This was my first Carnival Cruise, and first cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada. While Carnival may not be "high end" I can honestly say it really was a "fun ship". The Inspiration is a smaller ship, but in a way that was nice, because it was really easy to navigate. Even though one of glass elevators was OOO the entire time, the other elevators were not crowded. Same thing for the Hot tubs...even though one of the two adults only hot tubs in the Serenity area was OOO, we were still able to enjoy time in the one still working.
HITS -
I really think it helps to have fun friends to go with. We were celebrating our 60th birthdays and it was a blast.