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Carnival Cruise Line

MS Elation

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Richard Thorpe
# previous cruises: 3
Date of Trip: June 2, 2002
Itinerary: Mexico - Western

The ship's interior is exceptionally attractive and appears clean and maintained. The ships officers were Italian. Most of the crew were Oriental, Mexican, British, or European; no Americans.

The Elation's itinerary is a half and half blend of "time at sea" and "time in port". My wife and I and our 17-year-old son cruised June 2nd thru June 9th, 2002. The first two and the last days at sea along the California/Baja coast were cloudy and cool; not conducive for lounging around the pool. Saturday, the last day of the cruise, you needed blue jeans and a jacket on deck. The weather Tuesday thru Friday, noon was tropical and sunny. Elation has no theater for viewing movies. There are two movie channels for in room viewing only.

There is only one bar with TVs. Being a sports fan, I find that inadequate. Even with three TVs at this bar, the radio room never had ESPN dialed in. Taking the good with the bad, I did get to see some world soccer tournament and hockey playoff, but they might have the space shuttle channel dialed in (all three screens!) for 90 minutes! The British cruise director managed to get the June 8th, Tyson-Lewis fight on the giant screen in the main lounge!!!

The evening dining was typical for a cruise; the food was tolerable and the service was excellent. After a night of dancing at the Hekyl and Jekyl Lounge, our son found the 24-hour pizzeria handy at 2 in the morning. We found it hard to pass up too. Six different styles, light crust, Ceasar salad, all quite good. All soda is extra now. By your kid a soda card for $20 as soon as possible.

Four weeks before the cruise we had our travel agent call Carnival and ask for a complimentary room upgrade. We were upgraded from a lower level interior to a same level outer cabin. It had a large viewing window, two twin beds and two fold down twin bunks. We found the storage space adequate. Bath and shower space was larger than bath space you find in most couple's cabins. Families with two kids or more would book a cabin for the parents and a separate cabin for the kids.

Typical entertainment every eve in the main lounge: magic act, several comedians, fiddler, Las Vegas style, song and dance review (two nights and I kept nodding off during both) Overall, the line up seemed makeshift and substandard.

We received all the shore excursions that we requested at each port.

All our tours were generous with food and drink. All provided a lunch and unlimited bar( Deer Island had no alcohol available).

In Puerto Vallarta, I highly recommend the "Unimog" Back country Adventure. You get to visit two villages, a short hike in the Sierra highlands, and experience a Mexican beach barbecue.

In Mazatlan, we took the Deer Island Adventure. Somewhat disorganized. I can't recommend it.

The ship is moored in the harbor at Cabo San Lucas. Service to town is via tender. We booked the Santa Maria Cove Sail and Snorkel. There were a number of snorkel excursions offered. From what I could tell, ours was the nicest vessel by far; a 55foot Catamaran. The sailboat was clean with an enthusiastic crew of six and carried approximately 25 passengers. The snorkel sight was from the boat at a tiny rock strewn cove with an adjacent beach. All the other boats came here to snorkel. Good variety of fish but not much to see otherwise. The water was quite cool but manageable. There were a few shivering to get back to the boat after > of an hour. During the sail back, the boat got relatively close for us to see the Lands End rock formations.

Clientele seemed to be a broad mix of ages and nationalities: some honeymooners, many families. Senior cruisers were scarce.