jimbo5544

We had a great cruise, thanks for following along, it had some one offs with rescuing 4 people adrift and then being picked up by the coast guard the next morning. We do not currently have a sailing on her booked (do have 2 on the Celebration) and 4 other cruises booked, but I cannot imagine not getting on her again…..soon. If you have not done so already, do the Mardi Gras.

This ship is flat out home run in regards to food. The options, the flexibility the different locations. Entertainment was really really good. Totally different from out past cruises. Lee was good, our first time with him. Ho announced he was going to take out the Celebration, we will see him again. The whole crew to us, seemed to work very well together. Not sure if it was timing or what.

Another question we had to answer was about the Havana area. We are BIG fans of this area, BIG fans. While we had seen online, and later when we did the TA event on the ship, I. Was openly disappointed in this area for several reasons. The biggest being the size of the pool, and also the placement of the rooms. We still LOVED it. The pool was never over crowded, ion fact, for large portions of the day, we had the pool area to ourselves. The bar area is still fun and convenient. The rooms are more narrow (like the rest of the balcony rooms), but we still very much enjoyed them. If I had a gripe it was that the life rafts were beneath us. Small gripe., I am HAPPY to say the Havana area is alive and well. LOVED IT

So this was our third time on the Mardi Gras, the first was her 2nd sailing and if memory served me correctly, about 2300 people and we stayed in a balcony 14 Aft port side. The second sailing was in January and we stayed in a aft excel suite (utterly outstanding room(s)) and there was around 4,000. This time I knew lower capacity had been reached, but was really interested in how many would be on the ship. I asked mid week and was told that the number was over 6,200, the most people on the ship to date. There was no doubt you could tell. While the ship can hide people for great lengths of time, it still did show at other times. All that said, it was a super enjoyable cruise.

So time to wrap up this party. Debark went really smooth and WAY ahead of schedule. We were supposed to be in the Punchliner at 8. They started self debark about 7:15. We were waiting for some of our group (they were already off the ship 🤪, but we got off around 7:45. Picked up our bags and were in the bus to MCO before 9. Easy peasy.

It was spectacular

Thanks for following along. It has been my pleasure.

Coming up, debark and summary.

Time to go home

What awaited us in cabin

Dinner dance

Having stayed in multiple HC rooms on Vista class ships I was leary to stay in this room. I will give my cents on the topic in the next day pr two, but suffice it to say I do not think you will be disappointed.

Smokehouse bar, love the drinks at this bar

Quite a morning

Wwnt to street eats got lobster rolls from seafood shack for lunch.

Had to hurry to my Bolt rescheduled appt only to find it was cancelled due to wind.

So there were three ships in total. I have great video of transferring to CG launch taken from HC pool but too big to load without editing. There was also a CG jet that circled. Happy to answer any questions.

While waiting for the CG walked around the fore section to see the HC cabins there

Sitting in Havana enjoying the area. Captain just came on and aaid we were going to meet ip with Coast Guard at 10:15 to transfer rescued men. More coming.