We truly loved our experience onboard the Carnival Elation last week! This was my husband's 43rd cruise and my 23rd. There were some hang up's with this trip, but the overall sailing was really nice. It was definitely much better than the MSC cruise we took almost three weeks ago. Carnival has a large fleet of ships, but Port Canaveral only has a few options at this time because a few of the others are drydocked for some upgrading and cosmetics. For our budget and timing needs, we chose the Carnival Elation. Although the ship is not very large, it was actually much easier to navigate because so many activities and needs were centrally located and easy to access. For disabled people traveling with mobility issues-this is a huge plus! However, it wasn't so small that you felt every ripple in the water. I didn't have any motion sickness issues and that was my main concern after only being our second sail in 18 months. How about we start exploring the ship?

Embarkation:

They've scheduled everyone for a specific check-in time which kept the Port (Canaveral) running relatively smoothly without long lines. We pretty much went straight through security and check-in without any waiting. Once we were on board, we were instructed to head straight to our muster station for "self-mustering" (several employees wearing brightly colored labeled clothing with signs were available throughout to make it easy). They scanned our sign and sail cards and gave us a brief demonstration regarding how to use the life jacket, as well as other various safety statements, and then we were free to head straight to our room, which was ready. It was perfect and pretty well received by the majority of other cruisers we interacted with. In essence, it makes you feel like your vacation has officially begun. We used to dread the muster station drill! Mainly because by 3-4 pm, most of us are in our first food coma after lunch, many are intoxicated, or kids are fidgety and whiney. Read more