I would highly recommend booking a cruise on the Mardi Gras. Awesome ship and hands down the best Carnival ship we’ve been on so far.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
The embarkation process was a mess. Very chaotic and took way too long. We did hear that the gangway broke and they had to delay boarding.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food was top notch. Everything was delicious. Bonsai Tappenyaki was fun and food was fabulous. Chibang offered lots of good choices. The beef and broccoli was probably some of the best I’ve had. We ate lunch at Cucino Capitano and the linguini with bolognese was outstanding. The Di Verde soup was also excellent. Lots of food choices on this ship. It is hard to try them all.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Fitness center is nice. My husband convinced me to ride Bolt roller coaster. Can’t say I didn’t scream. Luckily the ride is short. The cost is $15/person and you go around twice
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The shows in Center Stage were really good. Best singers we’ve seen on Carnival . The entertainment around the ship was also very good
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Service as always was spectacular
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Mardi Gras is a mammoth of a ship. I love the design and decor. Carnival did a fantastic job designing this ship
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had an interior room. Seemed slightly smaller than what we are used to. The bathroom was tiny but nice. Especially loved that the shower had a glass door rather than a shower curtain. Even though room seemed slightly on the small side there was plenty of closet space and the bed was comfortable.
Ship tip
Mardi Gras is enormous. Plan out which specialty restaurants you want to try. You probably will not be able to try them all but there are so many great food options onboard.
Puerto Plata is beautiful. I would suggest doing some sort of excursion at this port. You will miss out on getting to see the island if you just stay at the port at the shops and Margaritaville. My husband and I did the Mega Truck tour with lunch. The tour covered lots of ground in 5.5 hours. It took us to the center part of the city, the beach and up through the mountains. Such a beautiful island. The poverty however is sad. Our guide Alex brought lollipops and school supplies to give to the children in the mountains. Normally you would visit a school on this tour but this time of year they are only in school half days. If you decide to do this tour bring school supplies such as pens/pencils and candy to give to the children.
Beautiful port. We did History Behind the Walls walking tour .Tour guide Aida was very knowledgeable. The tour was great we got to see quite a bit of Old San Juan and there was plenty of time to shop and eat afterwards
Disembarkation was terrible. Took way to long to get everyone off the ship. I hate complaining because they did try their best getting almost 6k guests off the ship as quickly as they could.
@retired Ray that is true. However I think most of the issue was one of the gangways broke so they had to use one gangway to board and disembark almost 6k guests. I hate complaining because cruise was fantastic.
Thanks for the tips and glad you had a mostly good trip. Bigger ships tend to have a less friendly em/debarkation process, hopefully that will get fixed.
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