1st Cruise - Inspiration Review

[coachrains]

This is my opinion, I think several within my own family would likely disagree on some things mentioned, although we would agree to some extent on all.

We took our family of five on our 1st cruise, on Carnival’s Inspiration leaving out of Tampa for a 5 night cruise with stops in Cayman Islands and Calica Mexico. My wife and I had separate adjacent room from our three teens, ages 17, 14, and 13. We arrived in Tampa two days a head of time and stayed at Hampton Inn in Tampa fro 2 nights, nice motel in nice area.

Loading on ship was fairly easy; we used Valet parking for $75, which I thought was worth the extra $10 to not have to fool with car before or after. Had to wait about one hour before boarding boat, we went to area shops and restaurants, enjoyed atmosphere.

Getting on ship and walking around trying to find everything was exciting, we had luggage brought to room within a couple of hours. Rooms are bigger than I had heard; we had an interior cabin, on main floor in middle, which I think was a good choice for lessening the rocking of the boat. Personally I would not pay the extra price for a window, I enjoyed sleeping in and the dark room in the mornings made that easily done. The bed and linens were very comfortable, and relaxing, storage was fine, and again better than I figured it would be.

Our 1st two days we had somewhat rough seas from what I was told from more experienced cruisers. My wife and I enjoyed sitting and laughing at people staggering by the 2nd evening, it was as if everyone was drunk, two steps forward, then one to the sideJ People were laughing at themselves, and it was quite amusing. None of us got sick, although the unstable feeling got old, and was worst in the rear and front of boat where the shows were being held. However I did find the rocking action along with good bedding seemed to help me sleep better.

Meals - We went on this cruise to relax and be casual, we did not get all dressed up and only ate in main dining room two evenings. I found the food to be ok; I like the food in the main dining room the least, although the service and our waiter were exceptional. There is not a huge variety to eat, you are limited to selections on your menu, and I would think most people would find only a few really appealing to them. Servings are small, you can order more though. The steak is fair at best, presentation is good, but quality is not what I would get at a good steak house. We ate breakfast on Lido deck buffet on most mornings, they had either pancakes or French toast (fair/cold), along with scrambled eggs (good), link sausage or ham slice (fair), or if you chose to wait, you could have omelet made to order (better), there was also cereal and fruit (fair). Breakfast did not have much variety, that was pretty much you menu every morning.

Lunch – again we usually ate on Lido deck, I enjoyed the cheeseburgers and chili dogs, along with pizza from pizzeria, pretty good stuff, but got old after a couple of days.

Ordered room service two late evenings, P&J with milk, good service and sandwich, milk not cold, which was a consistent problem at breakfast also, they struggled to keep milk cartons cold in buffet, little or no ice. If I had to do it over again I would likey bring one nice outfit. Overall I would give food a grade of C.

Service – I thought this was the most impressive facet of trip, our steward, waiter and for the most part everyone we came in encounter with was very friendly, helpful and polite. They went out of their way to make sure we were enjoying ourselves and made us feel that our needs and desires were a priority. Photographers do a wonderful job, and man there are a bunch of them, it cost me about $200 on final bill, but we got some great photos. I scanned all today, I think they will make nice gifts for relatives. I would give service a grade of A.

Entertainment, and Activities – My 17 year old daughter and I were wondering around on the 3rd evening trying to find something to do that we would enjoy, she made the comment to me, “if you weren’t getting drunk or gambling or both, there was not that many other options”, I laughed and said “you’re right.” Don’t get this wrong, there were things going on, they were playing bingo that night, $10 per card, $20 for three (we did that for about 40 minutes), and they had Karaoke going on (about 25 people there, and the same 2 or 3 kids sang jokingly, while a few adults gave their best effort, we could only take about 15 minutes of this. We did go to several shows, the dancers were very good, the two singers were also talented, I enjoyed the guy they had more, in my opinion he was the better of the two. Shows were fairly similar, other than different costumes and songs, but we enjoyed them, and saw two or three. We thoroughly enjoyed the Newlywed game with the passengers; we thought that was a hoot. But other than that what are you going to do, we spent a certain amount of time on deck, which I enjoyed. My 17 year old did not care for the teen disco after 1st night, not sure why, I know they had problems keeping younger kids out, and several high school age passengers were drinking, but for what ever reason she grew tired and chose to hang out with us. My 14 year old daughter met friends from home on boat, and hung out with them. My 13 year old son probably did the most with the teen club, he got with several other boys that were his age and played cards, did scavenger hunts, etc.. He had a real good time.

Daytime activities around pool were fairly entertaining and amusing, I give credit to the crew members in charge, the day they did dancing on the deck, several high school kids got up and started humping around on each other, and she went up there and politely put a stop to it. We went during spring break, we had around 600 – 800 teens on board I would say, all and all, I would say that they were fairly well behaved, although I am surprised that Carnival did not have better system in placed to curtail underage drinking, I would think it would be easy to issue different colored cards to different age groups, I saw several teens who were obviously not in college carrying beer bottles around toward end of trip, however I did not see any overt drunkenness on their part, which I credit to them not Carnival. Entertainment and Activities – I give a grade of C-.

Excursions – We did not book one the 1st day, they only gave us about 4 hours to do something at Cayman Islands, I did not want to take chance, we ended up getting cab and going to public beach, got there around 9am (easy debarkation), went Jet Skiing and had wonderful time. The next day we pull in and direct dock at Celica, we had booked a Dolphin adventure outside of Carnival to save money and hassle; I was very concerned that we would not dock in time or I would miss by pick up at some point. But all turned out great, Dolphin Adventures was there 10 minutes ahead of time to pick us up in private van, took us there in 20 minutes, kids had unbelievable time, great experience, we had WONDERFUL MEAL at Richard’s Steak and Pizza that is located in resort where Dolphin Adventure was located. I had a filet and 4 lobster’s tails for about $30, super taste and quality. Van took us back to boat, great day! Excursions grade of A-, I would have given A, if they had given us more time on Cayman Islands.

Inspiration Ship – I am a 1st time cruiser, so I don’t have a lot to compare it with, from my view and expectations. I thought ship was clean, and well maintained. You will do a lot of walking, the elevators are confusing, some go all the way up some don’t, some go all the way down others don’t, most are busy, and wait is sometimes long if you are in a hurry. Shops on boat, there is no Mall, there are a couple of tourist shops with Carnival t-shirts and stuff, there is a jewelry store, and that is it. I was expecting much more with onboard shopping. Lounges and entertainment seating was very good and comfortable.

I do have problem as with most on cruise critic, with the saving of chairs on deck, it was impossible to find a chair, and most were being saved by people who did not occupy chair for several hours at time. Carnival should address this issue more sternly and have someone go around and collect towels and other articles that are left for any extend period of time. Also the hot tubs are nothing more than kiddy pools, they have sign on side of tub that says adults only, but no one from ship ever said anything to children who stayed in hot tub 12 hours a day. I would like to see them have an adult deck area, in which you must show you adult card to even be admitted into that area, putting a sign up is not enough, someone has to work it, just like the do at the top of the kids slide. I also think it would be a good idea to have a ladies deck area for 16 and over females, since so many of the enjoy sunning, etc, no males allowed. I give ship a grade of B.

Having gone on my 1st cruise, I enjoyed it, glad I went, but I am not sure I would want to do it again; I do think it would be better if you went with a large group of friends and family. I also think that Carnival should give you a break on soft drinks; if it is catering to families then it shouldn’t try to make so much money on soft drinks that basically cost them nothing.

Advice, don't expect too much, I may have. enjoy your family. Pack even less, I listened to advice, cut mine in half and still had too much.

Hope this helps.

[sjohnson529]

Thanks for the review, we're doing this same route 4/28 and can't wait. Not our first so we know what to expect but you gave a great review. We are doing Xcaret in Calica and a Carnival snorkel trip in GC, since we've been there many times that's the one thing we haven't done. Our nights we are casino bound so we never have a lack of finding something to do. Again, thanks.

[Rizzorp]

Great review...hope you had as much fun as we did!!!! I agree that the first two days were pretty rough seas!!!!