On our New Year's Cruise on Carnival Mardi Gras, we booked Cloud 9 Spa Staterooms. What differentiates a Cloud 9 Spa Stateroom from a regular stateroom is unlimited access to the Thermal Suites, proximity to the spa, Cloud 9 spa bathrobes and slippers, upgraded Elemis in-stateroom toiletries, as well as a number of redeemable spa benefits.
We've booked Spa staterooms before on Norwegian Cruise Line, so we've appreciated perks like these in the past and had a prior spa stateroom experience to compare to.
The Carnival Mardi Gras is a relatively new ship, and the staterooms felt fresh in decor, and for the most part well-maintained.
The room was spacious for a standard cruise cabin. Personally, I would have appreciated more drawers in the room, but at least the drawers provided were large in size.
The bed also had very convenient lighting controls, as well as reading lights.
The television is mounted to the wall directly in front of the bed, another indicator of a new or recently refurbished ship.
As with most cruise lines, there aren't a lot of channels on the television... but who goes on a cruise to watch TV?
The closet had a combination of hanging space, shelves, and wire basket drawers. Since I was hanging dresses, I dropped the middle shelf on the right so that I could have more length. The shelf on the left is stationary, and unfortunately, Aaron's shirts were too long in length for that shelf to be useful for us.
I do not understand the wire basket drawers.... just give us drawers, please. A feature I did appreciate, however, was the bottom shelf for shoes that actually rolls out like a drawer - such a nice touch!
The bathroom shower was a decent size, but the rest of the bathroom was pretty cramped. Also weird feature... there was some sort of air flow between our cabin and Rachel and Landon's cabin next door because we could hear eachother talking when we were in the bathrooms... no bathroom noises, but voices came through the wall or ceiling... very weird.
Aaron's feedback was that he appreciated the orientation of the toilet to be facing the room because i guess in other staterooms, he's had issues with his knees hitting the door while he's sitting on the toilet?
Something tells me that vent in the ceiling may have been the culprit for our game of bathroom telephone with our neighbors...
Great size shower! Plenty of space, adjustable height shower head, clothesline (a lot of hotels/ships are doing away with these lately), and a shave shelf!
Because this is a Spa Stateroom, we were provided upgraded Elemis toiletries. However, we were still limited to the Shampoo/Bath & Shower Gel combo. You would think that a Spa Stateroom would offer Conditioner. Also of note.... the hand soap at the sink was a bar (would love if they could do a pump), and they did not provide lotion as an amenity. It's a Spa Stateroom - I want lotion!
Now is the time that I rant about Cheapo Carnival Nickel & Diming....
Our stateroom was located on Deck 17, but the spa was on Deck 5. To make access more convenient, they offered a direct elevator for Spa Stateroom guests between Deck 17 and the spa on Deck 5. We learned that this was not only convenient for spa access, but also for when you needed to get down to Deck 5 without stopping at all of the other floors... and very convenient for getting off at port and returning directly to Deck 17 after.
The Cloud 9 Spa Thermal Suites on Carnival Mardi Gras are located on the interior of the ship. Compared to Norwegian Encore's thermal suites which are 3-4 times the size and offer exterior views, this was not impressive. Because there were no windows to the outside, it was definitely less appealing to visit.
Overall, the stateroom was nice enough. As for the spa amenities - I appreciated the thermal suite access and the special elevator, but didn't really value any of the other amenities. And overall, I would say this pales in comparison to a spa stateroom on a Norwegian Breakaway or Breakaway-Plus class ship.
The television is mounted to the wall directly in front of the bed, another indicator of a new or recently refurbished ship.
.
The closet had a combination of hanging space, shelves, and wire basket drawers. Since I was hanging dresses, I dropped the middle shelf on the right so that I could have more length. The shelf on the left is stationary, and unfortunately, Aaron's shirts were too long in length for that shelf to be useful for us.
I do not understand the wire basket drawers.... just give us drawers, please. A feature I did appreciate, however, was the bottom shelf for shoes that actually rolls out like a drawer - such a nice touch!
The bathroom shower was a decent size, but the rest of the bathroom was pretty cramped. Also weird feature... there was some sort of air flow between our cabin and Rachel and Landon's cabin next door because we could hear eachother talking when we were in the bathrooms... no bathroom noises, but voices came through the wall or ceiling... very weird.
Aaron's feedback was that he appreciated the orientation of the toilet to be facing the room because i guess in other staterooms, he's had issues with his knees hitting the door while he's sitting on the toilet?
How dare they stick these $4.75 water bottles in the room, looking as if they may be included with a drink package. Landon actually drank one of their $4.75 waters, so they got one from the drink package and replaced it before their room was cleaned to avoid the charge.
This is what really offended me..... they have a tag on the hairdryer saying that it will cost $40 if it goes missing. Carnival, I do not want your Conair hair dryer. And if I did, I could buy one from Office Depot of all places for $18.88! This tag just said to me, "Carnival passengers steal things." Don't treat your passengers like thieves, Carnival.
Our balcony wasn't very deep, but I appreciated the dining-height table, rather than a little coffee table.
You can ask your stateroom attendant to open the panels between balconies, but we didn't because privacy.
Now, to the spa!
This is what really offended me..... they have a tag on the hairdryer saying that it will cost $40 if it goes missing. Carnival, I do not want your Conair hair dryer. And if I did, I could buy one from Office Depot of all places for $18.88! This tag just said to me, "Carnival passengers steal things." Don't treat your passengers like thieves, Carnival.
Now, to the spa!
The full list of ammenities includes:
- Free cruise-long pass to thermal suite
- Free scrub kit (never redeemed)
- Two complimentary Pathway to Yoga or Pathway to Pilates fitness classes (never redeemed)
- Complimentary Body Composition Analysis (never redeemed)
- Special savings on signature spa treatments when booked at the same time (never redeemed)
So really.... the only ammenity we used was the thermal suite pass.
The most appealing part is that the pool is basically a giant hot tub. Because Carnival Mardi Gras hot tubs were always full of children, this was a great place to go to hot tub.
They also had three different therapy sauna/steam rooms, as well as different shower experiences.
The thermal suites well-attended-to and offered spa water and cold towels.
And I only ventured into the actual spa when cutting through the spa to get to the rest of the ship. The spa hours were more limited than the thermal suite hours, which is part of the reason that I never redeemed any of the amenities.
Now.... the Spa Staterooms were supposed to come with Cloud 9 Robes and Slippers. On the first day when we headed to the spa, Stove walked out in his robe and slippers, and I realized - we didn't have robes and slippers in our room! I asked our stateroom attendant if we could have them, and he said that he didn't have enough for all of the staterooms, so he would try to figure out who didn't use theirs so we could have them.... then he delivered us robes and slippers that evening.
They also had three different therapy sauna/steam rooms, as well as different shower experiences.
Um.... ew? Why aren't there enough robes and slippers for each spa stateroom if that's listed as an amenity? Very strange.
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