Carnival Elation Bahamas Trip Report: Day 5

If you would like to start this trip report from the beginning, click here.

There aren’t many photos from this day considering we were off the ship by 9am. We got an early start, waking up as the ship arrived in Jacksonville. Some people can sleep through the manoeuvring and anchoring but we felt it, so we got up and watched from the balcony. The good news was that it was warmer in Jacksonville than when we left!

We went to the lido deck to get some food and wait until 8:30am, which is when we were supposed to report to the Mikado Lounge to debark. The buffet lines were busy but not terrible. While we waited, we ate breakfast and talked about how nice it was to be on a smaller ship with fewer passengers and shorter lines for everything. It really does make a difference in the overall experience.

Since we had priority boarding, we also had priority debarkation. Each of us had a carry on suitcase and a small bag, so at 8:30am we walked off with our luggage and had no issues. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection no longer requires customs forms from cruise ship passengers coming into Jacksonville, FL, which was awesome! It seemed to speed up the customs question process a little, and every little bit helps.

We had purchased round trip cruise shuttle transportation through our hotel, so the same shuttle that dropped us off on our first day also picked us up this morning. It was very convenient, especially since we could be taken back to the hotel or driven to the airport. Here’s our last look back at the ship:

We asked the driver to drop us off at the airport and we there by about 10:45am. Since our flight didn’t leave until 3pm, we definitely had some time to spare. We sat outside in the sun and read books for a while, soaking up the last nice weather we’d see for a couple weeks.

At 1pm we went inside and got lunch, then headed to our gate. Our flight home was on time and we made it safely.

All in all we had a great time on the Carnival Elation and hope to sail her again in the future. Thanks for reading!