Carnival Inspiration: March 3-8, 2007

This is my first posting of a cruise review so be gentle. A little history, this was our (my wife and I) 7th cruise, all with Carnival. We went by ourselves for some much need relaxation and alone time. All of our cruises had been in September, so this time of the year was a first for us. This time we did a lot less activities and more sleeping, relaxing, and enjoying our cruise. We usually do all the shows and excursions at every port, and are exhausted at the end of it. So, we cut back this time.

EMBARKATION: We flew down the day of, which was a first for us. We left Indianapolis, IN around 8:35a.m. We were delayed about 15 minutes due to snowfall that morning. It was a little odd to wait for the plane to be de-iced knowing we were heading somewhere warm. Once we landed in Tampa (around 10:40am) it was really easy to find a cab and head to the port. It was a flat rate of $22.00 from airport to port. The cab driver informed us that the Inspiration had just came back into port (around 10am!!) due to some sea fog that had delayed it. This made the process a little hairy. The port was so crowded with people trying to get off the ship at the same time as people were trying to get on the ship. Somebody grabbed our taxi before we were even out of it!! We checked with a baggage handler to find our cabin number (we were a guaranteed cabin and hadn't received it yet, more on that later). After that we headed inside. We are members of the Carnival Vacation Club, which includes "priority embarkation." We were shuffled into a couple of wrong lines and eventually found our place. The regular lines were not long at all, maybe 5-10 minute wait. They were not letting people board yet due to the delay of people getting off. After about 10 minutes they let priority board first (about noon). Got the usual boarding picture and got onboard to head to the Lido deck. Enjoyed a delicious chicken breast, salad, and of course ice cream. Read more