Live (Wi-Fi willing) Christmas Mardi Gras Review 12/18- 12/26 Blue Card Perspective

[BennyBrun]

30 minutes ago, ShrinkinTexas said:

 

Are you sure "complimentary dinning"?  Online for the Vista it shows this restaurant as an additional charge.

On the Mardi Gras during the inaugural season Cucina is complimentary… how long I am not sure but they clearly do not have the space in MDR for everyone at full capacity.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

This Maria person is proving to be harder to find than I thought.  I made a hole in the wall on both decks to wish her a happy birthday from Saint Greg but have not been able to find her.  I will try and try again.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

Learning from the past experience we are NOT going to the MDR tonight hungry… we are starting our elegant evening with some Pig & Anchor with the Monday night special … double smoked pork belly with honey glaze and cedar plank salmon.

[ray98]

1 hour ago, BennyBrun said:

We were very nice about it and spoke to the restaurant manager / officer possibly (white shirt with stripes) he apologized and told us that they do not have the staff they need to accommodate the capacity and it’s only going to get worse as they add more capacity.  He said he is not sugar coating it and want to be honest and upfront and he will try to make it better for the rest of the cruise and was appreciative that we told him early vs at the end of the cruise.  You can see it in the staff’s eyes that they are over worked while we can be understanding but from the cruiser perfective 60 minutes after you order and  you only got about half the order and saw your server once when he dropped off the food that does not look very good for service.  Food was tasty, steak was tender but over cooked but still good.  No complaints about the kitchen the service is very rough… We were told elegant night is going to be worse.

 

I got off the morning you got on.  Service was the same way last week.  We had some great meals and some that slowed to a crawl. 

 

It seems the sea day brunch is the most chaotic, it was hard to even get a refill on coffee.  We also had a 10-20 minute wait on the Hub for a table that turned into 45.  The servers are working non-stop, they just have too many tables to cover.  We had dinner twice in Cucina and I would only describe the food as warm.  We had a much better experience at their lunch offerings.

 

The worst was bar service in the restaurants.  Pretty much each dinner we ordered drinks and finished our meal without seeing the server again.  Twice we left without even signing the bar ticket after sitting there for 15 minutes after we finished the meal.

[BennyBrun]

3 minutes ago, ray98 said:

 

I got off the morning you got on.  Service was the same way last week.  We had some great meals and some that slowed to a crawl. 

 

It seems the sea day brunch is the most chaotic, it was hard to even get a refill on coffee.  We also had a 10-20 minute wait on the Hub for a table that turned into 45.  The servers are working non-stop, they just have too many tables to cover.  We had dinner twice in Cucina and I would only describe the food as warm.  We had a much better experience at their lunch offerings.

 

The worst was bar service in the restaurants.  Pretty much each dinner we ordered drinks and finished our meal without seeing the server again.  Twice we left without even signing the bar ticket after sitting there for 15 minutes after we finished the meal.

I think you are on my cruise right now and describing the dinning scene.  You pretty much see your server once and then never again.  It’s not their fault because they truly are overworked and I think Carnival ramped up without adding more staff.

[audcc77]

BennyBrun, this is a strange request but the next time you are in your cabin, can you do me a favor and look at the bottom of the cabin door and tell me the distance between it and the carpet?

 

Is the distance taller than the length of a credit card?   

Thanks 

[Saint Greg]

44 minutes ago, BennyBrun said:

Day 3

 

This Maria person is proving to be harder to find than I thought.  I made a hole in the wall on both decks to wish her a happy birthday from Saint Greg but have not been able to find her.  I will try and try again.

Probably in her rest time now. When I was there she’d be off now then work in the alchemy late like 8pm.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

A night of Enchantment… waiting for the captain to make an appearance!  Center stage before the transformation and after the transformation.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

The captain was a little late to the show and we had to leave so we don’t miss our dinner time.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

So we had YTD and last night and early today we had service issues and we spoke to an officer in charge.  He gave us the honest reason ( see previous posts) and offered to seat us at Flamingo for 7:45 seating.  Let me just say the service tonight was outstanding.  The food was arriving right on time and whatever we ordered it was promptly delivered to the table.  We were impressed.  He even kept our table and offered it to us for the rest of the week.  Amazing service recovery.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

I just discovered that set time dinning gets an entertainment (singing server) that you don’t get with YTD lol and the service seems to be quicker and more efficient.  It most likely is due to the fact that people with set time dinning go to specialty dinning which frees up tables and gives the staff more time to service the guests that do show up.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3 

 

we actually made it to the dessert course and it only took 45 minutes from start to finish!

[BennyBrun]

Day 3 

 

Late show at the theater M Theory … have no idea what it is but should be entertaining!

[calgaryhhr]

6 hours ago, keels81 said:

 

17215 and 17212 are listed as Spa Interiors, but they're actually oversized premium interior rooms. The X over where the balcony would normally be is actually square footage inside the stateroom:

 

Very cool. I did not notice those two cabins when looking at the deck plan. I think my brain just naturally assumed they were balcony or cove. 

[Cherries Jubilee]

Did you have to check in on the app at pig and anchor when you went before dinner? I didn’t know we could do that.

 

It’s sad to see staff overwhelmed like that. 

[keels81]

Just now, calgaryhhr said:

Very cool. I did not notice those two cabins when looking at the deck plan. I think my brain just naturally assumed they were balcony or cove. 

 

They're usually just considered Premium Interior cabins (I had one on the MG in October and will be hard-pressed to go back to a "regular" interior cabin.

 

If you can get one of these that are considered a Spa Interior stateroom, it's probably the best deal you can get on the ship.

[SNJCruisers]

6 hours ago, keels81 said:

 

17215 and 17212 are listed as Spa Interiors, but they're actually oversized premium interior rooms. The X over where the balcony would normally be is actually square footage inside the stateroom:

 

I think you're mistaken because if it was indeed true, those 2 cabins would be even larger than the corresponding nearby balcony rooms.  The walls of the cabin would be where the glass doors would be for the balcony, not extended out to where the railing of the balcony would be.

[SNJCruisers]

5 hours ago, BennyBrun said:

Day 3

 

This Maria person is proving to be harder to find than I thought.  I made a hole in the wall on both decks to wish her a happy birthday from Saint Greg but have not been able to find her.  I will try and try again.

Daytime she is on the upstairs portion of the Tiki Bar.  At night she usually works at Alchemy.

[keels81]

1 minute ago, SNJCruisers said:

I think you're mistaken because if it was indeed true, those 2 cabins would be even larger than the corresponding nearby balcony rooms.  The walls of the cabin would be where the glass doors would be for the balcony, not extended out to where the railing of the balcony would be.

I was in 15212 in October and it was just a Premium Interior. Take a look:

 

 

[BennyBrun]

5 hours ago, audcc77 said:

BennyBrun, this is a strange request but the next time you are in your cabin, can you do me a favor and look at the bottom of the cabin door and tell me the distance between it and the carpet?

 

Is the distance taller than the length of a credit card?   

Thanks 

I hope this helps.

[BennyBrun]

6 minutes ago, keels81 said:

I was in 15212 in October and it was just a Premium Interior. Take a look:

 

 

Ours is similar … slightly different.  Lots of room for two adults!

[BennyBrun]

10 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Daytime she is on the upstairs portion of the Tiki Bar.  At night she usually works at Alchemy.

The search continues!

[keels81]

Just now, BennyBrun said:

Ours is similar … slightly different.  Lots of room for two adults!

 

We had three adults, so the couch was turned down to a sleeper sofa for that picture I took. But the same nonetheless! So much room.

[BennyBrun]

33 minutes ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

Did you have to check in on the app at pig and anchor when you went before dinner? I didn’t know we could do that.

 

It’s sad to see staff overwhelmed like that. 

No check in on the app for this cruise.  You walk up and they sit you.  The service was wonderful and food was flavorful.  The banana cream pie was so fresh it was still frozen when they brought it out lol.

[BennyBrun]

Day 3

 

I was fully prepared… I had the coconut gelato as a snack and a strawberry lemonade cake for late night