Carnival Elation Cruise Reviews - Reviews

My husband and I were not sure what to expect. We soon realized crusing would become a yearly trip. The ship was so clean and all of the staff was extremely helpful and polite. The food and entertainment was great.

On our first cruise it was all that we espected we had an awesome time. They treated us like stars well most of the staff did . It was one lady that worked as a bartender name Malinda with a low low haircut like a man and it was gold or shall I say blonde she was so rude and nasty with me and my fiancé she had us so angry we was ready to 

The cruise was for the most part very good, We usualy cruise out of Galveston, because it is easy to drive to, this one was a long drive, also hotels the night before and parking in New Orleans is very expensive. We decided to cruise out of New Orleans because we wanted to see the Mississippi river. Well don't cruise this one if that what you want, we left the port about 4:30 pm it took over 8 hours to go down the 110 miles of river, almost all of it at night, the same when we came back reaching the mouth of the river at 10:30 pm and the port at 8:00 am. So seeing the mighty Mississippi was not good. But the rest of the cruise was very good, food good, entertainment good

My husband and I love cruises this was our 8th one. This is the 2nd one on the Elation. We absolutely love this ship.The staff on the ship really make you feel welcome.The food is always great.There are so many things to do onboard or just relax by the pool Either way we just love to cruise and Carnival is the best.

My family and I were on the carnival Elation Aug 24-Aug29. It was our first and last Carnival experience, (my mom and step dad had had a previous poor experience, but decided to give it another go). Let me just say I have been working in hospitality or customer service for the last 6 yrs, and at an aging Milwaukee hotel until its closing in late 2012 for most of them. I completely understand that older structures come with their own set of issues. Though these issues can effect a trip, ultimately it's the people you work with and the customer service provided that can make or break an experience. Let me also say that I was 23 weeks pregnant at the start of this trip. On our first day, we had a pleasant boarding with very courteous bellman and friendly check-in clerks. (Should you have multiple adults in the room, or if you want your kids to have spending abilities, make sure you ask that all key cards have spending abilities. Otherwise you will have to have it done at the customer service desk on ship, which will most likely be a negative experience, as the wait time in line alone is generally at least a 20 or more min event -Unless you paid the extra "faster to the fun" fee or are VIP. Make sure to make that investment). We went to our room which was smaller than I had expected, but clean and nice enough. The toilets weren't working for a while though, I called the desk and they said they were working on it, nobody's was at that time, (they stopped working at least once a day. Very unpleasant in the small poorly ventilated bathrooms).My boyfriend and I had a couples massage that was extremely relaxing, Dominika and Astrid from the ships spa were very friendly and interesting. In the end it cost about $310 for 75 min, thanks to a first day special. We loved it. We headed back to the room. We ended up meeting a nice enough housekeeper. She noticed I was pregnant and asked how far I was. I told her about 5 1/2 months. She asked if I knew the sex. I happily told her we were having a girl. She made a face and said she was pregnant with a girl once. But she died when she was 6 months along. Apparently babies are only the size of your hand born at 6 months gestation. I don't want to sound heartless, but this was a very awkward conversation.. Much to personal to have with a complete stranger, though very sad. Also I just told her I was pregnant with my first baby and that I was 5 1/2 months, talking about the death at 6 months, then the delivery was very frightening and unnerving, not to mention probably the worst conversation choice to share with a guest as they were on the way to dinner on a ship heading to the ocean, the nearest hospital impossible to get to in case of an emergency, (my sister and I had explored and found the infirmary earlier, we waited about 7 minutes to ask for a band-aid, but gave up when told both workers were busy with someone else). Moving on dinner was good. Our tables waiter was very friendly, always remembered our names and orders. Only when someone else was helping him were mistakes made. I went to bed at about 10:30 because I wasn't feeling well. An hour later the power went out. No A/C, no light, no tv. Thankfully I was sound asleep. An hour after a very loud announcement was made alerting the passengers there was a problem. They were working on it. If you were sleeping, now you were up. Our room was pitch black, and miserably warm. It took forever to fall back asleep. When I woke up the next morning, it was fixed. Day 2 was all at sea. My boyfriend was ready for a drink package, the alcohol one was 30? a day, but when he asked an employee about it he was told we would both have to get it, and I wasn't about to spend 120$ on something I wouldn't use. So he bought drink by drink (seriously like 10+/drink). We sat on the decks, got some sun and swam a bit. My sister and I decided some more spa time would be nice. We both got cuts and blowouts and she had a recent color mishap fixed. The ladies were wonderful and really fun to talk to. We spent about 200$ and were again completely satisfied with our experience. That night was formal night so we left to get ready. On the way to dinner we had plenty of picture opportunities. Lots of fun. Some good pictures. Dinner was pretty good. Once we got close to port though our ship was more rocky and I had to get to bed. Day 3 was Progresso. We chose the Mayan ruins tour. It was a beautiful day and I very much enjoyed the tour. We also made a quick stop on the way back to check out a cenote. Very cool. Something you'll only see in that part of the world. And stunningly pretty. We made it back to the ship about half an hour early and headed straight to the pool. Unfortunately someone had thrown up. In the pool. Yellow chunks were floating all over. You could see the side of the pool impact point. We told an employee on the deck. He said tell housekeeping, they handle that. So we told someone with the towels. We were told it was just dust. Without them even looking. The pool was never cleaned. We didn't go back in it again. My boyfriend and I went back to the room, showered (which was always a feat due to the ever changing water temperature, which constantly turned scalding or luke warm... No matter what time of the day you took the shower) and took a nap. Not much later, we were in bed and undressed, when someone knocked on the door. A blink of an eye later, 2 men walked in. They saw us, apologized and left, but the damage was done. I was mortified. I never forgot to deadbolt the door again, that's for sure. Day 4 was Cozumel. We waited to book the excursion until we were off the boat. Much better deal. We went snorkeling for 3 hrs, 3 of us for 100$. Absolutely beautiful. Very fun. Between that and the shopping we had a great time. We ate at Senior Frogs, which is very pricey and the least Mexican Mexican food in Mexico. I think you're supposed to be drunk for your Senior Frogs experience. But it was alright. We got back on the ship and laid around the room for a while, deadbolt securely in place. That night we had dinner, but there were a couple other waiters helping and they kept getting things wrong. Some forgotten appetizers, meat cooked wrong, potatoes but no sour cream, frustrating after lunches mishap. We tried to see a comedy show after dinner but it was packed. We went to the casino for a bit then I headed to bed. Day 5 was the worst. Our final day at sea. We decided to play bingo, a total of 7 of us. We went to the 11:30 sitting. 200$ for all our tickets, but hey it's bingo. That should last a while right? WRONG!! Only skinny H counted. Okay, whatever. If theres a tie, there would be a tie-breaker. Though at no point was it mentioned, this game was 1, only 1 round, and it only lasted about 5 minutes. Then some lady shouted bingo they closed the curtain and that was it. Umm ok... Now I was a little upset. That's alot of money for bingo, period. But money I flat out would NOT have spent for one round, had it been mentioned at any point. I stopped at the desk. After waiting in the faster to the fun lane for about 15 mins (thank God it wasn't the other line, that one was halfway down the hall), we talked to a girl who said she's pretty sure that card was valid at the next bingo session, which was a 5 rounder. Okay, cool. She double checked. Nope, sorry. I expressed my unhappiness about the situation. She grabbed JD, the assistant cruise director. A very patronizing, arrogant and insincere man, when I told him I felt scammed he told me I was only upset because I lost. I told him I was upset because I never would've paid 30$ for one round of bingo regardless. There would have never been a win/lose situation because one round with a possible 600$ payout would not have been worth the money it cost to buy in. He repeated I was just mad I lost. He compared it to blackjack. Said I lost in gambling, it is what it is. I told him if I had been stupid enough to bet 200 on a single round of black jack and lost I wouldn't be complaining, I knew blackjack rules. I again stated I felt scammed at the one round. Had it been mentioned there was one round at ANY point, we wouldn't have played. He again said he was sorry I was upset, but he wasn't going to do anything more than chalk it up to a gambling loss. He was obviously thru with our conversation and was getting less and less polite as we spoke. I went back to the room, and called and complained. Eventually after 3 calls and multiple people, Steve, the cruise director called me back. I started to explain, he cut me off and said he knew the situation. Then proceeded to say the exact same thing JD said. I asked if he was willing to try to appease the situation, he offered to 3:30 bingo cards. The other 5 in our party were not staying in our specific room and his offer did not and would not apply to any of them. I told at this point how unsatisfied I was with the cruise and the customer service. He said call the customer service line to see if they'd do anything for us, his final and only offer was the 2 cards. I gave them to my mom. She one $110 one round. They told her the card was in my name and the prize would have to be put on my room. 5 hrs later after many trips to see why the prize hadn't posted, the discovered it could and had been posted to her room. But at that point nobody was really surprised at the crews unawareness of the policies. Especially after waiting to speak to a supervisor about any possible package deals on the pictures. We would've purchased just about all of them, (about 40 that post cruise are simply thrown away) if they could've worked with us. He refused to do anything other than the posted $20/picture. I had to leave the conversation. The man was flat out denying everything the girl from the previous night had told us. In the end they gave my stepdad a $50 discount on a purchased that still cost him close to $325. Again, the customer service... Ugh. Later that night the maitre'd approached me to see why I was unhappy with the service, I explained the same thing to him as I had the earlier "customer service" rep, that our waiter was good, but that the night before our orders had been wrong at first. At around 10:30pm, housekeeping called to apologize for the earlier intrusion and said our housekeeper would be reprimanded. After I said it was 2 men, not our normal housekeeper, nothing more was said or done. On the final morning we were asked to leave our room at about 10. We were made to sit in a waiting area until our group was finally allowed to leave an hour later. After it was all said and done, ESPECIALLY after my interaction with JD and Steve, I would not recommend Carnival, nor would I choose it again. The daily toilet problems, the awful showers, the iffy satellite connections, the awful customer service, the obvious only goal being profit and in no way customer satisfaction... No wonder Carnival has all this bad publicity.

My family and I went on our first cruise. My kids are older teens and junior high. We flat out loved it! It was more than we could have ever imagined. We just had a blast! We missed it once we were home, and can't wait to go on another next year! We had a fabulous experience with our cruise excursion through gtriviera.com which was so far beyond our expectations as well!

We left from New Orleans. The new garage was convenient and felt very secure for our car at departure. I really was disappointed that is was quite so expensive to park there. But, we chalked it up to part of the trip expenses. This was nice for a quick, relaxing trip. The two stops, Progreso and Cozumel were laid back, but had options for activities. We chose to purchase an excursion once we got to Progreso. this was much cheaper than going thru the cruise line and we had the same experience as other cruisers who paid much more. In Cozumel we spent a relaxed day shopping and ate at the mall right at the dock.

All the workers at the terminal in New Orleans were very helpful and courtious. From the time we boarded till we got off the ship at the end of the cruise the staff and crew were fun, helpful and courtious! There were many staff members that called me and my family by name everytime addressing us. The ship was beautiful and clean. All accomodations were 5 star! I would highly recomend this cruise to anyone i know! I will definatly cruise with Carnival again!

Food - "Inspiration", it was a "hit or miss". Just average. Entertainment finally started the second day. The Elation (Inspiration) crew entertaining, it appeared a very small percentage really enjoyed this part of their job. Their was an asian waiter in the back corner that kept his group laughing and entertained every night. At always had me picking back to see what was happening next, they were all having such a good time! Excursion - all inclusive. Guides and free Tequila tasting were great but to pay for an "all inclusive"; lead to the end of the beach (roughly 2 to 3 football fields) and told for the "all inclusive food and drink" you have to walk all the way back (one location only) was absolutely ridiculous. Beach, you had to walk down metal or wood staircase that were full of moss and very slippery. Once in the ocean you had to tread water the entire time due to the only location to just stand in the water was the kiddie cove. We spent the day at the pool (food and drink close), by the way, we couldn't eat outside that wasn't allowed due to the china and no paper plates? A lot of restrictions for 6 hours and $75.00 a per person. Different from the 7 day cruise taken several years ago that was and still is highly recommended by myself and family.

We had a 'nice' cruise during July. Our room was a Grand Suite and that was the best part of the vacation. We had plenty of space and enjoyed the roomy balcony. Out room person was always available and quite pleasant. The wait staff was pleasant and always helpful. We had trouble finding food at the times we chose to eat. Neither of us gained an ounce of weight which is unusual with all of that food. Room service was speedy, but the chooses were quite limited. We had too much salad and too many sandwiches. When we did get to the dining room on time, the service was great and the food was good. We did enjoy a breakfast and lunch in the dining room, which was quite pleasant. The worst part of our cruise was the children running in the hallways. The second to the last night, children ran up and down on the deck above us. It sounded like horses pounding on the ceiling. This went on until 3:30 AM. No one stopped them. The last night this occurred again, but fortunately stopped at 12:30 AM. The priority boarding went alright, but no one ensured our credit card information was secured. This meant we had no account set up so the cards were useless when we boarded. This is not a good time to take care of this and it caused several trips to the service desk. This should have been taken care of when we boarded. Priority disembarkation is not much of a priority. We were put in a club on an upper deck and then heard back to the deck we originated on. There was no structure and people poured out of their rooms and actually separated my husband and me. It was very erratic, but we were off the ship and on our way within an hour and a half. The New Orleans customs agents were pleasant and efficient. Parking was convenient and covered. We will sail out of New Orleans again in the future. We typically sail out of Galveston. We sailed with Carnival, because of the date and the price of the Grand Suite. We would do this again, but we like to try Royal Caribbean first. They have better food options and seem to keep the children busy and from causing problems (such as running through the halls).

It was as we expected. We have taken several cruises in the past and this one was no different. We jumped on the Carnival Cruise because it worked into our schedule. We usually cruise on RCC, simply because they are more focused on customer service. Good trip. Food-Good Entertainment-Fair Staff-Fair Clean Room Ship-aged Casino-clean and up to date Casino staff- rude(I didn't loose money) Dining staff-fair Spa-clean Spa staff-great

I had a wonderful trip, enjoyed every minute, all staffs were so friendly and helpful, food was good, I had a room for myself and it was big enough for me, they kept the room very clean every day, I will come back again for another trip.

Was pleasantly surprised at food, cabins, and service. Have experienced better and more entertainment options on other lines. Pool was small and there did not seem to be a lot for our 18 year olds to do. I personally would enjoy lectures--more educational content. Especially enjoyed dining in the buffet.

I considered this cruise simply because I never been on one and when I called to get started I had excellent help with the choices that I made. The room service as excellent and I really appreciated the way she remembered our names. I enjoyed the itinerary that was set for us to do everyday while aboard the ship to keep us entertained

It was a grate time and I will be doing it agen. Ever one as nice and helpful. My wife and little girl had some to fun at they did not wont to go home.

Thanks for helping myself and two of my friend have a trip to always remember. Our cabin Stewart was always willing to help or answer any questions that we had. We all had a blast on Passion Island, this was the highlight of our trip.

This being my first cruising experience I had a great time . The service, the food and the drinks were exceptional. I am looking forward to cruising for years to come.

Overall better than I expected! Have cruised numerous times on just about every cruise line out there. We booked last minute, less than a month in advance, deciding on a quick, inexpensive trip. Carnival is the only line going out of NOLA this time of year so we had no other choice! The food was actually good, much better than my last Carnival cruise 3 years ago. I still think Carnival overbooks the cabins by allowing too many children/people per cabin. My last cruise on Disney limits the amount of children per boat which makes for a much more pleasant experience. Tiffany's, the buffet on Lido, was always a madhouse so we ate every meal including breakfast in the dining room. Service was always friendly and reliable. The overall crowd on the ship was very diverse. The fist day at sea I felt like I was at a night club when I sat near the pool. I am late 30's and love to go out and have fun, but after a couple hours I had to relocate to a quieter location after learning how to "Dougie" and other songs I felt were not family appropriate. There were older people on the boat and I actually cringed at a few of the song selections envisioning my mother running straight for guest relations. This was the first cruise I have been on that did not have your typical calypso band near the pool, but had an actual DJ....not even piped in music! There must have been several complaints as the second at sea day had a much more tame "Top 40" theme with some 80's and popular country songs mixed in. However, the recent graduates and family reunion groups seemed to really enjoy both days! The room was standard, clean and comfortable beds. Plenty of towels and anything else that was needed. We weren't in the room that often, but do typically enjoy watching the daily movie while getting ready for dinner. They showed the same movie on 3 days....The Guilt Trip...which we had unfortunately seen. The other movie was Oz. Room was quiet and no disturbances. The itinerary was fine for what we were looking for. In Progreso we went to Uxmal which was great and very much worth seeing. I had not been there before. This port the only thing to do is really to go see the ruins. I personally am very tired of Cozumel and could skip it, but I can always have a beach day. We really wanted to do a tour that was on the mainland, but it wasn't offered during our sailing due to time constraints. The entertainment on board was OK. They only did 2 stage shows on our 5 night cruise. They were both good and worth going to. One night was a passenger talent show which was entertaining. The comedians on the boat were fantastic!!! The dancers will soon be replaced with comedy shows if they don't watch out. Mutzie was absolutely hilarious and we made to most of his shows. The best thing we did on this cruise was the Behind the Fun tour. They only have so many spots available per sailing and I really wanted to sleep in, but SO glad I didn't! We saw areas and learned things we never would have. It was $55 per person, but we each got a hat, lanyard and 8x10 photo of us with the captain on the bridge. The chef also sent a plate of sweet goodies to our room - which were awesome. It was a 3 hour tour but we got to see just about everything including the meat cooler, crew lounge and laundry room.....did you know there are machines that fold the sheets and towels?!?!? For the price we paid for this cruise, we couldn't have gotten more for our money anywhere else. I will definitely consider Carnival Cruise Line again in the future as a contender when cruise shopping and not cringe when I tell people I went on a Carnival cruise.

we had a great cruise onboard the elation! wonderful waiters (Walter, Mully, Jo-Jo, Snezana), servers, bartenders, entertainment! the only downside was that our cabin steward (antonio) was a little slack, we had to call for service several times. they also like to leave extra beds and vacuum cleaners outside our doors so we could hardly get in and out. not a big deal, but it detracted from the otherwise wonderful cruise! ship was always beautiful and clean! friendly crew!

Overall had a pretty good time. Have two teens and they had a good time with their clubs. Our dinners were great. The food and service were wonderful. Our cabin steward was exceptional. The Serenity deck for 21 and over was nice. The cushions on the deck chairs were very comfortable and it was nice to have a hot tub for adults only. All that said, there were a few areas of disappointment. There was only one pool on board and it was geared more for kids. Need another pool for adults. Not many shops on board. The one show we went to was pretty good. We enjoyed it. The comedians on board were horrible. We didn't even stay for the whole set. Adult language is one thing but being totally vulgar is another. Vulgar isn't funny, it's uncalled for. All the crew were helpful, friendly and always had a smile on their faces.