Mixed experience

Carnival Elation Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 39

Overall rating:

3.4 out of 5
Carnival Elation

5 Night Bahamas (Jacksonville Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 02, 2019

Ship: Carnival Elation

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

OK but nothing special, kind of like an airline flight nowadays: it gets you where you want to go but rather blandly. A noisier, cruder clientele than we've experienced on other cruises (I guess it starts from the top: even the Cruise Director was foul-mouthed). Some guests acted like a late-night bar crowd at all hours throughout the ship. Some guests were obscenely attired, which would be more acceptable if they remained in the pool area where we could avoid them, but certainly not in the Lido restaurant or walking the decks. I was involuntarily exposed to some disgusting sights that I should not have to see since I intentionally avoided the pool area. I am glad we did not travel with young children! The staff did not nothing to enforce noise or attire rules. Itinerary and ports visited were fine, and helped counterbalance the above negatives so that the overall value and rating was 'average' for this cruise. We wouldn't take it again, but it may be fine for others who can better tolerate the crude environment.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
quick and orderly

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
only average quality and variety in general; not very accommodating of special dietary needs; they botched one "dairy-free" dinner (the dish was prepared with cheese) resulting in 3 days of sickness

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
just average

Entertainment

3 out of 5
just average

Mark Twain Library

2 out of 5

Much too small for the size of the ship and relative to other ships we have cruised, but it probably reflects the preferences of the clientele (more inclined to party loudly than to read quietly). To compound matters, the library was closed off several days to accommodate premium dining events.

Children's Programs

no children with us

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
responsive; most were friendly except Tiffany Restaurant servers were indifferent

Ship Quality

2 out of 5
no continuous loop walking path (e.g. one walk-around deck as on some ships) so had to shift up and down decks and through crowded spaces to walk; casino smoke permeated surrounding spaces and decks; the already too small library was taken over by premium dinner events several days

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
average; bumped my head on the (closed) Pullmans 3 times (only Pullman cabins were available at our late booking date)

Ports of call

Jacksonville, Florida Did not visit port

drove in locally

Nassau, Bahamas

3 out of 5
typical Caribbean island city; friendly residents

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)

5 out of 5
beautiful; uncrowded (despite 2000 passengers) if you walked just a bit down the beach away from the congregation

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
a bit slow getting off the ship, but quick through the terminal including customs
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