Elation Birthday Cruise December 15-20, 2012 Picture Journal and Review

[athenasbyshanna]

Here's the Pilot Boat!

And here it is right up next to the ship letting the River captain get off!

[Creole Girl]

I love the detailed pictues. Quick question about the muster "mustard" drill. Did they have you go to a public lounge/area first and then out to a deck?

 

Thanks!

[athenasbyshanna]

I love the detailed pictues. Quick question about the muster "mustard" drill. Did they have you go to a public lounge/area first and then out to a deck?

 

Thanks!

 

Yup, we did. But some drill stations were outside the whole time, I think.

[athenasbyshanna]

December 16, 2012

MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! That is all. . .:-) Oh wait, there are pictures to help me remember!!

But first some fun pictures from our first night!

 

Ok, on to Fun Day at Sea # 1, aka my actual Birthday!

[athenasbyshanna]

I woke up super early and watched the sunrise out of our window!!

Matt was still sleeping and I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to explore the ship while there were fewer people around. Lots of pictures around the ship!

Atrium bar

Atrium stairs and Elevators

Quiet pool

[athenasbyshanna]

Chair hogs at 7AM!!!

Walking around the ship

Pretty water!

[athenasbyshanna]

Serenity deck on the Elation was small compared to what I've seen in pictures of other ships. I was sad they didn't have any clamshell chairs! I planned to spend some time here, but just never happened!

Tiffany's Breakfast pictures:

Omelette station where they will put whatever you want in a homemade omelette they make right in front of you!

Edited December 30, 2012 by athenasbyshanna

[athenasbyshanna]

More breakfast pictures

Drink station

Pick a sweetener, any sweetener!

[athenasbyshanna]

The Guava Passion Orange juice drink was delicious! I kept meaning to get some to mix with my pink lemonade vodka but never got it in time!

Front of the ship

Mini golf and City Sports in the light of day

Funnel

Deadly light signs! Beauty Salon

[athenasbyshanna]

Pretty Earth, Wind, Fire Water artwork throughout the ship

Elation Way

Where the Sushi was supposed to be every night but I kept missing it. They weren't open Elegant night. :-(

 

[athenasbyshanna]

The Casino - we only spent a little time in here on the Quarter machines. We didn't like them as much as the regular ones because they just shot the quarters out and you had no control of where you put them. These machines could be the death of me and Matt as we can sit at them for hours!

Comfy looking window seats in the casino

Dreaded but loved quarter machines

[athenasbyshanna]

Drama Bar - I met Muriel "from Florida" here and had nice conversations about her life, kids and working on the ship

 

This is the bar we had our "Mustard" Drill in, but now I can't remember what it's called. I'm sure I'll figure it out later. . . Romeo and Juliet lounge, I think....?

[athenasbyshanna]

More random pics

Musical Cafe where I never got my White Chocolate cake cause the last one was bought right before me on the last night when I went to get it! :(:mad:

Jekyl and Hyde

[athenasbyshanna]

Yes, it's $10

Cheap liquor

Great Gatsby's

Cole Porter where the comedy shows and apparently karaoke were held

[athenasbyshanna]

Superstar Karaoke (I snuck behind the curtains a little to take this pic!

Cole Porter view from stage

Secret door to Serenity from Cole Porter lounge

More random pics

[athenasbyshanna]

Pubic bathrooms were pretty!

The Library

[athenasbyshanna]

Dukes Piano Bar - We went in here once cause I heard the piano bars were so much fun. The piano player was not that good and played boring music. The guy playing in the atrium was much better!

[athenasbyshanna]

Cocktail menu

Galleria Shops

[athenasbyshanna]

Mikado Lounge - Where bingo and all the shows were held

Cool cups and stuff in the shop

[athenasbyshanna]

Back to the room to wake up Matt and get ready for the day.

This is what my door looked like when I got back

I started getting ready and heard some noise outside, so I put on my robe and opened the door. I wish I had had my camera in hand because I caught Lauren with a super shocked look on her face! She was decorating my door!!

[sanmarcosman]

[athenasbyshanna]

We had ordered room service to make sure we didn't waste the day sleeping. It was supposed to be there by 8:30, I think and it was quite late. Its ok, cause I was already awake, but I did call to check on it. Room service seemed to be very busy all week. One day we tried to order room service in the middle of the day and never could get through. . . This day, when it did show up, the guy was very sweet and told us it was his first day and he was so sorry and he was confused where we were supposed to sign. But he was super nice and the room service was good and our coffee was hot.

We ordered smoked salmon and bagels, coffee and juice

Then it was time to all meet up and hit the pool deck! First stop - the bar for our first drinks of the day! I made a "Birthday Mimosa" with my champagne from John Heald and room service OJ and grapefruit juice. Yum!

I did go say hey to Dawna and Savannah and make sure they were ready to party! ;) (Stole this pic from Dawna)

Atrium Bar

[athenasbyshanna]

The Atrium Bartender was the only crewmember the entire cruise I thought was not up to par service wise. We got such amazing service and awesome friendliness from everyone, that she just paled in comparison. She didn't seem happy. She couldn't describe the taste of drinks for us when we asked. She did nicely take a pic of us when we asked though. She wasn't horrible, just not as awesome as everyone else we encountered!

Stole this one from Lauren:

Lauren's Strawberry Daquiri and the lackluster bartender

This is where the birthday fun begins. I will be stealing pictures from Lauren and Dawna and mixing them with mine. They are kind of jumbled in Photobucket cause I downloaded them from Facebook so they lost all order. So forgive me if I don't give credits for each individual picture, but they are a mix of all 3 of ours!

Oh, I did wear my Birthday Crown all day today! Later in the week, I had a couple who called me "Princess" whenever they saw me because they remembered me in my crown this day! LOL!

[athenasbyshanna]

Alex and I had made a pact the night before to go down the side today. . .BUT we all tried the pool water with our feet and it was waaay too cold for us, so we put off going down the slide!

More food! I just HAD to try the Mongolian Wok before the line got too long! I got Thai BBQ sauce and it was good. It was pretty darn spicy for not being the hottest!

Sooo, the only participatory event I wanted to participate in was the Master of Mixology contest. I've been a bartender for years and love making drinks! So I got to the stage super early to sign up and put some things about it being my birthday on my drink recipe form I had to fill out and I got picked! There were 4 of us who got to make our drinks for 3 judges. The winner got their drink featured at bars for the rest of the cruise. Lots of pictures of this. Lauren had my camera and she and Dawna also took pics with their cameras. I had gotten a Blowfish cup drink right before the contest. It was supposed to be a Pina Colada type drink but I don't like Pina Colada so I had the bartender make me a frozen strawberry margarita instead! it ended up being like 50 cents more how he added it up! No biggie! It was strong and I like tequila! Remember that, cause it is important for later! So, started with champagne, now onto Tequila. . what's next....?!

Master of Mixology

The 4 contestants

I'm excited!

The 3 judges - 1st guy to the left is a passenger, middle judge is one of the entertainment staff people ( we don't like her - keep reading), and last on the right is one of the DJs

 

[athenasbyshanna]

This guy was funny. He was already drunk and talking sh*t

The other girl in the contest got up and was shaking like crazy! I felt kinda bad for her, but I was in it to win it! The other guy made some fru fru pina colada drink - this is important for later. . .

Some more pics of my doing my thing:

Shake it baby!