We went on Carnival Mardi Gras on our “30th Wedding Anniversary Cruise” in May of this year and to say that is was a complete disaster would be an understatement. I have been going on cruises since the late 70’s and have been on over 46 cruises. Some good and some not so good, and as far as we are concerned, this was the worst one we have ever been on and this will be our last cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines. We have been on 6 other Carnival cruises prior to the last two. For this ship to be their “flagship” and to provide the quality of food, service and product that they did, the reality of it is, there are no excuses for it.

We were on the Mardi Gras in September of 2021, and the ship was supposed to be at 50% occupancy and there were issues on this cruise also. But everyone kept saying Covid this and Covid that, chain supply this and chain supply that, so we just chalked it up this marginal experience by Carnival and let it go. We just figured they were trying to get their feet back on the ground, even though we felt there was no value in what we paid to what we experienced, we never said anything.

In November of 2021, we went on the NCL Escape a ship that is six years old, and it was its first sailing back since Covid took it out of service. We have been on this ship three times before, and we always had a wonderful experience. We lowered our expectations due to our experience with the Mardi Gras in September, but we really didn’t need too. We had no issues with service, the product or the quality of the food. They offered no excuses of Covid this or Covid that, or the chain supply excuse. Our room was serviced twice a day, you saw staff and management team members and security everywhere, serviced flowed with no issues. The quailiy of the food and beverage was top notch and we enjoyed it. Read more