Cruise June 28-July 3. This is our 5th cruise, 4 with Carnival and one with RCCL. This is our second time to sail with the Elation, the first one about 6 years ago. This is the first time we cruised with the rest of the family besides my DH and 2 kids. It was a family reunion and by far the best and most enjoyable family reunion so far. There were 24 of us ranging from 8 months - 73 years old.

We drove from Vegas the day before and stayed at my mother's house which is about a 2 ½ - hour drive to San Diego. We left early around 8 am on sail day to drive down to San Diego thinking about the horror stories I heard about the traffic that you encounter driving down there etc.

We reached San Diego at 10:30, which tells me I am officially on vacation because of the "no stress" factor driving down the California highway. We parked our car at the Park N Go lot (I went online 3 days before and found out they were offering an online coupon of $2.50 which brought down the per day parking fee to $7.50). Waited for the free shuttle bus to take us to the port and was ready to board the ship by 11:45. It would have taken less time only because there were 17 of us who drove down together to San Diego and it took 2 shuttle busses to haul everybody to the port. Whew...Just make sure you have your funpass done beforehand and you won't have any problem. Read more