Elation 12/3-12/8

[knowfere]

My 3rd Carnival cruise. Traveled with 2 daughters and 4 grandchildren in 2 oceanview cabins on Empress very close to the atrium. We had a fabulous time and I LOVED the ship! The ship is older, but the only place where I noticed it's age was the shower tiles. They're not horrible but you can tell it's aged. The carpets all looked new, the chairs all new, all the woodwork gleamed. The ship was decorated for Christmas and it made for many beautiful spots for pictures.

Parking: We drove 2 cars from north Alabama and parked at the Global Parking Mall right across the street from the terminal for $30 less than at the terminal. We were shuttled over very quickly and thru the entire boarding process within 30 minutes....although it was 3:00pm so everyone else was already onboard. One of my daughters brought far too much luggage and had to give some over to a porter, other than that, we all carried all of our luggage on. Hers was at the room just a few minutes after we made it to the room.

The cabins:

The life jacket boxes have been replaced with a simple, easily movable table. Plenty of room for all our clothing. For some reason, only one of the two adult sail n sign cards would operate the safe. The shower water pressure and temperature were fantastic! The daughter I was rooming with was sick 3 full days and was in bed so we didn't get to know our steward at all :( The kids loved the beds, the 2 older ones in the pull downs and the 2 little ones on trundles. It was perfect.

Activities:

We participated in the Cat in the Hat parade and sat up on the stage during the story reading part. I was BLOWN AWAY with the production of 80's & 90's Epic Rock show. Loved it! We paid the $5 for the Cat in the Hat breakfast and loved it. Only complaint there was that the characters didn't come around to each table for pictures, rather we had to leave our table to go line up by them. It was really absurd when Things 1 & 2 came out and we were in the middle of ordering, we all just left our waiter standing there, the characters didn't stay out but a few minutes. The older kids loved the slide, pool hot tubs and Camp Carnival. I really wanted a ship with the dive in movies by the pool, but sadly, Elation lacks that feature. We planned several shows or activities that we never made it to. Santa showed up on our Sea Day and it was a big hit in the atrium along with the ugly sweater contest.

Food:

We ate in MDR for dinner twice and breakfast twice. All other times Lido buffet or the burger grill. The kids raved about the pizza but the one time I went to get some it was taking too long so I went to the deli instead. We ordered room service several times and the BLT is great. I thought all the food was good to very good. The staff were attentive and on the ball. Tables didn't stay dirty for long.

 

All 3 of my cruises have been on older ships-Fantasy back in 97, Holiday in 07. Elation was better than both of them in my opinion. Now, I've just booked the newest ship-Vista.

[easyboy]

Glad your daughter and grand kids enjoyed the cruise. May be hoping to join you again on your next:). Thanks for the feedback.

[maldenmusic]

I've been on the Elation more than any other ship and have fond memories.

[DCCruiser1013]

For some reason, only one of the two adult sail n sign cards would operate the safe.

 

Glad you had a good time! I just wanted to clarify something here. Unless the safes on the Elation are different than on other ships, your Sail & Sign cards are not automatically tied to your room safe. You use any magnetic strip card (like a credit card or a gift card) to close it, then you must use that same card to open it. You can use your Sail & Sign card, but they very strongly discourage it.

[JaniceB]

Thanks for the report.

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback.

[crazyfrazee]

Curious about the parking you used. Safe? How many does the shuttle hold?

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[knowfere]

Curious about the parking you used. Safe? How many does the shuttle hold?

 

I was impressed with the parking. Altho it may appear unsafe, I don't believe it was. We parked on grass but it was fenced in. The shuttles are large vans that held our group of 7 plus about 4-5 in addition. I was not as impressed with the return tho. We had one with us who severely overpacked and as such we could not rush the vans as they pulled up and the drivers loaded luggage until full and then said "no more". We waited thru 3-4 vans before our loud complaining ensured those around us heard we were going to be next. There's no organization and as we were finally being loaded up I heard a gentleman saying they had been waiting in the wrong section for an hour. The 'sections' are marked, but easily missed. All in all, if I ever sail from Jax again I will use them again. Just make sure you don't pack more than each person can handle.

[Hi_Cees]

Awesome review, thank you for sharing. We sail on the Elation next month and are really looking forward to it.

[ctagliamonte]

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