My short review of Mardi Gras cruise Mar 12-19 - good and bad

[archer_310]

I'm sure everyone is tired of seeing review after review of the Mardi Gras, but after 14 cruises (2 on Carnival), I felt I had to let people know my view of this new ship.  Especially after having read reviews leading up to our cruise which painted this ship as the best thing since sliced bread.  As I said, I'll keep it short and won't do any in-depth reviews like other people have done.  I feel that after 14 cruises, our family has a good idea as to what is good and what is not.  We have cruised a majority with Disney and 2 with RC.

The good:

1. Chris Williams (The Flying Scotsman) - his energy and enthusiasm made the performances much better

2. The look of the ship - it's a beautiful looking ship and still clean - unfortunately more about this later under the not so good

3. Theater - finally something of decent size to host entertainment.  Now get some quality shows to put in here.

4. Plenty of deck chairs.  This has been a problem on other ships - not being able to find a lounger to enjoy the sun.  There seemed to be plenty of space on this ship and we apparently had 6000 on board.

5. Muster - quick and painless

6. On and off the ship was pretty quick and painless

 

Not so good:

1. Entertainment - Some of the entertainment in the center stage and theater were well done, but I found that the performances went on just a bit too long.  Some of the entertainment was just boring, but everyone likes different things, so I won't comment more on this as it is a personal preference.

2. Cabins - small.  We had an extended balcony.  It was OK, but the rooms are smaller than other cruiselines we've been on.  Why no more curtain separating adult bed and kid's bed anymore?  Does anyone test layout of bathroom ahead of time?  You have to be a contortionist to get at the toilet paper.Bolt

3. Bolt - only ran 2 days out of the entire cruise.  I understand that weather might have affected some days, but only 2 days out of 7?

 

Bad:

1. Food - we never ate in the Palm as we never saw anything , on the menu, so I can't review the food there.  We did do the Marketplace breakfast and dinner buffets.  We also did Cucino del Capitano a few times which was decent.  Food generally was bland.  No taste to the pizza at Pizzeria del Capitano which was very disappointing.  Not much choice at buffets and hardly any variation in breakfast options.  I can't stress how disappointed we were when comparing to previous cruises.

2. Marketplace layout - terrible.  Buffet setup was puzzling as you would have lines forming where people needed to walk.  People getting omelets would block access to toast and bagels.  It was not a good setup.  For such a big ship, I don't understand why they laid it out like this.  I have seen MUCH better on every other ship we've been on.

3. No garbages - ANYWHERE.  This was a big peeve.  If you wanted to throw something out that wasn't recyclable, good luck on finding somewhere other than your cabin to do it.

4. No where to put used dishes.  Other cruises have had places to discard plates, cups, utensils, etc so that they can be retrieved by the staff.  There was no where on the Mardi Gras to do this.  You had to find a table that someone had been eating at to get rid of something.  As a result, glasses, plates, etc. were being left everywhere on the ship - elevators, stairs, etc.  It was a terrible look.

5. Bad layout of perimeter of ship.  If it's not the glass being too high, you have a double railing at the edges of the ship which prevent you from looking out over the side of the ship.  I've never seen this on any other ship and it was frustrating trying to look out and down from anywhere on an upper deck.  Are they that afraid of jumpers now?

6. Stores - 2 small stores each about the size of my living room for a ship this size???  Can't stress how disappointed we were in the shopping options (not referring to the jewelry shops).  If you wanted a t-shirt and were male, good luck finding anything.  My son wanted a model of the ship, which he has collected from every ship we've been on, but they sold out in 2 days and could give me no options for purchasing post-cruise.  Still waiting to hear back from Carnival.  I'm not going to go into the 2 for $20 sale and the mess that caused.

 

I can't think of anything else at the moment.  Please understand it's not my intention to malign the Mardi Gras, but we have done a fair number of cruises and we all agree that this was the worst ship we have been on so far.  We were SO looking forward to this cruise as we had high expectations for this brand new ship.  To me, it just seems like more thought should have been put into some aspects of the layout of things on the ship.  My wife tells me that we're done with Carnival for the foreseeable future and I can't disagree with her.  Did I hate the cruise - no. Would I recommend it to others - probably not.  It was my sister's first cruise and I don't see her doing another given she didn't really enjoy this one.  It's not my intention to to turn people away from the Mardi Gras, but if you've cruised before, beware that you might be disappointed as well.

[lazydayz]

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion and we have yours.  I am not a buffet or main dining room person so that may affect my opinion.  I loved the zones and enjoyed the shows in the atrium that I caught.  Comedy shows were frequent and fun.  Bar Della Rosa served great cappuccinos without a wait.  The Brass Monkey is a beautiful bar with live music.  Rudy’s Seagrill is my all time favorite specialty restaurant, from the fanciful plates to the wonderful food and amazing white sangria.  Emeril’s was a treat, everything was fresh and tasty.  The steakhouse was very slow but food was good. And Guys and Big Chicken were hits. Mardi Gras has a huge casino, with more than half of it nonsmoking. The Serenity deck is large with a great variety of seating.  So I would recommend the Mardi Gras.  And yes, we have cruised before, about 70 cruises, most being Royal and Carnival, with a few Holland and Celebrity in the mix. YMMV, but we found the Mardi Gras to be a huge leap forward for Carnival, and puts it in competition with Royal’s Oasis class ships,  

 

Agree the bathrooms are tiny, but I spend very little of my cruise time in there.  

[BabyJacks17]

2 hours ago, archer_310 said:

Not so good

2. Cabins - small.  We had an extended balcony.  It was OK, but the rooms are smaller than other cruiselines we've been on.  Why no more curtain separating adult bed and kid's bed anymore?  Does anyone test layout of bathroom ahead of time?  You have to be a contortionist to get at the toilet paper.Bolt

 

3. No garbages - ANYWHERE.  This was a big peeve.  If you wanted to throw something out that wasn't recyclable, good luck on finding somewhere other than your cabin to do it.

 

 Thank you for the very thorough review - and I understand YMMV - but I have to ask were you comparing the Mardi Gras to other Carnival sailings or to other cruise lines?  A few things stuck out from your review that I don't remember ever being an option on Carnival.

 

I've been on 25+ cruises on Carnival alone and the only time I remember a curtain to go around the couch/bed has been in a Family Harbor room on the Vista class ships and now on Mardi Gras in both Family Harbor and select suites.

 

The lack of garbages seemed standard to me as I have seen on previous ships - the only trash cans I can ever remember seeing are the very mini ones usually nearest to the bathroom, etc.  This is just my experience on Carnival - so your experience on different lines may be different which is why I was curious if this is what you were holding your expectations against.

 

[archer_310]

2 hours ago, lazydayz said:

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion and we have yours.  I am not a buffet or main dining room person so that may affect my opinion.  I loved the zones and enjoyed the shows in the atrium that I caught.  Comedy shows were frequent and fun.  Bar Della Rosa served great cappuccinos without a wait.  The Brass Monkey is a beautiful bar with live music.  Rudy’s Seagrill is my all time favorite specialty restaurant, from the fanciful plates to the wonderful food and amazing white sangria.  Emeril’s was a treat, everything was fresh and tasty.  The steakhouse was very slow but food was good. And Guys and Big Chicken were hits. Mardi Gras has a huge casino, with more than half of it nonsmoking. The Serenity deck is large with a great variety of seating.  So I would recommend the Mardi Gras.  And yes, we have cruised before, about 70 cruises, most being Royal and Carnival, with a few Holland and Celebrity in the mix. YMMV, but we found the Mardi Gras to be a huge leap forward for Carnival, and puts it in competition with Royal’s Oasis class ships,  

 

Agree the bathrooms are tiny, but I spend very little of my cruise time in there.  

 

Yes, my intention was a short review rather than an "in-depth" one as other people have given as it is all subjective.  Re the food:  I should have added that the ice cream on board was the best I have had anywhere!  Big Chicken I managed to have once (tenders) and they were great.  Guy's Burgers I've had on the Vista and did so again here, but was not impressed.  Found the meat to be bland as I did not load up my burger with toppings.  I was mainly commenting on the free food options on board as we did not do any of the additional charge restaurants.

My evaluation of the ship is more based on the "little things" that can affect a cruise, especially when you compare with other cruise lines.

I should also mention I was surprised at the number of outdoor steps that were broken and then glued back together.  For such a new ship, I found this very surprising.

[archer_310]

25 minutes ago, BabyJacks17 said:

 Thank you for the very thorough review - and I understand YMMV - but I have to ask were you comparing the Mardi Gras to other Carnival sailings or to other cruise lines?  A few things stuck out from your review that I don't remember ever being an option on Carnival.

 

I've been on 25+ cruises on Carnival alone and the only time I remember a curtain to go around the couch/bed has been in a Family Harbor room on the Vista class ships and now on Mardi Gras in both Family Harbor and select suites.

 

The lack of garbages seemed standard to me as I have seen on previous ships - the only trash cans I can ever remember seeing are the very mini ones usually nearest to the bathroom, etc.  This is just my experience on Carnival - so your experience on different lines may be different which is why I was curious if this is what you were holding your expectations against.

 

 

Yes, I was comparing to 1 other Carnival and other Disney and RC sailings that we have done.  Disney has a privacy curtain and it's great.  My son can't go to sleep if the tv is on, but the wife and I like to watch some tv before sleeping.  Without a curtain, this forced us to shut off the tv.  Again, commenting on Disney, they have garbages everywhere and with that, places to put your dirty dishes so that people aren't leaving them around all over the place to be stepped on in public areas.  Unfortunately I can't remember the Vista sailing to the point of garbages, but I don't remember having this issue on any other cruise ship until the Mardi Gras.

[lazydayz]

22 minutes ago, archer_310 said:

 

Yes, I was comparing to 1 other Carnival and other Disney and RC sailings that we have done.  Disney has a privacy curtain and it's great.  My son can't go to sleep if the tv is on, but the wife and I like to watch some tv before sleeping.  Without a curtain, this forced us to shut off the tv.  Again, commenting on Disney, they have garbages everywhere and with that, places to put your dirty dishes so that people aren't leaving them around all over the place to be stepped on in public areas.  Unfortunately I can't remember the Vista sailing to the point of garbages, but I don't remember having this issue on any other cruise ship until the Mardi Gras.

It does sound like you were happier on the Disney cruises. What kind of cabin did you have on MG  and the Disney cruises?  How did the price compare to Disney? 

[sprint180]

Sorry it wasn't up to par.  That is pretty much how my Magic cruise was so I get what your saying.  We are going on the Mardi Gras in May and I was hoping to give it another go and see how this one went.

[csm5986142]

16 hours ago, archer_310 said:

marketplace layout - terrible.  Buffet setup was puzzling as you would have lines forming where people needed to walk.  People getting omelets would block access to toast and bagels.  It was not a good setup. 

 

I wondered about this - when were on Mardi Gras at 50% capacity, the flow was not great, I can imagine it would be way worse when sailing full.

 

[Cherries Jubilee]

Am I the only one who wishes there were actually more reviews of Mardi Gras lol? 
 

Thanks for your review. I leave at the end of the week for Mardi Gras!

 

 

[bmc alabama]

11 minutes ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

Am I the only one who wishes there were actually more reviews of Mardi Gras lol? 
 

Thanks for your review. I leave at the end of the week for Mardi Gras!

 

 

I think that you will enjoy it.  We were on the same sailing as the OP and we had a great time.  Are there some things that could be better?  Sure.  However, we enjoyed the MG a good bit better than our January sailing on Oasis OTS.

 

One thing that I have thought about.  I think that the OP is right on about JUST the buffet.  It, by itself, is not up to par.  If you want an awesome buffet, you need to go on something like Regal Princess (now that buffet, we loved!).  However, as I thought about it.  The way the ship is designed, Big Chicken (just behind) and Guy's Burger (just above) are really just extensions of the buffet area, IMHO.  We saw tons of people eating in the Lido with meals from those 2 locations, so I think that's why the Lido is more limited.  That being said, I didn't think that the layout was the greatest either.

 

I will also give this to Carnival over RCCL.  The lines move fast.  If you see a line at Shaq's or Guy's, they may look crazy, but believe it or not, they move quick.  In contrast, El Loco Fresh on Oasis took forever (and that was sailing half full).  

Edited March 28, 2022 by bmc alabama

[Cherries Jubilee]

7 minutes ago, bmc alabama said:

I think that you will enjoy it.  We were on the same sailing as the OP and we had a great time.  Are there some things that could be better?  Sure.  However, we enjoyed the MG a good bit better than our January sailing on Oasis OTS.

 

One thing that I have thought about.  I think that the OP is right on about JUST the buffet.  It, by itself, is not up to par.  If you want an awesome buffet, you need to go on something like Regal Princess (now that buffet, we loved!).  However, as I thought about it.  The way the ship is designed, Big Chicken (just behind) and Guy's Burger (just above) are really just extensions of the buffet area, IMHO.  We saw tons of people eating in the Lido with meals from those 2 locations, so I think that's why the Lido is more limited.  That being said, I didn't think that the layout was the greatest either.

 

I will also give this to Carnival over RCCL.  The lines move fast.  If you see a line at Shaq's or Guy's, they may look crazy, but believe it or not, they move quick.  In contrast, El Loco Fresh on Oasis took forever (and that was sailing half full).  

I have never been on a cruise that had a buffet that blew me away. I also agree that Shaq’s,Guys etc are really extensions to the buffet.

 

 I am pretty used to having to order multiple things to find something I really like. I’m also not a big fan of the shows on most ships so that won’t disappoint me much either.

 

I’m actually doing Oasis in May! I did Allure before the pandemic.

 

There have been things that could have been better on every cruise. I just cross my fingers that it doesn’t end up being anything majorly wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

[bmc alabama]

8 minutes ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

I have never been on a cruise that had a buffet that blew me away. I also agree that Shaq’s,Guys etc are really extensions to the buffet.

 

 I am pretty used to having to order multiple things to find something I really like. I’m also not a big fan of the shows on most ships so that won’t disappoint me much either.

 

I’m actually doing Oasis in May! I did Allure before the pandemic.

 

There have been things that could have been better on every cruise. I just cross my fingers that it doesn’t end up being anything majorly wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

Couple of quick things on Oasis, since you are going.

 

1)  There was only 1 soft serve ice cream location and it shut down at 5:30pm (big gripe - you could get their "paid" ice cream at Sugar Beach up until 10pm)

 

2)  Do yourself a favor and skip "Cats".  It was as awful as everyone on CC made it out to be.

 

3)  El Loco Fresh is good, but it is BUSY.  Line forms from the side, not the aft...

 

4)  Make sure you see Aqua80.  It was fantastic.

 

5)  RCCL, IMHO, relies a bit too much on the "bells and whistles".  To me there weren't near the amount of activities on lines such as Carnival or Princess (think things like Trivia, Game shows, etc.)

 

You will have a good time though...

[crewsweeper]

19 hours ago, lazydayz said:

  The Brass Monkey is a beautiful bar with live music.

It's called the Brass Magnolia.  The Brass Money is a chain of craft beer bars.

 

 

[SNJCruisers]

To the OP....the Mardi Gras is a game changer for Carnival.  The fact that you did not see this compared to your Vista sailing is amazing, but I will digress.   The bottom line is this, stick with Disney and pay 2-3 times as much for your cruise since I will infer that is where you have had your better cruise experiences.   Wait till your kids grow up so you can leave Disney in your rear view mirror and then take the wife on an upgraded line like Celebrity or maybe Princess to Alaska.

[lazydayz]

21 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

It's called the Brass Magnolia.  The Brass Money is a chain of craft beer bars.

 

 

 

Thanks for the clarification!  I really liked it! 

[Cherries Jubilee]

1 hour ago, bmc alabama said:

Couple of quick things on Oasis, since you are going.

 

1)  There was only 1 soft serve ice cream location and it shut down at 5:30pm (big gripe - you could get their "paid" ice cream at Sugar Beach up until 10pm)

 

2)  Do yourself a favor and skip "Cats".  It was as awful as everyone on CC made it out to be.

 

3)  El Loco Fresh is good, but it is BUSY.  Line forms from the side, not the aft...

 

4)  Make sure you see Aqua80.  It was fantastic.

 

5)  RCCL, IMHO, relies a bit too much on the "bells and whistles".  To me there weren't near the amount of activities on lines such as Carnival or Princess (think things like Trivia, Game shows, etc.)

 

You will have a good time though...

Thank you for the tips! I keep wondering if I should bother with Cats lol.

 

 I also felt like RC was lacking in daily activities when I was on Allure.

[WorkerBee74]

3 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

It's called the Brass Magnolia.  The Brass Money is a chain of craft beer bars.

 

 

So are you saying it's less..... funky?

 

Where my Beastie Boys fans at?

[jetsfan58]

Sorry to hear that your time aboard the Carnival Mardi Gras did not meet your expectations. Our relatives cruised about a month ago and can't wait to get back on board. That just shows how different we really are as Cruise enthusiasts. Hopefully you will find another Dream Cruise in the near future.    

[silversneakers]

3 hours ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

Thank you for the tips! I keep wondering if I should bother with Cats lol.

 

 I also felt like RC was lacking in daily activities when I was on Allure.

Cats is very looooong.  People seem to leave before it is over.  If you haven't seen it and want to then maybe you will stay for the entire performance.  It isn't bad, just really looooooong.

[Knights on the Beach]

We were on the same cruise - it was our second time on Mardi Gras and we still love that ship.  We we have another MG cruise booked for December (but not ruling out another one before then).

 

A few thoughts:

 

We love watching shows at Center Stage but spent more time there in December than we did on this cruise.  We enjoyed the shows we did see there.  I much prefer to watch a show there than in the theater, I just like the seating options and atmosphere better.

 

The cabins are small but comfortable and efficient with plenty of storage space.  I don't recall ever having a cabin on any ship with a curtain in the room to separate the bed from the other area.  If there was, we never used it even when cruising with the kids (when they were young) in the same cabin.

 

Mardi Gras has so many great food options that the buffet has been our last choice, we pretty much skipped it.  Free options we enjoyed were Big Chicken, Blue Iguana, Guy's (Burgers and Pig & Anchor), Chibang and Cucina.  We also ate at the steakhouse, Teppanyaki and Emeril's. We only went to the Palm Restaurant once during this cruise because the food was so much better elsewhere.  I think I had pizza twice and thought it was fine.  Cucina is my absolute favorite, we had lunch and dinner there.  

 

There is a bussing station near Guy's burgers - we sat across from it on the day we were in Nassau.  In fact, we cleared off our table when we were done and put all our dishes there.  There were two crew members using it to clear off the tables.  I was also thinking there was an area for dirty dishes near Blue Iguana but I can't swear to it.  I know I brought some glasses out from our Lido deck cabin and did something with them, but I may have just taken them to the table we were sitting at near Red Frog Tiki. Crew members were constantly clearing tables.

 

I get that not everyone appreciates Mardi Gras for what it is.  If they did, it would be harder than it already is to book a cabin in one of my favorite locations.  🙂 

 

 

 

[archer_310]

23 hours ago, lazydayz said:

It does sound like you were happier on the Disney cruises. What kind of cabin did you have on MG  and the Disney cruises?  How did the price compare to Disney? 

 

We try to only book balcony cabins.  MG was MUCH cheaper than Disney.  We used to be able to do them more often, but with the prices now plus exchange, it's difficult.  We're going on the Wish this August and can't wait.

[archer_310]

6 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

To the OP....the Mardi Gras is a game changer for Carnival.  The fact that you did not see this compared to your Vista sailing is amazing, but I will digress.   The bottom line is this, stick with Disney and pay 2-3 times as much for your cruise since I will infer that is where you have had your better cruise experiences.   Wait till your kids grow up so you can leave Disney in your rear view mirror and then take the wife on an upgraded line like Celebrity or maybe Princess to Alaska.

 

We enjoyed the Vista.  The only thing I didn't like about that ship was the way decks would just end - you couldn't go from one end to the other without going up or down a deck.  Very confusing.  We realize that Carnival is a cheaper option cruise.  Can't afford Disney that much anymore.  I would take RC over Carnival.  As I said, it's the little things that were irritating mainly by what I would have assumed to be obvious things that were lacking on a newly designed ship.  It's not my intention to malign Carnival.

[bmc alabama]

1 hour ago, archer_310 said:

 

We enjoyed the Vista.  The only thing I didn't like about that ship was the way decks would just end - you couldn't go from one end to the other without going up or down a deck.  Very confusing.  We realize that Carnival is a cheaper option cruise.  Can't afford Disney that much anymore.  I would take RC over Carnival.  As I said, it's the little things that were irritating mainly by what I would have assumed to be obvious things that were lacking on a newly designed ship.  It's not my intention to malign Carnival.

Funny.  We are mainly DCL or Princess people and tried Oasis and Mardi Gras (same trip as yours) and found we much preferred Carnival.

 

But…. We all like different things and have different priorities, that’s what is great about having so many different lines.

 

Heck, after cruising Scarlet Lady back in November, we may like Virgin better than all of them 🙂

[Pyrate13]

For what it's worth, I agree with most of what you say in your review. We were disappointed with a lot of things also after being so excited to sail on her. For the record, we have been on 20 cruises, and most were on Carnival, so we do have experience with them. We actually prefer Carnival over Disney by the way.

[Knights on the Beach]

13 hours ago, bmc alabama said:

Funny.  We are mainly DCL or Princess people and tried Oasis and Mardi Gras (same trip as yours) and found we much preferred Carnival.

 

But…. We all like different things and have different priorities, that’s what is great about having so many different lines.

 

Heck, after cruising Scarlet Lady back in November, we may like Virgin better than all of them 🙂

 

I'd love to have a Virgin ship out of Port Canaveral!