THE FUN OF THE MEXICAN RIVERIA
Written: Dec 29 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: GREAT DESTINATION, FUN CRUISE
Cons: LAYOUT OF SHIP
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| PUFKIN21's Full Review: Carnival Elation |
Make no mistake Carnival's ship the Elation is a FUN SHIP! We had a lot of fun and plenty to do also for our children. Carnival had one of the best childrens programs we have seen on a lot of cruises. They had programs for children as young as 2 up to teenagers. They had the groups broken down into age groups of 2-5 , 6-8 , 9-12 , teens. We had two children onboard ages 8 and 14 and they both enjoyed the programs they offered very much. Normally my teen will not go to the groups, but this time he just about lived! They had fun parties and contest for all ages. Also when the ship was in port you were able to have your children in the program all day, so if you wanted to take a tour without them, no problem! Other cruise lines would not do this, only limited hours and you would have to pick them up at lunch, so that would not leave time to do a tour or other things that would take longer.
The ship itself was very nicely decorated in most areas. However most of the ship not laid out very well. For example the pool area. They had the pool and hot tubs separated from the stage by the slide. So that when activities were going on there you would not be able to see what was going on. They really should have put the slide at one end or the other. Also they had the lifeboats on the upper decks so that you could not have a full view of the areas around the ship. Most ships have them lower and tucked in so as not to block views. On Carnivals newest ship they now have them done correctly! The main deck of shops and casino area only had one side to walk down, most have a smoking side and non smoking side. This made that area around dinner time very smoky. Also a lot of things were out of order. The ship only had 4 hot tubs by the 2 outside pools and only 1 at each pool worked the whole cruise. We asked several times about this and they just said they would look into it. We never saw anyone working on them the whole cruise. So everyone piled into one hot tub all the time. They did leave the pool area open much later then other ships.
The dinning room staff was great! The food on this ship was very good, had a great varity for everyone. They did offer a children menu.
The ports of call were great! Every port we went to we were the only ship in port! That is VERY unusual, when you are use to caribbean ports that have 5 or more ships in port at once this is great! When we were at sea, which was the first 2 days it was great, we only saw 1 or 2 ships and we saw lots of dolphin in large schools jumping out of the water, and whales in the distance. During whale season which starts in Dec they are very abundant. One of the shops in Mazatlan told us that you would even be able to see whales from shore during that time. Mazatlan had a very nice shopping area right across from the shore and had a boardwalk next to the shore. In Puerto Vallarta we took a horse back riding trip on our own in the jungle and mountains. It was a great trip! Total time was about 4 hours riding time and they also stopped at restaurant in the mountains. The other port was Los Cabos. This is a very pretty town. Only draw back here was you were only in port from 7a-12n. Which was not enough time to really do anything. The other ports we were in there all day long till 10pm and 8pm.
I would highly recommend this ship for families or younger couples. Most of the ship was filled with children. If you like cruises but are tired of going to ports with a lot of ships at the same time this cruise is for you! We are considering taking this ship again this Feb during the whale season.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
PUFKIN21
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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