ksmcdonald

On 4/4/2023 at 9:20 PM, unc1acc said:

DAY TWO: OCEAN CAY MARINE RESERVE (part one)

I woke up early, ugh. Threw on my beach attire and headed up to the Marketplace Buffet. It was around 7:45 AM and it seemed everyone else on the ship had slept in. Based on the noise around my room, I'm not surprised.😆

 

Again, while it's not busy, I still take myself to the back where it's even less crowded. I grab an omelette, hash brown, bacon, biscuit/gravy, and some fruit. There is nothing to write home about. It was fine, not great...juust average. I swear all the cruise lines use the same vendor for breakfast buffets items. The biscuits...hard as a rock each time I tried them.

 

 

After breakfast, I head down to deck 6 to get a latte from Jean-Philippe Chocolat Cafe.

I grab my latte and decide to walk up to Deck 16 because I can see we are pulling into Ocean Cay. Let me tell you...if you can get up, it's worth seeing the sunrise as you pull in. Everyone I show this picture to believe it's fake.

 

The island is absolutely beautiful. This is my fifth private island visit and is now one of my favorites. It's a marine reserve...there are no water slides, balloons, pools, etc. It's just a beautiful place to relax on the beach (or lagoon) for the day.

 

I get off the ship and start to explore....more to come tomorrow.

 

Is this the end of your review?

On 2/26/2023 at 2:27 PM, maintain242001 said:

Vista ships Havana is great no matter if you have an inside or outside. Havana on the new ships is a total letdown and a disappointment....you can offset some of the disappointment with a Havana Cabana room, they are nice.

totally agree!  We had an inside Havana on the Mardi Gras and was very disappointed. Especially after sailing Havana Cabanas on. Istanbul and Horizon.  For inside Havana on the Mardi Gras, the only perk is the pool (no hot tubs) and that pool was closed for repairs 3 of the 7 days. 

On 1/23/2023 at 7:44 PM, eltigre said:

Going soon on the Panorama in 5202. Thoughts please on location?

We stayed in 5202 twice, once on Vista and once on Horizon. We loved it!  You are at the end (farthest from the pool area) and hardly anybody walking by as we were the last Havana balcony. 

13 minutes ago, pinto18 said:

I will email our PVP and see if he did that. However I have heard from others if you just show some sort of proof that you had that offer at the time ( like a screenshot) that they would honor it even if it hadn't officially been applied to the booking

I hope that a screenshot will work for you. We just got off a 14 Miracle Hawaii cruise and I had DOU in casino and my husband didn’t. When booking my next cruise in Nov. I made sure my PVP entered both of our codes, and before hanging up confirmed again we both had DOU.  On the Miracle, they did let me order a drink for my husband, I just had to wait 5 minutes after ordering my drink.  Kind of a pain, since they don’t come around that often. My next cruise, I made sure we both had it. 
 

Good luck!

At the time of booking you have to have your PVP apply your code to yours ( just like she applied your husbands code to his).  If that wasn’t done at the time of booking, you can’t go back and apply the code at a later date. The code offered has a expiration date to use it by. I just booked a cruise where I had FCL code and my husband’s offer was FCK, both drinks on us in casino. My PVP had to type in each of our codes for us.

34 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

So all Miracle cruises are to park at the convenrton center? I'm doing 4 day in a couple of weeks & have not gotten any notification

we leave Jan 8th and just got the email Jan 2nd about the parking.  Not sure if it is because we are going on a 14 day. Maybe 4 day cruises will park at terminal. 

We are cruising on the Miracle Jan. 8 and just received an email from Carnival that we have to park at the Convention Center instead of the pier for our 14 day Hawaii cruise. Has anyone done this before, and if so, what kind of a hassle is parking there?  They said it is a 10 minute shuttle ride from Convention Center to pier. How safe will our car be there?  I’m having no luck finding hotels that have park and cruise to Long Beach.  I found one but only good for 7 days of parking. There are many hotels with park and cruise for San Pedro pier. Any help would be appreciated.   
 

I posted on West Coast Departure board as well.  Not sure how much traffic that board gets. 

We are cruising on the Miracle Jan. 8 and just received an email from Carnival that we have to park at the Convention Center instead of the pier for our 14 day Hawaii cruise. Has anyone done this before, and if so, what kind of a hassle is parking there?  They said it is a 10 minute shuttle ride from Convention Center to pier. How safe will our car be there?  I’m having no luck finding hotels that have park and cruise to Long Beach.  I found one but only good for 7 days of parking. There are many hotels with park and cruise for San Pedro pier. Any help would be appreciated. 

26 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Pretty sure there was a infinity hot tub near the Havana Bar

No, definitely no infinity pool in the Mardi Gras Havana area.   You are thinking about the infinity pool in  Loft 19.  

We send shorts, t shirts, socks, underwear and bathing suits. Everything came back in good shape!

My husband and I just got off the Mardi Gras a couple weeks ago.  We were on it during hurricane Fiona and hurricane Ian.  Fortunately, our captain kept us far away from the storms and we had beautiful weather. My only complaint was we had an inside Havana cabin, as we booked late and no cabanas were available. (We have previously stayed in a Havana Cabana balcony on the Horizon and Vista.). The Havana area is very different on the Mardi Gras compared to the Vista/Horizon.  No hot tubs, no gazebo with benches and wading water. The only perk we had for our inside cabin was a small pool tucked in the corner. Then they closed the pool for maintenance on the 2nd day, and opened it back up on the last day. I felt we paid $400/extra for no perks at all.  At least the balcony cabana people still got their private balcony. We would of been better off in a regular inside cabin and saved some money!  They did give us $50 OBC, but the whole cabana area was a huge disappointment.

Just got off a B2B on the Mardi Gras this morning and had delicious lobsters both weeks in the MDR. We had lobster at Rudi’s Seafood Grill as well and honestly I preferred the MDR. The MDR was small but cooked well, tender, flaky and very sweet. Funny thing is L, I met another couple who said they hated the lobster that same cruise in MDR. This  indicates to me that it is definitely hit or miss when preparing lobster tails. Same cruise, two different opinions. I also got the lobster roll at the Seafood Shack and it was awesome!  

42 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Nope. We did a B2B in April and only paid the $136. There are no checks on the way out.😎

thanks so much for the quick reply!  We leave in the morning and I’ve been wondering…

On 5/18/2022 at 4:19 PM, Jamman54 said:

Day # 1 (April 23^rd)  -  We board the Mardi Gras!!!

 

 

We were up at 6am to get ready for the big day! Weather wise, it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. We finish re-arranging and packing our suitcases, and then went downstairs to have a light breakfast. Afterwards, Patti got these pictures of four of the five ships in port today from the hallway windows up on the 6^th floor. The only ship missing was the Disney Fantasy. Here’s the Carnival Magic…..

 

 

The Norwegian Escape…..

 

 

The Mariner of the Seas…..

 

 

And off in the distance, the Mardi Gras…..

 

 

We checked out of the Hampton Inn at 9am. Patti and I really enjoyed staying here, and plan to return here in the future. We loaded up the car and then headed for Terminal 3. Here are the signs for the terminals…..

 

 

We have entered the port…..

 

 

 

We are approaching Terminal 3 and the Mardi Gras…..

 

 

There was no line at all entering the parking garage…….

 

 

We were directed down to the end, where porters were waiting to take your luggage…..

 

 

You then continued up the ramp to the second level where you paid for your parking. You handed the attendant your credit card, he stuck it into the machine, and you were charged $136 for the week. You weren’t given a ticket or receipt since you wouldn’t be stopped or checked in any way when you left the garage after your cruise…….

 

 

To be continued……

a quick question!  They o lay charged you for 8 days even though you did a back to back?  We are leaving for our B2B Mardi Gras cruise and we were wondering how would they know your car is in the garage more than a 7 day cruise?

We are leaving on the Mardi Gras tomorrow for a B2B cruise. I read you pay for the parking as you enter to park (instead of when you leave). It looked like the amount the automated machine charges is automatic for the 7 day cruise, $136.  We will actually have our car there for 15 days doing a B2B. We will have any issue when leaving?

8 hours ago, activeac1968 said:

Yes, the gratuity is included for Rudi's, 18% additional charge for Bonsai Teppanyaki (per Carnival website) I booked both of these as well and had the same question 😁

thank you!  I appreciate you letting me know. 

I had booked Rudi’s Seagrill and Teppanyaki for our upcoming cruise. I noticed that they included gratuity for Teppanyaki ($12.60) but no gratuity for Rudi’s. Why would they confuse us by charging gratuity for one and not the other?  Is gratuity included in the $84 charge (two people) for Rudi’s?  

Vodka, soda and lime is my go to drink.  
 

“cucumber sunrise” from the Alchemy Bar is very light and refreshing.  

On 8/28/2022 at 5:58 PM, cellfree said:

I know this isn’t what you asked but thought I would chime in. We actually enjoy being in a different cabin on a B2B, feels refreshing, feel like we get organized again, depending on where cabin is feels like a whole new cruise experience.

Good point!  We booked last minute and couldn’t get the same cabin fir our Mardi Gras cruise in a few weeks. Inside Havana to a suite on the 2nd leg. It will feel like a different cruise!

10 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

I keep reading the title of this thread and wonder what the problem is if both adults can't drink booze. I'm sure I'm just stuck on stupid!

I thought the same thing!  If both can’t drink alcohol, why even buy Cheers!  Must be a typo!

Since platinum can get early access to their cabins on embarkation day, I would assume it would be the same for day 1 of your second cruise.  Hopefully to at least put your money and valuables in the safe so you don’t have to lug them around with you all day. 

I just wish VeriFLY would let me upload my Passport as well. Then you would just have to flash your phone with the “approved pass” and be on your way. 

3 hours ago, kdr69 said:

Other than having a single QR code to scan vs multiple different printed forms to carry and show, (possibly misplace) yes very marginal value......But planning to use it for our Celebration Cruise in November so i guess I will see.  So far has been fairly easy to use.  It does need to catch up to the testing requirements though as that is the last step and isnt required anymore.

I just emailed VeriFLY this morning and they said they will be updating the app to drop Carnival testing requirements if you have vaccination card uploaded. They can’t do it until after Sept 6th. I have a September 17 cruise booked and don’t need the testing done, and the VeriFLY app right now says “items to complete” when in reality there is no more to do. 

3 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

I will wave to you from the Deck of the Freedom as we pass you on Sail away on our way out of port on Sept 17th.

😉😉

2 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

This is unusual for September, however. But it does look like the month of September this year is entirely sold out including your cruise. Are you sure you are booked for the 17th? LOL Well done.

yes, I am booked for 9/17/22, and was looking at 9/10/23, wanting to book B2B, not realizing I was looking at next year.  😬😬.  Finally did book the week after 9/24/22 for my B2B.