Inspiration vs mariner

[juanarcin]

Ive only done one cruise and am about to do my second, both on the Mariner of the Seas. I loved the ship and everything there was to do on it. I am trying to get some friends together for a cruise and because of the amount of people and budgets I am thinking our best option is to do a 3 day cruise out of Los Angeles where we live. However after pumping up how amazing cruising is to all my non-cruising friends, I'm wondering if I may have over hyped it only to take them on the Inspiration. now I have no idea how the inspiration is and maybe its as good or even better than the mariner, but just from seeing that there are no balconies I imagine that its a bit lower in class than the mariner. my main questions for those who have been on both:

 

• is the food any good?
  
• are the shows enjoyable?
  
• are there plenty of things to do on the ship? (only one sea day)
  

 

Most importantly, will this turn off my friends from cruising!!! haha, I am really trying to get a bunch of us to do a longer cruise on a nice ship, but they've never cruised so this is a sort of a test run to see if its something they might want to do. I imagine it wont be as amazing as doing europe on the mariner but overall am hoping it isnt off putting for new cruisers.

[DanJ]

I've never been a fan of the "test drive" theory for vacations. Really, the cruise you are considering isn't going to be great indicator of cruising in general. Short Carnival cruises tend to live up (down?) to the frat house reputation Carnival had over the years. A longer cruise will be totally different atmosphere, both in the ship itself, with it's more numerous entertainment and dining options, and in the fewer amount of people cramming in as much partying as they can.

 

That said, for someone not having cruised before, that class of ship will likely still amaze someone, and you then can play up that as nice as this is, you should see such and such style ship. Depending on how the atmosphere is on board, and how your friends are liking it, you can pump up the positives as being something they will enjoy more, while playing down the negatives by saying "well, this is a smaller ship with less stuff going on compared to the Mariner" or something like that.

[Eng23]

Mariner is a much better ship. It is much newer and has more to offer than Inspiration. JMHO.