Just Off The Elation - Review

[MaddyMom]

We just got home from our Elation 5/7 sailing. What a fun time we had! The ship is in beautiful condition and the crew were all so friendly. We sailed with our two children, ages 7 & 10. They fell in love with our waiter - Gembong. They insisted on eating in the Dining Room every night, just so that they could see him! The food in the Dining Room was excellent, however the Buffets were a little disappointing (especially the Breakfast Buffet).

 

Our first night we encountered hurricane force winds and 20-30 foot seas. There were a lot of sick cruisers, and we encountered many throwing up in the halls and lobbies. The ship was rocking a lot, and the Ginger tablets my husband and I had been taking before getting on board, unfortunately, did not have any effect. We ended up not being able to get out of bed, but finally managed to keep down 2 Bonine tablets, which did work (we had also tried Peppermint Oil and Sea Bands, these had no effect!). The Captain had to steer the ship off course (temporarily) to get to smoother seas, and things went much more smoothly.

 

We were an hour late getting into Grand Turk, due to the ship needing to re-route, however they gave us an extra hour to spend there. Grand Turk was not quite what we expected. The Ultimate Snorkel was a lot of fun, but there were no StingRays as advertised.

 

Half Moon Cay did live up to all the hype. It was paradise! However, Carnival handled the tendering poorly. There was only 1 working tender that morning, and as a result we lost about 2 hours just waiting to go ashore (we were Tender #1). Instead of calling all those who had excursions booked to go first, they called Tenders 1,2,and 3. This caused a major traffic jam in the gangway, and a lot of unhappy cruisers. But, once on the island we had a wonderful day. We did not book any excursions, we just spent the day on the beach and walking the nature trails. The buffet lunch was very good.

 

In Nassau we booked the Dolphin Encounter. This was definitely the highlight of our trip. They offered us the chance to upgrade to the swim, which my husband and son did. What an amazing experience! We highly recommend this excursion! After the excursion we went into Nassau. I had visited Nassau 20 years ago, and it has not changed at all. It is not my favorite place to visit and we were happy to get back to the ship.

 

Overall, this vacation was so much fun. We are going to really miss the wonderful meals, and the all of the pampering.

[Guienevere_Arianette]

Thank you for a great review! I also did a dolphin excursion, but in Cozumel, and it was the highlight of my life! No joke! :D