Never Again Carnival Inspiration

[Linda the Book Lover]

On 9/1/2019 at 4:35 PM, JC13 said:

Long time Princess cruiser here, but decided to do a 4 day CA to Ensenada cruise, which I am in Ensenada now.  I will sum it up by saying never again!  The plus, easy covered parking in structure, easy checkin based on pre scheduled times , easy boarding  and very friendly boarding staff.  Cabin was nice, inside, with a larger bathroom and shower than Princess.  Good pizza.  Now the down side. Requested king bed setup, got twins and had to wait for staff to make change when they had time   no frig in cabin, in cabin safe was not operational and required staff to come out to change the batteries.  The staff also failed to mention only the first cabin key used on the safe will work during the cruise.  There is no notes/documentation of this.  While the shower is larger  water goes everywhere in the bathroom. No in cabin lighting in closet area, over bed lights not useful for anything but a night light  the tv is the size of a computer monitor at about 18".  Air controls are in the ceiling, walls are not magnetic, and your cabin key is left on the cabin room sign when you first come in.  In cabin dining comes at a fee for certain items. Dining in general is a mess  1.5 hrs wait time for your time dining, lots of overly drunk passengers, the serenity area was dirty  seating areas unclean, lots of uncaring peronnel, eager to tell you policy but not open to "How can I help you?.  On the ship it is difficult to find a quiet area, it clearly is a party ship, but not in a good way.  Cabin next door had yelling and fighting all last night, had to call security.  But live and learn, stay with what you know, even if the product comes from the same corporation.  They clearly have different markets in mind. 

My DD and I have sailed the 3-day once and the 4-day several times. I was long in tooth late 60's and the next time around will be knocking on 70 on our next one (DD in 40's). The 3-day was more of a party crowd but we managed to find plenty of quiet nooks and enjoyed the adult only area. We played mini golf and found great seating aft to read our Kindles. I bring on bottle wine (yippee) to enjoy with dinner. We had one issue (soaked carpet when we arrived) one time and we were moved almost immediately. I did not expect a 7-day plus cruise experience or anything special just a few days to relax and watch the ocean. I am sorry your expectation was not met though you did start off with positives before the unplesantries of your cruise.

 

[Markmom18]

Ok, I'm in the tiny majority. I live about 45--1 Hour from the Port. I love to cruise, even on the small Inspiration !    Book Insides for these 4 & 3 day cruises and I no longer drink alcohol. Let others do what they want & dress how they want ... LOL!   

 

The Inspiration is what it IS and I accept that and have never had an unpleasant mini vacay.  Actually have a wonderful time!  😍🤗😎

 

I'm booked on 3 upcoming Inspiration trips, two are B2B. Trying to get to Platinum in 2020. Yippie, but even after achieving that, I'll still enjoy my local Carnival cruise ship. 💙❤️

 

🤗🤗

Bobbi

[Treyatl2006]

I will say that we had YTD on the Fantasy and it was also 1.5 hour wait for a party of 3. So it definitely can happen. I think it may be a Fantasy class ship issue. 

 

Most of The OP's other issues seems like nit picks or minor inconveniences. Ohh the horror you had to wait for maintenance to change batteries or wait for the room stewards to change your room to a King setup. Alot of this would have been avoided if you would have done your research.

[CanWeGoYet?]

The 3 and 4 day Carnival cruises I've been on to Ensenada / Catalina have had pretty well behaved cruisers at least in my experience.   On one of the cruises there was a huge family reunion going on, looked like hundreds of folks with the same custom t-shirts.  Aside from a very snotty teenager who seemed angry at life in general - no issues at all on these cruises.  

 

The 3 day Nassau cruise I took on the Imagination was so bad, I was stunned.  There were fights in the lobby, a large family screaming & fighting with another family, and even though 95% of the passengers were perfectly well behaved - the ones who weren't were so bad it felt like being in a scene from a prison movie.  Had that been my first carnival cruise it would have been my last.

 

And the 4 day HAL coastal cruise I went on, had an extremely rowdy young crowd roving the ship at night.  It was quiet in the daytime but maybe they were sleeping in.  Not what I was expecting on HAL.  Probably would never happen on a 7 day cruise.  You can make generalities about how the different cruise lines draw different types of passengers, but I think it's pushing it to make generalities from limited experience.  

[Nic6318]

20 hours ago, JC13 said:

Actually no, I did do my research, as Elite on Princess I have done 3-4 day cruises out of LA and 1 day out of Seattle and Vancouver on Princess ( and more) plus multiple cruises on the Celebrity Century, which was OLD, and nothing like what was happening on the so called Fun Ship occurred on Princess.  Pricing is about the same on Princess as it is on Carnival, but service levels are way off, elite or not, just sayin'......

 

Hi

 

You didn't do any research about Carnival. 

 

You could have been enlightened about all your "issues" if you had read or asked any questions on these Carnival threads prior to coming here to complain (about things you weren't aware of). I see that you did have the presence of mind to come to the Carnival threads to ask about your shareholder OBC. You could have done more.

[sanmarcosman]

10 hours ago, Markmom18 said:

Ok, I'm in the tiny majority. I live about 45--1 Hour from the Port. I love to cruise, even on the small Inspiration !    Book Insides for these 4 & 3 day cruises and I no longer drink alcohol. Let others do what they want & dress how they want ... LOL!   

 

The Inspiration is what it IS and I accept that and have never had an unpleasant mini vacay.  Actually have a wonderful time!  😍🤗😎

 

I'm booked on 3 upcoming Inspiration trips, two are B2B. Trying to get to Platinum in 2020. Yippie, but even after achieving that, I'll still enjoy my local Carnival cruise ship. 💙❤️

 

🤗🤗

Bobbi

We're Carnival twins. We took multiple sailings on both Inspiration and Imagination for quick getaways and made platinum in the process. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by sanmarcosman

[glrounds]

And sometimes it's just so friggin' cheap you can't NOT go. Did a 3-dayer on either the IMAGINATION or INSPIRATION out of San Diego for $99 ! Took my son with me and he nailed the poker table for $600. What a blast we had !

[OnePsychLynne]

17 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

But who expects the crowd to be the same... I would never cruise HAL and expect people doing shots at the bar, apples and oranges

 

I've been on one HAL cruise... And honestly some of those people could have used doing a few shots at the bar 🤣

[OnePsychLynne]

16 hours ago, Orland0MG said:

Wow, after so many minor inconveniences, were you able to get a hold of a manager, Karen?

 

😂😂😂 My very first thought was that she got on board with her mind already made up to NOT like Carnival. I wouldn't have noticed a single one of her complaints... On ANY ship. Smh. 

[Markmom18]

14 hours ago, glrounds said:

And sometimes it's just so friggin' cheap you can't NOT go. Did a 3-dayer on either the IMAGINATION or INSPIRATION out of San Diego for $99 ! Took my son with me and he nailed the poker table for $600. What a blast we had !

 

Tell me HOW I can get that price fellow traveler!   🤑🤑.

 

I'm paying just shy of $700 { regular weekday in Feb 2020} for a Solo Inside / 4 Day Inspiration  (bunk beds).  I do book the Past Guest Upgrade offer, a tad more money, but I prefer this method. And I pre-pay grats.  My 3 day this last Feb with my hubby, same Inside Cabin & Payment Option, was a little over $700.  🤔  

 

BTW! Why is their 4 Day cheaper than a 3 Day?? Anybody? 

 

🌸🌸

Bobbi 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by Markmom18

[Markmom18]

15 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

We're Carnival twins. We took multiple sailings on both Inspiration and Imagination for quick getaways and made platinum in the process. 

 

I'll need 5 more Cruise points, after the local cruises I've already booked. Darn!  So, I guess I'm going to look into ONE more B2B on the Inspiration  .... the things I must endure .... 😂🛳🛳😂

[glrounds]

10 hours ago, Markmom18 said:

 

Tell me HOW I can get that price fellow traveler!   🤑🤑.

 

I'm paying just shy of $700 { regular weekday in Feb 2020} for a Solo Inside / 4 Day Inspiration  (bunk beds).  I do book the Past Guest Upgrade offer, a tad more money, but I prefer this method. And I pre-pay grats.  My 3 day this last Feb with my hubby, same Inside Cabin & Payment Option, was a little over $700.  🤔  

 

BTW! Why is their 4 Day cheaper than a 3 Day?? Anybody? 

 

🌸🌸

Bobbi 

 

 

 

Bobbi,

 

The cruise was out of San Diego (I think), not the Fantasy Class normal port at that time. This was a Pack'n'Go offer made the day before the cruise in order to fill the ship. Happened many years ago during a strong economic downturn (I'm guessing 2007 or 2008) when filling ships was problematic for cruise lines. I always take the cheapest rate of the cheapest week offered to Platinum guests I get in my e-mail and varies, but around $169 DO for a 4-day (sometimes less). Probably higher today because of the strong economy and current popularity of cruising.

 

4-day is cheaper because of supply and demand. Easier to fill the weekend 3-dayer Drink-til-you-Puke cruises because people don't have to use their vacation days. The "locals"  can leave work a couple hours early on Friday, party Friday, Saturday and Sunday, get off the ship early Monday and show up for work to get caught up on their sleep ! 🙂 Back in the day when NCL did these same 3 and 4 day runs, I had a fellow contractor who did this weekend run frequently. He was a heavy drinker and gambler and would get the call on his phone at 11:00 am to race to the port and board the ship. His cruise was FREE. Only had to pay port charges ! I'm sure NCL did just fine with the drinking and gambling on his account.

 

I now only do the 4-dayer . . . (much quieter, for sure) 🙂

 

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by glrounds

[fabby50]

We live in California, about a 3 hour drive from the port, and that's exactly why we use to do the 3 dayers - a nice mini getaway, not too expensive and minimum time off work.  When NCL was running, we switched over to them and did like it better because of more dining options.  I do prefer the 4 day run because of Catalina (one of my favorite ports), but I have to take a week off work and we might as well do a longer cruise if we're going to do that.  Booked on the Panorama next and taking the same amount of time off as the 4 day run.

[moviegal]

Ah, bummer. I live a couple of hours from the port and take that Ensenada short cruise at least twice a year (usually pay around $129 each for an interior cabin). Cheaper to cruise than stay home for the weekend, lol.

 

But yeah, you have to lower expectations. The ship is super old, but still clean and comfortable. The flooding shower floor does happen, it's just a flaw in the old design. We've also experienced the super long waits for dinner (sometimes well over 1.5 hours), even at "off" times. But that's usually if we request a table for two. Whenever we've asked to sit at a larger table to share, we've been seated straight away. Plus, they have a Guy's Burgers and those things are so tasty, I usually prefer to eat there instead of fussing with the dining room.

 

We LOVE Ensenada. There isn't much to do tourist-wise but I never get bored. We just get off the ship, walk around, have some coffee, cheap tequila, and tacos. The street food scene there is legit! Cheap and tasty. If you are in port on a Saturday, Hussong's has 2-for-1 margaritas that are super strong and super inexpensive.

 

These cruises do have a deserved reputation for being party ships. The worst thing that's ever happened to us on one of those notorious "booze cruises" is that one night we came back to our cabin and somebody had vomited right in front of our door. We had to call guest services and I know they probably thought it was one of us who puked, but it wasn't. Super, super gross. 

 

Other than that, we just hang out on the upper decks and relax. It's certainly not fancy (we also love cruising Princess out of L.A.), but I don't think you can beat the value. Not negating the original poster's experience, but there are some of us who dig the "crappiness" of these short little Ensenada jaunts.

[Butterbean1000]

On 9/3/2019 at 12:27 AM, Treyatl2006 said:

I will say that we had YTD on the Fantasy and it was also 1.5 hour wait for a party of 3. So it definitely can happen. I think it may be a Fantasy class ship issue. 

 

Most of The OP's other issues seems like nit picks or minor inconveniences. Ohh the horror you had to wait for maintenance to change batteries or wait for the room stewards to change your room to a King setup. Alot of this would have been avoided if you would have done your research.

We did our annual girls trip on the Fantasy back in '15 out of Charleston.  There were 8 of us.  I can't recall the exact wait times, but it was not longer than a few minutes The longest wait we had was on the Magic with 6 of us. That was around 20 minutes. This might be a new glitch, but I cannot imagine waiting for 1 1/2 hours!  Ouch!

[SadieN]

Diamond on Carnival, Platinum on Princess.

 

All cruise lines and ships have issues.  Why the heck did you sail during the summer during summer break?  

 

About the safe-- Every hotel with a swipe mechanism has had to use the same card, otherwise anybody could get into your safe.  Unfortunately, you have to be present when there is anything to do with your cabin safe, even on Princess.

 

I'm sure your beds were pushed together by 9pm. Shall I tell you the issues we've had on Princess.  One cruise, in a mini suite, Sis couldn't get the Steward, he couldn't be bothered to put the bedding on the pull out sofa bed each night.  10 day cruise

 

Why didn't you make sure the shower curtain was inside the shower? They're now long enough to drag on the shower floor.

I won't discuss the low ceiling in the Princess minisuite tub.  I'm surprised you didn't complain about the lack of vanity space in the bathroom, it's truly horrible on this class of ship.

 

Agreed, about the AC control, ships were built differently then. 

 

We've had horrendous ATD waits on both cruise lines. Is Princess still letting Assigned Dining pax into ATD? Why didn't you ask to be changed to Assigned Dining?

 

How was Catalina? Carnival uses fully ADA compliant tenders, no going up and down steep steps.

 

Did the ship run out of anything? One Princess cruise the ship ran out of toilet paper!

 

       

Edited September 5, 2019 by SadieN

[coevan]

2 hours ago, Butterbean1000 said:

This might be a new glitch, but I cannot imagine waiting for 1 1/2 hours!  Ouch!

 

 

No way we would wait an hour and a half for the MDR or any restaurant. We would have walked over to the Steakhouse and be seated in 10 minutes. 

[my kids mama]

On 9/1/2019 at 6:21 PM, jimbo5544 said:

What is the draw to Ensenada?

I have done that cruise twice.  I get that it's no frills.  I had really great street tacos in Ensenada. I had a bonus on the 2nd time, I won $4800 in the casino.  I am probably a little biased, just a little bit.  I am cruising on her sister ship, the Sensation in October.  I know what to expect as far as the ship.  We have two ports that are new to us, I am a happy cruiser. Sorry you didn't 't have a great experience. 

[Markmom18]

Darn, no cheap-o cruises (under $100), but I'll be 👌🏼🙂!    I also prefer the 4 Day cruises. Both Ports are nice in their own way.

 

Catalina: I mean who doesn't wish they could drive Golf Carts everyday? Love the Vons stores(s) too 🛒. So close to the Mainland, but .... ahhhh ...

 

Ensenada: I much prefer this Port sober. Too many afwul cheap tequila hangovers the next morning. 🤢 My favorite store is Casa Ramirez.  Did you know they have like a Thrift/Damaged section upstairs?? Yep! 🤗🤗. I go up and search for bargain treasures first. 

 

Im getting so excited to go on another "Girls Trip" with my Mom & our friend & her Mom later this month ❣️❣️

 

 Both Mom's are in their 80's now & didn't think they'd see each other again. Both live in different states, and it's just more challenging to fly. Anyway, just tickled I can fly my Mom out to visit my family and to do this very special cruise.

 

👭💞 🛳 💞 👭 

 

Bobbi

[bynny8]

5 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

No way we would wait an hour and a half for the MDR or any restaurant. We would have walked over to the Steakhouse and be seated in 10 minutes. 

Nope. Inspiration is bare-bones basic. No steakhouse onboard. 

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, my kids mama said:

I have done that cruise twice.  I get that it's no frills.  I had really great street tacos in Ensenada. I had a bonus on the 2nd time, I won $4800 in the casino.  I am probably a little biased, just a little bit.  I am cruising on her sister ship, the Sensation in October.  I know what to expect as far as the ship.  We have two ports that are new to us, I am a happy cruiser. Sorry you didn't 't have a great experience. 

I am not the op, was just asking about Ensenada

[jimbo5544]

5 hours ago, bynny8 said:

Nope. Inspiration is bare-bones basic. No steakhouse onboard. 

Bare bones....love it

[Jamman54]

4 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Bare bones....love it

 

I guess compared to the newer ships with many dining options you can call it bare bones. We still love sailing on these ships from time to time. 😎

[jimbo5544]

9 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

 

I guess compared to the newer ships with many dining options you can call it bare bones. We still love sailing on these ships from time to time. 😎

Lol, I do get it.  Like you, we grew up on these ships, thought they were the best, and still occasionally sail them.  

[fabby50]

Over the years, we've been to Ensenada probably 20 times.  We are not shoppers and there's only one local art store we will occasionally stop by, sorry I can't remember the name of it right now - darn getting older!  We usually take an excursion that gets us away from the city.  I grew up in Southern California and the countryside and the coast line reminds me of what California was like 50+  years ago.  Last time, we went on the brewery tour which was interesting, the wine tour is popular.  I don't drink much and could care less about beer/wine, but I like going out to the vineyards and enjoyed talking to the brewers on the brewery tour.  The more we go to Mexico, the more I like it.