Carnival Cruise Lines
Elation Cruise Review
Eastern Caribbean

Maureen
Age: 37
Occupation: Teacher
Number of Cruises: 3
Date of Cruise: July 9th, 2006

This was our 3rd cruise- we had been on a Costa and Carnival cruise in the past two years. This was a 7 day Caribbean cruise that I went on with my 67 year old mother and my 8 year old son. My mother was in a wheelchair due to a broken foot, which did not end up a problem except at ports. We boarded the ship easily, and enjoyed the open buffet for lunch as soon as we boarded. In the evening, I had to go and grab a steward to help me pull down the bunk bed for my son as there was a hidden button that is hard to find to pull it down. I paged the room steward repeatedly without success. Our steward did not see us until the next day, at which time he said that his pager was broken and if we needed him we should "just look for him". Pretty convenient- for him. Fortunately, we did not need him after the first evening.

The food on the ship was good. We had the sit down dinner each night. The seafood Newburg dinner was overcooked and tough, but the beef Wellington was great. Overall, good.

Camp Carnival, the program for kids, unfortunately was not good overall. The first night, parents were to register their children in the camp at 5:00 pm. I waited until 5:30, (with all the other families and small children crawling over a room on the ship with nothing to do) and no one showed up. I left, and at 6:30 that evening another message was made with a new time to register at camp, now 7:00 pm. I had it with that whole scene, and instead registered my son at camp the next day.

The third day into the cruise, we were at port at Puerto Rico. My son stayed at the camp from 9:00-3:00 pm, at which point I picked him up to go swimming and eat dinner with us. I asked the camp counselor when the camp would reopen after dinner, as I knew that my son would enjoy going to see the show with them in the evening. Much more fun than going with us. The counselor replied that since it was a port day, Camp Carnival did not recommend more than six hour intervals at camp. Camp Carnival recommended that I keep my son for the evening. I was shocked and insulted to be getting advice (unsolicited) about the best way to occupy my son's time on the cruise from a youth counselor, who, most likely, wanted less kids to watch so she could have some free time at port. I ended up complaining to the head of the youth program, who informed me that indeed that is the policy of Carnival on port days, although "perhaps" the counselor was overzealous in explaining it. Never in past cruises have I had any situation like this, and hopefully never will again. I kept my son away from the camp as much as possible for the rest of the cruise, because I sensed that he was not doing much besides playing PlayStation 2 anyway, and I had serious reservations about the youth counselors.

For myself, I will be looking for a Disney cruise next time. If you plan on traveling by Carnival with kids, stay away from the Elation.

 

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