Mardi Gras April 23-30: Honest thoughts, good and not so good

[Lee Cruiser]

I know that this is a lot of information.  We had a great cruise and looking forward to being back on the Mardi Gras again!

I am going to give some likes and dislikes first, followed by some details.  I will try to answer any questions that I can.

 

 

Dislikes:

 

 

      1.       The inconsistency in having rooms available for priority folks.  We are platinum.  Our room was not ready until right at 1:30, though we were allowed to  

             drop off our bags.  However, many other platinum cruisers’ rooms were available when they boarded.  They were allowed to get their keys and stay in their  

             rooms upon boarding.

2.       Main theater design/ layout.  The main theater is on just two levels and stretches back further with very little room between rows, unlike many ships.  Good luck trying to have a good view of the stage if anyone is sitting in the two rows in front of you, which is very likely as the theater is not really large enough for the crowd on the ship.

3.       Shower Pressure.  This was perhaps the weakest pressure we’ve had in some time.

4.       Elevators:  (While I would prefer to take the stairs most of the time, my wife cannot physical take the stairs for more than one flight or so.)  Not sure why you would put the buttons to one side of the elevator instead of at the entrance.  In a full elevator, it’s impossible to see what is already pushed.  Most of the time others would check for you, but on two occasions, we were told that our floor was already pushed only to go right by that floor.  Also, the mid-ship elevators aren’t nearly large enough.  They always seemed to be packed.  They had 8 in that area, but it probably would have been better to split these off into two banks as having 8 together caused other problems.  As usual, lots of people had no elevator etiquette.  When we approach elevators, we typically wait on those who were already waiting before us.  However, many people could care less that people had been waiting for some time.  They would walk right up and jump right on elevators in front of others who had been waiting.  Most of the time not even giving others time to get off.  Having 8 elevators together really doesn’t help.  If you wait in the middle for elevators to arrive and the one that arrives is on the end, others are right at that elevator as they walk up.

5.       Main Theater Shows:  With the exception of Family Feud, the main theater shows really weren’t good. The playlist team wasn’t nearly as good as the center stage team.

6.       Magician:  He was used several times throughout the week, including the M Theory show which was horrible. 

 

Likes:

 

1.       Muster Drill

2.       Abundance of Comedy Shows, in our case, Family Friendly Comedy Show

3.       Having numerous evening dining options

4.       Premium Internet was really very good, much better than most previous cruises

5.       Debarkation (See more below)

6.       Ringmaster Rhapsodies (and really most of the center stage shows)

7.       Extended Balcony Room (10355) on the side of the ship.  This was a great balcony room.  We spent lots of time all three seas laying down and enjoying some peace and quiet.

 

Embarkation:

 

Check in went smoothly.  We had the earliest check in time (10) and A1 boarding zone.  Our Uber arrived early (9:25) at our hotel, so we were there early.  When we arrived they were already allowing people to check in.  We breezed through check in without any issues.  We did not do the Verifly app as we hadn’t had any problems with our previous embarkations at other ports.  We were through with check in and sitting in our seats about 9:45.  Platinum guests sit out in the main area.  Boarding started a little later than most cruises we have been on, about 11.  We went straight to our room to drop off our carryon bags.  Our room was not ready.  It wasn't ready until 1:30.  More on that later.  As with previous cruises since return, we love the current muster.

 

Dining:

 

 

Pig and Anchor:

 

First night we went to Pig and Anchor since the Filet Mignon is on the menu that night.  Didn’t really like that you had to go wait in line there to get a table instead of checking in on the app.  That area was packed the first night between guest services and people waiting for some type of alcohol tasting.   I ordered the steak and my wife ordered ribs, pork, and brisket.  Service was just okay there, nothing to brag about.  The steak was good, though it was very overcooked for my taste.  My wife said the ribs were the only thing that was really good.  I had some of her brisket and it was just okay as well.  I’ve certainly had much better.  The dessert offerings were great.  Though we had originally planned to go there another night, we ended up not doing so.  Just nothing to brag about.

 

Cucina Del Capitano:

 

We went there for lunch one day as well as for dinner.  Enjoyed both very well.  Certainly recommend checking it out.

 

ChiBang:

 

Also went there for lunch and dinner.  Lunch was not really that great.  Dinner was better and would certainly go again.

 

Main Dining Room:

 

We ate in the main dining room the other four nights (first elegant night and nights five through seven).  Service was good each night.  We were able to be in and out in under an hour.  We didn’t order dessert as we have never really been wild about the main dining room dessert options.  We never had a wait for a table as we went as soon as the dining room opened each night.  Just a side note:  the dining room opened 30 minutes early (5:00) on the first elegant night.  Food was normal Carnival food.  We always found something we liked, though we both ordered from the grill menu at times.  The only thing we didn’t like was that, like many other ships, tables for two were sitting right beside each other.  They really weren’t tables for two at all, more like tables for four and six.

 

Entertainment:

 

 

Comedy Shows:

We loved that there were many family friendly comedy shows offered.  We saw all of the comedians at least once.  Here were the comedians on our cruise:

1.       Jim Brick: Decent comedian.  Saw him more than once and would go back again.

2.       Tommy Drake:  By far our favorite of all Carnival comedians.  We have seen him several times in the past.

3.       Vince Morris:  Not a good family friendly comedian.  He used several words that shouldn’t be in family friendly shows.  He kept pushing his R-rated shows.  We wouldn’t go back to see him again.

4.       Jersey:  He was a little better than Vince Morris, but you could tell that he just wasn’t really comfortable with family friendly shows.

5.       Jason Blanchard:  He was pretty funny.  Saw him twice and would go again.

6.       Vince Taylor, Jr.:  He was funny and did a lot of impromptu jokes with the audience.  Would go see him again.

 

Main Theater Shows (the ones we saw):

 

1.       Rock Revolution:  This was really just not our thing.  It featured a lot of slow rock songs from the late 60’s and perhaps early 70’s.  We really didn’t enjoy it and would not go back again.

2.       M Theory (with the magician):  Perhaps the worst Carnival show we have ever seen.  It nearly put us to sleep.  Just really didn’t enjoy the magician in any of his performances.

3.       Broadway Beats Show:  Again, it just wasn’t entertaining.  The playlist team was not very good in our opinion.

4.       Family Feud:  The only show we saw in the main theater that was entertaining.  Enjoyed it very much.

 

Center Stage Show:

 

Hint:  If you want to attend Center Stage Shows you need to show up at least 30 minutes before show time.  It filled up every night and people were often having to look hard for seats 20 minutes beforehand.

1.       Ringmaster Rhapsodies:  This featured many songs from the movie, The Greatest Showman, and was by far our favorite show of the whole cruise.  We watched it twice.  The center stage singers were extremely talented and put on good shows!

2.       Celestial Strings:  Was a decent show, though not as good as many of the Center Stage shows.  Probably wouldn’t go again.

3.       Vegas Shows (Wed night)(Residency and Lovin Vegas):  These shows were great!  They had lots of great singing and high flying acrobats.  Singing and dancing was very good.

4.       We Are One (Friday night):  Again, this was a really good show with singing and dancing.

 

 

Debarkation:

 

Debarkation went very smooth for us, though we did not bother with elevators. We did checked luggage and had zone 3 priority tags delivered to our room with the letter.  The priority letter had self-assist meeting time at 7:30, though they started calling regular self-assist by muster station by 7 am, so priority obviously were allowed to start shortly before then.   The meeting time for priority checked luggage was 8:00, but in our experience it has always been earlier than that.  Since the other was over 30 minutes ahead, we went down about 7:25. As we reached the bottom of the stairs, other priority guests were leaving the theater already with very little luggage.  We asked some of them and they said that they had allowed all priority zones to go.  Traffic flow went pretty good.  The terminal was designed in a good way.  Instead of having a lot of escalators and stairs like some, this terminal was designed with a ramp that made traffic flow smoothly.

 

There was one problem.  A lady had fallen on the concrete and was very bloody.  Bless her, hopefully she was okay.  They had called EMS to check her out.   They just had everyone move to one side.  We did have to walk a ways to our shuttle bus because the firetrucks had the drive blocked.

 

After going through customs and getting our luggage, we were outside to meet our Cortrans Shuttle at 7:54.  We were off to the airport about 10-15 minutes later.

 

After checking our luggage and going through security at the airport, we were at our SW gate at 9:35 waiting for our 12:15 flight.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Lee Cruiser

[Lee Cruiser]

Omitted one of the items under the things we really liked:

 

  8. Shaq's Big Chicken:  It certainly lived up to the hype.  We ate there twice for lunch, including embarkation day.  The sandwiches were thick and juicy.  The fries were also great.  We would get an extra bowl with just fries for us to share.  Now that Guy's has changed their fries, these are my favorites.

[crucero]

Thank you for your info! We aren't going until next March, but I am looking forward to trying the different food venues. 

[ChrisNCruiser]

I was also on this sailing - I didn't realize the Playlist Production shows in the theater and Center Stage shows were two different groups! We thought it was interesting that they had a 'house magician' but thought maybe he was a little overused in so many performances. We didn't exactly love his dedicated theater show but chalked it up to the Carnival scripting and overproduction. 

 

FWIW even as Diamond we had to track down our room steward after 2 PM to ask for our room keys, which still hadn't been put out yet. Our room was ready and clean by the time we embarked right before 11, but the door was left open since the key wasn't available. We don't blame the steward - she clearly had too many cabins based on the fistfuls of key envelopes she had to sift through to find ours, and I actually felt bad asking her when I saw how many cabins she had. She was fabulous throughout the week and we certainly gave her our appreciation several times during and at the end of the cruise. 

 

We ended up skipping the main dining room altogether because we didn't want to end up sitting THAT close to another couple (e.g. two 'tables for two' practically touching each other). That Palms dining room looked awfully cramped! We enjoyed several nights each at Cucina (outside, lovely!) and Chibang!, and didn't have to sit in anyone's lap at either venue. We had a fantastic cruise and will definitely sail MG again, hopefully with Bolt running the next time 😉 

[SNJCruisers]

Entertainment can be just as subjective as food is.  It all depends upon your likes and dislikes and when you grew up.

We did 14 days on the MG in February and have another 14 days booked over Labor Day.  Since you didn't like Rock Revolution and only like family oriented comedy, you're probably parents in your 30's who did not listen to the music your parents would have listened to which the Rock Revolution show was based on.  On the other hand, looking forward to seeing RR in August and comedy wise we went to one family and about 10 adult shows over our B2B.

Will agree with you about Shaq's chicken and his fries being a notch above the new ones at Guy's.

The noodle bowl with broth at Chibang's for lunch on sea days was fantastic, once again proving that food is subjective.

[chicail16]

Enjoyed your review!  Thanks!

[Pellaz]

4 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

The noodle bowl with broth at Chibang's for lunch on sea days was fantastic, once again proving that food is subjective.

 

Do you mean the stir-fry bowl (similar to Jiji's at lunch), or a different item?   

I've loved lunch at Jiji's on our previous cruises and made an effort to get to Chibang for lunch on our last sea-day...with just 30 minutes to spare.  I was happy to discover that it was just as good at Chibang as it's been at Jiji's.  If only Chibang was open for lunch on embark day!  

[SNJCruisers]

3 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

Do you mean the stir-fry bowl (similar to Jiji's at lunch), or a different item?   

I've loved lunch at Jiji's on our previous cruises and made an effort to get to Chibang for lunch on our last sea-day...with just 30 minutes to spare.  I was happy to discover that it was just as good at Chibang as it's been at Jiji's.  If only Chibang was open for lunch on embark day!  

Different item.  They have the build your own similar to Jiji's and Mongolian Wok.  They also have three types of broth bowls with different proteins, noodle types and vegetables, all in a delicious broth that eats more like a soup than a stir fry.  Have only seen it in the MG and Chibang is only open for lunch on the 3 sea days.  If you're a fan of the brunch, go there early for breakfast so you can go to Chibang for lunch.

[SNJCruisers]

3 hours ago, Pellaz said:

If only Chibang was open for lunch on embark day!  

Maybe that will happen at the same time there are more food options after 10:00 pm.  Possibly on the Celebration?

[Elaine5715]

Even if rooms are ready, John has asked that people not remain in rooms until after 1:30 pm in case room deliveries haven't been completed and to keep guests from asking stewards for anything so they can finish

[Knights on the Beach]

5 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

Do you mean the stir-fry bowl (similar to Jiji's at lunch), or a different item?   

I've loved lunch at Jiji's on our previous cruises and made an effort to get to Chibang for lunch on our last sea-day...with just 30 minutes to spare.  I was happy to discover that it was just as good at Chibang as it's been at Jiji's.  If only Chibang was open for lunch on embark day!  

 

Here are the noodle bowl options for lunch - so good!

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by cruisemom2

[Illbcruzn4life]

So itsounds like they aren’t using the same elevator system as they use in the Vista class ships. Wethought that elevator system worked great

[baelor]

11 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Entertainment can be just as subjective as food is.  It all depends upon your likes and dislikes and when you grew up.

 

I mean, it can be, but the case should not be overstated.  Take pop singers.  You can like Britney Spears better than Christina Aguilera, but at a technical level the latter blows the former out of the water.  One magician may simply perform more unusual and different tricks than another.  One singer may be more off-key than another etc.

[kwokpot]

14 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Entertainment can be just as subjective as food is.  It all depends upon your likes and dislikes and when you grew up.

We did 14 days on the MG in February and have another 14 days booked over Labor Day.  Since you didn't like Rock Revolution and only like family oriented comedy, you're probably parents in your 30's who did not listen to the music your parents would have listened to which the Rock Revolution show was based on. 

I was on this particular cruise(and the week prior for a b2b) and also on the MG's fifth sailing back in September. As we all know a show is as good as it's performers. The problem with the current cast (at least on the sailing in question) of Playlist performers is the female vocalists are very, very weak. In fact they were so weak that the Penultimate number from Rock Revolution, Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart, was NOT sung by a woman but was done as a duet by TWO MEN! 

 

When I saw the saw last September I was blown away by the female vocalist's rendition of that song. She embodied everything that was Janis Joplin. When I watched the show again last month, when the female vocalist that would have done that song first opened her mouth I thought to myself, Oh No, she's going to butcher Piece of My Heart. But it was obvious to the vocal manager onboard that she couldn't carry that song so they rewrote it as a duet for two men. 

[SRQbeachgirl]

27 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

 In fact they were so weak that the Penultimate number from Rock Revolution, Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart, was NOT sung by a woman but was done as a duet by TWO MEN! 

 

 

As someone who cannot stand Janis Joplin's voice, I would have taken that as an improvement. Maybe I'll get that lucky on our MG sailing next month. 🤣

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

As someone who cannot stand Janis Joplin's voice, I would have taken that as an improvement. Maybe I'll get that lucky on our MG sailing next month. 🤣

So, what's your opinion about Joe Cocker?

[SRQbeachgirl]

1 minute ago, SNJCruisers said:

So, what's your opinion about Joe Cocker?

 

Lol - don't even get me started. 

[Guest BasicSailor]

On 5/2/2022 at 9:45 PM, Lee Cruiser said:

I know that this is a lot of information.  We had a great cruise and looking forward to being back on the Mardi Gras again!

I am going to give some likes and dislikes first, followed by some details.  I will try to answer any questions that I can.

 

 

Dislikes:

 

 

      1.       The inconsistency in having rooms available for priority folks.  We are platinum.  Our room was not ready until right at 1:30, though we were allowed to  

             drop off our bags.  However, many other platinum cruisers’ rooms were available when they boarded.  They were allowed to get their keys and stay in their  

             rooms upon boarding.

 

Priority boarding and having your room ready when boarding went out after the restart. And from what has come down the grapevine it won't be back. Only Suites are made ready now. Even running down your perks instead of having them delivered to your state room is here to stay.

I guess that could be considered a cutback.   

 

Your review is one of the most honest, fair that I have had the pleasure of reading.  

[firefly333]

Item 1, inconsistency of having priority guests cabins ready ahead of time.

 

Since this is not even a thing right now ... you are confused about the current policy. Platinum  cabins are not now ready early. So expecting something from pre covid that is not a policy now is on you. Sorry. 

[mz-s]

The way it's working right now is nobody's room is ready until 1:30 unless you are in a suite. Platinum/Diamond doesn't let your room be ready early anymore. In exchange you get to check in 2 days early.

[Guest BasicSailor]

3 minutes ago, mz-s said:

The way it's working right now is nobody's room is ready until 1:30 unless you are in a suite. Platinum/Diamond doesn't let your room be ready early anymore. In exchange you get to check in 2 days early.

And that's here to stay as well .

[mz-s]

1 minute ago, BasicSailor said:

And that's here to stay as well .

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see this become the new standard (would be a shame) but it's not been confirmed yet by Carnival that I've seen.

[Guest BasicSailor]

Just now, mz-s said:

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see this become the new standard (would be a shame) but it's not been confirmed yet by Carnival that I've seen.

And you wont see it confirmed either , But yet its here🙂

[mz-s]

3 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

And you wont see it confirmed either , But yet its here🙂

 

I don't doubt it for a second my friend.

[kwokpot]

11 minutes ago, mz-s said:

The way it's working right now is nobody's room is ready until 1:30 unless you are in a suite. Platinum/Diamond doesn't let your room be ready early anymore. In exchange you get to check in 2 days early.

There's Priority CHECK-IN and Priority DISEMBARKATION.