Elation Review- 1/2 sailing

[dmoseley]

I tried posting this review in the "review" section, but it never showed up, so here it is.

First a little about me. I am a 29 year old female who was traveling with 4 other females all about the same age. This was my second cruise and by far the best.

 

Embarkation- The ship did not arrive until very late due to fog. We began boarding between 2 and 3. Though the crowd of people were getting a bit on the rude side the Carnival staff was wonderful. Once on board, of course, our vacation had started and none of the wait time seemed to matter. We did not pull out of Galveston until around 1 am, due to the dense fog.

 

Our room-we were on the Rivera Deck in the last aft inside cabin. It was very roomy and our room steward did a good job. There was not near as much noise as I had expected. In fact, I loved our room.

 

Food- We ate breakfast and lunch at Tiffany's. The food in the buffet was above expectations for the first part of the cruise; however, it seemed to slide the deeper we got into the cruise. No problem though, the pizza was amazing. It soon became our staple. We had dinner in the dining room every night. The food was wonderful. Our wait staff was outstanding. They had our after dinner drinks (coffee and hot chocolate) ready for us even as we ordered them. The one food I thought was better on our previous cruise was the soup.

 

Activities-the ship seemed to have something going all of the time. We are a very laid back group and spent much of our time just relaxing in one of the 6 hot tubs, or laying out reading a book. We were not overly impressed with the featured shows, but found other things to do during that time.

 

Ports- Progresso, we did the city bus tour and had a wonderful time. We also did some shopping in what is known as their "flea market". We did most of our shopping for the trip here.

 

In Cozumel, we did the royal dolphin swim. I have to say it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I would pay the price and do it again in a heart beat. The downtown area is under construction, this makes things a little congested, but not too bad. You are now routed directly through all of the shops.

 

Belize. We were so excited about going back to Goff's Caye, but were greatly disappointed. When we got to Belize, we looked for the company we had gone with before. They were no longer doing business (they are now the company that the cruise ships use). We went with another company advertising for Goff's Caye, we were then told we would be going to a beach resort and to another Caye. We spoke to several people on our tour and they were under the impression that we were going to Goff's Caye. I do not believe the place we stopped would be considered a caye. There was maybe 20 sq. feet of sand showing. There were lots of fish, but most of the coral was dead. We have decided that in the future we will take the ship tour to Goff's caye (we love that little island). I believe the carnival price for it was around $55-60. Well worth the piece of mind and that wonderful little island.

 

Debarkation- We carried out own luggage off and were off of the ship and on the road home by 9:00 or so. It seemed to go pretty well for everyone. The line for immigration was daunting, but moved very quickly.

 

We had such a wonderful time that we have already booked the same cruise for next year.

 

I will be happy to try to answer any questions you may have.

[workroombee]

Thanks for posting your review here--I don't know what the time lag on the Review section is all about, but it sure is frustrating!

We'll be on the Elation in a few weeks.

Did you stay in Galveston the night before the cruise? If so, where did you stay?

Thanks again for the review!

[dmoseley]

We stayed at the Super 8. We left our car there (no charge) and took a cab to and from the pier. It was about $12 each way. This was a great way to do things.