This was our third cruise with Carnival in the past year. Before this we had sailed twice on Carnival's Celebration (which we highly recommend). We wanted to try a slightly longer cruise and we liked the Inspiration's ports.

We live in Florida so it was only about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Tampa. The process for boarding the Inspiration was a breeze and very quick. The only downfall is finding parking. We opted for the valet parking which only cost $15 more and it was worth every dime.

When we boarded the Inspiration we really liked the open atrium style lobby. Since we arrived a little early (before noon) we went up to the Lido deck to wait for our cabin to be ready and to enjoy the buffet. The Lido buffet is the normal fare for Carnival and was reasonably good. We went to find our cabin on the Main deck about 1:30pm. Our cabin was very clean and exactly as we were used to on the Carnival ships. Our Steward was Fernando and he ended up being one of the best Stewards we have had on a cruise. Read more