Inspiration Jan. 10th Grand Cayman and Cozumel

[bguppies]

My 6th Carnival cruise...

Part One...

 

Very interesting twists to liven things up for us.

 

We drove into Tampa on Sunday and stayed on the AFB about 20 minutes drive away from the pier.

 

We arrived at the pier Monday morning at around 10:45AM, like we always have at FLL, Port Canaveral and Jacksonville before with zero problems.

 

Tampa's pier is right in the middle of the downtown area, unlike all the others, which are in industrial areas, away from city traffic.

We had planned on using the Valet parking, but were told that the ship had arrived back late (more later) and they wouldn't be taking incoming cruisers until sometime after 12 noon.

 

So there was a huge clusterfrak with debarking cruisers trying to make their way while embarking passengers try to figure out where they can go to unload or park. (as the police directing traffic were zero help and basically told everyone to get lost. Nice way to treat out of town visitors who have no idea where they are or where to go in your fine city.)

 

We wound up driving around circling the blocks around the parking structure until we found a way in and then parked and walked all of our luggage the couple of blocks down to the terminal.

 

Once inside, the lines to check in flowed well, like all the other FL terminals we have used, but strangely, instead of seating people in the order they are to board like FLL, PC and Jax do, you just sit wherever you like and they give you a number for a group to board.

 

Which made for a free for all situation, as the ships late arrival left everyone sitting inside until almost 1PM(we have never boarded after noon on the previous 5 cruises, usually closer to 11AM) and left everyone milling about, as there wasn't enough seating for everyone.

The new arrivals, who had later numbers, were blocking the ramp, for the people who were able to board, with lower numbers.

 

Definitely NOT the smooth operating terminal I had read about in previous reviews.

 

Once we boarded, we made the obligitory trip to the buffett.

(plus, obviously the rooms were not ready yet)

 

Kept checking the corridors to see when the rooms would be available.

Not ready at 2PM.

Not ready at 3PM.

Not ready at 3:30PM.

Head up to Muster drill...(no more life vests, which we couldn't have gotten anyway)

Finish muster drill and head back down still not open.

Finally at about 4:15PM they open the door. (while still vacuuming the hall and finishing a couple of rooms.)

 

Here is where things got interesting.

 

We open our door and walk in.

Sitting on the desk is 2 pieces of luggage and a couple of bottles of liquor.

The beds were made as two singles, versus the king which it should have been.

The bathroom still had razors and shampoo etc... sitting there.

So we grab the first steward we see, still leaning a room across the hall.

He radios for a purser to come down and see what the heck was going on.

 

The purser arrives and radios back to the main desk and they go back and forth trying to figure out who's lugagge it was and why it was still there.

 

They finally determine that the previous tenants were doing a back to back and their luggage was supposed to be moved down to the main deck from empress to a different cabin.

 

So they called our room steward Wayan (who was phenominal) and had him completely reclean and remake the entire room as it was supposed to have been from the start. (not for a returning cruiser)

 

Luckily we had scheduled late dining, since we were in Cozumel so late, so we had time to let them fix the room for us.

 

From what we were told during all the luggage/room mixup, the ship was late, as the tide had risen too high for them to make it under the bridge and they had to wait for it to drop enough to make it under... (or so we were told by multiple crew members.)

 

End of part 1....

[lacy1101]

I'm in!:) Looking forward to reading more . . .

 

Interesting about the bridge. We were just discussing this with friends last night and wondered if there were ever issues that prevented the ship from sailing under.

 

Sounds like you were on the Empress Deck. We are booked in connecting inside cabins on the Main Deck. Was it just you and your wife?

[bguppies]

Part 2....

 

We went up for our first dinner in the dining room....

 

Our wait staff was again, amazing.

 

The staff on the Inspiration was by far, the best we have had in 6 cruises and the previous 5 were pretty good.

 

We finally found out what a good Maitre' D was on this cruise.

We had George the Greek in our dining room and he made dining in his room, extraordinarily fun, every night.

 

Our group had a 21st birthday on the first sea day. (formal night)

My Wife's 40th birthday in Grand Cayman.

Her best friend and Husband's 20th wedding anniversary in Cozumel.

 

George made his way over every night and said hello or introduced the celebrant every night.

 

The waitstaff actually seemed to enjoy their routines each night (unlike what we have seen on our other cruises) and George certainly enjoyed himself every night.

 

I have never before, actually wanted to dine in the dining room every night. (usually we don't and just go when it is convienent for us)

George made you want to make your way to his dining room every night.

 

The ship itself was in good shape.

 

Loved the new serenity area behind the Karaokee lounge.

Just wish they could have put a small pool in there somewhere.

 

The buffett area was different from the other Fantasy class ships we had been on. (Sensation twice and Fascination)

The bar area was moved to the far left rear of the room.

The pizza was moved to the far right.

The deli was moved to the center of the room and the deli space in the center rear of the room was now seating with a window view of the back of the ship. (which was nicer)

 

I don't know how full the ship was, there didn't seem to be too terribly many kids, but there was constantly long lines for pizza, deli and the buffett, no matter what time we stopped in.

Over half the times we stopped in, we had to wander aimlessly for 5-10 minutes just looking for 2 seats.

The staff did a great job, constantly clearing tables.

It was just, constantly packed.

Seemed more like our cruises on the Conquest class, which we do not like, for this reason.

 

The CD was OK. (I can't even remember his name, without cheating and finding my Capers)

 

His entertainment staff was again, excellent.

Our group played alot of trivia, games, cornhole, etc...

The staff made every game fun.

On the last day, we started a TV theme game and the host realized how bored the large group in the Paris lounge was and asked if we minded switching to 80's Music Trivia.

Of course that was in our group's wheel house, so we were happy.

(we took our 6th ship on a stick and 8th medals after that game. :D )

 

I cannot express enough, how great the staff was on the Inspiration.

The dining room, buffett areas, entertainment staff, etc.. were all top notch.

 

End of Part 2......

[bguppies]

I'm in!:) Looking forward to reading more . . .

 

Interesting about the bridge. We were just discussing this with friends last night and wondered if there were ever issues that prevented the ship from sailing under.

 

Sounds like you were on the Empress Deck. We are booked in connecting inside cabins on the Main Deck. Was it just you and your wife?

 

Our group had 4 cabins in a row at the rear of the Empress deck. (luckily only our's had someone else's stuff in there)

2 in each cabin. (3 couples and 2 daughters of our friends)

We picked the location, so it was a quick 3 decks up to the Lido buffett, 1 deck up for our dining room and 2 decks up for the karokee lounge and rear of the promenade.

 

Worked out perfectly, like had had anticipated.

 

Plus the Empress is your embarkation deck and same deck as the atrium and guest services desk.

[crusinpsychRN]

I drove round and round trying to find out how to enter the parking garage too. Not great signage.

 

Any noise from the dining room in the cabin? Or were you further aft?

[bguppies]

Part 3......

 

The Ports....

 

We arrived in Grand Cayman right on time. 8AM.

Due to weather, we docked at Spotts, instead of Georgetown.

(although the Disney Magic was able to drop anchor in Georgetown right after we arrived in town)

The Carnival Freedom was already there at Spotts and tendering.

 

Everyone with a Carnival excursion was supposed to meet in the Paris (main) Lounge between 7:45 and 8AM.

 

We had scheduled a Sting Ray City excursion that we had to meet between 9 and 9:15AM, so we were not in a huge hurry, but needed to get off on one of the earlier tenders.

 

We were told that we could not board a tender until ALL Carnival excursions were off the boat, which is total BS. (On the Freedom at GC, they had the non-Carnival excursions folks, get numbers and squeezed us in where they could, to fill tenders of the Carnival excursions, which is a much better/fairer way to do it.)

 

Luckily, all excursions to Sting Ray City were cancelled. (which is 90% easily, of the Carnival excursions, which is why we prefer to book our own, with a limit of 25 people, versus the hundreds they cram on the Carnival boats going to SRC.)

 

So it basically became a free for all, getting on the tenders after the 20-30 people with still going excursions, boarded.

 

The guide for our scheduled excursion still met us to explain that the excursion was cancelled and told us that they had only been allowed to go to Sting Ray City two days in the last 2 weeks due to weather. (and one of those days, there was no ships in port, which sucks for the island folks)

 

We took a cab into town for $5 per person.

 

We stopped at the immigration office so my Wife and her friend could get their passport stamped in Grand Cayman. (plus it was dated with my Wife's 40th birthday, which was a nice touch)

 

Then we headed across the street to Margaritaville.

The ladies got a balcony overlooking the main street and relaxed with some Banana Daiquiris and some Calimari.

I explored a bit on the streets nearby and found a Cigar store that sold authetic Cuban cigars (many thanks to the Cigar afficiandos thread for the good info) and checked out a few other shops.

 

For those looking for Big Black Dick rum, it still was available at a couple stores I stopped in. (pretty cool bottles that look pirate era)

 

We left Margaritaville and caught a cab back to Spotts and got back on the ship, before the last minute crush of tenders.

 

 

In Cozumel we arrived right on time, but they wouldn't let us debark for about 20 minutes crammed in the stairwell leading to deck 3.

 

We docked at the International Pier. (even though we were scheduled for Puerta maya)

 

Our group took two cabs to Nachi Cocum. (a slice of heaven on earth)

Unlike our last time there a couple of Septembers ago, this time, we were the last ship in and it was almost full when we arrived.

 

They walked us to 3 palapas and proceeded to bring lounge chairs out to them for us.

 

Mexico had been experienceing the freakishly cold weather we had been having in the states. (42 degree high when we left Tampa)

The temperature was mid-70's that day, but the large pool there was freezing.

The hot tub attatched to the pool was actually pool temperture.

The ocean itself was chilly, but bearable. (I just stayed in the hot tub)

 

The free drinks flowed constantly and when we did finally eat lunch, it was again, the best Mexican I have ever had. (you would hope they could make good Mexican in Mexico ;))

Everyone of the eight in our group, LOVED their meal. (even the 4 who lived in San Diego for years and had authentic Mexican whenever they pleased.)

 

One of the girls did the Parasailing and had a blast.

 

Nachi Cocum was again one of our favorite spots to relax for a day.

 

Half of our group left an hour early to head back and shop a bit at the pier.

Luckily there was a Los Cinco Soles at the International pier, so we found most of what we wanted, quick and easy.

We shopped a bit and then headed back to the ship.

 

The other half of our group closed Nachi Cocum at 6PM ship time and then proceeded back to the International Pier and had a few more cerveza's at the Senor Frogs there before getting back to the ship at 7:30PM.

 

End of Part 3....

[bguppies]

I drove round and round trying to find out how to enter the parking garage too. Not great signage.

 

Any noise from the dining room in the cabin? Or were you further aft?

 

I believe all of our cabins were directly below and we heard nothing all week. (we were usually dressing during the early seating too)

 

Bill

[bguppies]

Overall, except for a few small glitches, this was a great cruise.

 

The staff of the Inspiration was top notch in every department.

 

The 16 year old in our group was dissapointed in Club O2, as they forced the younger kids in with them and then were not open alot of the cruise, which she was used to it being open all day and well into the night on her Fascination cruise previously.

 

The ship was in good shape....

 

The debarkation went smoother than embarkation.

 

We had #10 tags and were off the boat, through customs, across the street, in the garage and leaving the garage exactly at 10AM for the trip home.

 

I would have to rank Tampa's terminal as 4th in Florida, as the downtown location is bad for out of towners, versus the other piers being away from busy city traffic. (plus the number system Tampa employs in the terminal)

 

I'd rank Port Canaveral #1, Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville close behind and Tampa a distant 4th......

 

Hope this quick review helps.

 

I'll try to stop in and check for questions.

 

Now off to unpack the luggage and do laundry before returning to work tomorrow.

 

Bill

[mimxmom]

Thanks for the review. Enjoyed it! We sale the Inspiration in April!

[bguppies]

Hope the crew is as great in April for you....