ChrisK2793

After spending the equivalent of 390 cartons of cigarettes

With the extended mask policy I may need to take up smoking so I can't visit the casino.  

We ( the common people ) have been told by those in charge numerous times that covid is here to stay!
If it is then we just need to get on with life now!
Im not saying remove masks or social distancing as we still have a  responsibility to look after ourselves and others but we cant go on locking things down everytime someone sneezes! 

The Casino is SO much better without the smoke! Sorry for the nicotine crowd.  I hope it is a permanent change. Not a smoker, but used to do cigars. However, I hope the mask thingy goes away soon. 

If you're caught with an empty glass, you're ordered to go to the closest bar and refill it.

A co-worker of mine usually cruises with Royal, but decided to try Mardi Gras. She and her husband were disappointed as well. 

How many Americans were infected outside of the cruise related causes during the same period?

I was on Mardi Gras in August.  I'm very glad I went at reduced capacity.  I met several frequent cruisers from other lines on board and a recurring sentiment was "...can't imagine what it will be like at full capacity".  Since Carnival rejects most unvaccinated kids it was also a good time to sail absent of hordes of other people's screaming kids.
Fot Carnival it's a huge departure in a new direction, something Carnival should have done decades ago.  For Carnival cruisers only time will tell how well she survives the premiums they charge to sail her.  Some Carnival cruisers are used to low costs.  It's very easy to meet low expectations.  When you charge a premium people expect more, expectations are higher.  Time will tell how she does with the low cost segment of the Carnival crowd.   Ultimately I think Carnival had to innovate or die so finally they did with Mardi Gras.  
When it comes to the pandemic, Mardi Gras is great for people who believe the virus is a hoax and protocols don't accomplish anything.  In a month when I sailed four different cruise lines Carnival had the fewest protocols and a typical Carnival jam packed boarding process.  They don't enforce boarding times, just show up when you feel like it and everyone does.
Pros include the included food options like Summer Landing, Guy's Burgers and Shaq's Chicken.  I think I had a better Blue Iguana experience in the past.  The pizza remained the worst pizza at sea but that's subjective.  Granted it's mostly comfort food, heart disease waiting to happen, but if that's your thing, it's plentiful.  
I'm not sure why Carnival dragged their feet for so long at implementing new and fresh decor but finally they have moved into the 21st century when other cruise lines did a long time ago.  
The cabin bathrooms are tiny.  I'm not a big guy but I felt like I was in an airplane bathroom on a wide body jet.  In order to increase cabin count they shaved about 6" cabin width on most of the common cabins and you can feel it.  
It is a beautiful ship but any venue you'll want to visit will be packed.  I managed to get a seat at the Alchemy Bar just once.  They are more creative with their drink menus and have greater variety at the various bars compared to Royal.  Royal's answer is the Bamboo Room but very few ships have a Bamboo Room. 
It's in my backyard but I don't even look for deals on her.    Maybe when the pandemic is long over if I see a bargain fare I'd be tempted to go again but despite being a pretty ship I just can't imagine how packed she will be with the same capacity as an Oasis class ship at 2/3 the size.   
In hindsight I wasn't ready to cruise like it's it 2019 treating the pandemic with a devil don't care attitude.  I didn't feel safe on board.  Ironically at the time I thought I wanted a whimsical approach to pandemic cruising but all it took was one jam packed comedy club experience and I knew I wanted more protocols. 
It's a pretty ship but no mistaking it's still Carnival at its core.  That should appease most in the Carnival camp but at the same that's some of why I stopped sailing Carnival several years ago so there is that.  Maybe one day when it's the 4th or 5th newest ship in the fleet the crowds won't be so bad and pricing better. 
On the flip side, if you are vaccinated and convinced that getting Omicron is a good thing I may have the perfect ship for you.     

We’ve been wanting to try Carnival Mardi Gras as well.  We were supposed to be on it in one of the Aft Excel Suites in Feb 2021, but of course nobody was sailing then.  On our Mariner cruise last month, we met a woman and her teenage son who had just gotten off Marci Gras a few days before ….. they both told us they were disappointed and they’d be sticking with Royal from now on.
 

We’ve been wanting to try Carnival Mardi Gras as well.  We were supposed to be on it in one of the Aft Excel Suites in Feb 2021, but of course nobody was sailing then.  On our Mariner cruise last month, we met a woman and her teenage son who had just gotten off Marci Gras a few days before ….. they both told us they were disappointed and they’d be sticking with Royal from now on.
 

You’re so right!  Here in Orlando the news says the testing sites have been having  7 hours plus long lines!  It’s because people are brainwashed that if they have the sniffles, they need to be tested.  It’s just crazy.
 

I feel much safer on a cruise ship than on land. The county I live in has a infection rate of 22%. It is just crazy that the CDC would tell people not to go on a cruise, yet they allow flights to continue, busses to run, resorts to be open. 

It was “funny” to hear the NY Channel 7 Dr Jen—-answer a question today “can you get Covid more than once?”  she laughed and said “yes, my daughter who is fully vaxxed and boosted had  delta in August and now has Omicron.”  I believe she’s one of the TV docs who said the vax would stop the spread.  We know it’s not true! South Africa with less than 30% of their population vaxxed has a low hospitalization and death rate from Omicron.   This is beyond nuts to keep testing and quarantining.  

AMEN !

If cruise lines had been shut down before the holidays I really don't think the US would look any different right now.  
The science doesn't support 100% vaccine requirements on ships, in planes, in theaters, in gyms, etc.    
We are all inundated with news headlines screaming about the virus.  It's very tempting to throw ideas around and armchair quarterback the situation.  
Change just because isn't the solution.  What the cruise industry has done is working.  It's working much better compared to what is occuring on land.  Zero cases on ships or on land isn't a realistic goal.
As I drove back to Florida on the interstate I saw massive migrations of people.  There was heavy traffic even at 1am, all heading somewhere, all spreading the virus.  Christmas over, the snowbirds are migrating in droves, right after everyone did the worst thing possible from a pandemic mitigation point of view - they all got together to celebrate the holidays.  Every day tens of thousands fly on airplanes. 
The case numbers in Florida aren't spiking because of cruise ships.  Florida's case numbers aren't spiking because of Floridians going to grocery stores without masks on.  
The only way to dramatically reduce spread would be to lock all Americans in their homes but thank goodness that isn't going to happen.  Even the CDC knows this.  
Omicron can't be stopped but thankfully so far the impact is pretty minor.  Even in Africa where it started and where there is very low vaccination rates the population is not being wiped out by Omicron. 
The industry has been following the science and the science doesn't support making changes just to do something.   

To add my 2 cents to your well written view, IMO all of this comes down to money and when that happens following actual science, common sense and true risk assessment goes out the window, hence demonizing the cruise industry and losing many peoples faith in the CDC's latest proclamation 

You are absolutely right.  The airlines have been far more aggressive than the cruise industry in fighting the CDC from the very beginning of this pandemic. I said this when I first joined this blog site in 2020 COVID did not arrive in the US via cruise ship it arrive via airplanes. And I get the irony I work in the airline industry but I'm fighting for the cruise industry because I firmly believe the cruise industry has been scapegoated, unfairly targeted, shut down, dragged through the mud, held to a higher standard just to resume operations, not given a dime in bailout money (I could go on for days) all while the airline industry has positioned themselves as necessity to keep the economic engine of America running and therefore should not be subjected to any CDC oversight. What a ******* joke!!!
Although Fauci continue to throw around the idea of a vaccine mandate in order to travel domestically within this country I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say it will never happened in this country because there isn't a single airline in favor of it.  The airlines in this country want the public to believe they all compete against each other, they don't like one another but that is an illusion.  The truth is this nations airlines have a powerful lobbing machine in Washington D.C. perhaps not as powerful as the NRA but close to it.  And that machine has been working overtime since the beginning of this pandemic to keep CDC and Fauci at bay.  The unfortunate truth is cruise lines pale in comparison when it comes to the power the nations airlines wield.  And that is just the nations airlines lets not even talk about the hotel industry.  My husband and I went again to Las Vegas in mid December stayed at the Venetian yet the CDC wants me to believe I'm SAFER at the Venetian in Las Vegas than on a cruise ship with vaccine mandates, negative COVID test 2 days before boarding, 60% capacity, social distancing at all venues, and more. 
Oh I can't stop laughing at this bull(fill in the blank).

Royal accepts this NAAT test at Walgreens as a PCR …….. the “RAPID DIAGNOSTIC TEST (ID NOW)”  
 

I haven’t disembarked Nassau except for scuba excursion in 5 years and will pass on diving this January. Nassau is a dump. 

Royal accepts this NAAT test at Walgreens as a PCR …….. the “RAPID DIAGNOSTIC TEST (ID NOW)”  
 

The trash on 6.  If you want to independently verify that it was floor 6.  Sat there for days.  I can still smell this picture.
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