Elation 4/19 - 4/24 cruise review

[scopewest]

There were three of us on this cruise, me, DH, and my 23-year-old niece. This was our sixth Carnival cruise, and we’ve been on RCL, Princess, HAL, and NCL as well. This was my niece’s first cruise. We were part of a group attending a wedding on board.

 

Although we can fly in the same day (one hour flight from Phoenix), we decided to fly in the day before and stay at the Holiday Inn on the Bay so my niece could see a little of San Diego before boarding. We flew Southwest mainly because it had the best flight schedules. When we arrived in San Diego, we walked over to where the hotel shuttles were, and we waited about 15 minutes or so. The free shuttle took us to the hotel and we checked in, although we were an hour or so ahead of the check-in time. I had asked for a view of the bay, and the desk clerk said he didn’t have any rooms available. The room he gave us did have an angled view, and we saw the top of the Elation the next morning.

 

The room was fine, and we didn’t spend much time in there (ha, the inside cabin speech). We walked to Seaport Village and ate at the Fish Market, which we enjoyed. Then we walked back to the hotel and grabbed the free shuttle to Horton Plaza and went to the Bitter End bar where the bride had arranged a party before the wedding.

 

The next morning we got up, DH and niece went to the deli to get coffee (there was a single cup coffee maker in room but they wanted lattes), and we checked out at 10 a.m. Our info from Carnival had asked us to be at the pier at that time, dressed and ready for the wedding. I joked to DH that for the first time we’d have a really elegant embarkation photo. We walked to the ship (five minutes), had no trouble crossing the street, and went inside where we were asked to wait. Shortly after that we were instructed to bring our suitcases back outside to check them in since the ship was now cleared. Thanks to the CC boards, we had printed out tags at home, put them in clear protective sheets, folded them and attached them with luggage straps we borrowed from tags at home. The porter was very impressed with our tags and joked that we were experienced cruisers.

 

Back in the terminal the wedding consultant told our bride that it was time to check in, so we all went into the terminal. We were in Cat. 12, which meant VIP check-in, but we just followed the group and walked right up to the first empty desk, no waiting. Then we all sat together and at around 11:30 or so an announcement was made that they were now boarding but the wedding parties were going first, and we did. The bride had about 75 people, and the visitors all had visitor tags on. We actually walked past the embarkation photo area, they didn’t try to stop any of us, and I thought about getting out of line to get a photo but didn’t, figuring it would just annoy people when we tried to cut back in line to get on the ship.

 

On the ship we found out the wedding was at 1:00 p.m., so we wandered around checking things out and then headed for the show lounge (Mikado) for the ceremony. The bride walked down the balcony stairs, and the ceremony took place in front of the stairs to the stage. Then we all headed for the Cole Porter lounge, I think it’s the biggest lounge, for the reception. There were two other weddings onboard as well, and one had their reception in the disco down from us.

 

There were hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, open bar, wedding cake. The bride had little favors for the guests. The food was good, the cake was delicious. The only comment I would make for brides is that there was no announcer per se like you’re used to seeing (or at least we didn’t have one), so if you want people to stop drinking and watch you dance, cut the cake, whatever, you might want to ask a friend to take over the microphone for this.

 

Around 2:30 they announced that visitors would have to leave at 3:00 p.m. We were so glad we didn’t have to leave! We then went to our cabin, and we loved it. There was plenty of room for the three of us. I asked the steward to please make up the couch every morning and not leave it as a bed, which he did. He also brought an extra chair for the balcony. People have talked about putting a lounge chair out there. It would have been a very tight fit IMO, due to the layout. It was a nice size, though. FYI we had a flat screen TV, which surprised me, I didn't realize that had been upgraded.

 

The beds were pushed together, and I found the walk space to be awkward, so I asked him to make it into twins, which he did. I can see when they redo this room that with the wall gone there would be more room to walk. We tried to get our suitcases under the beds but they wouldn’t fit (hard sided) because of the spacing of the legs underneath. I know they fit because we’ve had them under the beds on other Carnival ships, it was just the angle that made it impossible to push them under. So we put them behind the chairs and that worked just fine. We didn’t want them in the closet.

 

I had heard comments about the size of the whirlpool tub. It’s only big enough for one adult to sit down, although you could fit two toddlers in there. Standing up in it I thought is my 6’4” DH going to be able to stand up? Answer: No. He had to bend over. However, he used the gym showers every a.m. since he worked out, and he said they were great. He only used the cabin shower on the last day.

 

When we walked past the cabin next door, we glanced in and it was wall to wall people. I guess they were having a party. As it turns out, they also liked to scream at 3 a.m. As I said in another thread, it just happened once. It bothered me only because DH has trouble getting back to sleep if he’s awakened in the middle of the night. It never happened again, and we didn’t hear any noise in our room or even from the balconies from the cabins on either side of us.

 

Our room steward was great, we had no complaints. The beds were comfortable, and I didn’t need the book light I brought to read in bed as the light behind me was sufficient. And there was a hairdryer in the room behind the mirror on the left-hand side of the vanity. I have very short hair and it worked fine for me.

 

The weather was somewhat cool leaving SD, hot in Cabo, cool and windy in Ensenada. This was a disappointment to my niece who wanted to lie on the deck and get a tan. Being from AZ, we loved the weather. In Ensenada the winds hit 30 mph and the captain announced that the wind was pushing the ship back against the dock so we couldn’t leave on time. We left about an hour late. Since it’s about a two-hour sail from there to SD, it wasn’t a factor in our SD arrival time. The seas were bathtub water calm, as DH says.

 

Okay, now to the big one: Food. We loved it. We avoided the Lido for all meals simply because the layout is awkward and it was easier to sit down in the dining room and get served. We did eat some snacks at the buffet and the food was fine. DH was a little disappointed in breakfast in the dining room, he said that the egg dishes could have been better. I enjoyed them. DH did like lunch and dinner there. Our waiter was very friendly and called us by name after the bride sent us wine one night with our names on the ticket. The busboy’s English must have been very limited as he barely said a word but kept us supplied with bread and water. I asked for skim milk and as usual it appeared every night when we sat down. For the record we’ve eaten at both Denny’s and the five-star restaurant in our city so we have some basis for comparison. Again, it’s all what tastes you’re used to. I refuse to argue about food.

 

The first warm chocolate melting cake I got, I thought this is what you all rave about? It was more like chocolate soup. When I ordered it a couple of days later, it was 80 percent cake and 20 percent melted chocolate. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be served, and it was great. What I loved was the bitter and blanc (chocolate and vanilla) pudding, which to me was more like a white soufflé with chocolate bits in it. Loved it.

 

The waiter did say we were being served the new menus. I don’t have copies of them and my last Carnival cruise was in 2005 so I can’t compare them, sorry.

 

Clothes: Formal night I'd say 80 percent of the women had on some shade of black. I think I saw some black tie outfits on the guys, but frankly, what people were wearing, I can't say. I never look at clothes because I'm not a clotheshorse type of person. Our table was for four, at the end of the row of booths, so we could barely see the waiters dancing, let alone what people were wearing. Nobody was naked that I could see.

 

Drinks: The niece from Washington, DC said that the prices were less than she pays in bars in DC so she was happy. I believe her drinks were $5 apiece, she never got the drink of the day which was $4.75 without the souvenir glass. We don’t buy the soda cards because I love the ship’s lemonade and fruit punch, which is free. We also don't smuggle in water or soda or alchol so I can't comment on that.

 

Activities: Although cold at times, the deck activities went on as planned. Due to the weather, there were plenty of lounge chairs. In fact my niece went to the pool area around 1 p.m. one day, and there was a stack of loungers available. She just grabbed one and set it up.

 

The bride & groom had arranged a private party in the disco during the cruise, and we shared that space with another private party, the 1961 Hornets reunion. I never did find out if this was a high school or college group, but there were quite a number of people there. However, there was enough space that the parties didn’t encroach on one another.

 

Newlywed game: Our bride & groom were the newlyweds, and it was funny to see how they didn’t match on most answers. At the end the guys came out and did the Chippendale thing. During his dance the bride actually pulled his shorts down and the audience got mooned. I thought they’d censor that scene but they showed it on the cabin video. All three couples got a rose, a bottle of champagne, a spa treatment, and something from the casino (we weren’t told what it was and I forgot to ask the bride).

 

My only disappointment came from the library accessibility. I can understand the limited hours. What was annoying was that when we went there at the specific time, the bookcases were locked. I asked to have a case opened, and she said “which side?” I’m thinking huh? And then when she opened the one side, she said “which book?” I had no idea which book, I thought I could browse through them. I pointed to a book and she handed it to me. They don’t have the capacity for book borrowing as do other ships, but at least unlock all the cases so we can at least see the book titles clearly and then point since we can't browse. Anyone who has sailed HAL and experienced the Explorations Café will understand what I’m talking about.

 

Ports: We did the Cabo by Land and Sea as that was what our niece wanted to do. We boarded a large catamaran and spent about half an hour at Land’s End, sailing over to the Pacific side. The info we were given before boarding wasn’t clear, and we all thought we’d get one drink. They were handing out unlimited beer, soda and water. OTOH it was 9:30 a.m. so maybe they figured not too many people would drink a lot. They gave us about five minutes to shop at the glass factory; we spent more time at the cactus gardens. I put on my comment card that it should be reversed. Well, I live surrounded by cactus! Our other stop was at a hotel on a beach where this time we did use our coupon for one drink.

 

In Ensenada we took the Fox Studios tour. It was a mini Universal Studios with no rides. It was an hour’s drive north, and we saw parts of Mexico we hadn’t seen before. We enjoyed the tour, especially stepping onto the Titanic sets (so that’s how they did that scene!). Afterward we drove to a hotel and had a preset Mexican lunch. DH and niece felt they could have served a buffet instead (niece wanted more tacos). We walked down to the beach and onto the pier right outside the hotel. It was cold and windy but again, we AZ people loved it. There was a spa next door which we looked at (DH is a massage therapist), and it was very beautiful. Niece found out it had been someone’s home originally. Nice place to live, that’s for sure.

 

I’m jumping around on this, so on to:

 

Shows: Saw all of them except final night which was passenger karaoke show at 10:30 p.m. Niece thought they were great except for the comedian. He wasn’t the best and some people walked out, but he made a joke about that.

 

Bingo: We watched it a couple of times, one card for $10 and three for $20. Niece participated in last bingo that had $3,000 prize if you hit under 48 numbers. Of course nobody did but someone did win $1,000.

 

Photos: Nonstop photo taking, prices started at $7.99. They did have some Carnival scrap booking pages for sale, really cute if you did scrap booking.

 

Stuff for sale: I’ve been on ships that pushed the inch of gold, bingo, whatever, and this was pretty quiet in terms of announcements for that. We did get the paperwork deluge in the cabin, but paper doesn’t talk. I bought a little Carnival ship (toy) that makes the sound of the ship’s horn and flashes lights when you push the button on top of the funnel. I’m tempted to bring it to work to drive my coworkers crazy.

 

Laundry: Since it was five days, we were able to bring enough clothes so that I didn’t have to do laundry, which I will do on a seven-day cruise. However, FYI, we left on Saturday, and on Sunday night we got a flyer that said on Monday you could do a bag of laundry for $15 and it would be same day delivery. We weren’t given free laundry for being in a suite but I also didn’t ask about it.

 

Disembarkation: There I was in the bathroom at 8:15 a.m., getting ready to leave the cabin by 8:30 as suggested, and they announced zones 1-7 (we had 7) can leave. By the time we left the cabin a few minutes later, they were already calling zones 8-10. We walked off, handed customs our paperwork, grabbed our suitcases, and walked to the taxi stand. We have always used Carnival transfers at other ports, but since it would cost us $48 for the three of us and the airport was five minutes away, we took a taxi. The cabs were lined up, we were pointed to one, it cost $8.40 (plus tip), and we arrived so early that we got our boarding passes but couldn’t check our bags for another 45 minutes! I love the SD pier.

 

Aside from the cool weather (niece’s disappointment) and the library situation (my disappointment), it was a great cruise.

[woodey]

I'm glad you had a great cruise we sailed on her in February and also had a great time...I did spend alittle time in the Library but i brought my own book....I only browsed them in the cases I did not even try to open one of them up...it is kinda weird that they keep them locked up....I can see where people will walk with them but still......

[MTcruiser]

Thanks for the great review...we'll be there in June

[PINEVIEW01]

The first warm chocolate melting cake I got, I thought this is what you all rave about? It was more like chocolate soup. When I ordered it a couple of days later, it was 80 percent cake and 20 percent melted chocolate. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be served, and it was great. What I loved was the bitter and blanc (chocolate and vanilla) pudding, which to me was more like a white soufflé with chocolate bits in it. Loved it..

The chocolate melting cake on the Inspiration, Liberty and Triumph were all like your first cake. I like the 80% cake, 20% melted I had on the Elation better. My last one on the Elation I had had no melted at all.

 

Thanks for the review