My wife and I flew down to LA over the long weekend for a three-day cruise on the Inspiration. It was our fourth cruise in three years, although the first without our kids since 1991. Our most recent Carnival cruises have been on the Magic and Conquest.

What made this cruise particularly unique was that the sole purpose of the trip was the cruise. We flew in the morning of departure and flew home on the day of disembarkation. For all our previous cruises combined, the average number of non-cruise days associated with those vacations has been 12 or 13 (i.e., any vacation involving a cruise has included another 12-13 days of non-cruise vacation in addition to the cruise). Usually the cruise is not the major component of the vacation.

The boarding process was relatively quick. The initial pre-screening and security screening took only a few minutes. The line-up to be checked in was about 20 minutes. Then it was less than 5 minutes to board after that. This contrasts to our last cruise from Galveston, which was very slow and seemed to involve being herded from one spot to the next. Read more