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.

Wow - the new year is upon us, and I still haven't gotten around to reviewing our New Year's Cruise on Carnival Mardi Gras! Rather than skip the review entirely, I figured I'd challenge myself to review our experience on the Carnival Mardi Gras before we embark on our Christmas Cruise this year (spoiler: I didn't meet my goal)! And in a heartfelt attempt to actually meet that goal, I'm going to change up my style of review a little from a day-by-day trip report to more of an overall summary with anecdotes. Also, if you'd like to hear about this cruise, I sat down with Doug Parker to talk about our time on the Carnival Mardi Gras on the Cruise Radio Podcast.

To decide which cruise and itinerary to sail to ring in 2025, we created a spreadsheet comparing ships, itineraries, and prices. When comparing price/value, Carnival was the clear winner - either the Celebration out of Miami or Mardi Gras out of Port Canaveral. Ultimately, we went with the Mardi Gras out of Port Canaveral because the dates/itineraries worked slightly better.

The last time I sailed Carnival was in 2014 on the Carnival Breeze. It was a promotional free cruise offer that I had received, and I remembered having a really great time. Landon had also recently sailed on Carnival out of Galveston for a Bachelor Party Cruise and raved about how great it was (of course, I'm sure the company and celebratory occasion probably had a lot to do with that). My parents and Rachel had last sailed Carnival in 2010 on the Dream, and this was Aaron's first time cruising with Carnival.