Live From Mardi Gras August 7

[Eli_6]

On 8/8/2021 at 7:48 AM, thatoneguyyouknow said:

Are you able to book the free speciality restaurants onboard or are they all booked up?

So, we booked one for the first time. If you have a set dining time, you have to wait until like 8 pm to book.

[sailingships]

What's happening on the MG? Its Yellow with "CDC has investigated and ship remains under observation."

[Eli_6]

Sorry I have not checked back in in a couple of days. We went on an amazing excursion yesterday in Costa Maya tubing down the 7 color river and swimming in the 7 colors lagoon. If you have a chance to do that, I highly recommend it.  

 

We ate at Chicabaya two nights ago and it was an epic fail.  We were there for 1 hour 45 minutes and left before we got desert because we were tired of waiting.  We got 1 drink in that time period, it took us close to an hour to get our appetizer, and my husband's steak came out cold...and he got his 15 minutes before I got my entree.  The food was not good and it gave us horrible indigestion. I actually threw up later and my husband barely slept because he was up the entire night with acid indigestion.  So, I would not recommend it.  The tables on either side of us got there before us and had just gotten their entrees when we left...and by the time we left, the restaurant was less than half full so you couldn't even blame being busy.

 

We went back to the MDR last night and the food was great and we were in and out in 45 minutes.  

[Eli_6]

3 minutes ago, sailingships said:

What's happening on the MG? Its Yellow with "CDC has investigated and ship remains under observation."

I have no idea.  This is news to me.  We just docked in Roatan.  

[crewsweeper]

In Costa Maya,  did the ship only allow ship excursions?  Was there any announcement about only taking "approved taxis"?  Did the tram run?   Glad you got to go see the Blue Lagoon.  

 

Thanks for the warning about Chibang.  Hoping they get their act together soon. 

 

 

[Eli_6]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:21 AM, ontheweb said:

Thanks for all your posts and pictures. Looks like you're having a great time.

 

I forget if you mentioned this previously, but is it just you and DH, or are your children (with exemptions) with you?

 

Are there many children onboard?

We left our kids at home. There are not too many children on board but they are here.  But definitely fewer than normal I would say. I have seen maybe 5-7 families with kids under 12.  Albeit, sometimes it is hard to tell a kid's age.  Yesterday my husband and I were on an excursion and I commented something about I thought the unvaccinated were supposed to have their own excursions because there were two kids on the excursion. I got to talking to one of the "kids" later and found out she was 17 and her brother was 13!!!!  I had thought she was maybe 13-14 and her brother was about my boys' age.  I get thrown off sometimes because my first grader is 4.5 feet tall and 90 pounds. And another young girl I thought was maybe in high school was talking about going to college break in 2020.  So she is clearly at least 20.  But overall, very few kids on board. 

[crewsweeper]

For those asking about COVID protocols... Eli-6 is on the sailing before the new ones take effective.

So someone on the next sailing will hopefully have information on what the changes are and how they are enforced.

[Eli_6]

1 minute ago, crewsweeper said:

For those asking about COVID protocols... Eli-6 is on the sailing before the new ones take effective.

So someone on the next sailing will hopefully have information on what the changes are and how they are enforced.

No, the mask protocols are in effect now.  

[Eli_6]

11 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

In Costa Maya,  did the ship only allow ship excursions?  Was there any announcement about only taking "approved taxis"?  Did the tram run?   Glad you got to go see the Blue Lagoon.  

 

Thanks for the warning about Chibang.  Hoping they get their act together soon. 

 

 

I know people got off who did not have ship excursions, but I don't know what they did.  I did not see a tram, but I did see some drunk cruisers (like one nearly passed out) at the bus stop so maybe they were waiting on a tram and not a bus. The pools were open. We got in one briefly:

[Eli_6]

6 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

We left our kids at home. There are not too many children on board but they are here.  But definitely fewer than normal I would say. I have seen maybe 5-7 families with kids under 12.  Albeit, sometimes it is hard to tell a kid's age.  Yesterday my husband and I were on an excursion and I commented something about I thought the unvaccinated were supposed to have their own excursions because there were two kids on the excursion. I got to talking to one of the "kids" later and found out she was 17 and her brother was 13!!!!  I had thought she was maybe 13-14 and her brother was about my boys' age.  I get thrown off sometimes because my first grader is 4.5 feet tall and 90 pounds. And another young girl I thought was maybe in high school was talking about going to college break in 2020.  So she is clearly at least 20.  But overall, very few kids on board. 

These were supposed to be in a different post.  The bottom is a pick from the loft 19 mini pool looking out on serenity pool.

 

Loft 19 "pool" is only like 2-3 feet deep. I would not pay extra for it. My room is what makes the excel suites worth it, but the Loft 19 isn't anything that great IMO.  The Havana area on the Vista class beats it out. 

 

And I do not think there is a breakfast buffet in the Havana area. At least not that I have heard of.  

[sailingships]

28 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

We went back to the MDR last night and the food was great and we were in and out in 45 minutes.  

That's pre-virus timing 😄

[HxFx]

59 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

We went on an amazing excursion yesterday in Costa Maya tubing down the 7 color river and swimming in the 7 colors lagoon. If you have a chance to do that, I highly recommend it.

I have my eye on that one!. Were you allowed to remove your mask the entire time once you got off transportation or was it a lot of taking masks on and off as you meandered in and out of the water? Thanks!

[Honolulu Blue]

57 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

We ate at Chicabaya two nights ago and it was an epic fail. 

 

I'm not aware of a restaurant on Mardi Gras by that name.  Was it a pop-up sort of thing?  Did you mean Chibang?  Or was it some other restaurant?  Thanks in advance for helping me form my list of restaurants to be wary of.

[KmomChicago]

1 hour ago, Eli_6 said:

Sorry I have not checked back in in a couple of days. We went on an amazing excursion yesterday in Costa Maya tubing down the 7 color river and swimming in the 7 colors lagoon. If you have a chance to do that, I highly recommend it.  

 

We ate at Chicabaya two nights ago and it was an epic fail.  We were there for 1 hour 45 minutes and left before we got desert because we were tired of waiting.  We got 1 drink in that time period, it took us close to an hour to get our appetizer, and my husband's steak came out cold...and he got his 15 minutes before I got my entree.  The food was not good and it gave us horrible indigestion. I actually threw up later and my husband barely slept because he was up the entire night with acid indigestion.  So, I would not recommend it.  The tables on either side of us got there before us and had just gotten their entrees when we left...and by the time we left, the restaurant was less than half full so you couldn't even blame being busy.

 

We went back to the MDR last night and the food was great and we were in and out in 45 minutes.  

We went to Chibang last night, 4th night of the cruise, right at 5:30 and without prior reservations or check in. We do have YTD. Seated immediately and done in just over an hour. Service was fine and food was too. I wouldn’t call it a life changing experience, however. 
 

It’s been suggested that since it’s a new venue all the frequent cruisers want to try it those first couple of nights of each cruise. So we waited, hoping it would calm down a bit.

[sailingships]

54 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

For those asking about COVID protocols... Eli-6 is on the sailing before the new ones take effective.

So someone on the next sailing will hopefully have information on what the changes are and how they are enforced.

I think everything is in effect now except for the pre-testing which starts on Saturday. So from today the passengers for those sailings have to get a PCR/NAAT test or one of the rapid tests. Someone posted the list of accepted tests in another thread.

[crewsweeper]

2 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

 

 

And I do not think there is a breakfast buffet in the Havana area. At least not that I have heard of.  

In the early days of the Vista, they offered Cuban coffee and pastries.  But that was soon discarded.  There's no breakfast in any Havana area.  However, on both the Vista and the Horizon (and probably the Panaorama, but haven't sailed on her) there's a breakfast buffet in the Ocean Plaza with as good of coffee (for those who drink it straight, no chaser) as the Java right around the corner.  And a fantastic chicken morning soup.  If you have access to the Havana deck you can take it out there.

[JaniceB]

Really enjoying your review and the information provided.  

[ProgRockCruiser]

3 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

For those asking about COVID protocols... Eli-6 is on the sailing before the new ones take effective.

So someone on the next sailing will hopefully have information on what the changes are and how they are enforced.

 

3 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

No, the mask protocols are in effect now.  

As noted, the Mask requirements were in effect for sailings from 7 August.

 

The COVID test 3 days prior (even for fully vaxxed) requirement goes into effect for sailings as of 14 August.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

As noted, the Mask requirements were in effect for sailings from 7 August.

 

The COVID test 3 days prior (even for fully vaxxed) requirement goes into effect for sailings as of 14 August.

And August 14th is this Saturday, so pretty much now all future cruises until hopefully this is all behind us.

[DGNewton]

Duh...like we haven't been watching or sailing....

[SNJCruisers]

22 hours ago, sailingships said:

What's happening on the MG? Its Yellow with "CDC has investigated and ship remains under observation."

Saw a YouTube video that mentioned it was announced the other day that 14 out of the current 19 ships active have had some positive Covid  cases on board.  The highest was on the Vista,  who had 26 crew members come up positive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMS3OSsJlQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAel0PqsIls

 

[SNJCruisers]

21 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

 

I'm not aware of a restaurant on Mardi Gras by that name.  Was it a pop-up sort of thing?  Did you mean Chibang?  Or was it some other restaurant?  Thanks in advance for helping me form my list of restaurants to be wary of.

Ever hear of growing pains?  This is the second sailing on a 180 K ton ship with a brand new crew who have not worked together or worked at all for 18 months.  People need to temper their expectations a little bit and go with the flow.  If you hit a snag in an establishment on board, you can always walk out and get food at various other places on board. If you really want to avoid problems, just book Rudi"s Seagrill for all 7 nights, no body has had a bad word to say about the place.

[SNJCruisers]

22 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

 

And I do not think there is a breakfast buffet in the Havana area. At least not that I have heard of.  

The mini buffet that is located in Ocean Plaza adjacent to the Havana area on the 3 Vista Class ships has been moved to Guy's Pig & Anchor on the MG.

[SNJCruisers]

How was the cooking class at Carnival Kitchen?

[tidecat]

22 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I have no idea.  This is news to me.  We just docked in Roatan.  

One or more of the following conditions:

 

1) Someone from the previous sailing tested positive within 5 days of disembarkation (Local health departments will ask about international/interstate travel).

2) At least 0.1% of crew are positive (this could be as few as 2 crew members on Mardi Gras)

3) At least 0.2% of passengers are positive (cutoff will be somewhere between 4-8 passengers)