Carnival Inspiration Review

A Mediocre Trip for but a Fair Price

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Carnival Inspiration
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coldiaz
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Apr 2016
Cabin: Interior

Quick last minute getaway out of the port of Long Beach on the Carnival Inspiration. I had been on the Imagination twice and this ship offered a few pleasant upgrades from the Inspiration, such as the upgraded Alchemy Bar and and newer theater where the comedians performed in the evenings. The Lido deck eating areas has been turned over from its previous "Off the Grill" dining area to both the Blue Iguana Burrito/Taco Bar on one side and Guy Fieri's Burger joint on the other. Both of those are nice additions. The Blue Iguana definitely has the better food. The tacos and burritos are excellent with a well thought out salsa and toppings bar. They have also added a Red Frog Pub and Blue Iguana Cantina on the Lido deck to replace the usual Lido bars and these are both nice additions.

The ship itself remains the same in terms of layout and style, but most folks who book this trip are on a short getaway and like myself and my husband, you're really not looking for the grand stateroom and the all the amenities of a full week's vacation. For the first time, we stayed in an interior stateroom, on deck 4. While my husband missed the view of the outside, the room was just fine, in good working order, very clean and well maintained by our room steward.

One of the downsides for us on this cruise, as with several past Carnival trips, is the food. The best food was had at the Seaday brunch, which is not to be missed. The dinner selections were lacking: not very imaginative, always overcooked, and under seasoned. We did have very prompt and attentive service dining servers.We really wished the Inspiration had an ala carte restaurant venue, or a "for a fee" restaurant. We would have glady opted to dine there at least a couple times.

Cabin Review

Interior

Cabin 4A

Clean and well maintained. Temperature was easy to control.

Port Reviews

Catalina Island (California)

What's not to love about Catalina? We always enjoy just walking around the quaint little village and looking at the shops. We stopped for lunch at El Galleon and had a table outside overlooking the walkway in front of the cove. Food was great and we had prompt and attentive service. The tender boats the ship was using that day were larger than ones we'd seen them use in the past, and there was little to no waiting to get off or back on the boat.

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