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I got to judge the hairy chest contest! Inspiration review: 2/26/11.


gapearl

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Sorry, but I’m going to make you wait for that part of my review. :p Now that I’ve got your attention, you might as well keep reading anyways. Warning: it's gonna be long!

 

Traveling on this sailing were myself, 30, and, well that’s it, just me. This was my 5th cruise, all on Carnival, and my third time cruising solo. My last cruise was just 5 months ago on the Imagination. This will likely be my last solo Carnival cruise thanks to their recent 200% solo supplement. My 6 day cruise on the Freedom a year and a half ago, including cruise fare, taxes, port charges, and gratuities, was cheaper than the cruise fare alone for this 5 day cruise! :eek: Also my next few cruises will include family on one and friends on the others. If I do cruise solo again in the future, it will likely be on Royal Caribbean. I hear they’re giving solos much better deals than Carnival.

 

THE DAY BEFORE

 

I flew down on Friday morning, 2/25. I named my own price and scored a room at the Doubletree Westshore for $55, totaling $69 with taxes. The rooms here go for over $100, so I got a good deal. They have a free airport shuttle for guests. I made it to the hotel around 11 am. I was hoping to get early check in, but they were full the night before and no rooms were ready. They held my bags in a luggage room and I spent the afternoon at the Westshore Plaza. It’s only a 10 minute walk but the shuttle will drive you. I had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then saw Just Go With It, the new Jennifer Aniston & Adam Sandler movie. Funny! I wandered the mall for a while to find some shoes to go with my dress for formal night. That took a while! I finally left the mall around 4:30 pm. My room was ready upon my return, and so was a warm chocolate chip Doubletree cookie. This is what Doubletree is famous for. If you're nice, they'll give you 2!

 

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The Westshore area in general is a very nice area. It’s only a 5 minute drive from the airport. There's a sports bar with reasonably priced food. Other area restaurants include Charlie’s Steakhouse, Waffle House, Chipotle, Taco Bell, Subway, and P.F. Changs and Maggiano’s in the mall. Walgreens is right by the mall too. The Doubetree has free parking, free internet in the lobby (you have to pay in your room), a gift shop, business center, outdoor pool, and a nice gym. They offer round trip shuttle service to the Port of Tampa for $20, which I took advantage of. You do need to sign up the day before.

 

I had dinner at the Doubletree's Players Sports Bar and watched some tv before bed. Big day tomorrow!

 

Up next: Embarkation.

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DAY 1/EMBARKATION

 

I woke up early and looked out my window to a beautiful, sunny Tampa day, perfect day to take a cruise! I headed to the gym and got in a quick workout. I scheduled a shuttle for 12 noon and was at the port by 12:15 pm. This is the first cruise where I carried on my luggage. I brought on a bottle of wine and bottle opener with no problem. I made an attempt to smuggle some Bailey’s Irish Crème in a Nesquick chocolate milk container. It’s worked for my last 3 cruises, but not this time! They made me throw it away because it was a container that had been opened. Oh well…..

 

The lines were short and moved pretty fast. I was on the ship by 12:40 pm. The first thing I noticed while in line and immediately boarding the ship was that this sailing had a much older crowd. I would say about 75-80% of the cruisers were well above retirement age. Please, no flaming about the age comment. I just wanted to get my point across about the demographics of those on board. :)

 

I went straight to the shore excursion desk and booked the behind the fun tour and an excursion for Cozumel, then headed up to the lido for lunch. I already knew the layout of the ship since I was just on one of Inspiration's sister ships, so there was no need to do any exploring. Today’s lido lunch theme was Italian. I shared a table with 4 other ladies from Canada. It was the first cruise for some of them. They were considering doing the hell/stingray/turtle farm excursion in Grand Cayman. I did that tour on my Freedom cruise in 2009, so I pulled out my iphone, logged on to my facebook page, and showed them the pictures. I hope I convinced them to do it!

 

The pool and hot tubs were already open. I’ve never seen that on day 1. Two weddings were taking place. I went to the maitre’d to check on my dinner table and see who I would be dining with. He told me I was seated at a 10 top and the age range of my tablemates was 26-45. Cool!

 

The first announcement for the safety drill was around 3:15 and we were done by 3:45. The sail away party started at 4:30. The fun patrol led us in the electric slide, cha cha slide, and YMCA. The Caribbean duo, Innocence, gave us some relaxing music. The keyboard player, Marcus, and I met on my very first cruise in 2007. The other musician played a set of steel drums and was really good. I sat out and people watched for a little while and had a grilled chicken sandwich to tie me over until dinner.

 

We went under the Tampa Sunshine Skyway Bridge right at about 6:30. It’s a good idea to get outside around 6:10 or 6:15. Stephanie, the cruise director, made an announcement for everyone to get their cameras and head outside if they wanted pictures.

 

 

There it is.....

 

 

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Getting closer.....

 

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Even closer.....

 

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We made it with only 6 feet to spare!

 

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There's the bridge behind us. Out to sea we go!

 

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Woohoo! Looking forward to your review. It will be cool to see our cruise through someone else's eyes.

 

Yes indeed! I enjoyed your Inspiration review! I was like why didn't I go to the trivia and quest too?

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Great start! I cannot wait til I get to see that bridge in September!

 

Thanks! I saw all the other reviews from people going under the bridge. I'm glad I got to experience it too.

 

Oh wow...you are at it again:D. Looking forward to this one.

 

Yes, I'm at it again. This one will be better than the last one. :p

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My room was a 1A, E-187. The location was similar to the one on my last cruise. I love the empress deck (deck 7). It’s the deck used for embarkation and debarkation. I was towards the back, right by the elevator and stairs. It was one deck up to the dining room and 2 decks up to all the lounges. There was one twin bed and one upper. The advantage to traveling solo is having all the closet space to yourself!

 

 

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Bathroom is on the left, closet is on the right.

 

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As always, I packed way too much!

 

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More to come later tonight......

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Great review so far!! I think in Jan/Feb the age demographics is a bit higher like you mentioned but in March/April (spring break months) and summer you get a lower age demographic.

 

Thanks! I actually heard firsthand from some staff that this particular sailing always has an older crowd. Maybe it's because that area of FL has a lot of retirees and you have a lot more locals on board? I don't know. I don't really want to cruise during spring break. My observation from past cruises is that cruising from MIA and FLL, you get a much more mixed crowd.

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I was on this cruise!!

 

I thought the girl who judged the hairy chest contest said she was a braider?

 

I love all your shoes btw!! I was reading your imagination review right before this cruise and was thinking that girl sure knows how to have fun!

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Glad to see a solo cruiser review Gapearl!

I agree with you on Carnival solo pricing (I'm not going to beat on that thread right now!), I want to sail again in 2012 and will have to sail with others to get a great price.

I sailed on the Miracle during the same route that the Inspiration is doing a few years back. Met a great bunch of people on board. I often joke that it was on that Carnival cruise where I was the "baby" at my table (all solo cruisers) in my mid 30's.

I also enjoyed sailing under the bridge! Even though each week the ship clears it, sailing under it is amazing!

Will check back for more, don't leave us hanging!!!

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That is sooooo funny. Every solo cruise I have done on the Fantasy class has been in cabin E-187. Imagination and now the Fascination coming up:D

 

It's a great cabin. If you decide to book it on the Inspiration too, I left it in good shape for you. :)

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I definitely noticed that this sailing had an older crowd.

 

Love the pictures you took of the bridge. They look very similar to mine. Where did you stand to watch?

 

I think lots of people noticed this was an older crowd. I'll be touching on that later. I was up on the sports deck by the running track and miniature golf areas in the very front when I got the pictures of the bridge. I wanted to find one of the secret decks, but didn't have time to wander and try to find them.

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I was on this cruise!!

 

I thought the girl who judged the hairy chest contest said she was a braider?

 

I love all your shoes btw!! I was reading your imagination review right before this cruise and was thinking that girl sure knows how to have fun!

 

I just realized the mixed dates! You wrote inspiration and I read imagination!! LOL

 

Thanks for the shoe compliment! I'm a total shoe diva!!! :D

 

I hope you had as much fun as I did on the Imagination. Anyone on a cruise with me will have no choice but to have fun. BTW, your kids are adorable!

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Glad to see a solo cruiser review Gapearl!

I agree with you on Carnival solo pricing (I'm not going to beat on that thread right now!), I want to sail again in 2012 and will have to sail with others to get a great price.

I sailed on the Miracle during the same route that the Inspiration is doing a few years back. Met a great bunch of people on board. I often joke that it was on that Carnival cruise where I was the "baby" at my table (all solo cruisers) in my mid 30's.

I also enjoyed sailing under the bridge! Even though each week the ship clears it, sailing under it is amazing!

Will check back for more, don't leave us hanging!!!

 

Hey diva! I think all of us solo cruisers have vented at some point about the solo pricing. Simply put, it stinks! :mad: I'm cool with sailing with others. I know way too many people to bring along and paying the supplement just isn't worth it. Don't worry, more will be coming soon!

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