Carnival Cruise Line’s first Excel-class vessel, Mardi Gras, has come out on prime in Cruise Hive’s annual Cruise Ship Awards for the second consecutive yr. Readers have voted the Carnival vessel the perfect total cruise ship of 2022.
The LNG-powered vessel beats out ships from different main traces, together with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line.
Mardi Gras Comes Out On Top
With 2022 coming to an finish, it’s that point to start saying the winners of Cruise Hive’s Cruise Ship Awards. Receiving probably the most votes from readers, Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras cruise ship has turn out to be the winner of the perfect total cruise ship of 2022. It’s now the second consecutive yr that Mardi Gras has gained the class.
The first Excel-class ship for the cruise line acquired extra votes than ships operated by rival traces and inside the identical fleet. Voting within the annual awards opened in September, with eight classes, together with the perfect total cruise ship of 2022.
Mardi Gras was up in opposition to many different ships throughout a number of cruise traces. There have been no nominations inside the class, and readers have been capable of sort of their favourite ship.
However, Mardi Gras had some powerful competitors, with Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas having the second-highest variety of votes. The Celebrity Cruises-operated Celebrity Solstice got here in with the third-highest variety of votes.
Other ships that acquired a excessive variety of votes included the Disney Dream, operated by Disney Cruise Line; Carnival Breeze from Carnival Cruise Line and the brand new Rotterdam, operated by Holland America Line.
Readers have been solely allowed to place ahead a single cruise ship as soon as, and any suspicious votes weren’t counted. There have been greater than 200 totally different ships recorded, together with the brand new vessels of Norwegian Prima from NCL and Carnival Celebration from Carnival. There have been additionally smaller luxurious vessels, together with Viking Sea, Star Breeze, and Silver Dawn.
It’s not the primary time Mardi Gras has come out on prime within the annual Cruise Ship Awards. The vessel was voted the Most Anticipated New Cruise Ship in 2020 and 2021. She was additionally voted Best New Cruise Ship in 2021 and Best Overall Cruise Ship in the identical yr.
The First Excel Class within the Fleet
Mardi Gras is the primary excel-class cruise ship constructed for Carnival Cruise Line and the primary within the fleet totally powered by Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). The big vessel is 180,800 gross tons and has a visitor capability of 5,282 at double occupancy, together with 1,735 worldwide crew members. There are 15 passenger decks, together with a complete of two,641 cabins.
Mardi Gras introduced new ideas and improvements to the fleet, together with the BOLT curler coaster, a first-ever at sea. The all-electric thrilling trip takes company across the iconic Carnival funnel with drops and twits of as much as 50 MPH on the open deck, 187 ft above the water.
There are six themed zones on the Carnival ship, together with La Pizza, The French Quarter, Grand Central, The Lido, Summer Landing, and the Ultimate Playground, the place BOLT is situated. Also onboard, company can discover the primary Chibang! Asian restaurant, Emeril’s Bistro 1396, Rudi’s Seagrill, Loft 19, and expanded venues already seen throughout the fleet.
The Carnival cruise ship was constructed on the standard Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. She underwent a number of main development milestones earlier than lastly being delivered to the Miami-based cruise line in December 2020. However, the supply passed off throughout the cruise business’s international suspensions as a result of pandemic. Mardi Gras remained on maintain till lastly setting sail on her first visitor voyage on July 31, 2021, from Port Canaveral, Florida.
Ever for the reason that maiden voyage from the Florida port, Mardi Gras has been crusing Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries, together with standard ports of name similar to Cozumel in Mexico, Grand Turk within the Turks and Caicos, San Juan in Puerto Rico and Amber Cove within the Dominican Republic.