Elated to be off that ship!
Written: Sep 02 '00 (Updated Sep 04 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Rooms, Weather, Pictures
Cons: Prices, Shore Excursions, Food, Kids
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| lazloholifield's Full Review: Carnival Elation |
We sailed on the 8/20 departure of the Elation for our honeymoon. The price was moderate, about $2,500.00 including airfare. The price was fair if you consider it was for food, transportation and a hotel room.
What was not fair was all the over rated opinions on quality. The food was nothing more than cafeteria food, even in the main dining room. The pizza bar and Tiffany's Bar & Grill was even worse, maybe on par with hospital food. The "free" beverages that came with our meal (juice, water, tea and coffee) were extremely watered down and tasteless. Worse than that was when we paid for a drink, if we ordered soda it was flat and off tasting for the low, low price of $3.00, if we ordered a cocktail ($4-$5)there was no alcohol in it. We are not "drinkers" and we were able to drink all day without the slightest hint of a buzz.
The next thing they don't tell you is about the kids running wild all day and night. Yes, they have a day camp for the kids, but only a few participate. The others are roaming the ship causing mayhem. Running up and down the halls knocking on doors, ordering room service sent to us at 5am, riding the elevators and pushing all 12 floors, crowding the pool so no adults could swim, throwing food, etc. Where were the parents all this time you ask, good question, they must have been in the casino getting sloshed. Cruises are the world largest floating daycare. Parents let their children run free because where are they going to go??
Shore excursions, DON'T do them. They are a huge waste of money. We did the 3 hour Mismaloya tour in Puerto Vallarta, which we were told, would be a city highlight tour. What we got was a free bus ride to where all the peddlers hang out! Buy this , buy that, it's all junk and highly overpriced.
The next day, we thought it would get better. We took the Stone Island Tour in Mazatlan. We were supposed to be taken to a "resort" where we could stay on the beach, have lunch and take a 25 horse back ride. What we got, once again, was something completely different. We were taken to some mud hut on a dirty beach that served some type of slop that had flys all over it. If you wanted to get down to the beach you had to wade through a sea of peddlers sticking snakes in you face. NO JOKE. They wanted us to pay them to put it on our shoulder for a picture opportunity! We never had a moments piece on the beach, the peddlers would come by one after another with something for us to buy, and if we said no thank you, they called us rude. We went back to the dining area, where peddlers were not allowed, to wait for our horseback ride. That was probably the highlight of the day, a 10 minute ride on a flea infested bag of bones that was about ready to drop dead any minute! Needless to say we cancelled our Cabo trip the next day.
One thing to keep in mind if you do go on an excursion, if the excursion is bad, insist on getting your money back while your still on the ship, Carnival will not refund it once you get back home. (This tip is from Carnival's Customer Service Dept.)
There is really not much to do on the ship other than gamble, shop and drink. This will all cost you money. Expect to spend about $700+ on the ship alone. The only free thing to do is eat, and the food is not worth over doing.
Expect some rudeness from the staff, apparently the crew of the Elation can be fired at the drop of a hat, so everyone is on pins and needles. The ones that are rudest are the ones with only 1 or 2 more sailings before their contract is up! We were told this by several crew members.
There was one thing under rated and that was the room size, we had a room on the Main deck with no window and it was just fine for the two of us. The room steward was outstanding, if we left the room for 5 minutes and came back it was already cleaned.
Over all, I would not recommend this to anyone but families.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
lazloholifield
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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