Things started off kind of rocky. We had a 12 pm boarding time and on the drive down from South Carolina, we get notified that the port is closed, next update at 10am. At 10 we get notified that the port is still closed and the next update is at 12. The last update says the Elation will dock at 12:45 and move your boarding time up 4 hours.
We parked at WallyPark by the airport because of some reviews we had read. It was almost 1/2 the price of port parking and was covered. They ran shuttles to the port. I'm assuming because of the late start, it threw everything in a tizzy, because we waited in the parking lot there. The shuttles were few and far between and we waited for almost 2 hours before we finally got on a shuttle. Reservations meant nothing, as the shuttle picked up whoever got to it first. I'm not sure I would use them again.
We don't have a lot of cruising experience, but embarkation wasn't that bad. About 4pm, we got our Sail &Sign cards and were on board! First order of business, head straight to Guys Burger joint. Amazing burger.
I reviewed the cabin in the "cabin review" section on Cruise Critic, but here's a rundown. It was one of the new balcony cabins that was added during dry dock. We were on Empress Deck, which was really convenient.
The cabin was in great shape. The balcony had 2 chairs and a small table on it and that's about all the room it had. There was nowhere to sit in the cabin except the bed and the small stool at the desk. With the beds pushed together as a king, there would have been enough room to bring in a chair from the balcony, but we didn't.
Nothing, I mean nothing in the room is metal, so all the tips we got about bringing magnetic hooks and such just meant that we brought stuff we couldn't use. Not even the cabin door was metal. We brought decorations and couldn't use them. Some other doors were decorated, but they used scotch tape.
We did not need a power strip. There were 2 USB plugs by the bed and 2 more at the desk. There were 2 120v plugs at the desk also, so DW could use her hair dryer while her straightener warmed up. There was a hair dryer provided in the room, but it wasn't very powerful.
Pushy sellers. Just took a cab ride to see the sights. Queen's Staircase was interesting.
The most beautiful place on earth, I think.