Just got off the Elation Yesterday...

[hawaiibound24]

We just got off the Elation yesterday... we had a wonderful time.

I hope to put a review together this week. My only real complaint is they are way to pushy on taking pictures..... not that you buy them but that you take them.

 

Food was great....

Shows were great...

Weather was great in both Playa del Carmen and Cozumel...

 

Ask away with any questions????

[CMOTO]

thinking of booking the Elation on March 26... there will be four of us. I have been on the Fantasy, is this ship the same as that one..... how was the food, i love eating!!!!

 

any tips for me???

[wecca]

thinking of booking the Elation on March 26... there will be four of us. I have been on the Fantasy, is this ship the same as that one..... how was the food, i love eating!!!!

 

any tips for me???

 

We (10 of us) are booked on March 26th. Two of us were on the Victory years ago. The rest of will be first time cruisers. Hoping to read the reveiw.

[hawaiibound24]

I still hope to write the review this week and post it. Darn thing called work is getting in the way. The Elation is very similar the Fantasy. It does not have the water park and the cabins have not been updated yet, but it is a Fantasy class ship. We thought the food was very good (much better than our Monarch of the Seas cruise last year). I will write more about it in the review.

[h_blond2]

I will be going on this same cruise this May! I love the Elation and I'm ready to be on it again! We have our day in Cozumel planned out, but we are still kind of up in the sair about Playa del Carmen....how did you get from Calica to Playa del Carmen? We know that there are taxi's and buses. but are unsure of what the best way to get there is.

[hawaiibound24]

Read more in my next posting.... we took a taxi to downtown... very easy. It was $13 each way for up to 4 people. We shared a taxi on our way to town.

[hawaiibound24]

Carnival Elation, February 7th to February 12th.

 

We enjoyed this cruise very much. We have not sailed on Carnival since about 2006, so we were ready to try again. We have been on NCL and RCI since our last Carnival Cruise.

 

Getting on the ship was very easy. We got there extra early and we were on the ship before 11:30. We were in the first 3 “groups” to check in. No issues at all. I will say we got a very good resident rate (Indiana). They did not ask us to prove we were from Indiana when we checked in.

 

The first day in Mobile was very cold. It rained that morning and it was cloudy and barely 60.

The 1st day at sea was a little better. Some sun. People were out on deck and it was a good day by the afternoon.

Calica (Playa del Carmen) was very nice…warm (80 to 85) and sunny most of the day.

Cozumel was more of the same. About 80 with clouds and sun.

The last day at sea was again cloudy and cool.

 

Cabin: We purchase a cat IS and got an inside cabin on the Upper deck. It was mid ship and very convenient.

The Elation has not yet had their cabins updated but still acceptable for the price and much larger than and RCI inside cabin.

 

Food: We thought the food was very good. The Mongolian grill and deli were a great touch. The deli being open from 11am to 11pm is also great. The dinning room food was, in our opinion, better than RCI. Deserts were much better. Our last RCI cruise did not even have real cheesecake in the dinning room (seemed like no-bake whipped). This cruise had it several times (different flavors). I enjoyed the ribs, steaks, lobster tail (no longer available on RCI). The fried shrimp on the buffet one night was very good. Breakfast was ok… and yes there were bacon police. Eggs were runny more than one morning (I started getting omelets). They no longer have big midnight buffets (Mexican one night), but they did have snacks each night from 11:30 to 1:00am which were grill items.

 

Shows: We thought the shows on this ship were great. Even the opening night show was good. The Rock show was very good and the newest show “Win” was very different but very good. It was like a musical comedy. Two nights they had had several comedian shows which were both good.

 

Ports of Call:

 

Calica: We took a taxi ($13 each way which we shared with another couple going) to Playa del Carmen. We shopped on 5th street and spent the day at the beach . Very nice. It was kind of windy this day which helped keep you cool. There were also some big waves but still lots of people in the water.

 

Cozumel: We have been to Cozumel several times so this time we decided to do an all inclusive. After a lot of research, we decided on the Park Royal Hotel. This hotel is fairly new and is walking distance from the ship. We did not have to take a taxi. It is about 10 minutes to the left when you go out to the road. They charged $40 per person which included all drinks and food from 11am to 6pm. Their beach area overlooks the cruise ships. This was not an issue at all. The closest ship to us was the Oasis of the Seas. I will say he beach area is small but does open up to a decent snorkeling area. They included snorkeling equipment for 1 hour. The best part of the hotel is the 3 pools (all with swim up bars) and two large hot (well cool) tubs. The grounds are very nice. They include a buffet lunch and also the snack bars are open all afternoon. You can get about any drink you want. After we walked back to the pier, we did some shopping there which is not to bad.

 

 

Overall, we had a very good time and will defiantly cruise Carnival again. Heck, our next cruise will be our 10th with them and we will be VIP.

[RAMSJUNKIE887]

Carnival Elation, February 7th to February 12th.

 

We enjoyed this cruise very much. We have not sailed on Carnival since about 2006, so we were ready to try again. We have been on NCL and RCI since our last Carnival Cruise.

 

Getting on the ship was very easy. We got there extra early and we were on the ship before 11:30. We were in the first 3 “groups” to check in. No issues at all. I will say we got a very good resident rate (Indiana). They did not ask us to prove we were from Indiana when we checked in.

 

The first day in Mobile was very cold. It rained that morning and it was cloudy and barely 60.

The 1st day at sea was a little better. Some sun. People were out on deck and it was a good day by the afternoon.

Calica (Playa del Carmen) was very nice…warm (80 to 85) and sunny most of the day.

Cozumel was more of the same. About 80 with clouds and sun.

The last day at sea was again cloudy and cool.

 

Cabin: We purchase a cat IS and got an inside cabin on the Upper deck. It was mid ship and very convenient.

The Elation has not yet had their cabins updated but still acceptable for the price and much larger than and RCI inside cabin.

 

Food: We thought the food was very good. The Mongolian grill and deli were a great touch. The deli being open from 11am to 11pm is also great. The dinning room food was, in our opinion, better than RCI. Deserts were much better. Our last RCI cruise did not even have real cheesecake in the dinning room (seemed like no-bake whipped). This cruise had it several times (different flavors). I enjoyed the ribs, steaks, lobster tail (no longer available on RCI). The fried shrimp on the buffet one night was very good. Breakfast was ok… and yes there were bacon police. Eggs were runny more than one morning (I started getting omelets). They no longer have big midnight buffets (Mexican one night), but they did have snacks each night from 11:30 to 1:00am which were grill items.

 

Shows: We thought the shows on this ship were great. Even the opening night show was good. The Rock show was very good and the newest show “Win” was very different but very good. It was like a musical comedy. Two nights they had had several comedian shows which were both good.

 

Ports of Call:

 

Calica: We took a taxi ($13 each way which we shared with another couple going) to Playa del Carmen. We shopped on 5th street and spent the day at the beach . Very nice. It was kind of windy this day which helped keep you cool. There were also some big waves but still lots of people in the water.

 

Cozumel: We have been to Cozumel several times so this time we decided to do an all inclusive. After a lot of research, we decided on the Park Royal Hotel. This hotel is fairly new and is walking distance from the ship. We did not have to take a taxi. It is about 10 minutes to the left when you go out to the road. They charged $40 per person which included all drinks and food from 11am to 6pm. Their beach area overlooks the cruise ships. This was not an issue at all. The closest ship to us was the Oasis of the Seas. I will say he beach area is small but does open up to a decent snorkeling area. They included snorkeling equipment for 1 hour. The best part of the hotel is the 3 pools (all with swim up bars) and two large hot (well cool) tubs. The grounds are very nice. They include a buffet lunch and also the snack bars are open all afternoon. You can get about any drink you want. After we walked back to the pier, we did some shopping there which is not to bad.

 

 

Overall, we had a very good time and will defiantly cruise Carnival again. Heck, our next cruise will be our 10th with them and we will be VIP.

 

 

Nachi Cocom is the one and only way to go all inclusive in cozumel

[hawaiibound24]

Nachi Cocom is the one and only way to go all inclusive in cozumel

 

 

One reason I forgot to mention why we chose Park Royal is they did not require or need reservations. The weather this time of year is very unpredictible and so we wanted to be able to decide that morning if we were going or not. In additition, we save about $25 in taxi fees.

[CMOTO]

thanks for your review...

can you tell me if the doors are magnetic, would one of those dry erase boards stick to the outside for leaving notes for our friends?

 

do they still have the past guest party?

 

we leave March 26th, I starting to pack mentally, I would break out the suitcases but I think my husband would roll his eyes....a little too early!!!!

[WAHMto5]

Thank you for the review, we are looking forward to going on the Elation in May!

[hawaiibound24]

thanks for your review...

can you tell me if the doors are magnetic, would one of those dry erase boards stick to the outside for leaving notes for our friends?

 

do they still have the past guest party?

 

we leave March 26th, I starting to pack mentally, I would break out the suitcases but I think my husband would roll his eyes....a little too early!!!!

 

 

I am not sure if they are magnetic.......my guess is they are masonite but I didnt pay that much attention.

 

Yes, they did. It was on the Cozumel night from 5:00 to 5:45 which was not real convenient. We did not go (we had enough drinks at our all inclusive earlier that day).

[scperk]

thanks for your review...

can you tell me if the doors are magnetic, would one of those dry erase boards stick to the outside for leaving notes for our friends?

 

do they still have the past guest party?

 

we leave March 26th, I starting to pack mentally, I would break out the suitcases but I think my husband would roll his eyes....a little too early!!!!

Yes the doors are metal...We did the repo fron San Diego and our friends gave us a dry erase board that we had on our door..But on the Conquest the doors are not metal so we had to stick them to the wall next to our door which was metal ...Dennis

[McMacy]

Is there a CD player in the room? Any music channels on TV?

[CMOTO]

oh good, this is our friends first cruise and I'm sure it will come in handy when we are trying to keep track of each other!!!

 

About the deli, is it like the one on the Fantasy?? it was awesome but it was only open from 11am to 2pm and ALWAYS crowded.... or is this one different???