The Good, Average and Bad of the Carnival Mardi Gras

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 5

Review summary

Me and my family booked a trip for the Mardi Gras after getting off of the Carnival Freedom. We are experienced cruisers and we had such a fantastic trip on the Freedom so we were expecting Carnival to go above and beyond on their newer ship, the Mardi Gras. I'm going to break my trip down into the good, the bad, and everything that was average. The Good: We had two inside cabins, they were small but functional enough to live in for 7 days. The rooms were always clean and the housekeeping staff was friendly. The shows were good, high production for a cruise and entertaining. The best show we all enjoyed was Chris VS Magic and I highly recommend you see! The best restaurant on the boat was Bonsai Teppenyaki and Sushi restaurant. We ate here for my birthday dinner and the staff went above and beyond and the food was excellent! This was the only fantastic customer service and meal we had on the boat. Embarkation and Debarkation was very easy for us and we were on the boat in under an hour and off in under an hour. The casino was very big and they had both a smoking and non smoking section both of which were closed off with doors so there was hardly no smoke smell on that deck. The one thing that is an absolute must is the wifi! Carnival has the best wifi I've ever seen on a cruise. We had the highest package for the wifi and I was able to text, stream movies and shows, and go on any app during my entire vacation. The Average: The customer service we experienced was average at best. I almost felt as if I was constantly bothering the staff if I asked them any type of question, ordered food at a restaurant, etc. The food situation was something that I really have never seen on a cruise. Every time I went to go get food, almost everything was closed. Especially around lunch time the only places open were the pizza place, the sandwich place or the buffet at times. The food everywhere on the boat for us was lackluster at best. The food was almost always cold, stale or bland. The buffet had pretty the same options everyday all day. Emeril's was good but they mainly have seafood so if you do not like seafood you're kinda out of luck. The big takeaway with the food situation is you have to pay for your meal for it to taste somewhat decent. The rollercoaster Bolt is not something I would say you have to do, but if you like rollercoasters I would say go on it! It was a lot of fun but it was closed a lot during our trip due to wind The lido deck was average. The main pool was kind of small but there was a lot of seating. There was just no like music or anything happening at the pool, only movies. I also noticed during our trip how there was a lot of free time or "dead time" where there really is not much to do. There would be times before dinner where there was not a show, game, or event happening for hours. I just thought I would mention this because I feel like people should know this as well. The Bad: Unfortunately, we had a bad experience on this boat with staff. We were abruptly approached by a fun squad member named Carlos who was extremely hostile and confrontational towards me and my family for moving a chair not even an inch in front of us before a show. This was just our experience and we were extremely disappointed about this. We talked to guest services and the entertainment director but we feel as though our situation was kind of brushed under the rug. While there is two sides to every story, as a fun squad member it is extremely uncalled for to approach a family trying to start a fight. I also felt as though the entire fun squad almost saw the guests as a bother to them and you could feel that vibe through the entire boat. We are not the family to complain we just simply wanted to enjoy our vacation. I put this in to just show another side of the cruise experience we had that influencers won't show you. Overall, we had an average trip on the Mardi Gras. The entertainment, when there was entertainment, was fantastic and we had a lot of fun at all of the shows and parties. Amber Cove was beautiful and a lot of fun! I highly recommend going they have stuff for all ages there! We tried very hard to not let any of our bad experiences affect our trip but after the 5th cold meal and a staff member yelling, it was getting kind of hard to brush past everything. I would never go on this boat again just due to our personal experience. I really have seen nothing but great reviews for this boat so after going on it, I am disappointed. I tried to go in depth into as much as I could remember so people can see a negative experience to hopefully prepare you for your trip if you are planning to go on this boat. I wish this cruise was up to the expectations we had for it but I am so let down!

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Port Canaveral, Florida

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic

Disembarkation

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