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Inspiration "Live" Review 2/29-3/4

TomAceEsq

By TomAceEsq,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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amsred2

amsred2

Posted
Posted

FYI concerning sail away party! Don't assume that all Carnival parties are treated equal.

 

I have sailed carnival out of Long Beach, Miami and New Orleans. The sail away parties are very different in each. In Miami, the sail away party is as you described on other lines, and begins after muster. It was definitely a party atmosphere. However in NO and LB, sail away was much less exciting and yes, the party begins much earlier. (Might I also add that, in my opinion, the Miami view and skyline is much more fun to watch at sail away also.)

 

I attribute this to a few things. First, the time that the boat actually sets sail is later out of NO and LB so people have already spent more time partying.

 

Second, it's not nearly as warm in these ports as Miami and it starts to get quite chilly, especially at sundown (which seems to be right around sail away). The crew realizing this, start the party earlier.

 

Lastly, the east coast ships seem to have the live music, calypso bands and such, which draw more people to the decks. Being a California resident I end up taking more cruises from LB. I have learned to get my party on early and then relax during the time after sail away and rest up for a fun night. If you go to bed early, you miss a lot of the party-night life on Carnival.

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Linda the Book Lover

Linda the Book Lover

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Thanks for your daily review and the brewery info. My DD and I will check it out in July. She has agreed to do the trolley with me since every time I go I never get to ride the darn thing. we will need the refreshment after the ride.:)

 

We usually enjoy Serenity until dinner time so I have no idea if there is ever a sail-away party. We have never had anyone on our roll call except my DD and myself. It is nice a few did meet you. Come join us in April on NCL Jade we have someone on our roll call who is bringing beads and we will be celebrating the sail-away.

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nc350

nc350

Posted
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We sail on the Imagination with this itinerary in 17 days :D:D:D:D So enjoying reading these reviews! If you get a chance would love to see the Circle C and Club O2 activities for our kids... If not no worries! Thanks so much for sharing about the Brewery my DH would like it I'm Sure!

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ccw2891

ccw2891

Posted
Posted
We sail on the Imagination with this itinerary in 17 days :D:D:D:D So enjoying reading these reviews! If you get a chance would love to see the Circle C and Club O2 activities for our kids... If not no worries! Thanks so much for sharing about the Brewery my DH would like it I'm Sure!

 

Yeah same here!

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JordanZ

JordanZ

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Thanks so much this was a fun read. Did you try all the2.0 upgrades? How was the internet?

Cheers

 

Not OP, but we tried guys burgers, alchemy bar, blue cantina, and we got the cheapest Wi-Fi plan for the last day in order to check in for our fights.

 

 

the alchemy bar looks great, and the bartender we had (I forgot her name) was excellent and had no problem improvising on a drink that she did not have the ingredients for. we ordered the amelia, and I'm not sure what all was in it, but it was blackberries, vermouth, belvedere, lemonade, and some other stuff. (?) she made it great and I suggest it highly if you're on the ship.

 

blue iguana was delicious, chicken had great flavor, tomatillo salsa was awesome, ingredients were fresh. these were some seriously impressive tacos- seriously. my only gripe is it closes at like 2:30pm. I'd have eaten here a lot more often if I didn't sleep till 11 every day.

 

i only had guys burgers once but it was awesome. the sauteed onions and really all the toppings were quite good.

 

the Wi-Fi, which we purchased for the cheapest rate, was strictly limited on what sites I could visit. I couldn't even visit cruise critic! it was perfectly acceptable, not exactly fast but definitely useable.

 

overall we had a great cruise and had an awesome time with Brandon and his wife (OP.) we finally ran into each other on the sea day, and I'm wishing we had gotten together earlier. Bob (don't know his username-if you've cruised with him, you know it!) and his neighbor bill, we ended up having dinner together on the formal night. awesome gentlemen and great company for dinner.

 

met a lot of great people and had a wonderful time. highly suggested, and the upgrades really shine.

 

one thing I will note is that it seemed slightly understaffed. I noticed things I haven't noticed on other cruises. I only saw my room steward once on the last night, I saw several tables dirty for far longer than I would have expected. but, all the staff was very friendly and super helpful.

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nc350

nc350

Posted
Posted
Yeah same here!

 

I'm super excited!!!!!!!!!!!! DH and I have cruised Disney with our then 3 yr DD..... She's 17 now and went on CCL last year on her own with dance studio to train and perform. DS 12 it's his first cruise! I did start a roll call :)

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auntie jen69

auntie jen69

Posted
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Not OP, but we tried guys burgers, alchemy bar, blue cantina, and we got the cheapest Wi-Fi plan for the last day in order to check in for our fights.

 

 

the alchemy bar looks great, and the bartender we had (I forgot her name) was excellent and had no problem improvising on a drink that she did not have the ingredients for. we ordered the amelia, and I'm not sure what all was in it, but it was blackberries, vermouth, belvedere, lemonade, and some other stuff. (?) she made it great and I suggest it highly if you're on the ship.

 

blue iguana was delicious, chicken had great flavor, tomatillo salsa was awesome, ingredients were fresh. these were some seriously impressive tacos- seriously. my only gripe is it closes at like 2:30pm. I'd have eaten here a lot more often if I didn't sleep till 11 every day.

 

i only had guys burgers once but it was awesome. the sauteed onions and really all the toppings were quite good.

 

the Wi-Fi, which we purchased for the cheapest rate, was strictly limited on what sites I could visit. I couldn't even visit cruise critic! it was perfectly acceptable, not exactly fast but definitely useable.

 

overall we had a great cruise and had an awesome time with Brandon and his wife (OP.) we finally ran into each other on the sea day, and I'm wishing we had gotten together earlier. Bob (don't know his username-if you've cruised with him, you know it!) and his neighbor bill, we ended up having dinner together on the formal night. awesome gentlemen and great company for dinner.

 

met a lot of great people and had a wonderful time. highly suggested, and the upgrades really shine.

 

one thing I will note is that it seemed slightly understaffed. I noticed things I haven't noticed on other cruises. I only saw my room steward once on the last night, I saw several tables dirty for far longer than I would have expected. but, all the staff was very friendly and super helpful.

 

Did the ship have the HUB app yet?

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TomAceEsq

TomAceEsq

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Posted (edited)

I'd like to apologize for "abandoning" the live review. We got back from our day in Ensenada (last Wednesday) to no wifi. Once it was reestablished, I couldn't log back in to Cruise Critic. This was with the "middle" plan which cost $30 I believe. It was pretty frustrating to say the least because I was really enjoying updating everyone.

 

I don't have the other Fun Times, but the ones that were posted the week before our cruise is literally identical, so at least that's covered.

 

I'll try to answer any questions you guys might have, as well as give my review of Guy's, the ship in general, as well as other stuff I find important to review.

 

That said, we enjoyed our trip so much despite the little hiccups, we're canceling our Royal Caribbean cruise for December and rebooking Inspiration for either late August or mid September.

Edited by TomAceEsq
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TomAceEsq

TomAceEsq

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I'll start with our day in Ensenada, which was pretty awesome.

 

We got off the ship fairly early and took one of the $3 round trip shuttles into town. In and of itself, it's a pretty good system of transportation. Then you get to your destination and realize you may have just been hustled out of $3. The bus ride takes MAYBE ten minutes, most of which is spent at a street light and making a u-turn. It's not a bad mode of transportation if you aren't limber or just don't feel like walking, but next time my wife and I will most definitely just walk to this little tour center where the busses drop you off. The driver helpers give you coupons for different tours that, if utilized, might offset the cost of the ticket, but we'd rather experience the city next time. Honestly, it's only about a mile from the ship to this little center on foot.

 

ANYWAYS, we ended up taking a tour to La Bufadora. It costs $15 a person through the same company that runs the shuttles. We were lucky enough to get a small 12 person van and a very animated tour guide, Jaime. This man was hilarious. The attraction itself was amazing, and we'll most likely visit it again when we go back in September, but Jaime really made the trip memorable. Seriously, if you're taking this trip, ask for him by name.

 

I pointed out the fact we got a 12 person bus because there was just as easy a chance we got a larger 20 or 26 person bus. There wasn't any order to buying the tour tickets other than going to an inconspicuous window, so maybe asking for Jaime could guarantee you a spot in the smaller van. I felt like being in a larger bus wouldn't have been as intimate. We made some friends that we might not have met or struck up a conversation with if we were on one of those larger busses.

 

La Bufadora itself is BEAUTIFUL! The tide was coming in, and the geyser was absolutely killing it. It was shooting unbelievably high and it sounded like a bomb going off during the really amazing displays. Take note that your bus/van will park at the front of what can only be described as a gauntlet of "shops." It's a fair walk through this straw market to reach the blowhole, but it's totally worth it. A huge piece of advice, don't do like I did and wear any sports teams shirts or hats through there. I took the brunt of the cat calls from the shop owners wanting me to look at all their knockoff Broncos stuff. Eventually I just took my shirt off because it was that bad. Learned that lesson the hard way.

 

The ride to and from La Bufadora is quite beautiful as well. Even though we live in Colorado, nothing beats when mountains meet the sea. All in all it was a four hour tour.

 

We got back on the ship around 4, enjoyed some pizza and soft serve, then headed back to our room to shower up for the evening.

 

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ccw2891

ccw2891

Posted
Posted
I'd like to apologize for "abandoning" the live review. We got back from our day in Ensenada (last Wednesday) to no wifi. Once it was reestablished, I couldn't log back in to Cruise Critic. This was with the "middle" plan which cost $30 I believe. It was pretty frustrating to say the least because I was really enjoying updating everyone.

 

I don't have the other Fun Times, but the ones that were posted the week before our cruise is literally identical, so at least that's covered.

 

I'll try to answer any questions you guys might have, as well as give my review of Guy's, the ship in general, as well as other stuff I find important to review.

 

That said, we enjoyed our trip so much despite the little hiccups, we're canceling our Royal Caribbean cruise for December and rebooking Inspiration for either late August or mid September.

 

 

Great! Welcome back! Thanks for updating us...glad you had a good time overall.

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Linda the Book Lover

Linda the Book Lover

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TomAceEsq - Jaime is on the large buses as well :D The DD enjoys playing dominoes with the employees before we head out. We enjoy the La Bufadora area and go to a little place that is our favorite fresh fish tacos etc. and a beer. It is always part of our annual trip and a great kick off to Ensenada.

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