A Winter Escape on Elation

[Lydia B.]

Thanks so much for taking all the time to post such great information.

We leave in a little over five weeks, your review makes it seem that much sooner.

We're leaving from Indiana and Ohio so I understand when you got excited about palm trees!

Thank you again, Lydia

[Indytraveler83]

Thanks so much for taking all the time to post such great information.

We leave in a little over five weeks, your review makes it seem that much sooner.

We're leaving from Indiana and Ohio so I understand when you got excited about palm trees!

Thank you again, Lydia

 

If you can try to avoid going through Nashville on your way. Its probably my least favorite city to try to navigate.

 

And onto my review!!

[Indytraveler83]

Day One/Part Two

 

Sorry for the delays! Lets get this going!

 

After unloading everything in the cabin we were summoned to the muster drill. And... why can't people just be quiet and listen? It took twice as long as it should have because people refused to quiet down, refused to move to where the staff told them and kept trying to take pictures and cheer for the wedding party. Seriously? The staff hates this as much as we do. Just quiet down, listen and get it over with. The staff was very patient and polite (probably more than I would have been) and got through the muster drill as quickly as our esteemed fellow passengers would allow. (This was one of the few times I was upset at other passengers. Sorry, but it felt like a grade school assembly where no one would listen. End of rant.)

 

After muster we got our towels and headed to the Serenity deck to enjoy the view. And others had the same idea...

We had to take a picture. How many passengers can you cram into a hot tub? Eventually it emptied out a bit and we got to soak in it. Until then we enjoyed the view on the loungers and watched New Orleans get further and further away. The Serenity deck would always be fairly full during daylight hours, but you could always find a lounger somewhere, and the hot tubs would empty after a little while and you could get in. Nighttime was our favorite for this area, as it was nearly empty and stargazing was simply epic out on the open ocean.

 

We eventually headed back to our stateroom, took showers, put all of the used, wet towels on the floor and headed to dinner.

 

Now we were nervous about dinner. Meeting strangers at dinner was foreign to us, and we are never sure how strangers will handle two guys at the table when they find out we are a couple. This was compounded by the nerves in finding out that most of the ship was representing the "Deep South."

 

We arrived at the dining room at about 5:50 and saw a very long line waiting to get in. We stood in it for a minute until one of the hosts came by the line and mentioned it was for anytime dining only, and that assigned dining passengers should enter on the right side of the doorway. We moved over and were immediately seated. Our waiter introduced himself and his name was Mere. He said it was pronounced "Merry" and to feel free to call him "Merry Christmas" if it helped you remember. This was going to be fun!

 

We were at a large table for 12 and a couple of women were already seated. We introduced ourselves and found out they were a mother/daughter from Arkansas taking a "Girls Only" trip. They seemed polite but were quiet at first. Shortly after a group of 5 women came roaring into the dining room laughing and chatting and all were seated at our table. Well this just got interesting!

 

They introduced themselves as an entire staff from a Doctor's office and he had sent them on this trip as a Christmas bonus. (wish I worked for someone like that!) Introductions were made all around, and then the question that always causes us pause was asked.

"How do you know each other?" asked one of the girls. After a cautious pause, Jacob replied "We are together."

"Oh, cool." was the response, and then introductions continued. Our perception of the "Deep South" was being shattered and our nerves being eased.

 

While many of you don't have to think about it, those of us who are in the LGBT community sometimes get nervous when we enter unfamiliar territory as we aren't sure how good everyone will be when they find out about us. While the two of us don't engage in PDA or anything that JR high school students do in public, you can usually tell we are a couple after talking with us for a minute or two. For all the perceptions we had about the "Deep South" and the people there, we had absolutely no problem with anyone either in New Orleans or on the ship. There were several couples who were much more obvious than us, and when we talked to them, none reported any discomfort either.

 

Anyways, on to dinner. After everyone was seated we placed our orders and began talking. It was only maybe 10 minutes later that our appetizers were delivered.

I tried the Escargot and found it absolutely delicious. Jacob had something boring so I didn't take a picture. For dinner I had ordered Tilapia and was rather shocked when it was placed in front of me as soon as my appetizer was finished.

 

As soon as we finished with dinner we were handed dessert menus (and I mean immediately, one waiter was picking up plates, the other was handing out menus.) We ordered and our sweets arrived so quickly I forgot to photograph them!

 

Dinner had only occupied about 40 minutes so far, and service was insanely fast for a 3 course meal. We didn't feel hurried either, as the waiters spent time after serving talking, joking and generally being part of the fun. This would be the pattern throughout the week. Fast service, but never feeling hurried at all. Seriously the best dining experience I've ever had.

 

We talked and joked with the girls, then the magician came over and performed a magic trick. He was young and kind of nervous, but we let him perform his trick and thanked him for the entertainment. Then the photographers came over and made us take all sorts of pictures. We chatted a little more and then all left. We chuckled on the way out of the dining room, as our table had been laughing and generally very loud while everyone else in the dining room was still staring at their plates and trying to find conversation to have with strangers.

 

We headed back to the room to change and found that our bed had been turned down and mints placed on the bed, but the towels still lay in the bathroom floor, and there was no Fun Times or towel animal. No big deal, we just headed to the coffee bar and picked up the Fun Times on our way to the Serenity Deck.

 

We spent the rest of the night dozing on Serenity and looking at the stars. We chatted with a few other passengers and had a few drinks. At some point late in the night we realized we were sleeping more than stargazing and finally headed back to bed.

 

Next up, Day Two, otherwise known as a spa induced coma day...

[michiganredrose]

Loving your review so far, thanks for taking the time to post it.

[KatieCharlotte]

Thanks for your review to tide me over between my "Girls Only" trip on the Elation and my family spring break trip on the Elation. We also had "Merry Christmas" as our waiter and were very impressed with the service all week. Even when people were coming in late or needed to leave early for spa appointments, they handled it all very well.

[rohitg82]

Awesome posts.. DW and I get on the Elation this weekend (7-Mar) and we're super excited already..

I have a few questions:-

1. How was the internet connectivity on the ship in terms of speed and cost?

2. We are on "your-time dining" at the moment as we dont like to eat dinner at 6pm or so.. we're typical Indians and dinner just doesnt feel right to us until its 8pm :-), now reading your post that there was massive queues, do you recommend getting waitlisted for the scheduled dining time options?

Do let me know. Thanks a ton.

 

Cheers!

[Indytraveler83]

Day Two

 

Overnight I had a sort of rough night. Having never been on a ship before I didn't have my "sea legs" yet, and the transition from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico was rather dramatic. The seas weren't calm and the boat was rocking back and forth (what I thought was quite a bit... and would later learn wasn't much). I woke up a few times to see whitecaps and ocean spray and generally struggled to sleep. Jacob on the other hand would have slept through the ship rolling over...

 

We woke up fairly early for us and went to get breakfast. We thought about eating in the dining room, but really wanted to sit by the open ocean, so we went to the buffet and filled our plates and then took a seat on one of the "wings" on the back of the ship. We would end up eating quite a bit out there. The ship had a little bit of a mechanical vibration coming from the back and that made me a bit sick, but otherwise it was a beautiful day. After breakfast we retreated to Serenity to nap and enjoy the views:

Drinks in hand we spent a few hours here half asleep and half gazing at the ocean. We then decided it was time to visit the spa for a much awaited massage.

 

The massage services are expensive... and we tried to wait for some deals, but all of the deal either happen during dinner or on sea days, and we had budgeted for a full priced massage, so rather than worry about adjusting our schedule we went ahead and got a couples Deep Tissue bamboo massage. It was the most painfully relaxing thing ever! I don't know how to describe it other than that. Both of us were very tense and the women worked hard to get knots and tense muscles eased. At one point we both found ourselves dreaming... but awake. Not sure how that is possible, but when it ended we were both absolutely on Cloud 9.

 

They did try a hard sell of the spa merchandise, but thanks to Cruise Critic we were prepared for this and politely turned them down. We tipped them and then left to return to our napping on Serenity Deck. I wish I could tell you more about this day, but prior to dinner we seriously did almost nothing but watch the ocean and nap all day.

 

The bar service was amazing all trip. Sitting on the Serenity Deck we would wake up and think "oh, I could use a drink about now" and as if they had some sort of Jedi abilities a member of the bar staff would suddenly be there, asking if you'd like one. During the entire trip we found that they struck the perfect balance between attentive and not too pushy. If you looked disinterested they wouldn't approach, but flash them any kind of eye contact or even start to think about a drink and they were immediately there to collect your order.

 

We also struggled to adjust to the "leave your dishes/trash where it is, we'll get it" part of the trip. On this day we repeatedly tried to find trash bins or places to put dirty dishes, only to be told that we could leave them in place and someone would pick them up. We felt like total slobs doing this, but it seemed they purposely made trash bins scarce to be sure you let them pick up. After meals we would resort to neatly stacking dishes and trash on our trays as a futile attempt to help.

 

Onto dinner! We arrived for formal night and again saw the same exact people in the ATD line, waiting as those of us with assigned dining walked right in. The line tonight was extremely long, and I made a mental note at how much I appreciated having selected an assigned dining time. Our entire table ordered a lot of lobster and a lot of food, but the dining staff kept up brilliantly and we were served in the same manner as the night before. I had to try the bitter and blanc and the Warm Chocolate Melting cake together!

The bitter and blanc was good, but nothing our entire trip beat the chocolate melting cake.

 

Then the poor magician showed up. I tell this story laughing quietly, but also feeling terribly sorry for this poor guy. He did a card trick with supposedly blank cards. He appeared to have made a single blank card become the one a table member was thinking of by magic! But he picked the absolute wrong part of the table to perform the trick. He stood next to the most outspoken member of the girls, and when he said "now that's magic" she replied "no its not. I saw the face cards, look!" and then tried to show everyone how his deck wasn't really blank. His face petrified in horror, he wished us all a happy night and retreated from the dining room with his head hung very low.

 

Her companions scolded her and we all felt very sorry for the magician, and he never even came close to our table the rest of the cruise. Once he began approaching our table, saw this woman, and turned on his heals and walked the other way.

 

Then the photographers showed up, and at this point they had already become annoying. The group pictures were fine, but they kept insisting on individual shots that we all knew we'd never buy or care about. "Look honey, I just bought a photo of my vacation for $21.99!! Yeah, its just a picture of me! What's the problem with that?"

 

We started photobombing each others pictures to the annoyance of the photographers who kept insisting on individual shots. This would only get worse. After they left our waiters offered to take pictures of us with our own cameras. That's a price we could handle!

 

We also got some great (and funny) group shots with the girls, but I didn't want to put them up in a public forum without their permission. So here's a shot of just us, filled to the brim with food!

 

The quiet mother and daughter talked more this day, and told us horror stories about prior cruise dining tables. They were a lot more fun than they first appeared, but were just cautious at first after some very rough and snobby experiences.

 

We returned to our room after dinner to find no Fun Times, no towel animal and a huge pile of wet towels still in the bathroom floor. Our bed was made and cleaning was done, but that was it. We would be in Cozumel the next day and we needed a clean set of beach towels, so I went to guest services to ask for some.

 

"You can contact your room steward for fresh towels," the person told me, annoyed I was there.

"I would have if I ever saw him" I replied.

"He hasn't introduced himself yet?" they asked surprised.

"Exactly," I said.

"Oh... well we will have towels sent, and hopefully he will introduce himself this evening, we are very sorry."

 

We didn't spend a lot of time in our room, so I wasn't too worried about the introductions and grabbing a fun times from somewhere else on the ship wasn't a big deal, but I was rather annoyed I needed to go to guest services to just have towels replaced. (and yes, I left then in the floor just like the little hang tag said.) I just didn't understand how or why he would clean the mirror, clean the counter and dry up the floor, then leave soaking wet towels in the corner of the bathroom floor.

 

The prior night we had gone to the welcome aboard show and decided we wanted to attend the comedy shows, but not the production shows. Now this isn't to say the production shows were bad. Several of our table mates attended and found them worthwhile. We simply didn't want to be indoors for much of the trip and production shows were not really on our agenda to start out with. That night we attended a show by Mutzie.

 

He was great! For 5 minutes. His introductory act was stellar, but after just a few minutes he ran out of material it seemed and began picking on audience members. This would have even been funny, but every time he'd do it, he would follow it by a sincere apology and a promise for a free CD. After 20 minutes he started to conclude his show, but the Asst. cruise director Brandon whispered to him that he still had 10 minutes left. Oops!! He picked on a few more audience members, apologized again, promoted his CD, promoted himself, and then finally left the stage reminding you he could sell you a CD. Well then...

 

Afterwards we headed back to the room and surprise, surprise it was filled with fresh towels, a towel animal, mints and the Fun Times. Not feeling well (from stuffing ourselves with food and margaritas) we headed to bed.

 

Having reviewed what I wrote, I want to remind you that we still had an awesome day. The less than great comedy routine and the room steward did nothing to ruin our day or cause any dramatic emotional freak out that would cause us to insist upon a full refund or ship on a stick or any other freebies. We still had an awesome day. But I do want to provide a balanced review, and while our trip as a whole was awesome, it did have some negatives that are worth pointing out.

 

Coming up: Dolphins, stingrays and one very very drunk woman! And as always, feel free to ask any questions in the meantime!

[Indytraveler83]

Awesome posts.. DW and I get on the Elation this weekend (7-Mar) and we're super excited already..

I have a few questions:-

1. How was the internet connectivity on the ship in terms of speed and cost?

2. We are on "your-time dining" at the moment as we dont like to eat dinner at 6pm or so.. we're typical Indians and dinner just doesnt feel right to us until its 8pm :-), now reading your post that there was massive queues, do you recommend getting waitlisted for the scheduled dining time options?

Do let me know. Thanks a ton.

 

Cheers!

 

1) I can't speak to the internet. We both purposely disconnected for the entire trip and had no desire to use it. Sorry!

2) the your time dining was very hit or miss. It seemed if you wanted to eat near the end of the traditional service (around maybe 7 or 7:30) the lines were better and not a long wait. But if you want to eat around the time a dining service starts, I'd recommenced going with the assigned times. Elation doesn't dedicate much space to the flexible dining, maybe 1/3 of the forward dining room, so its easy to be forced to wait.

[Indytraveler83]

Thanks for your review to tide me over between my "Girls Only" trip on the Elation and my family spring break trip on the Elation. We also had "Merry Christmas" as our waiter and were very impressed with the service all week. Even when people were coming in late or needed to leave early for spa appointments, they handled it all very well.

 

Glad to hear you had a great time with him as well! Our primary waiters were Mere and Irawan and both were outstanding the entire cruise. You'll hear more about them later in the review, but I made sure to extend each of them a generous tip and forwarded compliments to John Heald and asked their supervisors be told of our appreciation. As much as some people like to complain, I think it is even more important to point out when staff is doing things right. These guys are simply the best waiters I've ever had in my life.

[Ckrewz]

Day One/Part Two

 

After muster we got our towels and headed to the Serenity deck to enjoy the view. And others had the same idea...

We had to take a picture. How many passengers can you cram into a hot tub? ...

 

I saw the picture before I read your post and said "Dang! Look at all the people in that hot tub!" :eek:

[WLHyatt]

As someone who was born and raised in the deep south, I will confirm that your preconceived notions needed to be shattered. The south is very welcoming and friendly and much more accepting of different people, lifestyles, and religions than anywhere else I have been.

I am glad you enjoyed your time in Louisiana and especially New Orleans, and hope you'll visit again.

I am enjoying your review so far, keep it going, we loved the Elation and we're on her again in December!

[Indytraveler83]

As someone who was born and raised in the deep south, I will confirm that your preconceived notions needed to be shattered. The south is very welcoming and friendly and much more accepting of different people, lifestyles, and religions than anywhere else I have been.

I am glad you enjoyed your time in Louisiana and especially New Orleans, and hope you'll visit again.

I am enjoying your review so far, keep it going, we loved the Elation and we're on her again in December!

 

I agree. I had a great time in Louisiana and while we can't plan a trip until later, our leading candidate for our next cruise is the Dream out of NOLA. We'd love to see the city again!!

[mzloolue]

I am enjoying your trip report.

 

And enjoying see good old Elation too.

We have done six cruises on Elation.:eek:

 

In case you need something and your room steward is of the invisible sort, if you look on the cabin phone there is a button to push to call him.

 

For whoever asked about the anytime dining, I hate it.

I have tried it twice and that was enough.

It is better for us to have a set time and if we don't want to go then there is the buffet, pizza or room service.

 

And if you can eat dinner, chocolate melting cake, ice cream and bitter and blanc and walk away smiling, then I am impressed.

Edited March 4, 2015 by mzloolue

[jpm1973]

Really enjoying your review! Having lived in Memphis for several years we always loved making the drive down to NOLA - such a great city. Sounds like you really made the most of your time there.

 

Looking forward to reading more.

[Indytraveler83]

Day 3/Part 1

 

Cozumel!!!

 

Despite the sailing going much smoother, I awoke at about 5:30 AM feeling sick again. Word of advice... just because you can have 2 lobster tails, 12 shrimp, frog legs, salad, chocolate melting cake, bitter and blanc and 4 margaritas doesn't mean you should. I sort of lost self control on formal night and paid for it dearly this morning. I ate an extremely light breakfast and about half a bottle of tums, then swore I wouldn't go crazy at dinner ever again!

 

By 8:30 we made our way to the meeting spot for our excursion which was the Mikado lounge. We had selected the Dolphin Swim with Unlimited Food and Drink at Dolphinaris. Now I was torn when selecting excursions as many people had recommended Chankanaab for this activity. However, reviews seemed to show that you were in the water longer with Dolphinaris, and the unlimted food and drink pulled us over to that side.

 

Everyone patiently waited until departure time, but when we got up to leave one girl realized she had neither her S&S card or her passport. She couldn't remember where she found them, as she'd gotten too drunk the night before to remember. Great.... Luckily we had two tour guides and one took the rest of us while the other waited for her. While walking away from the ship we snapped this photo:

 

We were one of six cruise ships at port that day. I believe that is the Caribbean Princess parked next to us, and we also saw the Carnival Paradise, the Norwegian Jewel (I think) and another ship by Aida cruises. The last ship scheduled in port that day was an RCI ship, but we never saw it in port, only steaming away at the end of the day.

 

Our tour guide led us through the port and to an area where dozens of taxis sat waiting for passengers. He flagged three vans, handed then the paperwork and shipped us off to Dolphinaris. That was the scariest ride in a taxi ever... the driver tailgated and swerved, sped and weaved his way to the facility. Still intact, we exited the vehicle and were all led to a staging area where we were given instructions.

 

I won't bore you with all the details, but we were told no cameras, no chemicals on the body (perfume, deodorant, sunscreen, etc) as they could harm the dolphins if we came in contact with them. They gave us time to change and rent lockers ($9.00 each) if we wanted. We were broken into groups and then lead down to the pools.

 

Dolphinaris is a set of pools linked together off of the ocean, using ocean water. There are gates and screens preventing anything from coming in or out, but it is still ocean water. In our group was the girl who had lost her ID and all of her friends. While waiting for everyone to change, they had each downed 2-3 shots and 2-3 drinks, so they were already pretty slammed as they headed down to the dolphin area, which looked like this:

 

I didn't take this picture of course, its one of many that was purchased. Our dolphin trainer was friendly and explained everything she could about our dolphin, but even she got annoyed when the drunk girls asked the same 3 questions repeatedly. One of the girls asked if the dolphins were "spoiled" and the trainer just looked at her confused, then continued without an answer. I don't think she realized that "spoiled" is was being used as slang and not literally. The drunk girls repeatedly used slang words that kept confusing the poor dolphin trainer who was trying her hardest to keep the rest of us having fun while quieting them down.

 

We each got our turns to give the dolphin a hug, a kiss, and go for a ride. Here is one of my favorite pictures of Jacob as he lives one of his bucket list items:

 

We also were given snorkeling gear and watched the dolphin swim underwater. It was an absolutely amazing experience and we spent around 40 minutes in the water in nearly constant contact with the dolphin. When our time was up we walked back and got our stuff and then were taken to the picture booths where they show you pictures and see if you'd like to purchase them.

 

Now the pictures are expensive... but we were prepared for this, again because of Cruise Critic, and Jacob was absolutely determined to purchase some, this being a bucket list item. We were surprised at how low pressure they were. They directed you to a terminal and showed you how to look at the pictures, but then stood back and let you look. If you simply walked away, they just wished you a nice day at the facility. If you needed help, they were immediately there to help. After some banter we were able to purchase a photo package at a steep discount (yes you can barter) and at a price we were comfortable with. I'm sure they make a killing no matter how much you pay, but we were happy with the price and made our purchase.

 

After this we were shown the areas that you could eat, drink and sign up for other activities, and we had already been told we could leave whenever we wanted (they would simply flag us a taxi when we were done) but told us to leave by 2:30 to ensure we didn't miss the ship (final call was 3:30, ship left at 4). After my morning bout with the formal day sea food I didn't feel up to the bar, so we went to the buffet where they served Mexican food about on par with the ship's buffet. We ate lightly and then signed up for snorkeling in their "aquarium" which started in 15 minutes.

 

While we waited, the 3 drunk girls informed us they had spent the entire time after swimming with the dolphins at the bar and now couldn't remember how much they had drank. They asked us what time it was, and if they were late for the ship. We laughed, told them no, then were pretty much forced to do shots with them. Thankfully the snorkeling started right after this and we walked away with a staff member as they ordered more drinks.

 

We were given brief instructions on snorkeling and then told we had 30 minutes in the pool (you could go again and again, but you had to re-sign up every 30 minutes to be sure other guests got a turn). We ventured out into the large pool and were pleasantly surprised. There were schools of fish, a small reef and all sorts of sea life swimming around in the pool, completely comfortable with the swimmers. If you went still, the schools would swim close enough to touch you. The amazing part though, was that this was where they kept their stingrays for the stingray swim they offer. The rays were huge (and without their stingers) and were also completely comfortable swimming very close to you. Our 30 minutes went by so fast, and the staff member just smiled at us when we looked up and realized everyone else had already gone and the next group was getting ready to enter the water. We apologized (but told none was needed) and quickly went back to sign up for kayaking!

 

Since we were late, the next group was starting to head to the kayaks, but we were told they had plenty of space and were shuttled along. We walked down to their seawall and were put in a kayak. As we ventured out onto the ocean we were only told to stay in the marked off area and not to go beyond, as we'd be in dangerous naval traffic. The area was quite large and we paddled around looking into the clear blue water and trying to paddle as hard as we could into oncoming waves. Our drunken friends had walked away from the bar long enough to try paddle boarding and were repeatedly falling off the boards (not sure they could stand well on dry land, what gave them the idea to do it on a floating board was a mystery to us).

 

Our 30 minutes in the kayak passed too quickly, and soon we found ourselves back in the main area of Dolphinaris frowning at the clock. It was 2:15 and time to get ready to head out. We changed and then went to the entrance and tried to ask for a taxi, when we were blocked by one of our inebriated "friends". She blabbered on about how they were going to take a taxi downtown to go shopping instead, but they couldn't find their shoes and were afraid a dolphin may have eaten it...

 

The guide at the entrance thankfully noticed that I was more interested in a taxi than conversation and shuttled us into it. As we turned around, we saw that 2 of the 3 girls were preparing to get on a taxi, while the other one had face planted onto the bar and was passed out cold. Well then, maybe we were gonna see some pier runners after all!!

[Indytraveler83]

Day Two/Part Two:

 

Everyone still with me? I wanted to post about our Dolphinaris encounter at length, because it hasn't been reviewed much on here. Please ask me any questions on the facility and I'd be happy to answer.

 

After the taxi took us back to the port, we shopped around for a while at the port's entrance looking for something unique and interesting, rather than just the typical trinkets. We struck gold when we found a local artist painting tiles and ceramic skulls. He does most of his work with his finger, then uses a finishing brush for the details. To show us, he took a business card sized piece of paper and created a painting in about 15 seconds and handed it to us for free. We selected a few pieces we really liked and the pricing seemed reasonable for artwork, and happily paid him. These were the only souvenirs we bought the whole trip. We really don't shop much on vacations, except when there is something really cool we feel we can add to our home, and this was one of those exceptions.

 

We headed to the ship and encountered many of our table mates in various states of non-sobriety. We ended up back on the ship around 3:15 and quickly showered and headed up on the forward decks to watch for pier runners. Here was our view:

I'm not sure which ship that is, only that it is by AIDA. It looked very well done, despite being much smaller than ours. A refurbished older ship perhaps?

 

As we watched, we realized there is no such thing as pier runners on a day like this, only pier stumblers. Around 4PM we heard the Caribbean Princess make an announcement for two passengers to contact guest services immediately. This was followed by a similar announcement on the Elation for 4 passengers. We looked down the dock and saw two of our drunken excursion mates stumbling down the pier with the help of someone. They ended up back on ship before anyone got too impatient. The Princess ship paged the same two passengers again and continued to wait, as did the Elation. Two lone people then came down the pier, presumably a husband and wife. The husband appeared to be struggling to stand, but the wife was bouncing and dancing her way down the pier. Two dock workers approached them (probably to tell them that their ship was about to leave) and the wife immediately skipped to the edge of the pier and tried for the water. Her husband tackled her, got her back up and they both stumbled to the Elation, but not without significant assistance from the officers on the dock.

 

The Caribbean Princess then pulled away (I hope their missing passengers were just passed out in a cabin, and not in a bar on land) and we waited. In the meantime I took a picture of how blue and beautiful the water was.

 

It is here that I should probably tell you that the Captain of the Elation is a very proud man. It shows through every time he makes an announcement, and he reminds you this is HIS ship. He was very skilled in maneuvering the vessel and is extremely good at his job.

 

The Caribbean Princess struggled to get off the dock. The back of the ship came off just fine, but the front of the ship didn't want to gain separation. Her departure took quite a long time and at times I was wondering if she would end up back at the dock. As soon as he was cleared, our captain must have decided to show off the Azipods, as he pushed the Elation off the dock with ease, spun it around in place, then headed for open ocean in less than half the time of the other ship. Heading out we encountered the Jewel (I think) and got awfully close to her, close enough I snapped a very clear picture of it:

 

Dinner came quickly, but was relatively quiet since most people were feeling the drinks from Cozumel. Our service was fantastic as always, but we ate and left quickly, as many people simply wanted to head to bed.

 

Two of our table mates were sober enough to stay out, so we played shuffleboard, attempted mini-golf and then ended up at the Atrium bar to listen to the very talented singer. We tried to hangout on Lido before the atrium, but one of our drunken "friends" was there and immediately plopped down in one of the girl's lap, complimenting her dress while almost setting it on fire with a cigarette. We soon found out that she had been cut off by the bartender and that security was being called to deal with her. Not wanting to be pulled in with her (or set on fire) we gave her a very poor excuse and then walked to the Atrium Bar. We met the mother/daughter from our table there and all had a great time cheering the singer and watching the bartender do great work. At one point we decided to start a wave (like in a sports stadium) and when it succeeded even the bartender and singer stopped to chuckle.

 

Upon heading to bed we had clean towels (even the ones we had re-hung were replaced) a towel animal, fun times and chocolates. The seas were smooth and we slept like rocks.

 

Coming up: Mayan Calanders, Progreso, Chichen Itza, Mayan Calanders, comedians, Mayan Calanders, a long bus ride, Mayan Calanders, an odd encounter with our cabin steward... oh, and did I mention Mayan Calanders?

Edited March 4, 2015 by Indytraveler83
forgot a few things!

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and wonderful photo's, looking forward to more.

[roseaxel]

I am enjoying your report so much, and I'm anxiously awaiting more.

 

The next best thing to cruising is reading such a detailed and well written report. I'm also glad you did not experience any negativity about your relationship. I like to think we Southerners are generally a friendly group, although anywhere you go, there can be narrow minded people.

[Indytraveler83]

I am enjoying your report so much, and I'm anxiously awaiting more.

 

The next best thing to cruising is reading such a detailed and well written report. I'm also glad you did not experience any negativity about your relationship. I like to think we Southerners are generally a friendly group, although anywhere you go, there can be narrow minded people.

 

Thank you! I'm hoping to write about our day in Progreso tonight after work. I relied off of a lot of detailed reviews to help me learn what to expect as well as tide me over until my cruise, so I'm hoping I am giving back the same!

[GabbyCooks]

Can't wait to read Progreso! We are doing the same excursion through the ship. Sounds like it wasn't so great. My son's girlfriend who is going with us is a middle school history teacher, so we thought it would be a perfect excursion for her. She's really excited about seeing the ruins. Hopefully, we aren't too disappointed.

 

Thank you again for your detailed review!!! You don't see many detailed Elation reviews.

[Indytraveler83]

Can't wait to read Progreso! We are doing the same excursion through the ship. Sounds like it wasn't so great. My son's girlfriend who is going with us is a middle school history teacher, so we thought it would be a perfect excursion for her. She's really excited about seeing the ruins. Hopefully, we aren't too disappointed.

 

Thank you again for your detailed review!!! You don't see many detailed Elation reviews.

 

If she isn't set specificly on that tour, a lot of the other ruins tours sound like they are better. I'll certainly try to get that day up tonight so everyone has a better idea of what I'm talking about.

[rohitg82]

For whoever asked about the anytime dining, I hate it.

I have tried it twice and that was enough.

It is better for us to have a set time and if we don't want to go then there is the buffet, pizza or room service.

 

 

i tried changing it to the late dining time (8pm ish), but its waitlisting me.. But anyway, will stick to the my time dining.. 1st time cruiser, so lets see how that goes.. I hope my experience is a little better than yours..

[Indytraveler83]

Day Four/Part One

 

Here comes the Progreso Review that many of you have been asking for. I'd like to sugarcoat this day, and we did have some fun moments and great pictures. But it just wasn't a good port or a good day.

 

The morning started out great. Due to eating and drinking sensible portions of food the prior day my stomach felt fine and I ate a great breakfast and was ready to go. Fog delayed our entry into the port, so we arrived 30 minutes late, but the Captain announced that we would be staying 30 minutes later, and all tours would go on as planned. We got our hiking shoes on, our cameras ready and were ready to go!

 

We met our tour guide on the dock and things started out well enough. Our tour group was huge and we were divided up into 3 groups and put onto 3 different coaches. The coaches were air conditioned and all seemed well at first. Leaving the port we got a great blue water shot out of the window:

We saw workers building a bridge, and seagulls fighting the workers for space. The road seemed smooth, but the bus was bouncing around quite a bit. Okay, older bus, no big deal.

 

Our tour guide started talking. He spent about 10 minutes telling us how he had studied at 6 different American Universities (really?) and had worked with all sorts of professors who specialized in Mayan history. Okay, great... tell us about the Mayans...

 

He started with two pieces of information that made me a bit upset. One, he announced that in no uncertain terms he was not responsible for us, and that if we became lost or unable to get back to the bus at any time for any reason, he would leave us. He said that Carnival would fine him if he arrived at the dock late, that he had a schedule to keep, and we could just find our own way back to the ship if we couldn't make it. Now I had no intention of playing it close, but I paid good money for a Carnival sponsored excursion so that I didn't have to worry about missing the ship. Not happy. He then announced that we would take the "scenic" route because the direct road would cost $50 to take. Really? If your going to be cheap, why did you announce it to everyone? Way to put the customer first...

 

He then started telling us about Mayan culture, but after a short brief on who they were, where they came from and how they got to Mexico, he started talking about their use of obsidian for everything as well as their obsession with accurate timekeeping. Alright...

 

He then kept talking about dates, calendars and gave us detailed reasons why the Mayan calendar was better than the one we use. Okay, well, great. Some people asked questions about the Chichen Itza site, and he told us briefly about the temples, and how they were rebuilt every 52 years, which is 20 months in the Mayan Calender, blah blah blah. Every questions was re-directed to the math of the Mayan calendar. This went on for about an hour before he said he felt he'd given us a great history of the site and was comfortable talking about some things he'd like us to purchase...

 

Surprise, he wanted us to buy Mayan Calendars. He opened one, and went page by page, telling us each and every thing contained in the calender and how it could be customized to include your birthday. This went on for 20-30 minutes. Relief! Oh wait, he still has something else to sell. He told us that we could have words made on a silver or gold necklace for only $50 per letter. Not sure what that has to do with Chichen Itza, the Mayans or anything other than a pure cash grab. He spent another 20 minutes talking about all the words you could have put on the necklace before announcing that we would be stopping soon for a break.

 

Now I didn't understand this break. We had been on the road for over 2 hours, were 15 minutes from Chichen Itza, but were only arriving at a "rest stop" now? Why not halfway? Why not just go all the way to Chichen Itza without a stop? The bus had a bathroom (although it was dirty, disgusting and the hand sanitizer dispenser was empty. As soon as we get off the bus I understand... this is where you submitted your order for his gold and silver trinkets, and where he picked up piles of Mayan Calendars to sell to us. As I tried to use the bathroom I was approached by a peddler (it was filled with them) who offered me an obsidian figurine. Strangely he rattled off the same exact line on the benefits of having obsidian as the tour guide did. So our guide set us up for these peddlers? Nice.

 

After getting back on the bus he passed out sack lunches which were decent. He said we would pass by modern Mayan villages and this was part of the reason we'd taken the scenic route. He then said he would tell us about these modern day Mayans and how they lived. I snapped another picture:

 

He pointed to a Mayan house, and suggested his calender might be hanging in their house. And then he took the rest of our trip to Chichen Itza to describe the calender again, for those of us who had not purchased it and possibly didn't understand the benefits. I snapped another picture:

There was nothing "scenic" about this route. We saw poverty, hunger and some of the most run down and scary looking places we had seen in a while. Skinny men put shovels to rocky dirt and dogs roamed the streets. If anything we felt sorry for these people.

 

We arrived at the park and our guides quickly led us to the ticket gates. Too quickly. People were left fighting the vendors and crowds and he stood right in front of the gate handing out tickets. Jacob got caught up, and the guide nearly left him without a ticket until I spoke up. Yay... stress free! We entered the park and the ruins of Chichen Itza towered over us. We wanted to go and explore, but the tour guide insisted we stay with him so he could tell us about the ruins. We watched as the two other groups and several other groups walked around with their guides, going in front of ruins and being taught about them. Us? Oh no, we stood at the entrance of the park as our guide pointed to distant buildings and told us about them, shouting over the vendors that were trying to sell all of us stuff. Did he tell us about the Mayans and the buildings? Well... they had nine steps, multiplies by so many floors, which was 352. Same number of days in the calender. The MAYAN CALENDER. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY ONE??????

 

When he finally let us go, we had 25 minutes to explore a 25 square mile park and try to learn about it. I was absolutely furious.

[Indytraveler83]

Day Four/Part Two

 

So lets talk about the peddlers in the park. They are permitted... and they are EVERYWHERE. Lining every walkway, in front of every major ruin, they make sure to position themselves somewhere that they can be in your face. They have these jaguar noisemakers that they blow into constantly, giving this incredible site the feel of an auction.

 

Now I made the mistake of making eye contact with one. He said "one dollar" as he held out a rather decent looking sculpture. I stopped, then made another mistake, and said I'd purchase it for one dollar. "no no no, not this" he said, then revealed a small trinket hiding in the palm of his hand which could be purchased for a dollar. "Twenty dollars for that" he said. "But eighteen for you." He then pursued me for quite a while before me and another member of our tour group yelled at him, forcing him to retreat back to his booth. So not only are they everywhere, but they are deceptive. GREAT!!!

 

So now onto the photos. Despite this, and having to edit vendors out of many photos, we got some absolutely epic ones.

This is the main temple in the park. I wish I knew more about it... but all I really know is that it has 352 steps. Same as the days in the year. Want to buy a calender????

 

Many of our shots looked awesome in black and white. This shot is of one of the towers in the ball court. The clouds were white and puffy, which helped create many dramatic black and white shots. I wish I could share them all!!

 

Here is another awesome shot of one of the buildings we photographed. This one was heavily themed by snakes, which was a symbol of a Mayan God. (Sorry, that's all I know. Want a calender?)

 

We also were somewhat stunned at the general condition of the park. For being one of the wonders of the world, buildings were fenced off with cheap wooden fences, chain link or simply caution tape. Most didn't have any description in front of them in any language.

 

This building is in horrible shape, fenced off by wires between wooden posts, and has absolutely no description anywhere around it. It makes for a cool photograph, but in general we felt like this stunning and classic site is being handled very poorly in nearly every way. It all feels like a desperate market that just happens to have some very old buildings in it.

 

We found our way back to the bus, and guess what? We were offered another chance to buy a calender as we got on. At this point Jacob had to make me stay quiet, as I wanted to say things I shouldn't have. Everyone got back on the bus, and we started for the port, not stopping at all. Our guide passed out feedback forms, and then got very very quiet when he collected and read them.

 

When we were about 15 minutes from the ship he started this passionate plea for us to return to Mexico and how Progreso was a fine example of how great Mexico could be (really? really???) and to ignore the news about violence and crime. He then finished the last 5 minutes reminding us how great he was, and begging us for tips. We departed the bus as it got to the port. Jacob said thank you, I just held my head down and grunted at him. I wasn't happy.

 

We got back on the ship and I couldn't have felt more relieved. After showering, I went to the Shore Excursion desk and described my experience (very politely) to the woman at the counter. My biggest problem was that I expected to have time to roam the park, and to be taught about the park and its history. Instead we were relentlessly hammered with a sales pitch for this guide's trinkets, and left with minimal time to explore the park. We also felt his threat to leave people behind, his complaints about Carnival's fines and his comment about the toll road to be unacceptable. She said she would research it and get back to me. I thanked her for listening and headed to dinner.

 

Dinner that night was very very good, and our waiters, seeing how the magician had vanished, began performing their own tricks for us. They were simple tricks using paper and straws, but brain teasers and very challenging. We appreciated the extra effort that they gave us and had a great time. At this point I was entirely forgetting to photograph our food (Sorry!)

 

I also saw the exact same line of the exact same people for ATD waiting to get into the dining room. The worst part of this was that the scheduled dining area was maybe a little over half full, while the ATD area was packed. If you wanted to eat at 6 PM, why didn't you just get scheduled dining? For us the dining choice was easy. We are in Eastern time and the Elation runs on central, so it was more like 7 PM to us. We also found ourselves extremely hungry after our shore days and ended up in the dining room at 5:45 eagerly awaiting our menus. ATD might work great for some, but I'll take my guaranteed seat at 6 PM every time.

 

After dinner we headed down to our room, only to encounter our room steward! We tried to say hi, but he just scowled at us and kept working. We backed out of the room, and trying hard not to be angry, we went out on deck and wondered around for a while as he performed turn down service. This lead us to meet up with our table mates again, and we all attended the comedy show, this time by Russ Nagel. We didn't think he was great at the Welcome Aboard show, but during his regular routine he was awesome. He was offensive, foul-mouthed and when one audience member seemed a little upset he replied with "get over it." He definitly wasn't for everyone, but we found the entire routine to be absolutely hilarious and a stark contrast to the previous one.

 

While our room steward encounter and our shore excursion went very poorly, the comedy routine and dinner ended our day on a high note. We went to bed and passed out quickly after hours in the sun, sadly preparing for our final day at sea. And boy what a wild one this would be!

[MOcruiserman]

Thanks very much for your comprehensive review. We are planning to take the Elation next February and I've learned a lot from your experience.

 

Your account of your Chitchen Itza experience was particularly helpful as we were considering going there. Now, no way! There's another site a bit closer to Progreso that's supposed to be much more tourist-friendly, Uxmal, and we're probably going there instead.