I'm just off the Carnival Inspiration and thought I'd share! Our intinerary was supposed to be Long Beach - Catalina - Ensenada - Long Beach. What it turned out to be was Catalina - San Diego - Ensenada - San Diego - Long Beach. There were two medical emergencies, one on the way, one on the way back, so that's why the unscheduled stops. We got to Catalina on Tuesday morning after kind of a rough night at sea. People started disembarking and then they shut down the tenders due to high winds and rough water. I hadn't left yet so didn't get to see the island at all. We then traveled to Ensenada, arriving the next morning. I did the Taste of Mexico/Tequila Tasting excursion which was fun. Naturally we had the obligatory shopping stop. That night was the formal dining. There were a lot of seasick people on this ship. It was cold and windy the entire time. People were still in the pool though! I would not recommend this itinerary for people prone to seasickness or who mind the ship rocking and rolling. I'm not sure if it's the same during the summer, though. The food was okay. Obviously preparing food for this many people is not going to be gourmet, but there was always something tasty to eat even if you didn't really care for the dining room selections. Typical buffet food. I wish Carnival would have better coffee. It's really kind of terrible. The Guy's Burger was good. The service on board was top-notch. All the ship's personnel were friendly, and boy do they work hard. Special shout-out to our waiter Manuel - he was great. I was in cabin M216 (aft) and was very comfortable. My first time in an inside cabin and I didn't mind it at all. This ship is old but in very good shape. Everything was clean. I didn't notice any of the foul odors that others have posted about. I'll be taking Carnival in the future, but not this itinerary. It was a reasonably priced week getaway and the good far outweighed the bad. Want to try one of the new ships next time. Read Less

I've sailed many different Carnival ships, both new and old. I was pretty shocked at the condition of the ship, which is less than 10 years old. Whatever happened to ongoing maintenance? Our cabin had lots of dents and scratches. A couple of the lamps sticking out of the wall were loose. Our fiberglass shower had a huge crack in it. There were hundreds of tiles missing at the main pool. On to the good: The itinerary was great. We didn't miss Mazatlan and really enjoyed our overnight in Puerto Vallarta. Food is always good on Carnival and this cruise did not disappoint. Service in the dining room was not good. Very inconsistent spacing with our courses. It seemed like the servers were far too preoccupied with getting our kids food out early. On at least 4 nights, we had to leave the dining room because the next seating was about to happen. We had to rush through dessert and coffee was ordered but forgotten on multiple occasions. We are accustomed to fantastic, efficient service on Carnival and were very disappointed. Entertainment was great. We really enjoyed the main shows as well as the comedians. The cruise director, Lee, was great. Very visible and personable. Read Less

We were looking for a family friendly 4 day cruise and we found it! First time on Carnival Crew was very very nice My cabin was clean all the time Orlando our cruise director was a delite! Loved the dining was pretty good always a vegetarian selection Our kids enjoyed the kid activities such town animals, arcade, kids club - (although this was disorganized and s small fight broke out with several 10 years old in the kids club) yikes! Guys burger bar and taco bar by the pool was great! The winner for us was Alchemy Bar which mixed delicious martinis! Don’t miss this bar! Photo ops were everywhere so that was also a plus! Perfect amount of time on the cruise- Tiny bit sea sick due to boat going so slow- The Stufio VIP show on the last night was hysterical! Go to the comedy shows too If you a party this is your cruise! Read Less

We appreciate Carnival Inspiration Crew for making our first family cruise a wonderful and memorable experience. Our steward Bernard was friendly and we appreciate his hardwork. We dined every night and it was a great experience for my two boys (8 years and 6 years-old) to try and enjoy a variety of foods. We thank the people who served us and we appreciate their hard work. We also enjoyed the dining entertainment- your crew can definitely dance! My boys also enjoyed the breakfast with Dr. Seuss and the family comedy shows. We will for sure cruise with Carnival again. Our excursion in Ensenada- La Bufadora was really great. Belen was our tour guide and was very knowledgeable and welcoming. I am glad that I booked our excursion through Carnival. Our day at Catalina Island was also fantastic. We enjoyed riding around with the golf cart. We appreciate that your price is fair and deliver and provide us a priceless experience!!! With gratitude, The Mendoza Family Read Less

We expected magnificent decor but ended up on a Pink ship. The adult Serenity area was quiet but shabby. Deck chairs were splattered with paint. Cushions were worn, threadbare. Windows were hard to see through. There were worn rusted areas on the decks. Food on Lido deck was usually lukewarm or cold. Golden Pearl restaurant Creme brûlée’s was like my own egg custard, not real creme brûlée. Food was nice, but not at the level we expected. Strange decor looked like fried eggs overhead. The restaurant was a frustration just to get to as you have to go either down or up several decks to get to the back of the ship and then go back down... took us a while to find dinner. Kids took over main pool area. Extremely noisy. Impossible to use that pool. We will cruise with another cruise line. (Previously cruised on the Pride. It was a very different experience.) Read Less

I've been meaning to cruise on the Splendor for some time, finally got around to it and was so looking forward to it. This was my birthday cruise so we booked a cloud 9 spa balcony cabin with hopes of spending time in the spa. Plus we were looking forward to visiting new ports. The best part of our cruise was hands down our cabin steward Sharlene. She was wonderful. The next highlight was the Steakhouse, by far the best meal we had onboard, and highly recommended. MDR and entertainment were just okay, I was a bit disappointed in both. The worst part of my cruise was the spa, after finally deciding to spend the extra money on the spa cabin, I was very disappointed when the rooms and pool we're having temperature issues. I'm sure I will try it again on another ship, but was very disappointed that I could not enjoy these amenities while on the ship. Myself and several other guest did speak to management regarding it and received a $40 OBC and the standard we are sorry. Over all my sister and I had fun entertaining ourselves and already booked our next adventure. I'm very happy I got a chance to sail on the beautiful, funky pink ship, before she arrives in her new home in Australia. Read Less

Food was just okay. Dining room staff was FANTASTIC. Too young and too loud Cruise Director. Wonderful Captain. We couldn't have been happier with the overall experience. A cruise is what you make it. We made it FUN! Embarkation was incredibly smooth. You just walk on and your keys are waiting at the room. Mongolian Wok is the best. Be there EARLY! Music was all over the ship. We even played some Bingo. Our server Meyhela was awesome for dinner. We had Rika's table for sea day brunch. So great. The unique thing about Splendor is that it rarely felt crowded. 1000 kids on-board but plenty of room. Speaking of rooms, our steward Carter took excellent care of both of our rooms. He always had a smile, was rarely seen but our room was always PERFECT. Piano bar with Patrick was some of the most fun. Signing all night was hilarious. Read Less

We took this cruise to celebrate a friend's birthday. The cost was right and it seemed like a good time was awaiting us on the ocean. Let me start with, THE GOOD: Good friends Funny times at Karaoke The Tequila part of the Ensenada tour THE BAD: The food was awful. Dinner was not served on time nor at a temperature, you would consider "warm". On one evening, a friend paid for the upcharged "surf and turf", watched all of us eat our "lukewarm" meal, and still hadn't eaten his (after an hour and 25 minutes). Not until we got up to walk around and look for the food service manager did his food arrive. The service was forgettable. How do you include a gratuity on a final bill when the service you received was terrible. Water started with ice then, you'd receive a warm second glass. I'd ask for a coca cola and by the time we were ready to leave the table, the drink would arrive. The excursion is dangerous, in a sense. You take 20 people out to drink beer and tequila, then you entrust them to walk back to the boat on their own?!?! I get it, it's a tasting, but the sensible thing to do would be to make sure "EVERYONE" is transported back to the boat at the same time, the same way we left the boat... TOGETHER... Our bed felt like to twin mattresses pushed together and didn't offer a great rest. Read Less

For our first cruise my wife and I were a little scared to do a long cruise. What if one of us gets sea sick easily, or can't stand being cramped in a cabin, or we get bored. So to play it safe we chose one of the shortest cruises we can find. Being in SoCal we are also lucky that Long Beach is a short drive away. In any case we chose one of the 3 Day Baja Mexico cruises - known for college kids wanting to get drunk in Mexico. I guess if we had a choice between a ship full of college kids or a ship full of retirees we'd rather have the college kids anyways. Turns out the ship had a good mix of people with families, college kids, older people, etc. Probably on the younger side I would say judging from some videos I saw of the recent cruise in Norway that got disabled and passengers had to be rescued with helicopters off the ship. In any case I didn't want to get a cabin with an ocean view or a balcony on this first cruise. We had to make it the worst possible cabin to see if we could survive. And definitely no problems having an interior. We didn't miss not having a window to the outside world at all. We basically used the room for sleeping in and getting changed for the day, that was it. We hung out on the ship most of the day, either watching shows, playing games, doing auctions, sitting on the decks outside, etc. We had plenty of activities to do on our short 3 night cruise. Our cabin was on Main Deck, which is Deck 5, two decks below the boarding deck Empress. We were mid / aft which was good because the dining areas were right above us two floors. Easy to get to and without any noise. A lot of activities on Imagination are more Forward so we would have a small walk forward to get to the activities but not too bad. I think we would probably try to get Mid Ship if we sailed in the future. Our Steward was great and recognized my wife and I every morning. Room was always cleaned and cute little towel animals left every day. We left all of our electronics out with no problems - didn't feel a need to put anything in the safe. Dining was hit or miss. For the price we paid we can't complain and we enjoyed the food. But picky people beware, the buffet is probably more of an average buffet rather than a higher priced buffet. In addition the food during the evening dinners was good but not something that will blow your socks off. The wait staff at dinner was excellent and we enjoyed the food but it was a little hit or miss. Some dishes were excellent and others were okay, nothing spectacular. Either way - a great first time cruise option to see how well you can handle being on a ship for several days. Read Less

This was the third Carnival cruise for my husband and I. We have previously sailed on the Splendor and Dream. We were part of a group of 56 in a wedding group. We were flying in on JetBlue to the Long Beach Airport and had ordered the Carnival shuttle. We were told to go to the left when exiting baggage and that the shuttle would be waiting there. We did not see the shuttle anywhere. Another passenger was also looking for it. We each called Carnival and it turned out that the shuttle had been there the entire time on the right not on the left. The shuttle driver had a tiny paddle that none of us had seen. EMBARKATION: We ordered Faster to the Fun and had a 12:00 check-in. We got to the terminal and dropped our bags off with the porter and quickly made it through the check-in. We were stopped just prior to boarding and told that we needed to check-in with Guest Services. That made me somewhat paranoid. So we went there and were told that there had been a problem with our room (E71) and that they had to paint a spot on the ceiling. We were given 2 free drink passes and went over to the bar across from Guest Services. Before we received our drink orders, the rep said that our room was ready. She directed us to our room where the sign and sail cards were waiting in the mail box. By this time it was 11:55, so we actually got to our room before our scheduled check-in time! We had an ocean-view room, before we had booked balconies so it seemed really small. The mattress was really comfortable. I needed a firm pillow. The steward brought the firmest pillow that I have ever seen and it was so thick we thought it was 2 pillows in the same case. I ended up stuffing a beach towel in the regular pillow and it worked really well. We went up to Lido and met up with some of our group. We hit up the buffet. It was Italian themed and typical buffet. We sat by the pool and visited our friends. Some of the guys got burgers from Guys. I stole some of the fries and they were the best fries ever. We wanted to go in the hot tubs but they were all over-flowing with people. The ones on the Serenity deck were also over-filled. Some schools were on spring-break so that was part of the problem, but there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of partying. After muster, we ended up on a balcony on the aft side of Lido to watch the sail away. It overlooked Serenity deck but was very quiet. We went to the late dinner. I don’t remember what I ordered but it was some kind of Asian noodle dish. And of course warm chocolate melting cake for dessert! After dinner, we went to the casino for awhile and quickly lost. We headed back to our room at about 10:15. Big mistake. We were just 2 doors down from the Atrium lobby and the music was so loud that our room was vibrating. We went to Guest Services which was in the lobby and complained. All they could do was close the firedoor. It did not help. Finally around 11, they shut it down. Tuesday - Catalina We met up with some of our group in the main dining room for breakfast. I had my favorite avocado toast and a side of bacon. It was excellent. We then took the tender to Catalina for the wedding. We walked to Step Beach. It was not marked so we all walked past it and had to ask around before we found it. They hired a local minister and had a beautiful ceremony. Next we met up at Steve’s Steakhouse for lunch. We had to order from a limited menu because of the size of the group. We had 4 options from which to choose. Most of us ordered the fish and chips. Mine was stone cold. Also the restaurant was on the second floor and they did not have an elevator. We then hung out for an hour or so and did a little shopping. One member of the group, got a call from the upgrade fairy and were given the Owner’s Suite, so they arranged a surprise wedding reception. The suite is beautiful and had a bathroom with a whirlpool tub bigger than our room! After the reception, we went to dinner. It was formal night and Carnival does not enforce the dress code at all. There was a man in a tank top and flip flops and a woman had on fuzzy bathroom slippers that were allowed to dine. A woman was in line with just a bikini top and sarong cover-up. I’m not sure whether or not she was allowed in. I had the end-cut of the prime rib and grilled shrimp for dinner. The prime rib was the best that I have ever tasted. I didn’t have room for the creme brûlée so had to pass on dessert. We went to the casino and I won about $20 on slots. We were tired and decided to go to bed. Once again, the music was blasting. We complained and they offered to let us switch to a lower-rated room. It was 10:30 at night on the 2nd day of a 4 day cruise and we didn’t really feel like packing up everything to switch rooms. So we waited the music out. Wednesday - Ensenada I started the day with my avocado toast and bacon. We then walked off the ship. I got nervous when the drug sniffing dog kept smelling my purse, but it was just my gum. We booked the La Bufadora Adventure through Carnival. The bus was very uncomfortable and the seats were smaller than Southwest Airlines. We first went to a historical building that was once the first casino on Ensenada. There were about 10 vendors in the patio. The best thing about the spot was we were off the crowded bus for a few minutes. We next had about a 45 minute ride to the blow hole. We had to walk through a flea market where they sold “genuine replicas”. You could not walk more than 2 feet without being approached by vendors. I was given about 10 small sips of Pina coladas from different vendors. We watched the blow hole sprout water. After paying 75 cents to use the bathroom, you are given a few squares of toilet paper. Anyway we went back to the flea market and had some delicious grilled shrimp and fish tacos. I wanted a virgin Pina colada and was told it would be $12. I said too much and walked away. A few booths up, I got one for $5. It was so delicious. They carved out the pineapple and served it in that with several slices of fresh pineapple. We walked past the stalls but nothing appealed to me. The tour guide encouraged everybody to order tacos to eat on the bus. So on the ride back, the cramped bus was filled with people chowing down. We got back to the ship and had a letter from Guest Services. They reported our complaints to the music director. They also comped us $80 for our excursion. We hung out with friends and then went to dinner. I ordered the veal parmesan and it was nasty. It was cold and dry and had hardly any sauce. We went to the love and marriage show. Our newly-wed friends were one of the three couples chosen. Orlando, the cruise director was hilarious and this was the highlight of our cruise. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. One thing that was disturbing, one of the other couples when asked if a parrot was in their bedroom would repeat and they both said “Dumb B****”. I felt so bad for the wife. We wanted to go to bed but decided to kill some time until the music died so we went to the casino. I came out about $25 ahead on slots. We then went to our room and once again had to make the nightly walk to guest services to complain about the noise. (We were only 2 doors down). The reps there weren’t too happy about the noise level either because they couldn’t hear the passengers. Fun Day at Sea We slept in and then went to Sea Day brunch. We had delicious filet mignon and eggs. We hung out for the jewelry raffle to find it was only a crappy keychain. We bought a few fashion accessories and ordered our pictures. We went back to the casino. I started playing some kind of Asian slot machine. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but I walked away with $150 because I kept winning free spins. We then went to the early comedy show. I think it was the same material from our last cruise on the Dream. Next was dinner. I had the tenderloin which was really good and carrot cake. We then went back to the casino and I won another $40 on the Asian machine. We cashed out and returned to our nightly “private concert” in our room. We then made our nightly report to guest services and waited for the DJ to shut it down. Debarkation Debarkation was very smooth. We hung out at Lido buffet until after 9. Then breezed through customs. Our shuttle was waiting and we quickly made it to the airport. Read Less