Live (Wi-Fi willing) Christmas Mardi Gras Review 12/18- 12/26 Blue Card Perspective

[BennyBrun]

We have cruises with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and NCL in the past but never on Carnival.  This will be our first experience with Carnival and we are very excited to try something new.  We are armed with reviews / suggestions from members on this board (thank you Megan and Sid) so at least we will have some ideas about the ship and things to try.  We will be residing on deck 17 in a Cloud 9 Spa interior room.

 

Day before the cruise.

We flew in a day before to spend some time in Universal to fully get into the Christmas spirit before our cruise.  Pictures from Universal Studios Orlando.

 

 

[BennyBrun]

Day Before Cruise

 

After a whole day at Universal we returned back to our hotel at Disney’s Saratoga Springs with the intention to check out Disney Springs but once we got to our room we were ready for bed.

[BennyBrun]

Day Before Cruise 

 

Universal Studio after dark … the park closed at 6PM which we thought was a bit early for the holiday season.  Island of the Adventure stayed open until 10PM.   Both parks seemed busy but I am sure it’s nothing like Christmas time. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Looking forward to this picture heavy review!  Quick question, do you or anyone in your party have the internet and if so, if anyone has an iPhone, could you check if they they send/receive regular (green) text messages?  I understand you can send/receive iMessages (blue) without any problems

[BennyBrun]

 

35 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Looking forward to this picture heavy review!  Quick question, do you or anyone in your party have the internet and if so, if anyone has an iPhone, could you check if they they send/receive regular (green) text messages?  I understand you can send/receive iMessages (blue) without any problems

Yes this will be a picture heavy review so I apologize in advance lol… I have an iPhone and I have the premium internet so I will check for you once I switch over and on airplane mode.

[BennyBrun]

National Alamo Enterprise at Port Canaveral has re opened which makes one way rental from MCO possible and possibly and cheaper option for a group traveling or using a Free Day reward which is what we did!

[BennyBrun]

Day 1 Embarkation Day

 

Stepped off the rental car shuttle 11:23 AM and made it through the que and into the terminal building 11:32 AM.  Massive crowd zig zag ques.  
 

Observation : the people on the shuttle going on the Mardi Gars all masked up.  People going on NCL not masked up and they said they don’t need to because they are on NCL. 
 

They are checking boarding times and sending you to the appropriate ques but ALL ques are moving.

[BennyBrun]

I will take questions that you might have and ask so feel free since it is a learning experience for me on Carnival so I will be asking the staff a lot of questions any way.  Just don’t be upset if I forget a question or two because I might be in a BIG Chicken Food coma.

[JMacklin]

Did you happen to notice an "express" line for suite guests?

[BennyBrun]

Day 1 Embarkation Day…

 

11:54 AM we got on the ship.  We started boarding the ship right after security and the process was very smooth.  As you can see the suite sitting area is not being used!

[BennyBrun]

Day 1

Mask required vs requested.  That’s the sign greeting guests from the entrance to Java Blue.  We shall see how this goes!

[BennyBrun]

Day 1 Embarkation Day

 

Took the forward elevator up and was greeted with champagne toast / Christmas greetings followed by quick bites street eats.  We were starving so we needed to stop to fuel up before we can March forward to get Big Chicken.

[BennyBrun]

Day 1

 

The curly fries are Amazeballs!!!  The char sui pork dumplings were excellent.

[BennyBrun]

Day 1

 

Finally made it to Big Chicken… the ship is very crowded so one of us had to stay behind and the other one went to fetch food.  The chicken was everything that have been said and more!!!  Love love love every bite.  BIG CHICKEN YaY!

[BennyBrun]

Day 1

 

I haven’t got an official count but it feels like 90%.  I walked all the way around the buffet and not a single table to be had around 1PM.  I didn’t want to take pictures of people eating and there was really no good way to show how full it is due to the layout.

[travelplus]

2 hours ago, BennyBrun said:

I will take questions that you might have and ask so feel free since it is a learning experience for me on Carnival so I will be asking the staff a lot of questions any way.  Just don’t be upset if I forget a question or two because I might be in a BIG Chicken Food coma.

Can you check in for the cruise and wait to board until an hour before departure in a port like Long Beach?

[BennyBrun]

2 hours ago, JMacklin said:

Did you happen to notice an "express" line for suite guests?

Outside terminal at check in there are lines for suite guests but all lines are moving.  So if the 11AM is empty they start moving the 11:30 line… just before you go inside the doors there is a separate line for suite guests but that line does not move as fast as the regular line.

[BennyBrun]

25 minutes ago, travelplus said:

Can you check in for the cruise and wait to board until an hour before departure in a port like Long Beach?

There is no need because they were moving all lines so once you are inside they verify your documents and you are on your way to the ship.  They are not enforcing the check in time once you are inside the terminal doors.

[BennyBrun]

Day 1

 

they have switched the wording on masks and I have heard multiple staff asking people to put mask up around the ship.

[kelkel2]

Thanks for doing the review, I’m following along. I can’t wait to hear a first time carnival cruiser’s perspective! 

[BennyBrun]

Day 1 

 

Exploring the ship Casino pictures … wow this is a big casino.  I feel like the casino ( gaming area) on this ship is bigger than some of the land based casino I have been to.

[TrqoisWtrs]

4 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Quick question, do you or anyone in your party have the internet and if so, if anyone has an iPhone, could you check if they they send/receive regular (green) text messages?  I understand you can send/receive iMessages (blue) without any problems

I just got off MG and I could send/receive blue messages, but green only appeared when I was out of airplane mode.

[BennyBrun]

3 minutes ago, kelkel2 said:

Thanks for doing the review, I’m following along. I can’t wait to hear a first time carnival cruiser’s perspective! 

I love trying out new things and so far I am liking the things I have seen and it is definitely different than Oasis Class ships on Royal.  It does feel very crowded and bunched together in the common areas.

[BennyBrun]

Day 1

 

Spa Interior … this room is classified as an interior room but it is actually a balcony room but without the balcony.  It is very spacious.

[BennyBrun]

Day 1 

 

They still have not fixes the broken glass from Meghan’s Mardi Gras sailing …