This was my 5th cruise on Inspiration. Thou a smaller ship it is always well maintained and the staff are usually very friendly. I travel solo a lot so find this a comfortable ship to navigate and not feel so "obvious" as a solo cruiser. Embarkation - was a breeze, very efficient and smooth, arrived at the port at 11.30a and was in board by noon. Cabin - do not get this cabin of you have a choice! I booked last minute as a treat to myself for my birthday and this was the last cabin available...course I have been spoilt too with great balcony cabins in the past. It was an inside cabin last aft cabin on riviera deck, lowest cabin deck....over the engine room, so very noisy all night and vibrations! ugh!

Food - breakfast buffet the same every day, but you could always go to the Carnivale Dining room for a sit down brekkie. Lunch buffet was mediocre and limited choice with same salad selection daily too. The deli bar was good, great sandwiches, loved the smoked salmon and cream cheese. Dining room/dinner -I only went once this trip as my table mates were not very friendly and it is difficult sometimes when you travel solo and get to sit with a bunch of couples or one large group of 6 and yourself! That one night I found the service to be very slow and the food just warm. If you ordered anything extra it was a long wait. I ended up eating around 6p when the brasserie opened for dinner. Again that was very mediocre and limited choice. Sushi from 5-8p was ok, average but long lines and popular, so be prepared to wait in line a while. Room service and the BLT was good. If you like smoked salmon with cream cheese on a bagel, you can only get this for breakfast with room service not able to get it in the brasserie. So all in all I was not impressed with the food quality at all, but we all have different tastes. I chose to just lie on deck in the sun most of the day, enjoying the relaxation, ocean breeze and the foo foo drinks. Another tip, get the special of the day in a regular glass, its half the price and you get the same amount, they just add lots of extra ice in the souvenir glasses! The Funship Special and the Yellow Bird were my faves!

Entertainment/stuff to do - The 2 shows were average, seen better but still entertaining. The disco was packed every night but so smoky so didn't stay long. The Avant Garde lounge was nice and had a good band playing, excellent acoustic guitarist. It was not very busy the 2 nights I went there as the majority of folks were in the disco. I heard a lot of laughter and singing in the Piano Bar but again due to lots of smoke I didn't venture in. TV movies, they just played 3 different movies, one adult, one family and one children's movie re-running every 3-4 hours. Would def, have preferred more choices. I avoided the games etc as I just enjoyed the relaxation in the sun. I did consider a hot stone massage but the prices seemed to change every day and seemed way too expensive. Read more