LIVE! Mardi Gras on the Mardi Gras 2/26 - 3/5. Let’s Cruise!

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, daredneck said:

Hope you're FUNDERSTRUCK by now.  We board 3/5 for the Sailabration party.  If this is your fist time on the Mardi Gras then you are having a blast what a ship.  

Yes we are getting FUNDERSTRUCK (still getting used to that slogan!).  How fun for you—I’m a wee bit jealous of everyone doing Sailabration, we’ve met several people staying aboard in a B2B for that.

 

We’ve been exploring the ship—Grand Central,  Jaba Blue, gym and spa. French Quarter.  So much to do and see!

 

More photos to follow later from my camera!

[TravelBluebird]

We are now unpacked! Daughter is napping (jet lag) and we have closed the blue curtain in the suite; I am sitting near the balcony, blogging on the couch! Perfect; what we wanted out of the larger area of the suite.

 

I like the Ocean Suite in person much better than in photos—yes its long (reminds me of a train compartment for a train journey) but tons of space and the length feels like it has 3 distinct areas—bathroom//closet//dressing desk area, sleep area, and sitting room/balcony area. TONS of storage; first time ever on a cruise ship where I have some empty draws//room in the closet! 

 

And yes, there is that darn white overhang we were trying to avoid outside the balcony. Seriously, I think this room should be sold as an obstructed view. but it was an upgrade/upsell so I won’t complain after this. ;. We missed NOT having the overhang by one room. The glare off the WHITE of the thing is the worse part.  Still glad I moved away from the outdoor smoking area; I’ll report on noise after tonight (I’m over the Havana Bar, Starboard side).

 

Below are some photos of this beautiful ship from my Fujifilm XT-20 camera and my very wide 10-24mm zoom from our exploration earlier this afternoon.  I think the wide lens shows the ship off to best advantage.

 

 

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

A couple of photos of  the room, more to follow, and of our Blue Iguana “street” tacos lunch. They were really good except I really wish they didn’t bread/fry the fish.

 

One other room complaint—getting by the corner between the bed nearest the sitting room into the sitting room is KILLER small, and we are not super fluffy people.

[TravelBluebird]

Ha; don’t know why those images uploaded so small; we’ll try more room images later. Right now we are getting ready for the Sail Away Party!

[vettprincess]

17 minutes ago, TravelBluebird said:

Ha; don’t know why those images uploaded so small; we’ll try more room images later. Right now we are getting ready for the Sail Away Party!

Thank you doing all the work to share this with everyone. Can you share your cabin number? In Oct we were on deck 10 starboard side, 10355. Overlooking the Havana small pool and cabins. Below us was a smoking area for the crew and guess where the smoke drifted up to!!

 

We did not complain but we had booked the 3/5 cruise 2 years ago and now have a cabin right next to the Oct one.

Now in 10351. Nothing we can do. Yes, the cabins are long and narrow and bathrooms very compact and this shrinkage of space  be an issue for some  people.  

 

Try and go to summer landing  A great place if not crowded.

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by vettprincess
grammar

[Hogladyrider]

@TravelBluebird...are you in a Havanna cabin?  With exclusive use of Havanna area?

 

That is the ONLY way I would sail on one of Carnivals larger ships, too crowded for me otherwise.

[phoneman69]

On PTZtv watching your ship and the Magic. I'll give you a wave for sail away as we dont cruise Mardi Gras until May. Loving your photos and comments

[phoneman69]

Mariner of the Sea just leaving. You'll be off soon Ya Ya

[phoneman69]

5:45 pm whats your departure time ? thought you would leave at 5 with the rest of the ships

[TravelBluebird]

Yes we are definitely late leaving! We Did the sailAway party (wow CD Chris  had energy! So fun!) now at Summer Landing waiting for Ssil away.  Watched a Royal ship leave then Disney Fsntasy.  No reason given why late—it is 5:45.

[TravelBluebird]

2 minutes ago, phoneman69 said:

5:45 pm whats your departure time ? thought you would leave at 5 with the rest of the ships

Yes we should be long gone!  Announcement only said don’t worry we won’t be late for Nassau. No ETA given, just “soon”

[TravelBluebird]

47 minutes ago, phoneman69 said:

On PTZtv watching your ship and the Magic. I'll give you a wave for sail away as we dont cruise Mardi Gras until May. Loving your photos and comments

Wave at Summer Landing that is where we are!

[TravelBluebird]

2 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

@TravelBluebird...are you in a Havanna cabin?  With exclusive use of Havanna area?

 

That is the ONLY way I would sail on one of Carnivals larger ships, too crowded for me otherwise.

No, just Ocean Suite.  Lido Sail Away was crowded/-Summer Landing not crowded at all at the moment !  This is my first time on such a large boat.

[TravelBluebird]

Well daughter is starving so we checked into MDR (Palm).  We want to see the show at7:30 so need to leave time to get seats. I’ll let you all know when we finally leave!

[TravelBluebird]

Magic leaving!  We see it from the dining room going by!

[phoneman69]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

No, just Ocean Suite.  Lido Sail Away was crowded/-Summer Landing not crowded at all at the moment !  This is my first time on such a large boat.

we are in 9333 over the Hanava Bar. If you have a report on the noise level that would be great. Also i don't know if that area of deck 8 is smoking

[rolloman]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

No, just Ocean Suite.  Lido Sail Away was crowded/-Summer Landing not crowded at all at the moment !  This is my first time on such a large boat.

I like what Captain Kate from Celebrity often says...you are on a SHIP... boats attach to a ship. 

[Knights on the Beach]

We were taking our evening walk down the beach to the Jetty and were right there when the Mardi Gras left port.  The last picture was taken at 6:45 pm.

[Lee Cruiser]

6 hours ago, vettprincess said:

Thank you doing all the work to share this with everyone. Can you share your cabin number? In Oct we were on deck 10 starboard side, 10355.

We are in that cabin in April.  Did you have a lounge chair or just the two upright chairs?

[TravelBluebird]

2 hours ago, cruisemom2 said:

We were taking our evening walk down the beach to the Jetty and were right there when the Mardi Gras left port.  The last picture was taken at 6:45 pm.

These are beautiful!! How lovely to have these photos from the beginning of our ship’s journey.Thank you!!

[TravelBluebird]

4 hours ago, rolloman said:

I like what Captain Kate from Celebrity often says...you are on a SHIP... boats attach to a ship. 

 

LOL; I usually call it a ship, but. after a couple of drinks, I’ll slip and call it a boat! 😂

[TravelBluebird]

4 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

we are in 9333 over the Hanava Bar. If you have a report on the noise level that would be great. Also i don't know if that area of deck 8 is smoking

 

The noise is not bad! We hear a little bit of the bass and music over by our balcony in the room, but that is all so far.  And that area is not the smoking area of 8; that is by Bar Della Rosa; we could really smell it just walking by there today

[TravelBluebird]

7 hours ago, vettprincess said:

Can you share your cabin number?

 I’ll share it at the end of the LIVE (just being careful with daughter here and all).

[TravelBluebird]

Life is good! We are sitting at the back of the Magnolia Bar; daughter is sketching and I’m writing. Daughter is drinking The Brandy Crusta (a drink from New Orleans in the 1880’s which includes Remy Cognac and Orange Curacao etc...I’ll try to upload the menu later). I am drinking a very expensive Whiskey Sour from the Casino (if you know what I mean).

 

We had a very nice dinner in the Palm restaurant. We checked in on our App at Summer’s Landing about 6 and had our table in 10 minutes; walked right in. When we left at 7 tons of people in the front area waiting to be seated.

 

Tyrone was our server. The food was hot, which was awesome because that is my pet peeve about food sometimes on a cruise ship. I had the shrimp cocktail, daughter had the Poblano Corn Soup and we split a cured salmon before our Mahi Mahi and Salmon entrees (which we shared). And, yep, we both had the chocolate melting cake with vanilla ice cream (still love it after all these years!) We had glasses of Kendall Jackson chardonnay (only little glitch of the night...the waiter brought us the red Kendall Jackson first).

 

Then we went over to Grand Central for the Welcome Aboard show. Some more high energy shenanigans from our Flying Scotsman Cruise director and fun crew, but then the heart of the show was showcasing all the incredible music talent on this ship. Electronic Strings trio! Latin Band! Acoustic guy! Brass trio! Jazz Trio! Piano Player! Backyard Band, and I know I’m leaving others out. They all did 2 numbers. Carnival has REALLY stepped up their game with the music. I love live music and most of it was really, really good.

 

Then daughter went to work out and I hit the casino. The casino is PACKED. Elite Casino cruise,  Hard to find an open machine! I didn’t win but got to play awhile so had fun (I don’t like when I just lose all my money for the night in the first 10 minutes). Getting my free drinks in the casino was near impossible; the server totally forgot about me, but then when I got her attention (and was out of gambling budget for the night) I stubbornly sat there till she brought my drink, which did come quickly after that.

 

Band is done for the night; off to our next adventure! I’ll follow this with a couple of photos from the Welcome Aboard show (which, by the way, was incorrectly listed in the hub as in the MainTheater, in cases this happens to you).

[TravelBluebird]

Seats were available in Grand Central for the Welcome show tonight. We got there late due to the mix-up; we were on 7 (lower balcony) on a couch behind 2 women. Who would. not. stop. talking.  Ugh. They left right before all the musical groups started and we snagged their table right by the glass, so had a great view.

 

Also throwing in a beautiful bonus view of back of the ship looking up from Summer’s Landing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by TravelBluebird