The embarkation went very smoothly. Since we had a suite for a cabin, we received VIP treatment and were basically sent to the head of the line for most of the areas that have to be done to board a ship. To me this was a great bonus for upgrading to this level. Our cabin, V2 is the first cabin on the port side, right behind the observation deck on the level. This created a bit of a nuisance in that the steps leading up to the deck is right by the balcony. One could touch people on the steps. The next room back would have been a better choice for a cabin. The room was of a nice size and was in overall good shape, as was the rest of the ship. The Inspiration was a much nicer vessel than the Sensation we travelled on in 2004. There was a problem with one of the room keys and the staff at the purser's desk was a bit rude saying that it was probably my money clip that demagnetized the card. A day later the card again had to be re-programmed and this was also handled in a slightly less than friendly manner. There is one quirk that we as well as others noticed on this ship. There are certain areas that cannot be easily gotten to - even if they are on the same levels. We had to go up a level to go across a part of the ship and then drop down to get to our dining room. This took a day or two to get used to.

We had the late dining time in the Carnivalle dining room. Outside of the difficulty getting to the dining room which is in the aft section of the ship from our forward cabin, there were no major complaints with the food or service. The menu was the typical menu that we have had on all of our cruises. About the only thing out of the ordinary was the Caesar salad - it was just plain bad. It was watery and had a bit too much of the anchovy taste for some. I tried it a second night and was disappointed again. There was a dessert that everyone seemed to love - a chocolate melting cake. The staff were for the most part very helpful and the entertainment part of their work was okay. I was expecting a bit more on New Year's Eve from them but it seemed like they wanted us out of the dining room so they could do something else. The buffets on the Lido deck were of a good standard. The breakfast and lunch buffets were very good and were a better choice than the open seating in the dining room. The entertainment on the ship was passable. There was one dance couple that was above average while the rest of the acts were at best average for a cruise ship.

The room stewards did a great job in cleaning the rooms without being noticed. What more can one ask for. If they do their job correctly, they aren't noticed. And this crew did their job in just this way. The activities for New Year's Eve were okay. Maybe my expectations were too great of what could happen on a ship for this occasion. Plus having New Years eve on the night before de-embarking wasn't the best option. Having to have your luggage in the hall by 11:00 PM and New Years happening an hour later was a bit of a drag. Leaving the ship was a complete disaster. They announced at 7:30 that those wishing to carry their own luggage off could begin. And this dragged on and on. They announced at one point that in 10 minutes this would be closed. 30 minutes later they were still allowing these people to meander off the boat. Unlike the other Carnival cruise we took, there was no order for the rest of the boat to leave. It was just everyone else leaving at once. This caused for a bottleneck and mass confusion of people trying to get to the same location at the same time. Overall this cruise was average. Or should I say that it met expectations. The cruise director mentioned that by saying that a cruise "met expectations" that this was a failing mark on the comment cards. He practically begged people to use "exceeded expectations". Well, sometimes, things just meet expectations and this one at its best did just that. Not great but not bad.