Carnival Inspiration Review

Short and Close for a First Time Cruise

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Carnival Inspiration
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CoffeeGoddess
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Oct 2012
Cabin: Grand Suite

I've never cruised before but I've certainly enjoyed some good vacations. However, for our tenth anniversary I wanted to try something different. Having used up a good portion of my vacation days for other travel in earlier in the year, I wanted to do something that would only take up one day so I searched for a short round trip cruise at the closest port to Las Vegas. The Carnival 3 day to Ensenada fit the bill so I booked a Grand Suite.

We wound up getting a call for a chance to purchase an upgrade to one of the "owner suites" and I took it. Our suite was S-1 and it was on the Starboard side of the boat on level 12 looking over the pool. The suite itself was nice, but you could hear the joggers on the track above, the scraping of the deck chairs above as well, and the noise from the atrium came right through the door but thankfully did not make it into the bedroom. However, the large balcony, openness, and size of the suite made up for it.

The room was cleaned up twice each day and our room service was delivered quickly after it was ordered. The pool wasn't filled on the first day but one hot tub was opened on the Lido and both were open on the Serenity deck. The water slides were also open and fun. I think our most expensive drink was a little under 9.00 with the tip included. I've certainly spent much more here in Vegas for one drink.

Cabin Review

Grand Suite

S-1 on Deck 12 - This is one of the "Owner Suites" that they don't actually show on any booking page. Apparently they call people who have booked the GS rooms to offer one of these to them for an additional cost. The room was large, nicely furnished, but a little out of date. The jetted tub took forever to fill up since they had a small faucet for it. The shower was also in the tub, not in a separate enclosure even though there was room for it.

There were multiple stains on the carpet and the chairs had some wear. The large balcony had two lounge chairs and two straight back chairs but had a life boat right below it so you did not get a clear view down to the ocean. However, it was still very relaxing.

The main complaint about this room would be the noise from both the deck above and the atrium. The joggers could definitely be heard as they went around the track, some louder than others. That wasn't as bad as when people would scrape the deck chairs that are also on the deck above. Thankfully this didn't happen at night and only started at about 6am for the jogging. I had brought ear plugs anyways since my husband snores so I only heard the noises after I removed them and slept through them. The atrium noises come right up through the suite door and you can hear everything in the living area. If you had people staying with you and they were sleeping in the living area, they'll ant to bring ear plugs as well. However, the noise did not carry into the bedroom, even with the door open.

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