AVOID!

Item: Mardi Gras
Rating: 2.5
Author: blbarnes87

Mardi Gras Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

blbarnes87

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 8

Overall rating:

2.5 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Western Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 02, 2024

Ship: Mardi Gras

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 11290

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 months ago

Review summary

AVOID! Terrible food, entertainment, bar service, tiny pools.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Smooth and fast

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Buffets were absolutely horrid. Very basic foods. For lunches... maybe 6 choices of slop along with sliced roast beef (more like jerky) one day, dried ham the next day and dried up pork loin the third day....then repeat every day. Specialty restaurant Chibang was horrible, don't know about the others. Breakfast buffet consisted of watered down scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, eggs benedict sitting in a steam bath so the muffins were like water, fruit was melon. The next day they swapped the sausage out for bacon if you could get it, pancakes were swapped out for dried up waffles. Next day swapem back...repeat every other day. Only saw bananas once...never saw an apple, pinapple, orange...just melon. Muffins? forget about it. Toast or bagels...nope. Yea, they had eggs and omelet station to order. Good luck on the 30 minute line. Dinners were poor to average at best. While the dining service was great, the food choices were very lame and small. I think the shrimp was the 35 count per pound in the shrimp cocktail, almost salad size shrimp but you got 4 of them! Wow, they went all out. The wait for the anytime seating was sometimes 10-15 minutes. Other wait times were 30-45 minutes. Only good food was lunch at guys burger joint or the Shaq's chicken shack. Their other option for lunch was the street eats which was closed most of the time even though the signs said open. Was told there were errors in the scheduling. Overall, the food sucked. We have been on 25-30 cruises and this was by far the worst food. That's what happens when you are on a large ship trying to serve 6000 guests...no variety, poor food and extremely cheap portions. They are trying to make up for Covid is my guess plus they are incapable of making more choices? Horrid.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Pools packed even though they had five of them. Very small pools and scattered here and there. Deck chairs reserved for hours by putting a towel on a chair at 8 am and going to a leisure crappy breakfast then returning 2.5 hours later. Pool attendants didn't enforce the 40 minute rule until my wife told the 4th "attendant to put the 40 minute sticker on the chairs in the shade. By that time, I already found another place after an hour. Tried to relax but the roller coaster above literally shakes the tables and is extremely loud. They had 2 huge casinos...one smoking and one non smoking. Always packed...they got to make their money somehow. Ice carving was amateurish. DJ was into HIS music...not anyone else's.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

2 regular shows which weren't really shows. More of a repeat show than anything...Why? The theatre was small to say the least, no balcony but you either waited half an hour in line to get a seat, or you don't see the show. That's why the ship has all kinds of little venues. Trying to please everyone but not big enough to serve what people wanted to see. The piano bar???Never could get in. Very small and people stayed there all night. The "shows had just 6-8 singers trying to dance and sing with the movie screen behind them. Other shows were horrible 3rd rate comedians. The adult show's were disgustingly gross. Not at all funny and not many laughs, just a lot of people leaving after about 10 minutes in. Lots left at the "magician's" show. Horrible entertainment

Children's Programs

Didn't bring our adult children this time.

Service and Staff

2 out of 5

Cabin steward was great. Main dining room staff was very polite although they were confused many times. No bar service in most venues including the theatre and many lounges. Pool service was non existent. This ship is...if you want a drink, go wait at the correct bar. Most bars didn't provide frozen cocktails.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Very clean as it is only 3-4 years in service, with no one on board for the covid years, so it should be clean. The layout was dotted with venues spread out all over the place. Largest venue was the casino. The Lido deck (buffet area had 4 separate divided serving stations, all serving the same crap). I walked 4-6 miles a day on that ship. Too big, they can't service that many people all seeking the same thing. AVOID!

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Great cabin, smaller than most other ships but was sufficient. All good except the balcony door whistled each and every night.

Ship tip

AVOID THIS SHIP! It's too big with not enough staff, entertainment horrible, Food, choices extremely limited (got to make the $$$ from covid pause somehow. All said and done...worst cruise in 35 years of cruising. Went on Holland America Line 8 monthe ago and it was wonderful. You like to save money???This is the ship...but you get what you paid for. Spend the extra few $$$ and go to NCL, RC, anything but Carnival.

Thumbs up