This is a review I wrote shortly after our Elation cruise in Nov.'99. Well, my wife and I just got back from a week on the Elation on Monday Nov 15.(We spent the night in Vegas on the way back) We stayed at the San Pedro Hilton the night before and it was great! The marina is a beautiful place for a walk and there is lots to do around there. Ports of Call has 50+ shops and restaurants. It was wonderful. We got to see the Elation come in at around 6:30 am from our room window. This was a total fluke. I just got up to use the washroom and took a look. It was pretty neat. We took a hotel shuttle to the port. The Rhapsody of the Seas was in port also. What an impressive ship! The Elation is a gorgeous ship too. She is very similar to her sister the Imagination which we went on a couple of years ago, with a few minor changes. Seating. Even though we were confirmed for late seating, we were assigned to early seating with 2 other couples from Canada. We wanted late seating so changed it and wound up at a table of 60+ (years) people. Half of whom wound up not coming to dinner. Needless to say, dinner conversations were a bit of a let down. We did wind up at a large table though and what conversations we did have were interesting, I don't know if it is was LA or if its because the Elation has a great kids club but I figure 50% of the people on board had kids. Running and screaming, bumping in to you and sitting at the bar with you (that's tough to get used to). I would not recommend this cruise to someone who is child intolerant. We have a little girl and decided to leave her at home but after a few hours I began to wonder why, we just could have let her roam free on the floating daycare like all of the other people. One couple had 6 kids with them. Three young ones and a set of newborn of triplets. What kind of a holiday is that? I myself would not take this cruise again and I think I will avoid Carnival in the future. I have been on three of their ships now and I think its time for a change. I found many of the guests to be pushy and rude. Even though I'm still in my thirties I think its time to move up to Princess or Holland where proper manners and dress are still (I hope) in effect. The rum swizzle party was insane! People pushing and shoving everyone just for a free drink. When we cruised on the Imagination last time we set our watches to ships time and left them there. This cruise has you changing your watches 4 out of the 7 days. This is a real pain in the behind and I don't know if it is because of the itinerary or what. Oh yes, a guest got sick and the ship had to be diverted to Mazatlan on the way down. This caused us to be about 4 hours late and we missed our tour that we booked independent of Carnival. This was the only tour we booked so we were a little disappointed in missing it. The guest was in stable condition last that we heard and they gave us one extra hour in PV and 2 extra hours in Cabo. Lastly, the seas are very rough on this side of the world! The ship was constantly rocking and listing side to side. Many people were sick the entire voyage and the waves were not even that high. On the positive side, we met some very nice people (including a waiter we exchanged addresses with), saw some nice ports, got some sun and had a lot of fun! The cruise director was a riot and seemed to be having a lot of fun too. FYI, I didn't use it but saw many people using the ATM successfully. Richard & Cathy