Review of Elation cruise 2/5-2/11 (questions welcomed)

[Robfromcharlottesville]

I just got off the elation last week for the 5 night cruise to Cozumel and Progreso with my parents, my sister, and her husband and two young kids, and we all had a great cruise. Overall Elation met or exceeded our expectations and we had no real problems with any part of the cruise. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have about the cruise.

 

We did Faster to the Fun, which went fairly smoothly. I have to say the New Orleans port is very poorly run and pretty confusing, but once we got to the Carnival area things went well. We got to the port at 10:30, carried our luggage on, and were in our cabin by 11:30 and having lunch on the Lido deck by 11:45.

 

The ship itself is older but still in good shape and I think pretty nice. I liked my cabin a lot. It was very clean, which is especially important for me because I have terrible allergies, which weren't an issue at all during the trip.

 

The food on Elation was very good, I thought, as long as you stick to the Main Dining Room. We had Your Time Dining. If you're concerned about waiting in line, you can do what we did. It opens at 5:45, so every night my dad and I poured ourself a glass of wine and waited for it to open at 5:35. Every night we were the first ones in line, and they usually open a few minutes early, so we just sipped our wine while reading that night's menu for about 7 minutes then had our choice of tables. I was very pleasantly surprised how easy it was, which was great since we had to accommodate a 2 and 4 year old. Every dinner I had was excellent, and the Sea Day Brunches were awesome. (Make sure to get the steak and eggs - the steak is actually filet mignon and is outstanding.) The eggs benedict, available every morning, is also very good. I know the Huevos Rancheros are a favorite among many. I liked it, but didn't love it as much as some others and preferred the first two dishes I listed. but I am glad I tried it - it is good.

 

I would avoid the Lido deck food as much as you can. It's basically glorified, slightly upscale cafeteria grub. The few times I ate there was fine, don't get me wrong, as long as you go into it knowing what it is. To be fair, I didn't eat at the Mongolian Wok or the Sandwich grill, which both looked to be pretty good, because the lines were long, and I ate most of my food in the MDR anyway. On Sea Days, brunch is served til 1 pm in the MDR, so no need to get lunch on the Lido deck. And when we were in port, I ate lunch in Mexico, so again, no need for the Lido deck.

 

Highlights from my many great dinners in the MDR include for starters: escargot, crab cakes, surprisingly solid sushi, stuffed mushrooms, fried shrimp, cured salmon, scallops, meat lasagna as a starter, and especially penne mariscos (with shrimp and scallops) as a starter. The frog legs were good, not great. And the shrimp cocktail was mediocre at best. I often still got it - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't much above frozen shrimp cocktail you get from a supermarket.

 

For the entrees, I particularly liked the salmon off of the everyday menu (people in my group tried it multiple times over several nights and every time it was great), the prime ribs, the shrimp entrees, and especially the chateaubriand (probably the highlight of my dinner entrees). I thought my Mahi Mahi was a little dried out, and the fish from the fish and chips was very greasy and soggy. But otherwise, the food in the MDR was consistently very good to great.

 

I thought the entertainment on the cruise was good but not great. The casino was a highlight for me. It had all the basic games with reasonable table minimums ($5 for craps and roulette; $10 for standard black jack; $5 for table games like Let it Ride or $6 for weird Black Jack rules.) There were enough tables that I almost always could sit down and often could get 2 or 3 people from my group at the same table.) The bar at the casino had a good live band playing most nights and had reasonable drink prices ($5.95 for a 16 ounce Rebel Ale IPA from Sam Adams was my go to.) The comedians were okay. I didn't do many of the live music acts, as I find them to be so cheesy (not just on Carnival, but on any cruise line) but there were a few that were kind of fun. Elation also did a good job of having tons of opportunity to do Karaoke, if that's your thing, for all ages. My sister did Karaoke with the adults almost everynight around 10 pm. they also have a teen karaoke set up right after dinner, and even did a family oriented karaoke after lunch for younger kids. My sister brought my two year old niece up on stage in the big Cole Porter Lounge with her to sing her favorite song, Let it Go from Frozen. Much to my sister's surprise, my niece grabbed a mike and turned to face the audience and started singing VERY loudly "let it doh, let it doh," over and over. Pretty funny.

 

My 2 year old niece and 4 year old nephew absolutely loved Camp Carnival. My nephew said it was his favorite part of the cruise. they had a good system where sometimes the parents can drop the kids off and get a little break and do their own adult thing for awhile, and there were times they can join their kids in Camp Carnival and play with them there with all the toys.

 

If I could make one suggestion for improvement to Carnival, it would be regarding the pools and hot tubs. The pool water was a little cold, which surprised me during a cruise to Mexico (though to be fair it was unseasonably cold for Mexico that week), and the hot tubs were ALWAYS crowded with kids by the main pools and with adults on the adults only Serenity Deck. I also wished they had more chairs on the Serentity Deck. Only half tended to be in the sun at any given time, and they were also taken. But if you're patient, you can usually make do.

 

The service and crew on Elation were great. Very friendly and helpful.

 

I enjoyed both of the ports we stopped at, but because I was with my sister's two young kids, we chose not to venture too far from the cruise ship in case the kids got antsy and needed to go back to the ship. Debarkation for both stops was super easy - we waited about an hour before getting off, and at that point, we were able to walk right off the ship. Less than 5 minutes and we were walking on Mexican soil. In Cozumel, we walked about ten minutes (half a mile) to el Cid beach resort hotel to spend our day. The proximity to the ship was a big help - no need for taxis, and it was very nice. A very upscale tourist friendly resort hotel where everyone spoke perfect English. (Maybe it was too Americanized - they played nothing but 1980s music around the pool!) they had tons of chairs and umbrellas and seating around the pool and by the water. The downside is the entire beach around the port is very rocky and so the beach in the hotel resort was man-made and very small. but otherwise it was beautiful, and the food was very good. They set us up at a couple of tables under the shade. The food didn't strike me as particularly "authentic Mexican", but at least there were zero safety concerns about getting sick from anything we ate or even from the ice cubes in the soda. the price was very reasonable - $20 per adult which included a $12 credit for food, drink, etc., so essentially $8 a adult for full use of their facilities, with young kids being free.

 

In Progreso, it's a very different experience. We went from high end 4 star Americanized resort hotels to a poor Mexican town where many of the people spoke very little English. We walked the 5 minutes through the downtown area to the beach area. the beaches are all free, but we opted to set up shop on the beach in front of one of the restaurants that had their own chairs and tables under a shaded canopy. It was very cheap. All we had to commit to buying was 3 beers (with the fourth being free), and guy brought out complimentary snacks for us to eat, including shrimp empanadas, which were very good, plus chips and salsa. At the end of the day, he asked for only $15 for all of us, so we left them a generous tip. My mom's only regret is that she didn't do more shopping - the ladies near us on the bus back to the ship got some cheap imitations of designer purses and stuff like that she would have liked to have gotten. One of the common complaints is that you get hounded by locals trying to sell you stuff in Progresso. That was only true when we first approached the beach area and everyone wanted us to set up on the beach in front of their hotel. Once we committed to a place, they stopped bothering us. I think only 2 random folks tried to sell us stuff while we were sitting on the beach the entire 3 hours we were there. I think this is a common complaint that has some merit, but is generally overblown.

 

I've noticed a few other common comments and complaints about Elation I thought I'd address here. Some I agreed with, and some I found not to be true, at least on my cruise, so maybe it's not the norm and nothing you need to worry about.

 

Some people complain the ship is old and worn. Well, yes, kinda, but its nothing that I though was a real problem. It was never an eye sore and generally nothing I really ever even noticed unless I was looking for it. And as I said, the ship was very clean, especially my cabin, so I was fine with it.

 

Some people complain that the food in the MDR is cold by the time it gets to you. This was flat out not the case at all. I ordered about 3 to 4 starters every night and 1 or 2 entrees, and of those 15 or so dishes I had over all my dinners, only one was not hot. The scallops over risotto were warmish, but could have been a little warmer. Otherwise, the food temperature was perfect every night for all 7 of us. And at times, it was too hot to eat right away - I chose to let it cool down.

 

Some people complain that the hot tubs are too crowded. this one, sadly, is completely accurate!

 

Regarding the corking fee in the MDR, here's the deal, at least as far as I found it. They would charge a $15 corking fee to bring a bottle of wine into the MDR, whether it was already opened or not. However, there would be no charge if you poured yourself one glass of wine in your cabin and brought it with you to the MDR. that's what I did every night.

 

With Faster to the Fun, debarkation at the end of the cruise was crazy easy. we had to be in the Romeo and Juliet Lounge by 8 am, and by 8:30, we were thru customs and back on U.S. soil. Very easy. I then went back to my sisters and took a very long nap! It was a great vacation and I would definitely recommend Elation to anyone who is open to taking a smaller, older cruise ship. While it lacks many of the bells and whistles and variety of dining options that the newer and bigger ships have, for what it is, Elation was a great cruise.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

A few other thoughts.

 

Some people complain about the quality of the pizza on the Lido Deck. I understand what they're saying. I certainly wouldn't recommend making it your main meal at dinner time - it's basically Domino's quality, though with some good toppings. But as for a 24 hour food option, I loved it. Its certainly better than having nothing other than the free 24 room service menu, which is also good.

 

On my cruise, the room service menu did switch over to the new one which included extra options you can select at an added cost. I am all for this, but unfortunately they took away what would have been my two favorite free options - the shrimp salad and the steak sandwich.

 

they also did away with the free lobster on elegant night. This was disappointing, though on the upside they added scallops as a starter to help balance the loss a little bit, and they still had the shrimp entrée, which were very good and much better than the mediocre shrimp cocktail.

 

I was initially going to do the cheers program, but in retrospect, I'm glad I didn't. I'm not much of a day drinker, and as it worked out, I never came close to meeting my 15 drink allotment on any day. I think 2 glasses of wine with dinner, about 5 beers, and 2 shots of jaeger (for only $6 a shot, not bad), was my biggest drinking night - not even double digits. so I ended saving a bunch of money there. I also chose not to do the bubbles program for the free soda. As it turned out, I was perfectly fine just drinking lemonade and ice tea and coffee and tap water for 5 days - all the complementary stuff.

[gatorinark]

Enjoyed your review. We're going on the Feb. 25th cruise with 2 other couples. A few questions: 1. Were the Fun Shops open? 2. Had the Fun Shops changed over to new vendor yet? 3. Have they switched to new American Fare menu in MDR?

 

 

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[Robfromcharlottesville]

Have a great time on the cruise! I'm not sure what the fun shops are, so not sure about that. I'm not much of a shopper! But i can say that elation has not switched to the new menus yet. They werenas of last week still with the old today, everyday. And dessert menus.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

I will try to post some pictures as soon as I figure out how!

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Heres the ship and grand atrium.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Escargot app and awesome chocolate melting cake dessert.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Do not miss the sea day brunch in the mdr. Steak and eggs, with filet mignon, and the eggs benedict.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Robfromcharlottesville

[Robfromcharlottesville]

From the steakhouse menu for an extra 20 dollar charge each, the surf n turf and the lobster tail.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Fried shrimp entree which was pretty good, the salmon was excellent, and the cured salmon app was good.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Chateaubriande in mdr was awesome, cooked rare to medium rare, and the huevos rancheros for sea day brunch in the mdr.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Crab cake app was very good, the penne mariscos app with shrimp n scallops was great, the veal entree was good, and the mahi mahi was the a little dry but would be willing to try it again

[Robfromcharlottesville]

The niece at camp carnival and nephew on top deck minitiature golf course on ship.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

The ship.

[jkhurck]

Thanks for the review! Sailing in two weeks and excited to check out the Elation!

 

 

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[Robfromcharlottesville]

From the ship.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your detailed review/trip report.

 

Keith

[Robfromcharlottesville]

I should give a shout out to pablo, my steward, he was great. The staff in the main dining room were also great, including Alfredo. unfortunately i don't remember too many of the other names

[Robfromcharlottesville]

Cozumel and el cid beach resort half a mile from the port.

[roadkillbill]

Hey Rob! Going on Elation in Dec. wish I knew best interior cabins. Looks like we are in U138 which I thought was Deck 6 but really is Deck 3.

I heard they are doing a huge renovation in April.

[riclop]

Thanks for your review.

[Robfromcharlottesville]

I never made it down to deck 3 so am not sure how that is. I can tell u that we stayed on empress deck 7 in e215 to e 227 under one of the mdr, just down the hall from the atrium bar and guest services, which have elevators to access all the upper decks, and we were really happy with those cabins. Short walk up one flight of stairs to the mdr, 2 flights to the casino and most of the bars n lounges, plus since mdr is empty at night after dinner, there was no noise issue from above. im sure deck 3 is fine, but with the extra flights if stairs to walk to get anywhere, you'll probably be tempted to take the elevators, which sometimes entail a little bit of a wait. But probably not a big deal either way.

 

Are u taking elation out of jacksonville then? Im curious what kind of renovations they'll b doing in dry port when it switches out of nola.

[gatorinark]

Hey Rob! Going on Elation in Dec. wish I knew best interior cabins. Looks like we are in U138 which I thought was Deck 6 but really is Deck 3.

I heard they are doing a huge renovation in April.

 

 

U138 is on Upper deck which is deck 6. The Riviera deck, deck 4, is the lowest deck with cabins.

 

 

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[roadkillbill]

that's what I thought when I booked (Deck 6) but according to the picture, its Deck 3. but whatever, I'm sure its fine. We were low on the Fascination and it was fine. Me and hubby like to do stairs to help offset constant eating!

I originally was on empress but read a review that said it was noisy there, so I changed to the U deck. Anyway, we both love Half Moon Cay which is why we booked it - good sale prices too.

Thanks for the nice review

[roadkillbill]

Thanks gator - hoping that's where it is and its quiet!