jeanie1724

We had Hayley on our June Inspiration cruise. She was fine, the only thing that bothered me slightly was she had a British intonation in some of the things she said, but she's definitely American.

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My kids didn't eat much on our recent cruise - they didn't even seem to like the kid friendly foods like cheese pizza and hot dogs. I didn't worry too much about it since I figure they would eat if they were really hungry. They did, however, eat a lot of frozen soft serve :). Oh well, at least they got their calories from something.

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My kids loved being "locked up" in the kids club. They played games, made friends, made crafts, laughed at their silly "jail keepers" aka Camp Ocean counselors. In fact, they asked to be "locked up" even when they were set free. Who am I to deny them?

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There are high chairs as well. I did see some babies on my recent Inspiration trip, so it's definitely not inappropriate to bring one. My kids are a bit older now, but I have taken them on a cruise when one was 20 months old, and another cruise when one was 8 months old.

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I'm going in September to Remember to celebrate my 50th birthday (never heard of June Gloom and May Gray, but those are more my type of weather). Where do I get this chocolate melting cake? Is it at the ice cream place?

 

 

 

Someone said I might be able to get sushi at the Taste Bar. What other items were seen there? And in general, what hours is it open?

 

 

 

Can't wait to try Guy's Burgers (despite the grease) and Blue Iguana.

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing!

Happy 50th birthday! The chocolate melting cake is available as a dessert in the main dining room each night (it is one of their signature desserts). Remember you can order more than one dessert if you want to taste one of the others ;). I believe the Taste Bar is open for awhile between 5 and 6pm, check the Fun Times to make sure. I didn't see sushi there, but they change it up each time so I may have missed it. I had a shredded pork "taste" there one night, and a corn fritter thing another night. Have fun on your cruise!

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Like others mentioned, definitely do the Dr. Seuss stuff with your kids. On our recent cruise, there was also the Towel Animal theatre, which was super cute. My 3 year old and almost 6 year old loved Camp Ocean, and in fact ate dinner with them on 3 nights (Camp Ocean will feed your kids in the buffet between 6 and 6:20 on most nights). So my husband and I got to enjoy some nice long dinners by ourselves. Also, we went to the Hasbro game show and we all enjoyed it a lot. We had a ocean view room with the fold down beds for our kids. It was cramped but we expected it to be, so it was fine. Have a great cruise!

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On our recent 4 day cruise on the Inspiration, there was an elegant night, and there were tablecloths on elegant night.

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Not related to Cheers, but as an FYI - on my recent cruise there was a deal to buy 3 bottles of wine to have with dinner for $60. Mine was a 4 night cruise so on a longer cruise the deal may be different. We didn't find out about the deal until out second dinner buying our second bottle of wine, so didn't take advantage of it :(.

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Just got back from the Inspiration 4-day from Long Beach. A few notes:

1) I didn't realize that Your Time Dining also fills up! When I booked, Early Dining was already full so I chose to be wait-listed for it, thinking I'll just choose YTD if I don't get Early (we have two young kids so late dining would be really inconvenient). Once onboard, I find out that Early and YTD are both full! So I put us on waitlists for both. The next day, no message saying we got either so I call the Maitre-D line twice and finally they agree to seat the two of us (I told them our kids would not dine with us) in Early Dining. That really made our cruise!

2) Our kids loved Camp Ocean and loved eating dinner there, which worked out great so that we didn't have to put them through long, boring dinners in the dining room, plus we were able to get Early Dining since it was just the two of us. I loved that my kids loved the kids club so I could enjoy time with my husband and not feel guilty about leaving them there!

3) The Alchemy Bar was awesome! Drinks were tasty, especially the Spicy Chipotle Pineapple martini. Bartenders were great and they had cheese/olives/nuts tray for you to snack on!

4) Tacos/burritos from the Blue Iguana place were delish! I love the salsa bar! Guys Burger Bar was ok, but fries were too greasy. Mushrooms and onions at the toppings bar were nice though. A small snack from the Taste Bar before dinner was great.

5) I might be going through Chocolate Melting Cake withdrawal. Ask for extra ice cream.

6) The Towel Animal Theatre was super cute for kids. And definitely do the Dr. Seuss stuff if you have kids (parade/storytime and Green Eggs & Ham breakfast).

7) June Gloom is real if you're considering a California cruise in early summer. Our tropical vacation was actually kind of cold. Too bad it was too chilly to swim most of the time.

8) We did two days at Disneyland prior to the cruise. It was perfect to have a relaxing cruise after two fabulous but super-tiring days at the parks!

I took my younger daughter when she was 8 months old on a Disney cruise. She was fine with going to the shows (snoozed through some), and went to parts of some dinners. We used the ship's for-fee nursery some, but she did not like it (cried a lot). Another annoying thing was that her pack and play took up a lot of floor space in our cabin. Overall it was fine and we had fun, but would have been nicer if she was old enough to sleep in a regular bed and go to the kids club. I'd say that if you go into it expecting the typical headaches of traveling with a baby/toddler, then you'd be fine. Of course don't expect a super relaxing vacation.

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I've done the wine tour twice. And although I don't recall any kids being on our tour - it would not be inappropriate. At both wineries we visited, there is ample time to look/walk/run :) around the grounds, separate from the tasting itself.

Thanks for your response. Reading some reviews of the excursion, it sounds like it can get to be quite a party bus on the way back. Just wanted to make sure it wouldn't be an inappropriate atmosphere for my kids (although they'll probably have headphones on watching videos on the kindle anyway). Also, that 2 kids wouldn't necessarily ruin the wine tasting experience for the other adults.

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Anyone been on the wine country tour in Ensenada (off Carnival Inspiration)? Would it be totally inappropriate to bring young kids on the tour? Or OK? Looking through the excursion offerings, I think this is one my husband and I would enjoy, but we will have our 5 and 3 year olds with us (not comfortable leaving them on the ship if we are not with them).

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Thanks for the review! I enjoyed reading it! Question - what time do your kids normally go to bed? Was 10 later than usual? I'd love to leave my 5 and 3 year olds in the kids club late on a few nights, but they usually go to bed around 8, so not sure how they'll do staying up so late.

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Only you can decide if FTTF will be worth it.

Cabins open around 1.

Long Tender lines are usually clear by 11. Carnival is now using three old Catalina Ferries. 270 & 399 pax boats.

 

With little ones highly recommend the semi- sub and/or mini golf on Catalina.

We were wanting to book the semi-sub excursion in Catalina - it seems like one we would all enjoy. When I try to book it, for my 3-year-old, it says "Not Available For Purchase". Does that mean she doesn't need a ticket because of her age, but can still go? The excursion says No Minimum Age so I assumed she would be able to go.

Thanks for the responses! It looks like we have some options to feed the kids and still have some kid-free dinner time. I will check out the Camp Carnival dinner options once we're on board. I didn't even think about feeding them at the buffet before we go to the MDR, so thanks for that suggestion. On our sailing, the Early Dining is wait-listed, so maybe we'll choose YTD and then we'll have some flexibility on when we feed the kiddos. How long does dinner in the MDR usually take? We want to be able to see the 8:15 show.

FTTF is actually not sold out - thanks for the tip on looking under Excursions instead of Fun Shops! For those who have traveled out of Long Beach, is FTTF worth it? We have 5 and 3 year olds, so would rather not wait in line more than we need to.

We just booked the June 6th sailing on the Inspiration! A couple of questions:

1) In the MDR, is it possible to have meals served to our kids quickly and after they eat, my husband or I can shuttle them to Camp Carnival and enjoy the rest of our dinner in peace? Not sure if the kitchen can get kids meals out fast...

2) It looks like FTTF is sold out for our sailing - when I search for it in the Fun Shops online, it doesn't appear. My question is - when would be the best time to show up to board to minimize wait time?

Thanks for your responses! Trundle bed is on the floor, correct? Can't decide if I like that since it takes up precious floor space. I might just pay a little extra to ensure the Pullmans.

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We are thinking of booking the 4 night Baja cruise on the Inspiration for this June. We will be booking one cabin to share with our 2 kids. Can we select the Guarantee option to get the lowest rate? Does that guarantee a cabin with 2 Pullman beds since we have 4 people?

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How much is FTTF?

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