we Sailed the Carnival Inspiration 10/13/07 and had sailed on her before so were anxious to see the new changes. We had 9 people in our group, 3 were 1st time cruisers, 2 were 1st time Carnival Cruisers Embarkation: this was quick, got right onboard once we checked in at about noon..only problem here was the cabin area was not open, so we had to go to the lido deck with our carry on bags, that was a bit of a hassle as the deck was crowded and you had to trip over everyones bags, you did not feel you could look around on the public decks unless you wanted to drag your bags with you...hopefully this part will change. Cabins: we had 2 ocean view & 2 inside cabins, 3 on upper deck & 1 on main deck. they were clean and pretty roomy. the new beds were comfortable and our steward was very good at keeping us filled with ice and clean towels and towel figures and always had a smile and hello. Public Areas: all were clean and had room for all the guests the new serenity deck for adults was nice and quiet with comfy lounge chairs. the only issue here was the bar was up on lido and the rest rooms were either on lido or thru the candlelight lounge, hopefully carnival will put a bar & some restrooms closer to this area. The waiters were very good, but busy, so sometimes you had to wait for your drink, 1 of the hot tubs was not working, but they kept trying to get it going, and since the ship was just refurbed it really was not a problem. The mini golf was fun and a challenge to keep the ball on track with the wind. The new water slide was fun the ones in our group that went had a blast. Dining: We can not say enough about our dining experience. We had the 8pm seating, which worked out great gave us time to enjoy the day, get ready for dinner in a leisurely way and make the shows after. We had the BEST wait staff, Zuzana & Renato, they were great fun and treated us like Kings & Queens and were the reason dinner was wonderful I think there were tears on our last night when we all said goodbye. Shjenzana was our bar waitress at dinner and was Super, on past cruises we had trouble getting before & after dinner drinks, but she was right there everynight with our order. We had superb service and hope Carnival recognizes these 3 employees as being a great asset to their crew. The food was excellent, and plentiful, they even got 1 of our group to try some new foods and were very helpful with my mom who is a diabetic. You have to try the chocolate melting cake...is is a bit addicting Ports: we had 2 ports, Cayman & Calica. We have been to Cayman before, so we knew what to expect.The tender went well and mom had no problem getting off ( i was worried about that part) We did the stingrays and had a great time as we were the 1st group out to the sandbar..1 of our group had never been before so it was fun watching him and the crew the excursion were great we all had a blast. The rest of our group did the Trolly Roger and had a great time as well seeing the island and shopping and they said their excursion crew treated them well too which I was glad to hear as my mom went on this one. I was nervous about Calica as we had never been before, and some of the reviews were not favorable. well I must say things went well here. The port is a working quarry, but they have all the excursions, rental vehicles and numerous taxi's there for you when you got off the ship, and the little shops (tents) had lots of things to buy. Although we did not seem to be able to barter here as we did in Play del Carmen. We took a cab to Play del Carmen (4 to cab for $10) we walked to the beach in town...not a bad walk as we window shopped on the way. The beach was great...white soft sand and we got 2 tables with umbrellas and had drinks and played in the ocean. 1 of our group rented a jet ski and he had a great time. Shopping was good and we did get to barter so we got some good deals. We stopped at Carlos & Charlies..this one was a bit small but fun just the same. I must say this was a good port and we would go back. Entertainment:The shows were fun, the dancing and singing were good, the 1st comic was not to great but the 2nd one was a stitch. th lido deck activities were fun to watch and we laughed alot here. The cruise director did a great job keeping us entertained and even got my youngest(17) to get involved the macarena chicken was fun and different. Debarkation; this went well too we were off with our bags by 9:30, they have a new system, you get numbered tags to put on your bags, so there were not as many in the group to hunt thru I am so glad we took this cruise, and the ones that were 1st timers can not wait to go again. The Inspiration is nice ship, it has a great staff, is just the right size and we recommend the ship to everyone.