Carnival Elation 7 Day Eastern Caribbean Ports of Call: Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, Nassau

January 2023

We have been to all of these ports more than once prior to this trip. We did not book any excursions this time, and you can find more information about any of these ports by clicking on labels of interest at the bottom of this post.

 Carnival Elation in Grand Turk January 2023 

Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos: 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM

You are supposed to have had COVID-19 vaccinations to disembark in Grand Turk. We received a letter the day before our arrival, saying that we needed to go to guest services to show our vaccination cards, if we wanted to go ashore. This information was then linked to our sail and sign cards that are scanned when disembarking. When we disembarked, people in the line next to ours were not being allowed off because they had not done this. This caused a brief holdup in that line while they were taken out of line to return to guest services or stay on the ship. Different passengers on shore told us they had not received the letter, and that they had not shown proof of their vaccination to anyone. They said they are vaccinated, so I am not sure if this had been taken care of by their travel agent, or another way, and they just did not recall it.

Carnival Elation in Grand Turk January 2023

Our experience in Grand Turk was peaceful, and we enjoyed it more than prior visits. We walked on the beach on both sides of the port, and not one person tried to rent us overpriced chairs or umbrellas. There is no charge to use lounge chairs at the cruise center or Margaritaville. You can find more information about this in my posts from February 2020 and 2022. The beach area to the right after you get ashore is less crowded; however, the swimming area on this side is also stonier, than the busier area on the left. You can read about the Junkanoo Party Bus, Rum Mixology & Beach shore excursion that we took last year in the February 2022 blog post.

Carnival Elation at Half Moon Cay January 2023

Carnival Elation: 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise from Jacksonville, Florida

January 2023

Carnival Elation in Grand Turk

Arrival and check-in ~ Jacksonville cruise port

We opted to park at the Parking Mall across from the cruise port, as the cost was $7 less per day. The parking area is fenced in; however, we would not choose this option again for a couple of reasons. I am providing the details here, to assist others in making their own decision. If you do plan to park there, I suggest NOT booking in advance, like we did. Pay when you arrive, and have exact cash for the cost. The cost is $70 for a 7-day cruise, if you pay when you arrive. If you book an advance reservation online, you will be charged $75. This is extremely unfair, because our check-in process to board the shuttle was a quick click by the worker on his tablet. We then had to wait an unreasonable amount of time for people checking in that day, who needed change, or to run their credit cards. The second thing we did not like about this business, was the return shuttle pickup process. There was no organization at the cruise port, so each time the bus arrived, people who had just gotten off the boat were trying to shove in to the line to board, when there were already too many people trying to board who had been waiting two runs or more. Some of you may think the return chaos cannot be controlled by the shuttle service, and I would disagree with that to some extent. We have observed other shuttle services that have someone at the port, and/or more than one bus running during busy times. When the first bus arrived after we got to the pickup area, we observed a few people who seemed quite annoyed with the wait, so possibly they waited even longer than we did (we got on the third pickup after arriving). A second bus did start running this day just before we got on our shuttle, so things may have run smoother after we departed. Unfortunately, there is not a pedestrian walkway to get from the cruise port to the parking lot.  

The boarding process to get on Elation in Jacksonville was efficient, and one of the easiest we have ever experienced. Our credit card authorization was processed before 8:00 AM. Our check-in time was 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM, and we were on board before 11:00 AM.

 

Carnival Elation cabin R26

Porthole cabin R-26, deck 4

We usually prefer a balcony cabin when on a cruise of 7 days or more; however, this time we went with an interior less expensive room. Overall, we were quite happy with this cabin. We liked the windows, and we liked having the ledge in front of the windows.

Carnival Elation cabin R26, small stool in corner of top photo