Carnival Elation Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was our 15th anniversary and we had the best time.  The Carnival staff went out of their way to make our trip one of a lifetime. We will definitely use Carnival again.  Can't wait to come back.  

Our First cruise was more than I imagined. No complaints. Staff were awesome. Half Moon Caye Is beautiful. I stayed up all night partying and roaming around the ship. We went for my bestie birthday and can hardly wait to plan another. BEST VACATION EVER. 

This was the first vacation since my husband passed in 2008.  I went with my daughter and we had a wonderful time.  Our table mates and the staff made each meal one to remember. Conti and I Darin 1 and 2  had other tables but made each table feel as if there were the only one.  We also used the Spa and if anyone is looking for a great massage I highly recommend Rosalie.  The staff on board were always friendly and helpful and made the trip special in so many different ways. 

We really enjoyed the cruise overall.  Roger, room steward, was great.  However, the service in restaurants was sub par.  We only ate dinner in the restaurant twice on the 6 day 5 night cruise and breakfast in the restaurant twice.  For dinner, we found ourselves having to ask the waiters and waitresses constantly to refill our drinks or to bring us things we've previously asked for.  For breakfast, the service was entirely to slow.  The first time, it took the waiter almost 20 minutes to take our orders and to come to the table for the very first time.  The second time I ate breakfast at the restaurant, I was eating alone and it took the waiter almost 30 minutes to take my order.  After waiting about 15 minutes, I asked him about taking my order.  He said other tables were ahead of me and it took him at least another 15 to come and take my order.  The group of 3 sitting next to me, that came in after me, already had their food before my order was taken.  Also, I don't remember their being a lobster night during the cruise as in the past two Carnival Cruises I took.  The ship is older but the accommodations were still nice for the price we paid.  I had a couple of issues with my bill but guest services took care of me...although they made me come back on the last day regarding something they could have taken care of two days before when I brought the issue to their attention.  All in all, I would still recommend Carnival Cruise to others.  I've been on 3 Carnival Cruises and regarding the other two, I had no complaints and the service and staff were excellent. 

 Our favorite part of the cruise was the day we spent at Half Moon Cay.  I had read the reviews about how beautiful it was and we were not disappointed. It was absolutely gorgeous. We could've spent our entire trip there and been completely satisfied. I also read the reviews about the  ship been dated, and that would be a very good  description of it.  I read so many reviews stating that, I was not disappointed nor surprised at the ships decor.  The best part of the trip  was seeing how relaxed my husband was, he took full advantage of the laid-back atmosphere you can only get from cruising. And he said he would  do it again! 

Waited over 20-30 minutes in buffet lines each day for meals, not easy to do with a impatient 3 year old.  Relatively not service...no one ever came around offering to get you drinks, ask if you needed anything etc.  Unfortunately, Freeport still has extensive storm damage.  I understand this can't be fixed but it would have been nice if someone would have warned us their was no beach before we packed up, paid a cab, and wasted our time driving and (a very long walk) to where the beach was.  Same situation in Nassau almost, there was a beach but we felt lost each time we got off the boat as crew members never gave any worthwhile instructions on transportation.

Had a Great time. Time no complaints the good was good crew was very helpful just over all I just had a great time I would recommend this cruise to my family and friends again thanks and shout out to carnival cruise lines

We booked this cruise last minute because our beach reservations were cancelled due to renovations from hurricane Matthew.  We had not used Carnival in some time because or last experience with Carnival we felt they had made too many cut backs. This cruise proved more of the same. Not even a chocolate on the pillow any more, come on!!!! The dining service was way under staffed, they now put carafes on the table to keep from having to bring drink refills;-(  Menus were posted for dinner but twice we did not have what had been posted that we already had our taste buds ready for. There was only one night that had an evening show, and it was not geared toward the audience age group. My husband order room service two times for breakfast coffee and never received it. Our room steward did a nice job of keeping our room serviced but that is about the only positive I can give, our wait staff was nice and friendly but it was obvious they were definitely overworked.

CLEANLINESS:  The ship was spotless!

FOOD:  Plentiful, delicious and beautifully presented.

BEVERAGES:  Decent assortment of free beverages, but really, anything you wanted was available onboard anytime.

SERVICE:  Beyond our expectations.  The staff was friendly, helpful and incredibly hard working.

ROOM:  More spacious than we expected.  We had an interior room and thought it was great.

PORTS:  Half Moon Cay was the highlight of the trip.  Uncrowded and one of the most beautiful islands we've ever been to.  The water was so clean, blue and breathtaking.

SHIP:  Spacious and well appointed.

SHOWS:  We only went to two of them - the only feedback I'd give is that if you have the late dinner seating at 8:30pm....you miss some of the entertainment (which started at 8pm)

FITNESS CENTER:  Clean, spacious and had lots of equipment.  I wish there were a few more group fitness / dance classes.

ROOM SERVICE:  While the free menu was a bit limited, it was awesome having it available 24/7.  

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE:  Easy to navigate the ship.  The crew was very helpful and went out of their way to make sure we had a great time.

We will definitely cruise again.  Our family LOVED it.

For the most part the trip was quite a lot of fun. However we had two issues on board that put a big damper on our experience. (I tried the guest service number 3 separate times and was on hold for over 15 minutes each time and never got through to a live person) The first is small by comparison.... I am a vegetarian, and I had the hardest time getting pizza that was vegetarian. The person working the pizzeria tried a few different times to get me to order/eat the pepperoni pizza, and when I explained in the end that I was a vegetarian, he picked the pepperoni off in front of me - with his hands - and told me it was cheese pizza. Needless to say I skipped the pizza the rest of the trip....  The second issue was a much bigger deal to me and my wife. We took this cruise as a birthday gift for my daughter, Maria. She turned 7 on the trip, and has Epilepsy and Autism. She LOVED the cruise we took on Carnival a couple of years ago, so we wanted to give her a great experience for her birthday.  Prior to boarding, I registered online for Camp Carnival, answered all the questions, and tried to explain her condition. When we got on the ship they asked us more questions to check our children in, and we explained at that time as well that Maria has Epilepsy and Autism. The person checking us in on the ship using a tablet took notes and assigned us a cell phone. So far so good, and we felt a bit more comfortable. The first time at camp (about an hour or so) she had a good time, no issues. The second time she went to camp I picked her up. As I am checking her out of camp, the employee (Sarah) said to me "Um, what is the best way to get your kid to listen?" Taken aback a bit I said "Well she has Autism so you tell me. But usually if you get down to her level and talk calmly she will listen". After some awkward silence while she finished checking us out, as we are turning to leave and work our way through the crowd of parents waiting to pick their children up (who mind you, heard the entire conversation) the employee hollers out "If she has special needs it should say on the paperwork and there weren't any notes". I couldn't believe I heard that, and even the other parents looked shocked. I asked my 10 year old son who was in camp with Maria what happened and if she was misbehaving. He loves getting his sister in trouble if she misbehaves... his answer was "She got up once in the circle during the magic show, and at one point she went off to the back of the camp to play by herself, but that was it". Hardly what I expected to hear. I went down to Guest Services to try and talk with someone. I told the person working what had happened (I unfortunately did not get her name but she was from Medellin, Colombia, the same place where my wife was born... it came up in our conversation), and she looked mortified. She apologized and asked if I wanted to speak to the Camp Manager. She kindly got the manager to come talk with me, and then I told the manager what had happened. She, too, looked mortified and apologized. She asked more questions on how to best accommodate Maria, and I told her that she doesn't need much of anything, but if she feels overwhelmed by noise or crowds, she will seek out a quiet place to play as it makes her more comfortable. The manager had listened to me, then said she would make more notes but she stated she did check Maria's information out before coming to talk with me and there were notes about her condition already recorded (So Sarah couldn't have been telling the truth). While this had all been going on I heard another counselor yell "Maria sit on your bottom!" I instinctively looked up and Maria was sitting quietly in the circle... sitting on her feet, not her bottom. (It's a comforting position for her to sit in) But she was sitting quietly, not harming anyone, and sitting in the circle. Seemed a bit excessive to be yelling at her about that, no? We skipped a day of camp despite Maria wanting to go, but then we took her back the following day. My wife was with me this time, and when she checked Maria in, Sarah was there to check Maria in again. My wife asked if it is ok for Maria to be in camp because if it was a problem we would just keep her with us instead. Sarah's response was "Yeah I know, I know you complained to my boss about me". The Camp manager stepped in at that point and finished checking her in.  Maria is a sweet girl who has a milder form of Autism. And we told the camp manager a couple of different times we don't use her condition as an excuse. If she misbehaves, she gets disciplined by us, and we told the manager to not let Maria off the hook if she is disrespectful in any way, and to call us if there is any issue. (We never needed to be called) For what we paid for the cruise, this attitude towards my family is not acceptable. Truthfully, it would never be ok to talk to a parent like that. And considering this was Maria's birthday trip, it ruined the rest of the trip for me. We didn't ask for anything over the top, just for her to be allowed to play quietly if she was overwhelmed. We didn't need a special escort for her, or any type of assistance that would be deemed unreasonable. To really top it off, the ship was a day early on all the cool things you do for birthdays, and not done on her birthday like we requested.  I had been upset about it until I called guest services three times and never got to talk with a live person, and now I am far beyond upset. The family wants to keep the tradition of cruising Thanksgiving week for Maria's birthday celebration, but to be honest I am not sure I can go back on a Carnival cruise after this incident and the fact I can't seem to talk with a live person about our experience. (If I call the "book a cruise" number I bet I can get through to a live person immediately, though...) 

Loved meeting great new people and being able to have incredible experiences with my kids and still having free time as the kids were entertained on their own.

Tiberiu, our head waiter in the dining room was one of the highlights.   We connected with two other couples and always tried to get in his section.   It was a great way to cap the night and as a senior executive in the restaurant industry, I have to say that Tiberiu and his team were phenomenal.

This was our first cruise and we are now hooked!  The accommodations were great and staff did an exceptional job of attending to our every need.  We had a great time!

I was warned in advance, but I was told I had to try it and make my own opinions. Well, I now can say our family has done this and I will forever refer to it as the 10K vacation mistake.  It all began when I spent over 3 hours on the phone booking the cruise through United.  I wasn't allowed to book online because you cannot book more than one room at a time.  So once this was complete, I made the assumption that our family and three rooms would be together, especially after I made it clear this trip was celebrating my parents 40th anniversary and our 15th.  Wrong, our cabins were on different floors and half a boat away.  Not to mention our dining times were different.  So much for a 'family vacation'. 

At the start of the trip, the rules of what is and isn't allowed were very unclear.  We attempted to take sealed drinks (bottles of juice) on the boat.  They threw them away.  As well as our unopened water bottles, although I saw cases of water make it through.   The process to get on the boat was like herding cats and for the money that was spent on this, I expected to be treated like a human, not cattle.  Security officers were rude, loud and unaccommodating.  

The boat.  This is clearly an older boat.  The rooms were kept neat, but far from nice.  They also had a single wall plug.  Yes, that is right.  One plug-in, not one wall unit with two, but a single plug-in.  This allowed for the one c-pap machine to run at night, but that meant no phone chargers, etc.   Evidence of the boats age were present throughout, but if that was my only concern, I would have been fine.  Our room was the bottom floor, something that I wouldn't have guessed considering I paid for an upgrade of sort.  I can't imagine what people had to pay to get away from the dungeon.  Our room literally shook the entire trip. This was topped off by the 3am-5am wake up call on the last day of the ship when the staff proceeds to load the entire boats luggage above our room onto who knows what.  Needless to say, sleep for the week was minimal.  My parents room was also on the bottom floor and turned out, they had their toilet backing into their room before they had even used the facilities.  Their room had to be cleaned and the toilet serviced before we even were out of the channel.   Needless to say, they were scared to use their bathroom the rest of the trip for fear of another incident.   Happy 40th mom and dad!

The pools and hot tubs.  I rarely saw an adult attempt to enter these as I can only assume they saw what the rest of us saw, a human waste land.  There wasn't a time when the hot tubs were open that there were not at least 20 children in it, with the turn over never stopping.  My kids actually got in the pool the first day only to get out fairly quickly as another child vomited in the pool and then swam away.  The floating pile was enough to make my kids second guess swimming that day. 

The constant need to show and scan your sailing card.  This was such a waste of paper and ridiculous. And it didn't matter if you broke down and paid the prepaid sodas or other options.  They still made you sign the paper with each swipe.  EVERYTHING you did beyond eat costs money.  And I don't mean chump change.  Our family of five purchased a number of photos, played bingo on two separate days and partook in adult beverages. Not to mention that they add on gratuity to everything and daily resort fees.  Do you know what that costs...and yes, beyond the money that was already paid for the trip...an additional $1500 for our family.  It was another $1000 for my parents.

I honesty could go on, but one should get the gist of this by now.  I will NEVER recommend a cruise.  At least not one anything similar to this and to my understanding, this is the majority of what is out there.

The only thing I can give positive feedback to is the staff.  From the waiters, to the housekeeping to Kevin the cruise director, the staff were truly kind and seemed to sincerely care about their guests. 

The ship is obviously an older ship and you could see the wear and tear it has taken. That being said the staff was awesome and made it a great experience. Especially our cabin steward MANO!

Loved everything the staff and people we meet was awesome will definitely be booking another one real soon the cabin was real nice and the staff kept it real clean the shows on the the ship was just amazing I was blown away loved every minute of it 

My favorite part was Carnival Quest and all the trivia games that we had on the cruise. The Cruise Director, Kevin, was absolutely hilarious and so much fun! The food was incredible and all the stewards, chefs and staff were wonderful. The only negative was the time we had scheduled for an excursion at Half Moon Cay. The excursion was at 9 am, but we weren't told we needed to leave the ship by 7:45 am in order to catch a boat to the island to make the excursion. We missed our scheduled excursion, but they booked us for a later time, so we didn't lose money. I just wish that had been clearer and mentioned on our excursion paperwork.

The Elation immediately upon leaving port lead me to wonder if Carnival had renamed the old NOISY, VIBRATING Holiday. With the exception of the OLD boat, everyone and everything were excellent. 

THANK YOU FOR BRINGING BACK THE LIVE STEEL DRUM , even if it was only 1 person rather than a full band!

There were five of us celebrating my sister's birthday.  We Everyone enjoyed all aspects of the cruise.  Great service, good food, entertainment and thanks for the sunny, warm weather.

The only thing that could have been better would have been exiting the ship after return to Jaxport.  Too much confusion and waiting. I sympathize with those who have to put that process in place.  I know it's difficult.

I would recommend Carnival cruises to others.

I have been on 15 or so cruises, most with Carnival.  I was a bit disappointed with the cabin staff and also the dining room staff.  Usually I am called by name, there is some banter back and forth, but this time I didn't even know who my cabin steward was and the wait staff, did an ok job but not really personal.  One thing i will say is that at one of the open seating breakfasts, two waiters stood beside our table arguing about who would be our waiter.  Not professional and we felt like a bother after that.

Favorite. Awesome cabin Stewart (Yoga) Fantastic casino bar waiter (Ian)!!!!!

While ship was clean, I'd badly needs refurbished and needs stablelizers!!!!

bad sewage smell on Lido deck near food.