Me and my boyfriend (at the time) wanted to take a vacation that didn't cost us a fortune and would allow us to travel somewhere we had never been before. Of course our first thought was CRUISE! We looked into several different cruise lines and different places we could travel to, but Carnival Elation was our best bet as far as price wise. We was a bit skeptical because lets be honest, you get what you pay for and for a 4 day cruise traveling to the Bahamas - it was extremely cheap! I did all my research of course; checking out the reviews and fine print. I will say the reviews had me wanting to back out immediately! Overall it was an amazing vacation.

The embarkation was a breeze, our cabin was clean when we arrived - cleaned several times daily and stocked with fresh clean towels, the food was great, our steward called us by name and even went out of his way to make sure we had a great vacation. The staff was amazing and their hospitality was above and beyond - I cannot stress that enough!! I will say the alcohol was extremely expensive but that was ALL we paid for the whole time on the cruise. On the flip side we met several people who had cruised numerous times and informed us that you can sneak your own alcohol on the ship, just buy the plastic bottles and put it in your carry on bag. So next time we will have that covered!

While in Freeport we went to Tiano Beach, which was nice! The cab ride was $7 pp there and then $7 pp back and $3 to enter the beach - overall total spent in Freeport $34 (not including the drinks and food we had.) While in Nassau the weather wasn't that great - very windy and cloudy. We decided to take a tour with Perry, one of the local tour guides. He drove us all over Nassau showing us the poor side and the more wealthy side, Atlantis, Queen's Staircase, The Rum Cake Factory, the local spot to get conch (we even got to try some), The Straw Market (beware of "hustlers") and then dropped us right off at Junkanoo beach, which was a short distance from the ship. Overall the tour lasted about 3 hours and it was only $30 pp. Being that the weather wasn't great it was the perfect thing to do! If you decide to do a tour while in Nassau be sure to ask for Perry - you wont be disappointed! Read more