Carnival Elation Review

Enjoyable Trip But The Carnival Elation Needs A Lot Of Work

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Elation
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Erebus
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
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Sail Date: May 2014

Embarkation was a fairly easy process. The lines were neither long or difficult. Once inside, we only waited 10 minutes to get aboard the ship. The main issue was the parking garage at the port. Carnival said we would not be able to board until 1:30pm. We arrived at 1:00pm expecting to wait. Our bags are taken in the garage and we headed to find a spot. Quickly my wife & I learned the entire garage was already full. A Carnival employee directed from the top to a make shift spot. Once aboard, we quickly learned that ship started accepting passengers around noontime. So if you want to spot in the close garage, you need to arrive earlier than 1pm.

Carnival now allow's passengers to go straight to their staterooms. A big plus from our last cruise. I will leave the comments about our stateroom to my particular review of our stateroom U137. Our room attendant Ros was great. During the entire cruise he greeted us kindly and talked about the trip. He always passed on good advice or words of caution. Apparently teenagers like to steal your breakfast orders in the evening, so Ros told us when to do so he could have it taken care of. We were very happy with his service.

Now the Elation is a Fantasy class ship. We had sailed in 2010 on the Fascination; a fellow sister ship, it became quickly apparent the Elation had not seen much in the way of updates. The Elation obviously was showing its age. My wife quickly started pointing things out that need to be cleaned, repaired, or replaced. She enjoyed the Fascination's decor, but considered the Elation's dated, not that I considered them that different. Still the ship did not seem clean. Crew were constantly working on the ship during the cruise, but the ship's old age kept showing.

Cabin Review

My wife & I had sailed in December of 2010 on the Carnival Fascination. We were expecting our rooms to be similar since both the Fascination & Elation are the same class ship. What was evident right away is that Elation has still not completed is “Fun Ship” overhaul unlike the Fascination in 2010. The first thing we noticed was a large fixed box in the far left corner of our room. It was used as a coffee table and place to house emergency items. With our room setup with a king size bed, this box did not allow anyone to walk around the bed. I got the spot next to the window, so during the entire cruise I had to jump or slide into bed. The next clearly evident feature was the tube television. My home has not had a tube television in over 6 years. The Fascination did not have them in their staterooms, so this was very surprising to my wife & I. The TV functioned fine, but obviously poor image quality compared to the standard HD TV's used by most people. A definite negative for watching movies or sports in your room during the cruise. Looking around it was also clearly evident that our closet and desk space were smaller than our past cruise. It also looked very weathered and had been painted numerous times. Thankfully on this cruise, the staff had not left a spare bed under our king. So were able to easily stow our extra piece of luggage in the empty space. I would love to see some more hangers in the closet area. With my wife using most of the dozen hangers, I was only left with a few to put up my dress clothes. The last major problem with the room and easily the entire ship, is the lack of American electrical outlets. The room had only two standard American outlets. One near the desk and the other only to be used for electric shavers located in the vanity light in the bathroom. In this day in age with most cruisers having tablets, cellphones, cameras, and/or laptops, only one usable outlet is terrible. The Fascination had at least two completely usable outlets in our room. I would recommend anyone to bring a European 220V adapter with you on your cruise. Also to note, that charging items like cellphones took much longer than usual in the room compared to at home. Then there is a debate to get a inside stateroom vs one with a window. My wife & I agree to just get a window is not worth the additional money. It added nothing for us during the cruise. People will disagree with us and that is fine. Just our opinion. If you can afford it, upgrade to a balcony. Unfortunately the Elation does not really have any so you need to book them fast. The bathroom was small and simple. Nothing really different from our previous cruise. Our stateroom attendant was always on the spot to replace used towels and he did a great job of cleaning the room several times a day. Our attendant; Ros, was polite and helpful during the entire cruise. Anything we asked for, Ros delivered. He made the experience aboard the ship all the better. The bed & pillows were more comfortable than our last Carnival cruise. So we did enjoy that improvement. Overall the room was dated and in need of an update. If you don't plan on staying your room much of the time, it will serve it's purpose. It is nothing to write home about, but all the problems are manageable.

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