JawjaFatBoy

We will be stopping at Amber Cove in 2 weeks and are interested in doing a tour of the area and the best places to buy rum, vanilla, coffee, and gifts.  My wife has read that there is a chocolate factory or shop near port and I would love to tour the Brugal factory as well and I've heard that they're not too far from the port.  Is there a tour that goes to these places?  Any ideas or advice will be greatly appreciated!!  Thank y'all!!

I simply do not see the big issue with seat belts.  It's only been fairly recently that wearing seatbelts was mandatory.  Cars weren't required to have them until I believe 1968.  Heck, it's only been a few years now that it became mandatory to wear them in a pickup here in Georgia.  And no, I do not wear one every time I drive.  It's a tour, not Gran Tourismo!  

We were in Nassau last November with our 3 year old daughter. We took along a small stroller for her which worked out great! We visited the pirate's museum first, then went across the street to the church, which is beautiful!

From there we went to Greycliff chocolates. The chocolates are a bit pricey, but delicious. We continued on to John Watling's where we took the tour, bought a few bottles of rum and vodka, and enjoyed a few drinks from the bar. Their pina coladas are awesome and the Goombay smash is stout and tastes great!

We worked our way back down to Bay St. for a little souvenir shopping and a couple more bottles of rum(!) before heading back to the ship. Overall a very enjoyable day!

My wife and her bestie from high school are currently on the Elation and apparently a passenger died during the night. They heard just a little while ago that it was a woman and it looks like she fell from a balcony onto a life boat. An investigation is being done and no one is being allowed off the ship right now.

Prayers for the family. Very, very sad.

We sail out Saturday and I'm hoping to put together a photo review and hadn't really thought about photos of the menus and Funtimes. I'll definitely put those on my list!

We're on the Elation when the time changes and I was wondering about that myself. Figured it wasn't going to be much of an issue. Thank y'all!

I stayed one room away from that on Elation a couple years ago. No anchor noise. It is right below the Main Lounge so as long as you aren’t trying to sleep during one of the big production shows, you’ll be fine. I enjoyed the proximity to the atrium bar and the main lounge.

Thank you for passing that along!

Yeah, I looked at the deck plan and our room appears to be under the very last seats/wall/fun shops, and we rarely turn in especially early so I don't think we'll have any major issues there.

Did you have to pay a fee to move?

No charge! We got lucky in that regard.

I would DEFINITELY try to get moved! I didn’t notice the change until 4 days beforehand so it was too late for me. There weren’t any other rooms.

We managed to get moved! We went up a deck to Empress but did go pretty far forward to E47. We've been that far forward before with no issues so just hoping we won't have anchor noise this trip.

We stayed in U159. The deck plans are updated on their website now so U can see which ones connect

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We're in U158 next week! And I just looked and it's been turned into a connecting room as well! I had looked at that just a few days ago and it was NOT showing that! I'm not happy at all about that and I know my wife won't be either. I may have to see if we can get moved to a non connecting room.

Oh yeah! Nov. 4th on Elation!

I'm back in Nassau,and so is Havana Club rum! ;p Not available everywhere but if you look around,you will find it.Price on 1 liter 7 year old varies widely from $29 to $48 depending where you buy it. 3 year old 1 liter is $16 to $25.

Cuban liquor store across from senior frogs has 375ml flasks of white or gold label for $19 which is way overpriced and their 1 liter 7 year old bottle was $38.

This is great news! I missed this post somehow, but I'm certainly glad I noticed it now! We'll be there in just over a week and I'll definitely be picking some up!:D

Dang! I hope y'all are happy, 'cause y'all have thrown a craving on me for a good Bloody Mary!! And I'm locked in here at work for at least 10 more hours with not much more to do than sit here and think about how good a top shelf one would be!!:loudcry:

Straw market is easy walking distance and while the sidewalks are pretty decent, they tend to be narrow. Take your time and shouldn't be any issues. You might have a little easier journey if you go over a block to Bay St. I seem to remember the sidewalks there being wider.

Over the last few years it's been my experience that the ships have better prices on Hennessey Pure White than the ports. And I know Carnival will match port prices if you find something cheaper and can get a sale paper or picture.

For your ports, I'd go with the ship for the Hennessey and pick up some Traveler's 5 Barrel rum in Belize, Tortuga rum in Grand Cayman, and maybe some El Aguijon tequila in Cozumel. All are very good and not available in the US. And if you want a chuckle, get some Big Black Dick's rum in Grand Cayman. Makes a good gag gift and again, not available in the US.

I also just finished a cruise 10-21 on Elation! Overall, a great cruise for us. We had an OV on deck 4. We did experience very low water pressure the first night in our sink (shower was fine). We asked our stateroom attendant about it the next afternoon, and later the night it was fixed. Our a/c did fine, but we also take a small box type fan with us for circulation. We also noticed some of the upholstery was coming apart here and there, as if it was done in a rush. The inspiration dining room looked great, glad they got rid of those booths! There was still finishing touches being done almost everywhere. Painting, tile work, trim. Upper decks on the front of the ship were taped off, work still in progress. But there was nothing that we could not overlook, and we really had a great time! Staff was great. Oh, but the Pizza Pirate, there was always one guy working (that we could see) and he would disappear to the back for minutes at a time, come back with a couple of pizzas, which would be gone in a matter of seconds. It seems to me the need to invest another worker or two to keep up with the demand, because he always seemed to be overwhelmed! And oddly enough, it seems I always saw the same guy working, lol. The new Guy's Burger Joint was good, and they kept that line moving pretty smoothly. Same with The Blue Iguana. Oh, and there is a buffet at breakfast with an omelet station at Guy's, with cereals, yogurt and milk at the condiment station. We got breakfast there, and there never was much of a wait. Some areas of the ship didn't get updated, but overall, it looked pretty fresh. Also, I do believe the ducktail that was added helped to stabilize the ship a little more. We cruised it last November, and the movement was the worst I'd ever felt on a cruise, it what seemed to be fairly calm water. This year, the seas were a lot rougher, but the ship was really steady on all but one night. I'd cruise her again. Matter of fact, I will in January of next year!

Good to hear! I can put up with some work being done as long as it doesn't completely close up venues. Last year they replaced nearly all of the wooden decking around the pool on the Valor over the course of a few days. Kinda kinked things up a little, but everyone still had a great time.

Single digit dance time!!:D

9 days (yes I know, technically 10, but I'm on night shift so time moves a little differently!) until we board the Elation!! First stop will be Guy's! I've been wanting one since we got off of the Liberty in 2013!:o

Fingers crossed that the kinks I've been reading about will be worked out by then. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures of the updates and can make some time to do a good review when we get back!

Generally, you'll find the standard 12 year olds like Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, Macallan, etc. Usually the prices run about $10-15 cheaper per liter compared to the fifths here in GA, i.e. a fifth of Glenfiddich 12 here is in the $50-60 range and I've seen it on the ships for ~$40-45, but for a liter. So definitely cheaper. And I picked up a liter of Glenfiddich in Nassau a few years back for $28! Sometimes it pays to look around in port!

I've also seen some 15 and 18 year olds a few times, but they tend to run in the $75 and up range that's a bit pricey for gifts!

They usually have all or most of the Johnnie Walker offerings. From bottom up: Red, Black, Double Black, Green, Gold, Platinum, and Blue. They usually have a Scotch tasting event on the second or third night where you can try several varieties of JW. They will also have special offers available. The 2/$280 on JW Blue is dang good as it runs $220 a bottle locally.

I personally don't recommend Dewar's white label. That stuff kept me away from Scotch for years!

Oh, and as for the duty if you go over the limit? Runs about $1.50-2.00 a bottle. And that's IF they charge you. Out of 6 cruises, I've never brought back less than 8 bottles and have only had to pay duty once. For the 6 bottles my wife and I were over, we paid $11 and change.

First cruise my wife and I went on together, we were in line at the poolside buffet on embarcation day. A young boy runs up and pushes between us and grabs a handful of fries with his bare hands, drops them on his plate, and is about to grab some chicken fingers when I ask him (admittedly kinda loudly) what he's doing. He just looked at me like I was crazy, said "getting some fingers", grabbed some, and ran off!

I told the attendant behind the buffet what happened and he quickly pulled the 2 pans. As they were putting new pans out, the mom comes up and starts yelling at me that it's not my place to say anything to her child! Thankfully, my wife stepped in and explained (firmly) what the boy had done. The mom still didn't look happy, but at this point pretty much everyone was staring and a couple of officers were coming that way, so she just says "whatever" and stalks off. The officers ask us what happened and we told them. The buffet attendant said the same thing, and the officers apologized, thanked us for alerting the attendant, and said they hoped we had a great cruise.

And we did!

I was on the old Premier Atlantic (later the MSC Melody) in '91 for our senior cruise. Our cabin was on Lounge Deck which was as high as you could go on that ship. Our first night we crossed the gulf stream and it was so rough that glassware slid off tables and people slid out of bunks. Not an experience I ever want to repeat!

That’s what I want to order lol

I've ordered it both times and it has been delicious!! Gonna order it again in a couple of weeks! Yum!

We're sailing on her in just over 2 weeks. I'll do my best to post up a review and photos when we get back!

I'll be interested to see if Elation has the new menu come November 4th!

Honestly, it looks good, but I really, really hope that the sandwiches aren't pre-made. That just kills the whole concept of "deli".:(

Now that I'm back from my trip (we went to Disney World for a couple of days after the cruise), I've had time to add more pictures of the Elation's first cruise after dry dock. They're basically more of the same...

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BtmTtQZPfPNfUuXJ2

Loved the photos!

I do wish they would get the ships completely finished before they put them back into service after dry dock though. I'm really hoping they get all of the kinks worked out by November 4th when we leave, but even if there are still some hiccups I plan to have a great cruise! With any luck I can put everything together and maybe put up a review when I get back.

fingers crossed I can do a veggie burger at GBJ so I can at least say ate there. Its been 25 years and no red meat. not starting at GBJ

My understanding is that they offer them, but that you may have to request one.

Might take a few minutes longer, but it'll be hot off the grill!:D