I loved this cruise! We cruise ALOT, and this has been one of my most memorable... In the past 3 years, we have been on Norwegian Sea, Celebrity Century, Carnival Inspiration, Carnival Conquest(twice), and now this ship, the Elation. Though this ship is not as new or as elaborate as some, it impressed me in almost every regard. Of course, each cruise is different to a certain extent because of the people you meet or bring with you. This particular cruise was with our children and some very close friends that have been with us twice in the past. I adore having my children and people I love with me on a vacation, but we also met some fabulous people from Minnesota that helped make this cruise more special.
We had a cabin on Empress Deck in the very back of the ship and it was wonderful. I highly recommend being across the back of the ship because the wake is so very pretty to look at! WOW! Our cabin steward was a ghost. We never saw him, but he took care of us and always made our cabin up so beautifully. We really appreciated him because on Conquest, our cabin steward was absent most of the time and our bed was only made and cabin cleaned about half of the time. For dinner, we did early seating and we had the cutest young lady as our server. She did not have much experience as a waiter, but she did marvelous with us and she had a really nice personality. We loved going to dinner. The food was some of the best we have had on a cruise ship.
We had with us our 9 year old son who was very active with the kids program and he had a ball! One of the Camp Carnival Counselors was a little rude to him at one point, but I spoke with the head of this department and there were no further issues. Aside from this little episode, I would suggest that if you bring young children, let them get involved with Camp Carnival. It was a great place for the kids and they all had such fun!