I had a very good time on Carnival Inspiration. We traveled from Seattle to Tampa on the day before the cruise and it seemed like that was a good idea. Flight from Seattle to Denver was on time but when we arrived in Denver our flight to Tampa was "delayed". Was to take off at 12:15 but we were told that United would make a decision at 1pm what to do. Then we were told they would make a decision by 2:30. At 2pm they told us plane was on the way and we would depart at 3:03 pm which we did. Arrived in Tampa at 8:30 instead of 5:30. When we got to our hotel ( Marriott Residence Inn on Boy Scout Blvd) at 9pm we were told they didn't have a room for us. DH called the day before and re-confirmed the room. They offered to put us up at a Howard Johnson's across town. We put up a fight and they finally gave us a handicapped suite at the price we had agreed to for the room we booked. From then on the cruise was wonderful.

We met the Mears Transportation (Carnival transportation) bus at the airport at 11am and left there shortly after that and arrived at the dock at about 11:30. Gave our bags to porter and got into a short line at the door to embark the ship. The line kept moving and we went through scanner and then to the check-in area. There were about 30 agents to help. Got our sign and sail cards in about 5 min and boarded the ship without any delay. Shortly after noon we were sitting on the back of the Lido deck eating lunch. We met up with some of the people in our group and just relaxed. Somewhere around 3pm we were called to the muster drill. Ours was in the Paris lounge. Much better than standing in line 4 deep on the deck. That lasted about 15 min and then we were back on the back deck to watch the ship leave the dock.

We had early seating in the Mardi Gras Dining room with about 38 others in our group (high school reunion). We ate in the dining room every evening and I had filet mignon the first night, lobster and shrimp the second night (Captain's dinner) grouper the third night and chateaubriand the last night. I loved all of them. Caesar salad each night as well as melting chocolate cake with butter pecan ice cream. Also cappuccino. DH had salmon the first night and the same as me the other nights. No complaints about dining room or food selections. We also had breakfast in dining room each morning and were happy with that. DH also had bagel and lox each day in the afternoon at the sandwich place. I had buffet one day for lunch, but wanted to avoid buffet because of what I read about each spoon being touched by more than 300 people before I touched it! Read more