Nice Quick Cruise
Carnival Elation Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
Contributor Level:
Deck Hand
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 63
5 Night Bahamas (Jacksonville Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 30, 2017
Ship: Carnival Elation
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: R44
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 years ago
Review summary
We loved this cruise! We love sea days, so having one in the beginning and end works perfectly for us. We like the smaller ships so we don't have to fight long lines, etc. - and we don't have to walk a day and a half to get from one end of the ship to the other! :-) Guy's Burgers and the Cantina was a really nice addition, and we definitely enjoyed them! Looking to book our next one!Embarkation
We booked Faster To The Fun, so we breezed through Embarkation and we were enjoying a Guy's Burger and a Chocolate Mocha Getaway within a half hour of getting there.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The MDR food was always pretty decent, and we really enjoyed the steak we ordered from there. Guy's Burgers were good, but they pretty much looked like road-kill. :-( The patties were slapped around so much that they broke apart, etc., and then they're thrown onto a bun any which way - they were pretty hard to eat without making a mess. The Cantina breakfast burritos were a good choice - though the contents could have been warmer (my cheese never melted). The one pizza we had was excellent - amazing flavor! We never ate at the buffet. The peanut butter cheesecake was to die for - sure wish I would have taken a piece or two for a late night snack! :-P
Onboard Activities
We mostly hung out at the pool. Unfortunately, we couldn't get near either hot tub because it was jam-packed full of children. We watched those kids sit in those hot tubs for hours on end and NEVER get out to use the bathroom. I wish Carnival (and of course, parents) would better monitor this. The 2nd sea day, one of the hot tubs wasn't warming up, and the water was 'room temperature' at best. The pool was clean and refreshing. On the 2nd sea day, it did become busy with young teenagers getting rowdy, so we got out. I understand that the slides were getting covered in soot from the smoke stacks - maybe that's why there were so many kids in the main pool that day?
Entertainment
We went to both comedy shows, and the Epic Rock show. They were all fantastic! We sat at the atrium bar a couple of different times when the man with the guitar was singing, but I was not fond of him. We absolutely LOVED the gentleman that played the Caribbean music though!
Children's Programs
We do not have any children.
Service and Staff
This is the 1st time that we have sailed with Carnival (although it's only our 3rd time) that staff have not gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. Day after day we walked right past staff who said absolutely nothing to us - unless we addressed them first. We were really surprised since the previous two cruises we were addressed by every crew member whether we made eye contact or not.
My husband met our room steward our first day on board (I was in the room unpacking), but he never attempted to introduce himself to me. I finally met him as we were leaving our room for the last time the day we left the ship.
We had absolutely horrible casino bar service. We had both the drink package, as well as my husband having the drinks on us - and more often than not, I either went to the bar to get our drinks, or went to find a bar server to come take drink orders. It was extremely frustrating. On the 2nd or 3rd night, a new server came on - her name is Lencia George - she was amazing to us. I never had to go find her, or even give her our S&S cards after the first time. She took very good care of us while we were in the casino.
Ship Quality
The casino: Obviously smoke is a huge issue. It would be nice to have a closed 'casino room' that has the appropriate ventilation, etc. so that those that smoke can still enjoy their gambling. As it stands right now, so many folks are assaulted by smoke by merely walking the promenade. On formal night - all those beautiful, expensive (dry-clean only) gowns, suits and/or tuxedos that are trying to pose for special pictures are having their clothes ruined by the smoke from the casino/casino bar.
It's hard to enjoy all of the activities on the Lido deck with the stage in the center, and with the side rails (I understand they're there for safety reasons) there, you can't see any of the contests that are going on if you're sitting in any of the pool chairs.
We love the Serenity deck, and having the hot tubs out there. We also found a couple of outside seating areas that were secluded that were nice.
Overall, the ship was very clean. We saw staff cleaning constantly.
Cabin / Stateroom
The size of our cabin was fine, and was cleaned daily. The twin mattresses kept trying to come apart, so either my husband or myself would end up in 'the crack'. The mattresses are extremely thin, but surprisingly pretty comfortable (we both slept decent all week). LOVE the water pressure in the shower! Unfortunately, our window was pretty much covered with....well, whatever covers the outside of a ship...so we couldn't see outside very well.
Ports of call
Stayed Saturday and Sunday in Jacksonville Beach. Great local food and vibe!
Thumbs Up
4
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)
GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!!! I wish every single Carnival cruise could stop at HMC! The water is breathtakingly beautiful, and the sand is like walking on flour. I truly do wish I could stay there forever!
We did the "Top 10 of Nassau" excursion. We did not enjoy ourselves on this excursion, and felt that our money would have been spent better elsewhere. The idea of the excursion is that a tour guide drives you to 10 different locations in Nassau, while enlightening you with the history of the island, as well as offering some comic relief. We only stopped at 5 places, and each were places to spend money (rum cake factory, rum distillery, fort, twin brother's restaurant, atlantis). The biggest attraction was the Straw Market, and our driver didn't intend to stop there. We asked him to drop quite a few of us off there and we walked back to the ship after we had a chance to shop a bit. We do not have any desire to return to Nassau.
Disembarkation
I heard many complaints of disembarkation, but I feel ours went extremely well. Again, we purchased Faster To The Fun, so we were able to get off of the ship a lot earlier than many folks. We met in the Mikado Lounge at 7:30am, and we were off of the ship and at the airport by 9:00am.