On 6 September 2016, Finnish shipbuilder
Meyer Turku announced it had signed a memorandum of agreement with
Carnival Corporation & plc to build two ships for Carnival Cruise Line, with deliveries expected in 2020 and 2022, respectively. The ships would be powered by
liquefied natural gas (LNG), Carnival explained that the company's pivot towards LNG was due in part to the demands voiced by environmental groups and the
European Union to reduce
greenhouse gases and other emissions. In order to fulfill the order, Meyer Turku postponed the delivery of sister brand
Costa Cruises' second Excellence-class vessel by one year to 2021. Prior to the reveal, leaked renderings of a ship bearing the name
Carnival Reflection fueled speculation that Carnival's next ship would be named as such.'' In May 2019, a floating engine room unit built at
Neptun Werft in
Rostock headed for
Turku. On 18 June 2019, the ship's keel was laid at Meyer Turku with the traditional coin ceremony, in which a coin was set atop the ship's keel blocks. On 24 January 2020,
Mardi Gras was floated out and repositioned elsewhere in the shipyard to complete her outfitting. In March 2020, a fire contained to a cabin broke out during final outfitting work; no further damage was reported. On 28 September 2020, the ship set sail for her first set of sea trials for 10 days from
Airisto. Compounded by the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic,
Mardi Grass delivery was affected by construction delays at Meyer Turku, joining sister ships
AIDAnova and
Costa Smeralda in having experienced similar delays by her shipbuilder's parent company
Meyer Werft. Most of the delays affecting all vessels were blamed on the complexities associated with building and installing the ships' new technologies, as well as organizing the logistics of the ships' construction. After first postponing the delivery to October 2020, Meyer Turku delivered the ship to Carnival on 18 December 2020. On 16 May 2021, Carnival president
Christine Duffy announced at
Miss Universe 2020 that
Miss Dominican Republic 2020
Kimberly Jiménez would christen the ship upon her debut. The following day, Carnival announced
Mardi Gras would begin operating under the
Bahamian flag after it was previously registered to
Panama. Jiménez officially christened the vessel on 23 October 2021 at
Port Canaveral.
Port Canaveral In order to accommodate
Mardi Gras as her new homeport, Port Canaveral developed and constructed Terminal 3, a new two-story, 188,000-square-foot cruise terminal that cost US$163 million to build, becoming the largest project in the port's history. The first steel arrived at the site in late-November 2018. Official construction began in January 2019 and had been expected to be completed by April 2020. To
bunker Mardi Gras, Port Canaveral partnered with
Royal Dutch Shell to use barges from
Elba Island in
Georgia for receiving LNG, as the port will not store it in its land-based tanks. == Service history ==