Carnival Elation - TELL ALL THREAD

[kchesneylover]

I was seriously thinking about taking this cruise. It seems like an awesome value - and the ports are great. So what is up with the Elation? Tell me all your secrets and stories please :) .

• Miami, FL;
  
• Half Moon Cay, Bahamas;
  
• St. Thomas, USVI;
  
• San Juan, Puerto Rico;
  
• Grand Turk;
  
• Miami, FL

Miami, FL on

09/24/2006

7 Day Eastern Caribbean Elation

[salty dingo]

DW and I are going the week before, on 9/17... you are correct, the ports are great and the price is right!

[lrtjs5]

I am going on July 2. Will tell you al about it!! Last year we sailed on the Miracle and it was awesome.

[glrounds]

When she was home-ported in San Pedro (Los Angeles) I cruised on her twice. One of the latest Fantasy Class ships built (2nd from last), she seemed to be one of the best maintained and cared for ships in the fleet.

I would sail her again in an instant.

[zqvol]

I was seriously thinking about taking this cruise. It seems like an awesome value - and the ports are great. So what is up with the Elation? Tell me all your secrets and stories please :) .

• Miami, FL;
  
• Half Moon Cay, Bahamas;
  
• St. Thomas, USVI;
  
• San Juan, Puerto Rico;
  
• Grand Turk;
  
• Miami, FL

Miami, FL on

09/24/2006

7 Day Eastern Caribbean Elation

Here is a link to my review of your itinerary. Just posted the link to avoid taking up all of the space.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=350812&highlight=elation

[kchesneylover]

Thanks everybody! Anyone else care to share?

[jw4jg1mg2eg1]

We went on the Elation out of Galveston & loved every second of that cruise. The ship is beautiful & as mentioned above well maitained.The crew is very friendly. My most favorite spot in the whole world is sitting next to Tiffany's (starboard side) or behind Tiffany's watching the wake.

You will love George (or Jorge after 5) the CD. He is hillarious.

I hope you have a wondeful cruise.

[britishiles]

A majority of the staff is great. George is hilarious.

 

I had one issue with my cabin steward last year on Elation. When we boarded we met him and he was nice and eager to assist. I thought I smelled a musty smell but I figured that on a ship I expected a musty water smell. On Tuesday, my wife really started to notice and asked him to change the sheets, blankets, bed spread, pillow cases, and pillows. He told us that all the linens were fresh out of a bag brand new, but he would change the pillow cases. We got back from dinner and we could still smell it. So the next morning I found him and asked him again. He repeated what he told my wife about all the linens being brand new. I told him that I understood what he was telling me but something smelled and I wanted everything changed. He did that night and no smell. Also on the last night I mentioned to my wife that they sold the Towel Animals book. She didn't know so we went searching the ship for it. The gift shops did not have it. I went to the Purser's Desk and they said that I could get one from my steward the next morning before we disembarked. I found him at 6:30 as he was cleaning the cabin across the hall. He said I could not get one of the books as it was too late.

 

So two issues and one wasn't even his fault entirely. But it did not deter me from booking Carnival again this year at all.

[BeachBum Girl]

We're cruising this itinerary on the Elation on the 25th. We chose it because of the ports and great price we got.

I will definitely provide a detailed review when we get back! Can't wait :p

[mrdood]

You will get much more detailed information if you search for "Elation Review" using the seach function. The responses you will get from this will be short one or two quick thoughts "it was great" without all the detail, people don't like to re-type their entire review every time someone wants some specific info about a ship. You will also learn more.

 

Have a great cruise!

[pacerzfan]

Our group will be with you if you are sailing 09/24/2006!!!!! Any cruise is a blast!

[tigerdadky]

i was aboard the Elations last voyage out of Galveston. It was our first cruise so I dont have anything to compare it with, but I thought the Elation was just simply awesome. She is such a beauty to me. The grand atrium is something awesome. From what I can find out too their rooms are among the biggest in the industry. The staff was great and the food was excellent. The ship was clean and in great shape. They dry docked it for a while after I cruise and replaced the intercom system and put in some new carpeting I believe. She sure hooked me. I plan to cruise again next year and am fighting off the urge for a fall cruise. Dont know about the other cruise lines but Carnival sure knows how to show a good time. Though most all of the staff was foreigners, communicating with them was a breeze, they understood english well and spoke it well for the most part. I could brag about the Elation for hours but you dont want to hear all that. You wont go wrong going on her, I can guarantee you that.

[bonlewis]

We were on the May 28 sailing and had a blast. This was our 9th cruise and it was the best, so far.

 

Private island is great (only place we tendered). Snorkeling not the best but still a beautiful place.

 

St. Thomas - well it was St. Thomas, we've been there 4 times. Beautiful as always. We went to Bluebeard's castle with a time-share deal and got free rum and $70 in gift certificates for the shops.

 

San Juan - surprised me. We did the rainforest and loved it. Walked into the town shopping area and Sr. Frogs. Very nice.

 

Grand Turk - very nice (still pristine, only 3,500 residents). New dock built by Carnival. Jimmy Buffett's place dominates the dock area. Awesome place, huge pool and nice beach. We did a Kayak deal in a small lake/river; then they took us to a beach for really good snorkeling.

 

The only issue with Elation is the lack of balcony rooms. We were only able to get an ocean view.

 

They have the mini-golf in and it is fun.

The ship is in great shape.

 

I know you will love this itinerary.

[navywife06]

It is excellent to hear such great things about this ship! We are leaving 8/6 and can't wait.. Just picked up the scopalamine today! Did anyone have a problem with seasickness?

[MandyDay]

Just got off the Elation yesterday. Overall - our trip was great. The ship was maintained very well and was very clean. We loved George/Jorge, we enjoyed the "vegas review" style shows and there was a really good comedian and an especially funny evening with a hypnotist. Ports of call were wonderful. We did excursions at each port of call except Miami and Half Moon Cay. Half Moon Cay was a great "relax on the beach" day. It did start raining after around 1:00 p.m. - but we had been on the island since the first tender.

 

The only problem(s) we encountered involved our cabin. When we first arrived we discovered our cabin was "half way cleaned". It was as if someone started it - was interrupted - and forgot to finish. We contacted the steward and they came back in to clean while we were out and about. Also - we had two adults and two children in the room and the first evening they had only taken down one of the pull down bunks. We pulled the other down ourselves to find linens which were used by the previous tenents. We called the room steward and they responsded immediately. Apparently there was some confusion (on his part) as to how many people were in our room. He said the sheet he used was wrong. It had shown three people instead of four. In my opinion - that still didn't account for used linens staying in the room (which may have been part of the "half way cleaned" problem). The first few days we had difficulty in getting the room steward to leave at least 4 washcloths in the room. We phoned the room steward and had to end up involving the pursers desk after about the third day to get that straigtened out. He seemed to be very earnest in trying to get everything right, however, we definitely had difficulty communicating with him. I had wondered if he may be new. Even though we had a few problems - he seemed to be a very friendly and eager to get you what you needed.

 

This in no way diminished the fantastic service in other areas of the ship. We had a wonderful waiter who went out of his way to provide extra (non-menu) items for our two children - for which he was tipped over and above the normally recommended amount. We ate in the dining room as well as the buffet area. We thought the food was good. We liked the dining room food better than the buffet food. The buffet food seemed a little more bland than what was offered in the dining room.

 

All of the crew we spoke with were very engaging and didn't mind chatting. The captain had a QA session on our last day at sea - and we really enjoyed that. He was very open and seemed to be easily accessible. We saw him almost every day and we noticed he would stop to chat and take pictures with the passengers.

 

Our children didn't do camp carnival - we had too much fun being together and they enjoyed all of the activities we planned.

 

We didn't do the casino and disco areas - so can't give an opinion there.

 

We did the towel folding seminar and it was fun. The towel folding book referenced in an above reply was offered at the seminar. You paid for it and they delivered it to your cabin. I didn't notice it for sale in any of the shops on board.

 

We did buy some items in the shops and their prices seemed to fall in line with what we encountered off the ship. Most of our comparison pricing surrounded jewelry, cosmetics and perfume.

 

We would definitely do this ship and this itenerary again. No problems whatsoever in recommending this to anyone.

[colette5479]

I was on the Elation last December when she was still sailing out of Galveston. It was one of the best cruises I've been on. As mentioned earlier, Jorge is too funny! Try to catch the Not-So-Newlywed Game. Granted, they ask the same questions on all the ships but he really makes it funny. Karaoke was also fun every night. I don't know if Boston Rob is still in charge of that but he is a blast! If he's there, ask him to sing Funk Cold Madena!:D

 

The ship is extremely clean and I never encountered any rude staff. Even the buffet food was better than most ships I've been on. We had the new Carnival bedding and it was extremely comfortable!

 

I liked the Elation so much that I and a few friends are planning on forming a group cruise on her for December 2007!;)

[VICKIVICKI]

The last time I was on the elation was over 6 years ago, so I can't tell you about the itinerary, but I can tell you that the ship is incredibly beautiful and we actually disn't get off at one of our ports of call to keep this gorgous ship to ourselves for a few hours.

[kchesneylover]

Already done this Babe. Sometimes fresh threads are the way to go. If I DO feel the need to know the meaning of EVERYTHING, I will then direct my question to you. Thanks anyway though.

 

You will get much more detailed information if you search for "Elation Review" using the seach function. The responses you will get from this will be short one or two quick thoughts "it was great" without all the detail, people don't like to re-type their entire review every time someone wants some specific info about a ship. You will also learn more.

 

Have a great cruise!

[colette5479]

Already done this Babe. Sometimes fresh threads are the way to go. If I DO feel the need to know the meaning of EVERYTHING, I will then direct my question to you. Thanks anyway though.

 

Nothing wrong with asking a question that has been asked before. If we stopped asking repeated questions, things would get really dull around here!:D Sometimes when I try to do a search here I don't come up with anything at all. I think that has to do because so many threads anymore get pulled because some get so nasty.:rolleyes:

 

Like you, I would like to hear more about the ports of call for Elation. I'm excited about Grand Turk and there's not that much information out there like there is on other ports.

[momdabomb]

MandyDay....

Since you just returned...Is the Basketball court finished yet? My 11 year old superstar can't go a day without basketball and we sail on the Elation on 6/25.

 

Thanks!

[dentst2b]

Bonlewis,

Seems Like you have been at these ports quite a few times. What would you recommend as a "must do" for San Juan and St. Tom? I'm really interested in visiting the rainforest but I am afraid you don't really get to see the real rainforest on the excursion. Also, trying to decide between going to Trunk Bay for the day or taking Sunny's tour and then hanging on a beach in St. Tom. Thoughts and feelings?

Thanks!!

[sjh1mom]

MandyDay....

Since you just returned...Is the Basketball court finished yet? My 11 year old superstar can't go a day without basketball and we sail on the Elation on 6/25.

 

Thanks!

Kirsten,

 

We also have an 11 year old basketball fanatic (girl) sailing the Elation on the 25th! She is also hoping the court is open! Does your superstar want to bring his own ball? Mine does, but I imagine chasing it all over the airport!

Maybe they'll meet on the court!

[MandyDay]

Hey momdabomb - I was out of pocket yesterday and have just signed on. The basketball court was not finished. They have a mesh type fencing around it with yellow caution tape woven throughout the fencing. I didn't ask around to get an estimated completion date. Hopefully it will be finished by the time you depart.

[kayeo]

MandyDay,

What did you do on Grand Turk? (What excursions on the other islands as well)

[kimnivore]

I just returned this past weekend from the Jun 4-11 Elation cruise. It was great! The ship still looked new and the crew were very friendly. I am used to sailing on bigger ships so I found that there were times where I did not have anything interesting to do. I did however choose this ship based on its ports.

The first day was Half Moon Cay. The beach is gorgeous! I wish I really could have stayed there forever. Unfortunately the rain started around noon and never gave up. Luckily, we were one of the first ones off the tender so we had a clamshell that protected us from that darn rain. I got to swim for at least a couple of hours though. The next port was St. Thomas. I've been here before so we took a taxi over to Red Hook and took the ferry over to St John. There is a snorkel trail at trunk bay which was pretty fun to do. We didn't realize that we swam out that far so it was kind of tiring swimming all the way back. I was a little disappointed that there were not more fish in that area. Afterwards we did some shopping in downtown...which is the same ol' same ol'...I did compare prices for Rolexes and they do sell it for a few hundred bucks less than in California. The next port day was in San Juan. Many people do not like it here but that's probably because they stick around only in the old San Juan area. My boyfriend and I took a taxi over to Isla Verde and got dropped off at the Ritz. I wanted to show my boyfriend their casinos..too bad they didn't have a sportsbook ( he was rooting for Miami). We walked all the way to the back to their private beach. It was the biggest beach we have ever seen! There is that sprawling sand and blue warm water. It was a little too quiet for us there so we took some pictures and proceeded to walk towards the other beachfront hotels. We found a vendor renting chairs for 4 bucks a piece so we got two and proceeded to roast in the sun. My boyfriend was having a great time because a lot of the girls here were sporting those sexy thongs ;) We took a taxi back to old San Juan and went to Barrachina's because I had two certificates for free pina coladas. This is allegedly where the Pina Colada was born. We shared mofongo (mmmm yummy!!!) and then we walked back to the ship. The final port day was in Grand Turk. We walked off the ship and straight through their shopping area. Alot of the stores here are still not open yet although the Margaritaville was happening. We grabbed a couple beach chairs and went swimming right by the pier. This beach sucks! It is very rocky and you could really get hurt if you didn't watch where you were walking. Luckily this is the one port where we booked an excursion. We heard that Grand Turk is one of the top 10 dive sites so we did the Discover Scuba. It was exhilirating! I was very scared at first and I almost quit before we went under water because I couldn't get used to breathing through the mouthpiece. I found myself taking short breaths instead of the long ones and I would panic! :eek: Once I got used to it, it was totally worth it. We saw some fish and a sea turtle eating some kelp. So cute!! After the dive we went to check out Margaritaville. I had another coupons for free margaritas so we used those up. My boyfriend commented that it was almost like spring break but with more old people. The teenagers were getting down and dirty in that pool...too raunchy for my taste.

 

We didn't eat much except for dinner time. We had perfect attendance in the dining room. The only good things on the menu were the appetizers and the soups and the seafood. The meat was disgusting. Every piece I got had a gamey taste to it. The salmon however was perfectly moist and delicious. The desserts were not as bad as everyone says. I loved the souffles. The burgers were good...the fried chicken and corn stuffed corn bread was sooooo good. They served this on the last sea day at the lido buffet for lunch. I liked the caesar salad and goat cheese pizza. The deli sandwiches were not grilled...but the focaccia sandwich was the best!

 

The entertainment was so-so. We did enjoy the comedians. Most of our evenings were spent at the craps table. We snuck on a bottle of grey goose and a bottle of ketel in it's original packaging and we enjoyed them before dinner. Nobody opened our bags because we used zip ties to secure them. We also had a collapsible cooler that our room steward kept filled with ice. All in all we had a good trip. We probably won't be cruising yearly because there are so many other places that I still want to see. Carnival did not disappoint me, they really were the fun ship!