My review is late but I am planning an Alaskan cruise for 2013 and I am relying on this website even more now than I did back when we did our first cruise on Elation Dec 26th to Dec 31st.

We were a group of 10 doing a family reunion with ages from 21 to 67. I didn't find anything in disrepair and the ship was lovely and decorated nicely. I saw nothing unclean at all. It's definitely more of a "young" crowd in everything on Elation from decor to nightlife. We had a wonderful cruise. We were mostly first-time cruisers except for a few veterans in the bunch. We were limited on dates and the Elation out of New Orleans was our only logistical choice.

Pre-cruise: we all stayed at Drury Inn just off Bourbon street. GREAT hotel - free dinner, easy walk to Bourbon street, but parking was not free. We all drove personal cars from ATL and Texas so we just drove the 9 blocks down to cruise terminal. Parking was easy since we got there early and porters for luggage worked great. Read more