LIVE! Mardi Gras on the Mardi Gras 2/26 - 3/5. Let’s Cruise!

[TravelBluebird]

Boat is rocking pretty good tonight after a week of totally calm seas (and slower speed).

 

I love it; rocks me to sleep.Your results may vary.

 

[ninjacat123]

8 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

The following is a true story. This is what my daughter created in the room tonight after we ran out of energy. And also what happened on the beach at Jack’s Shack today:

 

 

 

 

Love your daughter's artwork!  Been there, done that with the floating in the water sunburn.  Now I wear a Speedo Swim shirt.  Thanks for sharing her work!👍

[silversneakers]

Have you checked out the Spa?  Do they have a thermal pool?

[TravelBluebird]

18 minutes ago, silversneakers said:

Have you checked out the Spa?  Do they have a thermal pool?

 

We took the Spa tour the first day, although we didn’t get to use the Spa, there is a thermal pool in the thermal suite area. It is not very large, just FYI.

[TravelBluebird]

Good morning! Our last full day on the Mardi Gras.

 

We slept in late and after out “quiet” evening late last night we feel refreshed.

 

Although we were able to get Group 2 disembarkation tags for our luggage due to being in a suite, we have such late flights that we traded them in for the last group. Will get out of our room just before 8:30 tomorrow and then head to breakfast on the Lido, and disembark with the last group. We are going to try an Uber to leave; I’ve just heard there can be surge pricing leaving the port so I’m a little nervous about that.

 

And although with a smaller ship I’ll often disembark my own luggage, this ship is so big, I don’t want to risk having to take them down stairs, so we’re checking them. We are also going to pack them on the early side so we don’t have to have anxiety and we can really enjoy the last evening.

 

OK, enough about the end of the trip; today is our last day of FUN!.

 

This morning we had sea day brunch in the Palm.  We had intended to get Americano coffees at Emeril’s but there was a HUGE line, so we passed. If you want those Beignets for breakfast or their bananas foster etc. I suggest you do NOT leave it for the last day!

 

Then, I couldn’ t get my Carnival Hub app to work (it wouldn’t recognize I was on the ship). There was no problem and no wait; I went up to the hostess desk and we were seated right away. Big difference than brunch on the first Sea Day with the long wait!

 

We used our first paper menus of the trip.  I had the Huevos Rancheros and daughter the French toast and chia pudding, with coffee and our fav vegan juices.  Coffee and foot hot; tasty Huevos, thick nice French toast ,served quickly!

 

By the time breakfast was done my on-board app was back. And I do need to report on the incredible reflexes of the Carnival wait staff; daughter stopped dead (quickly) to say “oh look there are those nice ladies we met at Jack’s Shack” and would have collided with a waiter and a tray of food except he was able to stop on a dime (with a little warning WOAH that stopped DD) and avert the entire disaster. Well done!

 

We are now looking at our schedule for the day, and we have a list of things we want to do.  I’ll also have a list for all the things we did NOT do on the Mardi Gras; it really is impossible to do it all in one week!

 

Traveling at a good speed back to Port Canaveral. Daughter said the ship “rocked her to sleep” last night so she has her sea legs and is over any ship motion sickness!

 

 

 

 

[Hogladyrider]

@TravelBluebirdreally have enjoyed your reporting.....your excitement and fun comes thru in your writing.  It seems like live reporting takes a lot of time, time away from enjoying your cruise?

 

Your week surely has flown by, guess you will be booking another cruise when you arrive home.

 

LOVED your daughter's sketches!  She is very talented.  It sounds like the two of you have had some great time together this week.

 

Enjoy your final full day at sea!

[TravelBluebird]

2 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

@TravelBluebirdreally have enjoyed your reporting.....your excitement and fun comes thru in your writing.  It seems like live reporting takes a lot of time, time away from enjoying your cruise?

 

Your week surely has flown by, guess you will be booking another cruise when you arrive home.

 

LOVED your daughter's sketches!  She is very talented.  It sounds like the two of you have had some great time together this week.

 

Enjoy your final full day at sea!

 

Thank you so much for that @Hogladyrider  You know, it doesn’t take time away from enjoying my cruise; if anything it makes everything more vivid for me because I’m so excited to share. Plus, I love to write; I have a journalism degree and I travel blogged // instagrammed for awhile as “The Tiny Travelholic”.  Life got in the way and I stopped blogging there for awhile, and I may get that going again this year, but for now I have found such a lovely audience and community here that its all good.

 

Also, writing while daughter sketches is built in “down time” which we both need.

 

And thank you re daughter’s sketching!  She says thank you as well.

 

We have made great memories this week; thank you for coming along on our journey!

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

We did a bunch of last minute things today. There were 2 great photos we wanted of us at Pixels; so glad there is a cheaper digital version you can now purchase if you don’t want to get prints (not inexpensive, mind you) but this way we each can take the digital copy home to print.

 

Bought the very nice Mardi Gras mugs at Java Blue ($17).

 

Checked my account to make sure all the charges were us and everything was on there (all good!).

 

For a change we tore ourselves away from our Emeril’s Americano coffees (although no line later in the morning) and tried the Cuban coffees at the Havana Bar. This is another great choice for strong espresso coffee.

 

Then I did the Thriller dance class at Havana Bar. Very well attended and fun.

 

And then...we packed. We are two peas in a pod in the fact that we can only relax and enjoy the rest of today once this chore is out of the way. We have set aside clothing for tomorrow, pjs, all that is needed.

 

In the middle of packing we got hungry. Last Street Eats of the cruise; never disappoints. And then we made the mistake of going by the Gelato//Cake area—my favorite flavor, Coconut, and DD’s favorite cake, German Chocolate Cake. We got both; last big indulgence of the cruise.

 

Someone asked above about luncheon at Cucina—yes, they offered pastas (make your own checklist sort of thing), pizza, desserts. 

 

Our towel animals are still Mardi Gras partying on our behalf.

 

Ok on board for our late afternoon and tonight—Broadway Beats (since we didn’t see one main theater show all cruise!) maybe a comedy show (same there; not one, most ships I see every comic), the Martini tasting at Alchemy, and dinner at Cucina Capitano.

 

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Well we decided to skip the Martini tasting and instead I had the Forty is the New Twdnty znd DX the Purple Shnset.  Nearly everyone around us was having The Remedy and I is we want to try it!  4 bartenders there tonigh including Daniel.

 

And now we are waiting on our balcony for our dinner table at Cucina  completely buzzed from the 1 drink!  Generous pour tonight.  Cucina said 10-20 minute wait we are almost at 15.

[TravelBluebird]

Cucina del Capital was NOT a good choice for dinner the final night.  We pilot in for our reservation at 5:34pm.  The app said 10 to 20 minutes which was perfect since we wanted to see a 7:45 We Are One show at Grand Central.  
 

Nearly one hour later our table was ready.  Then our service was incredibly slow—took another hour before we had our entree.  Cold side spinach,  food wears wRm not hot.

 

They kept apologizing but we never got a reason. 
 

By the time desert finally arrived daughter was making sculptures out of the table implements out of boredom. The wait staff looked horrified.    We missed the show and are now waiting for  Broadway Beats.

 

Food tasted fine; whole process was too long, especially for our last night.  
 

 

[SNJCruisers]

The food gods were against you because you forgot all about the noodle broth bowl for lunch.  

Now you have a reason to book another sailing.  And maybe catch a comedian or two. 😉

[Knights on the Beach]

Oh no, that's the wait team we had our first night at Cucina in December and they were fantastic!  We ate there again later in the week - loved the food, atmosphere and service.  I wonder what went wrong there tonight.  😬

Edited March 5, 2022 by cruisemom2

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

The food gods were against you because you forgot all about the noodle broth bowl for lunch.  

Now you have a reason to book another sailing.  And maybe catch a comedian or two. 😉

OMG you are totally right; we should have got the noodle broth bowls! 

 

And the comedians; I’m so sad I didn’t get to see them. Daughter has no interest in comedy! Which I might be a little offended at since my speciality was improv and I loved comedic roles in musical theater.  I would have made her go, except I’ll be on the Spirit for 16 days in April with my husband, and he never misses a comedy show at sea! So I’ll make up for it. 

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, cruisemom2 said:

Oh no, that's the wait team we had our first night at Cucina in December and they were fantastic!  We ate there again later in the week - loved the food, atmosphere and service.  I wonder what went wrong there tonight.  😬

 

I got the feeling that something was desperately off with the evening. First the 10-20 minute wait time in the app that was almost an hour, and then the incredibly slow service (which they noted and kept apologizing for) which made the wait staff so frazzled. Perhaps some staff was out ill, or they were just totally overwhelmed. We don’t blame the servers, just whatever was going wrong and I do wish we knew what it was.  

The food that we had was good (except for the ice cold spinach). I wanted one of the pastas in an appetizer size portion, and I was told that they only could serve it as an entree and it would “take too long” to get it, so I had the Arancini. DD had the Minestrone Soup. For mains the Linguine a la Vongole for DD and I had Veal Marsala (said it came with gnocchi; it actually came with these little polenta cakes that were very good). And the 2 cold spinach sides.  The deserts were truly amazing; had and loved the Apple Crostata and the Lemon Frozen Torte.

 

So, the only complaint was all the waiting on a last night we wanted to be out and about doing things. From the table request to finishing the meal (and we really downed the desserts quick) was 2 hours and 40 minutes.  But the good news is that this trip mostly fired on all cylinders, so when it didn’t, we really noticed.

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

We finally saw a production show tonight, Broadway Beats.

 

I will give my more complete thoughts about the overall entertainment, probably tomorrow while I’m waiting for my plane(s). 

 

Not as good as the Grand Central shows (you can’t beat that live music and the production values!) BUT a talented cast, a cut above most of the production shows on other Carnival ships. Really really talented dancers, 2 main singers that had some good main numbers. Digital backgrounds but state-of-the art ones with some set pieces to give it a 3-d feel. Loved that the performers all had very distinct personalities. A good mix of show (and other) tunes including selections from Hamilton, Hairspray, and the Waitress (those were my 3 favorite) Les Mis, In the Heights. 

 

I like when there is the attempt at some sort of story (like on Celebrity!) no matter how thin, but Carnival’s shows are more revue-style, and I am at peace with that now.  

 

The people in front of me were SO into the show; it really made it extra fun ( you can see one of them bobbing their head along to the music in the video clip!).

 

 

 

 

[WorkerBee74]

On 2/26/2022 at 8:10 PM, cruisemom2 said:

We were taking our evening walk down the beach to the Jetty and were right there when the Mardi Gras left port.  The last picture was taken at 6:45 pm.

 

So THAT’s what we’re going to look like!!! We sail on April 2 - loving this review!!

[KmomChicago]

Thanks for letting us voyeur into your excellent review / live blog / video diary of your cruise. I am sorry you ended up with what seems to have been an atypically bad Cucina experience. Like many others we ate there twice and all was well both times. It happens. 😞 

I will say that while the MG Playlist performers are fine, excellent, etc. the shows themselves are among the weakest Playlist programs we've seen and the first time we moved them off the must-do list. The digital backdrops and lack of costume changes, along with what I felt were shortened and butchered versions of favorite tunes, left us lukewarm, especially compared, as you note, to the great entertainment options on offer over in Grand Central - and this was before they had the circus show and aerialists going. 

 

First world problems of course. Like really really first world.  Isn't it fun to experience a special seasonal event on a cruise, complete with free swag? Love the account of the Mardi Gras festivities on no less than the Mardi Gras itself. Awesome sauce right there.  And your daughter's artwork? STUNNING. We are fans. Need to follow on whatever channel she posts.

[Knights on the Beach]

We only went to one show in the main theater. It was good but nowhere near the quality of the Grand Central shows - those have us spoiled for life.

 

TravelBluebird, thanks so much for taking us along on your adventures this week, I really enjoyed it.

[TravelBluebird]

I planned to write all day at airports to wrap up my LIVE  (flight from Orlando was scheduled for 5:30pm; 3 hour layover in Atlanta and home around midnight) but instead ended up standing by on 2 earlier flights, and ran through Atlanta airport successfully, so arrived home around 7:30pm! Got the last seat on both flights and my checked suitcase made it too; thanks Delta!

 

I’ll save the reviews on several excursions, restaurants etc that I haven’t done yet (plus more photos!) for tomorrow after I had some sleep, but lets talk debarkation!

 

Debarkation was so smooth for us, it was hard to believe that 5,200 people were getting off the ship this  morning (well, until you see the GIANT room with all the checked luggage when you’re off the ship!). Now, admittedly we were doing the SLOOW debarkation. We took the last group luggage tags (29) and we were at the Lido till they (gently) threw us out, around 9:30.

 

We didn’t sleep much last night (up late; last minute drinks, pizza, gambling) and then we never sleep right before a “journey” day anyway.  The Flying Scotsman started the in-room speaker calls for groups at around 7:30  (so early!) Bleary eyed, we officially woke up at 8am, threw on our clothes, and were out by 8:25 (of course Liberato our cabin steward knocked on our door to see if we were even awake at 8:20).  We traveled scuzzy at the end of the cruise—no morning shower, no makeup. At least we kept a set of clean clothing. 

 

Up to the Lido for breakfast (available till 9) and it was the only time we saw it PACKED—but then again we never made it to the LIDO for a full breakfast.  We ate slowly and sipped our coffee and talked to some other nice cruisers (couple from Sevierville, TN; practically my neighbors!) as the LIDO slowly emptied out.  the final groups of luggage tags were called in big numbers.

 

By the time we left, no one else was even in our elevator. We strolled right out of the ship,  never stopped walking, and the biggest “line” was like 3 people where they took our photos for the facial recognition. Never even had to show our passports!

 

Grabbed our luggage (29 is way at the back!) rolllllled it outside and tried to figure out where to get the Uber. Well, there is no defined place, so where you go is to the entrance of Terminal 3 (yup, where all embarking cruisers are coming in!). We had a bit of trouble getting an Uber; 3 drivers dropped us after picking us up. Cost was $86 to $97. In frustration we decided to pay a bit more and got an Uber XL —$134. That driver came right over; very comfortable ride too. 

 

Evidently, don’t decide to Uber if you are going to disembark early.  We met other people who got off early and there was wicked surge pricing; they were first quoted $240 for an Uber...they saw the price starting to drop and so they just waited it out since they were not in a rush.

 

Long lines at MCO for checking luggage; short line for TSA. I was on standby for a flight that left within 5 minutes of my daughter, so we had a final Starbucks together (to the left of the Tram to the gates Terminal B) and a lunch at the something Grille (really expensive and only OK food wise; typical airport food).

 

By the way we tried 3 different places at MCO to plug our phones in and none of them worked!

 

I had to go from end of A gates at Atlanta to end of D gates (D46). App said that it would take 17 minutes; think I made it in 14 and got to second plane just in time to board.

 

OK, till tomorrow with my reviews (including of room) and wrap-up thoughts on the Mardi Gras, I leave you with the last view from my balcony this morning, and the spectacular sunset that greeted me from my plane window as I landed back in East Tennessee.

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

15 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Thanks for letting us voyeur into your excellent review / live blog / video diary of your cruise. I am sorry you ended up with what seems to have been an atypically bad Cucina experience. Like many others we ate there twice and all was well both times. It happens. 😞 

I will say that while the MG Playlist performers are fine, excellent, etc. the shows themselves are among the weakest Playlist programs we've seen and the first time we moved them off the must-do list. The digital backdrops and lack of costume changes, along with what I felt were shortened and butchered versions of favorite tunes, left us lukewarm, especially compared, as you note, to the great entertainment options on offer over in Grand Central - and this was before they had the circus show and aerialists going. 

 

First world problems of course. Like really really first world.  Isn't it fun to experience a special seasonal event on a cruise, complete with free swag? Love the account of the Mardi Gras festivities on no less than the Mardi Gras itself. Awesome sauce right there.  And your daughter's artwork? STUNNING. We are fans. Need to follow on whatever channel she posts.

 

You are so welcome @KmomChicago The Cucina thing was a small glitch (I think magnified by us being sad the week was over and it being our last ship meal) on an otherwise fantastic trip.

 

Yes, I agree with your assessment of the Playlist programs; better sets and more costumes would be a huge improvement, and I also did not like the shortened versions of major tunes (or the changed words they did to some beloved show tunes. No need to change words when you aren’t really telling a story). And LOL, for sure ALL problems on a cruise ship are First World Problems! 

 

Celebrating Mardi Gras on the Mardi Gras was indeed awesome sauce; probably the closest I’ll ever get to celebrating it New Orleans style.  

 

Thank you so much about daughter’s art work. You can follow her art on Instagram at Peppersketch_ (with the underscore at the end). I know she’s working on more art from our trip, and I know she’d love more followers.  Here’s one last one from our cruise here, of the 2 bartenders working hard at the Brass Magnolia:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by TravelBluebird

[Cscomedygrl]

Thanks for taking us all along. Lovely sketches from your daughter. Glad you made it home safely and earlier than anticipated is always a bonus. 

[kelkel2]

Thanks for your great review!! 
What time did you get to MCO? 

[cruises42]

On 2/26/2022 at 9:58 AM, TravelBluebird said:

So our Uber is taking forever—really 25 minutes but she was doing a drop-off at port—and we are going to be late for our boarding time.  Does anyone know if we can skip the “early/late line because we are in a suite?

 

Don’t be us and call your Uber at 9:50 for a 10 to 10:30 time slot!

How much was your Uber to port (if you don't mind me asking)?

[rogd0262]

Thank you for the wonderful review of the week.

 

My wife and I was on board as well and we had a blast, celebrating our birthdays. We will surely read back on this thread any time we need a reminder of how awesome this cruise has been.

 

We are also from East TN (Kingsport) and it took us forever to drive home....but at least the weather was nice. 

 

Big "well-done" to your daughter's artwork; it is fantastic - will have to show them to my daughter who is an Art student at UTK. 

 

Thank you.  

[clginal]

Hi TravelBluebird!!

My DH & I were on this cruise, too.  In fact, I met you on the Monkeyland excursion.  I was the one that took you & your daughter's picture at the little waterfall waiting on the excursion to start (hope that turned out OK as I'm no photographer...& couldn't find where to look through ...LOL).

Was worn out when we got home last night & got up this morning to look for your review.  Just glancing over it, I can't wait to sit down & read it all.

We did a few things the same......we also ate at Cucina's the last night & had the same terrible service as you.  We normally just understand & go with the flow so, not trying to complain but, we did remark several times that something just seemed off.  The staff seemed rushed.....we were there a little after you were.  Sitting & waiting between courses was just plain boring.  Hope it was just an off night for them.  

 

Love your Mardi Gras pictures!!  You 2 look great!!!  We were sitting 2nd floor of the Red Frog with great views to watch the party.  Wow, it was a blast & so packed.

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by clginal