My LONG Mardi Gras Story - Take Two! (with FunTimes)

[mlshum]

8 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

What’s a Nintendo switch?😄

It’s a small handheld game console with removable handles.  I think it’s the modern version of a Game Boy.  I don’t really know much about them, to be honest!  Lol

[mlshum]

We boarded our uneventful (thankfully!) flight to Orlando and arrived at MCO a little ahead of schedule. 

 

Ron always take a picture of our parking spot because we have usually forgotten a week later.

 

 

Waiting for shuttle pick-up at CLT

 

Settled in for our flight

 

We are cleared for take off!

 

Charlotte falls away in the distance

 

Up, up and away.....

 

...climbing higher......

 

....and just like that, we're above the clouds!

 

Just a little less than two hours later, we descend into Orlando

 

 

When arranging shuttle times, I had the choice between the 3pm and 4pm shuttle.  Since we were originally supposed to land after 2pm, I had booked the 4pm shuttle. You never know how long it will take to get off the plane, bathroom breaks, baggage, etc.  You know the drill!   After we landed early and gathered our luggage so quickly, I called Cocoa Beach Shuttle to see if there was any way we could meet the 3pm shuttle instead.  Alas, it wasn’t possible.  They could have taken a few of us, but not all 10 of us.  We found some seats and settled in to wait until 4pm so we could meet our ride to Cocoa Beach.  We grabbed a snack and some of us wandered around a bit. 

 

Waiting in Orlando.  From left to right....Liz, Emory and Cami

 

Kim and Bobby with their matching shirts!

 

From near to far....part of Ron, Aaron and Steven

 

There is an art piece in the Orlando airport.  It’s a man, a traveler, in a glass box.  It is SO realistic that it looks exactly like someone just resting in the box.  We soon discovered that he wasn’t moving or breathing and therefore must not be a person.  A quick check on Google revealed that the sculpture is called “The Traveler”.  The artist is Duane Hanson.  The sculpture was created in 1986.  It is apparently made of bronze.  It underwent restoration recently.  I have never seen anything like it!  Although I have been to the Orlando airport several times, I don’t ever remember seeing the sculpture.  It is the most realistic statue I believe I have ever seen.  If you’re traveling through MCO and have time, it’s located on Level 3 in the Main Terminal.  It’s definitely worth seeing!

 

Can you believe this guy ISN'T real??

 

Also, can you believe it's made of bronze (according to internet)?  Amazing!

 

We made our way outside to the shuttle area and our shuttle arrived right on time.  It was VERY full as we shared the shuttle with others.  I was sort of impressed that the driver managed to get all of our luggage arranged in the back of the van.  It was kind of like Tetris.  He finally managed the huge task, and we were on our way to Raddison at the Port.

 

Our shuttle

 

The drive between MCO and Cocoa Beach is about 45 minutes.  As you drive in, you can see the port.  The Vista was still in port undergoing repairs.  At the time she had missed a sailing or two.  I really hope they were able to fix her issues.

 

[mlshum]

We made it to the hotel without incident and checked in.  It was very easy.  The Raddison isn’t anything special and is obviously an older hotel, but it was clean and close to the port.  It offered transportation.  It would work.  I would later learn that Kim and Bobby’s room had a ceiling fan and air conditioning that wasn’t working properly.  They requested maintenance but, to my knowledge, it wasn’t repaired while we were there.  We will probably need to find a different situation the next time we travel through Port Canaveral.  My room was fine, so it seems to be a “hit or miss” problem.  We all agreed to meet in the lobby at 6pm to go find dinner.  We were told to meet the shuttle the next morning at 9:45.

 

Hotel lobby

 

Lobby

 

Pool

 

Look at all these cute little walkways!

 

Pool

 

Pool

 

Our room....I didn't remember to take the picture until AFTER I'd laid several things down!

 

 

It was nice to NOT be traveling for a while.  We relaxed for an hour or so and reconvened in the lobby right at 6pm.

 

There are lots of good dinner options in Cocoa Beach.  We had talked about getting Ubers to go to Fishlips but after reading about Kelsey’s Italian and Pizzeria and The Preacher Bar, we simply walked next door.   We were all tired of traveling!  The food was really good!  It was also plentiful.  We had a good time talking and eating.

 

Kelsey's (we didn't go into Preacher Bar but you can see the door in the background

 

  We were all happy to have finished the “traveling” portion and were ready to get on to the “cruising” portion.  After a leisurely dinner, we Face Timed with Derrick outside the restaurant and walked back to our hotel.  Everyone was tired.  There is a very nice swimming pool at the hotel, but I didn’t want to swim.   First, I was tired.  Second, I didn’t want to pack a wet bathing suit in my luggage.  I simply wanted to go back to the room and call it a night.  That’s exactly what we did.

[pe4all]

Really enjoying your review!  Looking forward to the rest.

 

[kdr69]

Excellent review! Love the commentary.

[mlshum]

55 minutes ago, pe4all said:

Really enjoying your review!  Looking forward to the rest.

 

Thank you so much and thanks for reading along!

 

9 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

Excellent review! Love the commentary.

Thank you!  I appreciate your taking the time to read along!

[ninjacat123]

11 hours ago, mlshum said:

We made it to the hotel without incident and checked in.  It was very easy.  The Raddison isn’t anything special and is obviously an older hotel, but it was clean and close to the port.  It offered transportation.  It would work.  I would later learn that Kim and Bobby’s room had a ceiling fan and air conditioning that wasn’t working properly.  They requested maintenance but, to my knowledge, it wasn’t repaired while we were there.  We will probably need to find a different situation the next time we travel through Port Canaveral.  My room was fine, so it seems to be a “hit or miss” problem.  We all agreed to meet in the lobby at 6pm to go find dinner.  We were told to meet the shuttle the next morning at 9:45.

 

Hotel lobby

 

Lobby

 

Pool

 

Look at all these cute little walkways!

 

Pool

 

Pool

 

Our room....I didn't remember to take the picture until AFTER I'd laid several things down!

 

 

It was nice to NOT be traveling for a while.  We relaxed for an hour or so and reconvened in the lobby right at 6pm.

 

There are lots of good dinner options in Cocoa Beach.  We had talked about getting Ubers to go to Fishlips but after reading about Kelsey’s Italian and Pizzeria and The Preacher Bar, we simply walked next door.   We were all tired of traveling!  The food was really good!  It was also plentiful.  We had a good time talking and eating.

 

Kelsey's (we didn't go into Preacher Bar but you can see the door in the background

 

  We were all happy to have finished the “traveling” portion and were ready to get on to the “cruising” portion.  After a leisurely dinner, we Face Timed with Derrick outside the restaurant and walked back to our hotel.  Everyone was tired.  There is a very nice swimming pool at the hotel, but I didn’t want to swim.   First, I was tired.  Second, I didn’t want to pack a wet bathing suit in my luggage.  I simply wanted to go back to the room and call it a night.  That’s exactly what we did.

Kelsey’s looks like a fun place! Great group pic👍😄

[mlshum]

Saturday, Sept 14th – Cruise Day!!!

 

We woke up around 7am.  Finally!  Cruise day!  It’s one of the happiest days of the year!

 

Love this countdown screen!

 

 

The hotel does have a restaurant called Flamingo and they do serve breakfast.  They even have a breakfast bar….at $21 per person!  Now I’m not a big breakfast eater so that was outrageous for me.  If you’re a person who loves breakfast it might be just the thing.  I didn’t try any of their food, so I don’t know how good it was.  I just knew it wasn’t something we wanted to do.

 

We opted instead to walk across the street to McDonalds.  Not exactly fine dining but it gets the job done!  Liz and Aaron joined us.  We also saw Emory, Sarah and Bobby while we were there.  Sarah wound up eating with us and taking something back for Steven.  Bobby and Emory both did a carry out for Cami and Kim.

 

If you're confused about your location...here's your sign!

 

 

Breakfast accomplished,  we went back to our room, packed the things we’d used and headed to the lobby.  It was about 9:30. We were told to be in the lobby at 9:45.  When we got to the lobby, Aaron told us that the shuttle was already there, and they were calling our names.  We texted everyone in our group to hurry.  Most of us made the first shuttle but they filled it up and wouldn’t take any more even though it was earlier than advertised.  Part of us went on to the port.  The others followed in the next shuttle.  I like being early and efficiency as well as anyone, but I don’t appreciate being told one time and it not being accurate.  It was stressful!  I always feel responsible for everyone who is traveling with me.  I always try very hard to make sure no one has a bad experience.  I was concerned that our group would be angry about this change.  Fortunately, everyone took it in stride, and I was able to relax a little.  I don’t mean to internalize things, but I can’t seem to help it.

 

Aaron and Steven were ready and waiting.  Bobby coming in the background.

 

 

Just me and my girl!

 

Shuttle to the port was full

 

I was sandwiched in the back seat with Liz (photographer), Aaron, Sarah and Steven

 

What are you doing over there!!

 

Must have been fine....carry on!

 

 

The ride to the port is very quick…5 – 10 minutes tops.  This was our first sailing as Platinum, but we wanted to board with our friends, so we opted not to use the priority line or the priority areas or boarding inside the terminal.  We’d rather hang out with them!  We’ll use that particular “perk” on our sailing on the Spirit next summer.

 

Security line wasn't long

 

The dreaded metal detectors

 

Bobby and Kim had matching cruise shirts for several days

 

 

Security was relatively fast, and I AGAIN sailed through with no problems.  I feel like I might have conquered my bad luck with security!   Famous last words??  Bobby wasn’t so lucky, however.  He has had both a knee and a hip replaced so it was necessary to wand both areas.  They were finally satisfied with the results and let him go on through.

 

Our next stop was for our check-in.  The lady who checked us in was very friendly.  She told us that this was not a full sailing and there were only 5890 passengers.  I’ll take it!  We walked into the waiting area and sat down to wait until our boarding group was called.  After about 30 minutes, it was our turn.  It was approximately 11am by this time.

 

 

Waiting for our zone to be called

 

Liz and Sarah

 

Kim and Bobby

 

At this point I noticed that Kim's feet don't touch the floor when she sits.   Hmmm.....

 

 

 

Ron and I

 

Steven and Aaron - Notice that Steven's feet DO touch the floor

 

 

Our zone was called and it was time to board!  Yay!  The long wait was over!

 

Headed to the ship

 

Almost there!

 

My first step BACK on Mardi Gras!

 

 

I'll be back later today to add more!

 

 

 

 

[mlshum]

56 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Kelsey’s looks like a fun place! Great group pic👍😄

It was really good!  We enjoyed it very much and the food was great!

[SenatorsFan]

I'm so glad you're back with another story! 🫠I enjoy the way you write. We were on Mardi Gras last September and had a great time. I'm sure you did, too.😁

[mlshum]

30 minutes ago, SenatorsFan said:

I'm so glad you're back with another story! 🫠I enjoy the way you write. We were on Mardi Gras last September and had a great time. I'm sure you did, too.😁

Thank you so much for your kind words and I appreciate your reading along.  We DID have a great time!  To be fair, I’ve never had a bad cruise.  I’ve had things happen on cruises that weren’t ideal, but I’ve enjoyed every single one.

[Crusin Karen]

I’m crashing the party! Great start! 👍🛳️

[mlshum]

2 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

I’m crashing the party! Great start! 👍🛳️

Glad to have you!  Thanks for reading along!

[Starfish on the beach!]

I love reading your “story”!! You have a very positive outlook on everything and your review is a joy to read!  Thank you for your time!

[mlshum]

1 hour ago, Starfish on the beach! said:

I love reading your “story”!! You have a very positive outlook on everything and your review is a joy to read!  Thank you for your time!

Thank you so much!  I really appreciate that!  Thanks for reading along!

[erstreet2017]

On 10/2/2024 at 7:11 AM, mlshum said:

It’s a small handheld game console with removable handles.  I think it’s the modern version of a Game Boy.  I don’t really know much about them, to be honest!  Lol

She’s right! My attention span is very brief (as is Michelle’s, but I digress), so I usually take my Switch and play a game on the flights. Weirdly enough, I never play it on the ships. No clue why. 
 

Also, for everyone’s knowledge- I’m Liz! I just want to say that the ONE time I followed instructions was the time they said my bag was a problem at TSA, so clearly I won’t be doing that again! 😂

[mlshum]

We immediately went to our muster station and got the safety briefing finished.  I hope we never EVER go back to the old version of the muster drill where we must stand close together on the deck sweating it out, waiting on the crew to find the people who are inexplicably trying to avoid muster.  Just do it already!  This new system is so much better!   If we were sinking would we actually know what to do?  No idea.  I hope we never have to find out.   Our muster station was C7 in the casino.

 

Muster station C7

 

Ron and I headed to our room to drop off backpacks.  We noticed that three of our suitcases were already in the hallway outside the room.  Only one left.  We headed up to the top deck to begin our “tour” and take pictures. 

 

We stopped on Lido to chat a minute

 

Then started taking pictures

 

Serenity

 

Serenity

 

Serenity

 

Love the views!

 

Lido....still relatively empty at this point

 

Ropes course/Sports Square - please note that I am, as usual, going the wrong way AGAINST the arrows.  This drives Liz crazy, thus I do it on purpose for that reason!

 

Sports Square

 

Water Works

 

Mini-Golf and Bolt

 

Mini-Golf and Bolt

 

Seating area

 

You can see Freedom off in the distance!

 

Long line at Guy's Burgers already!

 

Lido was getting more crowded quickly

 

Ron stopped for a Diet Pepsi, otherwise known as "The Elixir of the Gods"

 

I like the tiki decorations

 

 

We worked our way down to Lido deck.  By this time, it was almost noon and was starting to get crowded, so we decided to go ahead and get lunch before it was completely overrun with people.  Big Chicken was my choice for the first day.  Ron decided to eat there, too.  I ordered a Big Aristotle.  Just like I remembered it!

 

Time for lunch at Big Chicken

 

I already know what I want!

 

Gotta finish it off with Funfetti cheesecake!

 

 

I continued taking pictures on Lido and deck 8 but by that time it was 1:30 so we went to the room to unpack. 

 

Home sweet home for the week

 

Hey, that's us!!

 

 

Standard issue interior room

 

I like the fixed shower doors SO much better than the curtains!

 

At this time, we were still missing one of the bigger suitcases.  We unpacked what we had.  We weren’t too concerned at that point.  I always feel nice and “settled” after I’ve unpacked.   I went back to my picture taking and finished up decks 6 and 7.  Ron wanted to go see if his suitcase had arrived so we went back to the room.

 

The Vespa

 

One of the "shiny staircases"

 

Rudi's

 

Rudi's

 

Summer Landing

 

Liz really wanted one of us to ride the pig.  I'm not that brave...

 

Brewery

 

Pig and Anchor

 

Deck 8 aft pool

 

Outdoor Guy's Pig and Anchor open at lunch

 

Guy's Pig and Anchor

 

What would you order?

 

 

Love these views!

 

Deck 8 loungers - typically nice and quiet

 

My favorite reading area on Deck 8

 

Eating area outside pizza and deli

 

Some Grand Central upper level seating

 

Grand Central

 

 

Teppanyaki

 

Grand View Bar decorations

 

Havanna Bar

 

Casino...I like the constellations on the ceiling

 

Casino

 

Casino

 

Liz and I in the Big Red Chair

 

 

Alchemy Bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emeril's Bistro

 

 

 

Carnival Kitchen....much more about this later

 

Carnival Kitchen

 

 

Fortune Teller

 

Brass Magnolia

 

Cherry on Top

 

Java Blue

 

Liz and Aaron at the Mardi Gras relief and ships coin.  The difference in the sizes between the two ships is amazing!

 

Punchliner

 

Punchliner

 

 

I'll add more ship pictures as I go through the story.  See you tomorrow!

 

[1st4our25th]

Enjoying your story, thanks for sharing. We will be on Mardi Gras for the first time next month, celebrating our 30th anniversary. 

[mlshum]

1 hour ago, 1st4our25th said:

Enjoying your story, thanks for sharing. We will be on Mardi Gras for the first time next month, celebrating our 30th anniversary. 

Thanks for reading along!  I hope you enjoy Mardi Gras as much as we did.  Happy anniversary!

[mlshum]

Still no suitcase. Our Fun Times for the day was in the room.

 

 

 

It occurred to me that the suitcases had air tags in them, so we decided to try to find it that way.  Unfortunately, we could only pick up the air tags that were already in the room.  I have to say, I was disappointed in the air tags at this point.  I had gotten them specifically for this type of circumstance and they weren’t helping at all!  I guess the fact that we were inside metal might have interfered with the signal?  I don’t know but that’s the theory I’m going with!  We went upstairs to meet our friends and hang out until sail away.  When we were back outside on deck, Ron decided to try the air tag again.  It picked up that time but showed that the suitcase was still off the ship on the dock.  By this time, it was about 3pm.  We were getting close to leaving!  We were a little worried wondering if that suitcase would make it on the ship.

 

Still loading things but I don't see any suitcases.

 

 

 

Time for the sail away party.  We couldn’t pick up the air tag again, so we were HOPING it had made it onto the ship.  The party was fun, as always.  The last sail away party as a group was out of Charleston where they don’t do a sail away party because of the local noise ordinance.  Boring!  I had been looking forward to our people experiencing a real sail away party.  We were on deck 17 for a little while as we pulled away we  went down to 16 to dance for a while.  It was fun as always. 

 

Getting the party started

 

The guys find a place on the rail

 

Pulling away

 

Steven's first sailaway

 

Dancing is getting started

 

Ron took a break to contemplate the week without much of his clothes and belongings

 

Harbor pilot boat pulls alongside

 

 

 

Tourist boat of some type??

 

Disney something or another in the distance

 

Liz is also on the rail

 

It was a little close!

 

Bobby also is taking a break

 

Steven in the background, Ron in the chair

The girls on the rail

 

No idea what happened here to cause everyone to turn around!  LOL

Saran and Steven watch sailaway.  Ron and Emory and just chilling.

 

 

I went back up to get a few pictures of Freedom.  We had bought a new camera that was supposed to have a really good zoom, and I wanted to try some distance shots.  The Freedom had pulled out before us, and she was still visible in the distance.  I took some pictures and was pretty happy with the result.

Freedom sails by us.  She's pretty distinctive now!

 

Freedom heads out into the distance

 

I'm pretty happy with that zoom!  I don't have any way to let you know how far away this way, but it was quite a distance!

 

 

 

After all of this was finished, we went back to our room to get ready for dinner.  Still no suitcase.  I know you’re supposed to wait until after dinner but Ron was getting worried, so he went to guest services.  They let him look through the luggage that had lost their tags, but his bag wasn’t among them.  He came back to our room.  Just as he was contemplating the week without most of his clothes or toiletries, there was a knock at the door and his suitcase had finally arrived.  Whew!  Crisis averted!  A couple more sh8ip pics taken by Ron...

 

Serenity

 

Outside on Deck...maybe 8?

 

 

Emory is our foodie.  Derrick also fills that role but since he couldn’t be there this trip, the heavy responsibility for planning dining fell to Emory.  He coordinated times and meeting places for dinner each night.  He did an awesome job!  The first night would be the main dining room.  Truthfully, we were expecting longer waits that we actually had most nights.  The first night we had a table almost immediately in the Palms dining room.  

 

Servers dancing and singing

 

Palms Dining Room

 

 

 

Speaking of eating, we had all signed up to take the pasta making class in Carnival Kitchen.  Ron and I had done Carnival Kitchen on both Mardi Gras and Celebration, so we were excited to do a class again.  When we got into our room, we found a paper that gave us our time (10am on the first Sea Day) and listed some instructions.  In those instructions it mentioned that the participants couldn’t wear shorts and had to have closed toe shoes.  This presented a problem.  Some of us hadn’t brought any pants and a couple of us did not have closed toe shoes.  Kim had suffered through having both big toenails removed a few weeks before the cruise and they were still too tender to wear closed toe shoes.   If these were truly the rules, they were definitely NOT enforced the last two times I had participated in a Carnival Kitchen class.  Just to be sure I wasn’t wrong, I glanced back at the pictures from those cruises.  Sure enough, I was wearing shorts.  Hmmmm…….

 

The only solution was to simply go ask.  It’s easy to sit, stew and wonder but we’d never know for sure until we asked.  Ron and I headed to Guest Services on Deck 8.  We were the only ones in line at that point, so we basically walked right up to the counter.  The guy helping us was very friendly and sympathetic but didn’t know the answer.  He quickly got the Carnival Kitchen coordinator on the phone.  It only took a couple of minutes to confirm that these were SUGGESTIONS and not requirements.  Whew!  Again…crisis averted!

 

Trop Rockin was happening in Grand Central.  I’ve seen it a couple of times, but I like those songs so to Grand Central we went.  Our cruise director for the week was T.J.  He was OK.  He’s no Chris Williams or Lee Mason, but he’s OK.  The Welcome Aboard show just seemed more sluggish than normal, and a trivia game was starting so we left the show a few minutes early and went to the Limelight Lounge to play Carnival trivia.  I thought it might be trivia about Carnival Cruise Line, but it was  general knowledge trivia.  Basically, the room divided into four area, they would ask a question and give three or four possible answers, then you go and stand in the section of the room that corresponded with that answer.  We played for a while, and it was entertaining.  I personally like regular trivia better.

 

Trop Rockin' in Grand Central

 

Love steel drums!

 

Liz and I

More of Trop Rockin'

]

T.J. takes the stage.  He grew on me as the week progressed.

 

I found a zebra duck and gave it to Liz

 

We tried to go to Punchliner for a comedy show but it was already full.  I think they could benefit from an expansion in the size of Punchliner!  Pretty much every show is completely full!

 

At this point some of our group was tired and decided to go back to their cabin.  Steven, Sarah, Aaron, Ron and I went up on deck.  It was a nice night.  You could see lightning in the distance behind and between the clouds.  We stayed on deck for quite a while watching and taking pictures of the sky.  Finally, we decided that we were tired and wanted to turn in as well.  Ron and I headed to Red Frog for a final Diet Pepsi before heading down to our cabin.

 

The lights from land fade into the distance.

 

You might remember if you read my Elation review that they no longer give you any sort of glass or cup for your toothbrush.  It was exactly the same this time on Mardi Gras.  I swear that I remember having two small juice glasses in the room upon arrival for your toothbrush.  Right?  Am I just dreaming that?  Anyway, we knew we wanted plastic cups for that purpose, so we took our cups back to our room, washed them out and used them the rest of the week.

[pcvtmom]

I'm enjoying your commentary, as always! I was tickled to see that Liz is a HOKIE!! We are a family of Hokies, from northwestern VA. I love that orange and maroon t-shirt.😍

[erstreet2017]

51 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

I'm enjoying your commentary, as always! I was tickled to see that Liz is a HOKIE!! We are a family of Hokies, from northwestern VA. I love that orange and maroon t-shirt.😍

Michelle just doesn’t “get” it but she knows that if I’m grumpy, there’s a really solid chance the Hokies have made me mad! Aaron and I actually had a big Hokie colored wedding 7 years ago. Walked into the reception to Enter Sandman! 

[pcvtmom]

26 minutes ago, erstreet2017 said:

Michelle just doesn’t “get” it but she knows that if I’m grumpy, there’s a really solid chance the Hokies have made me mad! Aaron and I actually had a big Hokie colored wedding 7 years ago. Walked into the reception to Enter Sandman! 

My daughter and her Hokie husband did the same entrance, with all of us jumping!  (Not a small feat, in heels 😁!)

[TrqoisWtrs]

Love your reviews!  Have a New Moon for me at my favorite, Fortune Teller.😊

[mlshum]

2 hours ago, pcvtmom said:

I'm enjoying your commentary, as always! I was tickled to see that Liz is a HOKIE!! We are a family of Hokies, from northwestern VA. I love that orange and maroon t-shirt.😍

OH MY, YES!  She's pretty rabid.  Bobby finds this rather horrifying since he is a WVU fan!  LOL
 

Thanks so much!  I appreciate your reading along!