SonoranDevil's Mardi Gras Pre-Inaugural Sailing Full Review with Pictures! -7/31/21

[ShaniBell]

5 minutes ago, SonoranDevil said:

So, I'm standing there, admiring myself in the suit when without warning, the slacks quickly fell to the floor.  Right there, in front of everyone in the shop.  Thank goodness for two things.  1...underwear was being worn and 2...my wife was the only woman in the store.  How did this happen?  Well, not having a rear end can be a challenge when one is not wearing a belt.  I don't have hips to stop my pants from falling off and similarly, I don't have a rear end to prevent it either.  I promise to bring a belt with me on the cruise.

 

 

 

He's all mine ladies...all mine 🤣

[sid_9169]

I also watched season one of the Love Boat recently, and hopefully your pants stay up at the appropriate times while on your cruise...

[SaucyWench]

1 hour ago, SonoranDevil said:

So, I'm standing there, admiring myself in the suit when without warning, the slacks quickly fell to the floor.  Right there, in front of everyone in the shop.  

The same thing happened to my husband years ago. We were on the Carnival Miracle celebrating a special anniversary so my husband rented a tuxedo from Carnival and I wore an elegant dress. (Let's just say, we were on the heavy side at the time and we don't lead the league in looks but we felt good about ourselves and each other that night.) We enjoyed a lovely formal night dinner. We said goodnight to our wait staff and were walking out of the dining room, between tables of folks finishing their desserts when it happened. The rental tux suspenders broke and down went his pants. He was sporting a pair of novelty Winnie the Pooh boxers that were a bit of an inside joke for us. Well, the folks finishing their desserts were now included in the joke because those boxers were no longer on the inside. With as much dignity as could be, he reached down, grabbed his pants and we exited. And those folks now have a great story to tell their friends at home. 

[SunDevil77]

Go Devils!  Hope to see you on board.

[ninjacat123]

Hysterical!  I snorted a laugh (trying to be quiet while my DH is on a Zoom call) when I read "T-Rex arms" and the finale of the story with the dropping of the trou!  Looking forward to reading more!!

[thatoneguyyouknow]

If you happen to find out what hard Seltzers they have on board (Truelys) Id love to know

[SonoranDevil]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

Hysterical!  I snorted a laugh (trying to be quiet while my DH is on a Zoom call) when I read "T-Rex arms" and the finale of the story with the dropping of the trou!  Looking forward to reading more!!

If you can't laugh at yourself, who can laugh at?  Thanks for following along!

[hockeyluver]

Looking forward to following you on your adventure !!   Thanks for taking us along !! 

[ShaniBell]

At exactly 9:01 PM AZ time last night I was able to check us (Rob, me and the kid) in since we are booked in one of those dandy Excel suites that we paid far too much money for but I don't care 😉  I managed to get a 10:30 check in time but that will likely change for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  I don't know yet what check in time my cousins got
2.  I cannot check mom in yet as her room is not a suite and not eligible for check in until 7/17 so I have no idea what time her slot will be although and while I'm hoping we can take her with the other five of us with priority boarding I'm not going to hold my breath and I'm not going to make an elderly woman wait alone at the terminal while we go on board and start testing the Cheers package out
3.  We are staying at the Hyatt at MCO which is 45 minutes from the port and NO ONE I am travelling with is a morning person.  So arriving at the port by 10:30 is going to be one heck of a stretch.

[SaucyWench]

1 hour ago, ShaniBell said:

At exactly 9:01 PM AZ time last night

First of all, how exciting that you got to check in!!!

 

So, that would have been 12:01a FL time on 7/15, right? Was your check in date 7/15?

[ShaniBell]

1 hour ago, SaucyWench said:

So, that would have been 12:01a FL time on 7/15, right? Was your check in date 7/15?

 

Yes 🙂  Our check in date was 7/15 so 12:01am EST

[SonoranDevil]

5 hours ago, ShaniBell said:

At exactly 9:01 PM AZ time last night I was able to check us (Rob, me and the kid) in since we are booked in one of those dandy Excel suites that we paid far too much money for but I don't care 😉  I managed to get a 10:30 check in time but that will likely change for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  I don't know yet what check in time my cousins got
2.  I cannot check mom in yet as her room is not a suite and not eligible for check in until 7/17 so I have no idea what time her slot will be although and while I'm hoping we can take her with the other five of us with priority boarding I'm not going to hold my breath and I'm not going to make an elderly woman wait alone at the terminal while we go on board and start testing the Cheers package out
3.  We are staying at the Hyatt at MCO which is 45 minutes from the port and NO ONE I am travelling with is a morning person.  So arriving at the port by 10:30 is going to be one heck of a stretch.

1.  Who?

2.  Is 74 really elderly anymore?  

3.  Put bacon in front of me at about 7:30 and we'll be fine.  

[SonoranDevil]

Hey everyone.  Fellow cruiser Kmom is sailing the week after us and is also compiling a review.  Be sure to follow along with her (link below) as well.  The more perspectives shared, the better picture we get as to what to look forward to on this beautiful new ship!

 

 

[Mandar13077]

On 7/15/2021 at 11:10 AM, ShaniBell said:

At exactly 9:01 PM AZ time last night I was able to check us (Rob, me and the kid) in since we are booked in one of those dandy Excel suites that we paid far too much money for but I don't care 😉  I managed to get a 10:30 check in time but that will likely change for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  I don't know yet what check in time my cousins got
2.  I cannot check mom in yet as her room is not a suite and not eligible for check in until 7/17 so I have no idea what time her slot will be although and while I'm hoping we can take her with the other five of us with priority boarding I'm not going to hold my breath and I'm not going to make an elderly woman wait alone at the terminal while we go on board and start testing the Cheers package out
3.  We are staying at the Hyatt at MCO which is 45 minutes from the port and NO ONE I am travelling with is a morning person.  So arriving at the port by 10:30 is going to be one heck of a stretch.

Wonder if setting the hotel clocks forward 2 hours would help? 😁

[KmomChicago]

On 7/12/2021 at 7:48 PM, stellarose said:

I plan on journaling in December when I board MG.  now by then no one will want to read or see a MG review. but it will cool to document it. 

 

People will still want to read it! I will and so will many others.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

On 7/15/2021 at 1:33 PM, ShaniBell said:

 

Yes 🙂  Our check in date was 7/15 so 12:01am EST

 

I might just stay up at night (probably more like set an alarm, lol) for 7/22!  🙂

 

Tom

[CruisingFromLA]

I just checked in. The earliest arrival appointment I could get was 12pm-12:30pm.

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by CruisingFromLA

[amcankid]

On 7/15/2021 at 8:10 AM, ShaniBell said:

At exactly 9:01 PM AZ time last night I was able to check us (Rob, me and the kid) in since we are booked in one of those dandy Excel suites that we paid far too much money for but I don't care 😉  I managed to get a 10:30 check in time but that will likely change for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  I don't know yet what check in time my cousins got
2.  I cannot check mom in yet as her room is not a suite and not eligible for check in until 7/17 so I have no idea what time her slot will be although and while I'm hoping we can take her with the other five of us with priority boarding I'm not going to hold my breath and I'm not going to make an elderly woman wait alone at the terminal while we go on board and start testing the Cheers package out
3.  We are staying at the Hyatt at MCO which is 45 minutes from the port and NO ONE I am travelling with is a morning person.  So arriving at the port by 10:30 is going to be one heck of a stretch.

Checking in at 12:01 Eastern time is great advice. I’ll tell my daughter and her boyfriend for their August cruise and definitely my wife and myself will do the same for our October Mardi Gras cruise.

As far as your Mom, in today’s world she’s still middle aged, but, playing up her elderly age as all the rest of you are ready to board should be enough to instill some common sense into the desk employees. It’s not like her boarding with you is gonna make a difference to anyone else.  It would be different if she had the early check in and was trying to bring the group with her. But one additional person who is part of your group? Only the insensitive would have a problem with that.

[stormy_weatherman]

Look forward to seeing you onboard! I’ll be carrying a camera most likely, vlogging the inaugural sailing for my Zach the Traveling Man channel on YouTube! Only 14 more days!!!

[ShaniBell]

9 hours ago, amcankid said:

As far as your Mom, in today’s world she’s still middle aged, 

 

I try to tell her that but she's having none of it!  She's earned her "old" as far as she's concerned.  One look at her and you'd argue that she is firmly middle aged though.

 

Anyway,  I logged in last night to check her in and was only able to get a 12pm check in time.  Unforuntately, when I booked her into that spot it reverted all of us to 12pm.  AARRGGHH.  My original boarding passes (which I saved) say 10:30am.  My cousins checked in and got 11:30 on theirs.  Those of us in suites have "priority" printed on our passes, mom has D02

 

Since we are all staying at the Hyatt at the airport and shuttling over together we'll just get there together, probabaly shooting for 11:00 - 11:30 and see what happens.  If they let us on early they let us on early, if they don't they don't.  I'm not going to worry about any of this because....

 

IN FOURTEEN DAYS I WILL BE ON A SHIP!!! 

 

and an hour one either side won't change that fact.

[KmomChicago]

1 hour ago, ShaniBell said:

 

I try to tell her that but she's having none of it!  She's earned her "old" as far as she's concerned.  One look at her and you'd argue that she is firmly middle aged though.

 

Anyway,  I logged in last night to check her in and was only able to get a 12pm check in time.  Unforuntately, when I booked her into that spot it reverted all of us to 12pm.  AARRGGHH.  My original boarding passes (which I saved) say 10:30am.  My cousins checked in and got 11:30 on theirs.  Those of us in suites have "priority" printed on our passes, mom has D02

 

Since we are all staying at the Hyatt at the airport and shuttling over together we'll just get there together, probabaly shooting for 11:00 - 11:30 and see what happens.  If they let us on early they let us on early, if they don't they don't.  I'm not going to worry about any of this because....

 

IN FOURTEEN DAYS I WILL BE ON A SHIP!!! 

 

and an hour one either side won't change that fact.

There’s the spirit!!

[SaucyWench]

18 hours ago, CruisingFromLA said:

I just checked in. The earliest arrival appointment I could get was 12pm-12:30pm.

Same here. 

[KmomChicago]

I don't usually think this way, but for this cruise we are all considering choosing the LAST arrival time and just sauntering onboard well after the cabins are made available.  We'll be at my dad's place relatively nearby in Florida the night before so we don't have to be on any particular schedule and I see little reason to hustle and possibly deal with who-knows-what shenanigans and crowd management issues. 

 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

26 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

I don't usually think this way, but for this cruise we are all considering choosing the LAST arrival time and just sauntering onboard well after the cabins are made available.  We'll be at my dad's place relatively nearby in Florida the night before so we don't have to be on any particular schedule and I see little reason to hustle and possibly deal with who-knows-what shenanigans and crowd management issues. 

 

 

You could always enjoy a nice casual lunch at the port.

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

4 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

You could always enjoy a nice casual lunch at the port.

 

Tom

 

Adding - though this is Florida, and a good number of people sharing that space with you may not be vaccinated. Also, over the last week - out of all the new cases reported in the country, 1 in 5 were in Florida. 

 

That's my PSA for the day!  🙂

 

Tom