Christmas cruise

Carnival Elation Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 34

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Elation

5 Night Western Caribbean (New Orleans Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 26, 2015

Ship: Carnival Elation

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: V17

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This was my first cruise with Carnival but not my first cruise.  Never a bad day when you are on a cruise, but I would rate it the lowest of the 7 I have been on prior.   Our room steward was exceptional as expected.  Our stateroom was aged and it showed (a jr suite).   A few of the bar staff were unfriendly to outright rude.  We always say please and thank you to the staff and we don't get stupid, and I know it must be trying for them with some of the patrons, I would expect them to appreciate the ones that are polite.  The food was good but not exceptional.  All in all had a great time but again not a standout.  

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Did do the behind the fun ship tour and loved it. Would have preferred to have been able to understand the staff a little better. The young man who explained the laundry to us was very difficult to understand with his accent.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Cabin starting to show its age. Kind of beat up,

Ports of call

New Orleans, Louisiana

5 out of 5

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5

Progreso (Merida), Mexico

5 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 34

3 Comments

MrChocoholic    8 years ago

Elation is certainly not Carnival's flagship. She's older and needs plastic surgery but she still serves her purpose. You sound like your experience tempered your expectations to some degree, which is good, yet the others here would agree that it is most unusual for a Carnival employee who works with guests to be rude in any way. I've had rude ones on Royal, but never Carnival. Can't comment on the Progresso boarding thing but on three Carnival trips to Cozumel we never had a problem. Like you we loved the Behind the Fun tour and found the food mostly fairly good. If you want to try a true gourmet experience on a Carnival ship, even one without a for-fee restaurant, you have to try Chef's Table. 

jakepeyman    8 years ago

Definitely give carnival another chance, don't get me wrong the rooms were out of date and all but it doesn't matter unless you buy the super super expensive rooms and still you are on an old ship try a bigger boat like the dreamer triumph im sure you'll enjoy it a lot more

dkf97    8 years ago

Give carnival another shot. The Elation is definitely not a stand out ship. I'm surprised to hear about rude crew members though. We have only had one cruise where we were really disappointed in the crew and it happened to be a Christmas cruise. I wonder if that has something to do with it? We also noticed a large number of extra demanding guests on that cruise. Maybe we'll avoid holiday cruises in the future.

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