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Carnival Elation Review - 5/21

First and Ten

By First and Ten,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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First and Ten

First and Ten

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Just wanted to give my review of the 5 night cruise we took on the Carnival Elation....Cruised out of Jacksonville

 

Embarking -

 

We did not get the FTTF, so I was curious how much of a delay there would be. We got to the parking lot in the Jax terminal right around noon. Parked, short walk thru the parking lot to the terminal. We qued up right outside the terminal doors, about 20 people in line and as soon as you walked in, you had a carnival rep checking for passports and boarding passes. After that, you qued in line for the xray scanners for your carryon (line was probably about 100 people, but they had 4 stations, not to bad at all). I did take notice that the FTTF line was very short, and they were actually directing some of the regular line to the FTTF line. Once you got thru the scanners you lined up for your checkin and for your S&S card. Once that was secured, you take your customary "embarking" photo and make your way up 2 ramps and onto the ship. Overall, from the time I stepped out of my car to when I stepped onto the ship, I would say it was 40-45 mins total. I hear these stories of if you don't get FTTF is hours upon hours of waiting, yet with FTTF it takes seconds. That is not the case. When we got our S&S card, the representative told us our cabin was indeed ready and we could go and drop our stuff off in the room. We made our way up to the Lido deck and were actually talking to people who did have FTTF, and they said their checkin took about 30-35 mins, so FTTF saved approx. 15 mins

 

The Ship:

 

This was a last minute type of getaway vacation for us and after we booked it, I started reading reviews about the Elation and was very gunshy....I was picturing some sort of "rust bucket" that was barely able to float and they served maybe water and crackers....THIS IS NOT THE CASE. The ship is indeed an older ship, and I saw a few, let me say a few rust spots on the rails....I will say this, this ship is clean. The staff is constantly shining, cleaning, we never had any trouble finding a server or waiter. We had an Oceanview room, and its your typical Oceanview stateroom. We did have a flatscreen TV, but being honest, we weren't in the room that much. Room temperature was good, always cool enough to sleep comfortably and the shower had good water pressure and hot water. I guess the only thing nice to have in the room would be a mini fridge, but hey, it is what it is. Our room steward was AWESOME (Yoyok) and he kept our ice bucket fully stocked. I didn't see any worn or fraying carpets or anything like that. People were making a big deal of the life vest cabinet that is in the corner of the room. The person who sleeps closest to the window has to shimmy down the bed to get out of bed, but its not a big deal if you don't have any mobility issues. I am no longer a spring chicken and I didn't have a problem. We were on E deck aft, so our room was under the Galley. We sleep with a white noise machine so if there was noise overhead, I didn't hear it.

 

Activities -

 

Our cruise director was Alex. He was one of the best CD's we have had. There was ALWAYS something going on. I will give props to Carnival. They are known as the "Fun Ship", and the saying fits. Again, reading the reviews leading up to this, I was half expecting a Frat House type of environment. Not nearly the case. Cruising when we did, there were less kids than I expected, probably because school was still in session. During sea days, the pool, which is small, crowds up quickly. We spent most of our time on the Serenity Deck. The Serenity Deck is smaller than on other ships and the "prime" seats, which are lounge chairs covered by an umbrella, get taken very quickly (I would say only about 12 of the 40 or so lounge chairs are protected by umbrellas). Every night there was a new headline show. We have been on 8 cruises, with different lines. Even tho this Elation cruise was one of the cheaper as far as $$$$ goes, this was hands down the BEST entertainment of any cruise ships go. 5 nights, 5 GREAT shows. They had 2 comedians on board who were flat out hysterical. They did a PG show earlier in the night and then came on with their 18+ shows, usually around 11pm. They did not disappoint. Again, best entertainment we have ever had on a cruise.

 

Food -

 

To me, cruise food, especially the dinners, is basically glorified wedding food. I don't mean this as a knock. You are cooking for 2000-3000 guests, its hard to put a chefs signature on each and every dish. The food in the MDR was GOOD food. Its not great, its not bad, its good. The Elation does not have a steakhouse, but you can order filet and lobster for an extra $20 if you so desire to. I will not do that. I have tried "Steakhouses" on other ships and lines and to me, its just not worth it. I get its only $20-$40 for a "Specialty" dining, so its not a rip off, but its just not that good. Our wait staff was great, attentive and catered to our table. The presentation was awesome. The food was.....good :D....I will say that the dinner buffet on Lido was smaller than other buffets and limited in their selections, but again, it was good. I have seen other posts complaining that the food was cold. I have to say, we didn't have one meal on board that the food was not cooked to temp and didn't have a "cold" meal. the other buffets were right in line with any other ship, and there was a deli counter that served decent pastrami and the omlettes in the am were VERY good. The pizza station basically was serving DiGiorno pizza. I like DiGornio pizza, so it was ok.

 

Ports -

 

Nassau: Been there, done that. Nassau has never been a favorite stop of mine. The wife and I walked off the ship, wandered around in the shops for about 30 mins and she said "I am done with this" (she didn't want to book an excursion, which was fine). We went back on the ship and she wanted to enjoy some pool time. What a great decision. We changed and got up on the Lido deck, and there were maybe 6 people there in lounge chairs. We enjoyed the pool, and yes, we went down the slide a few times, lol....Ordered some cocktails and hung out until people started coming back on board at around 1, then made our way to the Serenity Deck and were still able to secure the prime real estate lounge chairs

 

Half Moon Cay: I have been to a lot of beaches....this beach is BEAUTIFUL. we rented a clamshell to give us some shade while on the lounge chairs. They have music playing and the have a decent barbeque going with burgers, dogs, jerk chicken and desserts. We were the 2nd tender off the boat at around 9:15 and we stayed until about 2 pm....GREAT DAY....One word of caution to the people that participate in the CHEERS program. While you can use your S&S card to pay for the drinks on HMC, the cheers program is NOT in effect. So you will get charged for drinks on HMC that are not covered by the CHEERS program

 

Debarking -

 

We chose the Self Assist method. We docked around 7 and they started calling decks around 8 am....We were deck 7, so we were called around 9:10 am. From the time that we were called to the time I put the luggage in my car was a total of 20 mins. Customs was a breeze, line was under 5 mins.

 

Overall GREAT cruise. The next cruise I would take would probably be longer (7 or 8 nights) and would like to try a bigger ship. The Elation did not have the 2.0 upgrade as of the time we sailed. For anyone on the fence about the Elation, especially for the price you pay, its a no brainer....Book it and go, you will have a great time!

Edited by First and Ten
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jbhcw

jbhcw

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Thanks for your review! Getting on the elation tomorrow ...this will be our third time on this fantasy class ship...it is older...but we just love the layout and the fact that it is not huge....we have a cabana for hmc...our fave place...:). So for us for a short getaway the 5 Dayer is wonderful!!

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First and Ten

First and Ten

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Did you find there was enough to do, how easy is it to fly into Jacksonville

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

I drove to the port, 6 hr drive....best nightly entertainment on any cruise I was on. Always something going on

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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First and Ten

First and Ten

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We would be flying from Buffalo

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

If you are flying in a day earlier, there is a Holiday Inn that we stayed at....its about 1 mile from the port and I believe they offer shuttle service from the hotel to the port....it was a good place to stay

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First and Ten

First and Ten

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Is air prices seem higher than other places?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

I didn't fly so I don't know, you could compare flying into Jacksonville with flying into Orlando....its about a 2.5 hr drive from Orlando to Jax, so if it is substantially cheaper flying into Orlando, you could rent a car and drive to Jax....again, you have to balance your time and rental car to see if that makes sense

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loukel

loukel

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We were on the same cruise, which was also our first. We had a great time and HMC was very beautiful, we snorkeled and found some amazing fish, wish I had that underwater camera they were sailing. Overall, great cruise, but when the other Carnival ship and the Royal Caribbean ship ported next to us in Nassau I realized how small the Elation really was, can't wait to go on another cruise and try a bigger ship next time, but I will say the walk from one side of the ship to the other on the Elation was great since it didn't seem to take too long.

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First and Ten

First and Ten

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We were on the same cruise, which was also our first. We had a great time and HMC was very beautiful, we snorkeled and found some amazing fish, wish I had that underwater camera they were sailing. Overall, great cruise, but when the other Carnival ship and the Royal Caribbean ship ported next to us in Nassau I realized how small the Elation really was, can't wait to go on another cruise and try a bigger ship next time, but I will say the walk from one side of the ship to the other on the Elation was great since it didn't seem to take too long.

 

Lou, I noticed that too....when I walked off the ship, we were next to the Carnival Sunshine, and it was a lot bigger than the Elation....kept walking and all of a sudden, we saw the Allure of the Seas....it dwarfed both Carnival ships, it was HUGE

 

We sailed on the Norwegian Epic last year. I will say it was newer, but the rooms were basically the same (we had a balcony on the Epic, but the actual room was the same). The buffet on the Epic was much more elaborate and bigger and there were about 8 separate specialty restaurants and they had the Ice Bar, which was a pretty cool touch. The food in the MDR was basically the same as the Elation. I will say the Elation had MUCH BETTER nightly entertainment and MORE headline shows. It blew the Epics entertainment away, no comparison

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