Jamman54

After dinner we decided to check out the terminal where the Mardi Gras would be docking on Saturday. As we left Fishlips we passed the Observation Tower…. Here is Terminal 3 where the Mardi Gras docks every week….. We then decided to take a ride into Cocoa Beach as far as the Ron Jon Surf Shop….. We made our way back to the Hampton Inn and decided to have a few drinks at the Mission Control Pool Bar….. A Port Canaveral sunset….. Afterwards, we picked up some snacks at the little store and went back to the room for the night. To be continued…..

Our food has arrived. Patti had the cheese plate and a Caesar salad….. I had the conch fritters and a fried seafood platter….. While we were enjoying our dinner, the Elation sailed from Port Canaveral. She is sailing empty as she is repositioning to Jacksonville. We enjoyed our cruises on her….. To be continued…..

Here are our first drinks of the day….. While we were having our first drinks, the Freedom set sail on a four day cruise to the Bahamas. We didn’t realize that we would be seeing the Freedom so much during the next week or so. We will be sailing on the Freedom in January….. To be continued……

At 3:30 we made our way over to Fishlips for an early dinner. As I mentioned earlier, the Hampton Inn is very close to the Port Entrance….. We have arrived at Fishlips….. This is the downstairs bar….. Most people, including us, love to eat upstairs and enjoy the views of the harbor. Here’s a view of the Freedom and Elation…… To be continued……

Thanks for your kind words. Glad to have you aboard! Glad you finally showed up. I was beginning to worry!

Glad to have you aboard! Please feel free to share your experiences as the review progresses. We would love to hear them! Glad to have you on board again! Thanks for jumping on board once again. Much, much more to follow!

There is a small snack store just off the lobby….. This is the Guest Laundry Room….. Here are a few views of the gym….. And finally, here is the ice machine just down the hall from our room….. To be continued…..

Here are some more views of the lobby and breakfast areas….. This is the Business Center….. Here are some views of the outside patio and pool area….. To be continued…..

The view of the patio and the pool from our window…. Patti got these views of the Freedom and Elation from the hallway windows at either end of the building….. Patti now takes us on a tour of the hotel, starting with the lobby and breakfast areas….. To be continued…..

This time we are staying at the Hampton Inn. It is a new property, and it is located very close to the port entrance. When searching for hotels for this trip, the Hampton was the lowest price, so we decided to give it a try. We are Hilton Honors members, so that helped sway us as well. We have arrived at the Hampton Inn, Port Canaveral….. We arrived at 1pm and our room was ready. All the staff here was very friendly and accommodating….. We were given room # 449, which gave us a view of the patio and the pool….. To be continued…..

Glad to have you along for the ride. Thanks for reading! Hey Pam! Can always count on you to join us!

Glad to have you aboard! You will have a great time on the Mardi Gras. I believe it was.

A couple miles down I-95 we saw a sign for Buc-ee’s. We had never been to one before, so we wanted to see what all the fuss is about….. I tell you we were pretty impressed, and can see why everyone raves about the place. Back on the road again and soon the texts from CVS arrived….. Yes! We’re going cruising again! After a few more hours we have reached the exit for Port Canaveral….. We have arrived! The Freedom and Elation are in port today….. To be continued…..

Pre-Cruise (April 21st) - Testing / We Arrive in Port Canaveral. We were up at 5:30am to get showered and ready for the day. The weather forecast was for a beautiful day. Around 7am we went down to partake of the included hotel breakfast….. Around 8am we began our journey south once again. We had about an hour drive to get to the CVS location where we would be tested. We wanted to make sure we were there early. Soon after leaving the hotel we had arrived in Florida…. About a half hour later we were passing through Jacksonville….. About a half hour after that we have arrived at our CVS…. It was located just a few blocks right off of I-95. After a few minutes wait we were both tested. The staff there was exceptionally nice. They told us that they would send our results within an hour, so back on the road we went. To be continued…..

Thanks for reading. Welcome aboard! Always good to have you along! Would be happy to meet you. Next time should be in January.

Glad to have you aboard! Take notes!

First to the party. Welcome aboard!

Here are some views of the Country Inn & Suites. This is the lobby seating area….. I guess you can call this the business center….. This is the area where they serve the included breakfast….. This is the fitness center….. The laundry room if you need to do laundry….. This is the pool and spa area….. Now let’s talk about how we are going to handle getting our covid tests now that we are in the window for getting them. We were hoping to get tested today here in Kingsland, but neither CVS or Walgreens offered the rapid antigen tests in the area. The nearest CVS that offered the rapid antigen test was just south of Jacksonville, so we had booked it two weeks prior for tomorrow at 9:30am. Knowing that CVS has a habit of cancelling appointments, we also booked a Walgreen’s in Cocoa Beach for later in the afternoon. In the event that didn’t happen, we had our proctored test kits ready to go if needed. One way or another, we would be tested by the end of the day tomorrow! To be continued…..

Pre-Cruise (April 19th & 20th) - Our Journey Begins! As always, we begin our travels around 9pm in the evening. This allows us to bypass the morning rush hours in Baltimore and Washington. Our son Ryan will be minding the house and our cats. He takes our picture as we head out the door….. I don’t mind the drive at all. There is hardly any traffic, so I set the cruise control to 79 mph and listen to tunes all night. Patti on the other hand, tolerates the drive as long as I stop at Cracker Barrel along the way. As usual, we stop at the Cracker Barrel in Santee, South Carolina just as they open at 7am….. After filling our bellies, and Patti getting a little shopping time, we are back on the road again. We made it to today’s final destination, Kingsland, Georgia around noon. We are staying at the Comfort Inn & Suites. If this place looks familiar, it is are usual stop over point when heading south or cruising from Jacksonville….. Our room is not yet ready, so we head over to a nearby Ruby Tuesday’s for some drinks and appetizers……. Patti had the salad bar, and I had the coconut shrimp and fries. Our room was ready at 2:30pm, and we were given room # 301….. To be continued……

Ahoy, Cruise Critic family! My beautiful wife Patti and I have just returned from another month long adventure. We spent three days in Port Canaveral / Cocoa Beach, then boarded the beautiful Mardi Gras for two weeks, then finished off our trip with six days in Orlando. Our first week on the Mardi Gras was a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, stopping at San Juan, Amber Cove, and Grand Turk. The second week was a 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean, stopping at Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Isla Roatan (Mahogany Bay). For us, this was the perfect rotation as the first two days of the first cruise were sea days, and the last two days of the second cruise were also sea days. These cruises on the Mardi Gras were a long time coming. To tell this story let me take you back to January 2019. Bookings for cruises on the Mardi Gras were to begin at 10am on January 30th. At this point no itineraries had been released, and only unofficial copies of the deck plans were in existence. At 7pm on the 29th my PVP called me and said that we could book. Startled at getting the call, and not knowing what the itineraries were, we told him to book us on the first cruise out of Port Canaveral. Having seen the unofficial deck plans, we booked an extended balcony on the “hump”, as we loved our “hump” balcony when we sailed on the Explorer of the Seas. The next day when the itineraries had been released, we saw that there was a 15 day repositioning cruise from New York to Port Canaveral. It had an awesome itinerary and was just what we were looking for. We changed our booking to that cruise, and we were able to keep the same “hump” balcony that we had originally booked. To say we were pleased would be an understatement. Now all we had to do was sit and wait for the ship to be built. Fast forward to December of 2019, when Carnival announced that because of construction delays, the first eight sailings would have to be cancelled. We were devastated to say the least. The 25% Future Cruise Credit that was given helped soften the blow a little bit. Having our 2020 and 2021 cruises already booked, we chose our April, 2022 dates and booked her again. Three months later the nightmare that is the pandemic came, and is still here today, but I don’t want to dwell on it anymore, so let’s fast forward back to the present day. We will be driving down to Florida once again. Being away from home for so long it just makes sense to have your own car down there. You can pack as much of your stuff as you want to, since you don’t have to worry about luggage weights and car rentals. Back in the day when our vacation time was limited, we used to drive straight through in one shot which used to take about 16 hours. Since we have the time now, we break it up into two days. This is going to be a very long review so be patient with us. Patti took well over four thousand pictures during this adventure, so I have a lot of sorting, cropping, and re-sizing to catch up on. Even though I took my laptop with me and worked on the photos from time to time, there’s no way I could keep up with Patti’s itchy shutter finger! We also have to catch up with life, work, and such, so we may not post anything for a day or two from time to time, but just remember we have always finished our reviews. As usual, our reviews start and end at home and cover everything in between. I know that some people like to get right into the cruise stuff and I understand that, but when doing these reviews we want to re-live the whole vacation, not just part of it. So, the cruise stuff may take a few days to get to, but once we’re on it, we’re on it! Our format will remain the same as our past reviews with a day by day account. As always, there will be many, many pictures with plenty of explanations and details. For those that are wondering, our go to camera is the Canon PowerShot XS720 HS, and our water camera is the Fuji FinePix XP60. So, let’s get this party started! We strive to make you feel that you are cruising right along with us, so grab yourself a DOD, and hop on board with us and join the fun! To be continued…..

Yes, but what are the odds?

Yes, we will be doing our usual review. Should start going up in the next day or two. Also, be on the lookout for a Willdra review. They were on the 2nd half of our B2B. 😎

No worries Greg. I don't think any of us that have met you will point you out. 😎

My wife Patti had the same issue, so she bought another one in San Juan which worked fine. Brought the first one home and it works fine. The newer one now lives in her travel bag. 😎

Really? On all of our cruises we have never been asked that.