This will be a short review. I took my 11yo son on the Elation 6-10-10. It was a reward for a good school year. We normally cruise with my wife and 3 other kids...

Embarkation I'd seen a lot of reported problems with this, so we drove down the night before from Tennessee and stayed at the Hampton Inn downtown. They have a Carnival park and save rate. It worked great. The hotel was very clean and friendly. They fed my son cookies as soon as we walked in. We had dinner at a pizza place down the street and breakfast in the hotel in the morning. About 11am we walked about three blocks to the cruise terminal. We each had a roll cart. The hotel offered transportation but without our ladies in the party we just walked. No problem. We were on the ship before noon and eating on the Lido deck.

The Ship I think it was fine. We've been on several ships in the Fantasy class and besides decor they are all laid out similarly. This ship didn't have the "evolutions of fun" no huge waterslide- but the boy didn't complain. Everything seemed very normal for a carnival cruise Read more