Carnival Elation Review
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Background: I booked this cruise as a 30th b-day present for my DH. This was his first cruise and my 3rd cruise. We were originally booked on the Ecstasy for the week of Jan 14 19, 2006. After Hurricane Katrina, we were switched over to the Elation, after the Ecstasy was sent to help with FEMA relief efforts. Mid-September, we were informed that our particular sailing was being chartered. (I later found out it was being chartered by this group : www.therockboat.com) For the inconvenience, Carnival gave us a NICE discount when we rebooked so we decided to just go a week earlier Jan 9-14, 2006. The cruise was from Galveston, TX and had ports in Cozumel, Mexico and Progreso, Mexico (originally scheduled to port in Playa del Carmen). There were 2 days at sea.
Pre-cruise: We drove from our home in Missouri to Galveston, Texas. We stayed the night prior to our cruise at the Holiday Inn on the Beach. We had an oceanview room with a balcony that overlooked the Gulf of Mexico. Some perks of staying here are that we were allowed to leave our car in a back parking lot for the duration of the cruise at no additional cost and a free shuttle to the pier. It is a great hotel and I would definitely stay here again.
Embarkation: We took the 11:30 shuttle from the hotel to the pier arriving at the pier approx around 11:50 (it took a while to get all the luggage loaded onto the shuttle). Once we were at the pier, it took maybe 10 minutes to get checked in. About 5 minutes later, they started calling for boarding with people in the back, left-side of the room. We were standing in the front, right-side so it took us a little while but it wasnt bad at all. We were on board around 12:40 and were told to not go to our rooms until at least 1:00 p.m. Since our room was on the empress deck, I decided to go take a peak. But our room steward was in our room and I didnt want to disturb him, so we took our carry-on stuff with us. To pass the time, we went to the aft verandah deck pool and met up with one of my friends from roll call. It was so nice to finally put a face with a name! She and her husband are very nice people and somehow we managed to completely miss each other the rest of the week.