My 9 year old son really wanted to take a cruise as our family vacation, so we deicded on the Carnival Elation 5 night cruise out of Jacksonville, FL. It had been over 20 years our last cruise (my husband and I). After looking over reviews, it can be known that no cruise has an abundance of fabulous reviews adn many need to be taken with a grain of salt. We knew the Elation was an older ship, but we wanted the two days at sea and not port stop after port stop. We also wanted a ship with a kids club so our son could do his own thing at times.

Cabin - We booked a cabin on the Main Deck with a large window. The room was great for a family of three, but would be tight for more. Our son loved the pull down bed and we had plenty of space for our belongings. The bathroom tile was aged, but I would not consider it dity. Everything was clean and the bed adn pillows were very comfortable. Our cabin steward knew our names and spoke to us each day. He was very nice!

Embarkation / disembarkation - both of these were fine. We reserved a boarding time of 11:30 and all went smoothly. Once on board, we went into our cabin and left our carry on bag in so we can start exploring the ship. Muster time was a bit long and very hot, but we were in Florida. I woudl recommend having suncreen on if your area is on the lido deck by thye pool. Getting off was fine. We carried our luggage off and went to our assigned area at time given and waited. There was a lot of people and would considered it organized chaos. However, people were calm and nobody complained adn teh staff was friendly, directing everyone to the elevators when ready. Read more