Inspiration review 04-04-04

[judyf]

CCL Inspiration 7 day Cruise from Tampa 04/04/04 to 04/11/04 to
Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Belize.
Mother & Daughter annual spring break cruise.

Flight & Precruise

We flew on Southeast from Newburgh, NY to St. Petersburg, Fl on Friday evening 4/2. We had all day Sat. to enjoy the area and relax before our cruise. It was an uneventful flight except the 2 hour plus wait in lines to board the plane. We arrived at the airport at 6 p.m. and never boarded the plane till about 8:30 p.m. for a 7:50 p.m. flight. This was the beginning of many lines to wait in for us.

We arrived about a half hour later then scheduled. Went right to Alamo car rental counter and I got the paperwork done, got our bags and we were off to find our hotel. We stayed at the Candlewood Suites and it was very clean and nice. I booked this hotel on Priceline.

We got up fairly early for arriving so late but we were too excited to sleep anyway. We changed our original plans a little cause we didn’t get up as early as we had hoped too and I wasn’t sure how bad the traffic might be. We had a full day booked.

First we drove to St. Petersburg Pier, it was nice but not too much there. There’s a nice place to eat there but we were there too early for that. Next we drove to Tampa to go to the Big Cats Rescue www.bigcatrescue.org (http://www.bigcatrescue.org) this was a must do for me. They only have tours at 9:30, 11:30 and 1:30 on Saturdays. We arrived in time for the 1:30 p.m. tour. The cost was $20.00 pp for a little over 90 minutes. It was great!!!! I would go again and I plan to someday and take the full day tour where you get to go in the cages with the cats. Now we are off to our last designation of the day, John’s Pass and Madeira Beach. This is a nice location to visit. There was plenty to do, shop, jet skis, swim and boat rides and tours. We eat at Shully’s or something like that. It was really good. We got to see the sunset on the beach. We had a nice relaxing time there. It was too chilly to swim on Sat. 4/3 but we didn’t want to swim just to be on the beach, relax and see the beautiful sunset was great.

We drove back over to Tampa to check in our hotel and drop off the car. On my way we stopped at a liquor store and I got some Captain Morgan spiced rum to pack. First we went to Homestead Suites and unloaded all our bags. Again I booked this hotel with Priceline. Then we drove to the airport to d/o the car. Well, Alamo never told me that the d/o location wasn’t at the Tampa airport. We were giving directions to the off site location, they were a little confusing. As we pulled out I saw an Alamo shuttle and followed the van to the Alamo center. We got a cab to Homestead Suites, had a little hard time, as the first 2 cab drivers said they didn’t know where that hotel was. Our driver was great and explained why the first 2 drivers wouldn’t take us is cause they want the larger fares. We tipped him well and he gave us his number to call him and we would be his first pick up in the morning. This was about 11:30-12:00 midnight.

Embarkation:

We set our clocks one hour ahead as this was the day to do it, Sat. 4/3. Of course we couldn’t sleep, we were too excited about going on the cruise in the morning. We fixed and repacked our bags to get on the cruise and set our clocks for 9:00 a.m. The alarm went off but I was already awake, we were up showered and ready to go. We called the cab driver from last night as he suggested we did but we got an answering machine. I think he was up to late to get up and pick us up by 10:30 a.m.. We called the number of the company on the card he had given us and a cab was there to get us at 10:30 a.m. We arrived at the pier by 11:30 a.m, a porter took our bags and said to go up the escalator. We had planned to go to the Aquarium, but when he told us to go up and the cruise people were there waving us on so we thought let’s go they must be letting people on early. This was a wrong decision! We were only escorted to a waiting area. We should have walked back out and went to the Aquarium but we didn’t. It’s a nice area lots of chairs and AC, it fact the AC was so good a few of us were chilly. We didn’t get to enter the ship till 1:30 p.m. we were in the first group and we were one of the first on and by this time we headed straight for the food cause we had skipped breakfast. I realized later on that we were most likely late getting on the ship due to the time change.

More to follow tomorrow as I'm too tired to type any more tonight.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[pics]

Thanks Judy, I eagerly await the rest.....

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till we sail the INSPIRATION

[CriticalCareNurse]

Me too, me too....I can't wait for more.

Jenny 'Soon To Be' Smith

Honeymoon Cruise/Inspiration
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[BornToBeABeachBum]

Thanks for the review Judy! It's been hard to find recent reviews of the Inspiration. Can't wait to read the rest http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

04/04 CCL Inspiration
12/00 RCCL Monarch of the Seas
03/00 NCL Majesty

[osnap2006x]

cant wait for the rest judy, i will be sailing on inspiration 6/20/04...real excited

Coty Jones

[roni]

judy,

Your review is GREAT so far. Very detailed and yet easy to read. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

I am eagerly awaiting the rest http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

roni

[fla_gal]

Great review! Can't wait to hear the rest as I leave on May 2nd on the Inspiration

Inspiration Cruise
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[tdms1324]

hey fl_gal, I'll be getting off the Inspiration when you are getting on. I'll try and leave her in good shape http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

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1/25/04 Inspiration
4/25/04 Inspiration Part II
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[pazooter]

So far, so good. Waiting to see how you enjoyed the ship, Judy. Looking forward to your continued review. Cathy

http://www.pazooter.com/bandc.gif (http://www.pazooter.com)


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Until our **STAR** search
Seattle to Alaska on NCL Star
June 27, 2004

Fantasy 12/25/03
Inspiration 4/13/03
NCL Majesty 12/27/02
Jubilee 3/23/02
Norwegian Sea 11/23/01

[judyf]

Sunday First Day:

As we ate lunch we met staff member Klandia in the Brasserie Bar $ Grill the Purple room. She was the first CCL staff we encounter and she was great, helpful and very nice. We found out this evening that she was also one of our wait staff. One hit here for first timers, when you go to eat lunch for the first time there's a section with hamburgers and hotdogs if you walk past that into the dining area there's more choices. Many of the passengers didn't know this and stopped at the grill area by the pool and thought that's all there was.

After lunch we went to find our cabin. To our surprise we were upgraded from a 4A inside guarantee to cabin number U-4 that was on the 6th floor, forward outside with 2 potholes, second in from the front. It was really great no hallway noise. The downside if you want to call it that, was you didn't need an alarm clock on port days the anchor being lowered woke us up. It was no big deal, we were very happy. I will do the guarantee booking again. The room was plenty large enough for the 2 of us. Bathrobes were hanging in the closet for our use. My mother liked it so much she ended up buying one for I think $39.00. I can’t say enough on how nice our room stewards were and how much we enjoyed our cabin and it’s location, the cabins are set up to make it easy to get around with plenty of room.

Next we went to meet other CC’s by the pizza area, said a quick hello and then everyone was on their way. We only ran into one couple after that first meet a few times during the cruise. We stayed in this area to watch the sail away and met a real nice couple from South Carolina. We talked right up till dinnertime and many times during the cruise. After dinner we went to see the first show and a Bingo game was getting ready to start and at the last minute my mother decided to go buy the $20.00 3-card game. She won the jackpot of $800.00!!! This was a great start to our cruise. We took $40.00 each to the casino to see if our luck stayed with us and it didn’t. The show tonight was cancelled due to the performer didn’t make it. I think they said he was in a minor car accident. They did a skit with the passengers, it was funny. We then went to the different clubs. We liked the Avant Garde the best and second best was the piano bar. We were night owls tonight and stayed out till like 1:30 a.m. then went to our cabin.

After this day I really can’t remember what we did each day so I will do the rest of the report in topics.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[pics]

Judy, you're going to have to do 2 posts a day if I'm going to get to read them all before I leave for Tampa on Saturday!

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till we sail the INSPIRATION

[judyf]

Food & Dining Room

We found the food to be great and always available. My mother thought the food was cold, I didn’t find that a problem. It was warm but my mother likes it steaming hot. We only ate breakfast in the dining room on the last morning. All other days we ate at the buffet and it was good. It had made to order omelets and they were my favorite with the hash browns. We never had lunch in the dining room we were having too much fun on deck to change from our swimsuits. Had room service for breakfast on our Grand Cayman day and it was good. Had room service one day and I got a wrap and it was great. I wanted to order it again but never had time.

I got the veggie dishes most nights and they were very good. My mother had beef most night as did our tablemates and everyone seemed to enjoy what they ordered. We only missed the dining room meal on our day in Costa Maya cause we didn’t want to rush back for 6:15 dinner when we didn’t have to be back on ship till 6:30. We were in the Mardi Gras dining room for early seating. I was so glad when I saw that on our Sail & Sign card. I didn’t want dinner at 5:45. I originally booked late seating and then a month or two before our cruise, I decided to switch to early dining, thinking it might be better to see the shows and do a little more after dinner. It was okay but next time if I don’t have freestyle dining, I will book late seating for sure. I should of stuck with my first thought on this. I didn’t like being in the dining room eating while it was still light out. The only night we saw the sun set was the night we skipped the dining room. We also missed the sail away from the ports due to early dinner. On Thursday our day in Cozumel there was a big mess up with the tenders (more on that later) and we had open seating that night. It went well as could be expected and I wish that was available every night. Our dining room staff was great and we tipped extra on the last day.

We never went to the midnight buffets we were just too full. We did go the grand buffet on the second formal night just to take pictures, what a show of food. I wished I was hungry to eat. hehehe

Service:

I touched on this some already but thought it was worth a topic of it’s own. We found the service to be excellent, always had our room done up as soon as we left and ice bucket was always full. Dining room staff was great and very friendly. All the staff members smiled and was polite and went out of their way to make our cruise special.


Ship:

CCL Inspiration was what I expected. We were on her sister ship the Fantasy for our first cruise and loved it. The ship was clean and there was always someone cleaning something. The elevators did have some scratches on the doors as I had read about. I’m sure some teenagers felt the need to do this. We found the size of the ship easy to navigate. The candlelight lounge is done up very nice, it’s a shame they don’t have more going on in there. The wood in halls of the area of the Grand Atrium was nice and the staircase as always is beautiful. We loved the Inspiration and would definitely sail on her again.



Pool, Hot Tubs & Chairs

Here’s my only complaint, the chair hogs!!!! We never were able to get a lounge chair the entire cruise. Our last day at sea we took two of those white chairs, which there’s plenty of, sat in one and put our feet on the other. We did this for over 4 hours maybe more and the whole time rows of the lounge chairs stayed empty with only a towel, shoe, suntan lotion or a book on them for over 4 hours! Many people were complaining about this. We went in the hot tub once the day we skipped the dining room, I jumped in the pool once to cool off. Ithought about it but never went down the slide. I like the shower they have by the pool to rinse off. Someone had mentioned that it might be a good idea if Carnival assigned at least one lounge chair to each cabin and I like this idea. She had 3 in her cabin and couldn’t find even one chair.

Entertainment:

Marahscalh our cruise director was funny, he is very good and we enjoyed having him as the CD. CCL Performers were great!

We saw every show. ElNuevo Caribe and Shout the two shows shown on formal night were a do not miss. The couple from Russia was great!!! If possible don’t miss these two shows.

Sunday nights entertainment was cancelled due to the perfromer never made it on the ship. They said he was in a minor car accident. The late night comedy for Monday night was cancelled due to it was the same guy that didn’t perform on Sunday evening.

Tuesday there was a juggler and a comedian, they were both funny and worth the time. The comedian even had a 12 midnight show that was good. There was another midnight comedy show but Mike Siscoe on Tuesday was the best.

Wednesday there was the Fire Gauchos a father and son show that was good and a Comedian Vinnie Coppola. There was also a deck party at 11:45 we missed this and we to our cabin early to get ready for an early morning.

Thursday the show was rescheduled due to the mess up in Cozumel.

Friday was the second formal night when Shout was performed great show. Late night comedian was Kenny Miller tonight he was okay but we liked the first comedian more.

Saturday was the night for the rescheduled talent show, this was much better then I thought it was going to be.

More to caome tomorrow.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[judyf]

Pics I'm trying. Work keeps getting in the way. You know how it is when you've been off for 6 working days!!!! Had lunch meetings Yesterday and tomorrow and an evening meeting tomorrow night. I will get the get the ports up tomorrow after my meeting.

Any questions just ask!!!!

You will have a great time! I wish I was just getting on instead of it being over.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[judyf]

Weather:

On the ship the weather was perfect all week. This was the best weather we’ve ever had on a cruise. The ship never even rocked. In Tampa on Sat. 4/3 the weather was nice for us, needed jeans and later after the sun went down even a jacket. At Disney on Sun. 4/11 the day was hot and then it rained about 7 pm and it really got windy and cool. We still enjoyed our day at Disney we just got the Mickey Ponchos.

Ports:

Grand Cayman: We booked a stringray tour on our own with Soto’s, I booked way back in Sept. before the price went up. We paid $20.00 pp it’s now $24.00 pp and it’s a great deal at that price. We had no problem getting right off the ship. Our tour was at 8:50 a.m. island time, GC was 1 hour behind ship time. We looked around a little where we got off the ship. I went to Hard Rock Café and the Harley shop before the tour just in case we didn’t have time after and it’s a good thing I did.

We all met where Soto’s told us to, it was easy, no problems and the guide was there waiting for us. We get in a nice AC van and we are off to the location. This was my first time to snorkel and I did bring my own gear and just used Soto’s fins. First stop was at a place they called the aquarium. I got the hang of it pretty quick saw lots of colored fish and coral. Second stop was the Coral Reef. This location had many boats and people, our guide that was filming the event told us to follow him. He went down and brought an eel out fro us all to see. It was great. Third and last stop was the Strinray Sandbar. I was glad to be on smaller tour, we had like 20-25 people and some of the other ships had two decks and were crowded. With the small group, we got individual attention. The guides took our underwater cameras and took many pictures for us. We got to hold the stringrays and kiss them many times. The water is so clear you can see the stringrays coming from far away.

The only thing that we encountered that was a little upsetting was when it was all over we were the last to get off the boat, we were in the back. What they did was just load the van as everyone walked off the boat. The first van got full and left. Now we’re waiting in the parking lot for a van it’s like 1:25 ish and I was getting worried cause our last tender was 2:00 p.m. I kept asking where the van was, the workers called the owner (Kerry) who was driving the van and said she would be right there. She arrived about 1:50 p.m. at this time we were a little upset, first island, tour on our own and we were a running late. We did arrive at the pier around 2:00 p.m. and there was a line to get back on and many people joined the line long after we were in it. We got back on the ship I think about 3:00 p.m. I must add to not let this worry you to book this tour, Kerry learned something from this experience. Our ship was the earliest to leave and Kerry said she would make sure in further tours that they check which ship the guests are on and load the earliest leaving on the first van. I would make sure you tell them on the boat what time your last tender is and let them know you need to be on the first van and you should have no problem.

We did but the video for I think $54.00 and it will be mailed to our home address. This is a must do for your first visit to GC.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[nibbles]

Thanks for the great review Judy! We don't sail until 7-25-04 but I'm trying to learn all I can before our group of 12 leaves.

[teedee]

Judy - Thanks for the great review, I'm really enjoying it. We have 3 more months before our cruise on the Inspiration. I'm glad you had such a good time. I know it's hard to take the time to write a review, when you're trying to catch up at work, so again thanks. Can't wait for the rest.

Nibbles - We're on the same cruise as you. There are 8 in our group. I haven't seen a roll call for this cruise, have you?


Terri

Skyward - 1989
Carnivale - 1991
Holiday - 1994
Fantasy - 1998
Century - 2002
Century - 2003
Inspiration - 7/04
Century - 9/04
Coral Princess 3/05

Judy where did you go horseback riding in Belize? Sounds fun and something we will do next time. Thanks Beth

[nibbles]

teedee, I have not seen a rollcall for our cruise. I'm glad to know that we are not the only people going. Our group consists of six adults and four children, all boys, ages 5, 12, 13 and 9.

[ryan5]

Hi Judy,
Thanks for the great review, we are sailing on 6/6/04. We are so excited about going! Were there lots of kids on board? I have 3 ages 11,13,16. This is our first cruise!
Thanks

Kathy

[teedee]

Nibbles - We've got 3 adults and 5 kids from 13 - 19, 3 girls and 2 boys. I guess I should say 4 adults so I don't make the 19 year old mad http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Terri

Skyward - 1989
Carnivale - 1991
Holiday - 1994
Fantasy - 1998
Century - 2002
Century - 2003
Inspiration - 7/04
Century - 9/04
Coral Princess 3/05

[floridajourneygirl]

judyf

More please! http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gifWe go in the Inspiration May 23rd. and I love to here more of your reviews. http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Dawn

Carnival Inspiration
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Waiting for Inspiration date http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
Sensation 7/4/1998
Pride 6/28/2003

[sexyred]

Hi Judyf, I am sailing on the Inspiration on 4-25-04 with my sister in law and my 8 year old niece. What other information can you give me for shore excursions and onboard activities. Thanks for the info. I read your messages and !!!

[tdms1324]

Sexyred...I'll be on the same cruise as you! I also cruised the Inspiration this past January so if you have any questions, I probably have answershttp://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

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4/25/04 Inspiration Part II
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[judyf]

Costa Maya: I really enjoyed this port. One thing that was nice was the time arriving at the port, 11:00 a.m. It gave you time to take in the activities the evening before and not have to get up super early. This was the only port that we docked at and it was a pleasure! We walked right off the ship, no lines, no delays, it was nice. We looked around the pier area, the merchants here are real pushy. I did buy a bracelet for $10.00 that started off at I think $30.00. We saw some entertainers right in this area and there’s plenty of shops.

We found a horseback riding booth, I think the name of the one I found was Water Marina or something like that. I couldn’t find the one we were looking for Mayawal Tours. I got the price down to $40.00 pp no lunch included. This was fine with us, cause I wasn’t crazy about the Italian place that the other tour went to, I wanted to try the local food. We were giving a tour pass and directions to the cab, $3.00 going and $2.00 to return plus tip. We get right into a cab no problem and the worker with our tour company told the driver where we were going. We arrive in town and we show him our tour pass and he brings us back to a place where we saw horses. It was a really nice beach bar area. We pay and tipped the driver and he’s off, we walk in and show the women are tour passes and she tells us, I have horses but these are not my passes. Oh boy!! Now we need to walk back to the area where the cab should have dropped us off. It wasn’t really far but it was really hot and we were carrying bags filled with camcorders, cameras and snorkeling stuff. My mother at 66 didn’t like the walk but we made it. Our horseback ride was for 12:00 noon island time by the time the cab took us to the wrong location and we walked back it was about 12:10 when we arrived. We met Nina as we were instructed to and had a seat and waited. She told us to wait while she got a snorkel tour out, this is done and we are still waiting some people come and another snorkel tour goes out. We ended up missing the 12:00 tour and didn’t get out till about 1:30 p.m. I wish we knew this at first this way we could of shopped a little and looked around instead of just sitting there. The ride was 90 minutes and we went through town and along the beach. There were only 5 horses total. My mother ended up not going, I guess she got a little afraid of the horse. There was a family of 4 on 3 horses and a mother and daughter on one and me.There was 2 guides that walk the trail with us. It was lots of fun and I’m glad I did it and would do it again.

After the ride we walked down the road in town and went to Tarpus Bar on the beach. I got a chicken fajita and a margarita for I think $12.00 total, $7.00 for the fajita and $5.00 for the drink. We went over to the beach area and sat at a table with chairs. This was nice and relaxing. I went in the water and tried to snorkel, it wasn’t good in this area but the swimming was nice. We stayed till we gave ourselves just enough time to see the folklore show and return to the ship in time. We enjoyed the folklore show nice free entertainment. I did get a yard rainbow margarita on the way back to the ship and I was able to walk on the ship with it in my hand. Boy was it good!

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[cruisemom2]

Judy, I'm enjoying your review! Can't wait for the rest . . .

Beth
~~~~~~~~~~~

Countdown to Glory
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Emerald Seas 6/86
Emerald Seas 11/87
S.S. Royale 10/88
Celebration 6/97
Grandeur of the Seas 6/98
Sensation 6/99
Carnival Triumph 6/00
Carnival Triumph 11/17/01
Enchantment of the Seas 10/27/02
Carnival Victory 5/25/03
Carnival Glory 5/22/04

[judyf]

Cozumel: This is where the “fun” began! It started the evening before at the show that night our cruise director informed us there has been a change in what he reported to us on our first night. We were first told that we would dock in the am and then would need to tender in the afternoon. Then on Wed. evening he informed us there has been a change and we would need to tender both ways. I’m okay with this we didn’t really have a problem in Grand Cayman so I’m thinking it would be the same.

Well, I was wrong for sure. We get up and had breakfast real early due to we docked in Cozumel at 7 am so this means our alarm clock was set for 5:30 am. So we go down to get the tender about 8:00 am. I think it was when they announce we were clear to get off the ship. First we went to deck 3 where we got off in GC and was informed to go to deck 4., no problem we go and there’s a long line we join. We ended up in the hall of deck 4 with rooms on both sides of us with no airflow for over 2 hours, yes that’s right this is not a type-o 2 hours plus we waited in that hall. About an hour or so into our wait we hear an announcement that a tender had mechanical problems and that was the delay. I work in transportation and I understand that and we went with the flow and were off the ship by 10:30 a.m.

We walked through the liquor store and then the shopping area to get where the cabs where. We ended up docking at Purta Langasta or something like that pier where Senior Frogs and Carlos and Charlie’s are. There were lots of shops in this area and you can make a deal with prices. I ended up getting a turquoise bracelet and slider pendant necklace for a total of $105.00 which is a great deal!!!! The bracelet alone started out at $65.00 and the necklace at $75.00, I was very happy with this purchase. We didn’t do anymore shopping we weren’t in Cozumel to shop. I know many do but I can shop at home and I like to do things on vacation I can’t do here in NY.

We get a cab to Cincos Del Sol. I can’t remember the price of the cab. This was the only store we planned to shop at. I figured from all I read we could get just about everything we wanted in Cozumel here for a decent price and we were right. I got a three pack of hot sauce and a bottle of dark vanilla. My mother got some nice perfume, cd’s and hot sauce and I can’t remember what else. We had gotten a coupon on the ship for a free black coral wind chime if we spent t over $25.00. We split our order up into two both over $25.00 so we both got a wind chime. I haven’t had time to open it yet so I can’t tell you want it is like.

Shopping completed we get another cab to Chankanaab Park. I had booked the sea lion swim package # 1 for $59.00 pp, it included park admission, the sea lion show and the swim. There was a long line to enter the park but we got to walk up to the Dolphin Discovery booth cause our tour was paid for already. This is a big park we didn’t have time to do half of what I wanted to do. We went straight to sign in for the swim cause the time was close for our swim.

The nice thing is the sea lion show was just starting so we got right in and didn’t waste any time waiting or backtracking to see it. The show is nice, try to sit to the left if you’re standing on stage that’s where the shade is.

After the show we had just a little time before our swim. I went to the lagoon area and got wet to cool off, it felt good after sitting in the sun for the show. The lagoon area was packed, as was the snorkeling area too.

We arrive at the sea lion area for our swim. They broke us up into 2 groups. I really enjoyed this and I would do it again. We were giving life vests and sat on the pool edge while the 2 sea lions did some flips and stuff in front of us. Then we all got in the water and the sea lion swam back and forth while we got to feel her and pet her. Then one person at a time goes into the center and the sea lion kisses you and then it goes into your arms and you’re holding it and of course they take pictures, which we bought, they came out great!

After that a couple at a time goes up and the sea lion jumps over our arms, turns around and does it again in the opposite direction. All this time they are taping the whole experience and again of course we bought the tape. The total for 4 pictures and I need to add nice and really well done big pictures and a VHS tape was $85.00. We loved this and would do it again.

Now with the things we paid for in advance done we head over to the snorkel area I really wanted to snorkel some more. We stopped at a restaurant on the way and had a nice meal at a good price. I had a Mexican Platter for I think $11.00 and it was good!

Okay now we are full and I go and rent a vest we couldn’t find a chair to sit in anywhere. My mother sat on a beach where I rented the vest and waited there while I went in the water, we didn’t have much time before we had to head back to the ship. There were a lot of fish all colors. I went out to the platform and then swam around the coral. I took lots of pictures with my water camera, I hope they come out good. I will find out next week.

We went to the fresh water shower to rinse off and we are back out and we got right on a cab. They are there waiting for you. The cab ride was $10.00 each way.

We arrive back at the cab area like 4:00 p.m. and our last tender is 5:00 p.m. I had thought about the necklace and bracelet I got and had decided on the way back I wanted the earrings to match too. I went to the same store and got the earrings for $30.00. Yeah I was happy. Then I remembered I wanted to get retin-A. I find where the drug store is and it’s back where we were. My mother couldn’t walk it so she sat and waited and I ran back got the retin-A $11.50 each and then ran back to make the tender. Got two bottles of liquor in the shop you walk through to get to the tender area.

We arrive in the tender line at 4:30 p.m. and it was a really long line. We were happy we weren’t late for the last tender. Little did we know at that time, I didn’t need to run back and forth to the drug store and that we actually had 3 hours more we could have enjoyed Cozumel and shopped. We were in line between two really nice families, this made the wait not as bad. It gets to be 5:30 p.m. and the sun is started to get to everyone still not one tender showed up.

Now as we are honest people waiting in line we saw many, many passengers with Carnival towels just walk right pass the end of the line to the front. The line never really got much longer it just got wider. At 4:30 p.m. we were at the end of the line and at 7:00 p.m. we were still at the end of the line. Okay it’s now 6:00 and still no tender showed up since we got in line at 4:30. Then we see a tender coming around the corner we were excited, hot, thrusty and sun burnt. Our excitement suddenly ended when we realized we weren’t going to make it on this tender this was due to everyone that cut in the line that arrive after we did. Then we see a smaller tender coming in behind that one and we thought we would get on this one for sure, didn’t happen!! Even security was letting people cut into the line they were telling them too. They needed Disney people there for line control! LOL. This would never happen in a Disney line.

Now we know we have at least another hour plus wait cause that what we were told it took the tender the last trip. You can just image how we felt at this point. There was no water anywhere, the sun was beating down on us and by now our sunscreen was long gone. Our feet were killing us. The young children behind us just laid down on the cement they were so tried and the young girl in front of us starting crying, she was about 7 years old. My mother at 66 could not get down Indian style like many of the adults that could did. I didn’t do it either cause she couldn’t. At about 7:15 p.m. we see the tender rounding the corner everyone just started yelling and clapping we all knew we would get on this tender. I would guess there was about 150 to 200 people that were left behind for the last tender at 7:15 p.m. which arrive at the Inspiration at 7:30 p.m. At this point the staff was waiting with trays of water as we entered the ship we downed like 2-3 of them real quick. I as many others were concerned about dinner. We were told as we entered the ship to just get ready and go to the dining room. I guess even before we arrived they announced that it would be open seating tonight.

We were so glad to be back on the ship. We enjoyed our day in Cozumel but wasted 5 hours on our valuable vacation time waiting in lines to get off and on the ship. While we waited I got sunburn real bad on my nose and got the hard sores on it. My mother got her lips burnt real bad it’s still bothering her as of today a week after our ordeal.

Carnival gave everyone on the ship a $25.00 pp ship credit and had a 45 minute open bar on Sat. Now my mother doesn’t drink so this meant nothing to her. I appreciate that and I’m not complaining, at least they did something. I just think something more should have been done for the 150 to 200 people that had to wait for that very last tender. I did call Carnival and voiced my concerns very nicely. I don’t like to complain cause in my business (transportation) this is all I get all day, so I don’t like to do it to anyone else. They will send me a 10% coupon off my next cruise. CCL does this for every little minor complaint they receive and I think our situation was a little bigger then some I read that got a 10% off coupon. My main concern is that this doesn’t happen on another cruise to other passengers and that’s exactly what I told CCL and they ensured me that it wouldn’t happen again.

I’m trying to get the rest of the report posted, I’m rusing it now so please forgive any type-o and mistakes. I’m leaving tomorrow right after work to drive to Maryland (6 hrs) for my grand daughters 3rd b-day. I was hoping to get it all posted before I left for the weekend. It’s been along week at work. I will try tomorrow moring and lunch time to finish it.

Thanks

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[judyf]

Okay I just posted my day in Cozumel took me 2 1/2 hours to type it and it came up as it has a tigger word and it will be checked.

How do I find out what happened and what word or words was the tigger? I can change it.

Maybe by morning when I check it will be posted.

I see now it weas posted. I wonder what Im have in it that sent it to be checked?

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[judyf]

With rereading my last post, I can tell how tired I was last night. Working on Belize now.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[judyf]

Belize: We arrive in Belize an hour later then scheduled. I guess this was due to leaving Cozumel so late. We still had to be back on the ship the same time in the afternoon, so we lost one hour in Belize. All the ship tours were a half hour later then scheduled. I had decided early on in my research that this was the one port we would do a Carnival excursion. After what happened yesterday I was glad that we booked with CCL today. Some of our tablemates, two couples cancelled their cave tubing tour with CCL due to what happened and they didn’t want any stress today. We decided to stick with our original plans.

Was up early and ready to go, grabbed a quick bagel or danish and we were off for our river/ruins adventure. There was no wait, we met at the designated time and went right to the tenders. These are fast tenders you dock 5 miles from Belize. It was so foggy that we couldn’t see our ship after only a few minutes. There was only one other ship in Belize that day, sitting in the fog I couldn’t tell which ship it was.

We arrive at the pier area we were quickly led into boats and were split into two groups. We were so lucky to get the river part of the tour first. Our tour guides were even saying it was hot this day.

Originally I wanted to do the cave tubing but I knew my mother wouldn’t do that, for a few reason, the walk, carrying the tube and being in the caves. My second choice was the River Wallace and Altun Ha Ruins tour. I’m so glad we went on this tour we had a blast.

The boats start down the river and we saw lots of wildlife on this tour. First we saw the manatees. I started to camcorder them but remember the fog I talked about it was too much for my camcorder. I even used the advice from the board and had it in a big zip lock back and I didn’t open it for a while. The good news is a little over half way down the river it did start back up. Last year it did the same thing first day of cruise but never came back on till we got back home, maybe the bag did help.

We also saw crocodiles a baby one and a large one, bats, howler monkeys, a blue heron bird, I think that’s what it was called in it’s nest we got real close it was great. A special treat we got to see were dolphins, our guide said they don’t usually see them. I think there was 4-6 of them swimming in pairs. Of course at this point my camcorder wasn’t working yet. Down the river from where we saw the crocodiles we saw children swimming in the river. Our guides said that they don’t remember an incident with a crocodile attaching a child. We saw lots of local homes along the river too. We were on the river for 2 ½ hours. Really enjoyed this part of the tour.

We get off the boat in a small area with a little shopping and we were able to purchase a chicken and rice meal for $5.00. I got just the rice and salad and it was good. I bought a really nice wood craved bowl for a gift also.

Then we got on a nice AC couch bus and drove I think 45 minutes to the ruins. The guides were very good and gave us lots of details on Belize. Gas in Belize is $4.00 per gal US money and most make $1.25 Belize money per hour, this is even for teachers, nurses, police and tour guides. We had about one hour I think at the ruins which was plenty of time. I climbed one of the ruins and it was a great feeling. Boy, was it hot up there.

Small shops are set up to shop at. Just a little tip here, at one shop they had the baskets from the National Handicraft Center in Belize, don’t buy them here. The same baskets they wanted $40.00 for I got for $25.00 at the center.

We got a drink before getting on the bus and learned more info on Belize from the guides and some relaxed and others like me enjoyed seeing the local countryside. We arrived back at the pier area about ½ hour before last tender.

We passed the National Handicraft Center on the way to the pier. I walked to the NHC while my mother waited at the pier, it was a few blocks away and it was hot. I made it there and back with a few minutes to spare. I got a total of four baskets two for me and two for gifts they are very nicely made.

Today was nothing like yesterday, there was water available at the pier area while waiting for the tenders. We got right on a tender that was waiting for us, what a difference from Cozumel.

This will be it for now. I will finish and post a summary and things I forgot when I return Sunday night.

Pics & everyone leaving this week. Have a great cruise!!!!! I can't wait to read your reviews.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[jennraycruise]

GREAT REVIEW JUDY. Thanks I really enjoyed reading this. Mt boyfriend and I will be on the Inspiration on 5/16 and I cant wait. Thanks for taking all the time to post this. It is greatly appreciated.... http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

INSPIRATION
5/16/04

[Donna&Pete]

hi judy... we were on the same cruise and found everything to be excellent as well. however, i must comment on the cozumel fiasco.

my family and i arrived at the dock at 4:15pm and waited in the hot sun for about 2 hours. this was after spending the entire day in the sun at chankanab. my son, 11, looked about to pass out, and apprarently not alone.

we did get onto the 2nd water taxi at about 6:15, and saw that 8 to 10 passengers had to be brought back on board the inspiration with wheelchairs. (i assume here heat related illness)

carnival did not handle this situation at all for the following reasons:

1. the problem was due to mechanical problems identified between 7-8am... they had all day to form a contingency plan. there was none.

2. when leaving and reboarding the inspiration, the sail and sign cards are passed through carnivals computers, so they know who and how many passengers are ashore and onboard at any time... they should have known and prepared for this as early as 3pm.

3. if the contingency for some reason could not include additional taxi vessels, then at 3pm carnival could have began to prepare for the safety and comfort of their passengers waiting on the dock by sending out a shade canopy for the sick or elderly, water and a doctor.

4. absolutely no communication was provided. things may not have gotten ugly if someone from the ship was at the dock explaining what was happening and what to expect. instead, we were just left out there! this is where i feel our cruise director, marichal, dropped the ball big time! he provided information on the ship and when things did not go as planned, it seems like he hid under the covers. if there was communications, we would have headed back out to the town and gotten a few beers, cokes, and a bite to eat in one of the many watering holes in cozumel and returned later in the afternoon.

5. the taxi that we got on headed back to the insiration about half full. i was told the passengers were limitted due to the number of life jackets on the vessel. now, where could thye have found more life jackets hiding on a cruise ship... hmmm. again, carnival jsut operated as if things were operating normally, no change in plan, no contigencies, no reaction to special circumstances. that is where they failed.

6. $25 per person was a nice touch ($100 bucks for my family), but they could have avoided that expense and bad feelings (did you see the riot in the atrium that evening?) if they had a plan of action.

now, i don't do this for a living, so i'd expect carnival to have better plans for special circumstances at sea or in port than i could imagine. so that make me wonder if it was lack of planning on carnival's part, or poor execution on the part of the captain and crew of the inspiration...

[Donna&Pete]

by the way, my boy was alright. got him into some shade on the water taxi and water on board the inspiration. he was back to normal in no time!

i don't want to put a sour note on the cruise in general, had the time of my life on board and in all ports. the restaurant staff, cabin stewards, wait staff, and even the casino dealers who took my money were ALL pleasant and courteous and deserved every cent of their gratuities.

i just warn those cruisers who may be concerned with how a ship and its crew would act under adverse conditions to beware and ask these questions before booking a cruise with carnival.

[carol TC]

Yes Donna and Pete I was also there but we where the last ones to board. Like you I blame the way carnival handled the whole situation. The 25 was nice but I don't think it was fair to all the people on the dock that day. Why should people who never got off ship get the 25. Thats just my opinion. I have called carnival and have a file for my complaints. We also had a great time otherwise.

[obnurse]

I just want to thank you, not only for your tireless review, but for letting CCL know that your Cozumel fiasco was awful. Perhaps you saved those of us future cruisers http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif some anguish. Thank you! We're sailing Inspiration July 11-18th and can't wait, especially after your review of the ship!! Thanks again, Judy! http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

kc

[judyf]

Finally the final installment.

Age Group & Children on the Cruise:

We cruised during spring break for a lot of the public schools, this is why I was able to get time off. I was surprised there weren’t more children on this cruise, I as expecting the worst from all I read. There were a lot of teenages,13 and up. We never had a problem. The age of the passengers was very diverse, all age groups were on this cruise and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Afternoon Tea & Galley Tour:

We went to the first afternoon tea; It was on Mon. our first day at sea. I was very disappointed with it and wouldn’t attend another one. This is just my opinion. The reasons we wouldn’t do it again are: We had to be ready by 3:00 pm so we watched the clock and got up from relaxing in the sun and we and were dressed nicely. This was a mistake we were the 2 most dressed there and I only had on a sundress and sandals and my mother had on a skirt and blouse. Most others were in shorts. We arrived about 5 minutes after three and was escorted to a table and it took the waiter quite awhile to bring us tea and then the little tea desserts weren’t good either. For us we just wouldn’t take the time to go again.
Galley tour we loved and would do that again. This tour was only offered once on Sat. our last day at sea. The tour was to be at 4pm and we were to meet in the Paris Lounge. We arrived about 5 minutes ahead of time only to find the 3pm bingo game wasn’t even half way done. We had to wait through 6 games of bingo before the galley tour began. Why they didn’t have us meet in the Candlelight Lounge instead, I don’t know. This put us a little behind cause we had a 5:00 to 5:45 pm Farewell & Appreciation Party that was added due to the confusion in Cozumel and early dinner at 6:15 pm. The Galley tour was worth the time and effort. It’s something to see how big it is and the way it’s all done. I wish they offered it more then once, there were a lot of passengers taking the tour but it was a quick walk through and didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

24 hour Pizza:

The pizza was really good but better yet were the calzones they were great!!! It takes about 8 minutes when you order them but well worth the wait. I had a few.

Hidden Spot:

We enjoyed the area just place the pizza place under the tail to just sit and relax and watch the sunset, the one evening we were able to catch the sunset. Nice and quiet and you can sit in the sun or the shade. There’s a spot on both sides.

Debarkation & Car Rental:

Debarkation went very smooth and we had no problems, we were off the ship by 10:00 am I think. We got our bags and then went to call the pick up number that was to given me by the car rental place. I didn’t need it. There were a lot of questions on the board about renting a car at the pier. I can tell you that it’s no problem at all. Most of the agencies had a shuttle van there waiting for you as you get off the ship. We hopped right on a van and we were off. I rented with Alamo pre-cruise and so we jumped on the Alamo shuttle and I realized as we were getting off that my post-cruise rental was with Hertz. No problem the driver takes us to the TPA airport where Hertz is. We tip the driver again for tacking us.

Disney:

We arrived at Disney about 1pm on Easter Sunday and we went right to the Magic Kingdom. We decided we would check into our hotel at the end of the day. It was not crowded at all as I had expected. We had a great time even in the rain that evening, then it really started to cool down. We left about 11 pm after the fireworks and decided not to stay for the night time parade we had both seen it many times and we wanted to find our hotel and check in. We stayed at the Holiday Inn by downtown Disney and it was nice.

One problem:

As we were getting things ready to drive back to Tampa in the morning, I realized my carry on bag I had when we left the pier was missing. This was a beach bag that had my camcorder with the charger my 35 mm camera, my 2 water cameras, my two memory cards to my 2 digital cameras and my jewelry box with a lot in it. At least I had both my digital cameras in my pocket book. I tracked it down to having it on the shuttle and thought I left it on the shuttle. I call Hertz and Alamo’s lost and found and nothing, neither had the number for the airport and the phonebook in Orlando didn’t list Tampa. I decided to just go to sleep, it was now about 1am and I had a hard time sleeping. In the morning I called both car rentals again and no one found it but this time someone had the TPA airport number. I called lost and found and someone did find it by the chairs where we sat our bags to rent the car. I was on cloud nine now. I was upset over losing the video and the pictures but I really think I was more upset over the lost of all my jewelry I’ve collected over the years. I travel a lot and never left a bag before I always pay attention. I’ve learned 2 valuable things, 1, slow down and really pay attention to your bags and 2, I will never bring so much jewelry again, I brought a set of each stone to match my dinner cloths next time I will just bring the opal to go with everything!!!!

I hope this report helps future Inspiration cruisers, as this board has helped me. I wanted to give something back for all the info I received from this board.

Any questions please feel free to ask away!

Happy Cruising!

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[doth]

Hey Sexyred & TDMS
I'll be on the same cruise as you too!
Can't wait!

[tdms1324]

hey doth...good to hear from you. There is a thread for our sailing over on the roll call boards.

I see you live in MD. I live in Northern Va.

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;1;25;16;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500
1/25/04 Inspiration
4/25/04 Inspiration Part II
http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;4;25;16;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500

[RhondaMo]

Judy, I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your jewelry and other assorted things. I know this must be heartbreaking. As you know we had lost Sarahs digital camera on the Inspiration back in February, but just had that returned to us by Carnival a few days ago. We were so happy and so blessed to received the camera bag with its entire contents back after thinking we were just going to have to write it off. I will keep you in my thoughts and hope that perhaps a miracle will take place and you will receive your missing items. On a more positive note, I'm glad your trip was wonderful and that your mother and you are back safe.

[judyf]

RhondaMo,

Im so glad to hear you found your camera. I was also lucky and the TPA airport had found my bag. That eveneing we were also thinking it was a lost. It thought me to pay much more attention.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[RhondaMo]

Judy, If I had read more closely I would have seen you had found your bags. Gee, I need to pay closer attention. We were both very lucky. Lets raise a glass of juice to our luck and blessings.

[bigtim10]

judy
I am so glad you had a good time. I will be posting my review soon. But just to let you know we had very rough seas and I was seasick most of the week.

Tina

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff0000&cdt=2004;4;11;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500
Inspiration 4/11

[judyf]

bigtim10, Tina,

Did I miss your review? I haven't seen any since I returned and I know there were many leaving on 4/11 and 4/18. I hope to see some of the reviews soon.

I read other ships had rough seas your week. I'm sorry to hear you were sick!!!! That's no fun. I'm sure you made the best of it. Did you take anything?

Can't wait to read your revierw of the Inspiration.

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[bigtim10]

Judy my review will be comeing soon. My boss is on vacation now so I am filling in for him so I have been very busy. I guess this is pay back for me takeing 2 weeks off for a 1 week cruise. LOL

Yes i took meds and Yes I made the best of it. We had a great time.

Tina

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff0000&cdt=2004;4;11;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500
Inspiration 4/11

[judyf]

Thanks Tina, I was looking for it and thought I might have missed it.

I know what you mean about work. It's been the same way for me since I've been back. I always say I don't know which week is worst the week before vacation gettting everything set up or the week returning and catching up on everything. LOL

Judy
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[judyf]

Tina,

Did I miss your report???? I've been checking whenever I can.

Also thought I would bump the review for all the future Inspiration cruisers I've been seeing.

Judy
RCCL Voyager 5/21-5/30/04
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
DCL Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
DCL Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
CCL Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01