Mary Louise

Thank you

Hi, Is there a way to modify your MTD times without cancelling and rebooking the reservation? I am concerned that if I cancel and there is not a new time that I like I might lose my original time. Thank you ML

Thank you I cannot find it on the app.

Thank you

Hi, Sailing on Symphony of the Seas in a couple of months. I noticed that I can book free dining for dinner at the Solarium. I did not see any menus. Is it buffet style like it is at lunch or is it a served by staff? If it is served by staff does anyone have any menus? Thank you ML

I had a PD before final payment of our cruise for over a $100. They would not give it to me as they said it was for new bookings only. They find ways not to give you the PD. No where did I see new bookings only. They did take it to the resolutions department and still a no go. ML

You are allowed to check-in 48 hours Achaean of other passengers to get a time to board. Then you are given a group number. I was A4. That would have been one of the first boarding groups to embark.

Platinum Perks Priority embarkation and disembarkation is a nice perk. We did not take advantage of this perk. CCL would not let my son embark with us, so we stayed with him and his family until his group was called. We typically put our luggage out the night before, but this time we decided to walk off with our luggage. My son lives in Orlando and was concerned about his property. I am glad we did this, as when we came home I read that it took some passengers a couple of hours due to only having one ramp due to storm damage at the pier. A nice perk is a 1.5 liter of water for each platinum guest. This was easy to redeem. Our cabin Steward left two bottles in our room. You could also go to any bar or restaurant to redeem your free water. Carnival does make it difficult to redeem any alcoholic beverage. You get a free drink during any sea day brunch. I would just go to the restaurant and place my order. There is a maximum dollar amount, but they do not tell you what it is. I would order a cosmo to go and I was charged $1.77. CCL should just allow you to gat your drink when and where you want it, and cover it totally, unless it is a $20.00 glass of wine. RCCL does give diamond and diamond plus passengers 4 and 5 drinks for free, anytime you want them. Additionally there was a reception and the invite said you would get a free glass of one and one complimentary drink that you can use anytime 1 hour before the reception until the end of the cruise with a dollar limit of $10.00. Previously receptions you could have any drink from the bar. Some platinum and diamond members opted not to go. We did get our free glass of wine. The $10.00 maximum does not cover the cost of a cosmo or other martini, so we paid extra. This is cheap of Carnival. I do like the free laundry and only used 3 of our 6 free bags. It is a nice perk. If you were sailing back-to-back or on a longer cruise this helps with reducing what you pack. CCL does give out a free gift. My favorite gift that I ever received was the insulated beach bag. I use it all the time. Now it is a coozie holder. We also get a free pin of the ship that we are on. When I got the pin it actually said Ecstasy, so I swapped it out for the Mardi Gras. Those were the perks that we did take advantage of. Internet We did not purchase any Internet packages, however we did purchase the $5.00 chat for the entire week. We found it useful for checking with our son on where to meet and when. There are some free sites, the NOAA and CCL are also free. If any questions, please reach out to me. ML

Hi, First let me say we did not purchase the drink package. We had $750 of OBC and used that to purchase our drinks. I listened to people who bought the drink package and they were saying they need to drink 7-8 drinks to break out even. That is way too much drinking for me. Prior to the drink package, there appeared more bar servers going around asking if you want drinks. "Medication for your Vacation" was something we would hear quite often. Now there did not seem as many servers. I do not know if this is just my observation, or there is actually less to make it harder to obtain drinks for those who purchase the drink package. However I did purchase the upgraded wine package. This was $168 plus $18% gratuity. If offered five bottles of wine. Additionally we did bring our own wine on board too. There was a good selection of wine in this package. They did offer a lesser package but the wines were not very good. We did order wine at dinner the first night. We had wine left over and they stored it for us. We were able to retrieve our bottle at another restaurant but they did tell us it would take some time and it did. If you like wine this was not a bad deal. When we went to the various bars there was plenty of seating. However the servers were scarce and we just went to the bar to order our drinks. I do like the themed bars. It was always fun to try a different venue. RedFrog Tiki Bar This bar is on the Lido deck and has two floors. It has great views of the ocean and lido deck. e drank traditional tiki bar drinks. I had the Red 's Rum Treasure. Very sweet, and did pack a powerful punch. My son likes Tiki drinks and visited this bar more frequently. The Fortune Teller Bar This bar had some pretty unique drinks. the menu itself was pretty cool. I had the Venus Rising and loved the colored ice cube. Some drinks were smoky. I would suggest to go to this bar just to see the menu and read the drinks. Alchemy Bar If you want to see a show then head on over to the Alchemy bar. The bar tenders like to shake and put together any concoction you can think of. They also have nightly specials. One night it was ladies night. $1.00 off martinis. Guess who was buying? 🙂 Havana Bar I had the Cuban Ice Tea. Three different rums really packed a powerful punch. Plenty of seating and nice views of the ocean. The Brass Magnolia This is such a pretty bar. There was nothing on their menu that I was interested in so I stuck with my old standby Cosmo. Guy's Pig and Anchor If you are going to have BBQ you might as well have beer and bourbon. This restaurant has its' own brewery. They brew several beers. If you cannot decide what beer you want with your BBQ, You can order a flight of beer and sample 4 different beers. Dining Room I did order a chocolate martini one night and it was a great choice for a dessert drink. If you have any questions please send them my way. Thank you ML

Ports San Juan We were the first cruise ship to dock there after Fiona. I was not sure if we would be going because of the damage and power outages as well as the political unrest. The side of the island where we docked appeared like business as usual. We walked over to the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. I have been there before, but my son and his family wanted to go. Both my husband and I have the senior National Park, so we let our son and his spouse in. Our grandson was free. The walk is doable, it is all uphill. The fort offers beautiful views of the ocean. It is amazing given the age of the fort it is still standing after all these years and hurricanes. My husband and I returned back to the ship. I must say there were police everywhere. They were on bikes, walking, ATVs in cars. The island must have received a message from the cruise line that if you want tourist dollars you must create a safe environment. Either you found having the heavy police presence comforting or unnerving. Amber Cove I have never been to Amber Cove and heard so much about it. I was so much looking forward to this port. I guess I thought this was a CCL private island, but quickly found out differently. First the water was not the beautiful Caribbean aqua blue water. It was more like dirty water. As you get off the ship, there are bikes with covered seats to take you to the main area. At times it was unsafe to walk, as they were constantly going back and fourth and not sticking to one side or the other. They should have designated bike paths. When planning for the cruise, we thought about renting a cabana. I am so glad we did not. The cabanas over the dirty water was not something I would want to spend my money on. Perhaps the hurricane made the water dirty but not sure as i have never been to Amber Cove. The pool area is really nice. I would not take a lounge chair by the swim up bar as it was very crowded and noisy. Try to go early and get a chair right in front of the pool away from the bar. It gets very crowded and people are just trying to add chairs when there is just no room. You can rent umbrellas for $20.00. You need to bring a credit card or cash. You can not use your carnival card. The bathrooms are clean. You can purchase food and beverages on the island. If you purchased the CCL drink package you could not use it on the island. You need to pay for your beverages. I really do not think that Amber Cove can handle the Mardi Gras and another ship. The Freedom was there. It was just too crowded and you are literally on top of each other. My family and I are not smokers so people would smoke and vape in their chairs next to us. We decided to leave and just quickly look at the shops. I returned to my favorite pool on deck 8. It was not crowded or noisy. I could get food from several food venues that were open. If I go to Amber Cove again, I will stay on the ship. Nassau We originally was scheduled to go to Grand Turk but because of damage to the pier we went to Nassau instead. The water is beautiful in color. However we did not get off of the ship. I have been to this island before and there was nothing I really wanted to do. The CD did make an announcement to not bring excessive cash or jewelry off of the ship. This was the first time I have ever heard this announced. I wish we had been able to go to Grand Turk as it is one of my favorite ports. Seasoned cruisers stayed on the ship like us. No lines for food and plenty of loungers by the pool. I will do bars tomorrow. Fell free to ask me any questions. ML

Totally agree

Entertainment and Activities CCL certainly exceeds other cruise lines for activities. My family and I like to play trivia, and it was offered several times a day. Trivia games were usually packed. They had several bean bag toss games through out the day. There were other games as well that you could get involved in. It appeared that there was something for everyone. We did go see one comedian. We thought he was pretty funny. My son saw a different one and thought he was good too. The Punch liner club is bigger than the other ships I have been on. Some passengers complained that it was small, but actually for the venue, I thought it was pretty large for a comedy club. Passengers lined up to get into the shows, but we has no problem finding a seat. The main theatre is only one floor. We were there for the first magic show, Family Fued and the Platinum party. We never had problems finding a seat. On the other hand, seating for the entertainment that was scheduled in the center of the ship was horrible. Passengers would get a seat an hour in advance so they could see the show. There is not enough seating. From my recollection they offered three different shows. The shows were primarily, the singers, dancers, magic and some aerial acrobatics. I am not into the singers and dancers in any cruise that I have been on. It is just not my think. The Mardi Gras did incorporate them into the magic and aerial performers. I personally think that CCL should offer one less show and have it more frequently. Some seats had an obstructive view and it was just too much of a hassle getting a seat. While the show was going on, there was the background of shaking martini containers at the bar. If you want to see these shows go early get a seat away from the bar. There was plenty on live entertainment on the ship. I loved the violinists. Tomorrow I will write about the ports and bars.

Entertainment and Activities CCL certainly exceeds here for activities. My family and I

The bathrooms are not horrible. There was plenty of storage space. The toilet is small.

Hi, I also should mention that the aft elevators do not go to the fourth deck . There are variables on how many you can fit in an elevator. The size of passengers as well as any aids (canes, wheel chairs, scooters etc.) they use when on the elevator. I wish everyone lined up like you mentioned, but in my experience, some passengers did not make room for others. Glad to liked the Mardi Gras.

You will enjoy the Mardi Gras. It is a beautiful ship with very friendly staff.

Hi, Spa I typically do not go to the spa as I find them quite expensive. While on the cruise a $50 spa gift card appeared on my account. I decided to take advantage of it and had a fire and ice pedicure. It was $79 plus gratuity minus $50. Making an appointment was easy. The staff at the desk were very friendly. When I arrived for my pedicure I was given a form to complete. One of staff took my form and informed the person who was going to do my pedicure that I was there. She did not show up. The other staff member filled the pedicure tub and told me to come over. My person finally came over about 10 minutes later than my appointed time. She never introduced herself. My chair was next to the window and had a beautiful view of the ocean. I mentioned this to my pedicurist and she said that view gets old. I asked her how long she has been working for the company and she said 15 years. She was not friendly. The pedicure was ok. I don't think I will return. The spa itself is beautiful. Pictures If you like taking photos I must say the Mardi Gras has many different back drops. There was never really a line except for the staircase station. Retrieving your pictures was easy. However the watermarks on the pictures was annoying. The photographers were in the dining rooms, but they were not annoying. Laundry Services Both my husband and I receive three bags of laundry each. We only used three bags on this cruise. We sent it to the laundry in the morning and it was returned later in the evening. Fast service and a nice perk. Communication Communication was poor. Hurricane Ian was hitting FL. There were many Floridians on the ship and the captain only mentioned it once. The CD came on and repeated the same exact thing. If you did not have internet like me I relied on the free NHC website to track the hurricane and the free CCL website for updates. We knew the port was closed, and not sure if it was opened for our return. The captain told us the watch a station on TV for updates. A hurricane of this magnitude required more info regarding the port, incase flights needed to be changed. I have had captains that were much more communicative with the passengers. Tomorrow I will go over some of the entertainment venues.

Hi, Deck 12 there is privacy. I believe deck 9 has the extended deck so any body on deck 10 and above can look down on those decks. Also when in the deck 8 pool, you can see anyone on deck 9 who has an extended deck.

No We have been to Emerils in the past in New Orleans, did not try it on this ship. Emeril grew up in the city where I grew up and my husband and I actually had a double date with him when he was still in high school and not famous. We also dined at the Venus de Milo where he started his career, and ate at the restaurant where his mom worked. Our children also went to the same high school as his daughters.

I absolutely loved the big ship. I hope you do to.

Part Two Cabin Update I forgot to mention that there is really no live TV. I like to watch the news in the morning and when I get ready for dinner. There is a CBS channel and it is just a loop of news that happened that day. However after Ian struct there was plenty of live coverage of the destruction that Ian left. There are some free movies. One evening our son went out with his spouse and our grandson came to our room and watched a movie. I do miss live news. Dining After we embarked, we went to Shaq's Chicken and it was pretty good. It was busy. There is also an ice cream machine in the area. We had no trouble finding a table for 5. If you like fried or grilled chicken check it out. I am typically a lido deck person for breakfast and lunch, and main dining room for dinner. With all of the food choices we decided to mix it up a bit. We did MTD for dinner the first night. The Carnival Hub is a very useful app. It lets you know what the wait times are of various restaurants. Once you are ready to be seated you can check-in. Our wait time was less than 10 minutes. There is not congregating outside the restaurant waiting for a table. We would have a pre-dinner drink and once it told us our table was ready we made our way to the dining room. It actually gave you your table number. Main Dining Room The Palm and Flamingo restaurants are the main dining rooms. There are no table clothes, which I do miss. The menus are on the app or there is a QR code on the table. They will give you a real menu if you ask for it. The food is the same no matter what ship you go on. As mentioned I have not cruised on CCL since 2015 and the menu still has some of the entries I remember. I had, the sweet and sour shrimp and it was good. I am not a food snob. so if I do not have to cook, clean up after the meal the food is good. That was the only time that we ate dinner at the main dining room. I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried other restaurants after the first night. On the morning of debarkation, we did go to the Palm restaurant and ordered breakfast, and it was very good. Blue Iguana The Blue Iguana had a great breakfast burrito. They also had fresh watermelon. The lines were not too long and there is plenty of seating on the port side. I never once had breakfast at the lido deck. My husband did and said he had no lines, but if you wanted an omlette there was a line. I loved the Blue Iguana for the Tacos and burritos for lunch. Never had a long line. Room Service We did order room service. The food was a little cold. There is no fee for some of the room service food. They do not make it easy to find out about free room service. There is a QR code in the room that you need to scan. You call room service and order your food. They no longer have a card for you to fill out and leave outside your door. I was not all that impressed on the process or the food temperature. They did get the order correct. The Pig and Anchor I thought this restaurant had the worse breakfast selection. it was buffet style and did not have much of a selection. Bananas were green, coffee maker was not always working. Plenty of seating, but the seats were not that comfortable. We did eat here for lunch and dinner. I love BBQ and thought they did a nice job. Lunch is buffet style and dinner is first come first serve, For dinner you order on a piece of paper and give it to your server who brings it to your table. I wanted to have the loaded Tater Tots as an appetizer, but the server said he could not do it. It had to come all at the same time with the meal. The Mac and Cheese was dry. The brisket was quite tender. Guys Burgers There are many food choices and that is why I did not go to the Lido buffet. . If you have cruised CCL before then you most likely had Guy's burgers. That line was always long. It was well organized. Moved fast. I did ask for extra onion rings and the server said he could only give me two extra. He would not give my husband any extra onion rings. Burger's are great. Not a lot of seating. Many passengers carried their burgers to the various pool areas. PIZZERIA DEL CAPITANO This line was always long especially at lunch and when passengers returned from port. They have 6 pizza ovens and the day that I went they were only using one. There was only one server. If someone ordered more than a slice or two, you had to wait. Was it the best pizza I ever had and the answer is no. It was ok. Piazza Panini Nice selection of sandwiches. Again long lines and not enough help. I had the reuben which was very good, but if you expect a typical restaurant size reuben, you would be disappointed. You would need to order two. My husband and I each ordered one and wished we had more. We did not want to get back in that long line. Chibang We ate here for both lunch and dinner. At lunch you are given two pieces of paper to fill out. One is Mexican food and the other is Asian. There is various selections can either have a stir fry noodle bowl or have it in broth. They bring out out pico de gallo and chips prior to ordering your lunch. Service during lunch was slow and our waiter was not very attentive. Dinner was a different experience. Service was good. We sat near the kitchen and was told that there would be a 30 minute wait for food, but they kept coming around and filling our water glasses and to see what we needed. There was much to select from and would definitely go back for dinner. This restaurant is another one that you need to check-in and they notify you when your table is ready. Fresh Salads This was at the Serenity pool. It was a nice salad bar, but I was use to the solarium options on RCCL and this did not compare. Good for a quick salad. Hardly any lines. If you were looking for more food you need to go to another restaurant. Cucina Del Captaino We went to this restaurant twice. Loved the meatball appetizer. If you like chicken parm, it was very tasty, but it came with no sides. If you want pasta order it with your chicken, it does not automatically come. The caprese salad was not good at all, The tomatoes were pale red, not the nice red tomatoes. I did have the rice balls and were delicious. This restaurant is another one that you need to check-in and they notify you when your table is ready. All of the above food places were free of charge. My absolute favorite was: The Chef's Table If you have one splurge make it on the Chef's Table. Well worth the money. You need to make reservations prior to sailing. Do not wait as it sells out fast. I have been to the Chef's Table on RCCL and this Chef's Table was absolutely the best. It is offered once per night and only 16 people at a time are allowed to go. The food was fabulous. It is not a wine pairing event. They only have a white and red wine to go with the meal, but it is a never ending glass of wine. They had a close up magician and to this day I do not know how he did some of the tricks. We had a tour of the kitchen and watched a pastry chef make the famous chocolate lava cake. Karma the executive chef came out and talked about the meal and gave us some fun facts. his food budget is $730,000 each week. There is enough extra food for five days should the cruise not be able to return to port as scheduled. Keep that in mine should something happen on your cruise. The survivalist in me thought should I needed to was to hoard food should we not return to port because of Ian. Luckily we returned to port as scheduled. I loved the different food options which is really something I had not done in the past. This was a long post, so I will continue with the spa, and other items tomorrow. Please feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks for following along. ML

Hi, I did ask if my son and his family could embark with my husband and I and was told no. We could have embarked ahead of our family, or wait with them. It might have been because it was extremely hectic and they did not want to get other passengers angry.

Hi, Background: I have not cruised Carnival since 2015. I have cruised several times since 2015 on RCCL. I originally booked the Dream for September of 2020 with my family but it was cancelled. CCL offered a deal that instead of getting a refund, they offers us $600 of OBC and moved our deposit to a future cruise. When we booked the cruise CCL had a promotion and we received an additional $50 of OBC. The $650 was non refundable and the $100 from our TA was refundable OBC. Have $750 was very easy to spend. We booked the Mardi Gras due to being a new ship and that it went out of Port Canaveral. My son lives in Orlando so it was an easy decision to make. I am platinum on CCL and Diamond on RCCL. I will compare the perks in a later post. Embarkation Being platinum we were allowed to check in earlier to get an early time to embark. However our son is not, as this was his 3rd Carnival cruise. We embarked with him during his embarkation time. We waited for 30 minutes until his group was called, which was D 4. We could have gotten on the ship earlier, in A group, but if our family could not go together we would wait with them. I really thought that if you went during your time you could embark right away, but that is not the case. After passing through security you go to a holding area until your group is called. Overview of ship The Mardi Gras is a beautiful ship. She is tastefully appointed. No more neon colors. Yay Elevators On embarkation and debarkation days it was hard to get an elevator. There are three banks of elevators forward, midship and aft. The elevators are small. If there is a scooter in the elevator only two other passengers can get in the elevator. The buttons to get to other floors was on the side instead of the front by the doors. It was confusing for many passengers as everyone has a natural instinct to look for the buttons by the door. It took some time to get use to. I was in a forward elevator (PL109). I pushed the button to go to the 18th floor. When I reached the floor, the door never opened and I went what appeared very fast non stop to the 4 th floor. I was not the only one who this happened too. Pretty scary. They did fix the elevator. Phew Balcony Room We stayed in an aft balcony on the 12th deck. I read to avoid these rooms as you would hear noise from the Bolt. Yes you do hear the bolt but it does not run at night so it was not an issue. I personally thought the room was quite spacious. When we entered the room the bathroom had a sewer gas smell, that was quite obnoxious. We called to report it, and someone came right away and had it taken care of. The following day we received a call to make sure we were happy with the service. We certainly were. There are plenty of outlets and USB ports. Loved the closet. There is a pullout draw at the bottom for your shoes. There is also a drop down shelve. This gave you the flexibility for either hanging space or shelve space. Your choice. Good size safe. Nice lighting. Could shut off by the bed, and a reading light with shelving on each side of the bed. Balcony size was fine for us. The bathroom was the typical cruise ship size. Loved the shower door. I do not understand why they put the tissue holder in front of the toilet paper. When you had to wipe, you had to reach behind you. I am sure there is a reason, but not sure why. There is a shaving mirror. It would be great if there was a make-up mirror by the big mirror in the room. We had great cabin service. Carnival has gone to making your room up once a day. We elected to do it during the morning as I hate coming back to an unmade room later in the day. Mona Liza made sure we had extra towels every day and was extremely friendly. I have to say the majority of the staff was very warm and welcoming. Pools I love sitting out by the pool. There are four public pools. Deck 18 has the Serenity pool. Deck 16 has the main lido pool and an aft pool. Deck 8 also had an aft pool. There were several hot tubs. I typically love the adult pool area on RCCL and CCL. No kids and typically very quiet. The serenity area is nice that has clam shell loungers and if you are not there early they are typically taken. There are other areas that are also prime real estate both in the sun and in the shade. There is a towel exchange on this level. The girl was always smiling and friendly. I would go to the Serenity deck early and score a clam shell lounger. In the afternoon. I would go to deck 8 pool as it was no longer quiet. When cruise lines started to offer the drink packages, passengers were no longer quiet. The serenity area was no longer serene. It got loud and crowded. The serenity deck also offers salads in the afternoon. I would have liked more of a food choice than salads in this area. It is a pretty area, and if you are looking for quietness by a pool, go in the morning. Main lido deck busy and loud. Went there a couple of times with my grandson. Not my favorite pool. Deck 8 pool is very nice. It never seem crowded at all. There are 6 water chairs, that always were occupied. Loved the pool area, but there was no towel exchange at this pool. There are two towel exchange areas, one deck 16 and the other deck 18. Other than that the pool area was great. The aft pool on deck 16 is smaller than the aft pool on deck 8. Did not spend much time there. Tomorrow I will write about, photos, food, and spa. Feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks for following along Mary Louise

thank you. This was helpful. I was under the impression that RCCL could only be used as the down payment, glad to see you can use it for payment as well.

Hi, Can some one please review what conditions are in using these cards? It has been a long time and I need a refresher. At one time RCCL was only good for deposit. Is that still true? CCL you could use for final payment. Can you still do that? Any conditions for Princess or Celebrity? Thank you ML