Carnival Elation June 24 - 28 Review...Lots of Pics!

[h_blond2]

Let me just start out by saying that this was a great cruise and wonderful vacation all the way around! This cruise consisted of my mom and myself...our 5th annual mother/daughter cruise. This was a 5 day cruise to Progreso and Cozumel that left from New Orleans. We turned out 5 day cruise into a 7 day vacation by touring the locations where The Help was filmed and we also spent a day on Ship Island, which is off the coast of Mississippi. I am going to spend a little time on the first two days of vacation, just in case any of you are looking for things to do pre-cruise!

[2txgirls]

Sailing on Elation in 23 days-- can't wait to hear more!!!

[h_blond2]

We started out vacation on the Saturday before the cruise. I kissed my boyfriend good-bye at 4:30 in the morning and made the quick 15 mile drive to my parents house and we were off! To get to NOLA from southeast Missouri you have to drive through the whole state of Mississippi...so we decided to spend a few hours in Green Wood, MS, which is where the movie The Help was filmed. My mom and I are huge fans of the book and the movie and we were both really looking forward to this day! Mom had contacted the Green Wood Chamber of Commerce for information about these locations and they sent her a ton of stuff, including a map that had all the locations listed on it. We saw the Garden Club where the Junior League met, the Courthouse where the benefit was held, Hilly's house, Elizabeth's house, Minny's house, Abiliene's house, the church that Minny and Abiliene attended and Skeeter's house. All of the houses are private residences, but the owners of Skeeter's house had a sign up saying that tours were okay and they allowed you to drive right up to the house to get pictures because the house sat off the road and was hidden by trees. How awesome is that! We ended this awesome day by driving to Hattiesburg where we stayed at the Econo Lodge. It was very clean and the staff was very pleasant.

The Garden Club

 

Abiliene's House

 

Hilly's House...the house with all the toilets in the yard!

 

Minny and Abilene's Church

 

Skeeter's house...I loved it!!

Edited July 7, 2013 by h_blond2

[rae.holmes]

Excited to read more! We will be on her in dec!!!

[h_blond2]

We spent our second day of vacation on Ship Island. Ship Island is off the coast of Gulfport. You board a ferry and it takes about on hour to get to the island. The ride out there was great! We sat on the top and we saw hundreds of dolphins, but of course I wasn't able to get a picture because I was never ready! I really enjoyed Ship Island, but my mom and I had been mislead about the water. The water was your typical brown water that you find in the Gulf, but we had been lead to believe that it was going to be greener than it was, but it definitely didn't ruin our day! The beach itself was beautiful! You can rent two chairs and an umbrella for $25 or just the umbrella for $15. We brought our own chairs, but we did decide to rent an umbrella, because I am about as white as they come and I would've fried without it! There is no shade on Ship Island! Before we left we toured Fort Massachusetts, which was used in the Civil War Our ferry left at 9 am and we chose to leave the island at 2 pm. Another ferry did leave arrive at noon and left at 5 pm. You have the option to leave at 2 or 5. We then made the 10 mile drive to Biloxi to the Treasure Bay Hotel and Casino. It was great! We had a view of the ocean and even though it was brown water, we spent most of the night sitting on our balcony enjoying the view! I'm sure I'm forgetting something about these first two days, so if you have any questions, just ask!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2013 by h_blond2

[h_blond2]

 

 

 

 

 

[h_blond2]

As I said before, this was a great cruise!!! There were a lot of little changes that made a big difference...mom and I chalked it up to 'damage control' due to all the bad publicity that Carnival has had lately. We arrived at the Fulton Place Parking Garage around 10:30, were immediately shuttled over to the terminal, went through a super esy check-in and we were on the ship by 11:30! During our wait there was an employee who was speaking to us and gave us some statistics about this cruise, neither of us remembered this from previous cruises. Side Note: The Faster to the Fun folks boarded maybe 15 minutes before we did, not worth the $50, but to each his own! Some of the changes that we noticed were that the rooms were ready by 12:30, instead of 1:30, the pools were open and things just seemed to be running much nore smoothly than normal. We also noticed that the rules were being enforced...yay! Mom saw a teenage boy get kicked out of the buffet line because he didn't have a shirt on. Our luggage was to our room by 2:30. Mom and I ate lunch, relaxed in the pool and attended the new and improved Welcome Aboard Show. We were introduced to the Cruise Director, the AD, and the Comdey Club manager, Mo. He was hilarious...he made this a funny cruise! We also met our room steward, Jenelyn. She was by far the friendliest steward we have ever had! She did a great job!

Ready to get on the ship!

 

 

 

 

I played on $20 the whole cruise! Woo-hoo!

 

Welcome Aboard Show

[lives_erased]

love it, single digits to elation finally for us

[christyran1228]

38 days for us until we head out for NOLA for our turn on the Elation... thank you so much for your review & pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Forums mobile app

[h_blond2]

We woke up to rain on our first Fun Day at Sea. It made it really easy to find a chair in the sun! I loved watching it rain in the distance while I had the sun shine on me! After we spent a few hours in the sun we ate lunch at the Mongolian Wok...so good and were lazy for a few hours. Later that night, we went to the first show, Just Rock. This is the third or fourth time I've seen the show, but I still enjoyed it! After the show we killed some time in the casino before going to see the adult comedy show featuring Al Katz. After the show, we went to bed because we had a an early morning in Progreso the next day!!

The early morning rain showers kept a lot of people away for several hours!

 

 

The weather did clear up and I had this lovely view to enjoy!

 

Excuse my crazy red eyes, but here we are in the Mikado Lounge waiting on the show to start.

 

With Jerry the Cruise Director

 

[WellDeserved]

More, we want more!! 28 days 'til our Aug. 5th date with the Elaton.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Cruise Critic App.

Future Cruise:

Carnival Elation 8/05/2013 Western Caribbean

Past Cruises:

Carnival Fantasy 10/1/2007 Western Caribbean

Holiday (ship retired) 7/3/2006 Western Caribbean

[marshhawk]

We have a porthole booked for the Elation in January-what is that large block furniture? under your tv?

[WellDeserved]

That is where the life preservers are stored.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Cruise Critic App.

Future Cruise:

Carnival Elation 8/05/2013 Western Caribbean

Past Cruises:

Carnival Fantasy 10/1/2007 Western Caribbean

Holiday (ship retired) 7/3/2006 Western Caribbean

[h_blond2]

We have been to Progreso several times and we have no desire to stay in the town, so, like always, we booked a tour to the Uxmal Mayan ruins through Autoprogreso about a month before the cruise. However, about a week before the cruise, Autoprogreso e-mailed mom to tell her that not enough people had signed up for the tour and if more people didn't sign up, they wouldn't have the tour. We were disappointed by the news, but hopeful that more people would sign up. We also appreciated the fact that they did e-mail us so we could come up with a back up plan. When we got to Progreso we found Guadelupe and she gave us the bad news that no one else had signed up, so we wouldn't be going to Uxmal. Bummer! We went with the back up plan and booked a tour to the Technotel beach resort, which also takes you through salt flats that are home to thousands of flamingos and to the small Xcambo ruins. We all piled on to the bus and headed to the hotel and those of us that wanted to go to ruins simply stayed on the bus and we were off. Our tour guide and driver were very nice to us and let us get off the bus at the salt flats to take pictures of the flamingos before heading on to the ruins. Although the ruins were very small, they were nice enough, but I only spent about four seconds in the ruins because the mosquitos were horrible!! I took a few pictures and ran back to the bus! After about 25 minutes everyone was back on the bus and we headed to the beach. We had about two hours at the beautiful beach and took full advantage of the free drinks and the yummy food they provided for us! We were very disappointed about not being able to go to Uxmal, but we still had a great day!

Mom and I are huge animal lovers and we volunteer at our local humane society so were so excited when wee saw this written on the wall of a bar at the pier!

 

Flamingos!

 

 

I think I might have been running from the mosquitos when I took this!

 

 

Loved the Technotel beach!!

Edited July 8, 2013 by h_blond2

[h_blond2]

We have a porthole booked for the Elation in January-what is that large block furniture? under your tv?

 

It holds the life jackets.

Edited July 8, 2013 by h_blond2

[h_blond2]

 

The beach bar

 

 

 

 

[h_blond2]

COZUMEL!! I love this place! Mom and I practically ran off the boat because we were so ready to go to the beach! We did sit on the fountain the Puerta Maya pier so my dad could see us on the webcam. We went out to the taxis and found one to take us into town to do a little shopping and then to our favorite beach, Playa Palancar! I wanted to try to find a local beer for my boyfriend, but I know nothing about beer so I ended up buying him something that you can get in the states, but at least I tried! Our day at the beach was wonderful, as always! It did sprinkle, but nothing to keep us out of the water. I have always said that I want to get a massage, but something about the idea of a stranger's hands all over me kind of creeped me out, but this time I did it! My massage was great! Out waiter was very friendly and was very interested in talking to me about the differences in the American and Mexican education systems after he found out that mom and I are both teachers. I spent most of my day on the water and loved every second of it! After we got back to the pier I did the typical souvenir shopping and we got back on the ship right at 3:30. We cleaned up, took a nap and went to dinner. That night we saw the second show, Win. We sat on the front row and kept our fingers crossed that none of the dancers would fall on us! Those dancers are amizingly talented and they put on a great show!

 

 

When were heading back to the ship, they were set up selling their merchandise and taking donations, so of course mom and I had to make a donation. We love any organization that helps better the lives of animals!

 

 

 

[h_blond2]

 

 

 

 

 

[h_blond2]

We woke up about 7:30, which is pretty late for us! We ate breakfast and killed a little time before the towel folding class and the new Towel Animal Theater! It was so cute! The cruise director said that only the Elation and one other ship has the Towel Animal Theater right now, but I think it needs to be on all the ships! After another yummy lunch at the Mongoliam Wok we spent a few hours in the sun. I don't think that I've ever seen water so calm....it was almost like glass! After a few hours we headed back to the room to start to get packed up so we wouldn't be rushed the next morning. That afternoon we sat in the windows in Elation's Way outside of the casino and read...I also did a little people watching! That night we went to see Johnny Millwater's adult show! He was hilarious!! You definitely need to You Tube him!

 

 

 

 

At the Punchliner Comedy Club

[jbh1993]

I loved your review.Thank you for posting. We will be on the Elation in October. How was the dining room service?

[smurfm69]

Nice pics and great review. I also like the font and color you typed in. lol We are making our first cruise on the Elation in December and this will be the one that gets us to platinum status! :D Our favorite beach in Cozumel is Paradise Beach and can't wait to be soaking up the sun there again.

[bluejay555]

Great review, thanks for posting! I'm trying to talk my husband into doing this cruise at the end of July :)

[rae.holmes]

What was y'all's room number? We're booked in a port hole room! how'd y'all like it?

[marshhawk]

On all of our previous cruises the life jackets were in the closet, this looks like you had holding space for 10 of them at least.! What cabin did you have? I am hoping that they will be able to put the two beds together so the DH and I will have that queen, not two singles. Could you move it if you wanted to?

Oh, by the way, thank you for the review and the great pictures! Thank yo for answering my questions, and I too want to know about the food on this ship.

[Elsisi]

Sailing in the Elation for the first time in January. I have a question about the muster drill. Was it held outside or in a lounge?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk