Mardi Gras...oh what a first cruise story!

[RMMV Aureol]

In 2004/2005, I rescued a 40 foot container's worth of fittings and furniture from the beautiful APOLLO, ex EMPRESS OF CANADA, MARDI GRAS, APOLLON. I also documented her plight on the beach and was the last westerner to set foot on board while she was being demolished, as shown in the video, "On The Road To Alang". Much of MARDI GRAS is now part of my home (etched glass panels, mirrors, nickel railing -- which I had originally offered to Carnival, hoping they had an interest in preserving this important part of their history, either on land or in a newbuild) and a lot of it is still available from my website, http://www.midshipcentury.com. I also got some things off the BIG BOAT, ex TRANSVAAL CASTLE, S.A. VAAL, FESTIVALE, BIG RED BOAT III, but she was admittedly less "classic" on the inside. Wonderful ships. Their legacy is now the biggest cruise line empire in the world. Their builders could never have dreamed what they led to.

 

Peter Knego

[Catbiri2]

Wow.. I must have been 12 or 13 when I went on the Mardi Gras and yes, it was also my first cruise.

 

What still, to this day, sticks out in my mind is the service at the restaurants. I kept calling it the magical dissapearing butter wrappers. I seriously felt that as soon as I set down a used butter wrapper, it dissapeared! That was so totally cool to me.

 

It was just mom and me. She trusted me, and gave me free reign of the ship. Most nights I wasn't in the room until long after she was asleep. I tried the teen club thing, but just wasn't into it.

 

I remember I hung out with the performers. I got to know them well enough that when there was a talent show for the guests at the end of the trip the ones that weren't working showed up to watch me in it (I did a mime routine *I think I still have the "trophy" that I was "awarded"*) It started a tradition with me though of befriending the crew, something I still do every cruise I go on.

 

Aprox. 10 years later Mom, (step)Dad, sis and I went on the Insparation (second cruise ever for mom and me) Mom was wondering what happened to "our first ship". We were exploring our new home for the week when we stumbled upon the dining room.... lo and behold there was a model of our First Ship! We were excited..

 

Then later, mom heard the voice of the CD and said "No Way" Well yup, when I asked him later (though he might have been fibbing, who really knows) we found out it was the same CD that had been on our first cruise.

 

Since then we have floated with Princess and NCL also, but I will always remember the wonder and excitement of my first cruise on the Mardi Gras... and am still trying to figure out how the waitstaff kept making everything dissapear so quickly.

 

Thanks for reminding me of that feeling!

[MRVEGAS711]

Here is some video of the Mardi Gras!

 

[shippmates]

Our first cruise in 1989 was on the Mardi Gras and it was 14 years until we cruised again. This was the very last voyage that the grand lady made it the ship was in terrible shape. The capet was being ripped up and I can remember seeing the bags in the hallways when we came from dinner the first night. I was sick for the first day as there were no stablizers on the ships like today. You took your shower while sitting on the toilet, if you did not take the toilet paper from the holder it got when as you sat and took your shower. The bed was so short that I could not sleep in the same bed as my hushband. He had to boost me up to the upper bunk and he slept slanted on the bed so that his feet did not hang out over the end of the bed. The alcohol sure did flow freely back then and Carnival sure was the party cruise line. The ships have come along way since then. Even with such a disappointing ship we love to cruise and have taken many on other Carnival ships, HAL and Cunard.

[RMMV Aureol]

MARDI GRAS left the Carnival fleet in 1993 and continued sailing as STAR OF TEXAS and LUCKY STAR before becoming APOLLON, so you were not on her very last voyage in 1989. Admittedly, in her lower category former tourist class cabins, she was cramped. Her former first class cabins were quite stunning though. You probably got an excellent bargain for the cabin you had. I visited the ship many times from 1978 through 1993 and was always impressed with how clean and well maintained she was.

 

Peter

[Leia]

MARDI GRAS left the Carnival fleet in 1993 and continued sailing as STAR OF TEXAS and LUCKY STAR before becoming APOLLON, so you were not on her very last voyage in 1989. Admittedly, in her lower category former tourist class cabins, she was cramped. Her former first class cabins were quite stunning though. You probably got an excellent bargain for the cabin you had. I visited the ship many times from 1978 through 1993 and was always impressed with how clean and well maintained she was.

 

Peter

 

Hi Mr. Knego - no questions or anything, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading your accounts of all these classic ships.

[Car-Stan]

Very cool that this old boat stays alive in so many people's fond memories over the years! Thanks for sharing those additional stories - two people with a long gap between their last cruise and next one!

 

Zackiedawg,

 

We, along with you, may be among the very few who sailed both the Mardi Gras and the Nordic Prince. And we loved both!

 

We sailed the Mardi Gras with two other couples in the summer of either 1976 or 1977, when it went to Nassau, San Juan and St. Thomas. Memories include the waiters in their costumes, skeet shooting (0 for all), playing "hide & seek" in crews quarters, and spending the afternoon drinking pina coladas in the Don Q rum offices in Puerto Rico because it was too hot to climb to the fort. Also remember seeing every show, movie and stupid game, as well as making sure we made every midnight buffet, no matter how stuffed we already were! Not to mention some guy who we never saw outside of the casno!

 

When we went on the Nordic Prince about 8 years later with our two kids, we got upgraded so they got their own cabin and enjoyed the hell out of ordering breakfast in bed every day and getting dimes for the slots (they were about 8 and 4).

 

Went many years until our next cruise, and have done several since, but these posts have helped refresh lots of fun memories.

 

Thanks to all.

 

Car-Stan (Stan)

[JC22312]

My wife and I sailed a 7 day cruise on the MG in April 1977 for our honeymoon. That was the first Fun Ship. We had a great time. Remember the guy with the puppets? I liked the dirty old man puppet the best. (Now I am one.)

[momtothom]

I sailed on the MG with 2 of my girlfriends for a senior high school spring break trip in April, 1980, out of Miami. Our parents thought we wouldn't get into any trouble being on a cruise full of old people, but boy were they wrong. Our shipmates included 97 senior high school boys from a private school in New Orleans also on their spring break!!!! Ship rules for teens were much more relaxed back then and we still laugh about what a wild time we all had during that week.

[ChristieNJ]

Our first cruise in 1989 was on the Mardi Gras and it was 14 years until we cruised again. This was the very last voyage that the grand lady made it the ship was in terrible shape. The capet was being ripped up and I can remember seeing the bags in the hallways when we came from dinner the first night. I was sick for the first day as there were no stablizers on the ships like today. You took your shower while sitting on the toilet, if you did not take the toilet paper from the holder it got when as you sat and took your shower. The bed was so short that I could not sleep in the same bed as my hushband. He had to boost me up to the upper bunk and he slept slanted on the bed so that his feet did not hang out over the end of the bed. The alcohol sure did flow freely back then and Carnival sure was the party cruise line. The ships have come along way since then. Even with such a disappointing ship we love to cruise and have taken many on other Carnival ships, HAL and Cunard.

 

My first cruise was also in '89 and on this ship (I posted about it on this thread a long time ago), and yes it was in HORRIBLE condition!! lol The bathroom cracked me up! It was like 2x2, lol! But hey, I was 18, I could drink, I was with one of my best friends, and all was right with the world!!! :cool::cool::cool:

[Cabin_boy]

CPR was British-owned at the time. EMPRESS OF CANADA was British-registered (to a British subsidiary of CPR, which was a British-owned Canadian company), British-crewed, British-built, and so on.

 

She is more British than TITANIC - which was owned by a British subsidiary of an American-owned American company. For that matter she is more British than QM2 is as well.

 

Thank you for making me do research into this ship. CPR was not a Britished owned company it was a privately held Canadian company. I had a lot of fun reading about the history of this ship. The Empress of Canada was built in Scotland but it was for CP.

 

I was 2 when CP Ships was sold to Carnival. To this day I always wondered why the Carnival logo looked like the old CP Rail logo. Now I know.

[Traveling52]

We traveled on Mardi Gras in 1984. This was my husbands 1st cruise. Just remembered they had rooms for hairdrying and shaving because you could not use the wattage in the rooms. Boy how things have changed.

[Barnes1234]

Thank you for making me do research into this ship. CPR was not a Britished owned company it was a privately held Canadian company. I had a lot of fun reading about the history of this ship. The Empress of Canada was built in Scotland but it was for CP.

 

I was 2 when CP Ships was sold to Carnival. To this day I always wondered why the Carnival logo looked like the old CP Rail logo. Now I know.

 

My Great grandfather worked as a ticket collector in the Port of Montreal, my grand father worked for CP Telecom and my father was an Engineer with the CPR. In fact, if I look out my office window and look to the left, I can see CPR's HQ.

 

The CPR is as Canadian as tuques, maple syrup and pulling a jersey over someone's head while punching them in the face. A massive company with operations and operating offices all over the world. They have since divested of most of the non rail related business (Fairmount Hotels, CP Ships, EnCana) and pretty much sold them all off now.

 

A company with a very interesting history. The CPR made Canada what it is today.

[Cabin_boy]

The CPR is as Canadian as tuques, maple syrup and pulling a jersey over someone's head while punching them in the face. A massive company with operations and operating offices all over the world. They have since divested of most of the non rail related business (Fairmount Hotels, CP Ships, EnCana) and pretty much sold them all off now.

 

A company with a very interesting history. The CPR made Canada what it is today.

 

But was it bigger than Tim Hortons??

It was interesting to see how CP grew its chain hotels, cruise lines and rail service. Making it the easiest way from getting from Western Europe to the far East. CP was something we could all be proud of.

[jabbersmom]

No- but our cruise in 1977 had a crew member go overboard- very sad for our last night out.

 

We still sail with Carnivale- leaving in 7 days for Alaska.

[John&LaLa]

our first cruise was on the Carnivale, Mardi Gras sister ship. what i remeber most (except for our futures son, the cruise baby) was a little old man walking the deck in a captains hat selling lottery tickets. he had two show girls with him and you paid a couple of dollars a ticket. my wife bought one with our older sons birthday 413 (April 13) and told me and everyone at our table that she had the winning ticket. we missed the drawing on the last day (re cruise baby) but she insisted we had to stop by pursers office and pick up her winnings. i humored her, but sure enough she presented her ticket and the purser handed her $450. we saw the Carnivale several years later in nassau, she sure looked small as our current ship towered above her

[lovecruising62]

Wow - what great stories/memories....we sailed the Mardi Gras (1st cruise) on 4/28/1985 on our honeymoon and we just celebrated 25 years...Time does fly doesn't it - I remember also thinking how big she was at the time...What I rememeber MOST was never being able to figure out how to get back to the room on the first try - we were in a Porthole room with a Queen size bed...I remember spending hours planning our honeymoon and we picked out the "biggest" room - yea right - it wasn't soo big at all...but we did have the big bed at the end of what felt like going down 10 hallways (make a left, then a right - etc - something like that LOL) and the nightgown every night was out (even when I hid it) and walking down those hallways - I remember feeling like I was in a maze trying to get back to the room - think we were on the same deck as the casino, there was a small kiddie pool tucked behind the funnel and thats where we hung out as there were no kids and we always had it to ourselves!!! We had a blast and it took a few years to go back to cruising but we are going on our 6th cruise this Saturday (first NCL).

[CruisnMom007]

Why is it that Carnival doesn't have our older cruises on the list with our more recent ones to be able to apply it to our cruise history?? did they not keep good records back then??

[luckycruzer]

til mid 80's or sim time frame. But if you have a photo/Boarding/w/Capt, tik stubs, payment voucher.., and you need it to rpoove a "milestone" with them..ppes have been lucky in faxing info to them. I'm waaaay past all that...sailing on #'s 36-43 by Feb 2012..just Carnival..But I didnt start w/them til Fall '06. So I'll have totally one less than years old I am. A few mixed lines thru out since '69 (that I actually paid for)..sooo lots of waves under my lif vest!..and they've alll been good

[LynnWalk]

Carnival just found our reservations for our Dec. 1990 Bahamas cruise on the Mardi Gras. This was the first cruise for my husband and me. Maybe some body can remember what cruise line was out of Miami in the 60's. Went on a week-end cruise with my family in June 1966. 4 of us went. 2 cabins with bunk beds and shared a bath room.

[CruisersNC]

Our first cruise was on the Mardi Gras as well....it seems so long ago. It was 1993, my wife was pregnant, and we were very excited to go on a cruise. I remember when we finally got to the port and saw the ship sitting there.....we thought it was huge! This was the only cruise to date where we were upgraded to a nicer room....we got lucky. We saw some of the cabins y'all are talking about...but we got a suite which had a sitting room, a bedroom, and a full bathroom with a bath. I think we only paid something like $350 for the cruise so we made out! On the not so lucky side........we sailed into a tropical storm the first night. We had been watching it on the news for days and the darned thing wouldn't move....we were afraid the trip would be cancelled.....but it wasn't. It made for a very interesting night which is pretty blurry to me now. I remember people throwing up.....I remember the cruise director (who was also our entertainment) trying to sing a song while holding onto the stage curtains for dear life while the ship veered from side to side. (many years later we had the same cruise director and we talked to him about that night) We went into the casino and there seemed to be no storm in there at all.....everyone was bolted to there seats running the one arm bandits as though the ship was motionless. As I said....this cruise is a blur to me....but I remember the food in the dining room was excellent. We had a table for 2 and that's the only time we've had that on a cruise. I remember the wait staff and room attendants did a fine job. I also had the worst cold of my life during this cruise but it didn't stop us from having a great time and anxious for more cruises to follow. I saw pictures of her being broken up at the scrappers.....very very sad. Since then we've seen several other ships that no longer exist. Being someone who loves old cars and trucks and antique furniture, etc.....I hate to see these majestic ships scrapped like that. I truly hope that the SS United States will be restored to her glory......that would be a victory for everyone.

[GranysT]

Wow, this thread keeps popping up from time to time. I just read my origianl post, way back in 2006. :D:

 

I got so nostalgic, and sad, when I read about Mardi Gras being scrapped. I would never want to see pictures of her destruction. I get sad seeing pictures of the Concordia, lying on her side, so dejected.

[yosemiteSam]

The Norway is beached at Alang in India. It is not scrapped - yet. Although our DD who was on the last cruise contends it was a floating scrap heap before the boiler explosion.

 

Doc

My first cruise was on the Norway ! Did 3 on her still love that ship, was not in my opinion, in bad shape a few months before the end. I was booked and getting ready to go on her again when the boiler blew, the week after ! NCL told me they might get her fixed in time LOL

[yosemiteSam]

I just looked up the Mardis Gras. I can't believe it ran aground on it's maiden voyage!

 

Carnival > still going strong in that department, engine out off Baja last year, Rocks off Italy last month, engine quit off Africa early this year, Carnival tour robbed early this year in Mex.. Maybe more to come without me !.

[davemac44]

Hi fellow CC members - was just googling Mardi Gras, and came across this site! I first met my wife on the MG when she was the Empress of Canada (Canadian Pacific Steamships, not CPR!) - my wife was one of the nurses and I was a Navigating officer. We went back to cruise on the MG as passengers some 20 years later - she really hadn't changed apart from paint! Interesting jeja vu though!