BACKGROUND: I am a first time cruiser, age 29. I traveled with my wife who is 31, and also a first time cruiser. I am a very large and tall guy, which was a major concern. I have become an avid reader of cruise websites and message boards and have learned many tips that have proven to be very helpful. We booked the 4/23 Inspiration cruise after learning that my best friend would be getting married on 4/21 in Tampa and I would be the best man in his wedding. I brought a collapsible chair just in case deck chairs weren't sturdy enough. We also had lanyards from walmart and id badge holders off of ebay which worked out great for keeping our Sign and Sail Cards, ID's and cash. So many people asked me where I got those from and even told me I should have brought extras to sell.

PRE-CRUISE: We departed from our home city of Columbia, South Carolina on Friday, April 20th early in the morning and arrived in Tampa around 4:00 pm. We booked the Amerisuites Busch Gardens Hotel on priceline for three nights pre-cruise. It turned out to be a perfect location because of its proximity to the wedding site and ease of travel to the cruise terminal. We were literally a couple of blocks away from the wedding. I have heard people say not to book in the Busch Gardens area, but it was very safe, convenient and the hotel was very nice. The hotel is changing over to Hyatt Place, and all of the rooms were already fully upgraded with a nice dEcor and include 42inch plasma Televisions. The rooms were very comfortable and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful. Sunday we visited the Florida Aquarium right at the port. It was a great entertaining afternoon, and we got to see the Carnival Legend and take pictures of it from the aquarium. After the aquarium we went to University Mall which was about a mile from our hotel. It's the average mall, but we mainly went to just walk around and eat. We had a great time overall in Tampa.

EMBARKATION/DAY 1: We arrived at the port around 12:15 pm. We knew how to get to our terminal, but we were not really aware of how the whole parking/unloading luggage process worked. We circled the block a few times and eventually found the correct garage entrance. They told us we needed to pull into our terminal to unload our luggage with our porters if we were not carrying it on. We did as they instructed and got a few additional luggage tags from the porter and he unloaded everything and we tipped him. The porter was very pleasant and friendly. Parking and embarkation didn't really take long at all. Maybe 20-25 minutes from the parking lot to boarding the ship. We were on board around 1:00pm. Read more