Inspiration 7/7-7/12 - LONG review

[ali6879]

Just back off the Inspiration.....hoping to do as thorough a review as I can. Background - it was a honeymoon cruise for myself (28) and my DH (31). Our second cruise, having been on our first with the Celebration, so we knew what to expect from the vacation. We travel roughly 3-4 weeks a year, sometimes more often, so we are experienced with traveling as well.

 

7/6 - We flew down a day early and spent the night at the Tampa Airport Hilton. It was a nice hotel, but we got in late and didn't do much exploring in it. It was less than $100 with tax for a good hotel which is why I picked it. They also have a transfer to the cruise for $5/per person.

 

7/7 Embarkation Day! - Got up and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Somewhat pricy, but not horrible. The shuttle brought us to the port at 11:00. We arrived there about 11:15 or 11:20.

 

We got out and gave our bags to a porter. We got directed on over to the entrance which had a long line to get in already. The line moved FAST. That's all I can say about it. We got inside, moved upstairs to the staff area and they looked over our documents. The one thing, the people who check you in are not used to the e-docs just yet. Just tell them you have e-docs and they realize what they are but each person looked confused when I handed them the papers vs a blue booklet.

 

Upstairs, we went through the line almost immediately, and the person who checked our id's sent us over to the waiting area for our group to be called. We were called in less than 5 minutes. A quick picture for our S&S card and we were on our way. We got onto the ship by 11:45. We were directed to the Lido deck to have lunch. The first impression of the ship was impressive as the Celebration does not have an atrium. We went on upstairs to the Lido area which seemed similar just bigger than the last ship we were on.

 

We headed on down to the Dining Room at 12:30 to see if we could get our dining time changed. We were assigned 8:30 in the Mardi Gras. We were told that there were over 800 kids onboard for this cruise so if we wanted to change we would be seated with them. We chose to keep the 8:30 seating being that it was our honeymoon.

 

We couldn't get into our rooms until 1:30 so we went and made an appt for a couples massage and signed up for a spin class for the next day. Wandered the ship for a bit and then waited to get to our cabin. The cabin was M254, a small upgrade from an OV guarantee. We were ALL the way in the back of the ship. I was somewhat nervous about this but it turned out ok. We met our steward Jose who we never saw again after that moment. Our rooms stayed clean though so I can't really complain about that.

 

Life jacket drill was uneventful. After we went back up to watch the sailaway. Ended up going and taking a nap before dinner. Dinner was good - we went in and were seated at a table of 10 at first. One other couple came and sat with us and the Maitre D came over to ask if we would mind moving to a smaller table since a family had gotten split up and wanted to sit together. We didn't mind so we moved over and had Dennis as our waiter. Dennis was WONDERFUL. Very nice, pleasant, and we enjoyed having him as our waiter each night. The other couple was also traveling without their children so we used that to start our conversation the first night. Babu was the Maitre D and we liked him a lot. Previously, we had Josef on the Celebration and never really saw him or heard anything from him in the dining room. Babu was wonderful. Had the chocolate melting cake......it was too chocolate-y for my taste but I can see the draw if you love chocolate.

 

After dinner, went back to the cabin to sleep (this becomes a theme of this trip...)

 

7/8 - Day at Sea - Woke up, had breakfast on the Lido deck, and again wandered the ship for a little while. Attended the talk about the different ports we would be at during the trip. Lunch back on the Lido deck and then took a nap. We got ready for the spin class at 3PM. Here's where things got interesting. I've been spinning before over the past 5 years on and off. Most other people were also experienced in the class. Right about 10 minutes into it, I got hit with a wave of nausea and looked around. Others looked the same way and we realized that something happened with the ship. It was rocking like crazy. From that point on, the ship really seemed to rock, more than normal. This stayed until the last sea day. I'm not sure what the difference was on this ship compared to the Celebration but I hardly ever felt it swaying. The Inspiration I continually felt it after that moment.

 

Captain's Party was nice - you can ask the waiters to bring you a different drink than the ones they have on their tray. Dinner that night was Formal Night so I had Lobster (2 of them) and the men at the table chose the beef. We got a honeymoon cake delivered to our table (we were not charged for it) and we were sang to....they sang Happy Honeymoon to You to the tune of Happy Birthday. We laughed til we cried on that one.

 

We went to the Late Night R Rated comedy show with Kenny Miller that night. The previous night, our tablemates had said he was funny. We didn't find him funny at all during his R-rated show and trust me, we do not offend easily. It wasn't offensive, he just wasn't funny. No one in the audience was laughing and he resorted to picking on individual people in the audience (never a good sign).

 

Day 3 - Grand Cayman 7/9 - We anchored at 7AM. The one thing about the rooms in the aft of the ship - you know when the anchor goes down. We didn't get up super early as we didn't book an excursion for this port. Since it is a safer port, we chose to look around on our own. We got lunch at the Hard Rock cafe and walked up and down the different downtown areas. We went back on the tender ship around 12:30 since the last tender was going to be at 1PM. More napping after.....had dinner and went to the Newlywed/Not so Newlywed game at 10:15.

 

Day 4 - Calica 7/10 - We had picked the Shotover Jet Boat and Cancun previous to the cruise. Our bus was right outside at the pier and we boarded. We were supposed to go to Playa del Carmen based on the description but the bus couldn't park or something to that effect so the tour operator gave us time to shop in Cancun instead. The excursion itself was a lot of fun. It's about an hour and a half or so to Cancun from the port which was a long ride back. Cancun is beautiful - I had never been there - but I was hoping to get to go to Playa del Carmen having read so much about it....guess we'll need to book another cruise. The air conditioning on the bus in Mexico is very different than what we are used to here in the US. Let's just say it was HOT and the AC didn't really improve it all that much. The day we went, it was 98 degrees and the tour guide said it was about 95% humidity. We were pretty happy to get back on the ship.

 

Day 5 - Final day at sea - We went to the Lido deck, had breakfast, and then went to the debarkation talk. Pretty standard. We went to watch the Fear Factor show on the deck but it was HOT so we went back inside. Spent the last day just laying around doing a whole lot of nothing. Tony Esposito did the R rated comedy act that night and he was hysterical - much better than the previous guy had been.

 

Day 6 - debarkation - we waited for general clearance since our flight wasn't until 3:10. We walked off the ship at 9:30 and were at the airport by 10 or so. Customs was easy and FAST.

 

Overall - the cruise was what we were expecting. The food was good but I think the quality was a little less than last time. Either that, or we remembered differently. Darcy Knieval was the cruise director and we liked her. Felipe was the assistant cruise director - he will be hysterical when he gets put in charge. The few things - the timing of a lot of the activities was really inconvenient. The comedy show being late night when people had to be up at 6 for their excursions at Grand Cayman had disappointed our tablemates who had wanted to go. The Newlywed/Not so Newlywed game being late wasn't the best timing for that.

 

I won't do the 8:30 seating again. It messes up our whole schedule. We wanted and had requested the 6:15 seating and could have had it if we wanted to sit with a family but we didn't so we made the best of it. I know some people like the later seating - we're not one of them.

 

The ship will be going into drydock in September. There were a few things that I noticed but overall it's in very good shape. I'm wondering if the rocking is something due to it needed to be redone or if the water was just exceptionally choppy out there.

 

We'll definitely be going back on Carnival since we have the Liberty booked for next month. Sorry this was so long.....I hope it helps someone!

[sjohnson529]

Thanks for the review, well done. I was on this ship in May and we never felt any movement so possibly it was the wave action? We found the food to be very good, some things better than others, but overall it ranked up there pretty high. I have booked again for February and am anxious to see what the rehab does for the ship. We found it to be in very good shape. We were in the other dining room and had George the Greek who made our dining experience an event, so that could have been the difference. Again, thanks for the review!

[zandk]

Thank you so much for sharing! We will be on this cruise

in August and we can't wait!:D

Did you find out why it was so rocky? I hope ours isn't.

This is our DDs first cruise and I don't want anything to

ruin it for them.:(

Thanks again for the great review.

[poptart]

I loved George the Greek when we were on the Inspiration.

 

The rocking was probably the motion of the ocean.

 

Thanks for the reveiw, I enjoyed it.

[ali6879]

Just a quick note - George the Greek was not the Maitre D for the other restaurant on our sailing. The other one was named Roland.

 

I'm guessing it was the water since the last day at sea it did calm down. It wasn't horrible and we weren't sick from it, it was just something that we noticed continually.

 

I'll try to answer any questions I can!!

[ispisthebst]

Would you say that it was a good cruise? Did it show any signs of being old or any thing like that? I am just wondering because I am debating weather to book the Ispiration or Imagination. Please post back. thanks.

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for sharing. Usually cruise on Princess but are considering Carnival for our next cruise.

[buddyjo143]

Thank you thank you thank you.

 

Now that the Victory is history I need to look forward to the upcoming Inspiration cruise. ;)

[ali6879]

Would you say that it was a good cruise? Did it show any signs of being old or any thing like that? I am just wondering because I am debating weather to book the Ispiration or Imagination. Please post back. thanks.

 

The ship overall is in great condition. In the elevators, you can see that there were signs there at one time that have been taken down so paint had peeled where they took them off. That was the biggest sign of wear and tear that I saw, and I don't consider that to be a big issue. It was a great cruise - I was debating between this one and the Imagination as well. We went with the Inspiration due to it leaving from Tampa vs Miami (didn't feel like going through Miami without being able to spend some time there) and I believe that the ports are different - I think that Calica was the difference. We were sitting right next to the Imagination in Grand Cayman.

[DqALEX]

Thanks for a very good review. I'M going late Jan. on the Inspiration. I haven't been on that ship in a long while.