Inspiration Halloween cruise review

[andrzej5914]

Tampa-sea day-Cayman Islands-Cozumel-sea day-Tampa (it didn't work out that way, read on) October 31-Nov 5

 

I cruised on Celebrity twice, RC twice and this was my first Carnival cruise. My beautiful partner has been on Carnival cruise before with her ex and 2 daughters. We were on the 2 RC cruises together.

 

She talked me into taking a Carnival cruise. She told me that Carnival was good and very comparable to RC. It's becoming our yearly tradition to do Halloween cruises, so that's why we chose the Inspiration out of Tampa this year.

 

Did I say that we love Halloween? ;)

 

Anyways, here we go.

 

The good:

 

Embarkation was little sloppy but nothing to complain about. After all, it's the passengers that make it either flawless or??? No problems there. Debarkation was quick and easy.

 

The ship was in very good shape. Clean, well laid out, nice albeit smallish rooms but comfortable enough.

 

The public areas were very well thought out and the bars/nightclubs were great (in appearance only). I will explain later.

 

The water works were much fun, at least for us. The slide is great. The miniature golf is also much fun. The pool is small but acceptable.

 

The service personnel was wonderful. They do go out of their way to make sure you're happy. If there is 1 complaint from both of us, it was our room steward. We asked in the begging of the cruise to make sure he always keeps our ice buckets filled (we had 2, 1 regular size and one a large plastic bucket that was delivered by room service to serve as our "mini fridge" as there was no refrigerator in on room. We tipped him extra extra just for that. He failed miserably on that account. Otherwise he was fine.

 

Restaurant, bar personnel were excellent.

 

Entertainment was above average with 2 production shows, 2 comedians doing a family show as well as adult only shows. We enjoyed all of them. The audience participation shows were fun, but they are getting somewhat tired as it's the same, the same, and it applies to all cruise lines.

 

Now for the bad:

 

Food - below average. We did not have a good meal until the last evening. I tried chicken dishes, beef dishes and pasta dishes and I was disappointed. My partner in crime tried fish dishes, chicken and beef dishes and was also disappointed. The 24/7 pizza and Grill was okay, but nothing to write home about. The buffet was also just okay, with the exception of the ice cream machine, which I utilized many times a day and would take walks across the ship just to get an ice cream cone. It was wonderful. That's the way we saw it and it's only our opinion. Others may have felt differently.

 

Evening fun - our biggest complaint. There are 4-5 bars/nightclubs available to have some fun. We thought we hit a jackpot with Rock and Roll bar. We were wrong. Remember, it's called a Rock and Roll Bar. First night, all Hip-Hop (boom-boom) all night long. Second night, country, third night Latin music. On the fourth night we assumed it was going to be RR music, Wrong!, so my partner went up to the DJ booth and asked and was told politely that the bar's name has nothing to do with what music they actually play and guess what? it was Hip-Hop again (boom-boom). We left. The other bars had Karaoke, Caribbean and a 1 man band kind of music. The Caribbean band we did like so it wasn't a total loss, but it was very limited.

 

The one band that we really did like was from Philippines or Thailand or?. They did covers, anything from country to soul to rock to disco to ??? We enjoyed them and they were good.

 

The cruise director and the entertainment staff - boooooooooo!!!!

 

Very unorganized, very poor planning, not enough (free) activities. What I mean by that is that everything was centered around sitting somewhere for 1/2 to 3/4 hours with the intent of selling you drinks as you set there, and of course Bingo at least once and possibly twice a day. On RC they planned many (free) activities, such as tours of the theater, tours of the galley, etc... Enough said. Very disappointed.

 

My beautiful partner sailed on Carnival before so she was invited to a Appreciation party with free drinks and finger food. We both got dressed up in our casual but nice wear and headed down to Paris Lounge for the party. There were many people there, most very dressed up, some were not, but the point is that most people took their time to get ready for this party. The party was planned for Wednesday from 5 to 5:45 pm. At about 5:10 pm the cruise director came on the intercom and announced that due to the fact that we were in port, the party will not be held that day and it was rescheduled for Friday. Couldn't she announce that before 5pm? before many passengers went to the trouble of getting ready, getting to the lounge and standing around without knowing what's going on? There was a lot of grumbling, even from a Carnival regulars. She possibly lost some passengers for future cruises with Carnival. Thumbs down!!!

 

 

 

Okay, now the reason we were in port all day in Cozumel on Wednesday. No complain, just letting you know. We had a medical emergency on the first day at sea on the way to Cayman Islands. The captain and the medical staff decided that due to the emergency and the passenger requiring more intense medical help, we diverted to Cozumel as it was just few hours away at the time of the emergency as opposed to Cayman which was at least a dozen hours away. No problem there. We never made it to Cayman so the next best thing was Casa Maya the following day. As I said, we had no issues with that and I only heard 1 or 2 ignorant passengers grumbling about the whole situation. I wondered how they would feel if it was them that needed emergency medical help???

 

On the last day at sea, we had a second medical emergency and we diverted towards Key West. At about 90 miles out a Coast Guard helicopter appeared and did it's job under very difficult conditions. It was a very windy day, but the captain and the helicopter pilot worked it out to were they both were going the same speed and CG was able to lower one of it's men to the ship, then the basket, then up with the passenger in the basket and finally their own man. Felt bad for the passenger, but it was exciting to watch the entire operation. Just about 1/2 of the ship passengers were on the pool deck watching it. We were very proud of our young military personnel and how they handled the job in very difficult conditions. Our captain also did a fantastic job during that time.

 

To summarize. My partner was very disappointed with the cruise and informed me that we're going back to RC or? from now on. She was the one that thought Carnival was just as good. That decision had NOTHING to do with diversions due to medical need.

 

Me? well, I thought it was an okay cruise, but the entertainment staff and CD really were disappointing and the food was below average.

 

Just our opinion. YOMV. :)

[Redsfan]

thanks for the review and too bad it didn't live up to your expectations...we are on it in 3 weeks so hoping for something different for ours....did hear Stephanie is a great CD but scared a bit now...

[firerunner]

we were on the inspiration the week before you and loved it.

 

 

its funny how opinions are, i ate that terrible ice cream once...it was terrible in my opinion, was more ice milk then cream

[mondello]

we were on the inspiration the week before you and loved it.

 

 

its funny how opinions are, i ate that terrible ice cream once...it was terrible in my opinion, was more ice milk then cream

We were on the same Halloween cruise as OP. Yes, the ice cream was so-so; tasted fine right out of the machine but, quickly disintegrated into ice-milk. I preferred the frozen yogurt. The cover band was from the Philippines. This was our fourth cruise, second with CCL. I think it should be mandatory to have at least a minimum fix of steel drum music on a Caribbean cruise on the Lido deck everyday. I can understand both previous posters opinions. We had a great cruise. Good food could be found. Some selections were bordering on outstanding. Had a crab cake appetizer that was probably the best I've ever had. Others might not even haved liked it. Overall, I would suggest to get dressed and go to dinner every night. The service and food selection choices just seemed a step above the buffet. We lucked out and met 2 nice couples that each had 1 kid like us. I have always tipped $10 to my steward upon embarkation with the agreement that they will provide ice every day for my cooler and the understanding that the $10 would be repeated at the end of every cruise. Always the best $20 I ever spend! I thought the crew was really great, not too many just going through the motions. Entertainment was most likely the worst of our 4 cruises. Just didn't do it for us. However, I didn't book this cruise for the entertainment. As an observer of human nature, people watching is great sport. Why do you think there are so many funny video shows on TV? Thanks to all on CC, your posts provided enough info to know what to expect on my Halloween Inspiration cruise. I was disappointed to miss Grand Cayman but, all the more reason to cruise again. I really think it would take a perfect storm culmination of events for me to experience a bad cruise. Happy travels, all!

[andrzej5914]

Like I said, it was my beautiful partner that had more issues with this Carnival cruise. She was on one previously and thought it was very comparable with RC after we did 2 RC cruises. That's why we decided on Carnival this time. I was okay with the cruise, the ship, but both of us thought the food was below average and the nightlife really sucked. CD and entertainment staff were way below average. JOHO.... ;)

[crusinpsychRN]

Was the Asian guy singing stuff like Willie Nelson and he sounded just like him? That guy is great!

 

The chef on Inspiration is terrible. Went on the Behind the Fun tour and 16 of us all told him the coffee was mud. Everyone was putting water into it. He said, "No, everyone likes it."

 

How was food temps?

[mondello]

Was the Asian guy singing stuff like Willie Nelson and he sounded just like him? That guy is great!

 

The chef on Inspiration is terrible. Went on the Behind the Fun tour and 16 of us all told him the coffee was mud. Everyone was putting water into it. He said, "No, everyone likes it."

 

How was food temps?

Food Temps were for the most part okay. The Executive/Head Chef is M. Wisdom, from Jamaica. Not exactly my idea of a culinary paradise, although the jerk chicken shines. Food opinions run the gamut. I didn't have any problem finding a good dinner each night in the Carnivale dining room. Worth the effort to dress for dinner and enjoy the sit-down dinner much more than the buffet.

[andrzej5914]

We got a reply from CCL Customer Service today. It took about a week. Anyways, it was a small apology and then closed up with "hope you will cruise with us again" kind of a reply. We didn't hope for anything more so we're happy with the reply. At the very least we're hoping that the complaint was looked at and addressed in some ways.

 

Still, my SO is totally against cruising with Carnival again. I'm about 50/50. I believe that possibly a different ship, a bigger ship may make a difference.

 

Any comments?

[Cinders411]

We were on the same cruise. Was the food as good as last year on the Sensation? No, but, I don't cruise for the food. My only real disapointment was the Halloween judging being held in a small club rather than the Paris Lounge and missing Grand Cayman. I understand the port changes could not be helped and just makes me certain that I have to do another cruise to Grand Cayman! Probably not on the Inspiration though. We did enjoy most of the entertainment. We were some of the folks in cruise casual at the past guest party. Being our first time, I didn't know we were suppose to dress up for it. My bad. All in all, we still enjoyed ourselves. : )

[andrzej5914]

We were on the same cruise. Was the food as good as last year on the Sensation? No, but, I don't cruise for the food. My only real disapointment was the Halloween judging being held in a small club rather than the Paris Lounge and missing Grand Cayman. I understand the port changes could not be helped and just makes me certain that I have to do another cruise to Grand Cayman! Probably not on the Inspiration though. We did enjoy most of the entertainment. We were some of the folks in cruise casual at the past guest party. Being our first time, I didn't know we were suppose to dress up for it. My bad. All in all, we still enjoyed ourselves. : )

 

Nobody had to dress up for the party, but since we were on the ship during the stay in Cozumel we hung out at the pool. We went down to the cabin at 4:30, took quick showers and put on some fresh clothes. That's all I was trying to say. She could have made the announcement before 5 so we would just enjoy the rest of the day at the pool area. Our complaint is not about the reason for cancellation, it's about her not informing us earlier.

 

We and many others could not believe she made the announcement ~5:10 after few dozen people were already to enjoy the party.