Elation out of Jacksonville 5/6/17. Full review in the works.

[atj1971]

We are off the ship and extremely sad. We had such a great time. I will answer any questions anyone has.I will be using this post as my review. I will figure out how to include pics. I will start with, what was my first question about checking in and boarding.

 

 

5/5/17 We got the call saying check in was moved to 1:30. We purchased FTTF and had planned on being there at 10:30.

5/6/17 After reading the message board about recent Elation sailings, we decided to be there by noon. We were dropped off, handed our luggage and tip to the porter and in the doors we went. We were sent in the door marked FTTF and were through the security scanners and at the check in desk within 5 minutes. There was already a group boarding the ship. Once we were checked in, we were sent to the front of the line to board. From check in to onboard, about 5 minutes.

Once we were onboard we headed up to our floor. All of the doors to the cabin hallways were closed advising cabins would be ready at 1:30. If you are FTTF, Platinum, Diamond, or Suite cruisers you were invited to go to your cabin at any time. We went to check out our cabin (M2). We were pleasantly surprised that our cabin had been upgraded.

The cabin: We had a porthole view. The porthole area had a ledge that you could sit in and look out the window. My daughter joked that we could have had someone sleep up there, there was so much room. We had the newer flat screen tv. We had 2 plug-ins and 4 USB ports. Bringing my power strip wasn't needed. The new lighted make-up mirror was very nice to have. There was also a plug-in, in the bathroom.

 

 

I will figure out the picture thing and post more later. I am going to start laundry and take a much needed nap. ;p If you have questions just let me know.

[Jamman54]

Looking forward to your review and pictures! :cool:

[Andy1850]

We are booked for Thanksgiving....look forward to the review!

[JohnSpo]

Atj1971, I look forward to your review.

 

I was on Elation 2 weeks before your cruise. I thought the crew, ship, food and entertainment were all great. The new cabana style design and lighting of the renovated cabins and hallways were beautiful. We missed HMC but Key West was and excellent substitute.

 

Glad to read you also enjoyed your cruise on Elation. Thanks for posting your review.

[cruisenovice2017]

Atj1971, I look forward to your review.

 

I was on Elation 2 weeks before your cruise. I thought the crew, ship, food and entertainment were all great. The new cabana style design and lighting of the renovated cabins and hallways were beautiful. We missed HMC but Key West was and excellent substitute.

 

Glad to read you also enjoyed your cruise on Elation. Thanks for posting your review.

 

I was on that cruise and we had an amazing time. No complaints. Everything went smooth and we didn't have any hiccups at all. Key West was a more than desirable alternative due to the weather in HMC.

[JaniceB]

Nice start, looking forward to the rest of your review!

[easyboy]

Nice to know you had a smooth embarkation. Looking forward to more of your review.

 

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[pdsmile]

I am on Carnival Elation on May 29. I can't wait to read your review!

 

What was your (or anyone's) absolutely favorite thing to do on the ship? This is my very first cruise ever so I am anxious to make a list.

 

 

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[cruisenovice2017]

I am on Carnival Elation on May 29. I can't wait to read your review!

 

What was your (or anyone's) absolutely favorite thing to do on the ship? This is my very first cruise ever so I am anxious to make a list.

 

 

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I found the ship easy to navigate. I never encountered long waits at the bar. Heck, if you are by the pool or on one of the outside decks, the bar staff/waiters walk by every couple of minutes anyway. Ask for Gusti. We never waited for a table for two in the MDR. We didn't do any shows but did enjoy Zach in the piano bar. He's high energy and fun. I'd be happy to answer any other questions folks may have!!

[atj1971]

We are booked for Thanksgiving....look forward to the review!

You will be on after she goes in to dry dock. That's exciting. There will be new adventures to be had. :)

[atj1971]

The coloring is terrible but this is for the size effect of the window ledge.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to figure out why these are sideways. Sorry :cool:

[atj1971]

After setting down our carry on bags, we headed up to the Lido for some food. My daughter is a vegetarian and I was so worried she would have problems eating what was available. The worry was for nothing. She found plenty to eat the last 5 days.

She had Mongolian Wok.

She loved it. We got there fairly early and there was no line but I did notice it was a popular place. I had the carved roast beef and food from the buffet. Everything I had was very tasteful. After we had a bite to eat, we started out CHEERS program celebration.

 

FTTF: Was it worth it? I enjoyed it. Would I get it again? Yes. With all of the excitement of starting a cruise vacation, it makes it fun to get aboard faster. If you have a tender port, you get off of the ship to start your day in one of the first tenders. When it is sadly time to leave the ship, it comes in handy to be some of the first people off of the ship.

After our first drink. we went back to our room to see if our luggage had made it. By this time it was about 1:15pm and we saw our bags sitting outside of our door when we approached. We brought our bags inside and did some unpacking. FTTF basically takes away a lot of the "wait time". Although it was myself and my adult daughter, I really think families with smaller children would benefit greatly by getting this.

[atj1971]

I am on Carnival Elation on May 29. I can't wait to read your review!

 

What was your (or anyone's) absolutely favorite thing to do on the ship? This is my very first cruise ever so I am anxious to make a list.

 

 

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I wish I was going with you. We were very sad to leave. Favorite thing to do while on the ship? I'd have to say we enjoyed laying around the pool during the day and attended the comedy shows in the evening. We did a lot of walking around while on the ship

[atj1971]

5/6/17 While everyone else boarded the ship, we roamed around looking at everything and getting acquainted to our home for the upcoming 5 days. The ship is one of the smaller ships and it is very easy to get around. There was not a lot of broken up areas where you had to go up a floor, down the hall, down a floor etc etc etc to get to where you were going. Other than the first day, the elevators were fairly quick but we chose to use the stairs a lot.

At 4:15 all of the food and drink venues closed up shop for the muster drill. We had muster station A. It was in the Mercado Lounge deck 8&9 forward. We were all there by 4:30 and listened to how to put on your life jacket if needed. (we did not need to take our life jackets to the drill). We were in there for about 10 minutes then they used us up 1 deck to the lifeboats. We piled in nice and tight and stood there for about 10-15 minutes. While we were standing out there we got to watch a bunch of dolphins playing below.

After the muster drill, we met a few people from our roll call in the Gatsby Bar. Deck 9 Aft. Great place to set up a meeting. Not a busy bar area and easy to find people you've never met. I highly suggest joining your roll calls. We met amazing people and enjoyed time with them throughout the cruise. As we were chatting, we noticed we were starting to move.

My daughter and I headed up to the Whale Tail. The music was going on the Lido for the sail away party. Lot's of dancing and fun! I wish I had taken still photos of going under the Dames Pointe bridge but I was videoing live on another app at the time. It was pretty awesome to be up there wondering if we were going to make it under the bridge.

I did manage to grab this one while we were sailing away. We had a few boats like this one driving by and waving as we were exiting the port.

 

The rest of day one was spent going to dinner, shopping in the shops, sitting by the Lido deck pool.

We did "anytime dining" and I will comment on that tomorrow when I continue.

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[atj1971]

Looking forward to your review and pictures! :cool:

Thank you for following along. As soon as photo bucket decides it wants to cooperate today, I will continue. lol

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[atj1971]

Nice to know you had a smooth embarkation. Looking forward to more of your review.

 

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Thank you for following along. Embarkation was wonderful!! From drop off to aboard ship was less than 1/2 hour.

[atj1971]

ATD or any time dining: This fit our schedules or lack thereof the best. When we are on vacation we don't like to be on any type of schedule. The early dining was too early and the late dining was too late for us. We enjoyed sitting down for dinner when we felt like we were hungry. We ate in the dining room every night except for Elegant night. We had a table for 2 each night except for the last night. We arrived to dinner typical between 6:15-7:00 pm each night. We never had a wait. We were usually in and out of the dining room within an hour or less. Quick service and great food.5/7/17 Day 2 Fun Day At Sea

I am an early riser. After reading many messages on CC and complaints about "chair hogs" I told my daughter she would have to wake up early if we wanted to sit anywhere close to the pool for the day. So around 7:30 am we grabbed our towels and suntan lotion/sunblock and headed out to the pool. We easily found 2 chairs on the upper pool deck. There were chairs that had towels on them at that time but I would guess at that hour there were about 90% of the chairs that were "unclaimed". We sat our things down and went to get breakfast. I loved the omelette station. They had a sign up saying they make omelettes and eggs to order. The buffet had a lot to chose from. Fruits, grits, oatmeal, cereals, cream of wheat, sausage, bacon, ham, breads, eggs, and yogurts. (I did not encounter "bacon police" I served myself the quantity I wanted.) We took our plates up to our chairs and enjoyed eating while feeling the breeze of the ocean.

It was time to catch some sun and enjoy our stress free day.

 

 

I tried to keep in mind that I would give my review/opinion about my cruise and pick out things to write about that I had questioned. I noticed the Lido deck and pool area really didn't get too crowded until about 10am. There were still chairs open but by 11:00 it seemed like they were all claimed for the day. We sat out in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine until about 1:00. At that time we grabbed some lunch and back to the cabin to clean up for the evening.

We set out to watch the Cavs game and caught the score a few times as we walked around to the different bars areas. I noticed the Drama Bar outside of the Casino (Deck 9 mid) always had some sort of entertainment. A lot of it included guest participation. At the end of the afternoon, we decided that even though we packed for Elegant night, we were going to skip it and go for pizza at the Pizza Pirate (Deck 10 aft)

We enjoyed seeing people dressed up as they headed in to the dining rooms. Women were in everything from gowns to cute sun dresses. Men were in suits or shirts and ties. I did not notice any tuxedos. Many areas were set up for photos. It was a great place to catch a recent family photo. Many backdrop options.

It was almost sunset so we changed in to our bathing suits and headed out to the Serenity Deck. There were about 10 people out there. We sat in the hot tub and enjoyed the peace and quiet as the sun went down.

Once the sun set we got changed and headed to the Cole lounge for the comedy act. It was funny and lasted about an hour. We decided to try our luck in the casino. Wow that cash went fast. No luck! The craps table seemed to be having fun but I can never figure out how to play. All I know is the woman rolling the dice was doing a great job, apparently.

Throughout the day we ran in to several of the people from our roll call and discussed the next day's adventure at Half Moon Cay. If you haven't joined or started a roll call for your cruise, I highly suggest it. We met great people.

[atj1971]

5/8/17 Day 3 HALF MOON CAY

This was the day I was looking forward to the most. I had read so many reviews about how beautiful it is and many reviews about the port being canceled for high winds or bad weather. I crossed my fingers that we were not going to be canceled.

Good news, beautiful weather and Half Moon Cay was a GO!!! Being in M2, the sound of the anchors was intense!! My daughter said it was so loud she thought our cabin was going to be ripped off and pulled in the ocean with the anchor. This was our only complaint about our cabin. If that is even a real complaint. We were already awake getting ready but, yes, it was very loud.

One of our roll call members was so thoughtful and giving, she invited us to attend the Private Oasis at Half Moon Cay that she had booked. We still discuss how blessed we were to be invited and how giving she and her daughter were to share the experience.

We met in the Mercado Lounge at 8:45 and off we went. Beach day!!! Yay!!!!

Tendering took about 5-10 minutes and it was so beautiful to look at the beach as we approached. Seeing this hut on the corner was exciting. This is the Private Oasis.

Once off the tender we met with someone near the excursion desk and they took our group to the Oasis via extended golf cart type of vehicle. It was close enough to walk but they gave us a lift.

 

We were greeted by a team of Carnival employees who treated us like kings and queens all day. The food was great and the drinks were amazing!! Amazingly strong too. They had snacks set up as we arrived. They grilled lunch and served that by 11:00. Around 1:00 they grilled again and sat out another course of burgers, hot dogs, chicken, rice and a few salads.

They had the ability to play music from anyone's playlist on their phone, MP3 or iPod. The hot tub was huge and the little beach area was perfect. There was a slide, rafts, and snorkeling gear all provided. This was like a slice of heaven within a slice of heaven. HMC was stunning. I could have spent both port days here!

 

We headed back to the ship around 3:00 pm and took in one last look at this beautiful island.

We went to dinner where I tried escargot for the first time. I liked it. The dining room is a great place to try foods you would never order in fear of not liking it. If you see something that sounds intriguing, just go for it! Also, if you haven't sailed before and you see a few things you like on the menu and can't decide which to get...get them all! You can order whatever you want. Even if it is multiple appetizers or entrees, desserts etc. Just get it! The last night, I ordered an entree as my appetizer and they put it on an appetizer fixed plate and brought it out.

A day in the sun and the never ending, free flowing Bahama Mamas, we turned in early to get ready for another port day in Nassau.

 

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[atj1971]

5/9/17 Day 4 Nassau

Good morning, Nassau

The Elation was 1 of 5 ships in port. We chose to check out the British Colonial Hilton and get a day pass. The coast was 65.00/adult and you got a 40.00 food & drink voucher. The hotel was beautiful and the staff was friendly. They were very welcoming of cruise passengers. We had use of towels, snorkel gear, kayaks, pool, hammocks, chairs, and beach. Drinks and food were available at 11:00am It took us about 15-20 minutes to walk there from the pier. We walked down Bay street and stopped in a few shops on our way there. As we walked by the famous straw market, we had people asking us to come in and shop. They even came down on the sidewalk and kept asking as we continued to say "No, thank you". They walked extremely close to us pleading for our business finally wishing us a blessed day when they figured out we weren't going to stop.

Once we arrived to the British Colonial Hilton we went to the desk and asked for the day passes. You get an arm band and off you go to have fun in the sun.

Once we were seated we had a waiter come up and hand us a menu and explain to us how to order. He again explained we each got 40.00 to spend that was included in the day pass.

I took a few pictures of the grounds.

[atj1971]

Part 2 of Nassau

I ordered the lobster and my daughter ordered the veggie burger. She said her bugger was one of the best she's had.

I forgot to get a picture of her meal but here was mine:

After lunch and a while in the sun, we started back to the ship. We shopped along the way. We did skip going in to the straw market because of the pressure we felt when we walked by the first time. We stopped in Señor Frogs and it was hopping!! 5 ships of passengers, there was very little room to move around.

We got back to the ship around 3:00 and showered and changed clothes. We grabbed a drink and headed to the front of the ship and found a spot on top to watch the pier runners.

Our ship had a few but there were several sprinting to the ship much further down the pier. I wonder if they made it?

We set sail around 5:00 and headed back to Jacksonville, but first we had another Fun Day at Sea ahead of us.

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[atj1971]

5/10/17 Fun Day at Sea

Towel animal invasion. I had to take video and pictures for my daughter before they were all moved since she chose to sleep in a bit.

This day we met one of favorite crew members. We both wished we had met his sooner and got to talk to him more. He was super friendly and made us feel like we were the only passengers trying to get to that Cheers limit. He was just super. I hate that we didn't get to find a way to keep in touch. We would pick a ship he was on just to be able to talk to him again.

If you sail on the Elation, look for him! You won't be sorry.

We sat in the sun, took part in the St Jude dance party, sipped out drinks and ate. Sadly we had to start packing. We headed back to our cabin and packed most of our things. We picked the self assist option.

That night I got very little sleep. The dread of our vacation ending kept me awake. I got up at 6:00 am and went up to the lido to see that we had already docked. The whole mood on the ship was blah. The air in Jacksonville was filled with the Georgia/Florida fire smoke. There was a haze in the air and it smelled like a camp fire.

Self assist was to meet in the Mercado Lounge at 7:30. We made our way to the 8th floor and found a seat. They had juices and danishes inside the lounge for a last minute snack.

***Note: forward elevators pretty much stop working for general use and are only used for disembarkation around 7:30am. If you need to get anywhere use the mid or aft elevators.***

Around 8:10 they made the announcement that the FTTF were ready to disembark. Well... No one listened to that. Everyone clogged the door way trying to get off the ship. Why the excitement? I was sad and slow moving. As we approached the elevators, they took those of us with FTTF tags on the elevators first. Those who got up and tried to get off despite the announcement, had to wait off to the side. We were outside and through customs by 8:40. It would have been faster had people actually filled out the customs paperwork they got the night before with instructions to do so...

Oh well, I won't fault them too much. Every part of leaving the ship wasn't exactly my favorite thing to do. I will just say they were in denial.

As much as I thought I would remember to talk about with this review, I am sure I missed most of it. I will give just a recap of the things I felt important.

The Ship: Older and smaller ship. There were always crew members cleaning areas around the ship. I enjoyed the amount of people we had on our smaller ship. I would like to try a bigger ship but if I could only go on one the size of the Elation, I would be fine.

The Cabin: We had an upgraded cabin and had no complaints about it's looks. Upgraded TV, extra USB ports to plug in our phone etc was a surprise. I didn't even need my power strip. We were in M2. We were the first cabin in the hallway and had no traffic going past our door. THAT was nice!!! We did however, have the crew closet outside of our door and at times we could hear them getting our supplies. (no biggie) The anchor noise was intense but we were on vacation and ready to start our day on tender day!

The Crew: TOP NOTCH!!! I never walked by anyone without them saying at least a "Hello". They always smiled. If I asked for anything it was taken care of immediately.

The food: I never went hungry! I did enjoy the food in the dining room, buffet lines, and Pizza Pirate. Were there things I didn't care for? Sure. It wasn't like I couldn't skip what I didn't like and get something else or more of what I did like. It definitely wasn't something that ruined my vacation. My daughter is a vegetarian and found plenty to eat. I have read many reviews of people basically blaming the food for their bad cruise. I just don't understand but anyway...

Room Steward: This is another thing that some people just lose their minds over. Yes. Yes I was asked if I wanted am, pm or both. I chose pm only. I did NOT feel like my room steward wanted to to pick ONE time only. When I said pm only, she asked if I was sure. She was so sweet. Even though I am an early morning person, it doesn't mean I want to be up and cleaning up things that were laying out before I have my coffee. haha Having pm only gave us all day to get showered, eat, walk around etc etc etc. Change for dinner and come back to a clean cabin. If being asked about the times you want someone else to come in and clean up after you, ruins your vacation, maybe pick something else.

FTTF: I loved having it and will try to get it on any future cruise I book.

CHEERS: It was worth it for us. Is it worth it for everyone? No. There is no right or wrong here. We enjoyed trying new drinks without the worry of wasting money on a drink we hated. The specialty coffee, rockstars, waters, and pop/soda in addition to the alcoholic drinks was an added bonus. To each their own.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Happy sailing to everyone!!!

[momof4girls]

Excellent review! Thank you for taking the time :) I have definite plans to go on the Elation (after dry dock), but I just keep going back and forth between a cruise for just my husband and myself, or one that includes my two younger girls. I guess I'm hoping that there will be a waterworks area added after dry dock. Your pictures of HMC make me want to live there! I think a cruise that spent two days there (instead of just one) would be perfect!

 

By the way, your daughter is absolutely beautiful!

[atj1971]

There will not be a waterworks after dry dock. I have read several places that it is not in the plans.

HMC is just beautiful. I would have stayed there and skipped Nassau in a heartbeat!!

 

 

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[atj1971]

Thank you for the compliment on my daughter. [emoji847]

 

 

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[kprestidge07]

awesome review! We leave July 6th and go to Freeport and Nassau. Our cabin is M181. do you know if that entire deck has been upgraded?