Elated on the Carnival Elation?.......An Accouting of My Experiences

Hello dear friends & frienemies,

So if anyone is interested I'm going to share my pix and experiences of my vacation, during which I sailed on the Carnival Elation. All I ask in return is that we keep this conversation productive and positive. If you want to hate on me, that's fine I'm a big boy I can take it, please use the survey I have added to this conversation. I thank-you in advance and warn you I'm not sure how long it will take to complete. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have or add anything about your experiences you would like to share :).

Ok so I'm traveling with my uncle Terry, and this is the first time we are driving to the port. I've lived in St. Louis my whole life and never knew New Orleans was only an 9-hour drive. So we decided to do this 5-night test cruise and driving to see how everything would go. Terry has been to NOLA before but this was going to be my first time. Terry also does not drive, so since I was going to do all the driving we decided to do it in 2 days. Still way cheaper than flying! So after some good advice from a facebook group I decided we would overnight in Batesville, MS.. In retrospect I'm quite happy with the choice. So on the way we had to stop and have lunch at Lambert's Cafe. Oh my if you leave there hungry then there is something wrong. Yes they still throw the rolls, so silly, but fun.

Me in front of the cafe.

Some fried okra with my throwed roll.

We stayed in the Econo Lodge in Batesville, MS. and arrived around 4p.m. after leaving at about 9:45a.m.. It was fine, it was $5 cheaper than all the rest of the hotels there, so it was fine for the night. Cracker Barrel is within walking distance and that is where we went for dinner. They also had scrambled eggs and sausage in their free continental breakfast, so bonus. So that's the end of day 1,.

Hey Go St Louis:cool:.....Good to see a Poster from the Homeland....Actually im from Columbia Mo....But St Louis Cards 4th Gen.....You St Louis Guys went on a Cruise and went to Lamberts too....Why didn't you Call!!!!!:D

All The Best

Mike

I know, I know I tried to not think about it, traveling on a Friday the 13th and wouldn't you know it struck :eek:. The engine light came on on our car, so we pull over in the next decent looking town, couldn't tell you the name, and found a place to look at it. Turns out the back passenger tire had a slow leak and was running dangerously flat. Whew not something major so a quick patch job and we are back on our way to NOLA :).

We left about 7:00a.m. and ended up at our hotel in NOLA about 3:00p.m.. We stopped for lunch at Santa Fe Cattle Company in McComb, MS. It was good, no regrets stopping here for lunch.

My uncle Terry.

Hey Go St Louis:cool:.....Good to see a Poster from the Homeland....Actually im from Columbia Mo....But St Louis Cards 4th Gen.....You St Louis Guys went on a Cruise and went to Lamberts too....Why didn't you Call!!!!!:D

 

All The Best

Mike

Hello my fellow Missourian, Go Cards :)! What can I say we are gluten's :D. We don't get to the one in Sikeston, MO. very often, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity!

Looking forward to the review. Love the Elation. An oldie but goodie with a crew that repeatedly gets rave reviews.

So I picked the Super 8 hotel on Chef Menteur Highway. It was only $67 for the night and they had free parking while on the cruise and offered shuttle service to/from the port for $8pp. I really liked it, it's not your typical cookie-cutter Super 8, it felt very NOLAish. It was super easy to get to and it was maybe a 15-minute ride to the port. There were always staff cleaning and maintaining the property which was clean and in good shape. There's not much to look at around the hotel, but for the price who cares.

We did hit some slow-moving traffic in NOLA, but it never came to a complete stop.

The front of the hotel.

Here's that NOLA feel with the inner courtyard.

The parking is underneath the hotel.

We were on the 3rd floor.

The pool area.

So by the time we got settled in, texted everyone to let them know we made it in, and relaxed for a minute it was dark. I was not up for driving to the French Quarter in the dark, especially since it was totally unfamiliar territory. So we went to the front desk and asked was there anything within walking distance from the hotel to eat dinner. She said that either way there was something at the stop lights. Well the hotel is in the middle between 2 stop lights about a mile and half apart from each other. One end she said was fried food and burgers and the other was a chinese, poboys and seafood place. So we headed off for the burgers, got to the light and couldn't find anything, no restaurants that we could see, so off to the other light.

By the time we got to it they were closing their dinning room, really at 7:00p.m. on a Fri. night. They were still taking to-go orders but by the time we would have walked back to our hotel with it would have been ice cold. So what do we have on my first night in the culinary capitol, Papa John's pizza, sad I know. What are ya going to, we decided to call it a night and get some rest for embarkation day. That's the end of day 2, our little hiccup with the tire cost us some time and energy so we didn't get to explore NOLA more like I would have liked to. We are staying the day we get back from the cruise so we'll have to to explore then.

The cb at Super 8 was not as good as the one at Econo Lodge, it was all sweet and nothing salty. Waffles, cereal, pastries, yogurt and fruit, but it was enough to keep us satisfied until we got on the ship. The hotel told us that the other 2 groups going on the cruise from our hotel wanted to leave at 10:00a.m., so we went along with it. One of the groups was 4 women and they changed their minds and decided they wanted to go to the French Quarter and would leave around 1:00-2:00p.m.. So it was just another couple and us on the shuttle van. 15-20 minutes later we were dropped off at the port.

Great start to your review!!! Cannot wait to read more....

Sailing out of NOLA is on my bucket list....

Would love to sail down the Mississippi some day....:D:D

Looking forward to the review. Love the Elation. An oldie but goodie with a crew that repeatedly gets rave reviews.

Thank-you, I really enjoyed the Elation and it was nice to not have to walk as far to get to everything. That was our experience with the exception of 3 instances. By far the majority of the crew was friendly and did an excellent job.

Nice review so far, though I don't see the point of the poll, particularly when you can see who exactly doesn't like the review, you, your writing, whatever. :p

 

In any case, I'm looking forward to more. :)

Thank-you :). I've just learned that if you give a negative outlet for some it keeps the thread from being clogged with unnecessary clutter :D.

Great start to your review!!! Cannot wait to read more....

Sailing out of NOLA is on my bucket list....

Would love to sail down the Mississippi some day....:D:D

Thank-you :). I can't wait to do it again, now that we know we can drive to this port we will be sailing out of it again.

I got us Faster to the Fun Passes, we did it on our Splendor cruise and loved it. Well it didn't work out as nicely in Port of NOLA, as it had in Port of Manhattan.

First issue, we had our own line for check-in. The problem was there was a huge wedding party checking-in, and the lady controlling our line for FTTF walked away for 15 minutes and our line stopped moving. When we first got in the line our lady and the lady controlling the line for regular passengers were working together letting one regular go after 2 FTTF went. When our lady walked away the regular line lady just started letting the regular people go ignoring us FTTF. Standing there waiting and waiting I watched a couple in the regular line walk up go through their line, get checked-in and go sit down while we're still standing waiting in the FTTF line. Irritating to say the least, I was about to jump the line and go get in the regular line to check-in when our lady finally came back and was like sorry we have a huge wedding party checking-in, but they are done now. So FTTF people who have paid you extra money are made to suffer not the general boarding passengers?

Turns out there were a bunch of new people, "in training" and the regular line lady didn't know she should have been letting us go first :rolleyes:. We finally get checked-in and ask where do we go sit and we're told "anywhere". Excuse me, yes go sit anywhere there is no special section for FTTF and wait to be called to board. In POM we had our own special section with platinum and diamond near the boarding. So I'd have to say that PONOLA is my least favorite of all the ports I've sailed from, but by no means will it keep us from sailing from here. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages!

I would say by about 11:20a.m. we were dropping our carry-on's off in our room, which was ready and prepared. All of our luggage was also there, so we dragged that into the room. We were in Main241, an oceanview.

A TV so old the ancient Egyptians watched it :D.

Inside the closet with doors, one side is shelves.

The other side is for hanging.

Room for more hanging on the side of the closet.

Thank-you, I really enjoyed the Elation and it was nice to not have to walk as far to get to everything. That was our experience with the exception of 3 instances. By far the majority of the crew was friendly and did an excellent job.

Enjoying your review. I think Elation has one of the best Carnival staff I've experienced. They all bend over backwards to make your cruise enjoyable. The ship is older and in need of refurbishment (especially the cabins), but the staff make up for that.

We were ready to eat and check out the ship so off we headed up to the Tiffany Restaurant.

Our hallway.

The other side.

Our cabin door.

Tiffany's Restaurant.

My uncle Terry's plate.

While I was waiting for him to get back I grabbed a cup of fruit that I was sitting right next to. It was good the grape was really good.

I got a ham and cheese sandwich from the deli. It was good.

My plate of food to go with the sandwich. The eggplant was good, the potatoes were a little dried out, the pasta was good and the bread was so good both the french and the herb focaccia!

Dessert, the chocolate cake was good, but the cupcake was awful.

After lunch it was time to do some exploring.