Second Time Around

Item: Carnival Elation
Rating: 4
Author: tinawoodman

Carnival Elation Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

tinawoodman

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 14

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

10 Night Southern Caribbean Carnival Journeys (San Juan To Jacksonville)

Sail date: April 13, 2016

Ship: Carnival Elation

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: R208

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This was our second cruise. We had a great time. The staff was more than accommodating to all of our needs and requests. We were not too thrilled with all of the mandatory gratuities. We would have preferred to make our own decision on the amounts.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Our cabin was a little smaller than we expected. This was a smaller ship than we were on before so it was somewhat expected.

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5

St. George's, Grenada

5 out of 5

Scarborough, Tobago

5 out of 5

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Jacksonville, Florida

3 out of 5

21 Comments

kathyt58 8 years ago

we prepaid gratuities but I have a question if we want to also tip extra for great service can we do this and should we do it at time of service or wait until end of cruise and also its ok to give them cash???

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mikldom 8 years ago

If you prepay your tips you will save money, trust me. All your staff knows that you are tipping prepaid and will treat you very well. If you remove, they know, trust me. 12 bux per day per person is cheap for an automatic tipping and affords excellent service especially from your room steward.

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MissPickle 8 years ago

Ok thanks for tht info. this is my husband and my first cruise, and I was thinking that they were charged again

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MrsOneal 8 years ago

If you prepaid your gratuities, then you won't be charged again on the ship.

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MrsOneal 8 years ago

I personally wouldn't remove gratuities. Your taking tips away from the people behind the scenes that help make your cruise wonderful.

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MissPickle 8 years ago

I didn't mean for them to refund me. Are there more gratuity after u get on the ship if u included then in the whole cruise cost

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MrsOneal 8 years ago

heatherchapman, if you prepaid your gratuities I don't think if Carnival will refund that.

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MissPickle 8 years ago

Thanks kelly

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kelly80910 8 years ago

At the customer service desk area.

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MissPickle 8 years ago

How do you remove the tips? We paid gratuity in our booking. Although I understand room service we will tip seperate ly of coarse.

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kelly80910 8 years ago

I always remove mine and tip all of my servers and stateroom attendants very well!

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princess54 8 years ago

I do my own tips the second day of your cruise u tell CS.you going to tip your self or if not going to eat in the dining room but one night I will have them remove my tips.

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cruisecoach101 8 years ago

I always remove my gratuities and I pay them with cash individually. My old neighbor worked for Carnival as a server and he said servers and room attendants make roughly $50.00 a month from Carnival directly, and the rest of their income are tips. Mind you, these same people work 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week with no days off, for the extent of their contract, which could be anywhere from 3,6,or 10 months.

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aeknow 8 years ago

Those mandatory gratuities are on all cruises too. And from what I saw when researching cruises Carnival's tips are lower than/in line with all other companies!

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MrsOneal 8 years ago

From the Carnival website: Our recommended guideline to what is appropriate is $12.00 USD per guest, per day. This takes into account the services provided by the following staff: $6.10 per guest, per day for dining room services $3.90 per guest, per day for stateroom services $2.00 per guest per day for alternate services which is distributed to kitchen, entertainment, guest services and other hotel staff members.

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MrsOneal 8 years ago

I saw a pic posted on this site awhile ago where the tips were split between more then just those 2 people.

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SAW06 8 years ago

The gratuities are split up between your room steward and the dining room servers, Those are the only 2 "tipping" jobs on the ship, where they get very small salary and mainly rely on tips! Every other job is a "salary" position

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PaulaFloyd 8 years ago

I do think tipping should be mandatory 😃 I like that they are flexible with how you can tip. I personally leave the ones on my room charge and add extra tip when appropriate.

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keriann 8 years ago

I didn't think you had a choice. I thought it was mandatory.

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PaulaFloyd 8 years ago

You can also request to remove them and tip individually. It is nice though that the gratuities you pay go to everyone, some that you may not even know helped you throughout the cruise.

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MrsOneal 8 years ago

The good thing about the gratuities is they amount you pay, some of that goes to the people behind the scenes that you don't get to see their face. There is an option to prepay them. Just an option for your next cruise :)

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Other reviews of this sailing

almost O.K. for an older ship but will not chose this ship again

Oldie but a goodie

great time!