Sailed on the Elation leaving Galveston Jan. 23-30. This was my 6th cruise and I'm 44 yrs old. Took my girlfriend.

Embarkation was no problem, arrived at pier about 10:45 a.m. It took about an hour to get on. The weather was about 40 degrees so there was basically no sailaway party. Just a few brave souls on the Lido deck. The NFL conference championships were on TV that afternoon but Carnival personnel insisted they could not receive the game. After tweaking the TV in the Cole Porter lounge another passenger and I managed to get a sorry picture on a FOX station out of Houston. This was enough to start our own impromptu sailaway watching party. Carnival wasn't smart enough to open the bar in the Cole Porter lounge to serve drinks and no one wanted to get up and lose there seats. Many people complained. Their monetary loss.

The ship overall was in good shape. Picked a good week as far as no children running wild. The few that were aboard were well behaved. If fact the public areas were never crowded at all compared to other ships I'd been on. The only time it even got crowded was when everyone was going to dinner or a show had ended. Plenty of areas to find peace and quite to sit and cruise. Read more