New to Carnival (insipiration) what not to miss?

[luv2sleep]

I am sailing on the Inspiration this summer for 4 nights. It will be me and my 7 year old son. This will be my first Carnival cruise. The ship goes to Catalina and Ensenada. I haven't signed up for anything yet. I've only cruised Disney so I have no idea how things work with Carnival.

 

What shouldn't we miss?

 

What's fun for 7 year olds to do on the ship besides the kids club and the pool?

 

What adult daytime activities shouldn't I miss?

 

What excursions would you recommend?

 

What's the kid's club process? Do I get a pager or anything? Is the kids club open all day even while in port? Do I sign him up at check in at port?

 

If anyone has parked at the port in Long Beach, how much is parking and is parking there and getting to check in an easy process? How early should we arrive?

 

Will we get a dining time assigned?

 

I haven't found the Carnival site very easy to navigate as a first timer so forgive all of my questions.

 

Thank you in advance. :)

Edited June 7, 2014 by luv2sleep

[Shmoo here]

I am sailing on the Inspiration this summer for 4 nights. It will be me and my 7 year old son. This will be my first Carnival cruise. The ship goes to Catalina and Ensenada. I haven't signed up for anything yet. I've only cruised Disney so I have no idea how things work with Carnival.

 

What shouldn't we miss?

 

What's fun for 7 year olds to do on the ship besides the kids club and the pool?

 

What adult daytime activities shouldn't I miss?

 

What excursions would you recommend?

 

What's the kid's club process? Do I get a pager or anything? Is the kids club open all day even while in port? Do I sign him up at check in at port?

 

If anyone has parked at the port in Long Beach, how much is parking and is parking there and getting to check in an easy process? How early should we arrive?

 

Will we get a dining time assigned?

 

I haven't found the Carnival site very easy to navigate as a first timer so forgive all of my questions.

 

Thank you in advance. :)

 

 

Hi, there!

 

We did the Inspiration in Feb (our first Carnival cruise) because we couldn't pass up the price.

 

I can't help with kid's questions (club or what to do), but I can answer some of the others (from a DCL point of view :D)

 

Something not to miss - the Behind the Fun Tour. It's offered on the last (sea) day (at least on the 4 night cruise, don't know about the 3 night). Minimum age for that is 8. It costs $55.00 each and we felt it was totally worth it. You see quite a bit of the lower decks/crew areas, as well as the backstage area and a trip to the bridge for a Q&A with the captain. We would so do it again.

 

They have a DJ in the pool area in the daytime (the noise/music level can be deafening, and you can't hold conversations with anyone when there's anything going on - like the hairy chest contest). There is miniature golf on the forward part of the ship one deck up from the pool, we did that.

 

Another thing, there are about a million photo ops everywhere onboard, as well as when you get off the ship, so we took the opportunity to have our picture taken a million times. It doesn't cost anything to have the picture taken, but the price is around $20 for each one. I think there are packages available, but we only wanted one good picture and we thought with that many being taken, we get a good one. Well, we bought 3. :)

 

We had assigned (late) dining as the early dining was full (well, be booked 4 days prior to cruise). The assigned seatings were in the Carnivale dining room. There is also anytime dining (or whatever it's called), where you go anytime during the specified hours. This is in the Mardi Gras dining room.

 

Getting into the parking is real easy, just be sure to stay to the right after exiting the freeway and then get to the left to go around the building to the entrance. We were able to park fairly close to the parking structure exit to the terminal building. We arrived around 12:30 and, really, just walked right through checkin an onto the ship.

 

I don't remember the daily cost for the parking, but for our 4 night cruise we paid $68.00.

 

Another thing, I don't really know why, but we were assigned to the last group for debarking, so we just carried our bags off. We met in the showroom (speaking of which the stage there is huge!) and were called to debark after the Faster To The Fun group (they pay for such perks).

 

As for the shows, don't know if they are still the same, but probably are, they are really sort of Vegas review type shows. Where they put a bunch of songs together to create sort of a storyline. We kind of liked the first show (actually it ran twice on the cruise called "Playlist Productions presents: Motor City". The second show (similar premise) wasn't as good, IMO. And they do a Hasbro the Game Show the other nights. Kids seemed to like that one, as they select people from the audience for participation and they can win prizes.

 

As to the Carnival website, yeah, it's almost at challenging as the DCL website can be on occasion. But, if you keep hitting it enough, you can figure out what you need to do.

 

 

Sorry, I can't help with excursions, as we just got off and walked around a little before reboarding the ship.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Shmoo here

[Ronie_Ver]

Catalina is small but very beautiful. We did the eco zip lining tour and it was a BLAST. It's really fun for all ages. The food is great in Catalina. If you're into seafood try this place called "Lobster Shack"???Something like that.

[SoCalKJ]

It's a small port (DH and I actually live in So Cal and made a day of it last year just to get away). There are a few really fun things that you and your child can enjoy together...and these aren't things you have to book through Carnival.

 

First thing is the little golf cart rental - it's, if memory serves, like less than $50for an hour or so and it comes with a map and you pretty much just drive around the island and check out the sights.

 

Second fun thing is the arcade on the other end of the main drag...on the way to the old casino (that'll be probably more fun for your child...LOL!), but DH and I actually got into one of those goofy booths where you sing along to whatever song we picked and our heads are morphed onto the dancing bodies and then we got the DVD as a souvenir. Way hilarious (since we picked "Single Ladies")!

 

Next is the Underwater Submarine tour - pretty quick tour and lots of fun! You go under and get to see all the fish/water life from a good sized submarine. You can even purchase food pellets to feed the huge swarms of fish that you're sure to see. http://www.catalinaadventuretours.com/tours/ocean-excursions/semi-submarine-the-nautilus DH and I got tickets from Groupon, but it's still something that's reasonably priced.

 

None of these, as I mentioned, are things that are required to be booked onboard.

 

Hope this helps. :)

[SadieN]

This Arcade in Avalon is fun. We bowled and had really good, thin crust pizza.

We almost always mail taffy from Lloyd's. Post Office is across the street.

 

In Ensenada the Wine Tour is nice. The Bufadora is a one time thing to see.

We always eat onshore. Taqueria Lindo or Guadalajara.

 

Parking at port is $17/24hour period.

Look on the West Coast departure and Mexican Riviera boards for more info.

 

Look on the