Robfromcharlottesville

Agreed, I stayed under the dining room, and we never heard a thing. It also probably helped that the times when the dining room was hopping, we were likely out of the rooms anyway - either eating in the dining room or out and about on the ship. I kind of liked staying under the dining room, because you know it was going to be empty and quiet at night when you're sleeping, as opposed to staying under a bar or night club or something that could be quite loud til 1 or 2 am.

I sailed on Elation out of New Orleans about two years ago, so I'm not sure if my info is still up to date, but for what it's worth -

3. Yes, the Elation does a Seaday brunch every sea day, and it's amazing! The steak and eggs is served with filet mignon! That's a must get, and one of my favorite meals of the whole cruise! The juevos rancheros was also very good.

5. Correct, there was no steakhouse when I was on Elation, but they gave you the option each night in the main dining room of ordering from the special menu, which was $20 an entree. This included filet mignon, lobster, etc. It was good - I'd recommend picking a night when there's nothing that looks particularly good to you on the regular menu then opting for this. For me, 4 out of the 5 nights the regular menu had multiple dishes that sounded really good to me. Only one night did we stray to the $20 extra menu. Overall, the food in the main dining room was very good. The buffet was mediocre at best, though you could usually find something that was pretty decent.

Hope this helps, and have a blast. We really enjoyed our time on Elation.

We're just looking for a laid back, relaxing vacation. We're not forking out a crap ton of money for excursions, etc. The beach, maybe a little shopping, lots of food and drinks. We're not looking to go, go, go. I think we may get the day pass at the Hilton on Nassau, probably chill at the beach in Half Moon Cay, not sure about Freeport yet. We don't want to have to worry about taxis, getting back to the ship on time, etc,etc, etc. We've never cruised before, didn't feel like driving 20 hours to Miami. plus, a 5 day our of Jacksonville is a lot cheaper than a 5 day out of Charleston. We don't need a big, fancy ship. We're easy to please.

I think you'll have a great time then. It's true, this is one of Carnival's older, smaller boats and can see it's a little worn in places if you really look for it, and doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistle's, but it's nice, it's clean, and I think you'll be very pleased. Some great points already made about what to do on the ship. I'll just add a couple things about the food. I really liked the food in the main dining room. We were traveling out of New Orleans in 2016 with small kids and so ate just as the dining room opened for anytime dining, and we never had to wait. Always the first or second in line, and had our choice of tables and ocean views. While this wasn't five star best of Paris or New York City cuisine, I really liked just about everything I had. Every night, you have the option of eating steak and salmon, etc. (which they do really well, particularly the salmon), and also have a special nightly menu with tons of great options. The chateaubriand and just about all the fish dishes really stood out! And make sure to order a bunch of the starters. The shrimp cocktail on the everyday menu was only mediocre, IMO, but I loved most of the options on the nightly menu (the escargot, crabcakes, sushi, seafood pasta as a starter, etc. all very good.) I'd avoid eating in the buffet as much as possible, though the sandwich station is tasty if you don't mind a short line. And the main thing to do is to eat at the Sea day brunch every chance you get. It's terrific. The steak and eggs comes with filet mignon, and the huevos rancheros is terrific. For the other breakfasts, I really liked the eggs benedict. In the main dining room, you also have the option of ordering things like lobster or filet mignon for an additional $20 fee. This was fun to do once, but for the most part, the nightly entrees are so good I'l just go with that. What we did was pick the night with the least appealing menu options to order up for the surf and turf. Have a great time!

They did not have hub as of march.

Its slow but actually better than i expected. Could post on facebook ok, for example, but could not live stream.

Typically 10 to 20 minutes. Not bad at all.

I sailed on Elation in February and can confirm what a lot of people have been saying about Your Time Dining - the later you go, the longer you wait. We were a group of 7 with 2 young toddlers and so it was important that we eat as early as possible with as little a wait as possible. Otherwise the toddlers would get cranky and my sister would have to leave halfway through dinner!

We did Your Time Dining, getting there every night a minute or two before the doors opened at 5:45. We were literally the first in line every single night and got our pick of tables. Arriving at YTD 5:40 pm, we'd all be sitting at our 8 top table with a great ocean view looking at menus by 5:47. And every night as we left the YTD MDR, usually around 730 or 8, there was a long line at the door waiting to get in. From what I overheard, it sounded like people typically had to wait btwn 15 and 40 minutes at that time. Hope this helps!

Another tip is there is no corkage fee if you pour yourself a glass of wine in your cabin and then bring that with you to the main dining room, leaving your bottle of wine behind in the cabin. I did this every night, usually with red wine, then I'd also order a glass of white for about $8 so I'd be covered regardless of what food I ordered (usually some combination of steak and seafood.)

Yes on elation two weeks ago ,there were two main dining rooms, one for anytime dining, and one for the standard early and late dining periods. Both main dining rooms had a formal night. It is usually as someone else said, on the first day at sea, unless there is another major event such as the Super Bowl for me my last cruise , or maybe a holiday, in which case they might move it to another night.

Do you know if there are two main dining rooms on Elation, or just the one?

 

Oops, missed this part of the question. Elation has 2 dining rooms, one for Your Time Dining that opens at 5:45 pm, and one for the early and late seatings.

Yes, the atrium bar is at the middle of the empress deck and frequently has a live musician playing guitar every night til 11 pm or 12, as i recall. Guest services is also located right there, so it might b a little noisy.

I agree with everything the OP said. The Funshops were open with boxes being emptied on our sailing. The Elation was beautiful and the public were kept remarkably clean. My favorite entree of the sailing was the beef brisket, never had better. Every single interaction with Carnival stellar was a wonderful experience. I can not wait to go again, just wish they would substitute Costa Maya for Progreso.

Yes, I did try the brisket - I liked that as well!

And I agree about Costa Maya. I am glad I got the chance to visit Progreso and definitely enjoyed my stop there. It was such a different experience from Cozumel it was worthwhile, and I would encourage other people to visit there if you haven't already, but otherwise would feel no compulsion to go back for a second time. I would certainly enjoy returning there again - (I can sit on the beach sipping beers and eating shrimp empanadas with the best of them!) but would probably like to switch it up a little bit my next cruise. Cozumel and Costa Maya would be terrific!

I'd strongly encourage you to extend you time to spend at least a few days in NOLA if you can. If not, I would recommend keeping your schedule flexible and just walking around the French Quarter and doing and eating whatever looks good. Your 24 hours will go so quick, it's just not enough time to plan to do much. All the above suggestions are great but avoid committing yourself to doing something which is going to suck up a bunch of your very limited time. Walk up and down Bourbon and Royal Streets and Decatur down by the river, and along Frenchmen at night for the live music.

For the other poster asking about non-seafood options in NOLA, po-boys are a great option and can be ordered at most traditional NOLA style restaurants. For a few specific suggestions other than po boys, the Joint is a very good bbq spot in the Bywater and Willie Mae's towards Uptown on St. Charles has some of the best fried chicken and traditional NOLA soul food ever. don't miss their butter beans and mac n cheese!

yes, but they no longer include lobster on the 5 night cruises. 7 nights or longer only.

And the elegant part is strictly optional. there'll be a few dressed formally, a few in suits, and most in khakis and a collared shirt with no tie.

My almost 2 year old niece singing "Let it Go" from Frozen in karaoke in the Cole Porter Lounge on Elation.

I recently cruised on elation out of New Orleans and we had a 2 year old and 4 year old in our party and so we chose to eat as early as possible. We were your time dining so we always got there a few minutes before it started around 5:40 5:35, and we were always first in line. However we often the main dining room around 7:30 and there was frequently a line of about 30 minutes

On the beach in Progreso by sharks restaurant.

Downtown progreso walking to the beach.

On the 15 minute free bus ride from the ship to downtown progreso. Very easy, but you have to sit and listen to their 6 minute sales pitch to take a tour somewhere before they let u off the bus.

uh oh, you might be a little cold! during my cruise, it was a little cold in NOLA (50s to 60s) the day we embarked, but by the time we hit the middle of the afternoon the next day at sea, it was plenty warm to walk around in shorts and a t shirt. some people were in the pool, but that was too cold for me, so I stuck to the hot tubs when they weren't packed. In Mexico, the locals told us that it was unseasonably cold. We wore bathing suits but didn't go in the water much past our knees. but it was very comfortable sitting on the beach. hopefully it'll warm up a bit more for you by the time you're on the ship. I should note that the day we got back to NOLA, the weather was beautiful and about 75 degrees.

have a great time!

Too bad, but for what its worth, elation is perfectly fine as is. For exampke, newer flat screens in the cabin would be nice, lol , but watching tv in your cabin is such a low priority on a cruise, who really cares if the tv is 1990s tech! You'll have a great time!

I never made it down to deck 3 so am not sure how that is. I can tell u that we stayed on empress deck 7 in e215 to e 227 under one of the mdr, just down the hall from the atrium bar and guest services, which have elevators to access all the upper decks, and we were really happy with those cabins. Short walk up one flight of stairs to the mdr, 2 flights to the casino and most of the bars n lounges, plus since mdr is empty at night after dinner, there was no noise issue from above. im sure deck 3 is fine, but with the extra flights if stairs to walk to get anywhere, you'll probably be tempted to take the elevators, which sometimes entail a little bit of a wait. But probably not a big deal either way.

Are u taking elation out of jacksonville then? Im curious what kind of renovations they'll b doing in dry port when it switches out of nola.

Cozumel and el cid beach resort half a mile from the port.

I should give a shout out to pablo, my steward, he was great. The staff in the main dining room were also great, including Alfredo. unfortunately i don't remember too many of the other names

From the ship.