Live Horizon/Mardi Gras B2B 8/1-8/7and 8/7-814

[ninjacat123]

19 minutes ago, HxFx said:

That's another one I've looked at. 8 hour drive for us. We are also on a Sept 4 cruise out of PC (Mardi Gras).

Are you getting your covid test through CVS? That's my plan....hopefully we will see you onboard!

[HxFx]

6 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Are you getting your covid test through CVS? That's my plan....hopefully we will see you onboard!

That's our plan too. I have a reminder set to try and make an appointment 2 weeks out from the 3 day test max (this Wednesday!) 

[SNJCruisers]

6 hours ago, have2vacation said:

Allegiant is one of the main carriers. 

Enough said.  Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit.  Three airlines similar to Freeport, Nassau & La Romana.

[SNJCruisers]

11 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

My experience on Laura has been more of getting my knuckles whacked with a ruler…..but maybe that is just me.

Getting knuckles whacked was the jurisdiction of the Immaculate Heart Nuns back in the day.  Laura is when I get put in the penalty box for a week or two dealing with Loyal Royals and their myopic attitudes.

[mrak]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:41 AM, jimbo5544 said:

Places to eat.  There are a ton, possibly to many.  We had (as we always do) traditional dining, ;ate seating.  I would tell them if we had other plans for the following night.  I really sensed disappointment in them when we told them we were doing something different other than traditional.  Obviously not a major thing, but I thought it worth mentioning.  Everything we tried, we liked, but the leader was def Rudy’s Sea Grill.  A really, really good meal, possibly the best we have ever had at sea.  We did not have the chance to try Chibang, but EVERYONE we talked that did loved it.  They have def taken it all to a new level.  

 

Breakfast opportunities abound, we ended up doing Pig and Anchor more often than not because it was close to empty.  There are more lunch opportunities than can possibly try. 

Apologies if this has been discussed…I saw that people with YTD can reserve a table through the hub app at the “included for a limited time” restaurants (Chibang, Cucina, and Pig and Anchor) as kind of an extension of YTD. How do people with set dining reserve tables for these restaurants? Can they also use the hub app or is the process different? Thanks in advance! 

[JaniceB]

13 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Baltimore is a really solid port, and has a really large repeat clientele.  You can drive right to the ship.  Oue friend Ken Byrne, the singing Maitre’d sails from there.  If you go and want to drive in the day before I can point you to a wonderful hotel, sunset drinks at a rooftop bar at Sunset.  I have several reviews from there.

The Pride is going to Tampa with Ken at some point.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, mrak said:

Apologies if this has been discussed…I saw that people with YTD can reserve a table through the hub app at the “included for a limited time” restaurants (Chibang, Cucina, and Pig and Anchor) as kind of an extension of YTD. How do people with set dining reserve tables for these restaurants? Can they also use the hub app or is the process different? Thanks in advance! 

Pig & Anchor is walk up for everyone.  If you have set dining, you can only do Chibang and Cucina by walk up only.  Had heard it was both after 730 and after 800.  So I would change to YTD and then you can make a reservation via the HUB as you are waiting to embark in the seating area.  The menu at Pig & Anchor for dinner has also changed with different daily specials available,  including a 7 oz filet on Saturdays and a 10 oz NY Strip on Sundays.

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

Getting knuckles whacked was the jurisdiction of the Immaculate Heart Nuns back in the day.  Laura is when I get put in the penalty box for a week or two dealing with Loyal Royals and their myopic attitudes.

My list (resume) is fairly long, although my view is significantly different.  (loyal royals, now there is a topic from bygone eras)

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Pig & Anchor is walk up for everyone.  If you have set dining, you can only do Chibang and Cucina by walk up only.  Had heard it was both after 730 and after 800.  So I would change to YTD and then you can make a reservation via the HUB as you are waiting to embark in the seating area.  The menu at Pig & Anchor for dinner has also changed with different daily specials available,  including a 7 oz filet on Saturdays and a 10 oz NY Strip on Sundays.

I asked both Pierre and GS and was told 8

 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, JaniceB said:

The Pride is going to Tampa with Ken at some point.

Yup, the Pride has an active home port schedule that includes the Med in summer and early fall 2022.  We are doing Greece 10 day out of Rome.10/1/22

[mrak]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

Pig & Anchor is walk up for everyone.  If you have set dining, you can only do Chibang and Cucina by walk up only.  Had heard it was both after 730 and after 800.  So I would change to YTD and then you can make a reservation via the HUB as you are waiting to embark in the seating area.  The menu at Pig & Anchor for dinner has also changed with different daily specials available,  including a 7 oz filet on Saturdays and a 10 oz NY Strip on Sundays.

Thank you for the response. So if you have YTD up can make reservations days Abbas at chibang and cucina? How tough will it be for a large group (15-20 people) to be sat together/near each other with YTD?

[KmomChicago]

5 hours ago, mrak said:

Thank you for the response. So if you have YTD up can make reservations days Abbas at chibang and cucina? How tough will it be for a large group (15-20 people) to be sat together/near each other with YTD?

 

No, if you have YTD you can "check in" for Chibang or Cucina starting at about 5:15 or 5:20 if you are a group of less than ten, and they will let you know when your table is ready.  

 

For groups of 10 or more they ask you to arrange in advance, so here's what I would do in your case. Plan to do Cucina perhaps the 3rd night of the cruise and Chibang the 4th to allow the first rush to work their way through early, and talk to the hosts the night before you want to dine about the following day. 

 

Chibang being the shiny new object will likely be busy the first couple of nights and then die down. We ate in Cucina the 6th and 7th nights of the cruise and it was largely empty both nights; keep in mind we are early diners and checked in between 5:30 and 6 both nights. 

[SNJCruisers]

34 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

 

No, if you have YTD you can "check in" for Chibang or Cucina starting at about 5:15 or 5:20 if you are a group of less than ten, and they will let you know when your table is ready.  

 

For groups of 10 or more they ask you to arrange in advance, so here's what I would do in your case. Plan to do Cucina perhaps the 3rd night of the cruise and Chibang the 4th to allow the first rush to work their way through early, and talk to the hosts the night before you want to dine about the following day. 

 

Chibang being the shiny new object will likely be busy the first couple of nights and then die down. We ate in Cucina the 6th and 7th nights of the cruise and it was largely empty both nights; keep in mind we are early diners and checked in between 5:30 and 6 both nights. 

When Chibang was first announced, there was a 24 hour window when Carnival was taking reservations. Then it mysteriously got shut down. Someone had mentioned they got a reservation as far out as March of 2022 during the Sailabration.  This means that reservations can be made once on board, or technically once you are in the seating area waiting to embark and you should then be able to make reservations on the HUB for the week.

[have2vacation]

8 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Yup, the Pride has an active home port schedule that includes the Med in summer and early fall 2022.  We are doing Greece 10 day out of Rome.10/1/22

We booked the Pride 7/10/222 for a 12 day London, Iceland, etc. I’m hoping everything is a little better by then and we are able to travel overseas without too many rules and the airfares start to come down. The itinerary intrigued me and so many people said they love the Pride. 

[SNJCruisers]

6 minutes ago, have2vacation said:

We booked the Pride 7/10/222 for a 12 day London, Iceland, etc. I’m hoping everything is a little better by then and we are able to travel overseas without too many rules and the airfares start to come down. The itinerary intrigued me and so many people said they love the Pride. 

We're booked on a 14 day out of London in September of 2023 on the brand new Norwegian Prima, which will be a game changer for NCL similar to how the Mardi Gras is for Carnival.  Itinerary includes Dublin, Belfast, 3 stops in Iceland including an overnight and 3 stops in Norway.  And BOGO airfare.

[KmomChicago]

23 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

We're booked on a 14 day out of London in September of 2023 on the brand new Norwegian Prima, which will be a game changer for NCL similar to how the Mardi Gras is for Carnival.  Itinerary includes Dublin, Belfast, 3 stops in Iceland including an overnight and 3 stops in Norway.  And BOGO airfare.

 

Sounds awesome!

[JaniceB]

10 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Yup, the Pride has an active home port schedule that includes the Med in summer and early fall 2022.  We are doing Greece 10 day out of Rome.10/1/22

We had a Greece sailing booked on the Pride in Oct too but cancelled and booked the Sailabration cruise on the Pride out of Tampa.  I'm hoping Ken will be on this sailing. We had 2 years of European cruises cancelled, so I guess I will wait a few more years.  

[mrak]

3 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

No, if you have YTD you can "check in" for Chibang or Cucina starting at about 5:15 or 5:20 if you are a group of less than ten, and they will let you know when your table is ready.  

 

For groups of 10 or more they ask you to arrange in advance, so here's what I would do in your case. Plan to do Cucina perhaps the 3rd night of the cruise and Chibang the 4th to allow the first rush to work their way through early, and talk to the hosts the night before you want to dine about the following day. 

 

Chibang being the shiny new object will likely be busy the first couple of nights and then die down. We ate in Cucina the 6th and 7th nights of the cruise and it was largely empty both nights; keep in mind we are early diners and checked in between 5:30 and 6 both nights. 

Thank you all for the info! We are sailing on Thanksgiving week, so everything might be different by then. Part of the group got YTD and the rest got late seating...not sure what to do. This is stressing me out haha. Thank you all for taking the time do start these threads. Been very informative.

[ProgRockCruiser]

On 8/16/2021 at 8:30 AM, KmomChicago said:

I am not picky or easily rattled and it was BAD. It hasn’t been renovated or expanded since the 80’s and looks just barely kept stapled and duct taped together in that condition now. Bathroom doors broken all over, limited food service, unattractive, uncomfortable and insufficient seating and holding areas, etc etc. Our flight was 3.5 hours late and it was a red eye to begin with. 🥱😴 We were on Frontier and it was the same over at the JetBlue gates. I had plenty of time to wander around the crappy concourse.

 

I remember when MCO sparkled 35ish years ago and never thought it would devolve into a real embarrassment. 

MCO has been renovating some of the satellite terminals, one by one, and are also busy building a new South terminal.

 

The Frontier and Jet Blue sat terminal (#1, gates 1-29) is probably the last to be upgraded, as they are the "budget" airlines (all the other ones in that sat terminal are low budget airlines) and probably aren't paying the highest airport fees.

 

Fly an airline like Southwest, Delta, or American, you'll see some improvements in the other Sat terms.

 

Anyway, back to the OP:  Jimbo, thanks for the B2B review(s), it has been excellent to see everything available on Mardi Gras!

Edited August 17, 2021 by ProgRockCruiser

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, JaniceB said:

We had a Greece sailing booked on the Pride in Oct too but cancelled and booked the Sailabration cruise on the Pride out of Tampa.  I'm hoping Ken will be on this sailing. We had 2 years of European cruises cancelled, so I guess I will wait a few more years.  

Ken has been pretty non committal, but I would bet yes he will be. 

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

MCO has been renovating some of the satellite terminals, one by one, and are also busy building a new South terminal.

 

The Frontier and Jet Blue sat terminal (#1, gates 1-29) is probably the last to be upgraded, as they are the "budget" airlines (all the other ones in that sat terminal are low budget airlines) and probably aren't paying the highest airport fees.

 

Fly an airline like Southwest, Delta, or American, you'll see some improvements in the other Sat terms.

 

Anyway, back to the OP:  Jimbo, thanks for the B2B review(s), it has been excellent to see everything available on Mardi Gras!

You are welcome, thanks for following along.

[WeBeCruisinMon]

Did the ship dock on time on the last morning? What time were you able to get off? I’m sailing the last week of November and looking to book a flight out of MCO that leaves at 11:05am. My husband and I both have TSA precheck and would arrange an early transfer from the port to MCO. We would also walk off with our own luggage. Concerns with that early of a flight? Thanks!

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, WeBeCruisinMon said:

Did the ship dock on time on the last morning? What time were you able to get off? I’m sailing the last week of November and looking to book a flight out of MCO that leaves at 11:05am. My husband and I both have TSA precheck and would arrange an early transfer from the port to MCO. We would also walk off with our own luggage. Concerns with that early of a flight? Thanks!

We docked early and were off early.  We had a 11:40 flight and was concerned with that (because of that we opted for a rental).  If I had it to do again, I would Uber, the price difference was not that great and it takes a couple of variables out of the equation.  One more strong consideration is that is Thanksgiving time (not sure of the exact dates), the absolute busiest time.  One other thing about MCO, we are TSA Pre (actually global entry) as well.  Security was about 15 minutes, check in and bags (Delta sky priority, so a much shorter line) easily was double that.  

[SNJCruisers]

9 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Sounds awesome!

One of the bucket list cruises.

[mondello]

6 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

MCO has been renovating some of the satellite terminals, one by one, and are also busy building a new South terminal.

 

The Frontier and Jet Blue sat terminal (#1, gates 1-29) is probably the last to be upgraded, as they are the "budget" airlines (all the other ones in that sat terminal are low budget airlines) and probably aren't paying the highest airport fees.

 

Fly an airline like Southwest, Delta, or American, you'll see some improvements in the other Sat terms.

 

Anyway, back to the OP:  Jimbo, thanks for the B2B review(s), it has been excellent to see everything available on Mardi Gras!

Thank you for the update. I flew home from MCO last week and couldn't figure out why my experience was so different from KMom. I liked the cavernous lobby surrounded by the balconys of the Hyatt, quite unusual to see a hotel in the airport. Also, the quick monorail to the Southwest terminal took us to a great food court with many choices and about the best priced airport food I've seen.