Our 5 day cruise began with a very nice embarkation experience. My wife and I arrived very early to the Port of New Orleans and we were the second couple to arrive and the check in had not yet even begun. By the time check in began about 50 or so cruisers were also waiting. The Platinum Cruisers and the Faster to the Fun cruisers were called first and then a Carnival worker named Mrs. MiLu had remembered that we had arrived very early and came over to us and the other couple that had arrvied early and led us to an available check in rep. That was very thoughtful of Mrs. MiLu.

Once boarding was announce our boarding process took about 5 minutes and we were on the Lido deck in no time. After a bite to eat at the Lido buffet we were in our ocean view room on the Empress deck in about an hour where we met our cabin steward Julio. Julio did a great job throughout the cruise. Our room was always neat and cleaned on time and he always made sure we had everything we needed.

It seems I have been reading many negative comments about the food on the Elation. We only had two food items that we were not satisfied with. Once it was very undercooked chicken from the buffet and my wife had some sort of vegetable dish she did not care for in the MDR. Other than that, we found the found the food to be quite good. Read more