Inspiration 1-11-07 review

[Lakesilly605er]

This was our fourth cruise, but first for our 9 year old son. We flew in the day before to ensure that weather and any other problems would not be a factor in our getting to the ship on time. We arrived in Tampa without a hitch.

I am one who does not like to pay a lot of money to sleep in a bed and take a shower in a clean room. Tampa is a city that seems to have a lot of hotels, yet when one starts reading online reviews for the under 100 dollar places, they get a lot of bad press. It seems to me that one has to pay upwards of 200 dollars or more a night to get a decent hotel with good reviews. I went the Priceline route and got the Marriot Airport for 81 dollars a night. (Marriott’s website was quoting $289) I can live with 81 dollars. This was a very nice hotel, with easy access to all the airport restaurants. It was very convenient to be able to walk upstairs after getting our luggage and be at our hotel. The cab ride to the port the next day set us back about 25 dollars.

We arrived at the port around 11:00 Friday morning, and we were boarding by 11:30. It was a very easy and smooth embarkation. As you walk onto the ship, the weeks and months of anticipation cause me to come down with a condition I like to call “permagrin”. I noticed that my son had it as well.

Food is waiting for you as you walk onto the Lido deck and it is the typical buffet food. If you are used to fine dining, this is not for you. If you are used to regular food, the occasional restaurant outing, the food is just fine. There is a little something for everyone’s tastes, even my son, who is a finicky eater.

We had been on the Inspiration before, but it was still fun to explore the ship with my son, who was seeing it for the first time. Everything was sparkling clean and there always seemed to be someone cleaning, polishing, or working to make things right. Staff always seemed to have a smile, or cheerful attitude, and they went out of their way to say hello, or wish you good morning.

We did not participate in many of the onboard activities; opting for the warmth of the sun on the pool deck and watching our son go down the slide a 100+ times. If he was not on the slide, he was in the pool, or in the arcade. The arcade is the little kids casino, and thank god there is a limit to how much Carnival allows kids to put on their sign and sail card. My wife did attend the towel folding session which she enjoyed.

My son attended a few camp carnival activities. This was mainly at night after the pool and slide closed. He went to the late night party and had a blast. It is something for him to stay awake until 3 a.m. I had complete confidence in the Camp Carnival staff and had no qualms about letting him go. A staff member escorts them back to their room at the end of the party.

There was only one stop on this trip. Our port was Cozumel. We have been here several times and we do a bit of shopping and then usually head for Paradise Beach. It is about a 15-dollar cab ride each way from the Punta Langosta pier. The beach is great, the food is great, and my son loves to swim out and play on the trampoline and climbing iceberg. After leaving Paradise Beach, we came back and stopped at Carlos N’ Charlies for a snack and to watch all of the “crazy people.” It is always fun to stand up on your chairs with everyone else and do the YMCA.

Spending time on the sundeck people watching and enjoying the ocean scenery is what we look forward to. We also like to enjoy a few libations. Needless to say, we bought our share of beer buckets. Coors Light is a dollar less than all of the rest of the beers, and when bought in quantity, can save you few bucks. We also brought a small bottle of Windsor along in our packed luggage. It was nice to be able to have a cocktail in our room. At almost 6 dollars per drink, we easily saved ourselves over 50 dollars this way.

We have cruised on Norwegian, RCCL, and Carnival. I would go on any of the three cruiselines again. However, for the money, Carnival wins hands down. We have not had an unpleasant experience with any of the cruiselines, but Carnival has bigger rooms, and when budgets are tight, we will go with the lower price. As it has been said many times on these reviews, a vacation is what you make of it. One can always find something wrong, that is not a problem. If you go looking for a good time, you will easily find it on this cruise.

[BABYJOSIE98]

Thanks for the review...We are planning to book the Inpsiration for October 2007. My Daughter will be 9 when we sail. She loves cruising. We have been on DCL and RCL. She keeps looking over at the Carnival ships saying lets try one of those! She likes the big waterslides on the pool deck. So that is what we are going to do.

 

I picked a cruise in October where she will only miss 1 day of school! I was wondering about the late night party! That is great they escort them back to the room. I probably can not stay up till 3:00am!! LOL

 

Do you like only 1 port and a couple days at sea??? I personally love the sea days and that is one reason for picking this cruise. We have sailed Majesty and Sovereign which have no sea days and I missed them.

 

We do plan to go to Paradise beach in Cozumel. I was there in Jan 2005 and we had a blast and go too meet Paradise Tom. He run the place and was originally from Canada? Is he still in charge??? Really a nice guy!

 

Glad to hear all the good things! I can't wait too get it booked.

 

Michelle

[Lakesilly605er]

We have done the Disneyworld trip and have stayed in Cozumel for a week, but we have found that we like cruising the best. For us it doesn't really matter where the ship is going. This is only our 4th cruise, so maybe later it will. We really like the sea days, hanging out on the sun deck, listening to the band play and people watching. Going to the ports to explore is fun, but for me and my wife, we can only shop so much in the ports before everything starts to look the same.

The late night party for the kids is fun, but I must be getting older because I am pretty proud if I can make it to midnight. Maybe the wind, sun, buckets of beer, and the overeating have something to do with that.

Tom is still at Paradise beach and you can see him lurking on responding to emails on the Cozumel board once in awhile. We have met him several times, and I did see him there last Saturday as well. I wonder how one goes about getting a job where you walk around and visit with people on the beach all day?

[BABYJOSIE98]

Yeah Tom has the life!! We brought him cans of Ravioli since he never can get them in Cozumel

He gave us a free shot and we took some pictures with him. He was very cool!

 

Disney World is work! We are totally spoiled by the cruises. We do love the Disney Cruises, but can't always swing the prices. I like trying new experiences too. We are pretty easy too please.

 

I hate shopping in Mexico!! Hate it!! The only port I really enjoy shopping is Key West. No one bugs you and you can get some great deals. I am happy to stay on the ship.

 

This past December we stayed on SOS in Nassau and had the ship too ourselves. It was great.

 

Thanks again for all the great info.

[njs]

Thanks for the great review. Have booked 5day Insp in May. Have only been on Liberty and Glory, a different class of ship. Other than being bigger and newer, are meals/services/ rooms similar to the Inspiration?

[Lakesilly605er]

I can't speak for the newer, bigger ships but from what I have read the rooms are all similar. There are just more of them. The Fanstasy ships carry about a 1000 less passengers. The Inspiration doesn't have some of the other amenities, such as a climbing wall, mini-golf etc. But then we don't book a ship for its mini-golf and climbing wall. An inside room, which is what we book is 185 square feet. Some of the rooms on other lines are only about 112 square feet. That is a big difference. The joke on the Norwegian and RCCL ships I have heard is that you need to soap up the walls of the shower and then spin to get good and clean. On the Carnival cruises, one can fit two people in the shower. It just seems that in the Carnival cruises you aren't always tripping on things. Some diehard RCCL friends went on the Inspiration with us last year and they reluctantly agreed that Carnival's rooms were bigger and nicer. They were comparing balcony rooms.

[njs]

The Inspiration doesn't have some of the other amenities, such as a climbing wall, mini-golf etc. But then we don't book a ship for its mini-golf and climbing wall.

 

I'M with you on that- can do those things at home

 

The joke on the Norwegian and RCCL ships I have heard is that you need to soap up the walls of the shower and then spin to get good and clean.

 

THAT's A GOOD ONE:D

 

Just want to make sure the dining (esp)/cruise experience is similar:)