Well, a lot of this has already been written on the boards, so I apologize in advance for any repeated information. We began our "cruise vacation" by driving from Jacksonville to Tampa on Friday. I4 and I95 traffic can be notoriously horrible, without warning, so we decided to drive down the day before, relax and stay in a nice hotel, and wake up the next morning ready for our cruise! After driving over an hour longer than the trip called for, due to traffic, we were finally at the Quorum Hotel of Tampa. I had read about it on CC, and that it had a sail/park package. We were not disappointed. I thought I would be initially, because of the renovations occurring during our stay. But the staff could NOT have been more accommodating or kind. The pool is smaller in size, but never seemed crowded. They informed us at check in that the shuttle would start running at 11:00 a.m., but I requested that we be taken to the port at 10:00, and they didn't bat an eye before saying "of course". We left for the port shortly after 10:00 and were there at 10:20, unloading our thousands of pounds of luggage. We were 3 families, with a total of 8 people. It was me, my dh, 2 sons (ages 8 and 12), my sister and her daughter (17) and my parents. So we had all age groups represented, it seemed. Well, the first warning would be to not let just one porter attempt to handle that much luggage. He wanted to and wouldn't take no for an answer, and we were excited to go. He dropped several pieces many times, and I was shouting for him to stop or he would have left some behind. Now we are thinking that's what happened to my husband's luggage (the notorious missing piece...still). After that we were in line awaiting the terminal to open at 11:00. There were 2 rather large wedding parties that were forming to the left of us. After 11:00, we were told that the wedding parties needed to get inside before anyone else would be allowed. Once inside, we were shown where VIP boarding was, and that was extremely quick, as all of our paperwork had been completed at home. Next, we were shown to an area to wait. Boarding was allowed at this time, but again, they wanted the wedding partied to get on the ship first. At 12:00, we were on the Lido deck, looking at the "new, improved" Inspiration, and were not disappointed in the least. The pool area is gorgeous and was up and running. After stopping and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed up to the waterworks area, and it was going as well. My boys were thrilled!!!! This area is awesome! The slides don't go into a pool, but rather into a shallow area, so there is no danger of kids coming into a pool and going to the bottom. Big kudos to Carnival for thinking about that one. There were plenty of chairs and a beautiful view of the back of the ship. Down one deck was the back of the restaurant (Brasserie??) and a quiet area to sit and enjoy. If you don't want to hear the music and deal with the crowds, this is the place for you (and was for my parents as well). Also, if you turn around and go through the auto door, there was the pizza station and a bar across from that...how much more perfect does life get, than pizza and a bar?? I ate a lot of pizza, chicken caesar salads and ice cream without walking more than a few dozen steps. Bar service doesn't start upstairs by the waterworks area until 11:00 and it didn't start filling up until around that time either. We never had trouble getting chairs there, although around the pool often looked full on this sold out cruise. At 1:00, our rooms were ready for viewing and off we went. Our room steward was Vitalia and she was very nice. I don't think our room has ever been kept as clean as she did it. She always kept ice in our collapsible cooler and had plenty of towels in the BR. She wasn't as personable as other room stewards I've had in the past, but this isn't a criticism. I preferred her because things were kept so clean. After changing into our suits that we had carried on with our carry-on's, we were off and back to the pool/waterworks areas. We noticed our dining time was 6:15 (as requested) in the Mardi Gras dining room. We were excited to get George the Greek, and he also did not disappoint. More on him later. After the required boat drill, we were off on our cruise!!! How exciting. Note: if you have children 12 and under, they will be required to wear an armband the entire cruise. So decide ahead of time which arm and how tight. One of my sons drove me crazy messing with it, because he had it put on his left arm and he's left handed. It got in the way alot. I'm glad they had the armbands on, as it reminds them where to go in the event of an emergency, as well as helps others know where to take them if found. Once in our rooms, our luggage still wasn't there. We weren't too concerned as this was the first night, but we were anxious to get unpacked and "nested". By 5:30, all of our luggage was there, except my husband's hanging bag. We had separated our clothing and put several pieces in different bags. So he had his bathing suits, toiletries and casual shirts and shorts. We told Vitalia about this and she said to wait until after 8:00 before reporting. This is the deadline for baggage to get to the rooms. They won't do anything about it if reported before then. I love, loved, loved U111!!! The room was spacious and never seemed crowded. The closet was great, but I brought extra hangers and was glad. We didn't need the bungee to keep the closet door open or closed, because there is now a really strong magnet that does that trick. No more slamming closet door on wavy days. There was a king bed and a fold out sofa, that was also a king. The pit style couch from last year was replaced by that and a chair. It made for a better bed. The balcony was great, with 2 chairs and a table. They were plastic, but who cared! The bar area had wine glasses and a refrigerator. I did find that the fridge never got things super cold, so we used our cooler as well. We had brought a small amount of beer, water and wine. There was plenty of storage space under the main bed for all of the luggage. There was only one plug, but not a problem since I had extension cords and a multi plug device. There was a hair dryer mounted on the wall in the bathroom, with a small plug that was only accessible for shavers. We had a bath tub, but we are all shower people and never really enjoyed that amenity. After getting ready quickly for dinner, we noticed the ship had stopped moving and they were announcing a passenger had gotten sick and they were going to stop and let the coast guard take him off. This was pretty exciting for the boys, as this happened on our side of the ship. This also delayed our getting to the bridge until after dinner, so we got to see it. Once in the Mardi Gras dining room, we were thrilled to finally meet the much talked about, George the Greek. He was incredible and so very personable. I have never had a maitre'd like this. He constantly meandered around the dining room, every night, checking on people and just saying hello. I swear, he seemed to remember everyone and their names! Our wait staff was great! They must have known that once our family sits, they are ready to eat. The food came quickly and they never once raised a brow over the ordering of 2 entrees (sometimes 3) or the number of desserts. Magic tricks were done for the boys on several occasions.. George understood my husband's luggage dilemma and never made mention of his wearing shorts to eat. The rest of us cleaned up well and were well dressed however, but this didn't bother my husband. After reporting my husband's lost luggage, the purser called the hotel to make sure that it wasn't there (it wasn't), and then proceeded to say that they would "comp" him a tux for the next night if still no bag. They were very helpful and nice. The next day was a sea day and lots of fun. The boys enjoyed the arcade and roaming the ship together. Carnival puts a $20 limit on the S&S cards in the arcade each day. This was great for us!!! We never had to request that either. There was an announcement made during the day that we had engine problems when we let the sick passenger off the day before, and that the stop to Grand Cayman was cancelled. We were disappointed, but things happen. We would be going to Cozumel the next day instead, to stay longer and pick up people who could work on the engine. Our excursion to GC was cancelled, and we were scrambling to find something to do in Cozumel. Initially, we had nothing planned but to take and taxi to the beach and do some shopping. We decided on the Atlantic sub adventure. The Captain's cocktail party was nice, free drinks and snacks. The crew was introduced and I loved our cruise director. Her voice was surprisingly soothing on the intercom each day. Dinner that night was lobster and shrimp. There was also prime rib. I'm a little person, but had both! My dad had 3 lobsters. The chocolate melting cake was served and eaten by someone at our table each night. I found the desserts especially good this trip. The next day in Cozumel was ok. The sub adventure however, was great! Not to be missed! It was expensive, but worth every penny. Reminder: this is nature, so not everyone will see the same things. The devastation of the reefs by last year's hurricane was also noticeable and sad. We saw rays, barracudas and literally what seemed like hundreds of fish. Each one of us had our own port hole. There was plenty of air blowing around, never seeming stuffy at all. It was a 2 hour excursion, but the sub ride was around 45 minutes. We got down to 106 feet and it was great! My boys are still talking about it. The shopping right at the port in Cozumel was ok. I would definitely recommend going into town for that stuff. We got back to the ship in time for dinner, and practically had the ship to ourselves. The dining room was over half empty. This was one of our fav times. We sat on the back of the ship and just talked and looked out over the city of Cozumel at night. We left around midnight. Things not to miss on the ship include the miniature golf area for the kids. They enjoyed this a lot. Don't skip the pizza...it was great. The serenity area looked nice at the back of this ship, but we didn't actually visit it. We didn't care much for the piano bar this time, but found the guitar player on the promenade deck to be very entertaining and good. The sushi bar opened at 5:00 or 5:30 I believe and stayed open until 8:00. It should be on the Capers. Get there early, as the menu changed nightly and the line formed early. The day we were in Cozumel, we sat near the sushi bar and never waited in line. We ate all the sushi we wanted...a big plus for us. On the waterworks pool deck, look out for Heru'. He was our waiter there and very, very personable. We loved him and his smile! Overall, everyone was friendly. One night, we were lining up outside the Paris lounge, taking turns taking pictures of our group with someone missing (the one taking the picture), when our cruise director showed up, took the camera and proceeded to take several pic's of our group. This will be treasured. Everyone had a smile. My husband's bag still hasn't been found. We have insurance and Carnival gave him an additional $50 plus the free tux. I don't think they lost it, but rather someone at the pier. Who knows!? But it truly didn't ruin or affect the vacation. Disembarkation was a breeze. I wish we hadn't been in such a hurry and taken our time to eat a final breakfast in the dining room. We didn't eat breakfast or lunch there the entire time and it would have been nice. The port personnel were much nicer coming out than they were going in, so that was nice. We would sail the Inspiration again, anytime!!!