LOCATION OF THE PORT:We chose the cruise because of the cost and location of port. We live only an hour away from Jacksonville, Florida. This was only our second cruise, our last was with Carnival more than 16 years ago and it was seven days to the Caribbean. First of all let me say, Carnival is inexpensive for a reason.
THE SHIP: This particular cruise ship was the Elation and it looked like it needed to be updated and many things replaced. However, the ship itself was extremely clean, the staff was more than happy, often times I would hear them singing to themselves or whistling, so they were always happy and always said hello and have a great day. We embarked and the process was simple,easy and before we knew it, we were on board. Our room was on the Empress and we were towards the back close to the middle.
THE STATE ROOM:We had a room with a view, the previous cruise we had an inside cabin, I do not recommend, regardless of how you tell yourself you don't spend that much time in the room. The window makes cruising so much better and watching the sun rise is incredible, so do yourself a favor and just pay the upgrade, I promise you wont be sorry. Now the room was clean and bear in mind that this wasn't a new ship and the ship looked older but clean. Now the room was nice and large, it had two fold down beds above and the two twin beds made into a large king bed. The mattress was the best I had ever slept on, no kidding, it was like a dream, no pun intended. The room had nice little slots to keep your sign and sail cards in and the mirrored area was nice and large enough to hold a lot of your stuff. I loved the robes, in fact I bought one on my last day!
Stay on the boat, waste of time, seriously.
Queens stair case and downtown.