Had a great time on the Carnival Inspiration 6/20 sailing out of Tampa.  As I've written before in other reviews, Carnival is a line I want to hate because of the "fun ship" atmosphere (just don't like the idea of forced frivolity) but you know what?   I always end up having a good time (fun) on Carnival.   My opposition is waning and Carnival offers an incredible cruising value for the price paid.    Let me preface my review by saying we were traveling with a six-year-old which is why we selected the Inspiration, specifically because of the waterslides and the kid's club.

The Inspiration managed to exceed all of my expectations.  Food was excellent,  service was great, cabin was decent and crew were really nice.    Kid didn't like Camp Carnival, preferred hanging with the grownups and doing things like the pool and karaoke.  Can't say I blame him.  Other kids on board seemed to LOVE Camp Carnival.

One minor glitch was that bags didn't show up for several hours after the ship had left Tampa.    Eventually found them on a cart next to the pursar's desk.   Turns out our luggage had been left outside,  in the rain at Tampa, before loading on board, and the printout bag labels had run making the name and cabin difficult, but not impossible to read.  Each of the bags had 3 other plastic tags with my last name on it so I was a little disappointed that no one made the effort to send the bags down to our cabin, or at least call us and have us pick them up. Read more