We had never sailed out of New Orleans on the Elation before, but have taken 5 other Carnival cruises (most out of Galveston). Both embarkation and debarkation were a breeze. I loved the ship itself. Yes, it is older and does show some wear, but I loved the decor and themes. The service was wonderful from our cabin steward, to the dining room waiters, and everywhere in between. The staff was awesome! One staff member even played ping pong with my son while he waited for my hubby. Unfortunately, a few other factors made this my least enjoyable cruise to date.
First off, there were only 2 major shows in the main theater the entire cruise, and the second one showed only once at 10:30 at night. Second, the two comedians on board did the same 15 minute show each and every performance(a few new jokes were introduced on the last night, but very few). Next, my son (11 years old) usually spends much of his time at camp; however, on this cruise I would say about 90% of the activities were combined with 6 - 11 year olds and about 40% of the time it included everyone 2 years old and up. This is just too large of a gap in age and was not enjoyable for my son. His group should mainly consist of 9-11 year olds. Needless to say, he ended up leaving camp many times. Very disappointing.
We spent a lot of time playing ping pong and putt putt with him. On this ship the clubs and balls are not checked out, but rather lying out free for the taking. By the second day of the cruise, there was only 1 golf ball left. On the third day the staff managed to come up with a few more balls. Perhaps they should go to the "check out" system that other ships have in place.
The cabin was clean and overall well kept. We never had a noise issue. The t.v. was awful...screen was too dark to make out some scenes. Plus, the remote didn't work correctly.