Inspiration Review - 5/23-5/28 - Lots of Photos!

Okay, for those of you who have read my reviews before, you know that I tend to be wordy (I think my Liberty review was ~20 pages in a Word document!)...however, this time, I'm going to be brief, simply because we didn't do too terribly much to review. (You'll see what I mean...)

This was a 5-night sailing on the Carnival Inspiration out of Tampa. We were originally supposed to visit both Cozumel and Grand Cayman, but "swine flu" prompted the cancellation of Cozumel and replaced with a second day in GC...no problem there!

This was my 6th cruise, second with Carnival, and I traveled with one of my good friends, Jen. It was her first cruise ever, and we now have another addicted cruiser! :)

Before I continue, I want to test a photo, so here's a little teaser of us sailing away from Tampa after a thunderstorm...

<img src="http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs006.snc1/4163_695024842577_9612502_39988344_3806247_n.jpg"/>

Yay, I got it to work...!

Okay, so back to the review. Jen and I both live in North Dakota, and we booked this trip back in February, mostly on a whim, and needing to get out of town for a little while. We got REALLY cheap airfare to Tampa out of Minneapolis, so we made the 5-hour trek down to the Twin Cities on Friday night before the cruise. We stayed at the airport Sheraton, and even spent some time with our good friend Captain Morgan and his lovely ladies at the nearby TGI Friday's. (It was Captain night there--free drinks for everyone!)

We woke early, early, early the next morning to make my 5:15 a.m. flight to Atlanta. Unfortunately, Jen and I weren't flying together--when she went to book her airfare right after me, the price had already soared, so she was able to get a comparable flight, but with a connection in Memphis instead. We were both supposed to arrive at TPA around noon--Jen made her connection just fine, but at noon, I was still stuck on the tarmac at Hartsfield in Atlanta due to bad weather and backlogged air traffic. I was starting to get worried, panicked actually, but fortunately we made it, and I met Jen in baggage claim in the Tampa airport shortly after 1:00 p.m.

We had pre-arranged Carnival transfers just for the "fun" of it. (In 6 cruises, this is the first time I've used their transfer service, and I probably never will again - the price was fine, but the waiting. Oh the waiting. No thanks.) We arrived at the port around 2:30, I think, and since we had a suite (did I tell you we had a suite??) :D , we were able to have priority embarkation. We were whisked right onboard, where we went straight to our cabin...a Category 12 Penthouse Suite, U93...

Thanks Jim for the review, I cant wait to hear more. I have booked a penthouse in November on this ship and would love to hear more about it. Is is worth it?

Keep the review flowing.

djp

The Penthouse Suite was all that we had imagined, and more. I've had inside cabins and balcony cabins before, all of which have been fine, but of course, do not compare AT ALL to the suite. The space was awesome...we had room to spread out all of our stuff, and being two girls traveling together, we had a ton of "stuff," of course...

We rarely used the balcony, and didn't make use of the barware in the cabinet, but the whirlpool bath and the extra closet space definitely came in handy.

We were so exhausted from traveling that first day that after a quick stop at the poolside grill before it closed for muster drill, then attending the requisite muster drill, we took a nap before our late-seating dinner. If it weren't for the alarm we set, we totally would have missed dinner and all of the evening's activities, but thankfully, we dragged our butts into the Mardi Gras dining room to Table 156, a table for 10.

I've had good and bad experiences with my tablemates before, but this time, we could not have been matched up more perfectly! There were eight of us ladies, all traveling in pairs, all right about the same age. The last two at our table didn't show that night (turns out they were a couple...and we scared the poor guys off!), but we had a blast without them! Our waiters were Vanburn and Suki, and our bar waitress was Sasha. The food throughout the week was consistently good--some items were better than others--but nothing terribly outstanding. The service, however, made our dining experience FABULOUS. Vanburn and Sasha are, hands-down, the absolute best waiters in the Carnival fleet. (I'm sure Suki is just as good, but he was more behind-the-scenes helping Vanburn.)

As we walked out of the dining room the first night, we had intentions of going to the casino, checking out the shops, possibly going to the welcome aboard show...however...the Rhapsody in Blue piano bar is just outside of our dining room, and dammit all if Barry (the illustrious piano man) didn't get us in there, hook, line, and sinker. :)

This is Barry, for those of you who don't know...

We also met an awesome group of people in the bar that night, and we ended up hanging out in this herd of like 20 people for the whole week...here are a few of us one night...

We closed the piano bar down, and Barry invited us all up to the pizza bar for a late-night snack...it was fun getting to know him, and getting to know some of the fellow "piano bar crew" that we would spend a LOT of time with over the next 4 nights. I think we finally called it a night around 3:00 a.m., and Jen and I had absolutely no plans of waking up early the next day. (We didn't.)

I think we finally arose around noon (oopsie), ordered room service for lunch, then headed out to the pool to find some loungers. I realize that getting there at around 1:00 p.m. means you don't get the pick of the litter, but come on, chair hogs were out in full force! We finally found two empty chairs together on the deck overlooking the pool (good enough), just in time for the Hairy Chest Competition. I've never actually watched one of these on my previous cruises, but OMG, it was a hoot!! After the contest, Barry came on stage to play some poolside tunes, but the sound system was pretty bad, so we couldn't really hear anything. Jen and I decided we were getting a bit crispy, so we headed back indoors around 3:30 or 4:00. She started getting ready for formal night (ahem, "elegant night"), and I made a quick stop at the piano bar for "Name that Tune." I made some new friends, and we lost. Oh well.

It was then my turn to get ready for Elegant Night, and by the time we got finished primping and polishing, it was time to head down to the Paris Lounge for the cocktail party. We were one of the first ones in the door on the lower level, and that was a good move. We had four (count them, four) rounds of complimentary drinks, which was a nice start to the evening. ;)

Me at the Captain's Cocktail Party:

The cocktail party was nice, and it was also nice mingling with random guests outside in the atrium between the party and dinner time. I do have to say--there was one good ol' redneck boy sitting at the atrium bar during all of these festivities in his holey jeans, shirtless, drinking a Coors Light from a can. It was so bad it was funny.

Here's a pic of the atrium during the day--I wish I had thought to take a picture of the Coors Light dude...

After the party, it was dinnertime, and we had another wonderful night with our tablemates and waitstaff. I was able to keep a nice Chardonnay buzz going through dinner, which meant that by the time we got to...yes, you guessed it...the piano bar(!)...I was ready to part-ay! :D

Barry made me his "piano bar girlfriend" for the week, which simply meant that I was the subject of all the perverted (yet hilarious) jokes and innuendos. Of course, I didn't play along or enjoy it at all! ;) We had a great time and I seriously didn't do ANYTHING in the evenings besides the piano bar...

I was going to keep the drinking & late nights to a minimum on the second night, because we had an early start in Grand Cayman the next day, but I was having way too much fun to call it a night early...right darlin'?

We had pre-arranged a tour with Fat Fish Adventures in Grand Cayman that included jet skiing, snorkeling, and a stop at Stingray City. Jen and I tendered to the island early enough to walk around a bit and have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe...I needed something in my stomach to make up for all that Chardonnay the previous night!! :) (As a note, Hard Rock was tasty and the prices were very reasonable...I was pleasantly surprised!) We were scheduled to meet our representative from Fat Fish at 11 a.m. (island time) in front of Hard Rock, so that worked out really well. He was right on time, and once the other 3 people showed up for our tour, we were off and running in the air-conditioned van.

We had a short ride over to the marina-type area where our tour would leave from. The morning tour was just getting back as we arrived, and they all kept saying how much fun they had--we were really looking forward to this! Our guide, Peter, gave us a quick safety briefing, then off we went! The jet skis were very nice--newish and fast! Jen and I each booked our own, but the family of 3 we were with all shared one. I think I'd much prefer my own, but it is cost-effective to share, so it's something to keep in mind. We had about an hour or so to "play around" in the waves and water on the jet skis, then we headed out towards Stingray City. This is definitely something to experience at least once, if you've never been...

Your Inspiration review so far is like a glass of well aged scotch...the first glass is never enough. More review please!!

After getting up close and personal (and kissy-faced) with our stingrays, we hopped back on the jet skis and zoomed over to the snorkeling spot. (And by the way, if anyone has any more specific questions about our excursion, I'll be glad to answer...I just didn't think y'all wanted a play-by-play in the review...)

The snorkeling was just "okay" to me...beautiful reef, but not a lot of fish. That said, I'm spoiled...the British Virgin Islands did me in with the most wonderful snorkeling I've ever seen a couple of years ago... After about 30-45 minutes of snorkeling, we literally had probably 2 hours or so to just play around on the jet skis, jumping waves, whatever we wanted. SOOO much fun!! :)

After the tour was over, we arrived back to Georgetown with plenty of time to spare before the last tender, but we were so beat, we just headed back to the ship to clean up and rest. We managed to get ready in time for sushi (which was Jen's favorite thing on the ship, I do believe!), which also meant we were down by the Violins Bar/casino area in time to hear Barry's lounge-lizard type stuff he was playing. One of our table neighbors from the dining room spied us hanging out and bought me a drink while we all sat and listened to Barry's music and munched on sushi. I do have to make mention of the crowd at this point--there were LOTS, and I mean LOTS, of Southerners on this cruise! I'm originally from Oklahoma, so I guess I'm kind of used to it, but wow! Southern gentlemen everywhere calling me ma'am and darlin' and buying me drinks just because they are so polite and nice! :) (Definitely don't get THAT up in North Dakota...)

Dinner and piano bar, yet again. Nothing really different to post about that...same ol' stuff, different night. But, since I don't want to have a post without a picture, here's a goofy one of a few of us getting crazy in the piano bar...

The next day in Grand Cayman, we didn't really have any plans except to walk around, do some shopping, and enjoy the sights. Originally, before the trip, I think we had kind of planned to head to the beach this day, have a few drinks, whatever...but I think neither of us had any idea just how hard we'd be partying ON the ship...so that by the time we got off the ship, we didn't have a whole lot of energy. (Trust me, I've NEVER acted like this on a cruise before...seriously!) :)

I did manage to get a few pics on the tenders to and from...

There were actually 3 more Carnival ships in port with us this day, but the Miracle was hiding behind the Valor, so you can't see her here...

Of course, no trip to downtown Georgetown in Grand Cayman is complete without pictures of these two icons:

We ended our afternoon by making a few purchases (Harley Davidson store for a sweatshirt for me; Tortuga Rum place for some rum [duh] and a few rum cakes for Jen). We headed back to the ship and didn't have a whole lot planned for that night...not even the piano bar. (Which I admit is only because it was Barry's night off...)

(The review will be continued in a couple of hours...errands to run and dinner to eat!)

I did partake in the spa this afternoon, and took advantage of their port day special, which was a full body massage and facial for $129. The spa on Inspiration looks to have been recently renovated, and it kicks the one on the Liberty's butt, most definitely. I complained before in my Liberty review about the spa there being sort of ugly and not-relaxing, as far as decor and ambience. They got it right on Inspiration--there is a "relaxation room" where you can go to sip lemon water and wait for your therapist--you don't have to wait in the changing rooms where your nice "relaxing view" is of the cleaning cart and bathroom stalls (as it is on Liberty). Anyway, my spa treatment was AWESOME...Mitos was my therapist, and she was very, very good. Definitely what I needed--a little bit of detox after a few days of indulging. ;)

That night was the lido deck party, and you know, it was actually pretty fun. Although, between the pool band and Barry's bar, if I hear "Cupid Shuffle" one more time, I think I might scream! :) Our "herd" of piano bar regulars hung out on the lido deck, sampled the Mexican buffet (ehhh), and danced a little with the crowd. The band was actually pretty good, and played a wide variety of music--everything from Metallica to Tom Petty to yes, the Cupid Shuffle and YMCA.

After shutting down the lido deck around 1:00 a.m., the herd migrated into the pizza bar area, where we decided we'd have our own sing-along, Barry's night off be damned. We had a group of about 20 people serenading the entire lido buffet with all kinds of classics. We even had a little "sing off" with some high school girls seated across the restaurant, but they couldn't top our rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (that we sung in a round!), so we won by default. :) Yes, we were THOSE people. Those people who got plenty of eye rolls and weird looks from all the completely sober people in the pizza bar area. You know what, though? We were having fun--we even got our bartender, Ali, in on the singing with "My Girl."

We finally called it a night somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m.--Jen and I didn't get up until around noon the next day, once again. It was room service for lunch once more (they have the BEST grilled cheeses and pastrami sandwiches), then we just kind of lounged around and packed up our things. I really hate the last day of a cruise, I do...there's just nothing positive about it, ya know? Most of our dinner friends were out at the pool causing ruckus, and we would have loved to join them, but honestly, I was just too zapped and sunburned to muster the energy to go. If I learned anything on this trip, it's that I am getting too old for this mess! :)

At dinner that night, our "new" tablemates joined us once again. (Two guys from the next table ditched their dinnermates for us...but no complaints from any of us...they were at a table with 8 beautiful ladies, and we were joined by 2 guys who bought drinks for the table...it was a win-win.) The dining room was hopping with Vanburn and Suki breakin' it down with their farewell dancing...

Ali! I know that guy! I love the Inspiration!

I don't think I've yet mentioned Josef, our SUPERCHARGED Maitre'D. Oh my Lord...he was the most ridiculous person I have ever encountered on a ship...but funny...my gosh, he could make us laugh! Josef's antics every night had our table laughing our rear ends off, especially with those crazy light-up glasses he has...if you've been in his dining room, you know what I'm talking about! :) He even got our group dancing on the tables and chairs a couple of nights...!

This is not that great of a picture of him, but it's the best one I've got...

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Vanburn and Suki, but not yet Sasha, because she was also the main bar waitress in the piano bar all week...couldn't have been more perfect...she was absolutely amazing!! She had our card numbers memorized by Day 1, but I don't know if that's more of a testament to her great memory or to how many drinks we were buying. :D

Me saying one last goodbye to Vanburn...

Of course, I had to spend the final night of the cruise saying bye-bye to my piano bar man, Barry...

(Forgive this picture--I was more than a little "overserved" by that point...good grief!) :)

We were so used to Barry keeping the bar open until well after 2:00 a.m., that it was kind of a downer when he actually closed up on time this night at 1:00, but oh well, we'll take what we can get, right?

After an "early" bar close, and a quick stop at the pizza place to say goodbye to the rest of our new friends, Jen and I went back to the room for a few hours of sleep before we had to get up at 6 a.m. to claim our extra bottles of liquor with US Customs. We dragged our tired selves out of bed, down to the Avant Garde lounge, stood in line forever, only to be told that it wasn't necessary. The customs agent told us not to even bother. Well...good to know!

After a quick breakfast in the dining room, we got back to our room, and we had almost 2 hours to sleep until we had to be out of the cabins at 9:00. We set an alarm for 8:45, but our lovely steward came knocking a few minutes before. We got the hint, and had all of our stuff out in the hall and ready to go before 9:00, so I didn't feel too bad. Speaking of our steward, his name was Buddy, and he was nice, but he was pretty invisible. We hardly ever saw him, even in the halls...I suppose that doesn't matter, though, because the room was always kept clean, we had ice, etc. No problems there.

Since we had priority disembarkation, we only waited about 15-20 minutes tops in the elevator lobby on our deck before Groups 1-10 were called for disembarkation (around 9:15, probably?). Our flight wasn't until 1:45 pm, and we had originally thought we might try to go out to brunch with some of our new friends, but we never firmed up the plans, so we just hopped back on the first Carnival transfer bus back to the airport. I think we were checked in and inside the airport ready to kill time by around 10:30. Fortunately for us, Carrabba's Italian restaurant was just opening for the day, so we were able to eat a nice, leisurely early lunch there and drag it out for as long as possible. Tampa airport is nice, I might add...lots of nice shops and restaurants to see before you cross through security, so it wasn't too bad of a wait. Also, here's a hint...if you're flying Delta/Northwest, use curbside check-in and go to the kiosk without a scale next to it. If you're like me, you'll get lucky and sneak a definitely-overweight bag past the curbside guy with a tip. Thank goodness.

We had a pretty uneventful flight back to Minneapolis, then a 5-hour car ride home that started right in the middle of Twin Cities rush hour...yuck. I think I finally walked into my house at around 11:00 p.m. and crashed...until my husband got home at almost 4:00 a.m. (He had been in Toronto all week at a conference and had a late flight into Winnipeg and then a 2-hour drive home. Blah.)

Well, that about wraps up the actual review. I'll do a final recap in the morning and maybe a few more pictures. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

Hi there I am Jennifer the one that took the cruise with Jimmie =)

First off this darn girl now got me addicted to cruises. She probably did a better job reviewing than I ever would. But I will throw in a few highlights on my own ^_^

~Sushi Bar: One of my highlights of this ship. I ate there three out of the four nights it was open. I eat sushi on a regular basis (when I am not in ND) and it was on par with most of places I eat at. I mean we are not talking five star restaurant here, but no complaints from me what-so-ever. It was nice on the variety too: one nigiri, one roll with fish in it, and one vegetarian roll. Also the cucumbers and carrots served with it are something I have not seen, but am now addicted to.

~Casino: Basically when I got bored or just was in the mood I left Jimmie at the Piano bar and went to the casino for a bit. I quickly became friends with an older couple of "Big Pappa" and his awesome wife at the craps table. Once again was in the casino four days out of the cruise, but one of the days I just played $5 in a Garfield slot. I was at the craps table late night most of the time and had a blast. The staff there was really nice and pretty much had bets and usual habits memorized and were really friendly. Also the table got crazy at some times as well =). Overall made enough money to pay for my drinks and tips on the cruise so HOORAH!

Might throw in some more tomorrow on here but those were the things not covered that I actually partook in.

Also HI JIMMIE! I raided your thread ;)

I loved the review. I can't wait to be on the Inspiration in exactly 2 weeks from today!

You think two weeks out is too soon to start packing? lol

Ahhh, I'm jealous! What I would give to be back on the Inspiration in 2 weeks...whatever you do, go to the piano bar at least once. ;)

Definitely not too early to start packing--get movin', girl!

I loved the review. I can't wait to be on the Inspiration in exactly 2 weeks from today!

 

 

You think two weeks out is too soon to start packing? lol

My wife and I will be on that same cruise. It's our first one!!!

I don't think I've yet mentioned Josef, our SUPERCHARGED Maitre'D. Oh my Lord...he was the most ridiculous person I have ever encountered on a ship...but funny...my gosh, he could make us laugh! Josef's antics every night had our table laughing our rear ends off, especially with those crazy light-up glasses he has...if you've been in his dining room, you know what I'm talking about! :) He even got our group dancing on the tables and chairs a couple of nights...!

 

This is not that great of a picture of him, but it's the best one I've got...

 

 

IT'S....JOSEPH

Your SUPER Charge Mailtre'D.....

I met JOSEPH on the Celebration

and on the Glory.....

He is great.......

It's shoooooooooowtiiiiiiiiimeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I just got back from the 5/28 sailing and also had a great time in the piano bar and Josef the supercharged Maitre d was one of the best I have had.He came around almost every night to the table.

It will be my first too. My boyfriend has been on several cruises, but not since he was a kid. We are both counting down the days!

Well, I realized after I got home that the 200+ pictures I took on the trip were mostly of our new friends...great memories, but not a lot to share with you guys, because I know looking at pictures of other people having fun is just not that exciting! :(

However, I do have one final picture to share...this is just outside of the Violins Bar near the casino, and I just thought it was a nice portrait of the Inspiration...she may not be as "flashy" as the Conquest-class and newer Carnival ships, but truly, the Inspiration is still in great shape and has quite a few more years left in her!

Here are my final thoughts on the trip overall...

- This was my first cruise that was shorter than 7 days. I thought I would hate it--I didn't, I enjoyed myself immensely--but it will probably be my last "short" cruise. Definitely a different, much more party-hardy atmosphere onboard with a HEAVILY Southern crowd (most folks seemed to live within driving distance of the port)...I've not experienced that before on cruises out of Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles.

- The Category 12 Penthouse Suite...oh man, was that awesome! I would highly, highly recommend the suite to anyone who is considering it...but that said, I probably would not pay top-dollar for one. I'd rather go on 3 cruises in an inside cabin versus one in a suite.

- Activities onboard: I really didn't do much...and in fact, this was the first cruise ever where I never so much as glanced at the Capers. (Well, that's sort of a lie...I only glanced once each night to see what time the piano bar stuff was going on the next day...but that was it!) :)

- I am, officially and completely, a piano bar crazy girl. Before my Carnival Liberty cruise last year, I'd never experienced the phenomenon, and just didn't understand it when certain people would come on CruiseCritic raving about how great the Carnival piano bars are...ha! Well, after my first experience with the one and only Vince Strong on the Liberty (Vince, you're awesome), I thought no one could top him. Now, I can say I don't know if anyone can top Barry...very different styles, but both so very talented! :) So, I'm looking forward to seeing a few other Carnival piano bar entertainers on future cruises...and for that reason alone, I think I'm "hooked" on cruising with only Carnival in the future...

- Food...I thought the lunch and late-night food on the lido deck was pretty consistently bad, both indoors and at the poolside grill. The pizza was really bad (sorry, it just was, and I wasn't the only one who thought so!), and the hot dogs/hamburgers/chicken strips/fries were either majorly picked over every time we went, or had been sitting out for far too long. We just didn't have good luck there. We never tried the buffet at breakfast or dinner times, though, so I can't comment on that. We only cruised by the indoor buffet area once or twice, and nothing looked appetizing, so we just headed back outside to the grill area each time. The dining room food was a whole different story, though. Not everything was great, but nothing was bad, and there were a few things that stood out as better than others. They were: the lasagna on the first night (wow!); the warm chocolate melting cake (of course!); the fried shrimp appetizer, as well as the sweet & sour shrimp entree (very, very good); the veal parmigiana on the last night (decent, but much better than expected); and, finally the Caesar salads (outstanding).

In closing, I had a great time, made a lot of new friends, and had a TON of fun (probably too much!)... ;) I wasn't disappointed with the cruise, not even once, but really, I probably won't do any more of the shorter cruises, unless by some miracle I end up living near a cruise port one of these days and have the opportunity to hop on last-minute. It's just over way too quickly and makes it seem like the long journey to get to the port was barely worth it.

If anyone has any questions or if you want more information on anything we did, ask away!

P.S. I need suggestions on for my next cruise (Carnival, of course!) this winter with the wonderful husband. Prefer 7 days or longer and more ports than sea days. Any ideas? :)

thank you for sharing! great pictures.

P.S. I need suggestions on for my next cruise (Carnival, of course!) this winter with the wonderful husband. Prefer 7 days or longer and more ports than sea days. Any ideas? :)

JimBug,

I am doing the Carnival Freedom Eastern Caribbean in September, 8 days with 5 stops (Antigua, Tortola, St. John, Nassau & Puerto Rico). Sounds like it might be what you're looking for!

Good luck

JimBug,

 

I am doing the Carnival Freedom Eastern Caribbean in September, 8 days with 5 stops (Antigua, Tortola, St. John, Nassau & Puerto Rico). Sounds like it might be what you're looking for!

 

Good luck

Ooo, that does sound like a good one! I've only been to 2 of those ports before and 8 days is always better than 7. :) Will look into that one...thanks for the tip!