We have been always a Royal Caribbean cruiser and this was our first time going on Carnival "Mardi Gras". We were honestly astounded by how incredible the customer service was that we received from ALL the crew members we encountered.
The ocean cabin layout was great and spacious. The decor in the room was very understated and tasteful, with blue and beige colors, which we felt very welcoming Carnival ships. The large TV was directly in front of the bed instead of in an awkward position somewhere else in the room. It had a neat Map Channel where you could track the speed of the ship and progress of the cruise, and it also had my wife’s favorite cable channel “Food Network”. There were no power outlets near the bed for my CPAP machine and we want to thank our room service Michael for quickly arranging an extension cable. He was so good, accommodating and extremely polite. He kept our room spick and span.
Something that really made our cruise spectacular was food and our cruise director. The food was incredible and was spread out on different decks which is not available in Royal Caribbean for free. We enjoyed the Guy's Burger Joint, Shack Big Chicken, Blue Iguana Cantina, Pig & Anchor and Chibang. Marketplace breakfast buffet and omelet station was great. Marketplace afternoon/dinner buffet was always small spread and lacking food options. The Main Dining Room food was like high-fine dinning experience. All the chefs and managers we spoke were very accommodating to prepare dishes out of the menu, that gave a personal touch and made our hospitality even better.
My only two cents on improvement in a wider food spread at Marketplace(afternoon/dinner) and the Entertainment, we felt Royal Caribbean had really good shows. In Mardi Gras our best show was “Vegas Night". Lastly, We had Faster to Fun for priority check-in but we didn’t feel that was honoured and had to go on the regular line while onboarding.
Mardi Gras is a Fantastic ship and our overall experience with Carnival was just amazing.
