Elation review (including Amtrak)
- From: "Babie" <cruiseaddict@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:37:27 -0600
I've been home for a few days now, but I'm not quite recovered or rested up (I caught a cold when we got home lol) but I wanted to give a little information about our cruise onboard Carnival's Elation.
A little BG for those who don't know me.
This was my 14th cruise (in just under 5 years with 15,16 and 17 coming in December) This was my partners (Jarrod) 6th cruise and our 5th together. We were celebrating our 15th anniversary.
Amtrak Albuquerque - San Diego: We boarded the train about 4pm on Saturday for an overnight trip to San Diego, with a train change in Los Angeles on Sunday morning. Amtrak handled our luggage (better than airlines IMO)
I would highly suggest Amtrak if you have a couple extra days pre and post cruise. It was really relaxing! Especially on the return trip when no one ever wants to deal with airports or driving. The only negative thing we found, and this isn't that big of a deal is that our assigned seats were about 2 rows from the doorway that separated our car (the last one) and the car in front of us. All night when people were coming and going from the snack car or the observation car it would wake us up.
Now I'll be the first to say that Amtrak isn't the best option for everyone. I've taken them once before from Albuquerque to just east of Dallas. It took us about 3 days because the routes take you through Chicago, with numerous train and shuttle-bus transfers.
If you're ever sailing out of San Diego, I highly suggest the Pacific Surfliner (the train from LA to San Diego) It's beautiful! But I want to warn you all, DO NOT fall for the "you need a taxi to the ship" It's literally across the street (and a parking lot) from the train station in San Diego. Post cruise, we just walked across the street and checked our bags at the station.
Embarkation: It was probably the smoothest embarkation I've ever had. We decided to walk the 8 blocks or so from our hotel (downtown) since we only had 1 small backpack and 2 small rolling suitcases. We had walked it the day before our cruise so we could check out the Ryndam which was in port. We walked through the terminal outside gates and were directed across the lot to check our bags. Then inside to wait to board. We were onboard by 11:30.
The ship. Now the Fantasy class is not a great class of ship IMO, though I know they're popular (and I'll be doing 3 more in that class in December) but I was really impressed in the Elation. The differences (not just decor) between the Fantasy and Elation were amazing! Nothing huge, but a lot of things I notices. The disco being the most different. the food, as usual, was great! However I will say that the buffet was nothing compared to what I had on the Fantasy (or other ships for that matter) But the pizza and caesar salads were what I lived on most of the time. lol.
Cabo: Neither of us had ever visited there before, but Jarrod's mom goes a few times a year because his dad owns a large both he keeps moored in the marina. So we had a few ideas what we wanted to do. The day we were in Cabo was the day of our anniversary (October 1st). All of our plans flew out the window when we got off the ship. We shopped a bit and at noon-ish we sat down at a small bar just outside the steps to Cabo Wabo. We were planted there until we had to catch the next to last tender. We met a lot of locals as well as people doing land vacations there. We ended up spending a ton of money at Del Sol and a couple local shops on gifts for our daughter and niece.
Ensenada. I was very surprised how clean it is! Now we did mainly stuck to the 8 block shopping district after our tour, but I was impressed. I think it was cleaner than San Diego, and I think SD is a really clean and pretty city.
We did the Wine Country" tour. It was $41pp through Carnival. I have never seen a prettier valley! Once the bus made it over the mountains, I was impresses. We visited the Domesq and the L.A. Cetto wineries. The views from the terraces at the Cetto winery were breathtaking. We bought 2 large bottles of their olive oil for under $7 each. At Domesq we were each given a free bottle of wine (dates 2006) both are reds. Jarrod also bought a nice bottle of Brandy (I don't drink brandy yuk!)
Debarkation: This was the simplest thing I've ever done! We selected to do self debarkation. But even had we sat our luggage out the night before it was have been a snap. They didn't make anyone claim their bags before going through customs. The lines moved so fast that we were at the train station by 9am! Luckily the Pacific Surfliner runs about every hour and a half. Although our train didn't leave Union Station in LA until 6:45pm. So we watched the crazies there for a little while lol.
I probably missed a few points I wanted to make, but I'm suffering a cold and the cough suppressant is making me sleepy *blush*
Let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything.
LES!
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