Just returned from the Carnival Mardi Gras

[g2266575]

So... we just returned from a week on the Carnival Mardi Gras out of Port Canaveral. I thought I'd add on to some of the great discussion that @ray3127 got going with comparisons to Royal Caribbean. Basically, I think that we, also, have decided that we are pretty much done with the 3 major mass market cruise lines (with a catch...)

Before I get into the specifics, I should note a very big disclaimer that this was a Spring Break week sailing, and due to that, there are always larger parties of school aged kids, regardless of the cruise line.

So, how did we like the Mardi Gras??? In short, we had a pretty good time. The room was very nice (with a huge balcony), the included food was good to very good and everyone in our group had fun. However, we all kind of had the same opinion, which was, we will probably steer clear of the mainline mass-market lines (CCL, RCCL, and NCL).

Now, before you go on defending this, let me just state that this is just our opinion and is very much based on where we are in life right now. If we had school aged kids, we'd be more than happy to cruise some of these lines (probably on Carnival again, actually).

However, we are in a different point in our lives than we were 10 years ago. Our DD will graduate college next year, so we no longer have small kids. That being the case, we are finding over the last few years that what we look for in a cruise is very different now than it was a few years ago and our preferences have changed. That said, let's talk specifically about Mardi Gras before we get into our personal opinions...

The Good

Size and layout of the Ship

There is certainly a lot to like about the new Carnival ships. First, these are really big ships. At 180.000+ GT, they are not much off of the Oasis class ships from RCCL. Because of this, there is a ton of area to spread people out (you could say the same about the Oasis class ships). On embarkation day, we thought it was going to be a nightmare, however, once people got settled into their rooms, nothing on the ship really felt crowded, which surprised us a bit. Also, there is room on the ship for two main theater areas, the Mardi Gras theater as well as Grand Central, where there were shows all week. One show, Voodoo Moon, we thought was very good. We also enjoyed the Family Feud game shows. I liked the layout of the ship as decks 6/7/8 all serve as sort of central corridors to get from one side of the ship to the other (although much of Deck 7 is the casino, which I will get to in a moment). Other than a weird placement of Guest Services, the ship flowed very well once you got used to it.

Included Food

This is the area where I think Carnival shines, especially in comparison to Royal Caribbean. IMHO, the included food is so much better on Mardi Gras than it was on say Oasis OTS or Independence OTS. Probably the worst part is the buffet, which does sort of suffer in comparison, but there are so many other included options that you hardly noticed it. First off, Guy's Burger's was exceptional on this sailing. I very much appreciate that Carnival includes it in your fare whereas Royal wants to charge you $16 pp for the inferior Johnny Rockets. My favorite ended up being the Double Ringer with fries. Another great area was Blue Iguana Cantina, which is more or less a better version of Loco Fresh on RCCL (though I will say that I think Donald's Cantina on the Wish is better). There was Shaq's Big Chicken which was great as well. Other included eats were the "Street Eats" area on the pool deck (great philly tots, btw), the salad bar setup in the adult area, the sandwich/deli place on Deck 8, the Pizza place (better than Sorrento's or Pinocchio's, but a notch below Princess) next to it, or the food down at Java Blue Cafe. For dinner, in addition to the MDR (which is what it is), there is also Guy's Pig and Anchor (which was delicious - better than the lunch - and you could eat there every night), Cucina del Capitano (which was slightly above average) and Chibang (which we all really liked) which these two are complimentary for one visit. For our one splurge, we ordered food at Emeril's, which is pretty reasonable, IMHO. A bowl of Red Beans and Rice was $3 and my Shrimp Scampi was $6. Both very good.

In short, you do not have to spend an extra dime on Carnival to eat very well. This is where Carnival shines, especially in comparison to Royal, who seems to want to upcharge you for anything except the MDR, Pizza, or buffet.

The ship's theming

So, I'm not really one to get into theming too much on a ship, but Mardi Gras really has some beautiful areas, especially the "French Quarter" area that includes the Brass Magnolia and Fortune Teller bars. It was a really beautiful area.

The bad

So, the issue with mass market ships, especially during spring break, is that you get all sorts on the ship. I think that especially with lines like Carnival and Royal, you also get a lot of first time cruisers. So, you get the kids that hit all the elevator buttons, etc. That kind of thing. One thing I will give big props to Carnival on is they had tons of visible security out and sent letters to every cabin outlining expected behavior, so I think that they are taking their "reputation" seriously and trying to deal with it.

The itinerary for the ship was meh. We went to Nassau (meh), Amber Cove (Great tour with a local company, but don't need to visit again), and Grand Turk (that, we did enjoy). I think that this is a bit endemic of these larger ships. There are only so many places where they can dock.

As much as I appreciated the food above, the MDR was, with the exception of Lobster night, not the greatest. We did the "Sea Day Brunch" and the food came out cold. Some of the things, like some beef medallions that I ordered were quite honestly inedible. As stated before, Lobster night was pretty good, I have to admit. But, to sum up, you don't really need to go to the MDR on Mardi Gras because there are so many options, so I'd just stay out of there except for Lobster...

Lastly, let me touch on the Casino. This was by far the largest cruise ship casino that I've ever seen. It took up half of deck 7 on a very large ship. Also, the place was ALWAYS packed. I mean, Carnival cruisers I think really must love gambling. I've never seen a casino so continually full. It was crazy. One nice thing was that they had separate smoking/non-smoking areas, but man, I couldn't believe how many people were always there. It was crazy!

The takeaway

We did enjoy our week on Mardi Gras. That said, we are probably done for awhile. We realized on this trip, as mentioned before, that as we age, the roller coasters/waterparks/ropes courses/etc, just don't add anything to our vacation. We just want a solid experience with good food. I think that we are probably Virgin Voyages/DCL people that when we want to try a mainstream line will be better off on something like Princess, that delivers a solid experience, though calmer. However, if we did do another mainline ship, we'd probably do Carnival again...

Thanks for the review. I actually sail on the Mardi Gras later this year and am going to the same ports. Could you tell me who you used for the tour at Amber Cove?

 

[tidefan]

Thanks for the review. I actually sail on the Mardi Gras later this year and am going to the same ports. Could you tell me who you used for the tour at Amber Cove?

Sure! It was E&J Taxi Tours Puerto Plata. You can find them on a certain social media site

Really enjoyed the tour with them!

 

[iivye]

Thank you for sharing your experience! We have done 9 DCL, 2 NCL, and have an upcoming RCL cruise this summer. I pretty much wrote off Carnival due to their reputation but after reading your review I might add them to the list. It's just my husband and I now so I would like to do a Virgin cruise as well.

 

[Jsoenning]

Loved the review! Seemed a fair assessment, and I agree with your commentary on the food. Sorry the sea day brunch food was cold...that is a highlight for us, the Carnival brunch that is.

We just got off of the Disney Magic (spring break as well so full, pool was super crowded on first sea day and port day; lot of folks stayed on board). We visited concierge as one of the hosts asked us to swing by to say hi, and she remarked the same on this cruise as on our January one - the majority of folks in general on the ship were first time cruisers. This go around we were originally sailing with my sister so booked a balcony and when she backed out concierge was sold out. No one dropped it before final payment (at least that we saw), and per the concierge host the concierge families were also majority first time Disney cruisers.

To me free food has been Carnival, then Disney and then Royal in terms of quality; which is sad because pre-specialty restaurants and smaller ships Royal was great. This Disney cruise had exceptional food quality. We went with waiter suggestions and they were all hits. Cabanas was better than I remembered (not that its been bad before) just really fresh this go around. I did make a bee-line for the stuff I know I like so that may have made a difference.

 

[tidefan]

Thank you for sharing your experience! We have done 9 DCL, 2 NCL, and have an upcoming RCL cruise this summer. I pretty much wrote off Carnival due to their reputation but after reading your review I might add them to the list. It's just my husband and I now so I would like to do a Virgin cruise as well.

I 100% suggest trying a Virgin Voyages cruise. It's a different animal, but that's a good thing, and the food is amazing!

As to Carnival, it is what it is, but that's OK. The food is good to great, and most of it is included (unlike Royal). If you are used to Disney and newer ships, I may stick to Mardi Gras, Celebration, or Jubilee though...

 

[starvenger]

Thanks for the review. We still want to try Carnival for one of our 14 person, 3 generation cruises, but my dad is not down with the Carnival.

So, you get the kids that hit all the elevator buttons, etc.

I was glad to hear that Icon had destination elevators, which should in theory remove that problem entirely.

This in the Disney cruise line forum. But thanks for your opinion on a non DCL ship

This cruise forum gets a lot more traction than the Royal forum, so I completely get it.

Carnival has really upped their game with their newer ships. They wanted to get rid of the reputation they got of being a drunk booze cruise. And while you can still get that on Carnival's older ships, the newer ships are a direct response to Royal, Norwegian, and Disney.

MSC is trying to get into this space too. But after the Ben and David debacle, it may be more of an uphill climb than they anticipated.

 

[Lesverts]

I am the OP. Sorry if my point wasn't clear. Never said I was trying to avoid Carnival (or kids, for that matter, other than the ones who must hit every button in the elevator...). I said that we no longer had younger kids, so your perspective changes (maybe that's a better way to put it.).

I actually rather like the new Carnival ships. I thought that came across in the review. Do I prefer Disney? Sure, but that probably has more to do with me being a big Disney fan... I'd go on any of the 3 new Carnival ships again in a heartbeat and actually prefer them to the Royal ships...

This is a major theme of reviews and feedback about NCL, Royal and Carnival currently. That if you are on one of the new classes of ships (Prima/Viva, Oasis/Icon/Quantum classes and Mardi Gras/Jubilee) it is a completely different experience than an older ship. Princess looks to be going into this direction to with the Sun class. Disney has a more consistent product between the different classes of ships.

 

[JM_97]

MSC is trying to get into this space too. But after the Ben and David debacle, it may be more of an uphill climb than they anticipated.

What's the Ben and David debacle?

 

[Lesverts]

What's the Ben and David debacle?

Over zealous enforcement of privacy and recording policies onboard.

 

[JM_97]

This is a major theme of reviews and feedback about NCL, Royal and Carnival currently. That if you are on one of the new classes of ships (Prima/Viva, Oasis/Icon/Quantum classes and Mardi Gras/Jubilee) it is a completely different experience than an older ship. Princess looks to be going into this direction to with the Sun class. Disney has a more consistent product between the different classes of ships.

NCL Breakaway is a fantastic ship. The layout is a little funky on the first day, but it's easy to get used to.

 

[tidefan]

Going through my pictures, I found this. This was our day in Grand Turk, when we were next to the Marella Explorer 2 (which was the old Celebrity Century.)