Fresh off the Mardi Gras...

[matymil]

Just got back a couple of days ago from my first sailing on the Mardi Gras. I wanted to give my thoughts because i feel like people either love or hate this ship, i definitely fall in the middle. This sailing was originally supposed to happen in 2018 but had to be moved because of the birth of our child and since then was moved 4 more times because of covid. We had a sailing booked on the Mardi Gras original first sailing out of the US but that got canceled because the ship wasn't going to be finished on time, so this was a long time in the making. Our child who wasn't born when we were first supposed to go on the Dream in 2018 is now almost 4 years old lol! 

So first off, obviously the ship is gorgeous. When you first walk in for the first time, it takes a minute to get your bearings if you are used to all the other Carnival ships. It feels like you're gonna get swallowed whole in the ship but honestly it did not take that long to figure it out. I found out quickly that its almost split into two different ships. Two decks of staterooms, three decks of restaurants, shopping, entertainment (including what i consider to be the new lido area; summer landing) then 5 decks of just staterooms, then the lido decks, splash park, sports, bolt, etc.

 

Positives - First for me is definitely the updated staterooms. I saw somewhere that they were a little smaller, i didn't get that feeling at all. We had an oceanview on deck 4 and loved it. Lots more storage, some of the drawers pulled out, lots more usb ports plus we loved the decor. Also got pretty cold which personally i love and can sometimes be a problem for me on other ships. Oh yeah and DOORS on the shower!

-The dining (minus the lido); not only are all the new options amazing but we literally had the best staff in the MDR we've ever had, not just on a cruise ship but in any restaurant. They took extra time with our toddler, they had him dancing afew nights and really made him feel special. The food quality was always great wherever we ate on the ship (minus lido). I saw some complaints about food quality but we loved all of it.

-The Flying Scotsman; we had Chris as our cruise director. We didnt do too much with him but i still think other than Cookie that hes my favorite CD. From what we saw, he genuinely looked like he was having a blast. Plus since it was his last sailing, im pretty sure he had his family with him (we saw him in camp ocean with his daughter ?i think?) that was refreshing to see.

-Embark and debark; both and off the ship and for our ports was much more easier than i expected. Aside from having to wait in our stateroom for a half hour when the Freedom pulled up; longest it took for us to get off in a port was maybe 5 mins. Compared to the Magic this past July which took well over an hour.

-Excursions; we did Blue Lagoon at Nassau, Ocean World w/ Dolphin Encounter at Amber Cove & Private Beach w/ toys in Grand Turk. All were amazing!

-Serenity deck; my old favorite was the Sunshine but this one is in a class all its own. Its huge and even though it gets loud around the main pool, there is plenty of seating and its so big that you dont hear the pool noise. Also they have a fresh creations up there which is awesome.

 

Negatives - ELEVATORS! Believe what you heard. I went into the sailing hearing all the horror stories about the elevators and those stories were true; at least for us. They dont seem like they have that many more elevators compared to the rest of the ships and when you add another 2k guests it makes for long waits and chaos. Also everyone seemed to be complaining about how hot they were and that the buttons were on the side instead of the front like almost all other elevators. Instead of hitting the button as you walked in, you either had to reach across people or have someone else hit the button. We heard about this on almost every elevator trip. Also fun fact! Only two of the three bays reach the 4th deck so if your on that floor you cant use the aft elevators.

 

The sizes of the main lido deck, warehouse arcade, splash pad and gym - It seemed like some of the common areas where smaller than on other ships half the size. I dunno if they did a study and found places that they could cut for size because they werent popular but a couple of places on the ship seemed way to small. I can understand not making the arcade and gym bigger but it really stood out how small the main lido deck and splash area are because they were always crowded. I went to the gym once in the morning and could barely even walk it was so crowded. The rest of the time i went in the middle of the day and it wasnt to bad. I just don't understand why ships like the Pride, Splendor and Conquest have gyms and arcades that are the same size (if not alittle bigger) and hold thousands of less guests.

 

The "it was what it was" - The casino; its bigger than other ships for sure however its very narrow and if you like table games you may be in trouble. We found a couple of extra tables hidden in a corner of the smoking side on our last night but id still say that have less tables than a ship like the Magic. They were always packed. However! If you like slots then you are in luck cause they probably have 3x the amount of slots that ive seen on any other ship.

 

Lido buffet - It looks nice, i like that sections the eating areas off, it doesnt look like a cafeteria anymore. They also have really cool decor now. We didnt spend much time up there because there didnt seem to be much organization. It looks like they tried to eliminate the long lines by making more, smaller stations to grab your food. However by eliminating the lines, now what we saw alot of people do is just come up, grab what they wont and cut right in front of you. Like i only went up there for a late salad 3 times around closing time and i was cut every time i went up there.

 

Guest services location- its on deck 8 in a pretty busy corridor, right in front of summer landing. Got congested at times. I think they wanted to make it in a higher volume area but it just seemed very out of place.

 

Overall - we had an absolute blast. Didn't dislike the ship but didn't love it either. We came to the conclusion that we'd go on the Mardi Gras again if the price and itinerary were hard to pass up but we wouldn't go back on it just because its the Mardi Gras. I think we prefer the midsize ships because that seems to be Carnivals sweet spot, at least in my opinion.

Edited September 21, 2022 by matymil

[Sigyn]

Really interesting assessment. Thanks for sharing and welcome home!

[BeachDiva101]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review.  I hadn’t heard about the elevators.  Glad you had fun.

[Colorado Beach Bum]

We sailed Mardi Gras last fall and your comments are very fair.  You didn’t speak to all the options besides buffet in lido.  I thought with all the new options compared to other ships, Mardi Gras blows them all away.  And also the “free” speciality restaurants takes Mardi Gras to another level and opens up the options for regular carnival cruisers.  Glad you had a great trip. 

[matymil]

31 minutes ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

We sailed Mardi Gras last fall and your comments are very fair.  You didn’t speak to all the options besides buffet in lido.  I thought with all the new options compared to other ships, Mardi Gras blows them all away.  And also the “free” speciality restaurants takes Mardi Gras to another level and opens up the options for regular carnival cruisers.  Glad you had a great trip. 

The food was amazing but one thing i did forget to add. Cucina and ChiBang were still free for dinner which was nice but if you had early dining you werent allowed to check in until 745pm which i thought was strange. We really wanted to do ChiBang for dinner but 745 is late for us with the toddler and all. We went down at 530 and they would not budge on the 745 rule. But i do agree the options are vast, we didnt even have guys burgers or blue iguana which is crazy.

[mondello]

Thank you for posting. You’ll have to go back on another Carnival ship now so your boy can enjoy the Dr. Seuss breakfast. We haven’t made it onto Mardi Gras but, we’ll be on Celebration for Christmas. Can’t wait to try all the new food venues. Did you get to enjoy Shaq’s Big Chicken?

[ninjacat123]

Did you try Emeril's?

[DallasGuy75219]

1 hour ago, matymil said:

It looks like they tried to eliminate the long lines by making more, smaller stations to grab your food. However by eliminating the lines, now what we saw alot of people do is just come up, grab what they wont and cut right in front of you. Like i only went up there for a late salad 3 times around closing time and i was cut every time i went up there.

This may just be something that people need to come around to because it's a new concept on Carnival, but the point of the "station" concept is that everyone need not wait in the same long cafeteria line when each person is going to want maybe 10%-15% of all the food on offer.

 

The works well on Princess' newer ships and on Royal, but personally speaking it takes it bit to get out of the mentality that you have to form a line but instead can just step up and serve yourself whatever you want.  Ultimately this winds up being more efficient for everyone, unless you're the type that can't make a decision on what to eat without slowly meandering by everything on offer.

[rebeccac]

7 hours ago, matymil said:

The food was amazing but one thing i did forget to add. Cucina and ChiBang were still free for dinner which was nice but if you had early dining you werent allowed to check in until 745pm which i thought was strange. We really wanted to do ChiBang for dinner but 745 is late for us with the toddler and all. We went down at 530 and they would not budge on the 745 rule. But i do agree the options are vast, we didnt even have guys burgers or blue iguana which is crazy.

 

This is definitely a ship where early dining does not pay off.  Luckily, we had "anytime" and never had a long wait when checking in around 6pm or so.   

Edited September 21, 2022 by rebeccac

[sparks1093]

7 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

This may just be something that people need to come around to because it's a new concept on Carnival, but the point of the "station" concept is that everyone need not wait in the same long cafeteria line when each person is going to want maybe 10%-15% of all the food on offer.

 

The works well on Princess' newer ships and on Royal, but personally speaking it takes it bit to get out of the mentality that you have to form a line but instead can just step up and serve yourself whatever you want.  Ultimately this winds up being more efficient for everyone, unless you're the type that can't make a decision on what to eat without slowly meandering by everything on offer.

Yes, this does take getting used to and I'm glad to hear that Mardi Gras has this, we enjoyed this on Royal Anthem.

 

OP thanks for your thoughts, we on Mardi Gras in a year and a half and can't wait.

[asalligo]

So happy to see Carnival embrace the dispersed stations in the Buffet. This is the one thing I really loved on RCCL compared to Carnival. I feel like some Carnival cruises are just a week waiting in line and RCCL somehow eliminated that entirely. Buffet stations is one of the methods they use. I never waited in a line to get my food on RCCL. 

[Hoosierpop]

On the Mardi Gras now. I rarely take the elevators but I can see why it would be an issue. 
 

One thing though. If people are fit and can walk 3-4 decks, why not take the stairs? If you’re going from 6 to 16, fine. But watching some guy in his 10k racing shirt go from 6 to 8 while there’s a backlog is hilarious. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Hoosierpop

[we b cruzin]

Thank you for your thoughts. We will be on the Mardis Gras next April.

[iria64]

The main times elevators were a problem for us... after shows let out, getting back on the ship after a day in port, disembarkation day.

 

Here's a trick if you find a long line/crowd for the elevators after a day in port... go up 1 floor.  As long as the doors are open on the deck (3?) below another elevator cannot be called to that deck.  We went up to 4 and got an elevator to ourselves.

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, iria64 said:

The main times elevators were a problem for us... after shows let out, getting back on the ship after a day in port, disembarkation day.

 

Here's a trick if you find a long line/crowd for the elevators after a day in port... go up 1 floor.  As long as the doors are open on the deck (3?) below another elevator cannot be called to that deck.  We went up to 4 and got an elevator to ourselves.

Sounds like this is an issue common to all large ships, we had the same issue on Anthem of the Seas.

[Drazil65]

On the Mardi Gras now. I rarely take the elevators but I can see why it would be an issue. 

 

We are the same, cannot tell you last time we took an elevator on a cruise ship.  We are on Mardi Gras in December and will be using the stairs as usual (cabin is on deck 12) especially hearing the many complaints about the elevators over the last year.  

[calgaryhhr]

10 hours ago, Hoosierpop said:

On the Mardi Gras now. I rarely take the elevators but I can see why it would be an issue. 
 

One thing though. If people are fit and can walk 3-4 decks, why not take the stairs? If you’re going from 6 to 16, fine. But watching some guy in his 10k racing shirt go from 6 to 8 while there’s a backlog is hilarious. 

 

We took the stairs pretty much all the time during our cruise in August because the elevators were such a hassle. I even made my kids drag their carryon suitcases down the stairs from deck 17 on debarkation day. The elevators that morning were the biggest disaster I had ever seen. 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

There are those that have problems walking and the eleveator is a must for enven one deck up or down. That is why we do our besrt to have a cabin on the lowest deck. Waiting for an elevetor to go down is usually faster than an up and almost never crowsded. Now for those that self assist getting off the ship. PLEASE leave your luggage in you cabin when you go to breakfast. You take up a lot of room in the elevators and in the buffett. We ALWAYS leave ours in the room and our items in the safe. Oner 80 cruises and that has NEVER been a problem.

[matymil]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:42 PM, ninjacat123 said:

Did you try Emeril's?

We had the beignets and they were amazing. For half the cruise i thought Emerils was a sit down restaurant, it wasnt until i walked by it and really paid attention that i realized it was more of a grab and go, quick bite place. You order at the counter and then take a number to a table.

[matymil]

11 hours ago, Drazil65 said:

On the Mardi Gras now. I rarely take the elevators but I can see why it would be an issue. 

 

We are the same, cannot tell you last time we took an elevator on a cruise ship.  We are on Mardi Gras in December and will be using the stairs as usual (cabin is on deck 12) especially hearing the many complaints about the elevators over the last year.  

I mean im not against taking stairs but with being on deck 4, its a long haul up to the lido especially with a toddler that keeps telling us "walking is hard". This is kind of why i felt almost trapped at some points. We'd maybe go up past deck 15 once or twice a day just because it was normally such a pain to take the elevators plus we only had the two elevator sections on deck 4 instead of three on the other decks.

[matymil]

18 hours ago, rebeccac said:

 

This is definitely a ship where early dining does not pay off.  Luckily, we had "anytime" and never had a long wait when checking in around 6pm or so.   

Yeah i had no idea about that. Oh well...live and learn. Next time we will def do anytime....however....i will say since we had early dining, we had the same staff for the MDR and it was by far the best staff weve ever had.

[matymil]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:56 PM, DallasGuy75219 said:

This may just be something that people need to come around to because it's a new concept on Carnival, but the point of the "station" concept is that everyone need not wait in the same long cafeteria line when each person is going to want maybe 10%-15% of all the food on offer.

 

The works well on Princess' newer ships and on Royal, but personally speaking it takes it bit to get out of the mentality that you have to form a line but instead can just step up and serve yourself whatever you want.  Ultimately this winds up being more efficient for everyone, unless you're the type that can't make a decision on what to eat without slowly meandering by everything on offer.

I get that but personally id rather wait in line for afew mins over having to deal with people cutting or reaching around me. I dunno it just seemed like a free for all and i went when it there was barely anyone there. My wife went at peak lunch time..saw what was going on and went somewhere else to eat.

[matymil]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:36 PM, mondello said:

Thank you for posting. You’ll have to go back on another Carnival ship now so your boy can enjoy the Dr. Seuss breakfast. We haven’t made it onto Mardi Gras but, we’ll be on Celebration for Christmas. Can’t wait to try all the new food venues. Did you get to enjoy Shaq’s Big Chicken?

Yeah were hoping it would be back in time but it should be back for our next cruise on the Horizon next year. We did try Big Chicken. It was good, the line went fast. Our son loved the tenders. I liked that you can get any sandwich with grilled chicken as well as fried.

[matymil]

One other thing that was very different that someone in this thread may have insight to but i cant figure out at all. They seemed to shut all but one of the juice stations down across the ship really early. Like as soon as dinner time hours ended. Same with the ice cream to. I know ice cream would shut down on the other ships but i never remember them begin so restrictive with juice. Not a huge deal but it makes it tough with a toddler who wants juice and every machine you go up to is off.

[DallasGuy75219]

56 minutes ago, matymil said:

One other thing that was very different that someone in this thread may have insight to but i cant figure out at all. They seemed to shut all but one of the juice stations down across the ship really early. Like as soon as dinner time hours ended. Same with the ice cream to. I know ice cream would shut down on the other ships but i never remember them begin so restrictive with juice. Not a huge deal but it makes it tough with a toddler who wants juice and every machine you go up to is off.

As in the orange, apple, and passion fruit guava juice cocktails that they have in the Lido deck dispensers?  I've never seen them out in past noon(ish) when the late risers breakfast closes.  They start replacing them with lemonade and iced tea as the breakfast lines start closing.

 

I'd say cost savings, but they're juice cocktails (not real juice) so they can't be that expensive in the first place. Maybe still more expensive than lemonade and iced tea though?