Elation Review 05/07 - 05/14

[Victory748]

About Us

I went on this cruise with my mom and dad. I am 24 years old. I have only been on one other cruise, and it was also the Elation, the Western Caribbean itinerary from Galveston. We were very interested in the new itinerary which is why we decided to go on the Elation again. My parents have cruised both Royal Caribbean and Princess as well.

 

Pre Cruise

We flew from Dallas to Ft. Lauderdale early Saturday morning. We rented a car from Dollar for the day. We asked for an SUV and they didn’t have one ready so we waited for a while to get it. We then drove to Miami where we were staying at the Newport Beach hotel. Our room was perfect for us. It had a pull down bed from the wall, 2 TVs, and a divider so we could break the room into 2 and I basically had my own room for the night. We drove to the South Beach area but traffic was so heavy that we didn’t stick around. Of course we did the mandatory visit to Wal-Mart to stock up on water, wine etc. No problem getting it on board.

 

Embarkation

We returned the car to the rental place, and took the rental car company’s free shuttle to the Port of Miami. It was pulling away just as we got there, and one of the other drivers had him stop for us. We were at the port in no time. We unloaded our luggage, and got in line in the terminal. The lines moved pretty quickly. They give you an immigration form for the Bahamas which needs to be filled out before getting to the counter. Our agent was very nice, and we were off picking up our Sail and Sign cards and having our embarkation pictures taken shortly thereafter. The very first thing we did was put in our request for the Horseback Ride and Swim excursion in Half Moon Cay. We then went to our rooms to drop off our carry ons, and headed to Tiffany’s for the first of many meals. The ship didn’t end up leaving until around 7 pm. They announced it was due to traffic, but from our room we could see many crates of luggage and supplies still waiting to be put onto the ship. We went to the Welcome Aboard show as we set sail. The comedian was so-so, but Jorge, the Cruise Directors is hilarious.

 

The Ship

I don’t have any other ships to compare it to, but my parents kept saying that it is so much smaller than what they are used to. They did add putt putt golf during dry dock and we had a game of that on the first sea day. I was up around 8 on the first sea day to go run the track, and I didn’t notice any chair saving, which was nice. We didn’t spend much time around the pool on the Lido, but could always find a chair where we wanted to be. My biggest complaint about the Elation is the Mikado show lounge. There are not very many good seats that don’t have very obstructed views. I’m not sure how other ships are, but this could have been designed better.

 

Activities

I had read in another review that people didn’t find there was much to do on sea days. We found plenty to do. In the morning we would lay out in the sun for a bit, but around 2 we would go inside and partake in some activities. We did trivia, famous faces, scavenger hunt, the Newlywed, Not so Newlywed show, In the Bag, The Battle of the Sexes, the crew let people ask them questions about life on the ship. I was very entertained, and sometimes wanted to be in two places at the same time.

 

Food

I really enjoyed the food, but then again I have been on a diet losing weight for the past 2 years so anything new is good to me. My mom said that she felt that the standard of food was not as good as the last time on Elation and even thought that RCI was better. She always felt that RCI and Carnival were very similar but the food this time was very disappointing. The soups I ate in the dining room were all too salty with the exception of the Broccoli and Cheese soup. The 2 that were salty were the French Onion and the Tomato. Our waiter was Charles and his assistant was Dale. Dale had a good personality and was quick witted. Charles surprised us all on the last night by actually laughing. Service was slow the first 5 days. Quite often we did not have our entrees by the time they did their singing and dancing. Carnival does a good job of matching up tables. We were at a table for 10 and it was us (me, mom and dad) another mom and dad and their daughter in her early 20s, and another mom and dad, their 24 year old daughter and her boyfriend. I don’t let any of the following ruin my time, but I did take notice because of the talks on this board. There were many people wearing jeans and even shorts in the dining room. One table the guys were wearing shorts and basketball jerseys while the girls were dressed nicely. I saw some people in jeans on Formal night too. And there was one real “Bubba” with his wife “Mrs. Bubba”. He was wearing a hat and shorts and dirty shirt. His wife wasn’t much better. Like I said, it didn’t ruin anything about my dinner, just thought I would include this in the review.

 

Infirmary

Too bad I have to give a review of this. My mom became ill (virus) the first evening on the ship. So Monday morning I took her to the infirmary where she was given medicine but told she was to be quarantined for 24 hours. I accidentally gave them the wrong cabin number, and they called that cabin all day checking on her, and thought she had left the ship. That night they realized the error and called the correct cabin. The nurse was nice and understood the problem. The next day my mom had to call to let them know how she was feeling. That nurse was very rude and accused her of leaving the cabin. She didn’t seem to believe her when all was said and done either. But she was released from the cabin Tuesday morning. So imagine our surprise when a nurse called on Friday morning and was upset with her for leaving the cabin during the week not realizing she had been officially given the OK. Lots of mix ups, but we never got billed for the visit or for the medicine.

 

Ports of Call

Half Moon Cay – Beautiful port. The tendering process was tedious. I would suggest trying to get one of the first tender tickets, because they say to only get a ticket when you are ready to get off, but by then you have to wait for 1.5 hours. They would call “all tender tickets from 1 to 23” so you could get off at any time if you had a lower number. I got my mom’s horseback riding ticket refunded with no problems at all, since she was quarantined. We were an hour late getting into port (but we stayed an hour late) so the guy at the pursers desk told me my 11:00 horseback riding would instead be 12:00. When I got there for 12, the people on the island told me it had been rescheduled for 1:45. When I showed up at 1:45 they told me it had been rescheduled for 3. When I got there for 3, they told me it had been canceled. This was very upsetting as my entire day at Half Moon was spent going back and forth between the beach, drying off so I wouldn’t be wet for the excursion, then to the information desk, only to be put off time after time after time. No one could give me a good reason as to why I didn’t get the excursion and the Carnival employee there was clueless as well. Along with mine, there were several other excursions canceled. He didn’t even know that they were being canceled, none the less why they were. I was very disappointed with the lack of organization here. Something needs to be changed. Perhaps Carnival should have more employees helping out at the excursion desk on the island so they will be more informed when things like this are happening. All in all, beautiful beach, but the day was very disappointing.

 

St. Thomas – we did Godfrey’s Tour here. We opted for 1 hour of shopping which was perfect for us as we are not big shoppers. The tour was very informative, the banana daiquiris at the Top of the World were very good, and the views were amazing. After the tour we opted to go to Sapphire Beach. Coki seemed a little crowded so I am glad this was our decision. We got some lunch at the resort bar and grill (very expensive) and shared it with a large (4 foot) iguana that was waiting around for handouts. He even licked my mom’s toe, perhaps to see if it was food. I took a dip in the freshwater pool before heading to the beach. The view from the restaurant was amazing. Snorkeling was not unlike we have seen at any other Virgin Islands spot. Some kids we were there with saw a Sea Turtle, which I have never seen before. After Godfrey dropped us off at the ship, we walked to an internet café (St. Thomas Times) to send some emails and check out cruise critic. She only charged us for 15 mins even though we were on for more like 30.

 

San Juan – The night before we got a notice that all Carnival sponsored city tours were canceled due to protests that were supposed to be happening. Sure enough when we got in there were helicopters hovering over the protests. Our plan was to do the Bacardi tour on our own. We took the ferry over (50 cents per person), then a taxi to the factory ($3 per person). The tour itself was a little disappointing because we didn’t get to see anything actually being made. It was more like a museum tour. But it kept us occupied. Next time I’m in San Juan I think I will go tour some of the forts. The highlight of the tour was the free sample at the end. I ended up with 3 drink coupons, which meant 3 drinks, woohoo!! Then we headed back to the ship, same price to get back. We stopped off at another internet café to check emails, then got back to the ship. There were some young girls screaming and had obviously had too much to drink at Sr Frogs. One of them was hanging her head over the side of the pier to be sick. Yuck.

 

Grand Turk – This was probably the port we were most looking forward to and for us it did not disappoint. I read some reviews about the duty free shop not being open, but it was when we got there. Carnival was also hosting a celebration ceremony for the government. They had about 60 people coming on board for lunch, and also served food at the pier for others. It was also the “Grand Opening” of Margaritaville. There were rumors that Jimmy Buffet had flown in for it, but we never heard or saw him. We took the Ultimate Snorkeling excursion through Carnival. We stopped at 2 reefs in the middle of the ocean. The water was so clear you thought you were swimming in a pool. The fish were not plentiful, they are trying to feed them so they become more used to people, but we did see a rather large barracuda. One of the reefs also has a resident nurse shark but she didn’t come out for us. The coral was probably the most beautiful we have ever seen before though. I’m glad we did the tour, but next time I will probably spend more time on the beach, since we have already done the snorkeling. After snorkeling we went to Margaritaville. This was very fun and nice. I took advantage of the swim up bar, as did many other people. They did a good job of making the drunk girls keep their bikinis on (much to the relief of the parents there, much to the disappointment of the college guys). They kept it fairly family friendly. After Margaritaville, we took a walk to the left of the pier (if you’re looking at the ship). Here we found the conch shell graveyard. At first I was disgusted that people were walking off the beach and taking these home. But then we found out that the locals dump them here after they have eaten the conch, so they are basically “trash”. They aren’t there naturally.

 

Shows

The dance shows were good if you enjoy that sort of show. We went to the first one (can’t remember the name) but gave Spin a miss since it had been on the Elation last time we were there. We also missed the first adult comedy show since it was the same comedian from the Welcome Aboard show. The all time best show of the week was the Adult show of the hypnotist. Don’t volunteer to go up there unless you don’t mind being VERY embarrassed. I was in tears from laughing so hard. The next night he did a family friendly version. I volunteered to be hypnotized, but I couldn’t completely relax. I was busy thinking to myself, “Am I hypnotized yet?” haha. About 10 people were hypnotized though, and the show was just as funny as the night before. A do not miss!

 

Debarkation

Other than the Half Moon Cay incident, I would say the worst thing that Carnival did on this cruise was make me get off the ship. Liquor was delivered the night before so there was no mess with that. We did not choose to do the self assist, so we waited until they told everyone they could get off (they no longer do it by luggage tag color). Getting off the ship was fast, getting out of the area with the luggage and through customs took about 20 minutes. People were knowingly cutting in line and there was 1 woman trying to stop it. We took a shuttle (Miami Sunshine Shuttle was perhaps the name?) for $20 per person back to the Ft. Lauderdale airport.

 

Does anyone have any questions for me?

[bubbles1209]

On that immigration form, by chance do you rememeber how you filled that out? It asks how you are arriving, ok check ship, I get that one. Then it asks, Date of Arrival. Ok, date of arrival where? Miami? Half Moon? which port? City where you boarded this boat, ok Miami, I get that one. It later asks for intended stay (nights)........we aren't gonna be in any of these ports overnight...what to put there? It asks Type of Accommodation...once again, we aren't staying in a hotel there overnight, so what to put? It asks hotel name, or intended address.........how did you answer that one? I decided not to stress over this, to just fill out what I know for sure, and have them help me out at the counter when we get to the pier. If you can remember how you filled this out, your help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time:)

[seashell36]

Thanks for the great review. I am very sorry your Mom got sick. I know it is common on the cruise ships. Were there quite a few of the clamshells for rent on Half Moon Cay? We are traveling with our kids and I want to make sure we get one.

[Icon5]

Thanks for talking the time to write this review!!!!

I do have a couple of questions for you since we will be sailing on her on July 2nd.

You rented the car from FLL from Dollard, where did you drop it off in Miami, the airport? how often do they have a shuttle to the port?

Also how did you book you return to FLL? was the shuttle waiting at the port to take you back to FLL.

Thanks for help.....:D

[Victory748]

bubbles1209, I found the form a little confusing too. When they handed it to us, they didn't let us know it needed to be filled out. We saw everyone else doing it in line so we figured we had better. I just guessed on most of the answers. Someone in line told us to put "1" as the number of nights stayed. For the date of arrival I put the day the ship got into HMC. I don't think I answered the type of accomodation. They didn't make me correct the form so I guess we did it right...

 

seashell, there were a few clamshells. I didn't notice if they all got rented or not. I would just make sure you go to the shore excursion desk first thing when you board the ship (it is directly to your right) and sign up for one.

 

Icon, we dropped the rental car off right by the Miami airport. There were signs as you got near the airport telling you how to get there. I believe the shuttle to the pier left every 30 minutes. As for the shuttle home, we were going to price a few options after getting off the ship. This guy approached us and offered $20 per person which was low compared to what we had heard on this board. He did tell us to tell other people to contact them 1 week in advance to schedule a pick up.

[Icon5]

Thanks Victory for the information....

I will probably do as you stated to get to the port..

[pacerzfan]

Great Review Thanks for all the info!