I arrived a day early and stayed at the Holiday Inn Port
of Miami. I have been to Bayside Market Place on a number of occasions. It
is a nice place to spend a few hours but certainly not anything to get real
excited about. It is nice to sit out side and watch the comings and
goings. The Holiday Inn is a fine place to spend a night either pre or post
cruise.
I checked out of the hotel as late as I could and took a cab to the ship. My
porter handled his job in an efficient manner. I do need to say that
sometime between leaving my bags with the porter and receiving it on the
ship one of them was smashed resulting in the case for one of my dive masks
being ruined. Since it was in a soft side duffle bag I have to record that
as just one of those things.
No trouble at all. It took about 15 minutes to get through the line and then I was on my way to the ship. Of course I was stopped for the embarkation photo and then the sign and sail photo but those took maybe 30 seconds each. It took maybe 5 minutes from being checked in to being up the steps and onto the ship.
I had an ocean view cabin near the middle of the ship on the Riviera deck. I thought the room was well laid out, though a lounge chair in addition to the desk chair would have been nice. I really wonder if the cabin is a large as it is claimed. I did not measure it but it sure seemed smaller than advertised. There is a small closet and another area that could also be used for clothes storage. The bathroom is a nice size.
The usual muster drill without nothing out of the ordinary to report.
It is not at all what I expected. The ship was more subdued than I expected. Plenty of elevators, and stairs were easy to navigate.
I know that the ship just got out of dry dock and people need to realize that a dry dock is not a remodeling. It is an opportunity to inspect and repair the mechanical parts of the ship that cannot be accessed while the ship is afloat. Everything is clean and well kept but it is not new, of course Elation is not an old ship either. Overall the ship was clean and looked fine. The deck division spent every day painting something. They really worked hard and the ship is in great shape. (The exception is the basketball court that has been discussed and is still being worked on. Maybe they will get it done soon.)
Very few announcements. I expected quiet a few but they were limited unless there was something important to talk about. In other words they did a good job communicating but did not overburden us with too many ads.
The dinning room staff was only OK. The first couple of days they did a great job but as the week wore on you had to ask for more bread and water (these automatically appeared the first part of the cruise). The dancing and singing by the wait staff takes away any sense of formality. If you want to think that Carnival dining is formal, you lose that thought when the show starts. The atmosphere is totally ruined. It turns the dining room into an amusement park restaurant atmosphere.
My cabin steward did an excellent job without being intrusive which I really appreciate.
These are a great group of people. They are always willing to sit and chat with you and are happy to discuss their homes and families.
I saw jeans, jean shorts, jean mini's and jean capris in
the dining room every night. I saw sweat shorts, shorts, and beach cover-ups
in the dining room every night. In light of the posted dress code it is
amazing to me that people dress this way for dinner. People on these boards
refer to the Carnival dining room as formal but it is clear that the
majority of the passengers do not know the definition of formal.
On the first formal night men were dressed in everything from tuxes to jeans
and “T” shirts with sandals. Women had on everything from lovely formal wear
to things that should not been seen on a TV show telling you how to dress.
The other nights there were lots of jeans and shorts. On the second formal
night about 25% OF THE PEOPLE DRESSED. Most men were either in a shirt and
tie, a coat without a tie or a golf shirt.
It seems that in its zeal to attract varied styles and types of cruisers
Carnival has forgotten how to enforce its own dress code. They provide
alternate dining for those that want to dine casually and then turn the
other way when it comes to inappropriate dress in the main dining room.
Assigned seating may be efficient for the ship, and is a
throwback to the days of grand cruising but I find it to be too regimented.
I prefer open seating.
Food is a very subjective thing; opinions vary on it quite a bit…so here’s
my opinion. The food, was nothing special and I felt that more of it was bad
than good. I will mention specific items below. All in all I thought that
the food was typical of chain restaurants in the US. The food is very hearty
fare but nothing special at all.
All that I can say about breakfast is that is was almost OK. There was nothing particularly special but there was nothing bad either. It is just the usual breakfast foods. The eggs, hash browns, pancakes, French toast and pastries are typical of fast food establishments in the U.S.
LUNCH: When I ate lunch on the ship I ate on the Lido deck. The hamburgers and cheeseburgers were nice but overcooked. The fries were good. The one day I tried the taste of nations they had Greek food, which was simply put not like any Greek food that I have ever tasted, and I grew up eating Greek food. The Deli was OK, as was the pizza. I did not think that the pizza was as good as some others have said but it was certainly not bad. Clearly it was not made on board, but was frozen. It had a nice flavor and the crust was just right. I had sushi almost every night. It was good but not real sushi, in that all the fish is cooked. I think carnival is concerned about someone getting sick from raw fish so they use cooked things. It tasted great, but it would have been nice to have some raw fish available.
It was hit or miss for me. No matter what fancy name you put on the dishes a lot of them were just not very good.
I had both steak and lamb. The waiter insisted that the steak which I ordered rare was correctly cooked. It was closer to medium than it was to rare. (Over the course of the week my tablemates and I decided that the passengers did not really know what rare, medium rare, etc. actually are and the kitchen staff sent out food like the people expected, not like they ordered.) The flavor was bland but a bit of salt and pepper fixed that. The lamb portion was tiny and fatty. The sides all had a nice flavor.
I had roast beef with a nice sauce and flavor. The salad was advertised as fresh mixed greens. In reality it was iceberg lettuce with a few carrots and a single tomato wedge. If it is going to be called mixed greens they should serve mixed greens, or if they are going to serve lettuce call it a tossed salad.
prime rib and lobster were just OK The only way to get the prime rib was medium rare. The lobster was stringy and overcooked.
Tried langustino, which was just bad. It was completely lacking in flavor, as if it had been boiled without any seasoning. The beefsteak tomatoes and mozzarella were also flavorless. The filet that I had was the best piece of meat that I ate all week. It was prepared in an acceptable manner though I still was unable to get it cooked rare. It was a quality cut of beef.
Beef Wellington was nicely prepared and well presented. A good job.
The prime rib was better tonight than earlier in the week. The shrimp that I also had was marinated in mint and vermouth among other things and tasted terrible. The marinade ruined the flavor. Baked Alaska was nothing more than cake and ice crème.
Watch out for the Seafood Newberg, it is like no Newberg that I have ever had before.
Desserts were pretty tasteless. None of them tasted very sweet to me at all.
After a couple of days I decided to stick to sherbet for desert.
Overall the ambience was lacking in the dining room every night. There was
no elegance or quietness. The dancing waiters, the songs and the games
cheapen the experience so much that it makes the dining room experience seem
like a cafeteria.
Two nice excursions here. A dive followed by a snorkel
trip. The dive was great but was not as advertised. The excursion list says
this is a shallow dive between 12 and 18 feet. The dive actually went to 43
feet. That did not detract at all but is something to be aware of. When we
asked the dive operator about it he said that they did not have any dives
that shallow, they shallowest was about 25 feet. The reef was in good shape
with an abundance of fish including some nice barracuda.
The snorkel trip was also good. We went to a nice reef where I say a number
of species of fish that are uncommon. These are tow good excursions. The
sand is some of the cleanest and whitest that I’ve seen in a long time, it
rivals Provo in the Turks and Caicos for beauty.
I spent the morning at Coki Beach where the snorkeling was pretty good. Took a cab back to the ship, ate lunch on the Lido deck and then shopping and did the skyway tram.
I did a walking tour of Old San Juan on my own. There is nothing to report on this.
Went snorkeling. The water in the Turks and Caicos as
usual are beautiful but the fish must have been on vacation. there were just
not a lot of them around. The beach at the end of the pier is easy to get
to. I used that beach and the pool at the pier prior to my tour.
The ocean floor though seems to have sustained a lot of damage, which is
caused by the ships using thrusters when docking. There was no coral to be
seen, but in examining the area from the deck of the ship there was never
any coral in this area anyway.
The main terminal is open with a single tenant. The locals are out in there
straw market type places and there is Margaritaville.
I thought Carnival did a so so job with the evening
shows. I found the day time activities on board to be lacking. I finished
three books on the cruise, so I definitely read a lot. I felt that there was
a lack of diversity in entertainment. Mini golf was fun and a good addition
to the ship.
As a side note: Watch out for the art auction. Make sure that you know your
stuff before you even think about buying anything. I felt like everything
was really overpriced and thought that I had seen some of the pieces
elsewhere for much less than the reserve amount. All I am saying is if you
really want a piece of art do your homework before you bid on anything. I
will say that the champagne at the auction made watching all the more fun.
Liquor was delivered on Saturday afternoon. Someone got the message bout having to go get your own on Sunday morning.
I used the self assist option, which worked out great. Carnival is urging everyone to do this and in fact is calling it by deck, from the top down, when this finished they do VIP and special assist and then general debarkation in a free for all. The only time decks were called was for self debarkation.
On a scale of 1 to 10 I give the cruise a 5 to 6. I was
unimpressed and disappointed with the food but surprisingly pleased with
just about everything else. The shows were fine, the crew was more than
friendly and helpful and the ship was clean and sparkling.
In the right circumstance I would cruise Carnival again, but it would not be
my first choice because the was
simply too big for my tastes, and it is one of Carnival’s smaller ships.