My wife and I chose to spend our one week vacation aboard the Elation. Our destination was the Eastern Caribbean. I have a friend who had just recently returned from the Western Caribbean and had only wonderful things to say about Carnival Cruise Lines. For starters I'm 30 years old and my wife is 27. This was our first cruise and our first real vacation since our honeymoon over 5 years ago. Needless to say we were both excited about this new adventure. We were really looking forward to the relaxing days spent by the pool and all of the gourmet food we'd heard about.

We arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport and easily located our driver. We were then herded onto a hot Greyhound bus and waited about 20 minutes for the other guest to arrive. The ride took roughly 30 minutes to get to the Miami port. We then stood in line for another 30 minutes prior to getting on board the ship. Once on board we were given little help locating our cabin. It was a complete circus, people wandering everywhere with little or no guidance.

We located our cabin and immediately headed upstairs to the Cole Porter Lounge for the safety briefing. Read more