Carnival Elation Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We enjoyed every bit of it..

This is perfect cruise with 5 Nights.. You don't have to rush to coever eerything.

Cabins were clean.. Food was great... Its good fun if you go as large group. Overall wonderful experience.. 

My family and I enjoyed spending the weekend in New Orleans prior to leaving on our cruise.  This was our second time cruising with Carnival.  They did not disappoint!  Although this was not the newest or largest ship in the fleet every staff member on the ship makes you feel comfortable, appreciated and happy.  There were just enough Christmas activities on board to remind you what time of year it was but also allow you to enjoy why you decided to "get away."  Paul, the cruise director, was great! Bagus, Prakash, James, and Oliver at the Drama Bar were fantastic!  Edi, Gonsalo, and Santi were our dinner servers.  They couldn't have been a better match to serve my family every night.  They were great to my sons.  Dinner was always a highlight of the day.  Wish we could see them all again.  Loved sitting in the atrium every night and listening to the live acoustic music by Eugene and JR.  The comedians, Richie and Sid, were top-notch and had us in tears laughing.  The only negative things I have are that the Progresso stop isn't very good and there is only one electrical outlet in the cabin.  My wife and I are already looking into booking next Christmas with Carnival.  Thanks for making our Christmas holiday awesome!

Excellent service. The show is fun. My kids like mini golf and swim. Cabin is relatively bigger than Norwegian Cruise we took before. Services are very professional. The only problem is we bumped into a storm and the ship is not stable in a couple of days. But that is not their fault.

Overall, this was, at best "average".

Unfortunately, my wife has a medical condition which required that she blend some medication. She had purchased a blender for the same.  The motor of the blender was taken from her when we went through security, with a note attached that it was for medical purposes.  In spite of numerous requests, she did not get the unit back until the end of the trip when she got up at 6:30 AM and retrieve the same. 

I enjoyed my cruise.  The staff was friendly, but the food was no better than an above average Old  country Buffet.  Also the obtrusive nature of the photographers was a distraction.  Will probably not go Carnival again.

This is the second time I have taken this cruise, and it gets better every time, The service on board was truly amazing . The people in the formal dinning area treated my wife and I like royalty. The always called me sir Bob and my wife as miss Kathy, They always had a smile on there face and were right there if you needed something. They were also very entertaining and provided the best service I have ever had in a restaurant. The room steward was also great, He always called me by my first name and was right there if you needed something. The food was Great and we really enjoyed the entertainment . The comedy show with mitszi was great. I will book this cruise again this year and another cruise with carnival.

We really enjoyed our cruise on the Elation as we celebrated several family milestones. This was our third cruise on a similar ship with the same itinerary. In the future I would prefer a different ship and itinerary, but this one was the best choice for the timing and price.  The lady who checked us in was training so it took us longer to go through the boarding process, but since we had a larger family delays were expected. The food was wonderful. I was not pleased that steak or lobster was no longer offered as a meal for the captain's dinner as it was on previous cruises. I had scheduled to celebrate the different birthdays and anniversaries when I booked, but nothing was ever done even though I confirmed the events with several reps. Our waiters and room attendant did a fantastic job and always provided exceptional service. One of the comedians, Mutzi, was a highlight of the ship entertainment. My entire family enjoyed his shows. The evening shows were well done with Epic Rock being the best. The shops and pictures are overpriced as expected and there are times everything feels like a money trap. My teenage sons had fun but at times felt like everything was more adult driven. We took our daughter to Camp Carnival off and on and she loved every opportunity. Overall we had a good time but some of the evaluation is based on us doing our own excursions at the different ports. We were happy with Carnival but will review some different options for our next cruise.

Overall. ...my wife and I had a good experience. Make sure you get all the liquor you can....You will regretted if you don't. The duty is on over purchase is 2 to 3 bucks for each bottle. It was well worth it. The push cart service gave us first class during debarkation....money well spent.

The dining was amazing, and the serving crew made the whole cruise amazing.  We sat with Edy and his team, and they were all amazing!  The singing and dancing each night was fantastic, and it really livened up the place and kept everything positive and fun.

The comedians on board (Kim Harrison and Michael Speenberg) were pretty good, and we saw each of them 3 or 4 times.  The song and dance shows were entertaining, and it was nice to have the opportunity to see something we usually don't get a chance to see.

Walking by/through the smoking areas was almost impossible to avoid, which is frustrating.  I would much prefer a smoke free cruise ship, or at the very least have closed off smoking areas like in airports.  Nobody else wants to inhale that mess.  We walked by the bar band a couple times but did not linger because it was in or was too near a smoking area.

Our cruise was fun even the it was very rough out. The weather was nice, but the waves were not. I was disappointed in Thanksgiving dinner. I was hoping for a traditional dinner with mashed potatoes, corn and stuffing. Maybe that was served in the dining room, but a member of the family was sick and so we went to the buffet. There was turkey, but a baked potato for Thanksgiving wasn't what I had in mind.

this cruise was terrible. cabin was bad food was bad. just a very bad cruise. will never sail with carnival again. can not recommend. terrible terrible terrible  

We loved to relax and not have to think about our jobs. The food was great & the crew was awesome in taking care of us. We loved exploring the ship and watching the scenery. We were not, however, expecting the unending sales pitches, although in hind-site, we should have known because it is a tourist gig. We tried not to spend much money, but there is opportunity after opportunity to buy things, especially stuff you don't really need at prices that are supposedly reduced. They also don't tell you that you must claim your purchases on an immigration & customs form when you return to the US until the evening before your return. Alcohol & jewelry are pitched endlessly even on the excursions & you can't even get to your excursion or back without walking thorough a narrow, seemingly endless market. We got tired, fast, of the endless marketing pitches but we really enjoyed everything else.

The ship was vert shabby. Our suite had wallpaper peeling off . Also the food at the lido deck was awful..made me sick. Staff were excellent and friendly.

The only food/dining disappointment was the Grill outside on deck near pool area. Lines were consistently too long. Not enough servers manning the grill. All grilled items took forever to cook and guests were forced to wait rather than form a separate line for buffet food only. It needed several more workers.

Cabin bathrooms always smelled of urine...even after cleaning. 

Smoking should only be allowed outside--you can smell the smoke when boarding the ship.

My wife and I was celebrating our honeymoon/aniversary  and we had set up some shore excursions to do and have fun and wen we got there we got left and the trying to blame us for been late wen we got there one hour behind the time zone the took us to some beach told us all was included but it wasn't we could not sail and snorkeling like we wanted to and this was in casumel people was bragging so much on casumel and the first thing I was supposed to do on my honey moon I got left

We had a good experience with booking the cruise. We did end up buying payment protection because with a little one you just never know what can happen. However we did run into a issue where we were not able to travel at one point and when we called back literally the next day we could not have cancelled because we would lose 50% of our deposit and we had to wait for the 3rd party trip protection to reimburse us.

We ended up going!! This cruise ship Elation was one of the oldest ships so it was not as not as the ones we went with Royal Caribbean. It did offer the same things as others but the pool/deck area looked a bit old and other things in the ship. We traveled November 9th so the weather from New Orleans was cold... bring winter things as even in the summer time it can get chilly at night especially being outside.

The cruise offered CAMP CARNIVAL which I highly recommend for everyone, we were able to drop out little one off for few hours (no charge) while me and the husband enjoyed a little time to our selves. After 10pm there is a hourly charge which we did not mind, we did 2 nights of us going to dinner alone.

We ended up purchasing the excursion and if you are going to Progresso, we highly recommend All Inclusive Resort I believe its called Reef, they had a small kiddy pool, their buffet was amazing and who doesn't like all inclusive private beach/pool to just your group. We did run into a big dilemma when we arrived because the guy told us to be back at the spot by 9:45AM that is when the bus leaves for the island. When we arrived we were told that we had to wait additional 30mins for the second bus because the first one was filled up. We were never advised of this and ended up causing a stir because I was not going to wait and waste another hour of our time at the beach because their bus filled up. That was their responsibility to know how many people can book a excursion and I felt bad for anyone left behind. We ended up going with the first bus and the resort was just amazing.

The cruise it self had only 50 kids, but overall it was a pleasant stay. The staff both at night dining and throughout the cruise are just lovely and pleasant. Will definitely travel again just not with Elation, I will look into other newer ships that probably offer more things for the kids.

We decided on this cruise as a quick cheap get away.  First I must say I've been on about 15 cruises and have a lot to compare it to.  If this is your first cruise and budget is a concern, go for it, you won't be dissapointed, you can't beet the cost!

However, if you have cruised before and are used to larger ships with tons to do you probably won't be happy with this, just keep in mind the cost and go into it with the mindset that you get what you pay for and you will be fine.

Thw ship was very nice and we didn't find it as dated as other people have. Food was fairly good and the overall service was very good. The cabin was adequate and comfortable. Shipboard entertainment was good although a couple times the shows started too early for us to get there from dinner (8 pm for the early seating and 10pm for the late seating should be the norm).  Overall we had a great time and would consider Carnival again for another cruise.

This cruise was given to me as a wedding gift, so I spent my honeymoon cruising with Carnival.  Everything about the experience was just awesome! My wife and I especially enjoyed the entertainment; it was fabulous! Cannot wait to cruise with Carnival again!

This was our first cruise and we had a great time. Our guest service people were great. Mike, Orlando, and Elmer were wonderful at dinner time. They always had a smile on their face and seemed like they genuinely cared. Nyoman was our room guy. Man o man. He knew our names the first day and greeted us with a smile anytime we saw him. Great job guys and I hope we run into each other again some day!! Amazing service!!

The cruise boat itself was ok. It was outdated a bit and I felt like I had stepped back into the 80's with the decor. The activities on the boat were ok. Our pool was closed for 2 out of the 5 nights we were on the boat due to a leak. They were replacing carpet and beds throughout the boat during our stay. There is only 3 options for meals--Pizza, dining room, or the buffet. The only thing open 24hrs is the pizza and ice cream. This was not very appetizing as I don't really care for pizza especially when I am in the mood for something else. Our port stops were well organized and went quickly. So that was good.   Our boat didn't really sway or feel like we were on a boat until day 3. We hit some storms and it wasn't to extreme but we did have some rocking back and forth (we were on a boat). We had a good enough time that we are planning our next cruise but just planning on going on a bigger/newer boat.