Carnival Elation review 1/28-2/1

[Disneygirl80]

More in-depth review of the Carnival Elation from 1/28-2/1. There were 12 of us total, 6 couples and no children. We sailed from New Orleans to Cozumel.

 

Embarkation: We chose the 11:00-11:30 slot for staggered embarkation. We rolled up to the parking garage right at 11:00 and they took our bags. The porter mentioned that we needed to have our ID and passport or birth certificate out and NOT in our luggage. At this point, one couple realized they didn't have their birth certificates. :(

We were told it could be faxed, so they got on the phone and we all headed in. Check-in was painless and quick. The longest line was to get our sail & sign card and that was 15 minutes. Our problem children were able to get their issue sorted our rather quickly and we all headed to board.

I will mention that I saw several people carrying on boxes of soft drinks. Didn't seem to be a problem.

 

We were on the ship for 11:45.

 

More on the ship itself: I loved the small size. Being on the Verandah deck made everything easy to navigate. It was 1 floor down to get to the Lido and 2 floors down to the Promenade where we spent a lot of time between the Drama bar and casino and the Cole Porter Lounge. We never had issues waiting for the elevator.

The ship is definitely old, but very clean and we loved her. There was always staff around picking up plates and dishes as well.

There are tons of common areas with plenty of seating.

 

Rooms: We were on the verandah deck in an interior cabin. We LOVED it. The room was super clean and Richard did a great job. It was plenty roomy for 2 people. We had some coat hangers with us and utilized the closet and drawers to unpack.

The room was very quiet and I also had a small fan that helped block out noise.

We never waited long for an elevator. It was one floor down to the Lido and 2 floors down to the Promenade where we spent a majority of our time between the Drama bar and the Cole Porter Lounge.

We loved the locatin and being so high up on the ship.

 

Food: Dinner was at 8:15 in the Inspiration Dining Room. This is one part that was very disappointing. The food was blah. Everything that had seafood was terribly fishy. Our servers were fine, effecient but that's about it. Not overly friendly or anything. Took forever to get bar drinks. We started stopping at the bar ourselves before dinner.

 

Sea Day brunch was delicious! Served from 8:30-1:00 in the MDR on sea days. It was nice not to have to rush to breakfast. The steak and eggs were to die for! We enjoyed brunch here both sea days.

 

There was ALWAYS a long line for the grill, wok and pizza. ALWAYS. It moved fairly quickly, but there was a line every single time.

 

I had read that the buffet seemed to have odd hours. While I didn't keep track, I found this to be true. When we got back on the ship from Cozumel around 4:00, everything but pizza and the grill was closed. Made the lines even longer.

 

Entertainment: There were 2 comedians on board, they both did a family and adult show. One we really liked, one we didn't care for. No problems getting good seats to either.

Some people in our party caught the Epic Rock show and LOVED it. We all caught the Motown show on the last night, horribly boring. We left halfway through.

We enjoyed bingo and won $250!

There was tons of live music, the atrium and the drama bar. Very enjoyable.

Spent a lot of time in the casino as well.

 

CHEERS! package: I was originally on the fence about this, especially thinking that we would have a hard time getting service if we were on the package. I found the opposite to be true. We all had the package and never had a hard time getting a drink. We were served promptly at the bar and had constant servers coming to us. We always tipped $1 or so, that probably helped.

I felt that the package was worth it. I liked the chocolate martinis and they were $9.25 each. Since it also included soft drinks, you really only needed 5 or 6 drinks to break even. It was very nice to not have to worry about what our bill would be. We tried drinks we may not have otherwise.

The closest I ever came to hitting my limit was on the second night when I had 12 drinks througout the day. Some others did hit their limit and had no trouble using someone elses card (it's wrong, I know).

My husband was usually able to get me a drink with my card, especially if we were at a bar where the bartenders knew us. He did get turned away a few times, even though he was using his own card for himself.

 

So, I would totally get the CHEERS! package again if it was a shorter cruise and I was with friends and not my kids. There is no way I would drink that much on a longer cruise of if the kids are with us.

 

Cozumel: We didn't have anything planned for the day. We docked at 9:00 and all met for breakfast at 9:00 to let the crowds get ahead of us. We browsed the shops and then stopped at Pancho's Backyard for a drink. It was really nice. We got a shaded table in the sand and enjoyed the breeze. We ended up at Senor Frogs to wrap up our day.

There is so much to do in Cozumel but we didn't want to be tied down to any plans. We really enjoyed our time there and wished it would have been longer.

 

Wifi: We did get the social media package so we could have imessage and be able to check on the girls. Service was super super slow. We were unable to video message through Facebook or anything. It was worth it to be able to message on FB, but that's about it.

 

Debarkation: This was a mess. We did self assist and should have been the first ones called off the ship at 8:15. At 8:45, we headed down to the Empress deck and were met with a HUGE line. HUGE. We waiting in line for over an hour to get off the ship. Slow moving line. There were only 2 stations where they were scanning sail and sign cards to get off. took forever. Once we got off the ship, getting through customs was easy and we were back in our car in no time.

 

We really really enjoyed this cruise. Couldn't beat the price and the ship is small and wonderful. Our expectations were pretty low, I didn't expect anything fancy or anything. I would sail on the Elation again in a heartbeat!

 

Let me know if anyone has any specific questions!

Edited February 3, 2016 by Disneygirl80

[indychristine]

Thank you for posting this review! We are booked on her in Sept. This will be out first time on Elation. So I appreciate all reviews.

So glad to hear you loved her! We love the smaller ships! :)

 

 

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[teachswim]

Thanks for the review. Must have been fun with a large group. We are leaving in 8 days. Today is our 3rd day in a row for school snow days. I'm, looking forward to some warmer temps.

[chasinraynbowz]

Thanks for the review. Anyone get lucky in the casino? LOL.. that is my favorite place!!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[B4May]

Thanks for your review! We're cruising in two weeks and have an interior on the Verandah deck also. My favorite location! Curious if you got VIP check in? We last cruised three years ago and were surprised with VIP apparently because of our cabin being on the Verandah deck even though it was an interior. May have just been a mistake too but we sure enjoyed the quick boarding, especially traveling with a small child. It might not make much difference now though with the staggered boarding times.

 

Also, I know you said you had all adults in your party, but did you notice any of the Dr. Suess stuff? Was there a show?

 

Thanks again!

Edited February 4, 2016 by B4May

[Mrskkanderson]

Thanks for the review! We are booked for September on Elation. This will be my first time on Carnival & my husband's first cruise ever.