We''ve been on the Vista, Symphony, Adventure of the Seas and now the Mardi Gras in the past 3 years. All but the AOS (which we chose because it was the ONLY ship sailing in early July) were in their maiden years. This ship IMHO beats them all, even the SOS. Sensory overload from the second you step into the ship's Central Stage. This venue was by far our favorite, from morning to night. Just so much going on at all times. This is an active, busy, noisy ship at night. Music from every venue, some competing with each other.
Lets start with embarkation. We showed up at 1129 for the 1130 time slot. We went from door to ship in under 15 minutes. Incredible. Went directly to Guy's Burgers to see if they were as good as I remembered from the Vista in 2018. Oh my, not only the best burger at sea, but the best I've ever eaten. But where did the handcut fries go? Pandemic casualty?? The ones they serve look great and taste meh. But the burger was fantastic. Went to our room, which seemed smaller than the Vista and certainly smaller than the Symphony. While it didn't bother me, my wife was not happy with the very tiny bathroom. Anyone over 300 pounds, and there were a ton of larger folks onboard, would have really big issues using the facilities. Miniscule. The shower was fine though. Balcony was good sized. We were in 15386, midship and 2 doors from the midship elevator. MG has THREE elevator banks, rather than 2 like other ships, which really made it nice, even if they were on the tiny side.
Venues-
Smaller than we've had in the past. Decent storage. TV channel selection was dismal. Bathroom minuscule other than the shower. Couldn't dry off inside. Had to come out into the room. Room was in a great spot, midship by the mid elevator and one deck from the Lido.
Hot, boring shopping and nothing compared to CocoCay. They did have a free pool area with a swim up bar that we didn't use. We were back on the ship in less than 2 hours.
Walked thru Old San Juan on the way to the fort. Beautiful walk thru the churches, shops and alleys on the way to the impressive Middle Ages fortress.