Our Marvelous Mardi Gras B2B (with pics!) - April 23rd, 2022

[Jamman54]

Tonight, we have a 5:30 reservation at Bonsai Teppanyaki, located on Deck 8, mid ship…..

 

 

We are going to be seated at the table in the center…..

 

 

Here are our place settings….

 

 

 

Tonight, the Chef at our table will be Sanjaya……

 

 

 

 

 

Our appetizers are the Teppanyaki white shrimp, pork belly Yakitori, and the spicy tuna on the rocks….

 

 

To be continued…..

Edited May 20, 2022 by Jamman54

[Jamman54]

Chef Sanjaya makes the fried rice. First you start with eggs. Lots of eggs…..

 

 

 

Then you cook them, roll them up, and make them into a snake….

 

 

 

 

 

Chop the eggs up and add peas and carrots…..

 

 

 

Mix with the eggs and a big pile of rice……

 

 

 

Cook, season, mix, and serve…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Now it’s time to stir fry some veggies…..

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the jumbo shrimp, and their heads are still on!!!

 

 

 

 

Don’t worry, the Chef will cut them off…..

 

 

Chef adds another round of shrimp…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Now it’s time for the lobster. That’s what I’m having…..

 

 

 

Next is the salmon. That’s what Patti’s having….

 

 

Chef adds more lobster, cooks, cuts up, and serves. Yummy!

 

 

 

 

Patti gets her Teriyaki salmon…..

 

 

The filet mignon hits the grill. Man, that smells good….

 

 

 

What a great meal! After everyone has eaten, we are given a Chocolate Bento Box with green tea ice cream for dessert…..

 

 

We recommend that everyone try this at least once. The food is great and you won’t leave hungry. The Chef puts on quite a show as he cooks up your meal. Be sure to book online before you board, as seating is very limited. For dinner they have three seatings at 5:30, 7:15, & 9:00 with only thirty seats per seating. They also do two seatings for lunch on sea days.

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

After we left Bonsai Teppanyaki we immediately went down to Deck 6 and Center Stage to get close up seats by the stage for the two shows tonight. We were there 45 minutes before the first show started. We ordered drinks from the bar waiter, sat back and relaxed……

 

 

The first show was called “Ringmaster Rhapsodies”. This amazing trio of singers sang circus inspired songs from “The Greatest Showman” and “Pippen”. The show was only 25 minutes, but we could have listened to them for hours!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued….

[Knights on the Beach]

3 hours ago, Caps_Shield said:

I came here just looking for what you thought of Fishlips since we will be going there next month.  8 pages later I find myself looking forward to the next post.  You are doing a great job.  

 

3 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

Thanks for hopping aboard. Glad to have you! We like Fishlips and it's very popular, but there are also other good places along the water there. Gator's, Rusty's, and Grill's come to mind. 

 

Fishlips is very popular with visitors! We only go there every now and then but are at Grill's at least weekly. Gator's is a chain but we do like the tiki bar so we often go there for a drink or two in the afternoons when it's time for the ships to leave port. We haven't been to Fishlips in about a year but they used to have a good happy hour with half priced apps and drinks, not sure if they still do. Our son and DIL love the Sunday brunch there and our DIL's wedding shower was upstairs at Fishlips 3 years ago. 

[Knights on the Beach]

I forgot to say I LOVED Teppanyaki - so much fun and the food was delicious.  I'm allergic to shellfish so for our table, he cooked the filet mignon and chicken first. 

[Jamman54]

The second show was “Variety Night”…..

 

 

Tonight’s show was the “Glen Foster Show”, starring the magic and comedy of Glen Foster…..

 

 

 

 

 

He pulled out this pole that extended out about 10 feet, and at the end of it was a clear cup that held a deck of cards. He extended it out to three guys in the audience, had them take out the deck of cards, choose a card, show it to the audience around them, then put the cards back in the deck, and place the deck back into the cup…..

 

 

 

 

Eventually the pole found me! I did as the others did, showed my card to Patti and the audience around me, then put the card back in the deck, and back in the cup.....

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

I thought that this was the end of my participation, but no, he called the four of us on stage. He gave us instructions and moved us around the stage until we were in this final position. Then he told the ladies in the audience that this is what the men’s room looks like with four guys standing at the urinals!

 

 

 

 

 

He then had us focus and concentrate on our cards and send those thoughts over to him…..

 

 

He then dressed us up like the Village People…..

 

 

He made me the Indian, then said that it was politically incorrect, and changed the headdress to a Cleveland Guardian baseball cap…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We then performed “YMCA” for the audience……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we were done, he told us the four cards that we had picked, and the audience ate it up…..

 

 

He then did a few rope tricks…..

 

 

 

He had a woman come on stage and help him with another trick…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

He then sat down on the stage and talked about his Mom, and breast cancer, and why he wears pink sneakers on stage….

 

 

He then did his magical “Puzzle of Life” which was pretty cool…..

 

 

 

 

He brought two more guys on stage to help him out….

 

 

 

For his finale, he was going to escape from the straight jacket that these guys put on him…..

 

 

 

 

Of course he did, and the audience showed him appreciation…..

 

 

 

We really enjoyed his show, and I had a great time being a part of it. Afterwards, we took a stroll around the ship, and then went back to the cabin for the night, where we found today’s towel creature, and our invites to the Diamond Luncheon tomorrow……

 

 

Coming up next: Another fun sea day, Diamond Lunch, Rudi’s Seagrill, and Celestial Strings!

[Hogladyrider]

Loving everything so far......great job as always!

[purpleally]

20 hours ago, Caps_Shield said:

I came here just looking for what you thought of Fishlips since we will be going there next month.  8 pages later I find myself looking forward to the next post.  You are doing a great job.  

Fishlips is good but I like Grills seafood deck and tiki bar better

[Jamman54]

Day # 3  (April 25th)  -  Fun  Day  at  Sea  # 2. 

 

We were up at 6:30am to a partly cloudy warm day. The seas were calmer than yesterday. Here are the views from our balcony, looking forward and then aft as the Mardi Gras continues to head south to San Juan…..

 

 

 

Because of the clouds, our sunrise pictures aren’t too good today…..

 

 

 

Here are today’s “Fun Times”…..

 

 

 

We hung out in the cabin until around 9am. We aren’t going to do breakfast this morning because we have the Diamond Luncheon at noon. Patti’s going to check out the $10 sales at the shops, and I head up to the Tiki Bar to hang out with my friends.

 

Just like yesterday, at 10:30 I head down to Center Stage to grab good seats for the morning show, “The Wave”, and Patti meets me there…..

 

 

Lee is sporting a snazzy pair of socks…..

 

 

 

His first guest is the Spa Doctor who talks about all the different treatments you can purchase…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Glen Foster, who did the Variety Show last night, joins Lee and Tyler…..

 

 

 

Today’s show is over…..

 

 

We stayed for the Mardi Gras King and Queen auditions hosted by Lee….

 

 

 

 

The Queen finalists…..

 

 

 

 

The King finalists…..

 

 

To be continued…….

[Jamman54]

Afterwards, we made our way to the Flamingo Restaurant for the Diamond Luncheon…..

 

 

This is the officer receiving line, along with the Entertainment Director Calvin. No handshakes, just fist bumps and nods. The Captain didn’t attend, in fact we didn’t see him the entire two weeks we were on the ship…..

 

 

There were quite a few Diamond members on board this week…..

 

 

 

 

Here are Patti and I at the Diamond Luncheon…..

 

 

 

Here is the Diamond Luncheon menu…..

 

 

We have our drinks. We had several rounds during the event, and even had one to go!

 

 

Patti had the lobster bisque, Japanese sea bass, and the fruit plate…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

I had the slow braised pork belly, charred NY steak, and the tres leches…..

 

 

 

 

After the Diamond Luncheon we went up to Serenity and hung out for a while, before heading down to the Limelight Lounge to check out some of trivia games taking place. The first one was on Carnival’s 50 years, and we tied for first on it. However, we lost on the tiebreaker. The next one was on Television Commercials. Someone had 18 of 20, and we weren’t even close to that. Patti brought up a good point being that the questions should be projected on a screen, since sometimes crewmembers with heavy accents are not familiar with the words, or are very hard to understand. It wouldn’t be hard to do, so we put that on our surveys. We then left and went back to the cabin to relax before dinner.

 

Tonight we are having dinner at Rudi’s Seagrill…..

 

 

This was our table and a close up of our two plates…..

 

 

 

 

Here are some Rudi’s Seagrill views……

 

 

 

 

Here is Patti at Rudi’s Seagrill…..

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Here are Rudi’s Seagrill drink and food menus…..

 

 

 

The bread and butter plates……

 

 

Compliments of the Chef……

 

 

We both started with the Coquilles Saint Jacques (scallops)…..

 

 

Patti then had the lobster mac n’ cheese, and I had the Cioppino, (fisherman’s stew), which was messy but really good……

 

 

 

For our entrees Patti had a lobster tail, and I had the crab cake which came with red cabbage…..

 

 

 

 

All of our food was simply delicious. For our desserts Patti had some vanilla ice cream, while I had the key lime pie, which was also very good…..

 

 

 

We highly recommend this venue, and we plan on eating here again next week during the second half of our B2B.

 

To be continued…..

[mjrcruiser]

18 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Now it’s time for the lobster. That’s what I’m having…..

 

 

 

Next is the salmon. That’s what Patti’s having….

 

 

Chef adds more lobster, cooks, cuts up, and serves. Yummy!

 

 

 

 

Patti gets her Teriyaki salmon…..

 

 

The filet mignon hits the grill. Man, that smells good….

 

 

 

What a great meal! After everyone has eaten, we are given a Chocolate Bento Box with green tea ice cream for dessert…..

 

 

We recommend that everyone try this at least once. The food is great and you won’t leave hungry. The Chef puts on quite a show as he cooks up your meal. Be sure to book online before you board, as seating is very limited. For dinner they have three seatings at 5:30, 7:15, & 9:00 with only thirty seats per seating. They also do two seatings for lunch on sea days.

 

To be continued…..

This was one of our favorite places to eat!!  Everything was amazing!

[Jamman54]

After we left Rudi’s Seagrill, we made our way all the way aft on Deck 8 to go outside and get some fresh sea air. This is the Patio Pool on Deck 8 aft…..

 

 

We took a walk on the Lanai on the starboard side. If you’re looking for corn hole games, they are right by The Watering Hole…..

 

 

 

Moving forward we come upon the outside Bar Della Rosa…..

 

 

We went back inside and made our way to the Mardi Gras Theater to go watch Family Feud Live. We entered on Deck7. The show had already started and it was packed. We were able to find two seats all the way in the back…..

 

 

 

 

After that show was over, we made our way to Center Stage to catch the late performance of Celestial Strings. We were able to get two seats on the center aisle, two rows behind the inner ring. These seats would give us an awesome view. About 20 minutes before show time, production people came to our area and to the inner ring to ask us that once the show starts, not to leave our seats since the cast would be performing and moving about in these areas.

 

We have seen this show on the Horizon and Panorama, but on the Mardi Gras, being performed at Center Stage, was even better if that was even possible. The venue is wider and more spread out, and the screen behind the stage displaying the scenery is so huge, it made you feel like you were inside of it. Here are some before the show views…..

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture that Patti took when we were passing by during the earlier show, that shows the audience sprinkled around the set pieces in the lower ring…….

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

The show is opened by the Eureka Strings, who are the stars of the show. Lee mentioned something at the Morning Show that tugged at my heart, so I’m passing it along to you. Of the three girls that make up the Eureka Strings, two are Russian, and one is Ukrainian. They are the best of friends. There is hope for the world today…..

 

 

Patti took over one hundred fantastic pictures of the show tonight. Of course I am only going to post a small fraction of them. Once the review is done, I will open up our albums so that you can view the rest if you want to. Here are some of my favorites……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…….

[Grambler]

Wow, so glad I found this and thank you! Was wondering where to stay for our Wonder cruise next yr out of CC, looks like Hampton Inn & Suites is perfect! Since we won’t have a car do you know if there is a place to buy a couple of bottles of wine to bring on ship with us? Now all we have to do is figure out transportation from MCO to hotel! We will Uber from hotel to port even though they have a very reasonable hotel transport, we prefer going on our own than dealing with the time constraints and crowd of a big van ride. This review was also informative (and fun) because we are going on MG’s Sister Ship Celebration in November this year! Hope to someday run into you & Patti on a cruise, you just seem like such a fun couple to share a drink with! Happy Cruising!

[Jamman54]

Of course, there always has to be one. In the middle of the performance a guy sitting close to us got up to use the bathroom. They were not happy with him, and didn’t want to let him back in, but he pushed his way through. We saw him and his wife with security after the show. Here are some more pictures from Celestial Strings…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed those pictures. After the show we went back to the cabin for the night. Here is tonight’s towel creature…..

 

 

Coming up next: San Juan, Puerto Rico!

[Jamman54]

13 minutes ago, Grambler said:

Wow, so glad I found this and thank you! Was wondering where to stay for our Wonder cruise next yr out of CC, looks like Hampton Inn & Suites is perfect! Since we won’t have a car do you know if there is a place to buy a couple of bottles of wine to bring on ship with us? Now all we have to do is figure out transportation from MCO to hotel! We will Uber from hotel to port even though they have a very reasonable hotel transport, we prefer going on our own than dealing with the time constraints and crowd of a big van ride. This review was also informative (and fun) because we are going on MG’s Sister Ship Celebration in November this year! Hope to someday run into you & Patti on a cruise, you just seem like such a fun couple to share a drink with! Happy Cruising!

 

 

Thanks so much for reading. Glad to have you aboard! I can think of a few places to pick up some wine, but none are within walking distance. You'll have to uber to whichever one you choose. We will be doing a B2B on the Celebration next April. I still have a lot more to post, so stay tuned! 

[Donna1127]

Jeff, Ive read your other reviews and loved them, but this one is special as my friend and I will be sailing on Mardi Gras in November after two years of waiting for my 60th birthday!!  Thank you for the review and thanks to Patti for her amazing pictures!  Following along....