After sailing twice on Royal Caribbean, several girlfriends and I decided to try Carnival since we wanted a 5 night cruise and the price was right. We flew into San Diego and took a taxi van (for $10) to the docks which were about 5 minutes away. It was a little after 1:00 and we were able to board the ship right away. We were disappointed to be entering the ship on the lowest level, down a small hallway of cabins instead of into the main open area of the ship as we'd done on previous cruises.

We found our rooms with no problem. We loved that all the decks were color coded which helped us navigate this confusing ship. The layout of the Elation is odd with the centrum far forward instead of center ship. It was also disappointing that you had to go all the way up to the pool deck to be outside, unlike other ships where you can walk outside from the main decks. It just felt a little claustrophobic. Our rooms were decent sized with a larger shower than we'd ever had and a nice large mounted t.v. The only bummer was our friends who were in a triple had a cot for the third bed! Not what they were expecting...

The muster drill was a joke! We were all asked to go to different lounges and meeting places (according to our cabins) but after everyone crammed in, we were re-directed our to the deck for further instructions. We were given the wrong deck # so over 100 people were wandering the ship without a clue! The Elation definitely never came across as organized or well staffed. Read more