IT WAS JUST OK.

We have always been on bigger ships, so this was a first for us.  This was our first Fantasy class ship which was small (little over 2000 passengers and I recall the staff was 950).  Jax terminal is a small temp. structure.  Once you enter the cruise terminal (via car) and are in line, you go into another long line just to get to the porters to drop off your luggage.  From there, you drive into another long line to park into the port parking lot, so be sure to allow plenty of time prior to your boarding time.  We had a suite, so we went into the priority line (almost to Platnium).  I think the ship was built in 96 and in 2014 the Elation got some work done on it, but it does look older and very tired.  It goes into dry dock in the fall of this year. We went to Nassau and Freeport and have been there before.  You can save money by going on your own shore excursion and can save a lot by just taking a taxi to Atlantis and doing your own thing (just think of Atlantis as a big amusement park, do you really need to pay for a guide to get you there etc., No way). The next port was the private island of the Holland America line which Carnival uses.  Everyone said this was simply THE best place.  Well. it takes a tender to get there and the sea had whitecaps everywhere, so we were not allowed to go.  As for being on this ship for 2 fun days at sea, not enough places to go and not enough things to do.  Yes we missed the bigger ships.  No specialty dining options, no sports bar, no sports trivia or very many other trivia's etc. that we were used to. We were disappointed in the food selection that was served in the main dining area.  The first day onboard, we looked at the menu and decided to do a steak for an upcharge (we had some OBC, so we were going to use it).  On the menu, it was under the steakhouse selection.  We were used to the specialty steakhouse, and thought it would be prepared the same way.  It did not taste the same at all.  We did eat on Lido a couple of nights and found that they had some of the same selection that was in the main dining room plus pizza etc.

We were happy to see that they did have a comedy punchliner show to look forward to though.  There is only one pool on this ship and no outside theater.  We went during spring break and it was hard to get into ear shot of the bartender, but usually managed to find a bar that just opened before the spring breakers moved from one bar to another.  Our steward was great and so were the dining room staff. 

We would have loved to see the wok open during dinner hours instead of just noon to 3:30pm.  There was always a long line for the wok.

It was a nice trip, would have been nicer to get to go to the private island port but if you are used to a bigger ship with more options, stay with the bigger ship.  It was also in the 40's when we returned to Jacksonville, very chilly, burrrr.