Talk to me about Elation and reviews

Looking for a quick cruise in September on the Elation since it’s less than an hour drive for us. Price is great but hurricanes make me nervous (even though I live in Florida). We have to use some of our vacation time around then and it’s an easy trip with our 4 and 6 year old. Has the elation been renovated? If so, when? What’s to like and what not to like?

Also can someone send me some links of Elation reviews? Thanks.

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Extensive refurb last August. New rooms, all rooms updated, new Guys Burgers, Blue Iguana bar/pub food, Red Rum Bar, new water park and other stuff I’m sure I’m forgetting. I embark on her tomorrow for our first cruise.

Following. We are sailing on her in Oct

USB ports in cabins. Fridges and hairdryers in all cabins. EM

Its just a great ship. Now, with the 2.0 upgrades, it’s even better. Fantasy class ships are the best kept secrets. No lines for ANYTHING. The cruise snobs on here will discard it because they only sail the “newer and bigger” ships (they typically look down their noses when they declare this [emoji16]). Book it and go, you will be glad you did

I think it’s a pretty great little ship. If it was only an hour from me, I would be sailing on her a few times a year. Other than avoiding a connecting cabin, there isn’t much negative to say. Crew was great!

I have a recent Magic / Elation review in my signature. The Elation part starts on page 34. :cool:

oh it has the 2.0 now? neat! Elation was out first. not the biggest ship, but we find that the smaller, just about the better. might not have some of the stuff the mega-ships have but they generally seem less crowded and have a cozier feeling. I don't know how to describe it, but they just have a feel all their own. I say give her a chance, I bet you'll like it.

I think your kids are the perfect age for this ship-they are not old enough to run off all the time. Make sure you book early enough to get the early dinner. There will be more kids at that time spot, and kids don't really like to eat after 8. Now that that is out of the way-

Our trip in 40+ days will be on the Elation, for the fourth time. We enjoy the smaller Fantasy class, folks are correct when they say there are not lines, and there is plenty to do, and quality time with family. The smokers are now up on the verandah deck outside away from the pool area, and you have Carnival camp, where the kids can spend the day, or a few hours of the day, giving you some time alone. I am assuming the ports are Nassau and HMC. HMC is the best beach in the world, the perfect beach day, and Nassau can be fun, depending on what you want to do. You would love Blue Lagoon, or if you wanted to stay in town, walk over to the Pirate Museum. It's not as good as Disney, but it's like what Disney does with it's cue lines. I think with your two little ones, you will find the perfect Bahamian adventures.

If you go to the top of CC page, you will see RESEARCH, click there, and then on Ship, and fill in the blanks. The problem with these reviews are to me the following -and yes I have written a review for every cruise except for ALASKA and our first cruise. You will read a review about how great the ship is, how wonderful the food was, the staff was fabulous and then the very next review, written for the same cruise on the same dates, the next author will say how awful it was. In truth, as my mamma told me, wherever you go, there you are. You make the cruise great, you make your encounters great.

As far as weather, we had been cruising in September, October, November, and we have had high seas on one of those trips But I was reading reviews for the first of March, and saw an old friend the other day saying it was rough in the first week of March. you never know. The captain wont put you at risk, and neither will the cruise line. I hope that you have a great cruise, and I would recommend a window cabin, on the Empress deck, if you can get it. Closer to everything. Have fun!

Elation is an old clunker.

Following. We are sailing on her in Oct

Us too! We are going the 13th how about you guys?

Thank you for the encouragement. This will be cruise #11 for us. We’ve been ok everything from small to big and never had a bad cruise.

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Just sailed her march 1. Loved the updated stuff! I did a small review on here. If you search carnival Elation march 1-5. Our last sea day was an absolute nightmare! But other than that I really enjoyed this ship!

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Us too! We are going the 13th how about you guys?

27th

Hopefully some of you going soon will do a review looking at possible trip on Elation in a year

USB ports in cabins. Fridges and hairdryers in all cabins. EM

Mini fridge in all cabins? How many USB ports & where are they?

Mini fridge in all cabins? How many USB ports & where are they?

Supposed to be all. Lots of cabins so would be hesitant to put a 100% every single cabin. Believe it’s two ports on the lamps. Be able to say 100% in a couple hours.

Why was your sea day a nightmare? I have heard this shop can be rocky....

Just sailed her march 1. Loved the updated stuff! I did a small review on here. If you search carnival Elation march 1-5. Our last sea day was an absolute nightmare! But other than that I really enjoyed this ship!

 

 

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Why was your sea day a nightmare ?

Just sailed her march 1. Loved the updated stuff! I did a small review on here. If you search carnival Elation march 1-5. Our last sea day was an absolute nightmare! But other than that I really enjoyed this ship!

 

 

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Was on Elation the end of January. There are pluses and minuses. Among the pluses, by being a small ship, was so easy to find your way around, and was less crowded a lot of times. The crew and wait staff were great. The elevators were mostly pretty fast, not slow like on some of the larger ships. The food was good on lido and also MDR where we ate every night. We had two other couples with us, and we all pretty much would give the same review as this one. Two of our group used a mobility scooter and a wheel chair. The dining room staff bent over backwards to accommodate us after a rough start with being assigned Your time dining after we were all supposed to be early dining. We later found out we were bumped out because of a large group (350) being assigned early dining. Because of this, our YTD staff had us come every night at 5:45 and they moved us in first, and were at the same table every night. The people lined up outside for ytd weren't too happy with this but we appreciated it!

We all had one of the new balcony rooms added during the recent upgrade. This is where most of my minuses come in. There was a fridge and several USB ports, I think one was on the desk and two were on the bedside lamps. Plenty of closet space, but the shelves were in the open area by the cabin door, only one in a closet. The bathroom was standard size, a little different layout with the toilet being next to the sink instead of in front of it which made the bathroom seem bigger. There were the two small glass shelves for toiletries, but the sink itself was the new style with no vanity area (counter space) on it. I personally didn't like that there wasn't enough room for your toiletries, most of that stuff I had to put on the open shelves by the cabin door. The room itself was the smallest balcony room we ever had. There was no sofa or small table as in every one we've ever had, only seating was the desk stool and the bed; not too good for us older folks, lol. We ended up bringing one of the chairs off the balcony to have at least one to sit in. This may not matter to younger folks or people who don't spend a lot of time in cabin/on balcony, but it was definitely not for me.

Seas were pretty rough when we went, but that's to be expected this time of year. It was very windy and cloudy most of the trip. I actually got a bit sick which was a first for me having 19 cruises under my belt! A larger ship would have handled rough seas better.

I also will have to say the band type entertainment on this cruise was the worst ever! You know it's bad when there are plenty of empty seats by the casino bar area where they play. The casino was smoky, but tolerable. We usually didn't stay too long in the evenings, but would go early in the mornings after they opened and enjoyed it much more.

Debarkation went well, we were off the ship quickly as they had the front bank of elevators dedicated to platinum/diamond/special needs. Only glitch on debarkation was a lack of porters, took over 30 minutes after we all had our luggage to get one.

I don't think we will go on Elation again any time soon, and will go out of port Canaveral mostly. We live within an hour of Jacksonville, and two from Canaveral.

If anyone has any questions, I'll check back to see if I can answer.

27th

We're on the Oct. 27th cruise as well! Third trip on the Elation, one before and one after renovations. Great Ship!:D

I sailed on the elation prior to the upgrades in January of last year. As PPs have posted no long lines (except pizza...). We did not take our kids with us to that cruise.

I also sailed on the Fantasy (with my kids) at a similar age. (2,3 and 5 at the time). Things we enjoyed were obviously the water park and the elation's recent upgrade the water park looks super cool, better than fantasy. They loved playing on that giant chess board. Putt Putting. Also We would go to the library and play board games with them and make puzzles -I know not a big great thing but my kids really enjoyed that quality time! We made the stuffed bears. My oldest won a trophy and was so happy (Still has it proudly displayed 3 years later) that she recently wrote about it in a biography for her second grade class lol. We spent some time at the arcade. And of course with every Carnival cruise lol unlimited ice cream, which has always been available 24/7 on our Fantasy cruises, not runny like I have read in reviews of big ships. This was also before the Dr. Suess Green eggs and ham breakfast/parade.

We enjoy smaller ships for shorter cruise because as PP says minimal lines as well as small ship so super easy to navigate.

On board now. Our room has 6 USB outlets. Two on each lamp bedside and two at the desk. We have a suite so not sure if all rooms have the additional two at the desk. All are supposed to have the lamps.

Can anyone who has been on the elation tell me if it was a particularly rocky ride?

My family and I will be on her Oct 8.