Carnival Inspiration Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Be warned!! SKIP this cruise line!!

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Inspiration
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lakespd316
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Jan 2011
Cabin: Interior
Traveled with children

Let me preface this review of the Carnival Inspiration with this: We are frequent cruisers, who have only ever cruised with NCL in the past. We have been on 5 past NCL cruises, 4 of which were to the Caribbean, one to New England/Canada. We took this cruise because we brought 4 of our kids and it was a little cheaper. Well, this was a hard lesson in "you get what you pay for". We will never, ever cruise Carnival again.

I was *extremely* disappointed in this cruise. The ship itself was in good shape -- but the decor was so obnoxious. Horrible colors, very loud decor, very cheesy. The food was pretty bad. There were only two dining options for dinner. Either the main dining room -- which was about a 3 out of 5 stars, and the buffet, which was incredibly bad. The "sushi bar" was the size of a small closet and it was just shoved in the middle of a hallway not connected to any other eating areas. It was really odd.

I guess I am used to having multiple, GOOD, dining options -- NCL has many different restaurants on their ships. I was shocked that we only had two options for dinner. At lunch they had a burger grill by the pool and a Mongolian stir fry area by the pool. Drinks were good -- but expensive. A cocktail was around $8 each. Smoothies for the kids were $5.

Cabin Review

Interior

Cabin 4A

Let me preface this review of the Carnival Inspiration with this: We are frequent cruisers, who have only ever cruised with NCL in the past. We have been on 5 past NCL cruises, 4 of which were to the Caribbean, one to New England/Canada. We took this cruise because we brought 4 of our kids and it was a little cheaper. Well, this was a hard lesson in "you get what you pay for". We will never, ever cruise Carnival again.

I was *extremely* disappointed in this cruise. The ship itself was in good shape -- but the decor was so obnoxious. Horrible colors, very loud decor, very cheesy. The food was pretty bad. There were only two dining options for dinner. Either the main dining room -- which was about a 3 out of 5 stars, and the buffet, which was incredibly bad. The "sushi bar" was the size of a small closet and it was just shoved in the middle of a hallway not connected to any other eating areas. It was really odd.

I guess I am used to having multiple, GOOD, dining options -- NCL has many different restaurants on their ships. I was shocked that we only had two options for dinner. At lunch they had a burger grill by the pool and a Mongolian stir fry area by the pool. Drinks were good -- but expensive. A cocktail was around $8 each. Smoothies for the kids were $5.

I know I sound like a broken record here -- but the entertainment was horrible! On this 5 day cruise, there were 2 shows. That's it. 2 productions. The other three nights they had trivia or bingo in the theater. It was ridiculous. The first night they offered "Shout", which was actually pretty good. The lead female singer has a beautiful voice. There wasn't another show until the last night. And it was so painful to watch, I actually had to leave. The dancers timing was off so badly, it was distracting.

Again, with NCL, they had shows EVERY night. Great quality shows, every single night, like Chicago Second City and Cirque. I guess I've been spoiled by NCL. On every NCL ship I've ever been on, the food, entertainment, and overall experience have been wonderful. Carnival was the direct opposite.

The best part of the Carnival Inspiration? In my opinion, it was the cabin. The cabin was spacious for two people. There were 3 closets, 5 large shelves in the closet, and 4 drawers on the make-up desk. The bed was comfortable, the bedding was nice. It was actually roomy, and the bathroom wasn't bad at all.

The staff on the Carnival Inspiration were very nice. Very gracious, very polite. Everyone smiled and were very accommodating.

The Circle C club for 12-14 year olds and Camp Carnival for 7-11 year olds was pretty good. Our kids (ages 14, 11, 9, and 7) seemed to have a good time. They entertained themselves swimming or they would ask to go back to the organized kids activities, which we took as a good sign.

To sum it up, you get what you pay for. The clientele on Carnival leaves something to be desired. In 6 years of cruising, I've never had to call security. I had to call them twice because of loud, obnoxious, drunken idiots in the cabin next to us. You pay cheap prices, you get cheap quality. Definitely NOT recommended.

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