If you’ve been following along, one of the highlights of this 7-day Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival’s Mardi Gras has not been the weather. Even though we have been out of hurricane season for a month now, a storm making its way through the gulf and up the East Coast has put a damper on this cruise and others sailing in the same general area.
Embarkation day, the first full day of the cruise which we spent at sea, and the third day in Cozumel were the only three “good weather” days we had. On the fourth day of the cruise, our port call to Costa Maya was called off due to rain, wind, and high swells while heavy morning rain and afternoon showers kept things damp during our port call to Mahogany Bay, yesterday.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate today either and the forecast for our final day, tomorrow, doesn’t look any better. I was awoken in the middle of the night by some heavy rocking and banging as the ship started to go head-to-head with the storm. Once showered and dressed, I headed to my usual spot to use as my office for the day. I was greeted with strong, gusty winds and rain as I searched for a spot where I could still be outside but remain dry.
As the hours passed, the seas got heavier and the winds stronger with the apparent wind speed, the wind you “feel” on you, was clocking in at over 100 km/hr on the ship’s monitors, while the true wind speed was averaging around 57 km/hr or roughly 35 mph with higher gusts. Around 2:00 pm, the captain announced that we would begin entering an area with high winds and large swells that would last until we returned to Port Canaveral. It wasn’t long after that announcement that things did get noticeably worse.
While the ship’s stabilizers were deployed they can only do so much to counteract the motion of the ocean and limit rolling. Walking proved to be comical, and watching those trying to navigate hallways after a few cocktails was even more entertaining, the ship’s pools were suddenly turned into wave pools which the kids enjoyed, and then there were those suffering from sea sickness. One of my traveling companions succumbed to it and was down for the count.
Due to the weather, many of the scheduled outdoor activities were moved indoors and the outer decks and pool areas, except for the smokers who will brave any kind of weather for a puff, were devoid of people. That made for a lot of passengers hanging out inside. With the Mardi Gras being such a large vessel with plenty of public space, even with 6,000+ people inside, it didn’t feel crowded at all. Being that it was a scheduled sea day, there were already plenty of activities scheduled throughout the day to keep everyone busy, so the weather didn’t necessitate adding anything extra.
I decided to stop by the ship’s Seafood Shack, which is located on Deck 16 next to the Lido Pool in an area called Street Eats. This alcove of small food stalls for quick bites also includes Time Fries for loaded french fries and new to Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration – chicken wings, Steam Dream for steamed bao buns and other Asian small bites, and Mad Sizzle serves up kebabs and other small nibbles.
As I approached the Seafood Shack to order, disgruntled people were waiting with pagers in hand complaining about how long it was taking for their food to be ready. Only one person was working who was taking orders, making the orders, plating the orders, and then handing out the orders. It took about ten minutes for those like myself waiting to place an order to be acknowledged as this crew member was completely overwhelmed.
I ordered a pound of peel-and-eat shrimp and set off to grab a table and wait for the order to be ready, which took around ten minutes. The shrimp were served hot with cocktail sauce and drawn butter. There were some shakers of Old Bay seasoning around if you wanted to give them some flavor. For $12 it wasn’t a bad lunch, but they need to staff the area better, especially on busy sea days.
As day turned into night, those looking to glam it up could do so because it was the second elegant night of the cruise. The ship’s photographers had set up various photo ops throughout the ship for those fancy dress pics.
The evening’s theme was Mardi Gras – imagine that! Earlier in the day, signups were held for those looking to be crowned King and Queen of Mardi Gras and lead a parade through the ship. Entertainment for the night kicked off with the parade and some New Orleans Jazz which ended at the ship’s main performance area, Center Stage.
After some singing and audience participation, the Mardi Gras celebration was over and the show shifted into production of Voodoo Moon. The show had a dark magic theme to it as the ship’s singers and dancers did their thing while two aerialists took flight at various times during the performance.
When it came time for dinner, some of my traveling companions wanted to go to the buffet, while others wanted to go to the main dining room. Since I’m not a fan of the food on the buffet and had a less-than-pleasant experience in the dining room the other night, I opted to hit up the ship’s steakhouse, Fahrenheit 555, once again.
This time around, I started with the Young Lettuce Salad, which was just a quarter head of iceberg served with sliced tomatoes – nothing special here at all.
Next up was the Pork Belly, which was very flavorful and fork-tender, however, there was way too much sauce.
For my main course, I went with the Spice Rubbed Ribeye, cooked medium rare with some onion rings and broccoli. The steak was well marbled, very tender and the rub added a nice taste to it which wasn’t spicy but more on the smoky side.
Since I wasn’t able to finish the huge steak, dessert just wasn’t an option.
Once again, the service and food were worth the $49 per person upcharge for this specialty restaurant.
There’s one more day left on this cruise and it’s another sea day. More on that in the next report! Thanks for following along.
Fun Times for Day 6:
The Fun Times for December 14, 2023 can also be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.