Willdra's Massive Carnival Mardi Gras Apr 30- May 7 Review

[jolyroger]

WOOOHOOO!! Loving this review so far!! And that Golden girls shirt??? LOVE IT!!!

[ckmedsec]

What a way to start my morning! A beautiful smile, great hair and a wonderful review of your cruise. Cannot wait for the rest. 

 

[Jamman54]

16 hours ago, willdra said:

We were staying at the Home2Suites. It’s a newish hotel right behind the Homewood Suites that we stayed at last time we were there. I checked into the hotel on the app that morning, so I just stopped by the front desk to get two keys when we got there. The hotel is actually half Home2 and half Hampton Inn. I guess they couldn’t decide which one they wanted to build, so they did both. We went up to our room and put our bags away. We looked around a little, took a few pictures, then decided we were hungry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn side and loved it. 😀

[willdra]

22 hours ago, cruisin from vegas said:

Yeah your back!!!!  I’ve been think your must be cruising somewhere!!  Can’t wait to read all about it!!

 

Thanks for hanging out with me! 😍

[willdra]

22 hours ago, pcvtmom said:

I ALWAYS look forward to your reviews!! Love your writing style and sense of humor, Willdra. Let's get on with this review, 'cause I'm leaving on a cruise next weekend and this psychs me up!!

 

Thank you for joining me again! ☺️

[willdra]

23 hours ago, 300dtc said:

Love another wild Willdra ride!

 

LOL!! Buckle up! 😆

[willdra]

22 hours ago, cruisin*tigger said:

I'm about 30 min SW of Chicago.  Saw $5.15 the other day.  Crazy.

 

Love the cruise hair!  And Golden Girls?  come on.💖

 

Whoa $5.15??? That's painful! 😱

[willdra]

22 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

Looking forward to your review! 27 more days and I will get to experience this beautiful ship myself!

 

I'm super jealous! You are gonna love her!! 😍

[willdra]

21 hours ago, cruisin from vegas said:

Average about about $5.35 in Las Vegas right now 

 

At those prices, I would have to contemplate all of my life choices! 🤑

[willdra]

21 hours ago, mkcurran said:

Yay! Love the color on the braids!

 

Thank you! 🤗

[willdra]

20 hours ago, jetsfan58 said:

Looking forward to your grand review. Did the Home2Suites have a park n cruise package? We are looking for our upcoming cruise.  

 

I didn't see a Park N Cruise option when I booked, but I booked it through Concur at work so that I could get the corporate discount rate. I know the Homewood next door has Park N Cruise tho, and it's a nice hotel as well. 😉

[willdra]

18 hours ago, edspec said:

$6.50 a gallon here, good times!  So happy to see this, I've been wanting to book the Mardi Gras so looking forward to your always wonderful review.

 

$6.50????!!! Ok, I'm gonna stop complaining about the prices here! 😱

[willdra]

18 hours ago, HeyJut said:

So glad you’re back with a new cruise. And we already got our first prayer. I love the shirt too!

 

Thank you! 😁

[willdra]

17 hours ago, MzShae said:

I'm here for this trip. I've been waiting for this!☺️

 

Welcome back!! 🥰

[willdra]

14 hours ago, MJSailors said:

Wildra- So glad that you are posting. I am looking forward to reading more of your review.

Sending up a prayer in thanksgiving for your being able to write like you do and for me to be able to appreciate what you write ! 😃

MJ🙋🏻

 

Thank you! I need all of the prayers!!! 😇

[willdra]

8 hours ago, jbhcw said:

Excited to find your review this am!!   Love your writing style and your hair is awesome!

 

Thank you! Glad you found me! 😍

[willdra]

8 hours ago, jolyroger said:

WOOOHOOO!! Loving this review so far!! And that Golden girls shirt??? LOVE IT!!!

 

Thanks! The Golden Girls is my absolute all-time favorite show. I was thrilled when I found that shirt! 😃

[willdra]

8 hours ago, ckmedsec said:

What a way to start my morning! A beautiful smile, great hair and a wonderful review of your cruise. Cannot wait for the rest. 

 

 

Thank you! I really appreciate this! ❤️❤️❤️

[willdra]

7 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn side and loved it. 😀

 

Yes, it was nice, and we would totally stay there again! 😍

[willdra]

Get on the cruise day….

I slept so good I almost didn’t want to get up. Then I remembered it was cruise day!! That put some pep in my step! Our shuttle was scheduled to leave at 10:45, which gave us time to get it as together as possible.

 

W got up around 8:15 ish and he was absolutely ready way before me. He went down to scope out our breakfast options, while I finished my ritual. By the time he got back, I was mostly ready. I just needed to arrange my documents to have them easily accessible. I also had way more toiletries than I prolly should, so I had to shove them back in my bag. Geesh why does it take so much for me to look regular?

 

We popped down to breakfast and it wasn’t crowded at all. Nowhere near what we’ve seen in the past. Especially for the last hour of breakfast on a Saturday morning. There were lots of choices. I made a chocolate chip waffle, while W got coffee for us. He chose the breakfast sandwich. He said it was good but not as cheesy as he’d like. My waffle was good and hot. I also managed to distribute the chocolate chips evenly throughout the waffle, which is not always easy with the hotel waffle iron. #Skills. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

Breakfast was eaten slow as we talked and took in the hotel. There was a variety of seating available. There is also another side with more traditional options, and more seating. Unfortunately, we didn’t discover it until we were walking out.  Bummer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

We finished eating and went back up to throw our stuff together and leave. We parked at Port Canaveral Parking. It’s back across the bridge a little. It was like a 10-minute drive. They had a good little system. You pull up, unload, park your car, then get on the shuttle. There is an attendant standing there in the beginning to check you in.  The drivers are quick and attentive. As soon as W unloaded the bags, they were putting them on the shuttle. We were scheduled to leave at 10:45. We left around 10:48.  Smooth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

The shuttle pulled in to the Terminal right at 11. We unloaded and identified our luggage for the porter. Next we went thru the first checkpoint, to make sure it was time for us to enter. After that we went up the long winding upward ramp. This is what I like to call "heart attack hill". Maybe do a few squats and lunges before you go, if you tire easily. It's a dream crusher, if you can't make it up!  We survived the Mt. Everest-ish climb (this time), so we went through another quick checkpoint and into the terminal. Yes, there are several checkpoints along the way. This is why it's good to have your docs in your hand, sorted, and ready. It keeps the lines moving.  

 

 

Inside the terminal we waited maybe 2 minutes to be called over to check our passports and VeriFLY. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use VeriFLY when we first heard about it. The reviews on it in the App Store are atrocious, and I didn’t need an atrocious app on my phone. No room. However I’m all for technology that will make cruise check in easier. So when W asked me about it, I decided we should try it. We could always delete it if it didn’t work. I downloaded the app and had everything ready to go in about 10 minutes. The first step after setup is to scan in your vaccination cards for review. I already had pictures of them on my phone so that took about a minute. I got the green check for those after they were reviewed maybe an hour later. After that we just waited to download our negative test results. As soon as I got mine back from CVS, I downloaded the PDF, screenshot it, and then added it to VeriFLY for review. I also downloaded W’s as well and sent him the photo so he didn’t have to worry about getting his on his phone. VeriFLY sent me the green light for my test about an hour after I submitted it. Next I got a notification that my pass was created and I was good to cruise. My picture then had a green border around it. That’s it. Wow that was too easy! I asked W if he did all of his stuff. To which he replied "Uh yeah, but I put the wrong type of test in, so it got rejected at first." Huh? How did he mess this up? A garden gnome could do it!  After he saw my blank stare, he said "I redid it, and it gave me all green check marks, but my pass says Action Required." What?!? I looked at it, and sure enough everything was done, but there was a big red border around his pass, his picture was blurred out, and the words “Action Required” were dominating the scene. Not a good look. I do some quick searching on the innanets, and found NOTHING to fix this. Nobody else has had this problem???? I guess not. Leave it to W. Well that was only Wednesday, so I prayed for W's sake, that it was sorted out by Saturday. Plus, new rule. From now on, W won’t be allowed to do any of his pre cruise tasks alone anymore. Hmmm. Maybe that was his plan all along. Let me find out.    

 

This is what my VeriFLY pass looked like: 

 

As we were boarding the ship, I asked W if he got it resolved. I’d forgotten about it, as a form of self-preservation. I'd also brought paper copies as backup, cuz errybody knows, you must always have a backup.  He said he was good to cruise, and his pass was green. Ok goody!  I reminded him to pull up his pass on his phone to have it ready for check in. I don’t know about y’all, but I ain’t got time to be standing there waiting for him to be stabbing his phone trying to find the app, then stabbing it again trying to pull up the pass, then showing me the phone, saying "it’s loading or the signal is bad", etc. Get it ready now please Sir. So he did. Stay one step ahead of foolishness my people. At that checkpoint, both of our passes were ready to go, so we handed over our passports, and showed our VeriFLY passes to the attendants. They barely even glanced at them! I mean it took 2 seconds!

 

We passed thru security next. Then we took pictures. Our zone had been called so we went directly to the Smile and Go scanners, then onto the ship. We entered the ship at 11:18. Everything was speedy! I actually think using VeriFLY was the best part. After the W debacle, of course. 

[willdra]

Finally, we walked onto the Mardi Gras. Wow. Just wow!! Fat Tuesday lived up to her name! This ship was giving me Oasis of the Seas vibes as a first impression, but that feeling didn’t last long. This ship is very unique. It’s massive, in a very good way. We entered on Deck 6 right in front of Java Blue. We stopped over to get a printed FunTimes for the day while we were there. Since our muster station was F7, and just one deck up, we did that first. It took maybe 5 minutes. That was just because several people walked in at the same time. Our crew members were nice and funny. I haven’t laughed during muster since we cruised with Rev. Dr. E., so that was definitely welcome. We were released quickly, then we went to drop off our bags in our cabin. The doors were open, but no room keys were in the slot yet. I took pictures of the empty cabin while I had the chance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grest]

looking forward to more!