mlshum

Yes! If you match one, you get nothing. Two gets you a free Bingo game. Three is $30 in the casino and on up. Seven is a free cruise and I’ve never seen that happen except on this cruise. The most I’ve ever won is the $30 in the casino. The prizes are redeemable on the last sea day. The contestants are randomly selected from the card sales. All cards have a number on the bottom. They will play two games and your card is good for both of them. I don’t know what I would ever so if I were selected to go up on stage! I’m not much of a gambler and I doubt I’d have the grit to see it through to the end. lol. It’s unlikely I’ll ever have to find out. 😜

You definitely know your Fantasy class ships! I have to say, I'd be right there with your daughter. LOL I've only had the one aft balcony on Sunrise. We usually don't get a balcony because we're never in the room and just don't use it much. We DID book a balcony cabin for our trip to Alaska next year. It's just a side balcony, mainly because of the soot and privacy issue.

I agree! Not my favorite either BUT it's almost a necessary evil I guess. LOL A couple of years ago we had a stop in San Juan changed out for a stop in Nassau. Not cool at all! Yes, yes and yes! LOL I'm sure if you wanted a total darkness in the room those would do the job! That's interesting! I've only been in the side balconies or interiors on Fantasy class. That sounds massive! We also kept our towel animals there! It's actually a convenient storage space. I kind of liked the porthole in spite of the noise. I may do it again at some point. The only time I ever had an aft balcony was on Sunrise, I think. To be honest, I wasn't a fan. Every morning there were be soot all over everything and in the afternoon the sun beat down on the space and made it uncomfortable. That, coupled with the fact that people above you could look down onto your balcony made it a "no thanks" for me going forward.

Thanks so much for reading! Your reviews are what caused me to start writing and I have enjoyed it so much, so I owe you a debt of gratitude. In the porthole picture, those are window covers to seal the window , if necessary. I can’t imagine a scenario where you’d need to seal those windows. I don’t WANT to imagine a scenario where you’d need to seal those windows! We just left them open the whole time. If you haven’t been to Nassau in a while you should definitely check it out. When you disembark and walk down the pier you walk into this new port area before you get into the town proper. All of those vendor stalls are in this new area arranged into little “streets”. There’s a fence separating the port area from that Main Street where you’d normally turn. The first thing you will see upon entering the port area is that screen with the shark. It has other pictures, too, I just liked the shark. Pictures absolutely don’t do it justice. There are videos of that screen online. It’s phenomenal! I don’t mind Nassau since I always find something to do there but I do think this new area is a huge improvement. Thanks for the ID on the chub! I’m learning! lol

Yes! I’m glad I’m not the only one!

HMC is the perfect beach day for sure! Your mom is brave! I don’t get stressed very easily but the straw market in Nassau will do it every time! I can’t deal with everyone talking to me and trying to get me to buy things. If I stop to look at something they stop me and start talking trying to get me to buy whatever it is. I always feel bad or like I’m being rude but they won’t let me move on! I think they sense my weakness. LOL. I avoid the straw market at all costs! We’ll be getting on Mardi Gras about the time you’re getting off Elation. We board on Sept 14

Prayers for a good outcome and easy recovery!

Awww…..thank you so much! What a great trip you have planned! It sounds amazing! Have you been to Half Moon Cay before? If so, you already know that you will love it. If not, it’s absolutely gorgeous and you will love it! lol. Let me know how your trip goes!

Thanks so much for reading along with me! I appreciate it and I appreciate your kind words!

Thanks so much for reading along and for your kind words. I did enjoy Elation! I’ve already been on several of the newer ships including Mardi Gras and Celebration. My cruise on the Mardi Gras in September will be our 15th and our first “repeat” on a ship. Hopefully you can join me for that story, too! Thank you so much! I’ll be on the lookout for yours as well! Thank you so much for your kind words! I really enjoy writing here on Cruise Critic because it just extends the experience for me and I’m so glad I’m not boring everyone here to tears! lol. Thanks again! I wonder what they will do about getting under those bridges when the small ships are gone??? Thank you so much for reading and hanging out with me! Let’s do it again! lol That’s fair, I guess! Did you read the barracuda story a page or so back? 🫢

Thank you so much for reading along again! I always enjoy seeing a familiar, friendly name!

Thank you so much! I’ll definitely look forward to it! Now that’s a funny mental picture! I don’t mind the walking at all, up or down, I was just surprised by how long it actually was. But if I run into one that long again and need to get down quickly, I’ll know one option! lol

Thank you so much for your kind words and for reading along! I very much appreciate you!

Thanks so much for your kind words and for reading along! You know, I never thought about that being one reason it seemed faster but I’m sure you’re right. Had to be the longest walk down to the terminal yet. Lol

Awwww….thank you so much! Hugs back to you!

Looking forward to the second half! How many pictures would you estimate Patti take during an average cruise? She’s so good at that!

Debarkation – May 4th They say all good things must come to an end. Morning came, as it always does, and our anchor/rope/thruster alarm went off about 5:30 am. There would be no danger of oversleeping this morning! We showered, dressed, and headed up for our last Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The day was overcast but the temperature was still nice. We had elected to do self-debarkation. This was the first time we had used the digital debarkation scheduling within the app, and it is super easy to use. Our debarkation time was 8am and the gangway was on Deck 7. Ron, being the wonderful husband that he always is, would not hear of letting me push my own suitcase. He kept both suitcases through the entire process. Chivalry is definitely NOT dead with this guy! Liz has commented before that when she has been with him, she wasn't allowed to carry her own suitcase. He's a good one and I'll keep him! As we found pretty much everything else on this cruise, the Elation crew had this debarkation thing down to a science. Our cabin was on Deck 6, so we only had to go up one deck to get in line. There were signs and people pointing us to the line. The line went down one hallway, snaked around the second hallway and off the ship. From the moment we stepped in line we never stopped moving. When we reached the gangway, our cards were scanned, and we started down into the terminal building. The gangway is rather long, probably mostly because they were using Deck 7 and it’s kind of high. There are multiple "switchbacks" on the way to ground level. When we reached the bottom of the gangway there were two lines and people directing us into the correct line. If you had traveled with a passport you were supposed to get into one line. The second line was for people traveling with birth certificates. Pretty standard. We got into the passport line but were told several times that we did NOT need to show our passports. Just look at the iPad, smile at the camera so to speak, and it will do the rest with the facial recognition technology. Talk about easy! I think we were on Horizon the first time we experienced the facial recognition debark. Definitely a good thing! The entire process probably took a total of 15 – 20 minutes from the moment we stepped in line until the time we were walking to our car. Easiest debarkation ever! Here's our traditional "our cruise is over and now we're pouting" picture. So….there you have it. My Elation cruise Christmas present was the best present ever. We had a wonderful time, as always, and I have no complaints. 9ish hours later we were back in West Virginia. Although we live in Princeton, the closest route to our house is typically through Bluefield. We use Exit 1 to get there so we're barely inside the state when we turn off I-77. Here's our sign! If you ever drive north on I-77 and go through the East River Mountain Tunnel, give us a wave as you go by! Thanks so much for reading along! I’ll see you again when we again sail on Mardi Gras with our "friends who became family" in September! It's going to be epic!

Yes! This was the first time we'd seen them. I hope we see them again at some point in the future!

Dinner was jerk pork chops. We both started with a garden salad again. I had melting cake for dessert and Ron had Babaloo cake. I have never seen this offered before. It’s a pretty, colorful dessert. He liked it. I tried it but really wasn’t a fan. I don’t know if it’s specific to this ship or if it is also on other ships. On that last day there is usually Baked Alaska on the menu but on this sailing the Babaloo cake seemed to have replaced the Baked Alaska. Dinner was excellent, as before, and we snuck out before the “Leaving on a Fun Ship” song could start. That one is always kind of sad, I think. It means the cruise is over! I FINALLY remember to take a food picture! Melting cake has pretty much been my favorite since the first cruise. This was the Babaloo Cake. I've never seen it on a menu before on any other ship. The evening was before us, and we decided we wanted to go see Music Manila again. Ron kept trying different versions of that name…..Manila Ice, Manila Folder, Manila Envelope, Manila Frosting…..enough already! LOL We wanted to get there pretty early since seating was limited so we took our books with us and settled in for the evening. There were a surprising number of people already there, so it was good that we went early. If you get a chance to see these guys GO! They're so much fun! They started their set, and they were every bit as good as the night before. So much fun to watch! People were in the halls and at the bar dancing. Everyone that walked through was smiling and most were singing along. They played their first set, and we enjoyed it so much we waited around for their second set as well. I can't remember EVER having done that before on any of our cruises. In the time between the sets, one of the band members named Albert went through the crowd and introduced himself to everyone. I thought that was really nice. He invited everyone to join their Facebook group. Very smart of him! If we ever cruise with them again we’ll definitely catch their show. We sang along with them until after 10pm. It was time to go pack. I didn’t feel that I had left anything undone. We’d had a great time. Time to get back to reality. I'll be back later this evening to finish this story!

Sea Day – May 3rd As inevitably happens every single time, we had arrived at our last day on the ship. It goes by so quickly! We slept in a little because our anchor alarm didn’t wake us at “0 dark early” like it had the previous two mornings. We didn’t have any real plan for the day except relaxing and enjoying our last vacation day before returning to work. Today was Towel Animal Takeover. There weren't any of the really large creations that I've seen on some of the other ships. I think Magic had the best one with the huge dog and doghouse. This was the display for Elation.... I like the googly eyes! This was from Magic in 2022... First order of business was Breakfast at Tiffany’s. After breakfast we caught a morning trivia game in the Romeo and Juliet Lounge. The first game was all about superheroes. I knew before I sat down that I wouldn’t do well on this one. The second game was Harry Potter. I know a little more about that subject but definitely not as much a many of the people in the room….and there were a lot of people in the room! We didn’t win, of course, but, as always, enjoyed playing. The line for the Deal or No Deal Bingo cards was forming right outside the door, so I got in line to collect our Bingo card. I’m not a big fan of Bingo but if the card is “free”, I’m going to play it! Best days ever......nothing but water. By the time I got through the line it was close to lunch time. I still hadn’t managed to get my pizza, so we went up to the buffet. Ron preferred a Guy’s Burger, and I ordered my pizza. It took about 10 minutes to get my pizza so that was perfectly acceptable. We found a table and settled in for our last lunch. We finished it all off with a piece of key lime pie. That was the best dessert I’ve had all week! Tummies full (too full in my case!) we opted to take a quick nap. Naps are a luxury we don’t have very often! We got back to the cabin to find our "Get Off Our Ship Heart" that is there on every last Sea Day. When we woke up from our nap it was almost time for Bingo. As usual, there were three games. The first two were normal games and the last one was the $5000 game. In order to win the $5000 you had to cover the entire card within 49 calls. Although the winner didn’t quite make it, she was pretty close, maybe 52 calls? and she won $1100. I needed only one number at the end of 49 calls and that was about as close as I have ever come to winning Bingo. I didn't get any Bingo pics, unfortunately. I need to do better at channeling my inner "Patti" @Jamman54 to get ALL of the pictures. That girl doesn't miss a thing! As we headed back up to the Lido deck Ron mentioned that we had yet to play mini golf. Mini golf on ships is very hit/miss. Sometimes the weather is cooperating, and you can play mostly normally. Other times the wind is howling, and it is virtually impossible to play. Fortunately, it was a nice day and we had fun playing a round, which he won OF COURSE because he always wins. (Major eye roll) Often, we will do a long weekend somewhere with our sons and daughter-in-law, just to get everyone together for a couple of days. I miss them! Ben and Katherine moved to Nashville last year so it's a long drive to see them now. Andrew, our oldest, is back in Princeton temporarily as he decides where he wants to go next. His job allows him to work remotely so he can live anywhere, which is nice. When the five of us are together, we play vicious, killer mini golf. Our other favorite family activity is escape rooms. We turn into a very competitive bunch! I don't win often at golf. I still have a picture on my phone of the score card from the one game I won while on a kayaking trip in KY. This was taken in January when we took a weekend to visit Ben and Katherine. We, of course, found an escape room. This is something like number 56. There is only one time in 56 that we haven't gotten out in time. It was in that dark room that we realized we all wear glasses and none of us can see in the dark. LOL Not a bad track record! Anyway....back to the Elation cruise! The golf course on Elation looked new. It was only open certain times of the day, and the clubs and balls were kept locked during the off times. It's a very nice course! We hadn’t made it out to Serenity during the entire cruise, so we headed that direction to check it out. Serenity is Deck 8 aft on Elation. There are several loungers in the sun, a covered area with couches and two hot tubs. It was pretty busy on this last sea day. We grabbed one of the couches and spent a delightful hour or so there. Before too long, it was time to go get ready for our last dinner. This is the only picture of Serenity the site is allowing at this time. I keep getting a "server error". As you can see, it's at the back of the ship. I had made Thank You cards with extra tips for Gede, Gusti and Sadia. We left Gede’s in the room earlier that day and we took the cards for Gusti and Sadia with us to dinner. All of these people are so nice. All of them work so hard. That extra tip isn’t much but it’s the best way I can think of to say, “Thank you!” I'll be back to continue later!

And maybe I'm misremembering. Who knows?!? It's been a while! 🙃

Thank you! That's very odd. The last time we were there with Liz and Aaron on Sunrise, we had gone to get a Diet Pepsi (and whatever they wanted) and were told they would only accept cash, so we make the trek back across the sand to get cash. Luckily Ron had some left over in his back pack from some other venture. Maybe it was just that one bar or they were having difficulty with a computer or something. I don't know. I had thought they would accept the card like it had been in the past but not that time. Thanks for weighing in on that. You've definitely been there more than me and would certainly know better than me!!

Yes! They were having a ball! Albert came through the crowd introducing himself (in the next installment) and inviting people to join their Facebook group, so we did. Some of their pictures and videos go back almost 20 years on various ships. They’ve been doing the Carnival circuit for a long time!

They were! We don’t usually stay for an entire set but this time we stayed through two sets. One of them said their contract on Elation was through July.

The dining room was still pretty quick but alas, showtime was a little earlier than previous nights and we would up being there for the performance. I guess it's OK. We ate dessert. One night in five isn't bad at all. This night would be a conga line. We both had a garden salad for an appetizer. I had chicken parm and Ron had pepper steak for an entrée. I had chocolate ice cream, and he had a banana split for dessert. It was all very tasty, as it has been all week. Way to go, Elation! Epic Rock was playing in the Mikado theatre at 7:30. I had seen it several times, but I always enjoy it. I think it’s one of my favorite Playlist shows. I don't think I remember this guitar decoration from before. I definitely remember the speaker screen from before. After Epic Rock, we didn’t yet have enough music, so we went in search of whatever else was available. We first stopped to hear Kenny J. He was pretty good. He was a soloist with an acoustic guitar. I didn't get a picture of him. We listened to him for a while and then wandered up to the Drama Bar to catch a little of Music Manila. They had been playing all week, but we had missed them until this point. We'll get a better seat for the next show! The Drama Bar is basically the bar immediately beside the casino and basically a wide spot in the hall. A small stage is positioned on the side in front of a window. There were quite a few people already listening to these guys and we quickly discovered why. They are really good! Music Manila is a group of four guys. There is a lead guitar, bass guitar, piano and drums. They play 70’s and 80’s music. It appears that they've been performing on Carnival ships for many years. I think what made them so much fun is that THEY were having a ball performing. It’s always fun to watch people who enjoy what they are doing! We watched them for quite a while and decided to head for bed. We were tired. Tomorrow would be our very last day. Ugh! Time goes by so quickly on a cruise!