A Short ELATION Review

[jbhcw]

I sailed on the Elation June 11th out of San Diego, have been sooo busy since getting home, but wanted to just share some thoughts about this ship and this itinerary.

 

This was cruise # 18 but the first one from the west coast. We were on the Elation in January out of Port Canaveral, visited HMC, Grand Turk and Nassau. It’s a great itinerary and we fell in love with the ship, the colors on the ship are wonderful, IMO and it is my favorite Fantasy class ship.

 

Anyway I have been kind of planning a HAL cruise out of San Diego for 2008 but when I saw the Elation was going to be home ported in SD I jumped at the chance to do a shorter less expensive cruise this year. DH is not crazy about flying but said go for it, so I called my brother who lives in Escondido and he was up for it, so we did a cruise together!!! My very first cruise was with him and his family out of Port Canaveral many years ago on Premier, (Big Red Boat).

 

Embarkation was fairly painless, if a little disorganized, there’s not much to VIP check-in but we got it done, (After security took my third bottle of wine!!). We did not have to wait long in the terminal when VIP was called. We had previously dropped our luggage on the ship side and walked across the pier to the terminal. We then walked out of the terminal into the white tents and up a ramp onto one of the lower deck, want to say it was a deck with cabins but not sure. Anyway you would normally enter on the Empress deck where the Atrium is but the ship is docked on the side where they do not have the terminal where you can enter farther up. They did not take our photo for our Sail and Sign Card and I did not think of it until we were getting ready to get off in Cabo our first port. A horrible noise came out of the machine when we stuck our cards in there!!! It just took them a minute to get our photos taken and we were off the ship.

 

Leaving the next Saturday was also interesting as we had to go down and walk down the hall to get off the ship. There were way too many people down there, brother said something about a fire hazard but the line moved quickly and we were off the ship between 8:30 and 9:00. Getting off a ship always seems to be something of a hassle no matter how well it goes. We had no problem finding our luggage and we just went across the street to the holiday Inn and waited at an outdoor café for my SIL and niece to pick us up. So all in all embarkation and debarkation went fairly smoothly for the ship and staff to be new to San Diego. The girl who checked us in was brand new and had to have help from someone else when we told her that brother would have his own sail and sign account, but she was extremely pleasant and it was not a problem at all.

 

We were up on the Lido Deck eating lunch by 11:30-12:00, we got to the pier around 10:30 or a little after and they were letting people through.

 

Our cabin was an OV on Empress Deck, E118. We had a great cabin steward Jorge from Guatemala, and never heard any loud noises except for a few times with kids running up and down the halls. No problems though. There were a lot of HS grads on this cruise but I never saw any bad behavior, though we did not stay up at night and party.

 

On the two port days we were back on the ship early and the Lido Deck was deserted, you had your pick of chairs. It was so dead that on the day we were in Ensenada I was sitting one deck up on the starboard side, where I usually go, was there more than an hour and never had a bar waiter come by to see if I wanted a drink, and I was too lazy to get up and go downstairs and get one, so I just thought about it!!!

 

We had early dining in the Inspiration, Noel and Antonio from the Philippines were our waiters. Noel has been with Carnival for 15 years and it shows, he was wonderful and did a great job. We and our table mates ended up bringing a bottle of wine to the table four nights and were never charged a corkage fee, although I did tip Noel a little extra the second night and then again the last night.

 

We were at a window table for 8, had great dining companions and really enjoyed our dinners. We also saw dolphins several times from the dining room, but did not see any whales.

 

Food was good, perhaps not quite as good as I remember in January, but I’m not complaining!! Sushi was also very good, though we only ate there once. I really like that you can get boiled eggs now at the Lido Deck buffet breakfast, a little healthier option than the omelets and fried eggs. I have never been able to eat the fake scrambled eggs on any buffet.

 

Stuart was our CD and thought he was okay, nothing special but there have certainly been worse. He does have a lot of enthusiasm! Enjoyed hearing the Captain give his daily report at Noon. We attended the past guest and Captain’s thing, something I usually don’t do and to my surprise it was not crowded at all, we had plenty of room to sit and actually had to turn down drinks and food as they kept coming by! In January out of Port Canaveral it was perhaps an older crowd and more people attended as the theatre was jam-packed and we could barely get a drink or something to eat.

 

We only attended a couple of shows and they were okay. I liked the small male singer and dancer better than I did the female.

 

We did not do any shore excursions, just walked around and shopped in both. A lot of people have said they do not like Ensenada, I do!!! Have been there several times and always enjoy shopping, going down to the fish market and having some fish tacos and just enjoy being there. It was a beautiful day, very pleasant weather wise. I would like to go back to Cabo when it’s not so hot and perhaps take a boat ride, but we did enjoy walking around, stopped and had fish tacos overlooking the marina I loved the pelicans that were everywhere there!

 

In closing, I had a great time on this cruise, think my brother enjoyed himself too. He has traveled the world and cruise a few times but never on Carnival. I do think there was a big difference in the people cruising on this cruise out of San Diego and the people we cruised with in January out of Port Canaveral. PC was an older crowd, from obviously the east coast, and this cruise was a younger crowd with mostly folks from CA, AZ, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, but never heard or saw any wild or out of the way behavior at all. I think the dress code was a little lax, especially in the DR, and this is the first cruise I have ever really noticed how people were dressed. Didn’t bother or spoil the cruise but there were some pretty casual outfits in the DR!!!!

 

I have done this very quickly, so please forgive any mistakes. Any questions, I’ll be glad to answer.

 

Oh, and the reason I took the cruise. I LOVED sailing out of San Diego!!!! Wish it would have been sunny that day, but hey I’m already thinking of next year and DH will definitely be with me. One other thing, I have always been curious about how close the Holiday Inn is to the pier and it is right across the street!!! There is so much to see and do in San Diego that I’m planning on at least two days, so DH and I can see the Midway, take a harbor tour go to the Gaslamp, San Diego is such a great city and sailing out of the harbor was so cool, I loved it!

[mrdood]

Thanks for the review, we are considering this for a family cruise.

 

Did security give you a reason for taking the wine? What was up with that?

[jbhcw]

I apparently was asleep at the wheel and did not realize that Carnival had changed it's wine policy, it's now one bottle per person. My brother did not take on a carry-on and was pulling mine for me when all the security agents surrounded him when he put it thru the machine:eek: He did not know what was going on!!! Anyway, I walked over and said it was my carry-on,what was the problem. They asked how many bottles of wine I had and I said three, a bottle of white, red and bubbly. Anyway only two were allowed on, so I gave them the cheapest bottle and told them to enjoy:rolleyes:

 

We have always carried a small amount of Pepsi, water and up to 5 bottles of wine with us with no problem.

 

I also have pictures of our cruise but have not got them ready, will try to post in a few days.

[mrdood]

I apparently was asleep at the wheel and did not realize that Carnival had changed it's wine policy, it's now one bottle per person. My brother did not take on a carry-on and was pulling mine for me when all the security agents surrounded him when he put it thru the machine:eek: He did not know what was going on!!! Anyway, I walked over and said it was my carry-on,what was the problem. They asked how many bottles of wine I had and I said three, a bottle of white, red and bubbly. Anyway only two were allowed on, so I gave them the cheapest bottle and told them to enjoy:rolleyes:

 

We have always carried a small amount of Pepsi, water and up to 5 bottles of wine with us with no problem.

 

I also have pictures of our cruise but have not got them ready, will try to post in a few days.

 

We took a whole case a year ago, I would have shown them my Welcome aboard pamphlet where it does NOT state one bottle per person and that they are not allowed to make changes without notifying me ;) . Oh well.

[Wennfred]

Great review, thanks, as for the wine, its only 2 bottles of wine.

 

Guests are prohibited from bringing alcoholic beverages onboard. However, guests (21 years and older only) may bring one bottle of wine or champagne per person on board only during embarkation at the beginning of the cruise.

 

 

Fred

[Darlipoo]

Thanks for the great review. You wrote that when you got off the ship you waited across the street for your ride. Did you notice if there were cabs lined up for people that need them?

[Kurbanfan]

Thanks for your review. We will be on her again in August. Cabo is one of our favorites......

Also have to say San Diego is our favorite port to sail out of...

[jbhcw]

There were lots of cabs waiting, in fact we were asked a couple of times if we needed one, so not to worry you should have no problem getting a cab.

 

Kurban, what do usually do in Cabo and where is the good shopping? I do plan on going again with dh, hopefully next October or November. How would the weather be then, anyone know?