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Today I am sharing a quick recap of our Spring Break Cruise! A few things first…my husband had been on a cruise a few years before we met but the rest of us were first time cruisers. We had a set budget to spend on a Spring Break Vacation and this cruise fit the budget. I had heard not so great things about Carnival Cruises, so honestly my expectations were fairly low. I should also mention we found a gold mine of an amazing Travel Agent that has helped us plan our last few trips, this one included. If you are ever looking for any help planning any type of vacation, Andrea Cassidy with Destinations to Travel is so good. I am happy to share her information.

All of this to say…we had the best time and can’t wait to cruise again!! The carnival Elation is one of the older boats but it recently did have some upgrades done including this Water Works area and some restaurants added around the pool. both of which are great additions.

When they were not zooming down the slides..our kids could be found playing the life size Chess Board game, Shuffle Board, Miniature Golf, and hanging out in the Arcade. They did spend a little bit of time in Kids Club and really enjoyed it!

This was our humble abode, as I mentioned, we were on a budget. There were larger rooms to accommodate our party of 5 and I was slightly unsure when we first walked in, but for the amount of time we were actually in the room, this was perfect (and cozy) .

We were on a 5 Day Cruise, Day 2 and Day 5 were Sea Days and Day’s 3 and 4 were excursion days. Our first day was spent in Grand Caymen, we went to a Turtle Sanctuary. The excursion itself was great..getting on and off the boat was a little adventurous. Grand Caymen does not have docks large enough for the boats, so you have to be shuttled in smaller boats…that whole process was a bit chaotic but worth it.

Day 3 brought Cozumel and it was beautiful! The boat was able to dock right at port which made getting in on and off the boat so much more convenient. We spent our day in Cozumel at a park…swimming, seeing a seal lion show, and watching dolphins. The beach was beautiful and our youngest was just happy to do her favorite thing…collect sea shells.

We opted to have the “anytime” dining, which was so nice! We had to drag the kids out of the pool area everyday..so it was nice not too be in a hurry or have a set time we needed to be ready for dinner. We did love the nightly shows on the boat which generally started around 9, so we would shoot to eat dinner around 7. There were only a few nights we had to wait and it was usually maybe 10 minutes but they had a “library” set up right next to the dinning room with tons of games you could play, so waiting was not painful at all.

Please don’t hesitate to leave any questions you may have. I asked and read a lot about cruises before we left…Here are my Top 5 things to take with you!

1. Walkie Talkies: These worked great, we were able to give the kids one and have the other. The got to have a little bit more freedom on the ship, it worked out so well.
2. Over the Door Shoe Organizer: This works so well. There isn’t a lot of space in the bathroom, so this is great to hold everyone’s different bathroom items.
3. A cute tote to carry all the things!
4. Storage Cubes: This was my first time using them and it was awesome!
5. Sea Band Wristbands and Lozenges All the things to help with Motion Sickness…we were lucky no one experienced this but I was prepared in case we did.

Thank you Carnival, for an amazing vacation, making memories we won’t soon forget!!

Julie and Trisha

~STS