How was the Sailabration?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

That would have been over 2000 on Mardi Gras alone. Nice way to go bankrupt.

 

I'd be very concerned if such an offer would lead to bankruptcy -- lol

[keels81]

6 minutes ago, Rudyard said:

 

Cookie's awesome! I've sailed with him on my last two cruises and will miss him in December. I was on Breeze the week before you and he hosted a fantastic Mardis Gras party on the Lido. 

 

He was just so amazing -- he really fosters such a happy culture, you could feel it throughout the entire sailing!

 

I'd never cruised with him before so while it would've been MUCH easier for me to just sail on the Glory for Sailabration, I wanted a chance to experience a sailing with him before he starts hopping around everywhere again.

 

I definitely was NOT disappointed -- he was absolutely worth it.

[raynvic]

We were on the Mardi Gras with 5000 other passengers.  The meet up was a disappointment.  We could only hear a few of the horns, on Horn Battle and could not hear the Mardi gras horn from our aft balcony.  The menu changed up a few things.  I would rather have had a regular cruise without the other 1,999 D&P passengers.  I will write my review of the Mardi gras in another post.  It is one and done for us and many others whose comments I heard onboard.

[BlerkOne]

9 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I'd be very concerned if such an offer would lead to bankruptcy -- lol

One gimme leads to another.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

3 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

One gimme leads to another.

 

The Fixx

 

Sorry, that's not a given. They can do anything they care to do. Once, twice, three times a maybe...

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, keels81 said:

 

John Heald said a few weeks prior that they wouldn't be offering it due to restricting indoor gathering sizes (like Atrium parties, etc.) due to Covid protocols. 

 

Bullocks 

[BlerkOne]

36 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

The Fixx

 

Sorry, that's not a given. They can do anything they care to do. Once, twice, three times a maybe...

Yes, they can. Including getting rid of the marketing program otherwise mislabeled as a loyalty program. Gimme.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

24 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Yes, they can. Including getting rid of the marketing program otherwise mislabeled as a loyalty program. Gimme.

 

Yes, anything !  (we agree  😉 )

 

Tom

[ninjacat123]

11 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I think the meetup would’ve been better if the other ships got as close as ecstasy did.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, go Ecstasy!!!😀😎👍

[Saint Greg]

34 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Yeah, go Ecstasy!!!😀😎👍

It went. Peeled away like it had to go to some far away land.

 

 

 

 

Boy was I surprised to see ecstasy sitting in Cozumel the next morning. 😂 

 

 

 

[BlerkOne]

I think seeing John Heald and Calvin work together multiple times brought back many memories of cruises over the years. Much more than anything else Carnival could have done. 

[matymil]

13 hours ago, Rudyard said:

 

There was a strong rumor going around for months that there would be fireworks. The rumor grew legs and  eventually got to the point where it came to be believed to be something that was actually going to happen. At that point I'm surprised that Carnival didn't step in, since they monitor the various social media sites, and squash the rumor. So many people were asking about this after the fact that John Heald posted on FB that there were never any plans to have fireworks. I'm just glad I cruised the week before and had a great time rather than wait a week, pay Disney prices (there were no deals showing for me the week of the Sailabration cruises), then be disappointed. 

Ok so im not nuts lol. Thanks. I also sailed right before it and got a great deal!

[Rudyard]

6 hours ago, matymil said:

Ok so im not nuts lol. Thanks. I also sailed right before it and got a great deal!

 

We got a Lido balcony the week before for $140 pp. All the balconies I could find on Breeze for the Sailibration were around $1000

[Jasonsterling]

The cruise itself was great, as always but the celebration was a bunch of meh. You couldn't really tell much difference between this special event cruise and any other cruise, well, except it cost more -lol. The fireworks "rumor" started because the original marketing a lot of us bought into promise a "special nighttime finale" to end the big ship meet up celebration. A LOT of the merch that actually made it to the ship also included fireworks in the design. About a week and a half out they pulled the ship meet up back to way earlier in the day and suddenly it wasn't at night anymore and there was no special finale unless you count horn blowing which you couldn't hear beyond your own ship and that's not special really in any event- the menu throw backs were maybe six different items on one night. The Gala Midnight Buffet, also advertised was cancelled maybe two weeks out. Some of the special drinks never materialized, along with the take home glasses. No new build a bear, just a shirt. No throwback sea day ect. ect. I mean, in the end it was a deck party just like every other deck party except they put part of it on Tik Tok for their marketing, six throw back menu items, a new canned beer, a bellini only available at brunch and a cosmo/martini style drink only available in the Lobby along with a few merch items most of which were available in only a few dozen quanity for a ship with 4000+ passengers. And they gave you a free lanyard at check in and a pin later in your room- IF you were lucky and the inventory actually managed to make it to your ship. There was a lot of Covid blame but really Carnival you were so worried about Covid and a Midnight Buffet that you packed the ship to Max Capacity and as people can see from the Tik Tok the state of "social distancing"-lol And of course the new corp excuse of supply chain issues which is somewhat true but then that''s why you order in advance. Even three weeks out marketing mouthpiece John Heald wouldn't nail down exactly what was happening because they obviously hadn't even planned it yet and you could tell. It felt unplanned, poorly executed and as if they really didn't care about that part of it. 

 

Now when I say that I'm referring to Corporate Carnvial- Christine Duffy, John Heald and the rest of the administration and marketing of the line. On the ship the crew was AMAZING! The CD Cookie is and always is fantastic and the crew was performing AGAIN at 150% with the first true full cruise since restart. They really made it a great voyage overall and god love Cookie he did what he could with the mess Carnival dumped in his lap. There just wasn't much to work with and he was working facing a lot of unhappy people. I did have a great time cruise wise though, one of my best cruises and I was thrilled to see a ship full again and to see Cozumel full again. I have two more booked in the future that I'm not cancelling and I might book another before those two get here but Carnival corporation's integrity and trust has taken a major hit with me and a lot of others. They're not being at all honest in regard to this event. 

[vettprincess]

We booked the Mardi Gras sailabration cruise 2 years ago. Paid top dollar at that time. A huge disappointment. All we heard was how many passengers getting the cruise for 50 or 150 etc. Not much worth buying in the shops. No free lanyard when boarding. Saw John Heald constantly and near us in the dining room. Holding court at his table. 

Extremely crowded ship, venues small for size of ship (had read this from others) and lack of staff in many places. Food was subpar. Steakhouse was bad and that was our third time on other ships so know it can be good. 

Most overhyped over priced cruise I have experienced. 

I did not see this (daughter was there) but the big thing of the cruise was the older woman in the main theatre lifting her shirt off and exposing herself to the audience and turning around to make sure they all saw her t..s.

In this case, for this cruise, we certainly did not get what we paid for on an over hyped walmart cruise. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

5 minutes ago, vettprincess said:

We booked the Mardi Gras sailabration cruise 2 years ago. Paid top dollar at that time. A huge disappointment. All we heard was how many passengers getting the cruise for 50 or 150 etc. Not much worth buying in the shops. No free lanyard when boarding. Saw John Heald constantly and near us in the dining room. Holding court at his table. 

Extremely crowded ship, venues small for size of ship (had read this from others) and lack of staff in many places. Food was subpar. Steakhouse was bad and that was our third time on other ships so know it can be good. 

Most overhyped over priced cruise I have experienced. 

I did not see this (daughter was there) but the big thing of the cruise was the older woman in the main theatre lifting her shirt off and exposing herself to the audience and turning around to make sure they all saw her t..s.

In this case, for this cruise, we certainly did not get what we paid for on an over hyped walmart cruise. 

 

Geesh - was she trolling for beads or something? What would possess someone to do such a thing (in such a place no less) is beyond me.

 

I also was not very pleased with the steakhouse on the Mardi Gras - perhaps it was having Rudi's close by to compare (shifted our later in the reservations to there). The steakhouse on the Liberty this last weekend was very good --- at least they're still holding on to the tablecloths, for now! I miss having the cooks plate the entrees.

 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, vettprincess said:

We booked the Mardi Gras sailabration cruise 2 years ago. Paid top dollar at that time. A huge disappointment. All we heard was how many passengers getting the cruise for 50 or 150 etc. Not much worth buying in the shops. No free lanyard when boarding. Saw John Heald constantly and near us in the dining room. Holding court at his table. 

Extremely crowded ship, venues small for size of ship (had read this from others) and lack of staff in many places. Food was subpar. Steakhouse was bad and that was our third time on other ships so know it can be good. 

Most overhyped over priced cruise I have experienced. 

I did not see this (daughter was there) but the big thing of the cruise was the older woman in the main theatre lifting her shirt off and exposing herself to the audience and turning around to make sure they all saw her t..s.

In this case, for this cruise, we certainly did not get what we paid for on an over hyped walmart cruise. 

Are there two Mardi Gras ships? That wasn't at all our experience.

[pc_load_letter]

So help me out, the "Sailabration" were on specific dates of cruises but events took place on all the ships?

 

We were on Miracle about a week ago and got a 50th anniversary Christmas decoration but didn't know there were events held on board. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

[keels81]

4 hours ago, Jasonsterling said:

Now when I say that I'm referring to Corporate Carnvial- Christine Duffy, John Heald and the rest of the administration and marketing of the line. On the ship the crew was AMAZING! The CD Cookie is and always is fantastic and the crew was performing AGAIN at 150% with the first true full cruise since restart. They really made it a great voyage overall and god love Cookie he did what he could with the mess Carnival dumped in his lap. There just wasn't much to work with and he was working facing a lot of unhappy people. I did have a great time cruise wise though, one of my best cruises and I was thrilled to see a ship full again and to see Cozumel full again. I have two more booked in the future that I'm not cancelling and I might book another before those two get here but Carnival corporation's integrity and trust has taken a major hit with me and a lot of others. They're not being at all honest in regard to this event. 

 

I'm with you -- I can look past the "failure" of the event because the weather, the ship, Cozumel, the crew and Cookie were all so amazing ... it would have been a Top 5 all-time cruise for me even without the Sailabration nonsense, so I think that's what I'm just "meh" about the whole thing -- I got to see all the ships so close to each other and that was good enough for me because the cruise was so amazing, it would be real hard for the Sailabration to take away from the memories I made.

[raynvic]

My experience on the Mardi Gras was like Vett Princess and not at all like Blerk.  The steak house was horrible.  One of my table mates ordered the cowboy steak and could not chew it.  He sent it back and had a filet instead.  Very disappointed.

 

[AtSeaWithChris]

We had a good cruise on the Mardi Gras but the Sailabration was a letdown after all the hype. The dining staff all over was understaffed. Our steakhouse dinner was ok, nothing special like other times on other ships. We had an 80 minute wait to get a table in the MDR one night and then 2 hours for service and had to leave before dessert in order to make the show. Culcina de Capitano was good food with excellent service from Ryan, both for lunch and for dinner. All in all, other thyan the slow and understaffed MDR, it was pretty much a typical Carnival cruise. A good time was had.

[pjhootch]

We were on the Pride and as far as celebrations or special events go, it was lame.   It was a good regular cruise, however.  I missed the announcement of no Midnight buffet- in fact, heard staff telling a group of people it was going to be "that night" and was confused when nothing happened.  🙂   The ship meetup was eh. Not a tik tok person so skipped the dance thing.  Other than decorations that was about it.  Oh yeah- Beef Wellington (yum) on the menu and "Babaloo Cake".  Didn't know what Babaloo Cake was but it sounded fantastic from the description.  ROFL.  Silly me.  It was like cardboard shaving with candied fruit glued on, except cardboard has more moisture.  🤣

 

We had a great time on our cruise as a regular old vacation.  I was acutely aware our particular cruise was very expensive because it was the Sailabration week.  We went to be with friends so the $$ is a wash.  But seriously, anyone who didn't make last week did not miss anything special at all.

[tlw440]

On 3/15/2022 at 11:35 PM, Tnlynch81 said:

Disappointing. We were on the Vista and there really was not much difference between a normal cruise. The ship meet up was OK. Neat to see all the ships together, but you could barely hear any horns. They burned a logo into the buns at guys,  had a few banners hanging, and the special menu was not all that special. Definitely did not live up to the hype.

What they said, we were on the Pride.

[CruisingViper]

I was on the Breeze. It was pretty much just a regular cruise, but I could see a couple of other ships out in the sea one night. It was still a great cruise but with them canceling the midnight buffet and not having any special menu items, or doing anything special other than a tiktok video, I was disappointed.

[matymil]

On 3/17/2022 at 8:31 AM, Jasonsterling said:

The cruise itself was great, as always but the celebration was a bunch of meh. You couldn't really tell much difference between this special event cruise and any other cruise, well, except it cost more -lol. The fireworks "rumor" started because the original marketing a lot of us bought into promise a "special nighttime finale" to end the big ship meet up celebration. A LOT of the merch that actually made it to the ship also included fireworks in the design. About a week and a half out they pulled the ship meet up back to way earlier in the day and suddenly it wasn't at night anymore and there was no special finale unless you count horn blowing which you couldn't hear beyond your own ship and that's not special really in any event- the menu throw backs were maybe six different items on one night. The Gala Midnight Buffet, also advertised was cancelled maybe two weeks out. Some of the special drinks never materialized, along with the take home glasses. No new build a bear, just a shirt. No throwback sea day ect. ect. I mean, in the end it was a deck party just like every other deck party except they put part of it on Tik Tok for their marketing, six throw back menu items, a new canned beer, a bellini only available at brunch and a cosmo/martini style drink only available in the Lobby along with a few merch items most of which were available in only a few dozen quanity for a ship with 4000+ passengers. And they gave you a free lanyard at check in and a pin later in your room- IF you were lucky and the inventory actually managed to make it to your ship. There was a lot of Covid blame but really Carnival you were so worried about Covid and a Midnight Buffet that you packed the ship to Max Capacity and as people can see from the Tik Tok the state of "social distancing"-lol And of course the new corp excuse of supply chain issues which is somewhat true but then that''s why you order in advance. Even three weeks out marketing mouthpiece John Heald wouldn't nail down exactly what was happening because they obviously hadn't even planned it yet and you could tell. It felt unplanned, poorly executed and as if they really didn't care about that part of it. 

 

Now when I say that I'm referring to Corporate Carnvial- Christine Duffy, John Heald and the rest of the administration and marketing of the line. On the ship the crew was AMAZING! The CD Cookie is and always is fantastic and the crew was performing AGAIN at 150% with the first true full cruise since restart. They really made it a great voyage overall and god love Cookie he did what he could with the mess Carnival dumped in his lap. There just wasn't much to work with and he was working facing a lot of unhappy people. I did have a great time cruise wise though, one of my best cruises and I was thrilled to see a ship full again and to see Cozumel full again. I have two more booked in the future that I'm not cancelling and I might book another before those two get here but Carnival corporation's integrity and trust has taken a major hit with me and a lot of others. They're not being at all honest in regard to this event. 

I know John Heald likes to poke fun at CC but if you booked this months ago at an up charge and thought you were getting way more than you actually got i may bring it to someones attention.