Back when Jacob was on his mission, Carnival Cruise Lines announced a new ship unlike any of their ships before. It would be their biggest ship.....most stylish ship....and most ambitious ship. It was to be called the Mardi Gras.
The Mardi Gras was the first ship Shelley and I sailed on for our honeymoon. We thought it was HUGE! AMAZING! STUNNING! It started our cruise addiction. So Carnival announced the new and improved Mardi Gras for their 50th birthday. Of course we wanted to get in on this, so we booked a cruise on the soon to be brand new Mardi Gras a full year and half out before the ship was even going to be done to coincide with Jacob coming home from his mission.
Then COVID happened. The cruise got cancelled. We rebooked. It got cancelled again. We went to Costa Rica instead when Jacob came home and rebooked the Mardi Gras another year out which this time, the cruise happened!
To give you some perspective, the original Mardi Gras was built in 1961 and was a fancy ocean liner that sailed from Canada to England. In 1972 it went up for sale and a small cruise startup called Carnival bought it - it would be their first ship. Carnival didn't have any money to refurbish the ship, so they sailed it as-is and fixed it up as they had money.
The original Mardi Gras cost 5 million to build, weighed in at 27,000 tons and held 1248 passengers (not including crew).
The new Mardi Gras cost 1 billion to build, weighs in at 180,000 tons and holds 6500 passengers (plus about 1700 crew).
Here's the original Mardi Gras:
It had 4 passenger decks:
Here is a comparison between the old and new:
The new Mardi Gras is the first of 4 ships just like it and the others will also be named after early Carnival ships.
The decor was unlike any other Carnival ships. The shows were exclusive to the ship, as were some of the many many many free dining restaurants, and even some of the activities and other entertainment.
We found out the ship was running at about 5700 passengers so pretty full, but the only place we encountered lines was getting into the comedy club and some of the shows.
We started our trip flying on JetBlue, which was a first for us.
The plane knew who we were!
We really liked JetBlue. The planes were nice and they had pretty spacious seats in coach - much more than Delta or Southwest.
We made it our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale
Photo ops are plentiful on a cruise. It used to be on the "fancy" nights there were photo booths set up to take pics at. Now, photo booths are all over the ship at dinner time. Jacob and Hannah's new tradition is to take advantage of every photo booth...some multiple times. The photographers usually don't get much business with them almost begging people to stop and get their pics taken and most are standing around wanting something to do. Jacob and Hannah gave them plenty to do. Jacob and Hannah's photos are candid and definitely not your normal photos - every worker taking pics laughed and smiled at the pics. By day 3, the photographers knew Hannah and Jacob and asked them to come take more pics. Jacob and Hannah took around 150 pics together at these photo booths. Don't worry, you'll see some of them on here. I try to take the same pic, but I have to kind of hide behind the photographer because they really want you to buy the pics, not take them with your own phone.
Our room knew we were coming!
We stayed in a "family" room that gave special access to this living room area where you could come and play games, watch movies and read. It's designed for families and they serve a mini breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner snacks and cookies at night. Also an ice cream machine!
Then it was time to explore the ship.
This new area was in the middle of the ship on one side with huge windows looking out onto the ocean. There are huge video screens that come down and turn this area into pretty much anything you can think of. There were shows all night long, different each night, game shows, all kinds of things.
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This is the first ship ever to have a roller coaster......unfortunately it was broken every day and we never got to ride it :-(
The three water slides were actually very fun! They were super fast, like really fast
Here is how we know which room is ours
The sail away part was busy!!!
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Our first stop was San Juan so it took two full days to get there, so the first two days was spent on the ship. Jacob and Hannah did the ropes course early on before it got crowded
VIDEO: Part of the ropes course is a little zip line that goes over the water:
This was that mid ship show area I mentioned earlier
Video: START the Fun!
We do love the onboard candy store for snacks
The large video screens are going down for the day - they get tucked into the stage
Remember how the original Mardi Gras had 4 floors? This one has 18
Fancy dinner night begins, and so do the pics
Very yummy lettuce wraps for an appetizer
This is the buffet area. On most ships, it's just a bunch of tables in one big area. On this ship, it was nice and had partitions and dividers which made it pretty quiet. It was pretty easy to find seats during the day too
That night was the 80's Rock Party - we love to people watch
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We had breakfast in the dining room, since it was another sea day and we didn't have to be up too early
VIDEO: Jacob and Hannah doing something.........
Here are some more pics from fancy night - just squint your eyes and the Carnival logo will disappear
It's Show Time!
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This is the only Carnival ship that has Family Feud. They have a real set and everything. It was pretty fun to watch
We finally made it to San Juan!
We rented a car and went to El Yunque National Forest which is the only rain forest in the United States/Territories (since San Juan is a US Territory)
Our new friends (that we met on our last cruise) came with us on this cruse too - George and Brenda - they were a lot of fun!
The rain forest was beautiful!!!!!
We wanted to hike to this tower you can barely see....it's only 3/4 mile each way.....but the road was closed adding 3/4 mile each way.....We went about 10 minutes and realized how steep it was - and that was just the road still...and thought about turning back....three times. We saw some people coming down and said we will ask them if it's worth it - if they say no or hesitate, we will turn around. Well, they said YES, Totally worth it, but it's steep. So we kept walking up.
Almost there!!!!
We finally made it!!
On the way back at the bottom, we took at look again at the tower
Here is George on the ropes course
This is as close as we got to riding the roller coaster
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Photo time
The photographer really loved this one..he couldn't stop laughing and kept saying DO MORE!
They had a dodgeball tournament that was pretty fun to watch!
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That night for dinner, we did Teppanyaki and it was so good!!!!!
This was our bento dessert box with 6 mini desserts - all yummy!
The next day was Amber Cove, Dominican Republic
We took a tour that included zip lines and hiking waterfalls in the jungle
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Ok, here are some more pics you will need to squint on to remove the watermark
The waterfalls, Damajagua Falls, was so fun. In the rainy season, there are 27 falls you can slide and jump down from. Most of time, it's 14 falls. The guides didn't take very good pics, so to give you more of an idea of what it was like, I borrowed these pics from Google Images:
It was amazing. It was a pretty big slot canyon with the river flowing right through it, and it was DEEP! In most places, I couldn't even touch the bottom
Guess what time it is? Photo time! By now, all the photographers were looking for Jacob and Hannah and were happy to see them coming and knew them by name. I think it was this one at this photo booth that said "Keep posing.....Do more.. Oh, That's good! That's great!"
The next day was Grand Turk - which is the capital of British owned Turks and Caicos and is the largest island in Turks/Caicos. It's 7 miles long and less than a mile wide. This was our first time here
Yes, they even have photo ops outside the ship
George and Brenda came along with us
Many people rent golf carts and tour the island, which is what we did
There are "wild" but very tame donkeys all over the island. They come up to you wanting attention
No, we are not resting. We started out on our golf cart ride heading to the lighthouse at the end of the island - about 7 miles. About mile 6 the golf cart made a loud noise and stopped. The coolant hose blew and sprayed coolant all over. Luckily, George had cell service and we called the golf cart place and they sent a guy to fix it. He hooked the hose back up, filled the coolant and we were back in business.
We made it to the lighthouse. But then the cart wouldn't start. So we called the guy again. It took about an hour for him to drive the 7 miles with a replacement cart so we just sat in the shade and waited and watched the donkeys.
On the way back, about a mile to go, the golf cart made a loud noise, sprayed coolant everywhere - I floored it and kept going until it wouldn't go anymore. We left it and started walking. We called the guy and he sent someone to pick us up, but he could only fit 4 in his car, so Jacob and Hannah kept walking - actually hitchhiking and someone else in a golf cart, returning to the ship, picked them up right away, so they didn't get to hitch hike very long.
We took a minute to cross the road and get a view of a deserted beach
Walking back waiting for "the guy". Obviously we asked for, and received, all our money back for the golf cart
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, which is a very unique beach - Look how close the ship is! The water is only waist deep half way to the ship and then it drops off
This photo looks fake because the ship is so close. This is real!
Waiting for dinner
George was always telling us childhood stories about growing up in Hawaii and he kept the conversation hopping!
Show Time!
A few night shots
The roller coaster that wasn't
Better shot at the buffet seating area at night when n nobody was there - this is where we played games
The next day was another day at sea as we headed back to Florida.
Jacob had to try turning his $10 into $100 - it didn't work
Neither did Hannah's efforts
One last Show Time!
After getting off the ship, we headed to the Kennedy Space Center
Our cell phones have more computing capability than the computers that flew the space shuttle!
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Recovered debris from the Space Shuttle Challenger
The actual control room for the first moon landing
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All too soon it was time to come home.
Snapped this pic of the Saratoga Springs Temple
The day before we got home, I got a really bad cold, FAST..like in a few hours. When we got home, I tested myself and guess what? COVID! Glad it wasn't during our trip! Nobody else got it or had symptoms - just me!
Wow. we had an amazing trip! The Mardi Gras is an amazing ship! Glad we finally got to go on it, after waiting more than 2 1/2 years!
Some have asked why we go on so many trips and the easy answer is, why not? There are so many things in this world to experience and see. We started 'making memories' with our family when we moved to California in 2004 and have continued to do so. When I had cancer in 2008 and again in 2014, making memories really rose to the top as something we wanted to do and make a priority. You never know when something will happen and you won't be able to go and do and see things and experience the world. As long as we are able, we will continue to make memories and experience the world.
We made some good memories and had some great experiences and they will remain with us forever.
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