I had arrived with my mother on 8/27/06 for the cruise on Elation after transferring from Fort Lauderdale to save money on airfare since airfare to Miami was more expensive. Getting on the bus in a timely fashion was smooth. Check in at Port of Miami was smooth and waited roughly 45 minutes in line. Check in was easy. Got right onto the boat around 1pm.
I have cruised in the past on Royal so this was my first time on Carnival. From the RCCL experience, I had high expectations for this cruise. Yes, Royal did in fact set the standard high. I think the quality of this Elation cruise I could see was a waste from the get go. Now- here we go with in-depth review from the one and only redsocksrockstar!
Aftter checking into the ship with a not-so-warm friendly welcome from the staff of the ship, I proceeded to the state room. The room was a great size with comfortable beds. Much bigger then RCCL's 119 sq ft rooms. The stewards I had were Nyoman and IMade who were awesome, friendly and sociable from the get-go. The ship was rather clean and smelled good. Hallways were rather quiet at nights. Not much noise of people running up and down the halls which was nice. I slept pretty well, better then on the RCCL. These beds come with down comforters i guess u'd call them, great sleeping experience!