Carnival Elation Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We loved our cruise! The destinations were wonderful! The staff were awesome! Can't wait to go again! The private island is my reason for the whole trip! The island is by far the best part of the trip. I hope to book another cruise for this fall.

This was our first cruise and we enjoyed it very much. The staff was wonderful and the food was awesome. The privste island was beautiful. Can't wait to go on another one.

Our cruise sponsored by CruiseOnly, Carnival Elation was just what we needed. The ship was beautiful and enjoyable, the food exceptional, the staff in every area we utilized was professional and excited that we were there.  The dining room staff was efficient and paid attention to details.  Friendly staff, not shy about speaking or giving you the greeting of the day.  This cruise was much better than my last, the entire trip was a noticeable difference from my first cruise.  The nightly entertainment in the DRAMA Bar area was exceptional.  Thank you for a stress free cruise.  .

The overall experience was good. The embarkation process was smooth, lunch being served on Lido deck was welcoming. Our bags did not get to our room until after 6 even though we boarded @ 1. Weather was great and staff were all friendly and helpful. The biggest letdown was our dining experience. While we ended up with three other great couples and conversation was never lacking, the food was. The appetizers lacked taste and sometimes quantity. One night my husbands shrimp cocktail consisted of three tiny boiled tasteless shrimp. His entree that night was the "flat iron" steak which he couldn't cut. Most everyone at the table complained and several ended up ordering several appetizers and entree's every night in hopes of finding something fit to eat. We wanted to eat in the dining room at night for the experience, but the food on the Lido deck was usually better. You can't mess up a cheeseburger or chicken fingers. Overall, I would say that my suggestion would be to find a better chef, everything else was ok.

I have been on five cruises in the past 4 years and this was by FAR the worst ship I have ever been on. I didn't have high expectations since I had cruised on a Carnival before (both this and that trip were part of a large group-not my choosing) but this ship left a LOT to be desired.  The ship itself was extremely old, outdated and literally falling apart in the cabins. There was issue with the AC releasing diesel into the rooms, backed up sewage and extreme wear and tear on the ship. My safe in the room was broke, as was it for several others in our group, and after calling for two days to get it fixed/replaced I gave up.

The service for the most part was unlike any other ship I've cruised with. The majority of the staff acted as though they hated being there, and several would talk at you not to you. Far too many photographers and not enough bartenders. Most of our group purchased the drink package and found it frustrating that we had to wait five minutes in-between non alcoholic drinks because of the policy.  The food was probably the most insulting part of the cruise as there was not one meal that was even par to the salad bar on past cruises. I even spent $20 to upgrade my steak one night, but didn't taste any difference from the flank steak on the regular menu. 

When I went to the gym to workout it came as no surprise that nearly ALL the eliptical, treadmills and stationary bikes were broken.

Overall I had a good time on the ship, but this was because I was with a group of 28 amazing people, and we spent almost all of 2 of the 4 days on land in the Bahammas. I would never recommend this ship to ANYONE😜

Had fun.. a few notables

Awan  - Great Server

Dennis - from Costa Rica - Did good

Off cruise adventure ..done well. Tour Guide on the boat  and the City bus your  was informative  .  

For a four night cruise for the price we paid, you couldn't beat it.  The dining staff and housekeeping staff were phenomenal, and I can't say enough good about them... they really went out of the way to make sure our kids had a great time!

My wife and I just returned from a Cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Elation. Let me just say the excursions were awesome. That being said the ship was not up to Carnival standards in any way. The food was not very good on any level, from the dining room to the food courts. The best thing on the boat was Pirate Pizza and it was just so so. The cabins were very cramped. And being a smoker the smoking area was a joke. One area that would hold 80 people max with 20 tables of four and probably 500 smokers, hence elbow to elbow IF you to get close to the area. Very unenjoyable. Carnival will still be my first choice for cruising but NEVER again on the Elation!!

the cruise was awesome a little to much walking but it is a big ship the elevators are really slow the shows were great most of the staff are really friendly and helpful there is not much to do on the island that you can walk to you have to pay to get any where and in Nassau the taxi people are very persistent on them being the ones to take you ant where they will follow you and just keep on saying I take you just make sure you get down early to the place that has guided tours on the ship that is your best bet cause what ever you are wanting to do they can get you there and you will enjoy your day a lot better dealing with them instead of the people on the islands

From the first day until the last, the crew gave 110%. Everything was so nice. This was a memorable cruise. The coffee was much better than royal carribbean. It was slow getting off the ship. The cruise director was rude. 

I loved the cruise. The staff was wonderful, the ports great and the food was ok. I would have liked to have more variety when it came to the food especially for dinner on the Lido deck. Otherwise I highly recommend this cruise. Thank you to everyone for making it so special

This was our second cruise. We had a great time. The staff was more than accommodating to all of our needs and requests. We were not too thrilled with all of the mandatory gratuities. We would have preferred to make our own decision on the amounts.

The ship was small but because of this it felt so personal. There were several times we went up on the top deck and were the only ones up there. It felt like we had it all to ourselves. The crew was awesome. They were all so friendly and professional. The camp carnival for kids was great. They loved it and it gave my husband and I some time to ourselves. It was a great experience!

Although the Elation is not one of the new and big ships, she proved to be a nice home for our 10 days. The staff and crew were attentive and the entertainment was fun. 

The crew kept this older ship in clean and pleasant condition.  The drawbacks are from the design of the ship which makes traveling from one venue to another a little convoluted as there are elevators which go to certain floors on one side of the ship and not the other and there is only one floor which you can pass on the starboard side from the front to the back.  There is also no exterior path to circumnavigate the ship.  There are also only maybe 100 seats in the showroom where there is an unobstructed view of the rear of the stage. The rooms are set up so if you have both beds placed together, there is a corner cabinet that you must climb over to get to one side of the bed.  The T.V. was the original CVT model from around 1996.  I could not read the bulletins scrolling on the news channel because the resolution was so terrilble even after maintenance tried to make it better. The sauna and steam room were available without an additional charge which I appreciate but were not working numerous times I went to the spa area to enjoy them. The food in the dining room was of good quality and flavor but about 50% of the time the main dishes were only lukewarm. We enjoyed the production shows and the comedy venue.  We were a little disappointed in the main showroom entertainment that did not include live musicians. Vocalists with only canned music does not satisfy my entertainment criteria.

This was a wonderful trip. Carnival does a great job making sure everyone in the family is having fun and feeling pampered. Only negative is this ship is not updated, so your stateroom and pools are quite the look of circa 1990's (clean, but old). If you can look beyond those two things, you will have an amazing trip! Beautiful islands, great staff and overall a very positive experience. I recommend this trip to anyone, just possibly on a newer ship.

We did the back to back 21 day cruise from New Orleans back to Jacksonville. The Elation visited places that are not typically not ports of call (Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, Aruba, Curacao). The Atlantic coast of Barbados is breathtaking!  Skip the tube ride on Granada until the river level rises a little! Carnival Journeys are definitely fun cruises!  The appearance of the Elation is nicely maintained, but the infrastructure needs work:  One of the elevators in the atrium was not working at all and the sauna and steam room was malfunctioning for much of the 21 days.  Dining room service was excellent.  The buffet seemed to have limited choices The grill, Mongolian wok, pizza and deli are nice alternatives.  Entertainment was good, but not out of the ordinary.  Overall the cruise was a great bargain.

This was the fastest 10 days cruise.   It was nice people a lot of older people and the food was horrible.  The TV need upgrading and the rooms also need some remodeling.  The pool deck should have a big screen TV for movie night and it needs popcorn on the ship.  Very dead dead boring cruise at night especially after 9 pm the ship was boring and dead.   It really needs more entertainment and better food menu.   The panio man Pete Thompson was amazing and keep the ship alive and keshore the waiter was very outstanding.   Yoyo the room guy was very professional and good worker .   So please please send out kudos to these guys bc they were the BEST.  Especially to put up for a 10 and 21 days crew they went out and beyond .   👏👏👍🏽 to these guys please please thanks.   Otherwise overall an ok trip.    Thanks 

Great value, especially since it was a tremendous itinerary.  Elation is older ship getting ready to be refurbished, but the friendly staff and overall quality of the food and activities offset the need for updating.

This was our 9th cruise (1 on Celebrity, 7 on Princess and our first on Carnival).  The staff was great.  The ship (Elation) was tired an in need of refurbish.  The entertainment was typical of all cruise lines. From the three cruise lines we've used, I find that the entertainment is always mediocre and the staff always great and hardworking.  Cruise choice usually comes down to price, destination, time since the last ship refit and food.  I find Princess has the best food so we'll likely go back to them.  We took this one due to sailing schedule and departure port.