Just back from the Inspiration 4 nighter

[SeaPA1]

Just got back today from a 4 night cruise on the Inspiration. We had a very nice trip, quite happy with the overall experience. Had a big family group on the trip; my direct family (wife, 2.5 year old son, 4 month old son, me), and most of wife’s family (her folks, both her brothers & their families, and another couple who are close family friends. With the little ones, the trip was a little more subdued than much of our past cruises & vacations, but I still managed to run up a fairly large bar tab. Some of my thoughts on things:

Bar Selection: Very nice selection of beers (I like heavier brews), including Guinness (cans), Bass, Grolsch, Pilsner Urqell, Becks, Red Stripe, Sam Adams, and the typical mass produced American brews. Prices ranged from around $4.25 to $5.75. Tequila selection quite limited, just Jose Cuervo & the Cuervo 1800. Fortunately we went to Coz so I could get a bit of the good stuff. Wife had a few mixed drinks & they were poured nicely, strong but not so stiff as to make them tough to drink.

Camp Carnival: Our older son spent a good deal of time in the kids camp & had a blast. When he wasn’t in there, he frequently was saying “wanna go playroom.” They open up after dinner on the first night; no charge from opening ( I think 8 pm) to 10 pm. You can leave the kids there from 10 pm to 3 am for a babysitting fee of $6 per hour (addl $4/hr for 2nd kid). On the other days, the camp is open pretty much all day, no charge until 10 pm, then the same babysitting service & charges. There were scattered hours where it was closed, don’t remember exactly when. On the last sea day, the camp is closed through the afternoon & again during dinner. On the nights when they are open through dinner, they will bring the kids up to the buffet & feed them if you so choose. They had lots of toys of assorted types, movies, & play activities (arts & crafts, coloring, etc).

Dining: We ate our breakfasts at the sitdown breakfasts, just prefer that to the buffet. Pancakes were good, light & fluffy. Egg muffin sandwiches were also good. Overall, they had a good selection of food with a wide variety. Lunches we ate at the buffet; the burgers were pretty good, as was the pizza (neither was spectacular, but both were good). They also have a deli making fresh sandwiches; never tried them because the lines were usually long. Dinners for us were in the Mardi Gras dining room. Service was very good, attentive & friendly. Food, for the most part, was good but not spectacular. Interesting variety every night; I’m a fussy eater & never had a problem finding something I’d like. The desserts were a little disappointing; the Black Forest cake was excellent but the others I had were just ok. Bottom line, I’ll be spending some extra time in the gym over the next couple of weeks trying to undue the overeating from the last few days.

Itinerary:

Left Tampa on Thursday afternoon. Friday was a Sea Day, with some of the typical pool activities (Fear Factor, swimming challenges, that kind of stuff). Saturday in Cozumel; with the boys, we kept things to a minimum there. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the downtown has recovered. There was some OBVIOUS damage to a lot of places, but overall they’d cleaned things up nicely & most stores & restaurants were open. Had an outstanding lunch at Casa Denis, kinda near the town square. Conch Ceviche, chicken tostadas, mayan pork tacos (they were fabulous), very good margarita. Total bill was $26 + tip. If you go, don’t faint when you see the prices, they are in pesos (so no, the conch ceviche isn’t a hundred bucks, it’s about $9).

Sunday was another Sea Day, with more of the typical poolside games (hairy chest contest & so forth).

Onboard entertainment: The Vegas style shows were very enjoyable, with good music & dancing. Comedian the first 2 nights was quite funny. I thought his “G rated” show was better than his R rated show the next night. The guy who was scheduled to be on the ship the next 2 nights didn’t make it to Coz in time to catch the boat, so they substituted with some additional dance shows. Also went to some of the gameshow things in the lounge; they were fun but the microphone, combined with the booming voice of the cruise director, made things so loud it was damn near painful.

That’s all I can think of offhand; I’m still tired. If anyone has questions, I’ll try to answer them.

[MichelleP]

Thanks for your review! It was very helpful.

 

Did you stay in Coz the whole time you were scheduled to (7 a.m. - 10 p.m.?) We are booked for the Chichen Itza ruins tour which goes from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., and while I'm sure you don't know about that one in particular, I'm trying to make sure there's still enough time to do the tour with the tendering. Thanks!