Leaderboard

Time for my next big thing... the Mardi Gras. This is may be my most anticipated venture away from my primary cruise line - Royal Caribbean. I've sailed Carnival before and I'm just three cruises away from Platinum in their loyalty program but it's been several years since I've sailed with them. This will be the fourth revenue cruise for Mardi Gras. I'm hoping any initial wrinkles have been ironed out and everything on board is starting to settle into a routine. Itinerary: I don't have any plans for any port of call. Since I've been to them all I'll make a game day determination what to do at each port depending on the weather. I may stay on board at some port and explore everything this new class of ship has to offer. Cabin for this cruise will be a forward extended balcony overlooking the bow. I'm generally careful about booking forward balcony cabins due to the potential for wind while at sea but I'm also a big fan of forwards views and this type of cabin is nearly nonexistent on Royal Caribbean so I decided to give it try. I had plans to try a forward balcony on a Royal ship but those cruises were lost due to the pandemic and now that ship has left for the West coast. I like trying new and different experiences so what could go wrong? My appointment time for terminal check-in is 11:30am. Terminal 3 at Port Canaveral is a brand new terminal so I'm looking forward to experiencing that as well. Since booking this cruise Carnival has introduced a COVID-19 test requirement that must be taken within 72 hours of the cruise so I have that test booked for tomorrow with a backup rapid test booked for Thursday just in case my testing vendor has an issue tomorrow. Up to this point I've been following along on social media with other cruisers for this sailing. Carnival has an exemption application process for unvaccinated cruisers including children and sadly some folks have just found out in the last day or two they will not receive an exemption for this cruise. I can only imagine how disappointing it was to receive this news so close to the cruise but Carnival must maintain at least 95% vaccinated guests on board based on CDC requirements. I've been eagerly watching Mardi Gras since she arrived in the United States and I was there to capture that moment so before I get into this cruise I'll post some of the pictures I've captured up to this point.

Cabin Tour! Deck 12 forward extended balcony. With the curtains open. There is a glass partition to reduce wind pressure on the balcony door. Looking up. Curtains closed at night. Pool towels provided in the cabin. Desk and beverage cooler area. (4) USB, (4) North American style outlets Complimentary Mardi Gras inaugural book. Very nice bathroom. Door hinges outward engineered to clear everything in the bathroom. Wardrobe with full mirror. Safe and more space with fold down shelves.

I'm not going to lie... I had trouble finding the A6 muster station. There are no signs for it. More on that later. Spoiler alert - A6 is inside the theater. Once inside the theater a crew member scanned my paper boarding pass and directed me to sit down. They let a small group of twenty or so gather before going through the muster speil. With that done it was time to head up to an outer deck so I can rip off this mask. What a beautiful pool deck! The ship was taking on fuel so no smoking outside anywhere on the ship. I had been struggling with the decision what to do first when I boarded. Since I found myself near Guy's Burgers that's what I went with. All seating near Guys was occupied so I headed forward a bit. I still had my carry on with me since I am merely gold and cabins would not be ready until 1:30pm so I limited my exploration. Since I had some time to kill and it was 90° outside I went back inside and down to the Havana bar to wait until cabins were ready. They needed my folio number which can also be found in the app. Taxes are charged while in port even if you have Cheers. In the app you can verify they have down as completing muster. That's also where you can see you muster station since not all of them have signs on board. With my folio number I was able to log into the wifi plan I had purchased before the cruise. In port the ship uses cellular assist leveraging local cell towers to speed up the internet onboard.

After dropping off luggage It was over to the queue for the terminal check in. First step was up the escalator. It doesn't look so bad. From here we walked left and down the ramp. Wait, what? We went up to walk down? Yep. Have you ever seen one of those photos where the stairs are endless but seemingly end where they start? After walking down the ramp on the right, turning the corner and walking down the ramp on the left then doing a u-turn and walking back up the same ramp, turning the corner and walking back up the ramp I just walked down I was well on my way back to the level ground where the escalator brought us 30 minutes earlier but still 15 minutes from that point. Wait. Where did all these people come from? It was seemingly empty when we went up the escalator. From the comments I've heard we are about 50-60% capacity on this sailing. I am not sure how this will work at 100% capacity. The good news is once you reach the entrance to the terminal there are signs based on if you are vaccinated and within your appointment window or "other". The weird news is that at this point staff were directing people into any queue. Signs didn't matter. If one queue was getting full go in another queue. The great news is the terminal has air conditioning! PHEW. After a while inching along inside the terminal I was able to look outside and see even more people in the maze outside. Looking around me at this point people had check in appointments an hour before me and an hour after me. I was within my 30 minute window. Whatever. Get in line. How you doin'? Eventually you will divide into one of three zig-zag queues. Some are longer than others but some have more check in people than others. Some lines appear to move faster and everyone was now second guessing their choice of queue. Honestly I don't think it really mattered. It's like a grocery store and picking the wrong check out lane. Finally I made it to a check in agent who looked at my paperwork and passed me onto another check in agent who took my photo. Success! Next up security. You know the drill. After security the ship was already boarding so onward and away I went. It seemed a little confusing and chaotic but only took 45 minutes from stepping out of the car to reaching the point where I was going up the ramp and almost on the ship where I took this picture. It felt a lot longer but the timestamps on my photos don't allow me to lie.

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!! Anxiously waiting for the hands on my digital watch to move. I have a friend driving me to the port today. He is also vaccinated and cruises as well so he gets it and is low risk, probably lower than using a rideshare. It seems like a bit of a punishment having a frequent cruiser drive you to a cruise when they aren't sailing. You know you have a good friend when... Tick-tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. Are we there yet?

After 21 years of sailing exclusively with Royal Caribbean, I'll be giving MSC a try in September.

Pandemic protocols on board. This post is to provide insight to the protocols on board. I kindly ask you to avoid debating protocols or providing opinions about protocols here in this thread. I am posting this so that people can decide if the protocols on board are acceptable based on their personal preferences. MSC tested everyone that boarded. That was a quick and easy nasal swab without going deep to "tickle the brain". Masks were required at all phases. This includes everywhere on board except the cabin. That included outdoors when you weren't actively drinking, eating or in a pool. I knew that boarding the ship and the drink package helped to keep a drink nearby much of the time. Most bars block off the bar seating. The Horizon bar did not, the Sky Lounge and the Pub did not block bar seating. At these venues people had a drink in hand and were not masking between sips. Some venues like the pub are a designated vaccinated area but there were often children with their parents inside the pub. This seemed to be allowed. With reduced capacity it was never an issue keeping distant so it worked. The casino was also a designated vaccinated area. I did spend time in there but didn't really focus on the protocols. It just seemed to work. Not sure if smoking is permitted because it wasn't smoky at all while I was there. For the most part social distancing worked but at times such as when there was a queue people quickly forgot to distance. The daily temperature checks were also almost not worth mentioning.

Cruise Summary Since this was my first time sailing with MSC my approach for this cruise was to basically forget everything I knew about cruising. It's too easy to fall into the trap of comparing everything to a cruise line you may have sailed last or more frequently. Walking onto a ship with a "I've never sailed before" mentality lets you relive that special first time you walked onto a cruise ship and it helps to remove any preconceived notions you may have about a different cruise line. I thoroughly enjoyed this cruise and for the price it was outstanding value. Ocean Cay is beautiful. While fairly young as a cruise line private destination it checks all the boxes for this type of "port of call". With the drink package covering Ocean Cay it does perform better than some other cruise lines that don't allow their drink packages at their private destinations. Meraviglia is a modern beautiful ship and it's a shame to see so many areas underutilized with reduced capacity at the moment. Clearly she has space to handle more guests while keeping everyone happy. The Marketplace Buffet did lack some diversity at dinner but it's not fair to compare a ship on it's second voyage after restarting during a pandemic operating at dramatically reduced capacity to a cruise experience before the pandemic. The status match loyalty program is very much appreciated. Every loyalty program is different and the perks were really nice. The included dining experience was great. I did bring a bunch of single bills and tipped every drink above the included service charges included in the drink package I bought. These folks have been out of work for 16 months so a few extra bucks is well worth it. I didn't see anyone else tipping above the included gratuity and I could tell the bar staff really appreciated the gesture. At the end of the day the most important question... would I sail them again? Absolutely! In a heartbeat. In fact the MSC Divina is moving to Port Canaveral for a few months this fall and I am looking over her dates to see if I can make it work. I am also eyeing some more Meraviglia itineraries that are a little longer. I feel like there is so much left to explore on the ship including the main dining room for dinner. I was worried that some cruise acquaintances declared that you only enjoy MSC is you sail in Yacht Club. That may be the case for them but I was very pleasantly surprised I had no YC envy. If you've got the money, sure why not YC but I'll have no problem sailing MSC with the Fantastica experience again. I also like the budget friendly "Easy" drink package. While it only includes well drinks and not any top shelf liquor that was good enough for me on this cruise. Meraviglia is a great ship and I'll have no issues booking her again. It may not be the same experience compared to my "regular" cruise line but that's a good thing as not everything that line does is perfect either. I hope this helps you decide if Meraviglia is the right ship for you and I thank you for viewing.

Looks like I forgot the gym... and forgot to go to the gym.