Carnival Inspiration Review

4.0 / 5.0
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cruising deja vu island!

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Inspiration
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First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: May 2009

We had a great cruise on the inspiration!  We left May 4, 2009 and found out a few days before we left that the Cozumel port was now going to be a second day in Grand Cayman!  We were disappointed to not be going to Cozumel but knew it was the right decision!  We were hoping to get another port instead of a sea day, and we were happy to be getting a second day in Grand Cayman (now known as Deja Vu Island for the second port day!)  My husband is a scuba diver so he was more than thrilled to be able to dive there twice!Embarkation was fine, we have left from Tampa 4 times now!  We knew the routine!  We had VIP boarding this time, so we were in group one to board!  We have always been onboard eating by 11:30, so we were disappointed to not be able to board until after 12:00!  But the ship had come in a little late that morning and with the whole swine flu thing, things were taking longer!  We had friends with us that were cruising for the first time, so we were sorry that we showed up early like we always do to have to sit and wait for an extra hour!  But it wasn't Carnival's fault, they say not to show up until afternoon anyway!  As soon as we got on, we went to the Serenity deck and got a drink and then went up for lunch!  They now have a few more NON-Smoking areas!  It pleased me, but one in our group wasn't happy until she found a few places where she could smoke!  The serenity area for the over 21 crowd is now a smoke free area and so are the 2 small areas aft Lido deck behind the pizza and Brassies bar area.  I was glad they seemed to be enforcing the smoking areas.The food was great as always!  I even had 2 lobster dinners on Captains night!  They no longer serve appetizers at the captains party but do have the free drinks.  And this enabled me to be able to eat 2 dinners!  We made the dining room breakfast once, it was ok, but I liked the made to order omelettes at the brassies buffet area best.  Lunch we usually had buffet or sandwiches.  They has some chips and salsa and chile and cheese at the lido buffet so I made a chile cheese hot dog and cheese fries!  Had pizza once, it was ok, but not great!  It isn't possible to go hungry on this cruise, even for the pickiest eaters!  We did the galley tour this time and enjoyed it very much!  It is very impressive what they manage to accomplish every night!  The desserts were fabulous too!  I even went to one of the Afternoon Tea's and enjoyed it!  We had Joseph the Supercharged Maitre D and he was great.  We were originally hoping for George the Greek, but he had left the ship.  Joseph was great!  He came to the table every night and remembered you when he saw you.  Out waitstaff was superb!  We never has a problem with the bartender not coming by.  He had our cokes delivered within 30 seconds of us sitting down, every night!  (The $5 tip the first day helped with that!)  And I went to the sushi bar this time too!  I think you had to pay for it last year, but it is included this year!We did get to go to a few shows this time!  They were good.  We had a comedian (Allan Ball who was very good (that is where the DejaVu island came from for our second Grand Cayman day)!  The Shout show was good, but I had heard that it was great so I was a little disappointed, but it was good.  We still enjoyed it!  (OK, time to speed this along!)The pool area was busy, but you could always find a chair or 2 easily.  We were surprised to not see many children at all!  There were over 450 on board and you only ever saw a handful!  We had a smooth cruise with very little rocking.   The waterworks area was still very nice and 2 of us went down the slides!This was our first time in a balcony cabin and it was nice!  The balcony was small, only your knees can fit in between the chair and the railing,  but to be able to sit outside in your robe in the morning with your coffee was wonderful!We didn't realize until 3 days into the cruise that you could now buy drink cards!  I think it was 5 drinks for $23.50!  Better than the $6.95 each we paid!  We know now for next year!  My husband always gets the soda card and drinks cokes the whole cruise.  The iced tea isn't very good;  we were mixing it with the lemonade!Overall a great cruise, and we will go again next year!

Cabin Review

Cabin 11

Nice room, mostly quiet. Nice view.

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