Back from inspiration Oct 29th sailing

Ok so we are now officially addicted to cruising! We had such a wonderful time aboard the Inspiration! Here is a little bit about our vacation.....

We stayed the night at the Wyhndam Westshore. It is a nice place considering we only paid $50 for the night. They do not serve a free breakfast but a $13 breakfast is served! Yikes! So we headed down the road past the mall, towards an airport and found an IHOP to eat at. After this we stopped at Sports Authority to purchase a few things such as water shoes and lanyards. Finally we headed out towards the port. The bellman at the hotel provided us with directions as well as a map. We arrived at the port and chose to do Valet parking for $80 instead of parking ourselves and paying $70 (parking is $14 a day now). The porters were quite entertaining to watch/listen to as some argued about who got what car. Thanks to posts on here we chose to keep 1 suitcase with us as well as dh's mess dress (it was too costly to take a chance with). It was a good thing because our luggage did not show up till after our dinner that evening. Embarkation was a breeze and we didn't get there till 1pm. I think it took us 10-20 minutes total.

We arrived in our room, put down our stuff we carried on, and headed up to the Lido deck to eat. The ship was a bit late in doing the muster drill as well as sailing so this put a rush on getting ready for our 5:45 dinner. During this time I met our room steward, Wency, and requested the beds be put together. I also told him we had left a little something on the bed for him. This was $10, 2 moon pies, and some candy sticks from cracker barrel. Within 2 hours our beds were together and room reorganized. Dinner was wonderful! Our servers were Gunadita from Indonisia and Konstatine from Bulgaria. Dh had been to Bulgaria for 3 weeks earlier this year so it made for a wonderful time of sharing. Gunadita saw me starting to cut my daughter's food and said "no let me...you eat". The rest the cruise when he would serve her food he would start to cut it and feed her bites. She loved this spoiling!!!!

Our first full day at sea was overcast. We spent quite a bit of time by the pool, enjoyed some of the activities, took pictures, etc. That night was formal night. The wind and waves picked up quite a bit. At one point during dinner, while the servers were singing a song in Italian to all of us, the ship lurched a few times. Everyone kinda grabbed onto their tables and gasped. Konstatine even had some food spilled onto his clothing because of it. We had quite a few formal night pictures taken. Pictures are $20 for an 8x10....also if you want just wallets you HAVE to buy the 8x10 as well. I did put on my comment card that pictures are over priced in my opinion.

Our 2nd full day was Halloween and spent in the Grand Caymans. We woke up very early to find it pouring down rain. The ship cancelled their tours but because of reading this board we had booked a private one via Capt Marvin. We tendered, arrived at Capt. Marvins, and was told that since the water was pretty calm they would be doing the tour. Woo HOo! The others that were to show for the tour never did so we had a very private tour. So much so that we decided to buy the DVD of it for $55. Oh, we did not know this but we could have used our credit card to buy this and it would have gone through as a US purchase because the film companies main office is in the US. The water was pretty murky inside the bay so they took us to the outer part of the reef. It was sooooo beautiful! Then we went to the sandbar and fed the stingrays. By this time the waves had picked up so we were only there for 30 minutes. All in all our tour lasted 3 hours and was wonderful. Halloween on the ship was fun. My 10 year old dressed up and participated in the camp carnival candy hunt. She and her friends stayed for awhile and danced then wanted to go trick or treating. Some of the rooms onboard were passing out candy. So they went door to door wishing everyone Happy Halloween. For the most part people were happy to see them and thought it was cute that they were "trick or treating" on the ship.The adult party was amazing! There were tons of people in costume. Many of the workers were even dressed up.

Our 3rd full day we went to Costa Maya. The ship was late getting into port :-( Again because of this board we booked a private tour. Once again we were the only ones that showed up. Davide was a wonderful guide. Our daughter had watched a scooby doo cartoon about Chupacapra (yes it's mispelled) so asked him about it. He was shocked that a 10 yr old would know about this. He took quite a bit of time explaining the religious history to us....very facinating and complex. I would recommend using www.chacchobenruins.com for a tour in Costa Maya. They did a wonderful job!

Our last full day at sea was wonderful, sunny, hot but not too hot, etc. We laid out, listened to calypso music by the pool, etc. We were not even close to being ready to get off the ship.

When it was time to leave we were quite sad. We had such a wonderful time onboard! A few things..... 1) the ATM on the ship very seldom works so bring more money than you think you'll ever need. 2) don't give up when it comes to "wheeling/dealing" in Mexico....check prices before you buy because a few things we bought we found cheaper on down the way. 3) Try the Mango Cream it is wonderful! 4) we did not use our bubba mugs at all but I'm guessing that's because it was not super hot. 5) the over the door shoe holder comes in handy...take one with you. Bring an extra bag/suitcase for souviners but carry them off with you if any are breakable. 6) use the stairs to help burn off all the food your eating. hehehe Have fun!

Thanks so much for sharing your review:) My Sister and I will be on the 12/5 sailing on the Inspiration. Saw on here where a couple of people were posting about it being very cold on the ship....was this your experience also?

Some areas were chilly. It's wise to bring a wrap of some sort especially to wear of an evening. I was also shocked at how windy it was at night up on the outside decks. No wearing high heals out there because you'll get knocked around. Have a great time!

Thanks for taking the time to post your review!!:) Sounds like you had a great time!!