Elation 10/30/05 Questions!!

[Sablerose]

Hi all, new to the forums, but have been lurking and reading. I have some Elation questions, I've searched a little and might be doubling up on some topics but am interested in everyone's feedback.

 

We're taking the 7-night Western Carib out of Galveston.

 

1) We are in an outside cabin (porthole windows) towards the front of the ship. Should we anticipate any problems with movement?

 

2) We're going to fly from San Antonio (driving from OKC to SA) to Houston and then get a shuttle to Galveston for the cruise. Shoudl we take the Carnival transfers for $66/ea, or should we book our own shuttle? Recommendations?

 

3) We'd love to take on a couple bottles of wine plus a couple bottles of liquor. I understand the wine can be carried on and then if we have it in the dining room there's a corkage fee. How about for liquor, is it still the consensus just to pack it in the original container wrapped in towels and ziplocs, in our checked bag(s)?

 

4) This will be my second cruise and my husband's first, and we're going over Halloween. Anything we should be ready for?

 

5) Is the buffet food really the same as the dining room food, if we didn't want to dress up formal for the dining room? Are we missing out on anything "luxurious" in the dining room by choosing to skip out on formal nights?

 

6) Any other hints???

 

Thank you so much!

 

Rose

Proud USAF Wife

Tinker AFB, OK

[Sablerose]

By the way, we got the military discount plus the upgrade to a forward (barely forward, first of the category) porthole room w/king size bed. So all in all we're paying $252/pp + taxes and fees. It works out to $391/pp, plus extras/transfers/etc. Thank you Carnival for having such a great program for military families.

[tef43]

Is the buffet food really the same as the dining room food,

Not even close.

[Sablerose]

Thanks for the amazing, in-depth reply. ;) Just going off what the Carnival rep told me, the same food at the buffet as in the dining room. I didn't buy it either, but hey. It was worth a shot.

 

So you didn't say, then -- are we gypping ourselves if we don't eat in the dining room on formal night?

[moonvine]

Thanks for the amazing, in-depth reply. ;) Just going off what the Carnival rep told me, the same food at the buffet as in the dining room. I didn't buy it either, but hey. It was worth a shot.

 

So you didn't say, then -- are we gypping ourselves if we don't eat in the dining room on formal night?

 

It depends on how much of a foodie you are, really. I found the buffet food to be about on par with Luby's or Furr's cafeteria, if not worse. There was very little I would eat in there. The dining room food, while still not *great* was much better. Some people happily eat the buffet food every night, though. It really depends on your personal taste. I'm sure you wanted a more cut and dried answer, but I don't know you or your preferences.

 

You could always eat pizza for dinner - the pizza is decent. I personally would rather have dining room food, but I like to dress up.

[Sablerose]

We're just on a budget, and don't have any formal clothes. For heaven's sake, the husband wears a uniform to work every day so as it is we will probably have to buy some "smart casual clothes" for him to be on the ship with. Ha!

 

Oh well, anyone have any other hints or suggestions based on my other questions? Thank you so much.

[moonvine]

We're just on a budget, and don't have any formal clothes. For heaven's sake, the husband wears a uniform to work every day so as it is we will probably have to buy some "smart casual clothes" for him to be on the ship with. Ha!

 

 

Well, if you WANT the formal clothes - women's formal clothing can be purchased on Ebay VERY VERY cheaply. I have gotten formal dresses for as little as $3.

 

Men's formal clothing can be rented on board. Not sure how much this is as I am not a man and have never checked:)

 

As far as the alcohol, I brought a bottle on in my checked luggage. I got a plastic bottle so as not to worry about breakage.

[TxShipShape]

2) We're going to fly from San Antonio (driving from OKC to SA) to Houston and then get a shuttle to Galveston for the cruise. Shoudl we take the Carnival transfers for $66/ea, or should we book our own shuttle? Recommendations?

 

FYI: Its about the same distance from OKC to Galveston as OKC to San Antonio. (according to Yahoo maps its about 20 miles SHORTER to Galveston)

[DreadPirateRobert]

Rose

Welcome to the boards and thank you for all that you and your family sacrifice in serving our country. You deserve free cruises as far as I'm concerned but wow, that is a pretty good rate.

You're probably going to feel some motion but unless you are very prone to motion sickness it shouldn't be a problem. It is the Gulf of Mexico not the North Atlantic. Bring some "less drowsy" seasickness pills if you think it might be a problem. We actually find the noises and the motion sort of romantic ;) ;)

You will be asked to pay a corkage fee for your wine. Keep the booze to yourself. You should be able to pack it in towels and be fine.

I think the buffet is good but would hate to miss the whole ambiance of the dining room. You should have the experience of being served and catered to. Your husband doesn't need a tux and you don't need a formal.

If an inexpensive sport coat for your husband and a nicer dress are just out of the question then I say wear the nicest thing you can afford. Walk into that dining room with your heads up and enjoy the service of the dining room. No one is going to say anything or point, stare or laugh.

 

Just wondering but can't Southwest Airlines get you from OKC to Houston Hobby without going through San Antonio?

 

I hope you and your husband have a great trip. The Elation is beautiful.

I can't wait to sail with her again.

[Sablerose]

Thank you all so much for the ideas and the welcomes!

 

We might try to find hubby a suit, as all men should have at least one suit, so that might be just an investment we should make. But I'll take advice about that.

 

Now about the corking fee for the wine, do they charge you that as you bring it on board or when you take it to the dining room? I thought the corking fee was if you took it into the dining room with you?

 

And TXShipShape, thank you - yeah, I know we could drive to Galveston. But, we have family in San Antonio who are going to watch our car, and our dog, while we're gone. So we're going to combine trips, go visit them, they'll take us to the airport and we'll hop a little flight over to Houston. Not the simplest, but definitely good for our dog and some nice family relations.

 

If we wanted to board the dog we'd have just flown out of Oklahoma City, but flights from here to anywhere are expensive. Go figure, we're smack-dab in the middle of the country, but we have a teeny, tiny airport. Urgh.

[davidaperryman]

The corkage fee is for serving in the dinning room, not for bringing it on board. Put it, and any liquor, in in your checked luggage and there is no problem.

 

The second formal night they serve lobster, and you don't want to miss that. On formal night a pair of slacks and a shirt with a collar will work. A jacket would be nice. You will see people dressed worse than that.

 

The buffet is good but not the same as the dinning room.

[mummy]

If your husband has "dress blues" they would be appropriate for the formal night(s). Do you have any "Ross Dress For Less" stores in OKC? If not, there are several in San Antonio, and they have nice women's/misses/juniors formals for $19.99/$24.99 (both short and long styles)

 

I imagine that you could probably drive from San Antonio to Galveston and park your vehicle for the week for much less than the tickets/transfers would cost you. You might want to at least check out the costs of that option. There are very safe enclosed parking lots for cruise parking.

 

Have a wonderful trip! The Elation is a great ship.

[chris2597]

Another idea would be to rent a car and drop it off at the port....or one of the hotels in Galveston....I live in SA and we are considering a cruise out of Galveston....We are going to rent a car, drive it to Galveston, turn it in, rent a car for the return. I am not sure where the rental agencies are but I think there are some located in the hotels....You could drop your luggage early in the morning, drop the car off and have the hotel / car rental agency shuttle you to the port....

[Ship Addict]

If you are on a budget but need some nice clothes, check out some of the resale shops in your area. We have seen some really nice suits and jackets for men in there. Can't say the same for the women's clothes in our shop, but you never know.

 

And no one will ever know you got it at a resale shop unless you tell everyone or the original owner just happens to see you wearing it . . .

[Sablerose]

Since we have a stop-off point in San Antonio for our doggy, perhaps the drive from SA to Galveston wouldn't be that bad of a deal.

 

I was looking on Enterprise though, and the only one-way rental I could find for them from SA to Galveston at the time we wanted it was around $100. I'm assuming it would be a similar fee to get the rental one-way back to San Antonio. While this would really help us not crimp our style in terms of time constraints, and we could drive to SA and hang out the rest of the day/overnight with family before hitting the road, at the same time the roundtrip flight was around $110/ea from SA to Houston (but then we'd have to pay for transfers).

 

How long is the drive from San Antonio to Galveston, if anyone knows? I had read also a long time ago about a parking lot for cruise parking that ran around $60 but included a full detailing? Would this include a SUV (which we have)?

 

I think it'll be easier to deal with luggage and not freak out about getting on and off the ship if we aren't struggling to catch a flight, let alone the whole "waiting in the airport for hours" thing.

 

That might just be do-able. I will have to convince my husband though that the drive will be worth it.

 

Now if we could rent a convertible Mustang and cruise there with the top down, I bet he'd change his tune! ;)

 

So: Recommendations for a rental car place, and has anyone found any good deals? Greatly appreciated, thank you so much!!

 

Regarding the clothes, we do have Ross here and I will probably start to check them out. I'm in the process of losing what I hope will be between 40-50 pounds before we get on the cruise ship so I don't want to buy anythign right away.

 

As far as the dress blues go, my husband is uncomfortable wearing them in public in a non-military setting. As you might imagine, they draw a lot of attention. When we go on vacation he wants to just "blend in" as much as a physically fit guy with a high-and-tight haircut can. People already make assumptions about whether or not we're military, and I think he'd actually be more comfortable if we could find him a suit.

 

For goodness sake, when we got married he wore a sport coat and a turtleneck and slacks! That reminds me, my ankle-length dress with suit jacket that I wore to our wedding might actually work for formal night, hmmmmmm...

 

THANK YOU!!

[okiemom]

We live in OKC and I always go to Ross for my dresses and the Men's Warehouse is good for suits or sports coats. Very reasonable and they fit/taylor the coats and pants to your husband. Keep your eyes open and watch out for end of the summer sales. Also, Payless has pretty shoes for formal evenings. I buy the STARLET collect. Strapy, pretty and sexy. Good luck and let us know about your cruise when you get back. We cruise on the Elation December 4th.:)

[Sablerose]

That's awesome. I didn't know we had Men's Wearhouse here. I will have to look them up. I'm also thinking about JC Penney, I think they often have good deals on suits.

 

We can always take them to the tailor on the base and get him fitted.

 

I wonder if the BX would have suits. Sport coats I'm sure they do.

 

*the wheels are grinding now!*

 

Nice to meet you Okiemom! Thank you!

[huskerdude]

The second formal night they serve lobster, and you don't want to miss that. On formal night a pair of slacks and a shirt with a collar will work. A jacket would be nice. You will see people dressed worse than that.

 

The buffet is good but not the same as the dinning room.

 

We just got back from an Elation cruise and you are not kidding about seeing people dressed worse. On the third night a guy was wearing tennis shoes, baggy shorts, and a tank top! The other was the last night a lady came in about 20 minutes after dinner had started and was basically wearing her bathing suit with a big shirt over it, and flip flops. Neither was on Formal nights but it still stands out. I highly recommend going to the dinning room. On our first cruise we only went one night and the rest of the time ate at the buffet. This last trip we only missed 1 dinner, and really enjoyed them all. If you don't see anything you like on the menu, just order a steak or just fill up on deserts.:) As far as motion it really depends on each indivdual, it does not bother me in the least, the DW & DD are different stories. Just get some pills or patches and you should be fine, but do the lower dosage.

Enjoy!!!!

[Maggie01]

We were on Elation 4/10/05 and we enjoyed eating in the dining room. We really enjoyed getting to know our tablemates and looked forward each night to hear about their day.

Don't worry about having formal wear. A lot of people dressed in Sunday church clothes. Just go and enjoy the food and the people.

[cpayne]

The drive from San Antonio to Galveston is approx 3 1/2 - 4 hrs depending on where in SA you are coming from and how fast you drive. I would highly recommend just driving. It actually would be quicker than flying:

 

30'ish min drive from your relatives to the airport

60 min required to arrive early to the airport

60 min flight

30 min to deplane and gather luggage

60 min drive from airport to pier

??? min waiting on Carnival shuttle until they fill the bus and depart to the pier.

 

That's at least 4 hrs. Won't save you any time by flying, but will save you money by driving! Check out http://www.ezcruiseparking.com for cheap parking rates.

 

As for your husband's attire on formal night......try local resale shops for him as well. Another option would be Burlington Coat Factory if you have one in your area.

[huskerdude]

I hate to say anything bad, but I would not park with this copmany again. Maybe they were having a bad day or something, but...

We debarked at about 10:00, easily found our luggage, went through customs and got in the line for ezcruise parking. When we got there there were people who had debarked almost an hour before us still waiting for a shuttle. When a shuttle finally showed up it only held about 7 people at a time. The line for another parking lot company, I think it was called Dolphin, had much bigger buses that were coming and going continually. Their line was WAY longer than our's and we were still waiting at 11:15 for a van to take us over to our car, while everyone from Dolphin was gone. When a van finally showed up at 11:30 it had no air conditioning. Like I said they may have been having a bad day, but I just don't like standing around in the heat waiting for somebody to take us to our car.

[Sablerose]

I totally see now how the drive would not save us any time and could save us lots of money.

 

Plus, the more I think about it I would feel a little more freedom in packing our luggage if I don't have to worry about it getting lost, inspected, anything (liquid in breakable containers) confiscated, etc.

 

Plus then I wouldn't feel bad about taking an extra bag or two to bring home souveniers in or one of those collapsible rolling coolers I've heard so much about.

 

This is making more and more sense...

 

Burlington Coat Factory! Of course! I totally forgot about them too and I KNOW there's one here, I bought a coat there.

 

Now I'm plotting. "Excellent, Smithers." *rubs hands together*

[homemom1912]

We've parked with EZ Cruise several times. They give a nice discount when you book online ahead of time. They do offer the use of a car cover and/or a detail for additional $$. We did find their shuttle service to be slow, so this last time we dropped off the kids (teenagers) with the luggage, and then we parked and walked the few blocks back to the ship. We reversed this on debarkation. This worked well. This also saved having to tip EZ Cruises' staff for loading/unloading their van and then the porters at the terminal as well. That means I can have one more fun beverage on board ship...:)

[homemom1912]

1) We are in an outside cabin (porthole windows) towards the front of the ship. Should we anticipate any problems with movement?

 

The lower and more mid-ship you are the less the movement. Dramamine (non-drowsy) works WELL.

 

5) Is the buffet food really the same as the dining room food, if we didn't want to dress up formal for the dining room? Are we missing out on anything "luxurious" in the dining room by choosing to skip out on formal nights?

 

From other threads I've read, it seems that the buffet style dinner selections are only part of the dining room choices. (We usually dine in the dining room, so I can't speak from personal experinece here.) But I think a lot of the ships post their menus ahead of time that day.

I really wish your hubby could get comfortable wearing his dress uniform. When I got married (24 years ago) my husband and I were to each wear white, and we selected soft blue for the gals and dark blue for the guys. The day before the wedding, I found out his best man was wearing his dress WHITE Navy uniform. It threw my plans and vision out the window for our wedding, but now I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm just glad he could be there. Be proud! He should be proud. A LOT of people dress for the dinner (and formal portraits) and then go change for the rest of the evening. Less to pack if he wore his uniform both formal nights, too.

We recently cruised on RCCL's Rhapsody of the Seas and as my daughter's boyfriend didn't have a sportscoat or suit, he and my husband (who has a tux, but gladly didn't pack it) just wore dress shirts with ties, and nice slacks instead. No one said a word. Most men, however, had a jacket of some type on. Don't miss a lovely dining experience because of clothing. I liked the idea of a good resale shop. Bargains are to be had there.

 

6) Any other hints???

• Take a highlighter to mark things you want to do on the daily cruise planner.
  
• We made a lot of use of sticky notes leaving each other messages as there's no phone message service.
  
• If you're not booking an excursion while in port, and want to save some $$, take zip-lock baggies with you, order each a room service lunch, and pack and take it with you. Bring your own bottled water.
  
• Pack a soft bag in your suitcase to take off ship with you. You may be carrying a change of clothes, a towel, beach shoes, etc. It comes in handy.
  

Have fun and remember to put on your sunscreen!:)