Our Inspiration cruise on November 27, 2017

This was our first cruise on the Inspiration. We have been on a couple of other Carnival cruises, one on Royal, but mostly NCL. I would say that we like both Carnival and NCL about equally.

Embarkation was very fast and easy, we were on the ship by 11:30 am. Unfortunately I always have bad luck with getting things past security that should be fine going through security. First, the lady made me throw away a completely empty water bottle. Not a big deal but I had planned on filling it with water (of course the proper way, as not to contaminate) and carry it with me since I am on a medication that requires me to drink a lot of water. Then she tried to take away a very small, 3 plug power strip, still in the box on purpose, since it said clearly on the box "No Surge Protection", as well as a small 4 port USB charger. She finally let me through with them after some...discussion. I thought this was funny because I had asked on a thread before the cruise about what charging devices I should take and was told to put them in my carry on since I have had some of the same things confiscated in my checked luggage.

We did get Faster to the Fun, but since we had upgraded to a junior suite, I only kept it for the quicker luggage delivery. Unfortunately, we still didn't get our luggage until about 3 pm. Oh well, what can you do. Faster to the Fun did also come in handy when we had to go to customer service a couple of times. It did make a few people pretty mad in the other line though. The second time we went, a guy from the other line did step in front of me saying "the line starts back there" but I didn't think it was worth an argument, and the customer service person didn't say anything to him, so I let it go.

This was our first time to get a junior suite, since we usually do balconies. But on this ship, regular balcony cabins are junior suites. About the same size as a regular balcony, with the exception of the size of the balcony. It was quite small. You have to sit sideways to relax in the chair. If you turn it forward, you have no room for your legs. I researched this a lot before cruising, so not a surprise. I am not sure why they don't just put smaller chairs on these balconies.

The crew on this ship was awesome! Everyone was very friendly. Our cabin steward, Juddy, was extremely good. She never asked us if we wanted morning or evening service, she just gave us both. The two comedians on board were very good, and the Christmas show was good. The one thing I will say is the seating in the Paris Lounge where the shows are done is, in my opinion, very poor for viewing the stage. Unless you are seated down in the lower front seating, it is hard to see anything. So go early to try to sit up in straight seats in the front. The curved seating, especially on the second level, is not good.

I know food is subjective, so I won't go into that, other than to say I ate way too much! And I did order what was suppose to be the fastest WiFi. It never worked, that was a bit disappointing. The ship was decorated for Christmas, so it was beautiful. Lots of Christmas activities going on. We sang Christmas carols in the atrium, plus they made it snow. It was very nice.

We ended up just walking around Catalina Island. We were going to rent a golf cart, but by the time we got there, they didn't have any 4 person ones left. If you want one, I would get there early. We took the ship's 2 hour open top bus tour of Ensendada. I'm not sure why we took it and we wouldn't do that again. Nothing really to see and they park and let you shop for an hour. We had been there many times before and there is nothing we wanted to buy. We should have just stayed on the ship.

Since this was our first four day cruise, we got to experience the "booze cruise" environment. We don't drink a lot. I had a couple of margaritas during the whole cruise. Let me say that I am a people watcher, and there were a lot of interesting people to watch on this cruise, and we laughed a lot. The one thing that bothered me was that while walking by the pool one evening, it was quite late and there were 2 kids in the pool. One looked to be around 6 to 7 years old, and the other maybe 11 or 12? The younger one did have a life jacket on, but there were no adults by the pool. The pool area was empty. The only people that were somewhat near the pool were a group of about 5 or 6 sitting at one of the tables by the bar. The table was facing the pool but none of the adults ever looked at the pool to check on the kids. I know this because we watched for quite a while because we were worried about the kids. I don't even know if they were the parents. I have read too many stories on here about children drowning on ships. Thankfully while we were watching, the kids got out of the pool.

Disembarkation was a breeze. We just walked off when our luggage was ready. A short wait to go through customs, no more customs forms to fill out, and we were on our way home. We had a great time. We are one of the "there is never a bad cruise" type people. We would do it again because any cruise is better than no cruise!

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the feedback.

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Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on your cruise. I am happy to hear you had a good time even with a couple of hiccups.

Happy sailing.

Thanks for your review. We are taking this cruise in May. We love short cruises and everyone seems to have a good time onboard!

Thanks for the review. I agree that some parents should be much more careful of their children. Did the woman at security who took your bottle and nearly kept your power strip have long brown hair? My husband brought wine and I swear she was going to open that wine just to make sure it wasn't whiskey!

Fyree39, she had brown hair that was a little longer than shoulder length. She acted like my empty water bottle was a federal offense! LOL!

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for your review. We were on this cruise also. Did you have any issues in the main dining room? We were anytime dining and ate dinner in there 3 nights. One night our service was really bad, another night it was mediocre and one night was excellent. All different servers. We had a party of eight and many of us felt that the servers seemed off. Not as high energy and happy. They seemed very tired. Wondering if some were not feeling well or something. Also, there was some issues with some of the food. A couple of us got sick after eating in there on the last night.

We went with a grand suite this time as we had heard that the junior suite balconies are very small. We normally book balcony cabins, but as you said they don't have regular balcony cabins on this ship class.

The Paris showroom was packed. I ended up standing in the rear lower level. Our Grandson was in the show. I wish I would have gone in there earlier when the bingo was still going on and grabbed a seat close to the stage. The show was beautiful though.

Appreciate the feedback.

Thanks for your review. We were on this cruise also. Did you have any issues in the main dining room? We were anytime dining and ate dinner in there 3 nights. One night our service was really bad, another night it was mediocre and one night was excellent. All different servers. We had a party of eight and many of us felt that the servers seemed off. Not as high energy and happy. They seemed very tired. Wondering if some were not feeling well or something. Also, there was some issues with some of the food. A couple of us got sick after eating in there on the last night.

 

We went with a grand suite this time as we had heard that the junior suite balconies are very small. We normally book balcony cabins, but as you said they don't have regular balcony cabins on this ship class.

 

The Paris showroom was packed. I ended up standing in the rear lower level. Our Grandson was in the show. I wish I would have gone in there earlier when the bingo was still going on and grabbed a seat close to the stage. The show was beautiful though.

We had anytime dining also and ate in the main dining room every night. We had great service, with the exception of the last night, but the food was a little disappointing. The pork was dry, a steak was tough, melting cake was overcooked, not melting in the middle, things like that. On the last night they forgot one of the appetizers. Then we sent a meal back due to being too tough and didn't get the new one until everyone was done with their meals. On the last night, everyone seamed stressed. We poured our own water, no big deal, ran out of water, and no one seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing.

The show was beautiful. I wish we could have seen it better. We started out looking for seating on the lower level. We had one of those curved benches, but while seated, you can't see. We ended up standing up in the rear of the upper level. Strange seating with the curved benches.

I enjoyed reading your report and glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Keith

I think security is a port issue and not necessarily a Carnival issue but it sucks at Long Beach. I had the same problem with a completely empty water bottle.

Roy