Celebrating Mardi Gras – Embarkation Day

Premier Custom Travel was one of a handful of travel agencies nationwide to be invited to sail on Carnival Cruise Line’s brand new ship Mardi Gras. Starting today through August 21st, PCT’s Chris Grum is onboard this amazing new ship, sharing photos, videos, and daily updates through our new blog series “Celebrating Mardi Gras.” Today’s post is a look at boarding the ship and some first impressions.

There’s nothing like waking up on embarkation morning, pulling back the curtains at your hotel, and seeing your ship in the distance. The picture above is Mardi Gras, as viewed from the Springhill Suites Hotel at Cape Canaveral. On this particular morning, Carnival Cruise Line’s newest ship is the only vessel berthed at Port Canaveral.

When you embark at this port, you essentially have two options:
1) Stay in Orlando the night before and take a shuttle to the port on embarkation day (a roughly 80 minute trip)
2) Stay in the Cape Canaveral area and have a short ride to the pier

I chose the latter, giving me a longer ride on the day I arrived but a much quicker trip on the morning of the cruise. I think this will be my preference on future sailings from the cape.

EMBARKATION

My goal is to always be as honest and transparent as possible with this blog. With that in mind, I must say that Galveston’s embarkation process is much more organized and smoother than what I experienced today at Port Canaveral’s Terminal 3.

In Galveston, they enforce your pier arrival time pretty strictly. I had the 10:30-11am arrival time, but when I got to the terminal at 10:25am, there were tons of people already in line. I was able to see many of their boarding passes while waiting to enter, and I saw everything from people with my time to those schedule to arrive at 1pm. I asked several terminal employees and they seemed confused. Some stated that the time didn’t matter, while others were surprised when I told them that they were not enforcing it.

Once inside, we were asked to show our boarding documents including passports, vaccination records, and proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 3 days. The testing is a new requirement put into place starting today for all Carnival Corporation cruises (and other brands are doing the same as well). Once everything was verified, we were sent into the waiting area.

On each boarding pass, there is a “boarding zone” that is supposed to be the order in which you will board the ship. I had A4 and typically these numbers correspond to the time you were scheduled to arrive. What ended up happening is that they let everyone inside the terminal, but then boarded the ship in the proper order based on your scheduled arrival time. My quibble with this is that if the boarding times were meant to “social distance” us and keep the terminal from clogging, they failed in this regard. The terminal’s public address was also terribly hard to hear and many people were confused by the entire process. I watched as many people were turned away from boarding because their numbers had not been called. A lot of this process could have been much smoother if they had turned up the volume and/or enforced the arrival times. I understand that this was only the third sailing for this ship, but Carnival got it right on the very FIRST sailing from Galveston.

This is an area that needs addressing. While it wasn’t a deal-breaker or something that would make me avoid sailing from this port, it frustrates me that they emphasize repeatedly to arrive at your scheduled time and then don’t enforce it.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

On most Carnival ships, you board on deck 3. Mardi Gras is so huge you actually board on deck six. The first thing you see is Grand Central, which is essentially this ship’s atrium. In my opinion, one of the failings of the Vista class (the previous line of ships from Carnival) was the enclosed atrium. Mardi Gras has not only solved this problem, she has taken it to a whole new level.

Grand Central is the main hub of the ship. Interestingly, this is no longer the home of Guest Services or Port Adventures, but rather an entertainment and dining center. On one side of the ship is gigantic glass wall that looks out to the sea. Below it is “Center Stage” – where live variety acts and other ship activities will take place over the next seven days. During the day, the windows offer a wonderful view of the ocean or the port of call. Later in the day, giant video screens raise from the floor and lower from the ceiling, creating a multimedia event stage with three levels of seating.

This area is also home to Cherry on Top, the ship’s candy store, the JavaBlue Cafe for coffee and snacks, and on higher decks the casino, Bonsai Sushi & Teppanyaki, and the Fun Shops.

FIRST DAY LUNCH

Typically my go-to for embarkation day lunch on Carnival is Guy’s Burger Joint. But today, since Mardi Gras has so many new dining options, I decided to try something different. A couple of years ago, Carnival hired Shaquille O’Neal to be their CFO – Chief Fun Officer – and one of the first things he did was put one of his chicken restaurants onboard. Shaq’s Big Chicken is located towards the back of the Lido Deck (deck 16 on this ship) and offers both lunch and an all-day breakfast. I enjoyed one of the sandwiches and also had one tender so I could sample it. The batter is quite tasty, as is the Shaq sauce. If you prefer something different, there are also several BBQ and other sauces available and lots of toppings.

SECOND LUNCH

While waiting for my stateroom to be ready, I decided to sample some other new food onboard. “Street Eats” is a fun new concept in complimentary dining on Mardi Gras. There are three different windows at this venue – “Time Fries,” “Steam Dream, ” and “Mad Sizzle.” Each day, I’m told they’ll have different food for us to try. Today, the items included Chili-Cheese Dog Fries, Char Siu Pork Dumplings, and Turkish Beef Kebab. I must say that all three were incredibly tasty and I look forward to trying the different items each day.

One thing I have noticed already that was a problem on Breeze and is also an issue with Mardi Gras – I have seen several times where a menu item had additional ingredients that were not disclosed in the item’s description. With all of the dietary restrictions and preferences people have these days, they need to do a better job with this.

MUSTER DRILL

If you followed my updates from Carnival Breeze, you have already heard of the new e-muster drill. Instead of standing out on deck or sitting in a lounge while the drill is completed, you do it on your own time during embarkation day. I chose to get mine done early. My muster station is B6, which is the Punchliner Comedy Club. On Mardi Gras, the comedy club has its own space and it is very nice. I’m looking forward to enjoying the four different comedians that will be a part of this seven-night journey.

MY STATEROOM

I’m sailing in an oceanview stateroom this cruise on deck 4, which is about as low as you can go as a passenger on Mardi Gras. On most Carnival ships, the decks start at one and go up to 13, 14, maybe 15. On Mardi Gras, the lowest passenger deck is Deck 3 and the highest is Deck 19.

I must say that the stateroom’s overall design is very nice, with a large amount of space, especially for an oceanview stateroom. One thing that always seems to be hard to find is power outlets, and this room has three at the desk and USB chargers both at the desk and also by the bed on each side. The only thing I wish they’d do (and this is for all ships) is put a plug near the bed for non-USB devices and CPAP machines.

There is a ton of storage, including pull-out drawers in the closets. The shower is quite large for a cruise ship and has a glass door, which I prefer over the old-style curtain. The fridge has a glass door, which I like for being able to see what you have inside. It’s also cold, which sometimes can be a problem on ships. The room itself is also cool, a byproduct of the new systems on this ship. With many ships, the rooms share air conditioning systems. So when one room loses its cool (so to speak), several do. On Mardi Gras, each stateroom has its own independent air system, meaning that one malfunction will not affect multiple rooms. The vents are blowing harder than I’ve felt on any ship and I appreciate that very much, especially now in the heat of August.

ODDS & ENDS

My goal by the end of this seven-night cruise is to bring you photos and experiences from all the venues and restaurants on this amazing ship. By the end of the cruise, I expect to post several hundred photos, videos, and more. Today, I visited the Heroes Tribute Lounge, enjoyed a flight of ship-brewed beers at Guy’s Pig & Anchor Smokehouse, and had dinner at ChiBang! – a restaurant that melds Mexican and Chinese food into an awesome dining experience. You can see photos from all of these places on our Facebook page.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE?

Is there a feature of the ship you’d like me to spotlight? Have a question about this ship or cruises in general? Drop me a line and I’ll be happy to feature your question or request in a future blog post.

My next update will be at the end of our first sea day tomorrow. I have lots of fun things planned, including a chance to try out the new Carnival Kitchen, where I’ll get to be the chef. I’ll also be visiting more areas of the ship and sharing photos, videos, and more.

Until the, I leave you with the photo above – this evening’s “welcome aboard” towel animal, courtesy of my stateroom stewardess Kanokkorn.