Our “Never Say Never” Mardi Gras Cruise – Live (Hopefully) May 27 - June 3

[kelkel2]

12 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

We're in 14344, a slanted balcony on the forward part of the hump.

We were just in 14410 in January. It’s a great location, enjoy!!

[SRQbeachgirl]

7 minutes ago, kelkel2 said:

We were just in 14410 in January. It’s a great location, enjoy!!

 

Awesome! Now if they'll just let us on. They apparently had to herd some people from the previous cruise who were trying to extend their cruise. 🤔 

[SRQbeachgirl]

An announcement was just made in the terminal that boarding is delayed. They have yet to allow anyone to board. Hoping this isn't a sign of things to come this week. 😬

[maluhia87]

16 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

We decided not to go to Fishlips since we were already tired and not really hungry. Instead we drove down to Publix to get a couple of sandwiches for later. And since we were there, we figured we might as well get some Blue Bell ice cream. 😏

 

No y'all, we're originally from Texas where the happiest cows on the planet make the milk for Blue Bell ice cream. When we moved to the Frozen Tundra we learned we couldn't buy Blue Bell within 100 miles. How could we have made such a life-altering logistical error?!? 😱  Should have known then that we wouldn't be there too long.

 

We are about 200 miles away from the closest stores to get Blue Bell, and it is a favorite. Every time we are far enough south, we get a pint/gallon depending on how much time we have to eat it. 

[SRQbeachgirl]

3 minutes ago, maluhia87 said:

We are about 200 miles away from the closest stores to get Blue Bell, and it is a favorite. Every time we are far enough south, we get a pint/gallon depending on how much time we have to eat it. 

 

When they finally started stocking it within 50 miles of us, we used to make runs south with a giant cooler and stock up!

[kelkel2]

58 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

An announcement was just made in the terminal that boarding is delayed. They have yet to allow anyone to board. Hoping this isn't a sign of things to come this week. 😬

That is so rude! Like you’re not going to get far with doing that. Just get off the ship. 

[SRQbeachgirl]

Finally got to our cabin and we're greeted by dolphin hunting a school of fish below our balcony. Things are looking up!

 

 

 

And speaking of our cabin...

 

 

 

I am officially a VERY HAPPY CRUISER. And Mr. SRQ is happy too, 'cause if I'm happy, he's happy. He knows how this works. 🤣

[ninjacat123]

Yay!! Great review and wonderful cabin.  I bet those dolphins are going to ESP to their Cozumel dolphin friends (they can do that😉) and let them know you are on your way!  Looking forward to more😁

[SRQbeachgirl]

Started things off with my very first Watermelon Crush. Thanks to @Jamman54 for the tip on this drink in his live review! It's my new fave! 

 

 

I'm finding the ship's wifi is going to be fickle, so hopefully uploading photos won't be a problem once we get underway. If I suddenly stop posting though, it's probably safe to assume it's a wifi issue and not because Mr. SRQ has tossed me overboard.  Probably. 🤔

Edited May 27, 2023 by SRQbeachgirl

[Frank12]

We got off the Mardi Gras this morning.  It was the slowest, most painful debarkation of my 36 Carnival cruises. 

Make sure you try the bolt. It is awesome.  So is the ropes course where you zipline over the ocean. We are 57 and 55 so old people can survive it! 😜

My cocktail recommendation is the "Lime in the Coconut" from the Fortune Teller Bar.  It is like a slice of key lime pie in a glass!

Our favorite bar staff were at the Pig and Anchor.  It was hardly ever crowded and the staff were the best.  Tell Miller, Carthy and Henry they come highly recommended!

Enjoy your cruise.

[SRQbeachgirl]

Catching up with the Freedom, with her crispy-fried funnel. She left port about a half hour before us.

 

[SRQbeachgirl]

1 hour ago, Frank12 said:

We got off the Mardi Gras this morning.  It was the slowest, most painful debarkation of my 36 Carnival cruises. 

Make sure you try the bolt. It is awesome.  So is the ropes course where you zipline over the ocean. We are 57 and 55 so old people can survive it! 😜

My cocktail recommendation is the "Lime in the Coconut" from the Fortune Teller Bar.  It is like a slice of key lime pie in a glass!

Our favorite bar staff were at the Pig and Anchor.  It was hardly ever crowded and the staff were the best.  Tell Miller, Carthy and Henry they come highly recommended!

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Great suggestions! I'm going to plan to do Bolt this time and might consider the ropes course. 

 

We were told there were two reasons for your excruciatingly slow debarkation and our delay in boarding. First, there was an unusually large number of passengers who were traveling with birth certificates instead of passports and not enough customs staff to handle it. And second, unfortunately someone apparently passed away on your sailing and that had to be handled. 

 

So the lesson here is get a passport and wait till you get off the ship to die! Is a little advance planning too much to ask? 😉

[maxandmolly]

Happy almost Cruise Day!

[SRQbeachgirl]

Our first dinner of the cruise was Rudi's. It was great, as always.

 

We both started with the lobster mac & cheese, but I forgot to take a photo until we had already dug in. Mr. SRQ had the crabcake (which I also failed to get a photo of - I'm dropping the ball here!), but I did remember to snap my Crab Stuffed Lobster Imperial before I devoured it!

 

 

For dessert Mr. SRQ had the key lime pie and I had the bread pudding. 😋 

 

 

 

We had a half bottle of wine left from dinner, so we took it back to the cabin with the intent to go back downstairs for some entertainment. But as soon as we got into the cabin it was like both our batteries just completely died--and I'm not talking about our cell phones! 

 

When I asked Mr. SRQ why we're so tired, he said--and I quote--"because we're old and fat." 😶

 

Well okay, then. I mean, he could have said it's because we had a long day. But nooooo, he has to go and tell me the truth! Honestly, you think he'd know better after all these years. 😉

 

Anyway, the ship is doing a wicked shimmy tonight. The MG is rockin' and it ain't from the party on the Lido! Mr. SRQ took two Dramamine and is dead to the world, so it looks like Day 1 is a wrap!

[SRQbeachgirl]

First Sea Day!

 

It's a lazy morning. Mr. SRQ and I didn't haul ourselves out of bed till 9am, which is really late for me on vacation. I usually figure I can sleep when I get home! 

 

Ordered room service for breakfast and it only took 15 minutes to arrive. So now I'm sitting on the balcony enjoying my coffee (which is SO much better than the Lido coffee!).

 

 

My plan for the next couple of hours is to watch flying fish and spend a little time with Carl Hiaasen. Yeah, it's rough, but someone's got to do it! 😁

[SRQbeachgirl]

Finally dragged our lazy butts out of the cabin to buy bingo tickets and scrounge up some food. No line for pizza, so pizza and bingo it is! 

 

 

And we didn't win. But we never do, so I dont know why I'm always disappointed. I should probably buy the bingo cards and just throw them directly in the trash from now on. At least that way I can avoid the whole delusional part in the middle while I'm thinking I might actually win. 😏

 

After bingo we went back to the cabin for a couple of minutes, which turned in to an hour, as we watched the coast of Cuba and Havana slide by. 

 

[SRQbeachgirl]

There is something about sitting on a balcony listening to the ship cut through the ocean that makes me close my eyes and....😴

 

So anyway, after I woke up and realized it was dinnertime (I did mention we've been exceedingly lazy today, right?) We decided on Chi-Bang for dinner. We skipped this restaurant on our last MG cruise and after hearing good things about it we figured we'd give it a try. Besides, tonight is "Elegant" Night and Mr. SRQ was balking at even putting pants on. (Hey you, with the dirty mind! He was still wearing shorts! Geez! 😜) 

 

Anyway, Chi-Bang was worth the visit. However, there was something I forgot to mention about our dinner at Rudi's last night that is apparently going to affect every dinner for the rest of the week. 

 

Last night our server overhead Mr. SRQ and I talking about our anniversary and she asked if we were celebrating this week. I should have said no, absolutely not, not happening. But she caught me off guard, y'all! Next thing we know, she's bringing out an extra dessert. And this was AFTER I'd finished off every last crumb of my bread pudding!

 

So anyway, back to Chi-Bang. There we were, finishing off the last of our Chocolate C-Bangs (yes, plural--no way am I sharing chocolate!). Then suddenly we're surrounded by servers, they start singing, and present us with yet ANOTHER dessert!

 

 

So obviously the sneaky server from last night, who seemed so nice at the time, snitched to all her server friends! Or, you know, put something in the system. Whatever. 

[mkcurran]

46 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

There is something about sitting on a balcony listening to the ship cut through the ocean that makes me close my eyes and....😴

 

So anyway, after I woke up and realized it was dinnertime (I did mention we've been exceedingly lazy today, right?) We decided on Chi-Bang for dinner. We skipped this restaurant on our last MG cruise and after hearing good things about it we figured we'd give it a try. Besides, tonight is "Elegant" Night and Mr. SRQ was balking at even putting pants on. (Hey you, with the dirty mind! He was still wearing shorts! Geez! 😜) 

 

Anyway, Chi-Bang was worth the visit. However, there was something I forgot to mention about our dinner at Rudi's last night that is apparently going to affect every dinner for the rest of the week. 

 

Last night our server overhead Mr. SRQ and I talking about our anniversary and she asked if we were celebrating this week. I should have said no, absolutely not, not happening. But she caught me off guard, y'all! Next thing we know, she's bringing out an extra dessert. And this was AFTER I'd finished off every last crumb of my bread pudding!

 

So anyway, back to Chi-Bang. There we were, finishing off the last of our Chocolate C-Bangs (yes, plural--no way am I sharing chocolate!). Then suddenly we're surrounded by servers, they start singing, and present us with yet ANOTHER dessert!

 

 

So obviously the sneaky server from last night, who seemed so nice at the time, snitched to all her server friends! Or, you know, put something in the system. Whatever. 

The brownies they bring you in the MDR are totally worth it though. So give it another try in there. 😉

[SRQbeachgirl]

53 minutes ago, mkcurran said:

The brownies they bring you in the MDR are totally worth it though. So give it another try in there. 😉

 

But, but...will there be singing??? I have this irrational phobia of being serenaded in restaurants! 

[SRQbeachgirl]

Okay, y'all. We are at T-12 hours until our THIRD attempt to swim with dolphin. And against my better judgment I allowed Mr. SRQ to eat, like, actual food and stuff for dinner. I honestly don't know what came over me to get all compassionate. But I'm telling you, if this goes south again....

 

Well, let's just not think about that, m'kay? Only positive thoughts. Positive...like, I will positively lose my sh....no, no, not gonna go there. Breathe. Count to ten. Or a hundred. Okay, positive thoughts.

 

I can guarantee that an extra prayer is being said tonight that neither of us get sick. Or a dolphin gives birth. 🤣

 

 

 

 

[mkcurran]

1 hour ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

But, but...will there be singing??? I have this irrational phobia of being serenaded in restaurants! 

Yes. But trust me, the brownies are worth it.

[SRQbeachgirl]

14 minutes ago, mkcurran said:

Yes. But trust me, the brownies are worth it.

 

Okay, I'm getting out of my comfort zone here, but I do love brownies! 🤤

[SRQbeachgirl]

Y'all. It happened. It actually, finally, after two previous attempts, happened! 

 

I GOT TO SWIM WITH DOLPHIN!!!

 

*Insert crazy Happy Dance here*

 

I may or may not have cried. I'm not telling and I've sworn Mr. SRQ to secrecy. He knows better than to blab.

 

This was a bucket list thing for me, so I'm over the moon. As far as I'm concerned, this cruise is a success no matter what happens from here on out. Port gets canceled? No worries. Abandon ship order given? Pffft, I can handle that. The galley runs out of bacon? No probl...wait, no that one might be an issue. I mean, I gotta draw the line somewhere, right? 😜

 

Im glad we chose Dolphinaris for this excursion. The facilities were very nice and everything was well managed. We got to spend about an hour in the water with the dolphin, interacting and doing the belly swim. All the dolphin were very gentle and appeared to be healthy and well cared for.  Even the dolphin that weren't interacting with guests had trainers doing enrichment activities with them. 

 

After the swim we had lunch at their restaurant. I got chicken fajitas and Mr. SRQ got the chicken quesadillas. I also ordered a side of fries and y'all, I knew as soon as our server walked away that I should have told Mr. SRQ to order his own. You wanna know how many fries I ended up getting? FOUR. And that's only because I snagged one as soon as the basket hit the table. I get halfway through my fajitas before I noticed Mr. SRQ has snarfed down the whole basket except for the last three measly fries. His hand paused in midair as he noticed me giving him the side-eye. 😒 I might have heard a sheepish mumble of apology as he pulled his hand back slowly. He knows not to make any sudden moves when I look at him like that. 🤣

 

Here's some photos of Dolphinaris. We couldn't have our phones with us during most of it, so photos are limited. We did buy the emailed photo package though ($149) so I'm holding my breath waiting for the email to come through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SRQbeachgirl]

We shared the dock today in Cozumel with the Breeze. Love that ship.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by SRQbeachgirl

[balcony bound]

22 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

Then suddenly we're surrounded by servers, they start singing, and present us with yet ANOTHER dessert!

 

 

So obviously the sneaky server from last night, who seemed so nice at the time, snitched to all her server friends! Or, you know, put something in the system. Whatever. 

This happened to me on the MG... it was my birthday every single night in every place I had dinner 😄  Took me a couple nights to learn, as I would order desert and next thing they are bringing me another and singing.