My LONG Elation Story with pictures and Funtimes - 04/29 to 05/04

[mlshum]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

The noise that you heard was most likely the bow thrusters since it's not really procedure to drop the anchor when you are docking. 😃

That makes sense!  I never really thought about that before.  It was definitely a noisy beast.  Lol

[jimbo5544]

5 minutes ago, mlshum said:

That makes sense!  I never really thought about that before.  It was definitely a noisy beast.  Lol

My exp on hearing anchor down was memorable 

[mlshum]

7 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

My exp on hearing anchor down was memorable 

I would love to hear that story!  Which ship?  

[jimbo5544]

Just now, mlshum said:

I would love to hear that story!  Which ship?  

Our first and only really forward balcony.  I was sleeping in (must have been something I ate 🤢) and I thought the front of the ship was being ripped off...

[jimbo5544]

Think it was the Liberty....but not positive.  At least 10 years ago

[mlshum]

4 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Our first and only really forward balcony.  I was sleeping in (must have been something I ate 🤢) and I thought the front of the ship was being ripped off...

I bet that scared you to death!  The next port we visited after Nassau was Princess Cay so the anchor had to have been involved on that one.  It was an interesting experience for sure!

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

We were on the sailing that got off the day that you got on. I agree the the food was great! One thing that I just thought about that I didn't notice when we were on board was the seaday morning show with the cruise director. Is that still a thing? Do you know or did you notice if they had it still?

[mlshum]

56 minutes ago, Gamecock_Cruiser said:

We were on the sailing that got off the day that you got on. I agree the the food was great! One thing that I just thought about that I didn't notice when we were on board was the seaday morning show with the cruise director. Is that still a thing? Do you know or did you notice if they had it still?

That's awesome!  We barely missed each other!

 

I honestly don't remember it?  The FunTimes mentions "The Wave" morning show so I'm guess that might be it?  To be honest, I've never gone to "The Wave" before.  I think I watched it on the big screen once a long time ago.  

 

Hope you had as good a sailing as we did.  Was your cruise the one that missed Freeport due to the propulsion issues?

[shof515]

the morning show with the cruise director is the wave show . back in the day, it used to called just the morning show. Then recently a few years ago they changed it to The Wave

[mlshum]

 

We gathered up our snorkel gear and headed back out to meet our excursion.  We were meeting at the shelters right outside the ship.  They were clearly marked with numbers.  Everything was well organized.  Today we were snorkeling with Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas company.  We were planning a two-reef snorkel. 

 

 

This was the meeting point for our excursion.

 

 

Waiting to get started

 

 

I know a lot of people don’t like ship excursions and we have done both ship excursions and private excursions but if an interesting ship excursion is available, I will often choose that simply because there is a guarantee that we won’t be left should we be late.  More than once our tours were late getting back and had we not been on a ship tour during those times it would have been too late.  I like that guarantee.  It’s worth the peace of mind for me.  While I may WATCH pier runners, I don’t want to BE a pier runner.

 

We were checked in by Kenja.  She was very well organized and so friendly!  She gave us some paperwork to fill out.  We did our paperwork and sat down to wait.  We only waited about five minutes before we were ready to board our boat and be on our way.  Kenja led the way, and we started the short walk to our boat.  There were about 15 people in our group.

 

As we were walking along, Ron noticed a pair of sunglasses that had been left behind by a couple of ladies on our tour.  He immediately stopped them and gave them the glasses.  Their names were Hannah and Lucia from St. Louis, and they were on their second cruise.  They were very nice, and we really enjoyed talking with them during our entire excursion.  We would later see them around the ship and even in the water at Princess Cay.  It’s always nice to make friends on a cruise.

 

 

Hey, Lucia!

 

 

As we headed out to our snorkel site Kenja narrated and introduced us to the crew.  The captain was Captain Wendell and the other instructor was Shauno.  They were all so nice.  I can’t say enough good things about this experience.  After Kenja gave a safety briefing, she handed out gear.  We had brought our own snorkels and masks.  Ron elected to use flippers and I decided not to.  He loves flippers but I’ve never quite gotten the hang of it yet.  I do plan to try to learn to use them a little better at the next opportunity because I think it makes a person faster in the water. 

 

 

Kenja gives us instructions

 

 

Shauno was just singing along and living his best life

 

 

The colors of the Caribbean are so beautiful!

 

 

We're on our way!

 

While Kenja was passing out gear Captain Wendell was playing music and Shauno was singing along.  That boy can sing!  Ron mentioned something about his great singing voice and that seemed to please him.  They were just a happy bunch.  I was sitting beside Captain Wendell, and we chatted during our trip to the first reef.   He asked what we did professionally and when I told him we were appraisers he started telling me prices of things that were for sale or had sold recently.  It is obvious I cannot afford a beachfront property!

 

 

We were first taken to the Thunderball Reef.  We were the only boat there.  Captain Wendell said not only was it a good snorkel site but was somewhat protected by Rose Island, so the water wasn’t quite as choppy.  At that point Kenja gave us a snorkel lesson.  I’ve been on multiple snorkel excursions.  It’s one of my favorite things to do in the Bahamas, but I think this is the first time I remember having actual instruction.  I appreciated that!  After instructions we all went down the ladder at the back of the boat.  The water was a little cold, but we got used to it quickly.  You sort of HAVE to get used to it quickly when you’ve jumped in and there’s no quick way to get back out!

 

I tried to stay near Ron but, as usual, I quickly lost him.  I always have trouble seeing him when we’re all in the water, but it was fine.  I knew I’d catch up with him eventually.  He’s much faster than me with his fins.  (This is why I need to conquer using the fins!)  I have a pair of strap on Croc sandals that are my “water shoes”.  They dry really quickly, and I can wear them to the activity, during the activity and after the activity without changing shoes.  Shauno thought that was the funniest thing that I was swimming in sandals and mentioned it to me several times.  He’s such a sunny personality!

 

 

Pictures can't do it justice

 

 

Lots of the regular Caribbean fish

 

 

The reef was gorgeous and colorful.  There were so many fish, and some were really large.  Sergeant majors are always the most dependable fish in the Caribbean, and I was caught for a minute in a whole school of them.  They were everywhere!  There were also other fish I’d seen many times before but didn’t know their names.  Maybe you guys can help me out!  What are the names of these fish shown above?

 

I was hoping to see a turtle but, alas, not today.  I was having a little difficulty with my mask fogging.  When we started to the next site, I used some anti-fog spray and that seemed to help a little.

 

Ron had the Go Pro with him.  It was a Christmas present a few years ago and he has enjoyed it immensely.  When we got back on the boat, he showed me a video that he’d shot of a large turtle!!  What?!?!  I didn’t see a turtle but apparently they were there!  It was so exciting.  He was able to snip some pictures for me to include here. 

 

 

Ron said he was just swimming along when he noticed movement.  It was a turtle!

 

 

It swam up and over the reef.  Ron surfaced at one point and tried to find me but couldn't locate me.  Just like that, the turtle was gone.  I'm so sad I missed it!

 

 

Everyone was back on the boat, and we headed to our second reef; the Three Sisters Reef.  There was a beach with a large sandy area.  I didn’t go on the beach but some of our group did.  The waves were crashing against the rocks beside the beach.  It was a little choppier than the last site, but really beautiful.  The water clarity was better at the first reef but there were still a lot of fish to see on this reef as well. 

 

Ron continued to be lucky and saw a huge barracuda!  He couldn’t get a good picture of it once he realized it was there.  It was gone almost as quickly as he saw it.  He said this was the best snorkeling excursion he’d taken, and I have to agree.  It was well worth the $89.99 per person.  I would do this one over and over again.

 

 

Ron didn't get a good picture of the barracuda, but you can kind of make it out here.

 

 

After about 30 minutes at our second reef it was time to get back on the boat and head back to the ship.  It was about a 20-minute ride back to the ship and during the trip Kenja pointed out homes owned by various celebrities.  She also told us about some of the filming that had been done in Nassau, particularly for the James Bond movies.  Apparently, the owner of the dive company, Stuart Cove, was involved in the diving/filming for some of those movies.

 

 

Heading back to our ship

 

 

Back in the port area we were dropped off and we headed back to the ship.  We were some of the last passengers back on board.  I was tired and I was famished but it had been such a good day!  We went to our room to shower and clean up for dinner.

 

 

A dog was waiting for us

 

As we started moving, I happened to glance out our porthole and saw the lighthouse perfectly framed.  I grabbed my phone to take a quick picture.  I love it!  It was happy accident, and I may have it printed!  I guess there are advantages to the porthole in spite of the noise.

 

 

Here was the first attempt

 

 

Then I got a little closer to get the framing right.  I like this one!

 

 

I'm going to stop here but will hopefully get back later to finish posting the Nassau day.

 

 

[mlshum]

11 minutes ago, shof515 said:

the morning show with the cruise director is the wave show . back in the day, it used to called just the morning show. Then recently a few years ago they changed it to The Wave

I remember when it was called "The Morning Show" and I figured it was the same but since I'd never been to either I wasn't positive.  Thanks for the info!

[mlshum]

One of the things I quickly remembered about some of the ships is the fact that the hairdryer is tethered in a drawer.  You must alternate between standing, sitting, hunching…whatever position is necessary to get the hair dry.  This is not a huge problem for Ron.  His hair is very short.  It IS a problem for me!  It’s very awkward and I much prefer a "free range" hair dryer.

 

 

Nassau falls away in the distance behind us

 

 

 

All fresh and clean, we still had about 45 minutes before it would be time for dinner.  We went to the Atrium on deck seven and listed to a couple of guys play music.  They called themselves the Duo Bros.  (I posted a picture of them earlier.)  One of them looked like my friend Chris who plays music with us at church.  The other guy looked like the actor Kevin Klein.  I would think of them like that for the rest of the cruise.  Once I’ve seen it or thought of it I can’t UNSEE it!  We found one of the padded window seats to be empty and snagged it.  I happened to notice something behind me and, lo and behold, a little pink duck was hiding on the window frame.  Score!  I dropped a duck in a stairwell on the way to dinner.

 

 

 

 

I found a duck!

 

 

I dropped off my "duck of the day".

 

 

This night is my other favorite meal.  I had spaghetti carbona for a starter and southern fried chicken from the entrée.  Ron had a spring roll for a starter and the carbona for his entrée.  I opted for a brownie for dessert and he had the banana cream pie.  Gusti and Sadia were again super-fast, the food was really good, and we were again out of the dining room before showtime.

 

 

 

 

We went straight to the theatre after dinner because it was time for Deal or No Deal.  I picked up two cards and we settled in for a fun game.  I made precisely one match on each of the two games.  Ron won a Bingo package.  Both of the contestants walked away with around $120 dollars.  The big winner was a lady in the audience named Carmen.  She won a 5-day cruise!  I’ve never seen that happen before! 

 

 

Ready to play

 

 

The game is starting

 

 

Fingers crossed for this lady!  Unfortunately, she only won $120. The big winner was...

 

 

...Carmen!  She won a 5-day cruise!  How awesome is that?!?

 

 

After Deal or No Deal, they did a quick trivia game on classic TV.  Ron only missed one, but it wasn’t enough.  Someone had a perfect score.

 

 

We decided to go back to the room for a minute.  On the way down the stairs, we walked through a group of about 8 teenagers who were just sitting and chatting.  As we walked by one of the boys said, “Well don’t you look snazzy tonight?”  I immediately replied, “Every night is elegant night.”  We all cracked up and I got a fist bump in return.  I heard an older lady say that on my very first cruise fourteen years ago and I’ve been waiting all this time for the right setting to use that line.  It may be one of those "you had to be there" moments because it doesn't seem nearly as funny as I type it out.   LOL  I usually never know what to say and always come up with what I SHOULD have said an hour later.  I was glad I finally nailed it.

 

We decided to go up on deck for a little while.  I love the deck at night.  The stars are beautiful, and everything is lit up like a Christmas tree.  It’s so pretty!  They still had cookies out from dinner, so I grabbed a few to take back to our cabin.  We would snack on them occasionally for the rest of the week.  We also got a Diet Pepsi.  It had been a good day, but we were tired and ready for bed.

 

 

Chugging along at 12.7 knots

 

[Saint Greg]

6 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Our first and only really forward balcony.  I was sleeping in (must have been something I ate 🤢) and I thought the front of the ship was being ripped off...

All that noise while docking on port mornings and preparing to leave in the afternoon was no picnic in Riviera 1 on my first cruise (elation). You didn’t need an alarm clock. You had 45 minutes of this.

 

Edited May 13 by Saint Greg

[ninjacat123]

Your excursion sounds great!! One of our best snorkeling excursions was in Nassau. Like swimming in an aquarium!

Love the “every night is elegant night”! Very apropos 👍😁

[mlshum]

2 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

All that noise while docking on port mornings and preparing to leave in the afternoon was no picnic in Riviera 1 on my first cruise (elation). You didn’t need an alarm clock. You had 45 minutes of this.

 

 

Yes!  Yes!  It went on forever!  In subsequent days for this story that is exactly what I had called it, an “anchor/rope/thruster” alarm clock!  I didn’t realize that Elation was your first cruise.  May I ask the year?

[Saint Greg]

2 minutes ago, mlshum said:

Yes!  Yes!  It went on forever!  In subsequent days for this story that is exactly what I had called it, an “anchor/rope/thruster” alarm clock!  I didn’t realize that Elation was your first cruise.  May I ask the year?

1st, 2nd, and 3rd cruise. 2014, 2015, 2016.

[mlshum]

21 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Your excursion sounds great!! One of our best snorkeling excursions was in Nassau. Like swimming in an aquarium!

Love the “every night is elegant night”! Very apropos 👍😁

It was a fantastic snorkeling excursion.  If only I’d seen the turtle, too….  Still, this was the next best thing.  There is absolutely nothing like the Caribbean for beautiful water.
 

I wish I could claim that comeback as an original thought but like I said, it was from an older lady on my first cruise.  It has stuck with me for 14 years and I finally got to use it.  lol

[mlshum]

Just now, Saint Greg said:

1st, 2nd, and 3rd cruise. 2014, 2015, 2016.

That’s awesome!  You were, and have remained, an expert.  My first cruise was on Sensation, then Ecstasy.  I have yet to repeat a ship but it will happen for the first time in September on the Mardi Gras.

 

Have you sailed every ship in the fleet?  Your website is fantastic, by the way.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve used it.

[Saint Greg]

12 minutes ago, mlshum said:

Have you sailed every ship in the fleet?  

I’m not a huge fan of the smaller ships so I’m not seeking those out. I’ve been on I think every ship 2008 or newer I believe. Well not Firenze or Luminosa I guess.
 

But the only fantasy class ship I was on was Elation. The only spirit class ship I’ve been on is spirit. Conquest I’ve done glory and freedom. I haven’t been on a sunshine class ship..yet. But I was on Triumph which is now sunrise.

 

I believe @Jamman54 is going to complete the fleet next year. Or close to it.

I’m just waiting for them to scrap the older ones. Then I can say I’ve done the fleet.

 

Edited May 14 by Saint Greg

[Frank12]

8 hours ago, mlshum said:

 

 

Have you sailed every ship in the fleet?  Your website is fantastic, by the way.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve used it.

This question and Greg's response got me to thinking...so I went and checked our cruise history. We've sailed 21 Carnival ships, 6 of which are no longer in service! The most (7) on Liberty.

Sorry for the hi-jack.  Enjoying the review! Carry on...🤣

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

14 hours ago, mlshum said:

That's awesome!  We barely missed each other!

 

I honestly don't remember it?  The FunTimes mentions "The Wave" morning show so I'm guess that might be it?  To be honest, I've never gone to "The Wave" before.  I think I watched it on the big screen once a long time ago.  

 

Hope you had as good a sailing as we did.  Was your cruise the one that missed Freeport due to the propulsion issues?

May that is why I didn't catch it with the name being different. 

 

We had a great time. We were the delayed sailing cruise that missed Freeport. But we had a blast. A lot of people made that cruise a miserable trip for themselves. But not us. I also agree that the food was really good. There were a few dishes here and there not as good, but it was great. 

[mlshum]

1 hour ago, Frank12 said:

This question and Greg's response got me to thinking...so I went and checked our cruise history. We've sailed 21 Carnival ships, 6 of which are no longer in service! The most (7) on Liberty.

Sorry for the hi-jack.  Enjoying the review! Carry on...🤣

Please feel free to hijack anytime!  I enjoy learning about others experiences.  We’ve been on 4 of the ships that have been retired…Sensation, Ecstasy, Victory and Fascination.  I, too, like the newer ships better but, I’ll be honest, I like all of them and typically the embarkation port or itinerary is usually more important to me than the ship.  I think Horizon might have been my favorite but it’s hard to say.  lol. My favorite itinerary was on Fascination when they sailed from Puerto Rico.  I loved the southern Caribbean route.  Next year we’re celebrating our 40th anniversary with a trip to Alaska on Spirit.

[mlshum]

2 hours ago, Gamecock_Cruiser said:

May that is why I didn't catch it with the name being different. 

 

We had a great time. We were the delayed sailing cruise that missed Freeport. But we had a blast. A lot of people made that cruise a miserable trip for themselves. But not us. I also agree that the food was really good. There were a few dishes here and there not as good, but it was great. 

I'm glad you had a great cruise.  I agree completely, attitude is everything.  It always mystifies me that some people can work so hard to be so miserable when, if you'd just let it go and roll along with the punches, you can still have a good time.

[mlshum]

Princess Cay – May 2nd

 

 

 

 

My faithful anchor/rope/thruster alarm again woke me up bright and early whether I wanted to be up or not.  This was our first trip to Princess Cay.  I don’t know how we’ve missed it so many times, but I was looking forward to trying it out.  Some of our friends had been there the previous fall and had talked about how good the snorkeling was.  We brought our own snorkel gear and were ready to see what we could see.  I had read that Princess Cay was one of the most missed ports in the Bahamas, but it appeared our weather was beautiful, the sea was glassy and visiting the island wouldn’t be a problem.

 

We got dressed for the beach and went up to Lido.  I realized at that point that the name of the Lido restaurant was Tiffanys.  How cool is that?!?  We’d been having Breakfast at Tiffany’s the last couple of mornings and didn’t even realize it!  (In case you haven't noticed, I'm easily amused by small things.  LOL)

 

 

 

We had used the blue towels in our room the previous day so after we finished breakfast, we stopped by the towel hut and got a couple more towels for the day.  We stopped at the room to collect our snorkel gear and headed out to board the tender.  This day the gangway was on Deck 4.  Again, we walked straight down the stairs and onto the tender.  We really didn’t have to do much waiting in line at all during this cruise.  I guess that is one of the perks to a smaller ship with fewer people.

 

 

On the tender

 

 

 

 

Pulling away from the ship

 

 

Princess Cay is a private “island” on the tip of Eleuthera.  Unlike Half Moon Cay, it is very rocky, and the water tends to be pretty shallow in a lot of places.  We had rented an umbrella and two chairs before the cruise, so we stopped by the “Float Station” to claim our chairs.  This was also the place where you could rent snorkel gear and other things.  There were lots of water items that were available for rent including a Hobie Wave sailboat.  That looked like so much fun, but prior sailing experience was required and unfortunately, we didn’t have that.

 

 

Welcome to Princess Cay!  Why, thank you!  Happy to be here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always love the pictures of the ship anchored out in the water.

 

 

This is where you went to claim chair/umbrellas, clam shells or water related items.  I wish we had a choice of where our loungers were located but basically, we checked in and were shown to two loungers with an umbrella.  I would have liked to have been a little closer to the snorkel area but no matter.  I need to get those extra steps anyway.

 

 

We settled our belongings on our loungers, got out our gear and set off to explore the island.  We first walked down to the right of the area where the tender docks.  There was a rocky point that projected into the water, and we thought it might be a good place to snorkel, but the water was really too shallow.  We saw Lucia and Hannah at that end and stopped to tell them “Hi”.  I didn't get any pictures to the right of the tender dock point.  It was only about ankle deep.

 

 

Lots of loungers

 

 

 

The view from the observation tower

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our spot for the day

 

 

We then walked in the other direction.  There was a playground, some shops, photo opportunities, swimming areas, a picnic area, a lookout tower and a snorkel area.  According to the posted directions, you were to enter to the left of the snorkel pavilion where people were swimming and swim around to the right to the reef.

 

 

Playground

 

 

Snorkel pavilion  

 

 

 

Again, the water was slightly cold and again, we adapted pretty quickly.  We set off to explore the area.  There were lots of rocks near the shore and in the distance was a grassy area.  I was pretty sure I saw a turtle moving out in the grassy area but as I tried to go that direction a lifeguard stopped me and pointed the other direction.  Phooey!  There were fish and it was fun, but I would have appreciated a little more freedom to explore a little further afield.

 

Ron snorkeled and filmed for about 30 minutes and decided to head back to our loungers.  I stayed out for another 20 – 30 minutes enjoying the fish and swimming.  It was truly a beautiful day, and I was having a great time.

 

 

I wanted the Go Pro

 

 

He just kept filming!

 

 

 

Finally, I got it and took his picture

 

 

Lots of the typical Caribbean fish.  I know the Seargent Major.  What are the others called?

 

 

 

This was one of the biggest of this variety I had ever seen.  I tried looking it up online.  It looks like a picture of a Bermuda Chub.  Is that right?  Does anyone know?

 

 

Off in the distance was the beginning of a grassy area where I thought I saw a turtle but, alas, I was turned back by a lifeguard.  Boo!!!

 

 

I finally got out of the water and went back to our chair to dry off a little.  I was tired and hungry.  You know how swimming will do that!  After we rested for a little while it seemed like lunch was a good idea.

 

 

He seems pretty chill.

 

 

[shof515]

1 hour ago, mlshum said:

 Victory

 

Victory is still sailing, it just has a new name.it has been renamed to radiance . Similar to how destiny was renamed to sunshine and triumph was renamed to Sunrise