Background: 12th & 13th cruise with Carnival. (Platinum) DH 56, myself 50. Love cruising with Carnival, No such thing as a "bad" cruise. This was the smallest ship we have ever sailed and we were a bit worried about not having a balcony. It ended up being fine and not as big an issue as we thought it might be. We did miss having a balcony but the ships public areas were fine and we found plenty of quiet space to enjoy. This was also the shortest cruise we have ever booked so we did a B2B to make it meet our needs. Having to fly to a port we always try to get the most for our airline dollars and sail for at least a week. This B2B gave us 9 nights by doing the 5 day followed by the 4 day. We flew into St. Pete airport the day before we sailed, stayed at the airport Holiday Inn select. Very nice and only $110. We took the motel shuttle to the Tampa airport in the morning and then we took a cab from the Tampa airport to the pier for $25. Carnival doesn't offer a shuttle from St. Pete airport to the pier. We arrived about 11am and we were on board and enjoying lunch on Lido by noon. There were three wedding parties that boarded first followed by Platinum guests. 5day sailed from Tampa to Grand Cayman to Cozumel, back to Tampa. Followed by the 4 day, Tampa to Cozumel and back to Tampa. We have done B2B in the past and love the extra time on board ship. We never change rooms so it is extra nice not to have to pack up our things mid cruise to move to a different room. The Inspiration was a very nice ship, very clean and well maintained. Crew is super friendly and goes out of their way to make you feel welcome. We missed having a super club but the food in the main dining room was exceptionally good on this cruise. Very well seasoned and not at all bland.

Room: Smaller than we are used to with not balcony but still fine over all. The bathroom set up actually seemed more spacious and we liked the bathroom better than on the larger ships. Our room steward was Erickson and he had our names and schedule down by the second day. Never once interrupted us or failed to service our room perfectly.

Food: Better seasoned on this ship. We had late seating in the Mardi Gras dining room with "Super charged Joseph". Best maitre'd we have ever had. Very friendly and helpful. Seems to really enjoy his job and take pride in his staff. The first leg of our cruise our servers were Edmound and Romel. Perfect service, super friendly, very very good at their jobs. We always dine in the main dining room for our evening meal. The food is always hot and quite good. This is a very important part of our cruise experience. We also enjoy the waiters and getting to know them. Sadly we were unable to keep the same table for our second leg due to a Verizon group of 400 people that had reserved the area we sat in for the first week. We had to change tables for our four day and our servers were not of the same caliber the second leg. They were o.k. but not as good as Edmound and Romel. I tried the Bitter and Blanc for the first time on this cruise, yum. I may have a new favorite dessert. It was amazing. Read more