Wheels87

As you can see from my sig, I have sailed on the Elation seven times and will be doing my eighth next month. This includes three B2B during which time I did 9, 10 and 10 days! I never got bored and enjoyed every minute of it. She is a beautiful ship! It is true that the tile in the bathroom is dated...SO WHAT! Who cares? I personally try to spend as little time in the bathroom as possible while cruising.

I can't wait to hear how it went next year.

Take care!

Brad

The formal night on the Elation is always the first day at sea, which is the second night of the cruise.

Have fun!

I've been on the Fascination before. I'm not sure what the tide was, but we only had about 6 feet of clearance and that was after they let some of the air out of the tires!

Regarding the bathroom odor...I have encountered this on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships. It has nothing to do with the age of the bathroom or the tile. If you look closely, you will notice that they keep a toilet brush in a white plastic container right next to the toilet. That is what is producing that awful urine odor. Just ask the stateroom attendant to bring a new one and it will go away, I promise.

Good Luck!

Brad

I sailed this ship back in May 2014 and was not impressed. Side note: I have sailed multiple times on Carnival on the Sensation/Fascination so I might be spoiled. But this shipped seemed very small to me and I did have issues with motion sickness during the cruise as well as several others in our group of 22. With me it doesn't take a lot of motion for me to get sick - I can get sick in a car - but for my daredevils (husband and 18 yr old Daughter who is a college cheerleader/flyer) them getting sick says a lot. Just be prepared for it. My motto "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it"

 

Actually, you mentioned above that you were spoiled by sailing the Sensation/Fascination in the past and it made this ship seem small...Actually, all three of these ships are sister ships and are the exact same size.

 

Good Day!

 

Brad

I have sailed on the Elation seven times and will be taking her for the eighth time next month. She is a fine ship and honestly seems to have a personality of her own.

I have never had a bad experience on the Elation and would highly recommended it to anyone looking for a nice, relaxing getaway.

Good luck!

Brad

With Faster to the Fun, you do have access to your cabin as soon as you board. You just have to open the door and walk on through. If anyone says anything, tell them that you have FTTF. It's that simple.

If you arrive early at port, you will be among the first people on the ship as well!

Enjoy!

Brad

I would never fly in the day of the cruise, especially to San Juan. Case in point...a few years ago, my wife and I were going on the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan. We were flying in a day early and had an expensive room booked at Los Conchas resort. We were supposed to arrive in the early afternoon. Unfortunately, our flight from Gulfport was delayed by about 2 hours and we missed our connection in Charlotte. Once that happened, we were booked on a flight that was leaving 8 hours later. I went round and round with the airline and there was nothing else available. Eventually, we caught a break and hopped on a flight to St. Thomas on a different airline and then caught a flight to San Juan. We arrived at the airport at 8:15 pm, however, our luggage was lost. We spent almost two hours trying to find it and we didn't make it to Los Conchas until 11:00 pm.

So, in the end, we didn't get to enjoy the $400 resort at all and if our cruise was leaving that day, we definitely would have missed it.

I was also on another cruise out of San Juan where there were 18 people who thought that it was a good idea to fly in from Detroit on the day of their cruise in December. Bad move. One of the ladies in the group was steaming mad because she thought the ship should have waited 4 hours for her party. Not gonna happen.

The moral of the story is...if you ever fly in the day of your cruise, be prepared to miss it and don't blame anyone but yourself.

Take care,

Brad

Sounds like you had a great cruise experience! My family and I love the Dream and can't wait to see her again on August 2nd.

Regarding the traffic on I-10...Since the Dream leaves on Sunday every week, there is essentially no traffic at that time and we have never had any problem reaching the cruise terminal.

Take care!

Brad

My family and I have cruised out of NOLA seven times and I can tell you that it is very very easy. Like the others have stated, if you get there early, like say, before 10:00, you will not have any trouble getting on the ship.

Depending on customs, wedding parties, etc., we have been on board the ship as early as 11:10 and as late as 11:40. We always arrive around 9:40 and are one of the first vehicles to park in the garage.

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

Brad

There are no name changes allowed. To do that you'd have to cancel you reservation with the 15-29 day penalties and Redbook with the newer probably higher rate. To cancel your son in 15-29 days out you lose 75% or your deposit.

I can guarantee you that this is not true. My family is going on the Carnival Dream on August 3rd and just last week, I had to replace my wife with her niece because my wife is very ill and was in the ICU. It cost $50 to do it and I even moved one of my daughters into my room and put my niece in the other room.

It doesn't hurt to ask.

Good luck!

Keep in mind that the MD is under no obligation to check and or respond to requests via email. You might consider contacting John Heald via face book.

I emailed the Maitre'D on the Dream a few weeks ago to request a table for two and he emailed me back right away and said "No problem" and asked if there was anything else I needed. Worked like a charm.

Good Luck!

I was on that cruise with you, Fish Taco and also had FTTF. We really enjoyed being able to go straight to our rooms and drop off our carry on bags.

I was in a panic because it took over a month of trying for FTTF to be available for our upcoming Dream cruise in August, but we finally got it. After having it one time, I cannot imagine not having it.

Good Luck!

Totally doable...IF the ship docks on time. I was on her two weeks ago and my wife and I had FTTF and were off the ship by 7:15am. We went to our car and were home (100 miles away) at 8:38am.

You just have to hope that the ship docks on time. I would risk it.

Good Luck!

I'm glad you came back to respond. After reading the posts, I wonder how many people really read your post for its actual content before responding.

-It wasn't about getting back on the ship on hot days.

-It wasn't about the time it takes to check people back in reboarding in a port.

-It wasn't about Carnival wanting to take pictures.

-It wasn't about people wanting their picture taken.

-It wasn't about relaxing and not being in a rush.

 

It was about intentionally clogging an exit to so those who didn't want pictures taken still had to wait.

 

And that's not right.

Wow, you just summed up my thoughts exactly! Thanks for the support and for actually reading the original post.

Have a great summer!

I have to put in my 2 cents for those of us who like to have their picture taken getting off the ship. We will be on our 10th cruise next January and are taking our DD and her family on their first cruise. I'm sure we will have our pictures taken at every opportunity. We always figure that the more pics taken - we might find one that makes us look half way presentable. A good idea would be for one gangway for pics & one no pics. It's not pleasant for those of us who want pics to be rudely pushed aside. You may think you're being polite but you're just acting like buffet line jumpers. Manners people.

It's interesting...there are several responses to my post telling me to simply say "No thanks" and walk past, etc., etc. and that some folks enjoy getting their picture taken and how I should just relax since I am on vacation. My whole point was that they are blocking the gangway and people are backing up into the stairwells waiting to get off. When I am given the opportunity to walk on past, I do. The problem is that they are on the gangway and no one can get by. On the Dream, it was impossible to squeeze past, so hundreds, if not thousands of people had to wait so people like you can get your picture taken. Just imagine if everyone had to wait in line to get into the theater while people ahead of them bought drinks. There would be massive complaints like "I don't even drink, and I don't understand why I have to wait in line for people who do to buy a drink." Then people would demand that Carnival change their policy. All I am asking for is that Carnival change their policy so they do not block the gangway, that's all.

Also, when we were tendering into Grand Cayman, the Carnival photographers were blocking the exit from the drop off point in town to take pictures. This is a similar situation, except that the passengers from the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas were stuck waiting as well. That was truly ridiculous.

Look at my signature...I obviously love Carnival, but I am just asking them to be more considerate of the masses and take their pictures 20 feet away from where they currently do it. It would go a long ways towards making their customers happy.

Good day!

Seriously, I can't believe some of you are blaming the photographers!

They put in the same kind of effort towards their jobs as the room stewards and the wait staff. Just because we can see & experience direct evidence of some of the staff does not mean that others don't work as hard.

The photographers are there on the same contract as other crew and they have the same kind of working hours and conditions.

Carnival surely knows about the long lines, but they have to maximize their earnings any way they can. The photographers are instructed to try and take as many pictures as they can, they are required to be aggressive. In fact I'm sure, Carnival has some kind of system to calculate how many pictures each photographer is selling (just an assumption on my part). I usually don't stand for pictures when there are long lines but most everywhere else, I do allow them to take a picture. If nothing else, I (& my wife) like to go and hunt for our prints on the wall (fun activity).

 

Another thing; if Carnival ever decides to lower the price of the prints, we might just buy some. But we are not paying $5 to buy something that costs less than 5¢. If the prints were a $ or $2, we would probably buy at least 4-5 prints, heck maybe even 10 or more.

 

I just look at it as part of the cruising experience (on Carnival); if it helps keep prices low for everyone, I'll stand as long as they want me too.

I wasn't blaming the photographers...just the practice of holding up the entire debarkation process. Many times, you can't squeeze through behind the folks stopping for the photos, therefore, there are people lined up in the stairwell up to higher decks because of the photo op. It is truly ridiculous. Allow those who don't want photos to pass by while they take their pictures off to the side.

Thanks!

My wife and I did self assist on the Dream a few weeks ago and were off the ship by 7:15 am. We live an hour and a half drive from the port and were home at 8:38 am. It was actually nice to be at home and feel like we had a whole extra day off before returning to work the next day.

It's also nice that you don't have to fret about having your suitcase out the night before and what you are going to wear in the morning, etc.

Enjoy!

I understand that some folks like to have their picture taken and have no problem with having their picture taken once they step off the gangway and out of the way, but when others have to stand in line for 15-20 minutes of their vacation so the photographers have a captive audience, that is simply not right.

Hey gang,

I just read a recent thread talking about photographers in the dining room and it led me to recall my experience on the Dream a few weeks ago. In several ports, there was a huge back-up of folks trying to get off the ship and when we finally got to the gangway, the reason for the delay was obvious...the photographers were stopping people on both sides of the gangway to take pictures. Therefore, those of us who didn't want photos still had to wait behind everyone else. This may sound silly, but sometimes, it took an extra 15 minutes or more to get off the ship.

This really is a ridiculous practice in my opinion and is the type of thing that Carnival needs to address. Just curious what others think about this.

Thanks!

Not everyone cruises Carnival because of lower fares. My family chooses Carnival because we enjoy their activities and the way the cruise director staff gets involved. Also, we find their employees to be happier, which only adds to our vacation experience. In fact, we would rather pay more and have them add more live music and such than to have prices slashed to keep things "Affordable."

For anyone criticizing Carnival or their loyalty program or whatever...just cruise with another line and get over it. After all, that is what freedom is about.

Take care!

I have been on the Dream (sister ship to the Breeze) and the Allure and I can honestly say that it would be a difficult choice. The Dream cruise felt like all of my Elation cruises on steroids! I loved the quiet AFT pool and the shows/comedy were excellent. That being said, the Allure was a whole adventure on its own. The shows in the Aqua Theater are simply amazing and the show Blue Planet was also top notch. You mentioned that you prefer dining in specialty restaurants, well, Allure and Oasis win that hands down!

Bottom line, I agree with the earlier posters who said that you have to try an Oasis class ship at least once, plus it is an extra day.

Good luck!

So glad to see that you are excited about your cruise on the beautiful ELATION!!! I have been on that ship 7 times and loved it every time.

Bon Voyage!

I was on the Dream two weeks ago and the air conditioning worked fine. I did have it turned all of the way down, but it was nice and cool. I had a balcony stateroom (9259) in the forward part of the ship.

You should be fine!

It sounds like you may be a little confused about self assist debarkation. The self assist people are called first, not after everyone else. Since you also have FTTF, you can choose to get off any time after the very first call. All of this means that you will be getting off very early. Now, of course, you can leave any time later, however, the crowds will be quite bad. The longer you wait, the worse the customs lines will be, so just be aware of that. It is not like embarkation where you can show up later and get right on the ship. The longer you wait, the worse it gets in the terminal!

Good luck!