A group of five of us went on the new Carnival Mardi Gras. It is a beautiful ship with a very pleasant and soothing tropical decor. From what I was told by a crew member, the ship sailed at about 65% capacity. Although it is Carnival’s largest ship, it never seemed overcrowded even though many of the venues (ie. comedy clubs, bars, restaurants) were relatively small. I am assuming that was due to the high number of venues available.

We ate at many of the different fast food restaurants, as well as the main dining room and the Lido deck Marketplace throughout our seven days on board. The food was good or better everywhere we ate. Shaq’s Big Chicken got 2 thumbs up from the Chik-fil-A lovers in our group. There was a good variety of menu items in the main dining room over the course of the seven but a smaller selection of foods than usual on the buffet. We also dined once at Fahrenheit 555, the specialty steakhouse on board, and were served higher quality steaks, lobster and lamb chops (respectively) that were very well prepared and very large portions. I would not normally pay for a specialty dining experience, but two of our five were celebrating birthdays onboard so we splurged, and we were not disappointed!

The balcony cabin was a reasonable size for the 3 adults that shared it. The couch, which was flipped over to be my bed during the cruise, was more comfortable than previous cruise ship couches that I have slept on, but not nearly as comfortable the beds in the cabin. Our cabin steward Imade was very helpful and pleasant. He was available whenever we needed him but never intrusive. Read more