Elation 8/1 Quick Review

I learned a lot from these boards prior to sailing, so I want to share some of what we experienced.

Embarkation was very smooth in Galveston. We parked at EZ Cruise Parking for $35 for the week and took the shuttle to the dock. The wait for the shuttle was only 10 minutes, but there was a real traffic jam at the dock. We arrived at 12:00 and passengers were still leaving from the previous cruise. If I had to do it again, I would walk from the parking lock to the pier. It's only three blocks. We walked it when we returned and it only took 10 minutes. We never had to wait in any lines, but had to sit in the waiting area until 1:00 to board the ship.

No real complaints or exceeded expectations. The Cruise Director and staff were OK, nothing spectacular and the crowd was very subdued. Don't know if one might have been the result of the other. I did manage to win a coveted Ship on a Stick and bottle of K-Mart champagne for winning Matinee Game Show.:D

The biggest issue we had was trying to get off the ship in Belize. We had a private excursion and had to wait for all the ship excursion people to leave first. They handed out numbered stickers for the tenders on a first come, first serve basis. We were third in line and got stickers saying Tender #1. However, they handed out at least 100 stickers of each number, and each tender only holds 20-30 people. When they called for Tender #1, we ended up at the back of the line and were on about the eight tender to leave with people with stickers saying Tender #4. (Tender #2 people boarded different boats at a different hatch at the same time.) So the moral of the story is, don't go far from the staging area after you get your Tender sticker.

I will post reviews of the individual ports in the appropriate message boards. Let me know if there is something specific I can help you with.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

I leave on this ship in three weeks...minus two days!