Mardi Gras...oh what a first cruise story!

[dromMOM]

I am going to try to scan these and post them.. Do you all remember the ugly bed spreads.. in those stripes??LOL

[zackiedawg]

Well, get to scanning then! I'm sure everyone would enjoy any of the classic memorabilia from cruising in those days. The brochures, any of the menus, boarding passes...whatever you've got.

 

I discovered I still have my 'Night Owl' sticker from the Mardi Gras! It is stuck to the side of my old cassette tape case, sitting on the upper shelf at the back of my closet of old childhood things (up with the legos and matchbox cars I held onto in case they are ever worth anything). All the cassettes have since melted or eroded to dust, but the case is still covered in stickers which date it perfectly. The Night Owl sticker is joined by a Blue Oyster Cult sticker, KLOS radio station in L.A., backstage admission to the Hollywood Bowl for Secret Policeman's Ball, a Gucci sticker (?), a Beatles sticker, and a WSHE radio station sticker from Florida. I don't think the Night Owl can be peeled off, but maybe I'll take a picture of it, for anyone who remembers when Carnival used to issue those to the late night partiers!

[dromMOM]

Zackie Dawg... I will try to scan them this weekend...

 

I see you live in Boca.. did u have much damage.. My MIL lives in Boca Lago.. and she said half the trees came down. One on a car in her POD... she was staying with us.. and extended her trip with us.. when she found out she still had no power in her complex.. she went back home last Tuesday.. Wed her cable came back..

 

She said driving was crazy because the stop lights weren't working..

She avoided driving during rush hour..

 

We visit every year.. When we get off our Liberty Cruise we will be spending the week in Boca.. So any new restaraunts.. I should know about?

Where do you live in Boca?

[zackiedawg]

The hurricane did some widespread damage down here, but fortunately most of it was moderate to light in severity. As with last year's two storms, lots of trees shed branches or came down completely - power was lost from Lake Okeechobee to Key West. This storm was stronger than either of last year's hurricanes - Boca clocked winds at 118MPH during peak gusts. Lots of tile damage on roofs, with a few unlucky souls having more extensive roof damage...lots of broken windows for those who didn't shutter...and yes, driving was quite a challenge with more than 95% of all traffic lights in 2 counties out of service.

 

The airport took heavy damage...several hangars torn down with planes inside - losses exceeded $100 million to the planes there. Mizner Center in downtown was severely hit, with the ampitheater shredded, many roofs and windows blown out, and lots of external wall structure damage. Office buildings suffered, with many losing roofs or glass atriums. Town Center fared well, with some glass roof damage which they repaired quickly. Trees are gone everywhere...but somehow Boca still manages to look like one of the greenest places on earth. Power is back for 99% of the city now, and all the places which were lightly damaged are back up and running...it's almost normal again, except for the 8-foot-tall piles of debris lining all the neighborhood roads which they are working on clearing.

 

You know Boca...changing all the time. I'm sure there are a few dozen new restaurants since the last time you came...there's one or two new ones even when I go away for a week. But the better places tend to stay popular and are still here - Maxwell's, Mario's, Banyan Grill at Addison, Arturo's, Brewzzis, Bacio, Coppola, Johannes, La Vielle Maison, etc. A few of the newer restaurants (don't know if you've been to any of these yet) include Bacio, Coppola, and Johannes. Some of the Mizner joints are closed for a while with the hurricane damage (Mark's at the Park and Gigi's). And of course the better chain restaurants are all still here - New York Prime, Morton's, Ruth's Chris, Cheesecake Factory, Maggiano's, and PF Chang's.

 

My personal favorite joints in town run the gamut from fancy to cheap-and-loud, but all based on taste of the food:

 

Baja Cafe - great mexican

Bong - fancy Asian fusion

Bombay Cafe - itsy-bitsy, cheap cafe with excellent Indian food

Bistro Provence - excellent French country cuisine

Cuban Cafe - hole-in-the-wall with great service and great Cuban food

Cannoli Kitchen - Takeout king of the city

[dromMOM]

The hurricane did some widespread damage down here, but fortunately most of it was moderate to light in severity. As with last year's two storms, lots of trees shed branches or came down completely - power was lost from Lake Okeechobee to Key West. This storm was stronger than either of last year's hurricanes - Boca clocked winds at 118MPH during peak gusts. Lots of tile damage on roofs, with a few unlucky souls having more extensive roof damage...lots of broken windows for those who didn't shutter...and yes, driving was quite a challenge with more than 95% of all traffic lights in 2 counties out of service.

 

The airport took heavy damage...several hangars torn down with planes inside - losses exceeded $100 million to the planes there. Mizner Center in downtown was severely hit, with the ampitheater shredded, many roofs and windows blown out, and lots of external wall structure damage. Office buildings suffered, with many losing roofs or glass atriums. Town Center fared well, with some glass roof damage which they repaired quickly. Trees are gone everywhere...but somehow Boca still manages to look like one of the greenest places on earth. Power is back for 99% of the city now, and all the places which were lightly damaged are back up and running...it's almost normal again, except for the 8-foot-tall piles of debris lining all the neighborhood roads which they are working on clearing.

 

You know Boca...changing all the time. I'm sure there are a few dozen new restaurants since the last time you came...there's one or two new ones even when I go away for a week. But the better places tend to stay popular and are still here - Maxwell's, Mario's, Banyan Grill at Addison, Arturo's, Brewzzis, Bacio, Coppola, Johannes, La Vielle Maison, etc. A few of the newer restaurants (don't know if you've been to any of these yet) include Bacio, Coppola, and Johannes. Some of the Mizner joints are closed for a while with the hurricane damage (Mark's at the Park and Gigi's). And of course the better chain restaurants are all still here - New York Prime, Morton's, Ruth's Chris, Cheesecake Factory, Maggiano's, and PF Chang's.

 

My personal favorite joints in town run the gamut from fancy to cheap-and-loud, but all based on taste of the food:

 

Baja Cafe - great mexican

Bong - fancy Asian fusion

Bombay Cafe - itsy-bitsy, cheap cafe with excellent Indian food

Bistro Provence - excellent French country cuisine

Cuban Cafe - hole-in-the-wall with great service and great Cuban food

Cannoli Kitchen - Takeout king of the city

 

 

Gosh thanks for the great updates... I will copy and keep these suggestions.. of course been to all the chains.. been to Mario's, Arturo's... but lots I havent been to.. but I am familiar with..

 

We love Boca.. I have been coming down every year for almost 20 years..

[magic1]

Just a quick note. Just back from sailing on the Inspriation and the two Main Dining rooms are the Mardi Gras and the Carnivale. Sitting at the doors of both dining rooms are models of the ships the dining rooms are named for. Thought that was a nice thing for CCL to do, give cruisers a glimpse at the early ships and where they started.

[cruisingal0810]

Mardi Gras was also the first ship I sailed back in 1989 from Lauderdale on a 3 day outting. 3 other girlfriends and I in a quad room. What a time we had, we were all 18 and thought is was great that we could drink!! We had a ship full of kids on their senior trip. Wow!! It was definately the party ship:D I went on the Fantasy with my husband, and can not for the life of me remember what the cabin # was, but I do remember that I was in R20 on the Mardi Gras. It is funny what we remember. Everynight we could hear the hum of the engines since we were in the very bottom of the ship. OH WHAT A TIME!!!! Saw many interesting things on that cruise....and remember the narrow halls and small bathrooms, It was a treat having 4 girls get ready!!! It was a great experience and one that I will never forget:)

[etoile]

I'm curious - those of you whose first trip on Mardi Gras was in her later years of service, did you find her run down at all? She first set sail in 1961 and was bought by Carnival in 1972; this site says many of her cabins were as they were when originally built. She left Carnival in 1993 and was scrapped in 2003. So there were at least 21 years of Carnival service plus lots more on either end. I'm curious...was she kept in good shape? Obviously she wouldn't be as sophisticated as newer ships, but how did she look?

[dromMOM]

I'm curious - those of you whose first trip on Mardi Gras was in her later years of service, did you find her run down at all? She first set sail in 1961 and was bought by Carnival in 1972; this site says many of her cabins were as they were when originally built. She left Carnival in 1993 and was scrapped in 2003. So there were at least 21 years of Carnival service plus lots more on either end. I'm curious...was she kept in good shape? Obviously she wouldn't be as sophisticated as newer ships, but how did she look?

I was on her in 78.. and the paint was peeling off on the furniture in the cabins.. shabby.. ...

[PahoaGuys]

The Mardi Gras was my first cruise. It was July 1977 and I was 15. I have similar experiences with first time "legal" drinking. My parents were lucky and we were bumped up to a demi-suite. It was huge with a cahir and table and a bath tub. I remember partying all night with a group of tablemates that were in their 20's. One of the first evenings they got me totally drunk on Harvey Wallbangers (a bad choice for first time drinking). I got so wasted that they took me back to the room, knocked on the door and ran. When my dad opened the door, I smiled, said "hi" and peed myself. Not a good way to start out a trip with the 'rents. My parents were cool though, cleaned me up and the carpet and nursed my hangover the next day...and even though it was bad it didn't detour me from doing it all over again the next night (sans the accident).

 

The Mardi Gras was so cool and the experience got me hooked as a cruiser. I'm on number 19 next week (Celebrity-Infinity). The things I remember most were the dining room which was located on a lower deck right next to the water line. On our first morning docking in Nassau we bumped the dock hard, right by our tableand one of our tablemates, who was a wig dresser for Diana Ross at the time, dropped to her knees praying "Sweet Jesus, save us from the iceburgs"). We had such fun the rest of the cruise teasing her aout stray iceburgs in the Caribbean.

 

I also remember the beautiful showroom. They had a talent show there and it was so funny and I saw my first drag performance. We hit really rough seas one evening and I loved how the staircases on the public decks went from bow to stern and turned into the main hall way. I'd run down one saircase as a wave swelled and was catipulted across the hallway to the other staircase. To a 15 year old boy this was a lot of fun. The first thing I did upon entering the Mardi Gras was plan my escape route just in case we did a Poseidon Adventure. I remember palnning the escape route keeping in mind we'd be upside down.

 

The following years we sailed on Sitmar on the Fairwind and Fairseas, both beautiful old liners changed to crusing vessels, the Song of Norway, teh Independance... but my all time favorite was the Norway that I sailed on three times(1980, 1985, 1986). I am keeping my fingers crossed that she is not scrapped. What a beautiful ship!

 

Thanks for bringing back all the memories of my first cruise. And I also slept out on deck with the friends that I met, of course that was after closing down the disco that seemed to be right next to the deck chairs. The Wallbangers may have clouded my perception of how close the two really were.

[thunder_lin]

Oh my god, a post about the Mardi Gras. This was my first cruise in 1983, 3 single girls and they put another single girl travelling solo in our cabin. I don't remember much about the cruise except we had a great time. I would have been 23 yrs. old. That poor girl travelling solo probably didn't know what hit her.

The bathroom was a joke! One of us tried the shower one day and water was running out of the bathroom. As one poster said, you can shower and go to the bathroom at the same time. Around the corner from our cabin was a public bathroom which had a shower/tub and toilet. We used this all the time. I think one of the other girls actually slept in the tub one night. Also, there was a public room where you went to plug in curling irons and such. There were so many of us crammed in there trying to primp ourselves before dinner. I remember the crew wanting to be all over us literally. Now that I cruise as a family with my 16 year old daughter, I'm very cautious of this fact. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise that the crew and passengers don't mingle. I know from experience they do.

From that point on I have been hooked on cruises but have not had the opportunity to cruise as often as I would have liked. My second cruise was with my husband on a two day cruise to nowhere out of Tampa and then the kids came along and we did Orlando several times and travelled about with kids competitions etc. Last March/05 I was finally able to cruise again, this time as a family aboard NCL Sea and they loved it.

(I think they decommissioned that ship also) We are currently booked to cruise the new Carnival Liberty in March/06. Cruising is much different now from my first cruise 22 years ago but I enjoy it just as much. It's just a different time in my life and I've had a blast with each phase. Travelling is in my blood and is a priority for me, it's just my bank account that holds me back and paying for 4 from Canada is pretty costly so we do what we can and enjoy it to the fullest.

The Mardi Gras holds wonderful memories for me. It was my first cruise love!

Rest in peace.

[dromMOM]

Oh my god, a post about the Mardi Gras. This was my first cruise in 1983, 3 single girls and they put another single girl travelling solo in our cabin. I don't remember much about the cruise except we had a great time. I would have been 23 yrs. old. That poor girl travelling solo probably didn't know what hit her.

The bathroom was a joke! One of us tried the shower one day and water was running out of the bathroom. As one poster said, you can shower and go to the bathroom at the same time. Around the corner from our cabin was a public bathroom which had a shower/tub and toilet. We used this all the time. I think one of the other girls actually slept in the tub one night. Also, there was a public room where you went to plug in curling irons and such. There were so many of us crammed in there trying to primp ourselves before dinner. I remember the crew wanting to be all over us literally. Now that I cruise as a family with my 16 year old daughter, I'm very cautious of this fact. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise that the crew and passengers don't mingle. I know from experience they do.

From that point on I have been hooked on cruises but have not had the opportunity to cruise as often as I would have liked. My second cruise was with my husband on a two day cruise to nowhere out of Tampa and then the kids came along and we did Orlando several times and travelled about with kids competitions etc. Last March/05 I was finally able to cruise again, this time as a family aboard NCL Sea and they loved it.

(I think they decommissioned that ship also) We are currently booked to cruise the new Carnival Liberty in March/06. Cruising is much different now from my first cruise 22 years ago but I enjoy it just as much. It's just a different time in my life and I've had a blast with each phase. Travelling is in my blood and is a priority for me, it's just my bank account that holds me back and paying for 4 from Canada is pretty costly so we do what we can and enjoy it to the fullest.

The Mardi Gras holds wonderful memories for me. It was my first cruise love!

Rest in peace.

 

My memories exactly.. we were two girls traveling alone. They put us at a table with 3 other girls.. from Tennessee.. We called them the TN trio..lol

We had a blast.. we hung out with the band.. and of course with the cute officers.. from Italy..

 

I was about the same age.. It was wild.. In many ways.. rough seas.. poor stabilizers.. It was great fun.. and my first cruise.. I will post a few more pics.. soon.. ah those were the days..

[zackiedawg]

There were very large numbers of single girls traveling with girlfriends on this ship! I thought maybe it was just my cruise...the single guys (and teens like myself at the time) were handily outnumbered by single women. A situation you will never hear me complain about, by the way!

 

Great to see so many responses coming in from people who were first-timers on this great old ship. There wasn't quite as much of a selection back then, so many people got introduced to cruising on the MG!

[etoile]

LOL, now I am wondering if there is a sea equivalent of the mile high club!

[dromMOM]

LOL, now I am wondering if there is a sea equivalent of the mile high club!

 

 

Shhhhhh! LOL

[MidniteSailor]

I was 19 in 1977 and went for my first "Cruise" aboard the Mardi Gras with my Parents, and my sister and her husband. I was totally spoiled, my parents had an outside cabin, my sister and her husband had an inside cabin, and I had a cabin all to myself!!!

 

We were on a seven day cruise out of Miami, with stops in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Granada, Martinique(?) and St. Thomas, with the last day at sea. It was a great trip, with what seemed at the time as excellent entertainment, good food, and plenty of it, and a truly friendly crew.

 

I remember the cruise had a plethora of single girls and very fews guys. I hooked up with a group of Canadian girls who were traveling together, and being one of the few single guys on board I had it made. I remember dancing in the disco into the wee hours of the morning, drinking with no age checks, the flavor of the cruise was Tequila Sunrises, long, cold and potent.

 

I lost my "virginity" five times on that cruise, and to this day still feal like a total cad because I can never remember the names of any of the girls I met.

 

The activities at the different ports of call were rather similar for most of the ports. Simple tours of the islands with the obligatory dumping off at the local market place/shopping zone. In those days I recall that Puerto Rico was a big spot for Jewelry, Granada for little Spice Baskets and of course St Thomas for Duty Free Shopping to excess. The best part of that trip was the Scuba Diving excursion we signed up for. "The Virgin Islands Diving Academy" which gave us 15 minutes instruction on the use of the tanks and regulators and then took us off to Coki (sic) Point to go diving. That was an experience I will never forget. I had never seen such clear water and schools of such colorful fish.

 

The Mardi Gras was not an elegant ship, she was not a big ship, she was not a modern ship, she was a ship that was warm friendly and the source of thousands of lifetime memories.

[Tropical Fish Biz]

I have loved reading this thread. I've been laughing for 1/2 hour just remembering.

 

My husband and I were on our honeymoon on the Carnivale. The room was tiny but we did have a porthole. The sink was in the cabin and the bathroom was "sitting" room only. The wood and brass were beautiful. The decorations were pretty garish.

 

National Geographic photographer, Art Seitz, was on our cruise and took quite a few pictures of us. They were great photos.

 

We won the "Newlywed" game and our prize was a bottle of watermelon wine. This stuff was so bad that at the end-of-cruise auction (where you could auction off those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" items) someone was offering it and a $5 bill. lol good times!

 

We also had the beer drinking contest, who could fit the most ping pong balls in the bathing suit top, who could pick up the most spoons and forks in one breath from the bottom of the pool (my husband won!), the fat belly "singing" contest, and horse racing. I remember winning $50 in Bingo.

 

We left from Miami for Puerto Rico, St Thomas, and St. Maarten. The entire trip was $740 pp including airfare from California! It also included all the soft drinks and ice cream you could consume. We only had to pay for alcohol. I remember the food being pretty good. There was a midnight buffet and a 1:30 a.m. buffet every night!

 

The ship rocked and rolled and we were bounced around. At one point we jumped in the pool and the waves in the pool were throwing us from one side to the other. We have pictures of that - it was crazy.

 

While we were on board, Carnival made the annoucement that they had just purchased a new ship - the Festivale. It just doesn't seem that long ago.

 

We didn't get an opportunity to go on another cruise until 2003; and that one was with our two kids, 19 and 21 at the time. Things have changed...no more free soda, no more nightly midnight buffets, too many people. I have to say the rooms are greatly improved though!

 

I got nostalgic not so long ago and did a google search of the Carnivale. It is actually still in service; Japan I think. It was fun to look at the pictures of her in later years and compare them with the pictures we have.

 

We leave in 7 days on the Coral Princess for 10 days to the Panama Canal; just the two of us We have booked a mini suite and are so looking forward to the trip. It's funny though, as small and cramped as the Carnivale was, we had the best time. In some ways it was more fun than the last one. The fact we were in our early twenties and loved to party and now we are in our 50s and love to relax may have something to do with that.

 

Anyway, thanks for bringing back some great memories. We plan to keep cruising and more often now that we have an "empty nest."

 

Happy cruising!

[zackiedawg]

I lost my "virginity" five times on that cruise, and to this day still feal like a total cad because I can never remember the names of any of the girls I met.

 

I wonder how many people really have had their first...experience...on a cruise? It must still be fairly common, having seen the singles action onboard most of my cruises, but not quite at the supercharged level it was in the late 70s and early 80s!

[zackiedawg]

National Geographic photographer, Art Seitz, was on our cruise and took quite a few pictures of us. They were great photos.

 

What a great honor that was...to have a well-known professional photographer take pictures of you!

 

We won the "Newlywed" game and our prize was a bottle of watermelon wine. This stuff was so bad that at the end-of-cruise auction (where you could auction off those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" items) someone was offering it and a $5 bill. lol good times!

 

Wow...I completely forgot about that stuff...but your mention of it reminded me that we had some of that stuff too - My mother had won some I think at a trivia contest. I never tried it, but I recall them trying it and ending up sticking it in the sun room by the deckchairs 95% full, hoping someone else might happen along and want it!

[ChristieNJ]

CruzinGal...

 

I, too, was on Mardi Gras back in 1989, when I was 18!!! LOL It was my graduation gift! hahaha!!!! My parents and one friend and myself in a quad room...WHEW!!! Of course back then you didn't know any better and didn't think anything of it! But looking back, MAN what a tiny room!! Bunk beds! lol I guess it wasn't too romantic of a trip for my parents. hahahaha!!

[cruisedirector1]

well just to let you no in 1988-89 i was the the cruise director on the mardi gras it sailed from port everglades on thursday and monday doing 3 day and 4 day cruise 3 days we did nassau and on 4 days we did nassau and freeport oh by the way that ship about 1996 they moved it to 2 places i was told san juan to do one night cruise and then some one said it went to california and now i now it is a reef some where on the bottom of ocean but that ship was nice i worked for carnival cruise lines as a cruise director and when i started out as a dj a great job i worked on the carnival out of port canaveral and the holiday 7 days western caribean out of miami i was a cruise dir for 3 years withn them and 6 months as a dj what a great life any way any one would like to about thing that go on cruise i can tell you the behind the sceans i now own an entertainment company and transportation company and people that travel with me when i start talking say i should write a book well i think i will any way bon voyage to all that travel aboard the cruise ships any one would like to talk e mail me at larrydiamond37@aol.com

[zackiedawg]

Thanks Larry. Nice to have a perspective from someone who worked on board. It is sad to think the Mardi Gras is gone. As much as we all enjoy making fun of the small rooms and bathrooms, it was still a wonderful enough experience to get many of us hooked on cruising for the rest of our lives!

[cruisedirector1]

Wow!! I'd LOVE to see your old slides of the Mardi Gras! We sailed on her in '89 or '90. Great ship. I still have an unopened deck of cards with the ship's name on them. They used to do that, remember?

 

I really only started taking pictures around 1995, so have few pictures from my earlier cruises. Digital has changed all that, thankfully.

 

That's a good plan you have for keeping picture data for your "199+ cruises". That's quite a few!;)

 

If you can post some shots of her, please drop me a line at deek589@bellsouth.net

 

Thanks.

Hi all well not only was i a cruise director with carnivale cruise lines i worked on 2 of there ships as a dj in 1988 i was on the carnivale out of port canaveral and the mardi gra in 1989 as a dj out of ftl lauderdale i also worked on the holiday and the celebratrion as social director so i did jobs with them as dj/social director/cruise director a fun job but also exciting if you remeber me in 1989 on the mardi gra i wasthe dj we had 2 disco on board and i would start the one on one level then at midight finsihed uo stairs it was great any one remmeber me larry

[Fergus]

It was 1985 or 86, and my dh had won the cruise at his company Christmas party. I think it was 4 days to Nassau. We thought we were so lucky to have gotten a porthole cabin! I remember being confounded by the bathroom - you actually had to step into the shower, turn around, and close the door to use the toilet! The beds didn't make into a double - bunks only. I remember the movie theater on board and the waiters with the baked Alaska on their heads! The wackiest memory of the cruise was the couple with the cabin across from us. They fought the WHOLE TIME. They would come in and out of their cabin wailing and yelling at all hours of the night, one would kick the other one out of the room without a suitcase, it was something every night - crying, sobbing, cursing. We got used to it after awhile!

 

I'm not sure if we ever would have taken a cruise if we hadn't had the first as a freebie, but I'm sure glad we did! We've taken 2 cruises with the kids now (also addicted), another one alone, and have a family cruise to Alaska planned for this summer.

 

Thanks for the memories!

[BOYNSEA]

My first cruise was on the Mardi Gras in 1972, Boston to Bermuda. I went with my parents, two sisters and some cousins. It was a memorable first cruise. On our way to Bermuda, we had to steer out to sea and delay our arrival in Bermuda to avoid a hurricane. After we did arrive in Bermuda we enjoyed our first day on the island. When we got back to the ship, we had to throw our moped keys into a basket because the ship was leaving port due to the hurricane which was heading back toward the island. It was a bit wild and crazy for awhile there. Despite the crazy weather and many seasick passengers, I fell in love with cruising on the Mardi Gras.

I remember a beautiful ship, fun shows, I even remember the comedians name on the ship, Paul Franki. There were 4 young ladies in our cabin with a tiny bathroom which was also the shower. (I remember you could sit on the toilet and shower.) But what a great time we all had. Sorry to hear it has gone to scrap.