Quick review of Inspiration August 28th 2010

[DiamondBill102]

Some background info….This was our 4th Carnival cruise. We sailed twice on the Miracle and once on the Freedom. This was our first time on the Inspiration and also our first 5 day cruise. The others were 8 day cruises. I’m 43 and DW is 41. Our son Matthew is 12. We were cruising with friends of ours who have two sons ages 12 and 9. Flew into Tampa the night before and stayed at the Crowne Plaza Tampa – Westshore … pretty nice hotel for the money. Nice pool and lounge area. Walking distance to a mall where we picked up last minute things and had a very nice dinner at PF Changs… Cab ride from hotel to port was reasonable ….. Getting out of the cab I was excited to see we were FIRST on line….Had our fun pass info all printed out and ready to go. Check in took us less than five minutes. Got our zone one card and waited to be called. They started with a wedding party…VIPs and special service people. Than they called zone one….I ran to the gate as I wanted to be FIRST on the ship….I know I’m 43 but still act 12 LOL.

 

 

Went up to the Lido deck for a bite to eat and a DOD…..Lido deck was crowded as you would expect. The ship was at full capacity so we figured lines would be long. All in all was not too bad. Started out to explore the ship and let the kids check things out. None of the kids wanted to do Circle C or Camp Carnival which was fine by us. Our rooms were ready fairly quickly and luggage arrived not long after. Muster drill was handled nicely. They had passengers sit in different areas of the ship and show us how to use the life vests….Much nicer than standing in the hot sun trying to see the instructor. After the demonstration they took us to where our muster station was and that was the end of muster.

 

First night we explored the ship…tried the casino and hit the water slides. After a very nice dinner we went to the shows. (More on those later) Went to a couple of the lounges for some drinks and called it a night.

 

First sea day we enjoyed all the ships activities. Bingo…water slides…trivia….music…over all a good time.

 

First stop was Grand Cayman….We booked the Hell, Turtle Farm and Stingray excursion with Carnival. Normally I book privately but with the kids and tendering in Grand Cayman figured better to book with Carnival. Our first stop was a town called HELL….Although the kids had a fun time saying they “went to HELL”…it was a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. All you saw was a rock formation that was maybe 20 feet long and than you went into the gift shop. There they had all types of things to buy staying you were in HELL…Etc…STAY AWAY from the HELL TOUR if you can. Next stop was the turtle farm. It was fun, just wish we had a little more time to spend there. We were able to hold a number of turtles and see some really big turtles. After the walk through the turtle farm they had a place to order food and drinks. Grand Cayman is known for their turtle meat so I tried the turtle stew which was very tasty. I also had for the first time Conch critters. Our last stop was swimming with the stingrays. We took a 20 minute boat ride to Stingray Beach. Water was about 3 feet deep and stingrays all over the place. The guides were very helpful in showing us how to hold the stingrays. HIGHLY recommend this stop and would do it again next time in Grand Cayman. About an hour in the water with the stingrays and than back to the boat.

 

Our second stop was Cozumel. Having been there in January we figured we would just get a cab and head to one of the beaches. In January we went to Mr. Sancho’s and had a great time. However after some research we decided to go to Paradise Beach as they would have more for the kids to do. The cab told us it would be 30.00 for the 7 of us and we heading to Paradise Beach. On the way there he told us Mr. Sancho’s now has water rides for the kids just like Paradise Beach. We decided to go to Mr. Sancho’s again. To get on the beach was free and kids were 12.00 for the use of all the water rides and pool. My DW and our friend decided to try the jet skis…DW had a BLAST. Than the skies opened up and the rains came…and came and came….lol We decided to head back to the ship and get ready for dinner.

 

We had a great time at both islands and would love to visit both again.

 

Having been on two newer ships this was our first cruise on a small and older ship. That being said I can only compare to what I know of the Miracle and Freedom.

 

Entertainment…..The singers and dancers were horrible IMO….We almost walked out of the show SHOUT but figured it would have to get better at some point…NOPE never did. The social director Stephanie was not good at all….The assistant social director Matt was HILARIOUS …No matter if he was at bingo….trivia…dance he was always making us laugh.

 

Food…..Can never complain about the food or service we receive from Carnival. Our waiters were excellent and knew what we would want on each night. Would bring our kids double orders of shrimp as soon as we sat down. I do have to say this is the first time I can actually say we enjoyed the Maitre D. Very friendly and came over to the table EVERY night to make sure our service was good.

 

Staff….They were pleasant at all times but just didn’t seem as friendly as our past cruises.

 

Ship…….again because I’ve only been on two bigger and newer ships it’s hard to compare. However I will say a few things I noticed. The décor of the ship was a little run down. The elevators were dark and you could barley see what was written on the floors. Around the ship there were a lot of places that needed general maintenance. I also noticed that they had no phones in the public area where you could call someone’s room. Also didn’t like the idea that our room had no cooler to keep our drinks cold.

 

Overall we had a great time…We love Carnival and have another cruised booked for January and looking into another next summer. For my own personal taste I think I would stick to the larger and newer ships.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Thanks for the review!

[DiamondBill102]