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Some friends and I did Carnival's "Rail and Sail" excursion last year. It was a lot more fun than I anticipated. We had a great day.

Of those ports, my favorites for snorkeling are St. Thomas and St. Lucia. You can see pictures of my port stops on all of those islands on my Carnival Freedom and Carnival Liberty reviews - links in my signature below.

I really can't imagine you having any issues. On my last cruise in May, there was a couple with a very fussy baby (maybe 8 or 9 months old?) standing behind me during the lifeboat portion of our muster drill. Before I even knew what was happening, the mother had managed to pull her t-shirt up and bra down and started nursing the baby. The only reaction I had was wonderment at her ninja-like skills in pulling the whole move off so smoothly! I was MUCH happier with a nursing baby behind me than a screaming one. ;)

We did a Carnival "America's Cup Regatta" Challenge. I believe this is now offered in Cozumel. One of the best excursions I have ever been on.

I agree wholeheartedly! I did this excursion in St. Maarten two years ago, and it was fantastic. Well worth the price.

I'm new to Cruise Critic but have been look at some of the reviews for the Elation. I'm taking my boys in October for my oldest son's 21st Birthday/College Graduation celebration. My other one is 15 so I decided to let him tag alone. There was no hesitation about tagging along with Mom this time around. LOL!!! This is the best review I have ever looked at. Thanks so much for sharing and I'm glad you and your friend had a great time. Looking forward to my trip more now. Maybe our paths will cross sometime and we can meet in person. :)

Thank you for your kind words! I hope you and your sons have a great time on your cruise. I'm only a couple of hours down I-85 from you, so maybe our paths will cross one day. You never know!

Did Elation's MDR switch to the American Table after arriving in Jacksonville, or are they still doing the old-style service?

Elation does not yet have the American Table menu.

My experience was that it is one bottle of wine per cabin - that is what we were given (with no "negotiation") on the Liberty last year. The wine was just fine for our tastes.

Texas Moomba, the sangria and food at Orozco's were both absolutely amazing.

Loubetti, he actually did/does know those things but I think he overestimated the distance between where we were standing at the edge of the beach and the departing aircraft. I think he also had a bit of a "kid in the candy store" moment. That is NOT a mistake I will make again, for sure! Lol.

Thank you all so much! I really didn't expect much out of this trip, to be honest, but I had a great time.

Thanks, everyone! I love writing reviews. It seems to prolong the vacation experience for just a little while longer. :)

Thank you! It was a great trip, if a little tiring.

Thank you for the review!

You're welcome!

Great review. You really packed a lot into that short cruise!

Thank you! And, yes, we did. I think the grand total of "steps" for the four days came to 34,500 - in other words, close to 20 miles, and that doesn't include my two hours of snorkeling! I've been completely useless today...

We were a bit late arriving back in Jacksonville, although I'm not sure why. We didn't dock until around 7:30. Claudia and I took our time getting up and dressing, since we were in debarkation zone 21. We ate breakfast in the dining room and then sat near the casino and waited to be called. Our zone was in the last group called, around 9:30. I think that the crew was in a bit of a hurry to get everyone off due to our late arrival; when our zone was called, people in the previous group were still lined up in the stairwells waiting to get down to deck 3. Eventually, we made our way off the ship and found our luggage. Somehow, we ended up at the tail end of the line to clear customs. Even with a lot of "hurry up and wait", we were loaded up in my car by 10:30, and I dropped Claudia off at the airport before 11. Then I started my drive home.

My route had me exiting I-75 at Tifton, GA before taking a state highway west. Naturally, I had to stop at Adcock's!

With my stop for peaches and another stop for a late lunch/early dinner, I finally got home around 5 pm Central time. I think my animals were happy to see me:

I don't know what the horses missed more, me or their evening peppermints, but I appreciated the enthusiastic greeting nonetheless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnaO4_YRpGo.

Thanks for following along. I hope you've enjoyed reliving the trip with me!

Once Claudia came in, we returned our equipment and sat down on the deck in the shade to cool off. I drank a well-earned local beer, and all too soon it was time to load the van and head back to the ship. I really wish we'd had more time in Freeport so that we could have stayed at the beach longer. All in all, I HIGHLY recommend Paradise Cove. We had a great morning there.

We were back on the ship at 1 pm, and sail away was scheduled for 2 pm. We showered and then headed up to the deli for lunch. Both of us ate two sandwiches - we had worked hard that morning! After lunch, we returned - where else? - to trivia and games. First up was a reverse scavenger hunt. We were told to go to our cabin and grab any 20 items we thought might be on the list. We may have gotten a little TOO creative with some of our items:

We didn't do very well at matching this list!

We were still having a great time, though:

We attempted to play sports trivia but failed miserably. We also failed at movie theme song trivia, although I still have questions about the group that won (Shark Tale? Really? Lol). The game was hilarious, though, so we still had a blast. The final game of the cruise was another digital scavenger hunt. This time, we had to find crew members from a list of countries and take pictures of their name tags. Most of our winning scavenger hunt team was reunited, but we didn't win this one. We certainly got our exercise, though, running all over the ship! Between this and the snorkeling, my legs felt like Jello by the time I went to bed that night.

After trivia, we changed for dinner and packed our bags. Putting my luggage out in the hallway to be collected is always this saddest part of a cruise for me. This time, it was especially sad because it felt like the trip had barely started before it was over. :( One of our table mates was celebrating his 70th birthday that night; he and his wife bought a bottle of champagne for the table to celebrate, which was very sweet. For dinner, I had the spring rolls, sushi appetizer. Steakhouse Selections filet, and WCMC. We bid good-bye to our table mates and listened to a little more music before heading to the comedy club. The comedian was from Alabama; as an Auburn employee, I especially enjoyed his jokes about the "Roll Tide" people. :D After that, it was time for bed!

Can you see him? This guy was about 4-5' in width!

It took us almost two hours to swim out, around, and back. The swim back was really tricky, trying to navigate around coral and the artificial reef balls that have been placed there for closer in snorkeling. Again, the water was only about 2' deep in places - I've never concentrated so hard in such shallow water! We were exhausted by the time we made it back to the "walking" area, but it was absolutely worth the effort. I was happy to stretch out on a chair to dry off and watch Claudia paddle board.

This next photo was taken just before I crossed over to the back side of the islands. The water back there drops off suddenly to a depth of 30-50'. I didn't take as many photos on the back side for a few reasons. For one, the water depth meant that I needed to use my camera's zoom, which decreased the photo quality. For another, the waves were intense back there, and I had to exert a lot more effort just keeping myself away from the rocks. The current was so intense that most of the group I was with turned back at that point, leaving just one other woman and myself to make the trek around. Finally, I was just so mesmerized by what I was seeing that I didn't want to take my eyes off of the sea life long enough to set up my camera. It was like swimming in an aquarium! We were told that several species of sting rays, as well as nurse sharks and reef sharks, are often found there. We saw rays but didn't see any sharks. I still can't decide whether I'm disappointed or relieved about that!

If you look closely at this one, you can see two 3-4' baracudas. We checked each other out cautiously and mutually agreed to go our separate ways. This photos also illustrates how clear and shallow the water was.

I was itching to get in the water and snorkel. Claudia isn't a snorkeler; she planned to paddle board instead. I asked one of the other groups with us if they would mind me tagging along with them in the water, and they were very welcoming. I planned to swim all the way out and around the backside of the islands you see in the photos above, and I needed someone else with me to do that. Before snorkeling, we received instructions from one of the guides. All the way out to and past the white buoys in those pictures, the water was VERY shallow as little as 1' in places. We were allowed to walk out as far as the buoys but told to only swim or stand (not on the coral) beyond those points. The water was only 2-3' deep in most places, even 2/3 of the way out to the islands, which presented quite a challenge! Just trying to stay off the bottom and off the coral required a significant amount of effort and concentration. There were two first timers in the group I joined; they received instruction from a guide before we were allowed to head out. The guide was an excellent instructor and soon had them ready to go. I was amazed at the volume and variety of coral and marine life. The water was crystal clear. I took a LOT of pictures out there - most of these were taken with no zoom at all.

There were also sea turtles hanging out in the shallow sea grass areas. We came across at least half a dozen, and some of them were huge. I managed to get a short video of one - I was too busy watching the rest to get any photos or videos of them:

I had been to Nassau once before, although Claudia hadn't. Freeport, on the other hand, was new to both of us. I had read on here that many people don't like Freeport, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. We booked a day at Paradise Cove (Deadman's Reef) and LOVED it! We both decided that we prefer Freeport to Nassau.

We woke up around 6:30, while the ship was pulling in to port. I ordered another room service BLT, and we were off the ship by 7:30 am. The crew working the gangway said we were the second and third people to disembark that morning. :cool: Our Paradise Cove confirmation instructed us to meet at the Ministry of Tourism booth at 8 am. We wandered around the port area for about 20 minutes before we finally found the booth.

We walked past one of the Balaeria ships, which was obviously a Carnival ship in a past life. Does anyone know which Carnival ship this was?

At 8 am, there was still no one else at the booth. Thinking that maybe we should be out near the road, we started walking back towards the center of the shop. Sure enough, along came one of the Paradise Cove drivers to check us off the list. He had met the other passengers at the ship...:rolleyes: We were still missing two couples. One of them showed up at 8:30, and one never did. I was getting quite irritated at this point, but my mood improved once we were on the van and headed for the beach. Our driver was very knowledgeable about the area and gave us a bit of a guided tour as we made the 30 minute drive across the island.

Once we arrived and got a glimpse of the beach, my bad mood evaporated. Barry, who I believe is the owner, welcomed us warmly and instructed us on how to sign in, pay our balances, and pick up our tickets for equipment, chairs, and/or drinks, depending on which package we had purchased.

Nice start, following.:)

Thank you!

Nice friends getaway!

It definitely was! I just wish it could have been longer.

Enjoying your review.

Thank you!