Mardi Gras is an Excellence-classcruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. The ship is Carnival’s lead vessel of the fleet’s Excel-class, a subclass of the Excellence class, and was built by Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku in Turku, Finland. The ship has often been incorrectly referred to as Carnival Mardi Gras, though Carnival has specified that her name does not include the “Carnival” prefix, a first since the Fantasy-class vessels originally omitted “Carnival” in their names upon their debuts. Mardi Gras has been subject to numerous delays in her construction, delivery, and debut amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent impact on tourism. First scheduled for a summer 2020 delivery and debut, she was delivered to Carnival on 18 December 2020. After her debut was postponed on numerous occasions, Mardi Gras began operating weekly sailings on 31 July 2021. read more…
The Facts About What Happened
Hurricane Katrina was the greatest natural disaster in the history on the United States. The Women of the Storm, an organization formed by the women of New Orleans gathered the following statistics. 80% of New Orleans flooded, that’s an area equal in size to SEVEN Manhattan Islands. 1,500 people died; 134 were still missing two years after the storm. 204,000-plus homes severely damaged. Over 800,000-plus citizens were forced to live outside of their homes, the greatest diaspora since the Dust Bowl of the 30’s. Tens of thousands New Orleanians still reside outside of Louisiana. 81,688 FEMA trailers were originally occupied, many of which are shown to have unsafe levels of formaldehyde toxicity. 1.2 million families received Red Cross assistance. 33,544 persons were rescued by Coast Guard. 34 years worth of trash and debris was spread around New Orleans alone. There were 900,000 insurance claims at a cost of $22.6 billion. read more…