Inspiration 3 Day to Ensenada Review

[CoffeeGoddess]

Last weekend (10/19) we took our first cruise ever. We were on the Carnival Inspiration on it's three day tour to Ensenada, Mexico. First off, despite quite a few reviews about stumbling drunken passengers on a three day "booze cruise" we only ran into a few. Most everyone else was perfectly fine even while drinking. There were also only a very few children and the ones we saw were relatively well behaved.

 

I had booked us in a grand suite but got an email from Carnival with an offer for one of their two owner suites. Since it was our 10th anniversary that weekend, I decided to take it. The suite was on deck 12 and overlooking the pool. There's a youtube video out there already that shows all the suite so I'll skip the pictures of it. The suite has seen some wear and there were some stains on the carpet but otherwise it was nice.

 

One of the downsides of the suite was the noise from the deck above which had deck chairs and the jogging track. The other was the noise at night from the atrium that came right through the suite door into the living area. However, you couldn't hear the atrium noise in the bedroom at all.

 

The hotel manager sent us up a nice fruit basket with a cake and bottle of champagne, which was a really nice touch and I've attached a picture.

 

I wrote a review for the port in the review sections of the website so I'll skip that here unless anyone has any questions. The sea on our sea day was a bit rough and the sky was overcast so there wasn't too much activity out at the pool. We could hear some of it in the room but it was very muffled. You could feel the ship rocking back and forth though but neither my husband nor I actually felt sick from it.

 

The food in both the MDR and the buffet was standard fare with nothing to really write home about. I did enjoy the goat cheese, onion, and mushroom pizza though. Our best meal was in Ensenada at Mangos which is part of Pappas and Beer. While the coffee on the ship wasn't horrible, the Americano's from the little cafe were better. The drinks were fine and the cost for them was in line with what you would pay at a bar here in Vegas. I did look at the shops and the art gallery but didn't find anything I really wanted. The sales people at the art gallery really try a hard sell on you if you appear to be interested in anything. I was pretty turned off by that and wound up walking out of the auction before it even started.

 

My husband only went out once to look at the ship but I went around the ship several times. I did not take in any of the shows or participate in any of the events, except a couple of games of bingo. Living in Vegas the casino was not a draw for me but it seemed decent. I did wind up wishing the ship was bigger since I did enjoy exploring it.

 

All in all it was a nice vacation for our anniversary. We definitely plan to cruise again, but will most likely try another cruise line next time.

[ccruisequeen]

Curious about the drink coupons and where/how they could be used, since I assume there's no comedy brunch.

 

Also, are there any new Funtimes you can share? We're leaving in 3 weeks!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[CoffeeGoddess]

We didn't get any drink coupons so I can't answer that one. I also forgot my funtimes to scan but I can say they were very close to the ones that are in this link from another thread: http://johnhealdsblog.com/funtimes/2012-02-15/Carnival%20Inspiration%203%20day/

 

I also forgot my iPod and some prescription meds in the safe. I did alert Carnival about them so we'll see if I get them back. I'm not holding out for the meds, though to be honest.

[CanWeGoYet?]

Darn, I hope you have a nice surprise & get the things back that were in your safe.

 

You might want to consider a 7 day cruise on one of the other class Carnival ships. I think it's a different experience to be on a longer cruise on say the Liberty or one of the Spirit Class ships. I even thought the food was a little better.