Mediocre Experience and rocky ship!!!
Carnival Elation Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
4 Night Bahamas (Jacksonville Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 01, 2024
Ship: Carnival Elation
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: U112
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 4 months ago
Review summary
Overall, it was an okay experience.. not terrible but also not great. We are a family of 3 with a young child who lives in Jacksonville and so we booked this cruise for the ease of travel with a toddler and because we had heard Carnival was family friendly. The trip started off with a 3-hour delay of the ship getting into port, so we were 3-hrs delayed boarding and then because of that they had to swap our Day-at-Sea with the day in Freeport. This was an inconvenience for those who had booked day passes at resorts or shore excursions. In addition, the day at sea was a warm sunny day and our planned beach day in Freeport wound up being windy, chilly and stormy. Each person on board was credited $25 for the inconvenience which was nice, but fell short. We had a grand suite with balcony and the room was perfect for our family who needed some extra space. Our room attendant Lloyd was incredible and so friendly - he always went out of his way to say hello and make sure that we were doing okay. The food on board was okay - the best part were the hamburgers honestly. We found the menu in the dining room to be really exciting, but then the flavor of the dishes and presentation underwhelming. It's Carnival so we didn't really expect a mind blowing dining experience. Our server Micah was very nice and service in the dining room was very attentive. We had fun doing some of the activities like Bingo. I did gamble a little in the casino but it smelled so horribly of smoke from all of the cigarettes that I couldn't stay there for very long In terms of the ports, we probably would not do another Bahamas cruise. We didn't feel super safe in Nassau and felt like we were being taken advantage of by some of the locals. In terms of actual sailing, it was very smooth in the Bahamas, but the trip there and back especially was very rocky and we had to take Dramamine for a good portion of the ride. Overall, it was an mediocre experience but if we ever do another cruise again we'll take the drive to Port Canaveral where there are more options and try a different cruise line that is a little more refined. This one was a little too rowdy and had a younger party demographic.Embarkation
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Ship tip
BRING DRAMAMINE - ship was really rocky and you could definitely feel the movement. Had motion sickness for 2 days after the cruise