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You guessed it: We won AGAIN!

In my four previous cruises, I have only ever won one game, and that was for horse trivia, so I felt a little bit like a "ringer" at the time. This trip? We were having all kinds of luck. After the scavenger hunt, it was time to get changed for dinner. That night, I had the spring rolls and Caesar salad for my appetizers, the Steakhouse Selections surf and turf, and the tiramisu. This was my first cruise in a few years without a Steakhouse, and I did miss that, but the ability to at least order one of the entrees at dinner helped offset the loss a bit. Our waiters entertained us with their dancing skills tonight:

After dinner, we were wiped out and headed straight to bed. According to Claudia's pedometer app, we walked nearly 13,000 "steps" that day (MANY of them up and down the stairs!), which I calculated to be almost 7.5 miles! :eek: When we returned to our cabin that night, we got a kick out of our room steward's creativity and kindness:

I have to interject here that our room steward for this trip, Rianto (or "Ri" as he asked us to call him) was the best I've ever had. He was so attentive and stopped us in the hallways multiple times every day to ask how things were going, what we had been up to, and if there was anything else we needed. On the first day, I asked for an ice bucket, and he refilled it multiple times every day so that our water bottles were always cold and fresh. We made sure to leave him a big tip at the end of the week - he definitely earned it!

Next up: Freeport!

On the way back to the ship, we couldn't help noticing how much larger the Disney Dream was than our ship. We also admired the characters on the front of the ship.

We grabbed lunch on the Lido again. Claudia wanted a burger, and I decided to hit the Mongolian wok while most passengers were still off the ship in port. Despite the short line (there were about 5 people in front of me), it still took me over 30 minutes to get my food. By that time, Claudia had already finished her lunch! The food was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the wait. There was only one cook working the station; I think the line could have moved a little more quickly if there had been two people doing the cooking.

Next, it was time for more trivia! Claudia dominated the 80s music trivia:

We joined in with two other passengers for charades. Once again, we were victorious!

Next up was the digital scavenger hunt. Once again, we joined forces with our friends from charades as well as two members of the other charades team. We may or may not have frightened some of the non-participating passengers as we raced around the ship trying to find everything on the list...:D One of the items on our list was a group selfie in the glass elevator:

I was glad the distillery tour was free, because it was very short. We decided that this might be the world's smallest distillery! The grounds were beautiful, though.

I was disappointed that the gift shop didn't sell small bottles of rum. We ordered a drink each at the bar inside before leaving to continue exploring. As we walked back towards downtown Nassau, we decided to find the chocolate factory using the map we had picked up at the port. It was only a few blocks away from the distillery, and the walk was downhill and easy.

We found the chocolate factory and bought a few pieces each to enjoy later that night. By this time, we were ready for lunch, so we headed back towards the ship. Claudia and I are both horse people, and we couldn't resist stopping to check in on the carriage horses as we passed them. Although many of them were thinner than people who are used to seeing show and pleasure horses may be accustomed to, they were all healthy, with shiny coats, bright eyes, and well-shod hooves. This guy was in excellent weight:

Saturday was Nassau day. With our excursion cancelled, we didn't really have a plan in mind. We woke up around 7, and I ordered a BLT from room service while we got dressed. We were off the ship around 8:30 and wandered around downtown for a while getting our bearings. We decided to walk over to Junkanoo beach for a little while. As soon as we got to the beach, we were bombarded by offers of chairs, umbrellas, water sports, and drinks. We settled on a teal shack at the end of the beach run by a nice lady named Michelle. It was away from the party crowd starting to build at the entrance to the beach, and her chairs were free. The view was lovely:

We were joined by three other ships that day: the Norwegian Sky, the Disney Dream, and the Carnival Fantasy. The Fantasy was the last ship to arrive:

Even though our chairs were free, we felt we should order drinks while we were there. We opted for mango daquiris. They were delicious, but when I opted for the "strong" one, I didn't realize it would be swimming in a sea of rum!

After about an hour and a half, the beach started to get more crowded, so we packed up and headed back into town. We set out to find the John Watling rum distillery. It was a relatively short walk away, but we did have to climb a good sized hill to get there.

Loving the review so far! We are on the Elation later this year so I can't wait for the rest of your review.

Thank you! I should have it all finished by this afternoon.

Tonight was elegant night, and it was my first one with the new dinner menu for the shorter cruises. I tried the scallop appetizer, and it was fantastic! I could have easily eaten a larger portion (or two...) as an entree instead. I also had the stuffed mushrooms and the crab ravioli, which was very good. I was very excited to see my old friend, bitter n blanc, on the dessert menu. It is my favorite Carnival dessert!

After dinner, we headed over to the main theater for the Epic Rock show. We were in the third row on the floor, which put us right in the middle of the action for the second song:

We enjoyed the show. I thought the singers were all very talented, and the production elements were more impressive than I expected. I was surprised, though, at how many children were present in the audience. The costumes and choreography were very...adult...at times. We had a good time, but that's something others should keep in mind when considering attending, especially with children. Apparently it was 80s night all over the ship, because the band set up near the casino was also playing 80s music. My fellow passengers were having a great time!

This guy definitely knew how to party:

We enjoyed the music for a little while and headed to bed. When we arrived in our room, we found a notice telling us that our excursion for Nassau the next day (the Nassau Native Quest) had been cancelled due to lack of interest. :mad: We couldn't find any other excursion that excited us, so we decided to just get off the ship in the morning and wing it.

Our plan for the sea day was to spend as much time relaxing as possible. We tried to sleep in, failed, and finally decided to get up and go to brunch at 8 am. This was Claudia's first experience with the sea day brunch, and I tried not to oversell it. As usual, it didn't disappoint. I had the steak and eggs AND the bacon mac and cheese. I couldn't finish everything, but I gave it a good try. I still think that the filet served with the steak and eggs is the best steak available on the ship, outside of the steakhouse. We were stuffed after our big breakfast and headed to the serenity deck to sleep it off. :) I managed to find us a spot in the front row:

I always bring my oldest watch on cruises so that if it gets damaged by salt/sand/water or lost, the loss isn't a big deal. Apparently the watch I chose to take for this cruise was ready for retirement:

I managed to put it back together several times, but by the last night, I just gave up and carried it around instead of wearing it. I have become so used to having my cell phone that I almost never wear a watch in "real" life anymore. I'm a little annoyed that I spent $25 on a new battery for this one last week.

By noon, we had had our fill of sun and heat for the day. We grabbed a light lunch from the buffet, which was just okay. I'm not a big buffet fan in general, but I wasn't in the mood for a huge meal, so it worked. After eating, we wandered over to check out the trivia offerings. We fell a little short in the Broadway musical trivia but joined forces with some of our fellow cruisers and managed to win the "Super Duper" trivia game, thanks more to the other members of the group than our own contributions.

We headed back to the room for a victory nap before dinner.

After dropping off our carry-ons and rearranging the beds, we decided to head up to the Serenity deck to relax for a few hours:

We both napped and read off and on until 3:30, when we made our way back down to the cabin to see if our luggage had arrived. It had! We had just enough time to unpack before the muster drill started. Our muster station was the main show lounge. While I appreciated getting to sit inside the lounge during the drill, I felt like this location made the drill take longer than my last few ships, because ALL of us had to be led out to the lifeboats at the end of the drill before we were dismissed. I'd rather just line up by the boats to begin with and save time! The drill was pretty painless overall, though, and soon enough we were back on the Serenity deck waiting for sail away time.

Sail away was delayed for some reason (we ended up leaving about an hour late), and we got tired of sitting out in the heat waiting. We decided to grab a quick nap in the room before getting showered and dressed for dinner. While I was in the shower, I realized that I had managed to burn my right shin while sitting out on the Serenity deck in my capris and tennis shoes :eek: :

Luckily, it was a very mild burn and had faded to tan by the next morning. I was left with a pretty ridiculous looking tan line, though. :p We were assigned to late dining in the Imagination dining room. We were very excited to meet our table mates and hoped we would be assigned to a large table.

We were assigned to a round table for 10. Claudia and I were the first to arrive. Next came an older couple, followed by a couple from South Africa and two couples about our age from the Atlanta area. The husband of one couple had gone to high school with the wife of the other, and they hadn't seen each other since! Small world. One of the Atlanta couples had actually requested early dinner when they booked and let us know that they wouldn't be back at our table again unless they couldn't get their time changed. The husband of the South African couple got up while we were making our introductions. He came back with a waiter, and he and his wife moved over to a small table for two next to us. They didn't speak to us again until the very last day of the cruise. Talk about awkward! So our table for 10 ended up with 4 empty seats. Luckily, our remaining table mates were very friendly. It took us a little while to get warmed up, but by the end of the cruise, we greatly enjoyed one another's company.

I didn't take food photos on this cruise because the lighting in the dining room is a challenge for my camera, but I did make note of what I ate each night. On the first night, I had the Caesar salad and duck appetizers, both very good, the yam and cheddar pot pie, which is always a favorite of mine, and the WCMC (of course!). After dinner. Claudia and I decided to check out the karaoke. Everyone kept singing slow/sad songs, which didn't make for a very lively atmosphere. We called it a night and were greeted by our first towel animal of the cruise:

Next up: Sea Day!

After checking in, I decided to go find something to eat. A quick Google Maps tour of the surrounding area allowed me to discover a place called Mojito's, which was located about a mile away from the hotel. I pulled up the menu and saw that they served Puerto Rican food and decided that would be a great way to kick off the cruise. When I pulled into the parking lot, I almost turned around and left. The place was nearly deserted. There was only one other table occupied in the entire restaurant/bar area, and the air conditioner wasn't working. I was beginning to think that this was a terrible idea, but my sense of adventure compelled me to give it a try anyway. I'm so glad that I did! The food was amazing and very reasonably priced for the portion sizes. I haven't eaten like that since my Liberty cruise from San Juan last year.

I ordered the tostones rellenos and the mofongo San Juan:

Needless to say, I couldn't finish all of the food. I went to bed feeling very full and very happy!

The next morning, I took my time getting up and getting packed. Claudia's flight was due to land at 9:45, and I didn't see any point in rushing to get to the airport just to sit in my car and wait. I headed downstairs to grab a quick breakfast at 9:15. It turned out that the hotel stopped serving breakfast at 9. Oops! I was able to snag a couple of cold sausage patties and half a glass of orange juice. It wasn't great, but I figured it would be enough to keep me going until I was able to get on the ship and eat lunch. I stopped to get gas on my way to the airport; by the time I arrived at 10 am, Claudia was waiting on the curb for me. We headed to the port, with one quick stop for her to pick up sunblock, and were parked and unloading our luggage at 10:40 am. I don't normally arrive at the port that early, but it worked out well for us this time. We had walked only maybe 10 feet when a porter greeted us and took our checked bags. We breezed through the check-in and were seated in the waiting area by 11 am. We were assigned to zone 3 and were on board and headed for the lido buffet at 11:45.

We grabbed deli sandwiches (I LOVE the arugula, pepper, and mozzarella) and our first drinks of the cruise:

Our room was ready at 12:30, so we headed down to check it out. My free cruise certificate had been for a 1A only; we paid the difference to upgrade to a porthole. We were assigned M23. My very first cruise was in a porthole on the Fascination, another Fantasy class ship, also out of Jacksonville; this felt like a bit of a flashback trip. When we first walked into the room, the two beds were separated but side by side:

This configuration takes up nearly all of the floor space in the room. We moved one of the beds over against the other wall, perpendicular to the furthest bed, to free up walking space and make the room feel larger. This also kept the person sleeping by the window (me) from having to climb over the other person's bed all the time:

Other people have complained recently about the room temperature on Carnival ships, but we found our cabin stayed very cool (sometimes too cool!). I noticed that the controls for the AC on this ship were different than other ships I'd been on in the past:

Hello, everyone! I'm just back from a fun-filled but much too short four night getaway on the Carnival Elation. As I was preparing for this cruise, I noticed that very few people seem to review the older ships and shorter cruises anymore, so I hope that others will find this useful. For those who haven't read one of my reviews before, my name is Grey, and I'm a 31 year old college lecturer from Alabama. On this cruise, I traveled with my friend Claudia, also 31. Claudia is from Tennessee; we used to work together but haven't seen each other in nearly a year. This weekend was a mini reunion for us.

I don't normally go on short cruises - I really prefer 7-8 days. However, this cruise was FREE (other than port fees and taxes), and beggars can't be choosers! How did I manage this, you ask? Well, I'm a bit of a bargain traveler. Last summer, I got a call from a time share group offering me a heavily discounted long weekend at one of their resorts. I initially turned down the offer, but then they offered to throw in a $100 Visa gift card and a certificate for a 3-5 night Carnival cruise. Sold! :D I used the hotel part of the offer for a long weekend in New Orleans for my birthday in October and then started planning the cruise. This trip out of Jacksonville was the best fit for my schedule of all the dates they offered me.

Graduation for my students was on Sunday, May 8th. On the 9th and 10th, my department held a faculty retreat/tour of north Alabama. I spent Wednesday morning, the 11th, doing laundry, packing, and getting an oil change in preparation for my drive to Jacksonville. I left around 12:30 pm Central time and drove...and drove...and drove...While the drive was relatively easy and traffic-free, I thought I'd never see this sign:

My easy drive ended the moment I entered I-95 from I-10:

I-95 is an absolute mess right now. I thought I'd be arriving late enough to miss rush hour, and I guess I was, but the construction caused plenty of traffic snarls regardless. I pulled up to my hotel at almost exactly 7 pm Eastern time and prepared to check in. Now, I mentioned before that I'm a bargain traveler. I try to use my Choice Hotels credit card for all my work-related travel and save the points for vacations. Initially, I thought our faculty retreat would last through Wednesday night and had planned to get up and drive to Jacksonville early Thursday morning. By the time my plans had changed, most of the hotels in the Jacksonville area were booked. I decided to go with the Comfort Suites Baymeadows. From reading the Trip Advisor reviews, I knew this hotel was undergoing renovations but figured it would be fine for one night.

I will say that the lobby of the hotel was very attractive, and the breakfast area was spacious. The woman working the front desk when I checked in was also great. Someone had shown up without a reservation, and the hotel was unable to to accommodate her. The desk clerk called around to other area hotels until she was able to secure a room. I thought that was a kind gesture. I got checked in quickly and headed up to my room. There is currently only one working elevator in the hotel, and the lights and floor indicator don't work, so trying to figure out whether or not you were on the correct floor was a bit of an adventure. My room was typical of a Comfort Suites, spacious and no-frills, with a very comfortable king bed:

Part of the renovation has included added electrical outlets with USB ports on the bedside table and desk. This was a great idea:

The bathroom, on the other hand, was TINY and clearly still being updated. The sink and counter were new, and the toilet still had the factory stickers on it, but it was very dim in there, and the ceiling over the shower was still in the process of being painted:

Nachi Cocom is definitely the place to go for low-key. Some friends and I were there a few years ago, and we loved it so much that two of us are going back in December. The review of our trip there (on the Paradise) is linked in my signature. We did their snorkel by boat tour and thought it was easily worth twice the money we paid. I don't think snorkeling from shore would be anything special there, as it is a sandy bottom with no real reef or rocks to speak of

What is your objection to the pictures? To my knowledge, zydeco is the only site that posts full menus.

Does anyone have a list of which ships have the Dive In Movies? I have looked and looked on the Carnival site and can't find one.

We were one of the first people to board the Fascination (FTTF) in december and was approached immediately to join the Chef's Table which we gladly and immediately did only to find ourselves during the first night dinner, to be approached telling us they sorry but it was booked up. It was a very tacky thing to do and to mess up that way, we were so excited to be trying it only to get disappointed, so from now on with this experience left in our heads, we will never be trying the Chefs Table...at least they should of picked up a glass of wine during that dinner when they cancelled us out I think. :roll eyes:

So, because you procrastinated and didn't try to book the Chef's Table until AFTER you boarded the ship (I have ALWAYS book this prior to boarding to ensure a spot), Carnival owes you some type of restitution? :confused:

Thanks for the info, I just think the occupancy is a joke. When you book a early saver rate on a room that only has one of them for that occupancy why advertise it as early saver because technical it isn't early saver.

The rule makes perfect sense. I'm sorry you don't like it, but it is perfectly logical. A cabin for four is not technically identical to a cabin for two, and that's why you can't match one to the other.

If the current price per passenger for a double occupancy cabin is less than your average price per passenger for your quad cabin, you should be able to split your group into two cabins at the current, lower price. I've done that before with no trouble. You'll have to call your PVP to get this done - to my knowledge, there's no way to do it online.

Your cabin attendant has seen it all...no worries. No embarassment. NO WASHING YOUR OWN SHEETS! Jeez!

 

 

 

If the child wets the bed thru a diaper...so be it. Do NOT worry about this!

Yep. I had a humiliating unexpected bleeding issue (it looked like someone had been murdered in my bed) a few years ago on a solo cruise. I felt terrible, but my cabin steward didn't even blink.

When I fly home from a cruise with alcohol, I wrap each bottle in a couple of sheets of bubble wrap (yes, I pack bubble wrap for cruises), stick it in a gallon sized ziplock bag (I don't buy large bottles - you'd need to find something larger for a bottle of wine, but sealable is the key), and then strategically place it as close to the center of the suitcase as possible, surrounded by clothing for an extra buffer. So far, so good.

I took a student to a conference once that involved flying from Knoxville, TN to El Paso, TX, with a layover at DFW. The layover was supposed to be an hour or two - I don't remember exactly. Due to mechanical problems, our first flight was late leaving Knoxville. We landed at DFW 11 minutes before our connection was scheduled to take off, in a different concourse. We RAN as fast as we could - had to take one of the people mover trains, which was nerve wracking as they only go one speed and we had to go all the way across the airport...and arrived at our gate after the doors had already closed on our flight. Thankfully, the gate attendant let us on anyway. We disrupted the entire plane getting seated and felt terrible about it. But, not only did we make the plane - our checked bags did, too! Those baggage handlers deserved a serious raise. In this case, it was a good thing that we only carried on our purses, as we never would have made it to the plane dragging luggage.

Moral of the story? If I can make the plane under those conditions, a 30 minute layover (barring delays) should be no big deal. However, if you have my kind of luck, I recommend scheduling longer layovers, taking Murphy's Law into account. :)

I did find a private excursion that is the brewery tour and paradise beach which sounds better than perfume and straw.

I know this is an old thread, but the private excursion you describe here sounds perfect for a friend and I who will be visiting Freeport in May. Did you end up taking this excursion? Do you remember the name of the tour company? I'm not having any luck finding a similar excursion.

The arepas from Blue Iguana with sour cream and a variety of salsas.

Absolutely! Those things are almost good enough to make me not want to sail on a ship that doesn't have the cantina.

On sea days, the steak and eggs at lunch is another go-to meal for me.

I guess I'll be the voice of dissent. Some friends of mine sailed in a 4J on our Liberty cruise this past May, and I was very glad that I wasn't in that room with them. It felt very small and cramped in there; I'm not sure if it was the layout or if the room really was smaller than I'm accustomed to. There was also quite a bit of motion in their room. Both their cabin and ours were on the Lido level, both in the forward portion of the ship, but the motion was much more exaggerated in their 4J than our balcony. I've sailed in portholes before and not been bothered, so maybe it was the combination of being relatively high up and forward that affected me when I was in their room.

So, while many people really enjoy the 4Js and find them to be a great value, they're not for everyone.

I am reading several reviewers who are decades younger than me say how this itinerary kicked their butts! I'm a bit concerned as we have 3 days of sightseeing before and after in Puerto Rico scheduled. Plus big plans for every port, like zip lining in St Kitts and a 3 hour scavenger hunt in the streets of St Maarten. :eek: I may need to talk to my group and think this through again.

It really wiped me out, and I'm used to going 90 mph all day, every day. But, by the time the end of the trip rolled around, I was REALLY sick. I might have felt differently about the port-intensive cruise had that not happened. :confused:

Either way, it is a beautiful itinerary, and I'm glad I got the chance to take it. My next cruise will have more sea days, though!

My cruise on the Freedom was about a year and a half ago, so I'm not sure whether you would classify it as "recent", but it was absolutely amazing. There's a link to my review in my signature. :)

I reviewed my May trip on this ship/itinerary. There's a link in my signature. :D

We did this same cruise two years ago on the Valor. My husband also got very sick after the cruise with those same symptoms. He hadn't been that sick in the 25 years we had been married. First time in 25 plus years he had to take antibiotics.

Puerto Rico must harbor some serious cold germs! I can't remember the last time I took any kind of antibiotic, and I've had two heavy-duty courses since this trip. Crazy!