A Holland America Cruiser Cruises Carnival

[hunahpu]

I posted this to the Carnival Forum, but thought, maybe the Holland America folks might be interested as well. As a result, I am posting it here too. So, if you typically cruise Holland America, but are interested what a Carnival cruise might be like, read below. This is the same review that got posted to the Carnival Elation's review page.

 

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We are just off the Elation. Here are my impressions.

 

Typically, we cruise Holland America. No, we are not old. We just enjoy the elegance and service.

 

We'd sailed the Elation before, and the first time we sailed her, we experienced some culture shock. Carnival simply does not have the same elegance that Holland America has. It is a very different cruiseline. It is more of a college-party-like atmosphere. In fact, our first time aboard her, we got stuck with loud, falling down, obnoxious drunks for dinner. I remember that I was about to deck a guy at dinner after he tried to stick his tongue in my wife's ear.

 

We thought that we'd never sail Carnival again. However, we got a gonga of a deal. That was how we came to sail the Elation a second time.

 

This time, we got room E126, a window room, right by the elevators, and very close to the atrium bar. This was a great location. The room was much like I remembered: orange and gray. I think that that has to be the oddest color combination -- very obnoxious. It also has this large box that holds the life-jackets in the corner by the bed. It is a bit awkward because whoever sleeps by the window has to climb over it in the middle of the night when nature calls. But, since we'd been on the ship before, all this was no surprise.

 

My wife and I have a tradition of drinking champagne for sail-away. We grabbed a bottle and two glasses and headed for the new, adults only, Serenity Deck. There we found a couple of deck chairs overlooking the back of the ship, and opened the bottle, and watched San Diego harbor go by and eventually disappear. One thing that I should note, however, is that the Serenity Deck is supposed to be adults only -- no kids. However, as we sailed away, there were plenty of kids there. I am not sure how well this in enforced.

 

The atrium bar is one of my favorite places on the ship. It was good that it was so close to our room. The bar sits at the bottom of a six story atrium, with a piano straddled by two curved staircases, between two glass elevators. After sail away, and before dinner, we spent some time there.

 

We were crossing our fingers at dinner the first night. Please no obnoxious drunks. Please no obnoxious drunks. To our pleasant surprise, our tables mates were quite nice. There were two younger couples, 20-somethings, and an older retired couple. And, thank God, none of them tried to stick their tongue in my wife's ear.

 

Dinner was quite like I remembered. No, it was not as good as Holland America, but it was not bad by any means. For instance, I remember having prime rib on board our last Holland America cruise aboard the Oosterdam. I remember thinking, this is so incredible! The Elation also had prime rib one night, too. It was good, but not incredible. I'm not sure what made it different. Was it the quality of meat, the marbling perhaps? Maybe, it was the was it was prepared. I simply do not know.

 

The one thing that Carnival has over Holland America, however, is the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. That is awesome. I had it for dessert every night. I was told that if you ask for the recipe, they will give it to you. I tried twice throughout the trip, however, without any luck.

 

The day after sail-away, we went to Catalina. We took the tender into Avalon. Upon arriving, we made our way to a booth where we could rent golf carts. After renting the cart we took all over the hills surrounding Avalon. It was quite nice, and there were some incredible views.

 

The next day, we arrived at Ensenada. Of course, we could not get off the ship because of swine flu. That day, my wife and I went out on deck, on the second level, found some lounge chairs, and caught some rays. In fact, it was nice to see the sun. Most of the trip, the weather was quite hazy and gray.

 

That night, we saw the blues band on board. Really, in many ways, this was the highlight of the trip. It was a packed house in the Romeo and Juliet lounge -- standing room only. I guess that this is where Carnival and Holland America really differ. I mean, who would of thought that you could see a New Orleans style show on a ship. On Holland America, there are soft Jazz standards played for ballroom dancing. Here it was dark, smoky, and horns blaring, guitar and bass jamming, all character -- night and day, really. They did say, however, that the blues show was unique to the Elation, that no other Carnival ships have it. Too bad, because it really was something.

 

The last day aboard, we befriended a nice couple from California. We hung out with them all day, spending some time at the Drama Bar, and the Serenity Deck, in the hot tub. At night, we decided that we would like to have dinner with them rather than our regular table mates (not that we had anything against our regular table mates). The dining room staff was more than accommodating, finding us a table for four, even though we all had fixed dining at other tables.

 

Debarkation was easy. They had called our group before we even left our cabin. We did not even have breakfast. We just got right off the ship.

 

In the end, I have to say that this trip was much better than our first one aboard the Elation. We knew what to expect -- no surprises. Not to mention, we had much better table mates. All it all, it was a good time.

[bcd2010]

Found this via google -- look at the nutritional values -- 310 of the 460 calories are from fat -- that's why it's so good!

 

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

 

8 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

7 eggs, divided use

6 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup flour

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt chocolate and butter; cool 10 minutes.

In separate bowl, mix 4 eggs with sugar. Whisk. Add flour and whisk. Add remaining 3 eggs. Add egg mixture to chocolate mixture. Pour in individual baking cups or ramekins.

Bake until just done, about 15-20 minutes (interior will be melting, not set).

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Makes 8 servings. Approximate nutritional values per serving: 460 calories (64.7 percent calories from fat), 8 g protein, 35 g carbohydrate, 27 g sugar, 2 g dietary fiber, 35 g fat, 250 mg cholesterol, 60 mg sodium.

[jhannah]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. Still doesn't make me want to try Carnival. Not my style, but good for those whose style it is.

[kryos]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. Still doesn't make me want to try Carnival. Not my style, but good for those whose style it is.

Actually, Carnival is not that bad, and sometimes their prices are such that they make for a good "quickie" unscheduled cruise that you wouldn't have normally had in the budget.

 

I did one Carnival sailing, on the Paradise last September. The funny thing is that the main complaint I had with the ship is that it was old and clearly everything was not working as it should be. For example, the public rooms were very, very cold ... or uncomfortably warm. Take your pick. There seemed no happy medium. Also, my cabin had something wrong with the air conditioning. There was no way for me to control it. No thermostat. Nothing. The room was like an icebox. I got my cabin steward and complained to him about it. He adjusted something in the ceiling, by a vent, but it really did very little good. He finally just went and got me a couple of extra blankets. He said there really was nothing else he could do ... the lever that opens and closes that vent wasn't working properly. Okay, Paradise is a pretty old ship, the price of the cruise was very reasonable, I guess I could deal with a colder than normal cabin for a couple of days. Other than that, the cabin was fine ... about the same size of the HAL inside cabins I am used to. The only thing I didn't like was that the beds were in an "L" shape configuration and could not be moved together. But, again, for what I paid for this cruise, and the fact that I had a guarantee cabin, I could deal with sleeping in a single bed for a few nights. I just used the extra bed to store my huge suitcase that I wasn't planning to unpack fully until I got onboard the Statendam in a few days after this cruise.

 

The other complaint I had, though, an older ship couldn't account for. The ship was simply a "dirty" ship. The staff did not seem to take any particular pride in keeping it clean. Unlike on HAL, you didn't see people around the ship cleaning and sprucing things up. If you sat out on the Lido, you would see tables piled high with dirty dishes. It took the staff forever to clear them, yet there was no shortage of bar staff to come around and ask if you wanted another drink.

 

One day I was sitting out there enjoying a couple of cigarettes and a cup of java, when I realized I left something in my cabin. I went back to the cabin, got involved in talking to someone in the hallway, and did not return to my place on the Lido for a good 45 minutes. The same table of dirty dishes stacked across from mine was still stacked full of dirty dishes. No one came and cleared them away, and I had been gone for a good 45 minutes at least. You would never see that sort of thing on Holland America. Not on your life.

 

The public restrooms were also a disgrace. They clearly were only cleaned maybe a couple of times a day ... and that's on a ship with about 2,000 or so passengers ... restrooms that get a lot of use.

 

On the good side, though, I have to say that all of our meals on the Paradise were absolutely delicious ... frankly, on a par with HAL's dining rooms. The waitstaff was very friendly and seemed willing to go the extra mile in meeting special requests.

 

Overall, for what I paid for that cruise, I feel that I did get my money's worth. Fortunately, for me, I encountered very little of the "party atmosphere" since this cruise ran from a Monday to a Friday, rather than over a weekend. I think you would get more of the party atmosphere on those three-day weekend sailings.

 

I only took this cruise to cover a Battlestar Galactica fans convention for another website that was being held onboard the Paradise that week. The cruise fit in perfectly with a 35-day sailing on the Statendam that I was taking the day after this one disembarked. Otherwise, I would have never done the Carnival cruise.

 

But I'm glad I tried Carnival, but if I were to ever sail them again, it would definitely be on one of the newer ships. But then, I'd bet I'll pay a lot more for that cruise too.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[jhannah]

Thanks, Rita; but you only convince me further to stay away from Carnival! ;)