keels81

2 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

ughh. 4:25 here 🤦‍♂️ 

Sorry, pal! Hopefully they'll have it on TV since there are only four games in the second slate!

You've got over an hour until kickoff, Who Dat. 🤣

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

Apparently McCann is actually a saints fan. I think we’re going to be close.

 

He is! I met him last October on the MG when I was watching the game. He has all sorts of beads and Saints gear!

A quick $5 to servers on my first table or machine night in the casino on DOU in the casino almost guarantees me immediate and return service while I'm playing. Especially on the smaller ships where the smoke-free casino is in the old conference space the deck below.

But no, she can't just walk up to the casino bar and get a drink. They might be sweet and give her one as a courtesy, but she'll have to order from a server when the casino is actually opening.

If you're playing, you can charge your play to your ship account with no interest. But straight cash? The interest fee is higher than just getting it out of the ATM.

I'm pretty sure my husband wore "dress shorts" with a nice shirt and an eccentric coat for The Wake back in June. 

Honestly, I think whatever you wear will be fine. It's truly a non-judgy cruise. The Pajama Party is usually the first night too, so you'll probably see jammies at dinner. 

I'm a VERY light sleeper so the slamming of balcony doors around me (in addition to the slamming of outside cabin doors) that I can hear over my noise machine make balconies not enjoyable for me. 

I also like a dark, cold cave to sleep in. 

My motion sickness has nothing to do with being in an interior versus a balcony and is generally handled with seabands or Bonine.

My irritability is handled by not having slamming doors surrounding me on two points of my cabin. 🤣

On 11/24/2022 at 12:59 PM, Purvis1231 said:

The Your Time Diner service in the MDR was better, we had the same excellent head waiter each time.  He knew our names and drink preference. It seemed people understood the online check in better for diner so there were few people standing around waiting unlike in the morning.

I've found this to be the norm across all ships, especially the smaller ones like Valor. In January, our head waiter in the YTD said he would make sure we had the same spot and crew the next time we came in that sailing and I appreciated it. He would always have the indian vegetarian plate waiting for us almost as soon as we sat down, even before bread!

I'm a foodie, so San Juan is my pick.

Why does this review have no pictures of things like tiny food or the 200-person theater?

Or any pictures?

Yay!!! Eagerly following! I was on the Scarlet in late June and will be on the Valiant for NYE!!!

30 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

A really memorable experience on the Valor was when they played the Saints game on the lido deck. Obviously, there was a decent amount of locals on that ship. Really good energy and a really fun sea day. 

It's always awesome when they do that!

Also, the crew love working the ships out of New Orleans because they can walk 5 minutes to the outlet mall or 7-10 minutes to Walgreens/CVS to get things they need and then get back to the ship while they're in port.

I know Alaska has a boarded pilot captain. And given how the Mississippi River works, I *assume* cruise ships have a boarded pilot captain to get them down the river.

So maybe something closer to water level was open and a guy just wandering was able to get out and get to the water without suffering a major injury? Because there's just no way he could be able to be treading water and waving his arms like that.

I do triathlons and marathon open-water swims and I can't even imagine doing that after "jumping" off a ship.

On 11/24/2022 at 10:58 AM, Jamman54 said:

So, our PVP called us this morning, as I had left him a message last evening. He still can't access our B2B bookings, but no matter as we have decided to dump those bookings. We are now booked on the 15 day Journeys cruise leaving on 9/29. Better islands, and $1300 less than the 15 day B2B that we originally booked. We will cancel our B2B bookings after we finally get our reassigned cabins. There is no way that they will be giving us the bowling alley balconies that we originally booked. Once I know I will list my gripes and give them to my PVP who will go to bat for me and try to get my nonrefundable deposits applied to my new booking. Even if I wind up losing my deposits I feel we came out ahead. We now have a better 15 day cruise for a much better price. Good luck to the rest of you still waiting for your new cabin assignments. 😎

I was able to do this today for a client in a pretty similar situation -- not so much a particular room for a B2B like y'all have, but multiple ADA rooms in specific situations that won't be able to be met. 

Ultimately, they were able to get a lift-and-shift of those NRDs toward their new booking, though one room opted to take it in OBC instead of applied payment. So just FYI that that is an option as well.

1 minute ago, Joebucks said:

 

This is exciting to me. I've seen multiple menus out there and feared that the one you spoke of was an old menu. A bowl of ramen and a california roll for $12 sounds good to me!

It was SOOOOOOOOO good! Looking forward to it again on the Celebration in a little over a week!

8 minutes ago, wikoffclan said:

We always park at the port - Erato St. garage. IMHO this is one of the best, easiest, most convenient port parking garages. It may be a bit more expensive, but the convenience outweighs any cost differential. Have never had any long wait time to get in.

BTW - the Julia St. parking (lot) is the pits. Disorganized, open lot, across the railroad tracks, long walk to the ship. I think it's only used for Royal and possibly NCL? I may use Fulton St garage when we cruise Radiance OTS in December..

Erato is so greatness. I can leave my door and be parked and walking on the ship in 20 minutes thanks to that port garage.

Fulton will be a slight upgrade over the Julia Street lot, but not by a whole lot.

I was diagnosed with a pretty serious shellfish allergy last year and have had cross-contamination experiences where while the encounter didn't cause anaphylaxis, it DID ruin my life/vacation for a couple days after with gastro issues ... so, I'm hyper vigilant about it and while I've never had a bad experience in the MDR, these days I tend to err on the side of caution and spend money on the specialty dining where the kitchen is smaller and more controlled than the MDR galley.

My favorites (in no particular order):

Fahrenheit 555/Steakhouse: Escargot, tartare, carpaccio, onion soup -- all things I won't make at home and usually don't find on the menu when I go out. I don't have an issue with the cut of meat because it's likely about the same as the strip or filet I get at the grocery (not the good butcher). I love the béarnaise and wild mushroom sauces, and I could easily make a meal out of mashed, mac and mushrooms sides. We always go on the first night so I have a bottle of wine that's essentially included in the price to take back to the stateroom for the next few nights.

Bonsai Sushi: The menu on the Mardi Gras is a little bit more expanded -- don't sleep on the ramen bowls or yakitori, especially the chicken -- but I've never had a bad lunch or late night dinner at any Bonsai Sushi across the fleet. 

Ji-Ji Asian Kitchen: Good grief, this place is a revelation. My most recent experiences was on the Vista with my girlfriends for my birthday ... we had a LATE dining reservation, essentially the last of the night, and we let our waiter basically order and course out the whole menu for us. The kitchen was so gracious, they waited to make the shrimp and crab items for the table very last so I didn't have to worry about any potential cross-contamination issues. It's the little things like that that mean a lot. I would pay Steakhouse/Hibachi level money for Ji-Ji and not bat an eye.

Bonsai Teppanyaki: This is more because I'm a sucker for teppanyaki, but I usually cruise with a group and this makes for a really fun dinner experience -- especially when we have kiddos with us. Plus, that tuna tartare appetizer and the bento box dessert are enough to get me in the door in general.

Chef's Table: This is a must-do on every ship for me. Yes, it's pricey and it's absolutely not for everyone, but they attention they pay to their dishes and presentations -- along with the dietary alterations they can make for me -- makes it worth it. The chefs and wait staff are SO proud to show off what they do and their creativity outside of what we see on the plate in the MDR. 

Still Worth It:

Cucina del Capitano: I'll almost always eat at Cucina, but on shorter sailings where the Chicken Parm is offered in the MDR, I might skip paying the $15 because the Chicken Parm is just as good and is included. Those meatballs and the bread service though. *chef's kiss*

Not For Me:

Emeril's: Don't get me wrong, I love Chef, but I also live in New Orleans and eat red beans & rice every Monday. My husband and friends absolutely love it though, especially when the oyster shooter trolley rolls by, as well as the breakfast po-boy.

Rudi's Seagrill: The menu just doesn't make the value worth it for me. I ordered the lobster mac & cheese, sans lobster, only to be told later that there is lobster base in the mac & cheese sauce/bechamel. So I was left with a salad and grilled chicken (I don't eat cooked fish). In honesty, I won't go back until they add a true vegetarian/vegan entree on the menu like a risotto or something.

Seafood Shack: See above mentioned shellfish allergy, though sometimes I see crab legs or shrimp at good prices that make me wish I could risk it for those sweet delicacies I used to enjoy so much.

I didn't bother with the paid Pig & Anchor offering on the Horizon, so I can't speak to that. 

Just now, TxTeach79 said:

hopefully she loves it! I’ve taken her on the Breeze, Horizon, and Miracle in the last couple years and I think she’s all in! Can’t wait to show her this ship!

The MG last October was my besties first introduction to Carnival -- they'd previously only been on a 3-day on the Disney Dream years ago for my birthday -- so it was also really their introduction to traditional cruising and they got hooked. 

She's lucky that she had you sail this week to do all the recon on the ship!

I just want to thank you again for such a great and happy trip report! I love the Mardi Gras and it makes me so happy to see you loving some of the same places (and people!) that I most recently experienced back in July.

How do you think your girlfriend will enjoy the ship? 

2 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

He obviously wasn't picked up where he went over. How many miles would the Mississippi have carried him ? At New Orleans, the river flows about 3 miles per hour.

 

 

 

At Belle Chase this week it was more like 1.4 miles per hour.

2 hours ago, luvcruzing said:

True, but for whatever reason, the casino host will offer a free Steakhouse dinner to large jackpot winners, but not to the mega losers. 

This drives my husband NUTS. Our last few cruises together, I've had enough decent-to-big wins to counteract his terrible losses and he gets nothing, not even decent offers, while I keep getting everything under the sun. 

If I had a dollar for every time I hear him say they should give him free stuff because he's a big dumb loser, I wouldn't need all the FreePlay that the casino gives me. 🤣

It says he was found about 20 miles from SouthWest Pass ... not to be graphic or gross, but I'm honestly very surprised he wasn't attacked or eaten by anything around there. 

We fish there often and the creatures that habitat the area where the river meets the Gulf are pretty intense. Sharks, gators, eels, rays, all manor of things. Especially as the start to make their winter migration to that area between Southwest Pass and Grand Isle, up into Lafitte Preserve.

Anyway, it's essentially where the ships enter and exit the Mississippi River on sailings:

What Teach said. I love the Dream class, but I found the MG (two times) to be far more comfortable at a capacity sailing than the Vista or Horizon this year. I'll let y'all know about the Celebration next week! 

2 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

 

I’m in! Big fan of all things NOLA 

The crowning of the King & Queen was pretty fun, if a little bit cheesy but that's coming from me and my BFF who ride in Mardi Gras krewes here in New Orleans.

But the Voodoo Moon show was amazing. We saw both performances!

Someone will be working the podium of the main dining room when you board (it's also usually a muster station) and they can look up your table/dining situation based on your boarding pass and can make changes and also verify allergy accommodations. 

I've done this on all of my cruises since the restart before my S&S has been available to me with no problem.