the pier was years ago before Westgate bought it. Then there was a good mix of visitors and locals with better prices and live music in the middle of the pier. We lived in Orlando and often drove over to hear a musician we liked. Westgate bought the pier and eliminated the music. We live only 2 miles from it but haven't been there in over 2 years.

 

[ninjacat123]

1 minute ago, cruisemom2 said:

I can see why visitors like it - it feels like you're on vacation. When there's a good bartender working, that also helps a lot. But we preferred the way the pier was years ago before Westgate bought it. Then there was a good mix of visitors and locals with better prices and live music in the middle of the pier. We lived in Orlando and often drove over to hear a musician we liked. Westgate bought the pier and eliminated the music. We live only 2 miles from it but haven't been there in over 2 years.

 

I have only experienced the pier and Rikki Tiki Tavern over the last 3 years and I thought it charming and unique.  It's difficult to find (at least for me) and I hope my directions have helped others to navigate the pier.  I'm happy to hear there are other venues like Rikki Tiki Tavern!

[Knights on the Beach]

4 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I have only experienced the pier and Rikki Tiki Tavern over the last 3 years and I thought it charming and unique.  It's difficult to find (at least for me) and I hope my directions have helped others to navigate the pier.  I'm happy to hear there are other venues like Rikki Tiki Tavern!

 

It is unique in the aspect that it's directly over the ocean.  There really aren't very many oceanfront bars/restaurants in the area (where you can actually see the ocean) and it's the closest one to the port.  There are a bunch of restaurants at the port on the water that have a great atmosphere, but they're not on the ocean.

[jimbo5544]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:23 PM, SNJCruisers said:

I'll keep the background and pre-cruise stuff to a minimum since most of you just want another cruisers perspective on the new jewel of Carnival cruise line.  Been on about 8 different classes of ships with Carnival, my first being on the Jubilee when she debuted in 1986.  Our Covid testing went very smooth at a nearby CVS as well as our nonstop flights on American into MCO and our stay at the Wingate by Wyndham.  We used Cruise Control Transportation as our shuttle and things were very smooth.  It was 80 bucks for private service in an Uber XL type of vehicle that picked us up at 845 at our hotel.  On our return trip to MCO, I opted for shared van service from the same company for 40 bucks which picked us up at 1030 to take us back to MCO.

 

We had gotten an arrival time slot of 10:00 am-10:30 am and received boarding zone A-01.   We were processed and sitting waiting outside the Suite waiting room just before 10:00 am and we sat there till just after 11:00 when boarding commenced.  We came onto the ship adjacent to Grand Central on deck six and she looked exactly like the various YouTube videos we had seen of her.  There wasn't the awe of the old central atrium with the glass elevators of the Farcus ships, but there was certainly an indication that this ship was more in line with what Carnival's competition was currently offering and at the same time had a few spins that were innovative such as the multi use central area that spanned three decks which gave cruisers a different perspective daytime versus nighttime.

 

Embarkation was a breeze, debarkation was very quick because of facial recognition and our turnaround day was just like debarkation day except for the fact that we walked back onto the ship and had the ship to ourselves (about 175 of us) for just over an hour.  It took us about two days to get acclimated for the most part but of course we still made the occasional wrong turn here and there over the course of our 14 days.  There is no way that you can get to all of the nooks and crannies and fully appreciate everything that this ship has to offer over the course of 7 days, so if it's possible to do a B2B I would highly recommend it.  It was our first B2B on Carnival and the majority of our future bookings on all lines are via B2B or S2S.

 

The GOOD.....There were 57 comedy shows and 32 trivia events over the course of the week.  Fifty seven comedy shows....let that sink in.  Most cruise lines give you maybe two or three.  There were six different comedians over the course of the week.  The PG shows were usually at the Limelight Lounge and the R rated shows were at the Punchliner Comedy Club.  There were also 3 shows on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 pm in the Mardi Gras theater that featured two comedians doing about 20 minute sets each, while all of the regular shows were about 30 minutes each.

Big Chicken lived up to it's hype and was a very good option for lunch.  The fries were just OK if they were sitting out, but one time I got a fresh batch and they were really good at that point.  Since I do like spice on my food at times I went to Blue Iguana and got some of the orange Habanero sauce and put it on my Big Chicken sandwich which elevated the taste even further for me.  Another great lunch choice was the day that they had chorizo as an option at Sea Dogs.  They always have hot dogs, plus two other types that rotate on a daily basis.  You can get them on a standard roll or a pretzel roll, which I opted for.  They also had three different kinds of mustard, yellow, brown and stone ground.  Chorizo on a pretzel roll with stone ground was my go to on two different days.

We were able to get 715 reservations at Teppanyaki for the last night of the 14 days we were onboard.  At 32.00 plus automatic 18% gratuity it was a good show and I had the filet mignon/lobster tail combo.  It was good, but will be a one and done.   The fact that Chibang, Cucina and Pig & Anchor were all included for dinner helped spread out the dinner crowd.  We had just under 5000 and around 5000 passengers for our two weeks.  I would hate to see what it would be like at full capacity of up to 4 in a cabin which puts the capacity well over 6000 passengers.

 

I preferred the pool and hot tubs on Summer Landing on deck 8 as opposed to the two pools up on Lido, which seemed to have more kids and be a bit more crowded.  The two rectangular hot tubs on the starboard side of deck 8 before you hit the Watering Hole Bar were nice.  Further up the starboard side of the ship is the outside portion of Bar Della Rosa, but once you go past there, that is one of the primary smoking areas of the ship, so the smoke will shift depending upon how the wind is blowing.  The Pig & Anchor as usual had the best Bloody Mary on the ship with the infused Tito's with the cooked bacon added as well. 

 

HIDDEN GEMS.....Little shelf above the bed is a great place to put your cell phone.  Chibang and Cucina are open on the three sea days from 1200-200 for lunch for cooked to order pasta bowls containing your choice of pasta/rice, protein, vegetables and sauce.  Chibang also has three noodle broth bowls of chicken, steak or shrimp that are outstanding.  On Saturday night the Pig & Anchor has a 7 oz filet mignon on their menu, which I added brisket and ribs to for a great combo. If you have Cheers, the Watering Hole Bar as well as the Pig & Anchor Bar both have homemade lemonade that are included with Cheers.  You can of course get your liquor of choice added which I did a few times with either Chambord or Kraken Spiced Rum.

 

The BAD.....Some of the venues are way too small.  The Piano Bar was often at capacity and many patrons claimed their seats in Grand Central and never budged for the duration of the evening.  Luckily there were over 50 comedy shows because many of them were at full capacity and you do need to show up early to make sure you get in if you 100% do not want to miss a certain show.  Some of the other ships in the fleet were handing out 25.00 in cash to Platinum and Diamond cruisers for the casino benefit fulfillment.  On the Mardi Gras they gave you the option of either having 25.00 downloaded onto your sail n sign card casino account or you were given a play only 25.00 chip.  I took our chips from each week and on night 14 went to the roulette table and put 100.00 on red.  It came up black.  So no 100.00 that cruisers on other ships had to do nothing for.  My final bad is the Fortune Teller Bar.  I had high hopes going in, but 8 of the drinks on the menu were more for show than taste, in my opinion.  Went a few times, but probably won't go back on our next sailing unless the violin trio is playing.  The same goes for the Brass Magnolia.  It was OK, but didn't have the wow factor for me.   My final bad is a venue that had many positive reviews  online as well as on YouTube and that is Rudi's Seagrill.  The seared shrimp appetizer and the white chocolate bread pudding with bourbon sauce were very good, even though the shrimp consisted of 3 jumbo sized shrimp.  If you're only giving me three, make them colossal size please.  The lobster mac n cheese did not have much lobster, the seafood bisque was smoky with a thin consistency and the crab stuffed lobster tail imperial was not at all like it was pictured when the Mardi Gras started sailing.  Instead of being a good sized tail, it was a whole split lobster with no claws and a small split tail.  The crab imperial was the best part and if they had a large casserole dish of it, it would be great.   The final bad will be pointed at myself for procrastination.  Early on during week two I had seen a husband and wife enjoying an order of beignets at Emeril's.  I had waited until the last day to get them.  Emeril's is only open at lunchtime on sea days and every time I walked by the place was empty.  On out last day at 3:00, the place was packed and every table but one was filled.  They were also out of beignets.  Seems like more people than just me had the same idea.

 

The UGLY.....Supply issues came up over the course of our sailings as well as the prior one.  On day 5 of our previous sailing, the ship ran out of Bud Light and Michelob Ultra resulting in many upset patrons as I was told.  Typical inconsiderate Carnival cruisers, also know as card carrying members of the "me society". Bluetooth speakers poolside or at the hot tub blaring music, people walking through the Lido buffet area in either swimwear without a covering or men without a shirt, cruisers leaving wet pools of water in elevators, a guy resting his bare feet on an adjacent chair in grand central, guys wearing gym shorts and a t shirt in the MDR on cruise elegant night, and my favorite.....a woman taking a cell phone picture of her family's picture from one of the kiosks at Pixels.  I guess she didn't realize or didn't care that there was a waterline going through the picture.

 

That's about it.....all in all we really had an enjoyable 14 days.  By doing my research before hand and seeing what was going to come to fruition I had already booked another B2B over Labor Day and a special 5 day sailing of the Celebration next January.  Am in the process of booking a B2B on the Celebration for September of 2023.  I truly think that the Excel Class is a game changed for Carnival.  Since it is so drastically different from the other ships in the fleet there of course will be some Carnival loyalists that will prefer the older smaller ships.  That's fine.  Diversity is a good thing and there is a reason we can choose between vanilla, chocolate and coffee.  Even though there were multiple days at Java Blue that they were out of chocolate and coffee ice cream.  They were cranking those milk shakes out big time.   If anyone has any questions feel free to fire away and I will try my best to answer them.

Nice review, thanks for doing it

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

Nice review, thanks for doing it

Thanks Jimbo, appreciate it.

[CruisingWalter]

Thanks for the review and the tip about the coffee alternative at Bar Della Rosa. We're sailing in March and that tip will be most helpful. 🙂

[TNcruising02]

On 2/27/2022 at 9:29 AM, Joebucks said:

Pretty jealous. 2 weeks on the Mardi Gras sounds pretty good right now!

 

That amount of comedy shows is mind-blowing. It is a huge disappointment that the venues continue to be so small. However, if comedy is almost always going on, maybe that is a better solve. I can't imagine wanting to go to more than a quarter of the shows.

We are on the ship now.  They announced that there will be a total of 6 comedians and 60 shows.  So I guess that makes 10 shows each.  For the first night, all of the shows were in the Punchliner Comedy room.  This room holds 300 people, but seems small for the number of people on the ship.

After night one, they hold the PG shows in the Limelight Lounge and the adult shows stay in the Punchiliner.  The Limelight Lounge is also very small for the passengers that the ship holds.  Same with the piano bar area.  As long as you show up early to stand in line, you can get a seat.  They had an 11 pm show in the theater with two comedians, one at a time.

They require masks at the comedy shows and ask that everyone wear one.  If you have a drink, they ask you to mask up between sips.  This is the most ridiculous thing ever, but I realize it's not Carnival's fault.

Edited February 28, 2022 by TNcruising02

[SNJCruisers]

8 hours ago, creativegenius said:

Thanks for the review and the tip about the coffee alternative at Bar Della Rosa. We're sailing in March and that tip will be most helpful. 🙂

My pleasure.  Enjoy the ship.  She truly is the jewel of Carnival, until the Celebration comes on board in November and she has competition.

[ninjacat123]

3 hours ago, TNcruising02 said:

They require masks at the comedy shows and ask that everyone wear one.  If you have a drink, they ask you to mask up between sips.  This is the most ridiculous thing ever, but I realize it's not Carnival's fault.

I agree.  What about the rest of the indoor areas on MG?  People masking up only if they want to?  TIA!

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I agree.  What about the rest of the indoor areas on MG?  People masking up only if they want to?  TIA!

It's so hypocritical.  The masks are needed at the comedy shows, MG theater and grand central.  The Piano bar is rarely enforced and the other bars as well as once your seated for meals are OK to not wear a mask.  Thank goodness the policy for the most part changes next week.

[cmichael1221]

On 2/26/2022 at 6:59 AM, Saint Greg said:

Thanks for the review! I think sea dogs is hidden gem. I loved trying something different there each day. I haven’t seen many people mentioning it in their reviews though.

 

 

Where's it located?  I missed it on both of my MG cruises!

[Saint Greg]

35 minutes ago, cmichael1221 said:

Where's it located?  I missed it on both of my MG cruises!

Sea Dogs and Shwarma are Towards the back of the buffet….Where you would find the deli on Dream and vista class.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Saint Greg

[cmichael1221]

On 2/28/2022 at 6:53 PM, Saint Greg said:

Sea Dogs and Shwarma are Towards the back of the buffet….Where you would find the deli on Dream and vista class.

 

 

 

 

I thought that might be it, right after I posted.  I was envisioning the outdoor Sea Dogs that used to be on the sports deck on a couple ships...

[willdra]

Thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us! This will be helpful when we sail on Fat Tuesday. 😍😍😍

[SNJCruisers]

28 minutes ago, willdra said:

Thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us! This will be helpful when we sail on Fat Tuesday. 😍😍😍

My pleasure.  I'm looking forward to B2B 2 over Labor Day.

[soxfanattic]

Hi. What a great review. You are the only person I have seen that had the Filet Mignon at guys on the first night. My wife dislikes BBQ but loves Filet. Does the filet have BBQ sauce on it or is it just whole roasted BBQ style? Thanks again for the review. We board tomorrow, I can't wait.

                                                                                Thanks Walt

[soxfanattic]

Hi. What a great review. You are the only person I have seen that had the Filet Mignon at guys on the first night. My wife dislikes BBQ but loves Filet. Does the filet have BBQ sauce on it or is it just whole roasted BBQ style? Thanks again for the review. We board tomorrow, I can't wait.

                                                                                Thanks Walt

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, soxfanattic said:

Hi. What a great review. You are the only person I have seen that had the Filet Mignon at guys on the first night. My wife dislikes BBQ but loves Filet. Does the filet have BBQ sauce on it or is it just whole roasted BBQ style? Thanks again for the review. We board tomorrow, I can't wait.

                                                                                Thanks Walt

My pleasure Walt.  The filet was lightly brushed with BBQ sauce, not doused like ribs would be.  It was comparable to the filet at the brunch, except it was slightly bigger.  We will be back on our first night in August.

[Bktich1232]

On 3/10/2022 at 7:15 PM, SNJCruisers said:

My pleasure.  I'm looking forward to B2B 2 over Labor Day.

We cruise out labor day weekend.  Can't wait

 

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, Bktich1232 said:

We cruise out labor day weekend.  Can't wait

 

That's the second week of our B2B.   I have a 5 day mini cruise on the Celebration in January and I just got done booking two other B2B's on her in September of 2023 and January of 2024.