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Inspiration review 04-04-04

judyf

By judyf,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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judyf

judyf

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CCL Inspiration 7 day Cruise from Tampa 04/04/04 to 04/11/04 to

Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Belize.

Mother & Daughter annual spring break cruise.

 

Flight & Precruise

 

We flew on Southeast from Newburgh, NY to St. Petersburg, Fl on Friday evening 4/2. We had all day Sat. to enjoy the area and relax before our cruise. It was an uneventful flight except the 2 hour plus wait in lines to board the plane. We arrived at the airport at 6 p.m. and never boarded the plane till about 8:30 p.m. for a 7:50 p.m. flight. This was the beginning of many lines to wait in for us.

 

We arrived about a half hour later then scheduled. Went right to Alamo car rental counter and I got the paperwork done, got our bags and we were off to find our hotel. We stayed at the Candlewood Suites and it was very clean and nice. I booked this hotel on Priceline.

 

We got up fairly early for arriving so late but we were too excited to sleep anyway. We changed our original plans a little cause we didn’t get up as early as we had hoped too and I wasn’t sure how bad the traffic might be. We had a full day booked.

 

First we drove to St. Petersburg Pier, it was nice but not too much there. There’s a nice place to eat there but we were there too early for that. Next we drove to Tampa to go to the Big Cats Rescue www.bigcatrescue.org this was a must do for me. They only have tours at 9:30, 11:30 and 1:30 on Saturdays. We arrived in time for the 1:30 p.m. tour. The cost was $20.00 pp for a little over 90 minutes. It was great!!!! I would go again and I plan to someday and take the full day tour where you get to go in the cages with the cats. Now we are off to our last designation of the day, John’s Pass and Madeira Beach. This is a nice location to visit. There was plenty to do, shop, jet skis, swim and boat rides and tours. We eat at Shully’s or something like that. It was really good. We got to see the sunset on the beach. We had a nice relaxing time there. It was too chilly to swim on Sat. 4/3 but we didn’t want to swim just to be on the beach, relax and see the beautiful sunset was great.

 

We drove back over to Tampa to check in our hotel and drop off the car. On my way we stopped at a liquor store and I got some Captain Morgan spiced rum to pack. First we went to Homestead Suites and unloaded all our bags. Again I booked this hotel with Priceline. Then we drove to the airport to d/o the car. Well, Alamo never told me that the d/o location wasn’t at the Tampa airport. We were giving directions to the off site location, they were a little confusing. As we pulled out I saw an Alamo shuttle and followed the van to the Alamo center. We got a cab to Homestead Suites, had a little hard time, as the first 2 cab drivers said they didn’t know where that hotel was. Our driver was great and explained why the first 2 drivers wouldn’t take us is cause they want the larger fares. We tipped him well and he gave us his number to call him and we would be his first pick up in the morning. This was about 11:30-12:00 midnight.

 

Embarkation:

 

We set our clocks one hour ahead as this was the day to do it, Sat. 4/3. Of course we couldn’t sleep, we were too excited about going on the cruise in the morning. We fixed and repacked our bags to get on the cruise and set our clocks for 9:00 a.m. The alarm went off but I was already awake, we were up showered and ready to go. We called the cab driver from last night as he suggested we did but we got an answering machine. I think he was up to late to get up and pick us up by 10:30 a.m.. We called the number of the company on the card he had given us and a cab was there to get us at 10:30 a.m. We arrived at the pier by 11:30 a.m, a porter took our bags and said to go up the escalator. We had planned to go to the Aquarium, but when he told us to go up and the cruise people were there waving us on so we thought let’s go they must be letting people on early. This was a wrong decision! We were only escorted to a waiting area. We should have walked back out and went to the Aquarium but we didn’t. It’s a nice area lots of chairs and AC, it fact the AC was so good a few of us were chilly. We didn’t get to enter the ship till 1:30 p.m. we were in the first group and we were one of the first on and by this time we headed straight for the food cause we had skipped breakfast. I realized later on that we were most likely late getting on the ship due to the time change.

 

More to follow tomorrow as I'm too tired to type any more tonight.

 

Judy

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

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pazooter

pazooter

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So far, so good. Waiting to see how you enjoyed the ship, Judy. Looking forward to your continued review. Cathy

 

bandc.gif

 

 

countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=2211ff&cdt=2004;06;27;11;00;00&timezone=GMT-0600

 

Until our **STAR** search

Seattle to Alaska on NCL Star

June 27, 2004

 

Fantasy 12/25/03

Inspiration 4/13/03

NCL Majesty 12/27/02

Jubilee 3/23/02

Norwegian Sea 11/23/01

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judyf

judyf

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Sunday First Day:

 

As we ate lunch we met staff member Klandia in the Brasserie Bar $ Grill the Purple room. She was the first CCL staff we encounter and she was great, helpful and very nice. We found out this evening that she was also one of our wait staff. One hit here for first timers, when you go to eat lunch for the first time there's a section with hamburgers and hotdogs if you walk past that into the dining area there's more choices. Many of the passengers didn't know this and stopped at the grill area by the pool and thought that's all there was.

 

After lunch we went to find our cabin. To our surprise we were upgraded from a 4A inside guarantee to cabin number U-4 that was on the 6th floor, forward outside with 2 potholes, second in from the front. It was really great no hallway noise. The downside if you want to call it that, was you didn't need an alarm clock on port days the anchor being lowered woke us up. It was no big deal, we were very happy. I will do the guarantee booking again. The room was plenty large enough for the 2 of us. Bathrobes were hanging in the closet for our use. My mother liked it so much she ended up buying one for I think $39.00. I can’t say enough on how nice our room stewards were and how much we enjoyed our cabin and it’s location, the cabins are set up to make it easy to get around with plenty of room.

 

Next we went to meet other CC’s by the pizza area, said a quick hello and then everyone was on their way. We only ran into one couple after that first meet a few times during the cruise. We stayed in this area to watch the sail away and met a real nice couple from South Carolina. We talked right up till dinnertime and many times during the cruise. After dinner we went to see the first show and a Bingo game was getting ready to start and at the last minute my mother decided to go buy the $20.00 3-card game. She won the jackpot of $800.00!!! This was a great start to our cruise. We took $40.00 each to the casino to see if our luck stayed with us and it didn’t. The show tonight was cancelled due to the performer didn’t make it. I think they said he was in a minor car accident. They did a skit with the passengers, it was funny. We then went to the different clubs. We liked the Avant Garde the best and second best was the piano bar. We were night owls tonight and stayed out till like 1:30 a.m. then went to our cabin.

 

After this day I really can’t remember what we did each day so I will do the rest of the report in topics.

 

Judy

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

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judyf

judyf

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Food & Dining Room

 

We found the food to be great and always available. My mother thought the food was cold, I didn’t find that a problem. It was warm but my mother likes it steaming hot. We only ate breakfast in the dining room on the last morning. All other days we ate at the buffet and it was good. It had made to order omelets and they were my favorite with the hash browns. We never had lunch in the dining room we were having too much fun on deck to change from our swimsuits. Had room service for breakfast on our Grand Cayman day and it was good. Had room service one day and I got a wrap and it was great. I wanted to order it again but never had time.

 

I got the veggie dishes most nights and they were very good. My mother had beef most night as did our tablemates and everyone seemed to enjoy what they ordered. We only missed the dining room meal on our day in Costa Maya cause we didn’t want to rush back for 6:15 dinner when we didn’t have to be back on ship till 6:30. We were in the Mardi Gras dining room for early seating. I was so glad when I saw that on our Sail & Sign card. I didn’t want dinner at 5:45. I originally booked late seating and then a month or two before our cruise, I decided to switch to early dining, thinking it might be better to see the shows and do a little more after dinner. It was okay but next time if I don’t have freestyle dining, I will book late seating for sure. I should of stuck with my first thought on this. I didn’t like being in the dining room eating while it was still light out. The only night we saw the sun set was the night we skipped the dining room. We also missed the sail away from the ports due to early dinner. On Thursday our day in Cozumel there was a big mess up with the tenders (more on that later) and we had open seating that night. It went well as could be expected and I wish that was available every night. Our dining room staff was great and we tipped extra on the last day.

 

We never went to the midnight buffets we were just too full. We did go the grand buffet on the second formal night just to take pictures, what a show of food. I wished I was hungry to eat. hehehe

 

Service:

 

I touched on this some already but thought it was worth a topic of it’s own. We found the service to be excellent, always had our room done up as soon as we left and ice bucket was always full. Dining room staff was great and very friendly. All the staff members smiled and was polite and went out of their way to make our cruise special.

 

 

Ship:

 

CCL Inspiration was what I expected. We were on her sister ship the Fantasy for our first cruise and loved it. The ship was clean and there was always someone cleaning something. The elevators did have some scratches on the doors as I had read about. I’m sure some teenagers felt the need to do this. We found the size of the ship easy to navigate. The candlelight lounge is done up very nice, it’s a shame they don’t have more going on in there. The wood in halls of the area of the Grand Atrium was nice and the staircase as always is beautiful. We loved the Inspiration and would definitely sail on her again.

 

 

 

Pool, Hot Tubs & Chairs

 

Here’s my only complaint, the chair hogs!!!! We never were able to get a lounge chair the entire cruise. Our last day at sea we took two of those white chairs, which there’s plenty of, sat in one and put our feet on the other. We did this for over 4 hours maybe more and the whole time rows of the lounge chairs stayed empty with only a towel, shoe, suntan lotion or a book on them for over 4 hours! Many people were complaining about this. We went in the hot tub once the day we skipped the dining room, I jumped in the pool once to cool off. Ithought about it but never went down the slide. I like the shower they have by the pool to rinse off. Someone had mentioned that it might be a good idea if Carnival assigned at least one lounge chair to each cabin and I like this idea. She had 3 in her cabin and couldn’t find even one chair.

 

Entertainment:

 

Marahscalh our cruise director was funny, he is very good and we enjoyed having him as the CD. CCL Performers were great!

 

We saw every show. ElNuevo Caribe and Shout the two shows shown on formal night were a do not miss. The couple from Russia was great!!! If possible don’t miss these two shows.

 

Sunday nights entertainment was cancelled due to the perfromer never made it on the ship. They said he was in a minor car accident. The late night comedy for Monday night was cancelled due to it was the same guy that didn’t perform on Sunday evening.

 

Tuesday there was a juggler and a comedian, they were both funny and worth the time. The comedian even had a 12 midnight show that was good. There was another midnight comedy show but Mike Siscoe on Tuesday was the best.

 

Wednesday there was the Fire Gauchos a father and son show that was good and a Comedian Vinnie Coppola. There was also a deck party at 11:45 we missed this and we to our cabin early to get ready for an early morning.

 

Thursday the show was rescheduled due to the mess up in Cozumel.

 

Friday was the second formal night when Shout was performed great show. Late night comedian was Kenny Miller tonight he was okay but we liked the first comedian more.

 

Saturday was the night for the rescheduled talent show, this was much better then I thought it was going to be.

 

More to caome tomorrow.

 

Judy

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

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judyf

judyf

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Pics I'm trying. Work keeps getting in the way. You know how it is when you've been off for 6 working days!!!! Had lunch meetings Yesterday and tomorrow and an evening meeting tomorrow night. I will get the get the ports up tomorrow after my meeting.

 

Any questions just ask!!!!

 

You will have a great time! I wish I was just getting on instead of it being over.

 

Judy

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

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judyf

judyf

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Weather:

 

On the ship the weather was perfect all week. This was the best weather we’ve ever had on a cruise. The ship never even rocked. In Tampa on Sat. 4/3 the weather was nice for us, needed jeans and later after the sun went down even a jacket. At Disney on Sun. 4/11 the day was hot and then it rained about 7 pm and it really got windy and cool. We still enjoyed our day at Disney we just got the Mickey Ponchos.

 

Ports:

 

Grand Cayman: We booked a stringray tour on our own with Soto’s, I booked way back in Sept. before the price went up. We paid $20.00 pp it’s now $24.00 pp and it’s a great deal at that price. We had no problem getting right off the ship. Our tour was at 8:50 a.m. island time, GC was 1 hour behind ship time. We looked around a little where we got off the ship. I went to Hard Rock Café and the Harley shop before the tour just in case we didn’t have time after and it’s a good thing I did.

 

We all met where Soto’s told us to, it was easy, no problems and the guide was there waiting for us. We get in a nice AC van and we are off to the location. This was my first time to snorkel and I did bring my own gear and just used Soto’s fins. First stop was at a place they called the aquarium. I got the hang of it pretty quick saw lots of colored fish and coral. Second stop was the Coral Reef. This location had many boats and people, our guide that was filming the event told us to follow him. He went down and brought an eel out fro us all to see. It was great. Third and last stop was the Strinray Sandbar. I was glad to be on smaller tour, we had like 20-25 people and some of the other ships had two decks and were crowded. With the small group, we got individual attention. The guides took our underwater cameras and took many pictures for us. We got to hold the stringrays and kiss them many times. The water is so clear you can see the stringrays coming from far away.

 

The only thing that we encountered that was a little upsetting was when it was all over we were the last to get off the boat, we were in the back. What they did was just load the van as everyone walked off the boat. The first van got full and left. Now we’re waiting in the parking lot for a van it’s like 1:25 ish and I was getting worried cause our last tender was 2:00 p.m. I kept asking where the van was, the workers called the owner (Kerry) who was driving the van and said she would be right there. She arrived about 1:50 p.m. at this time we were a little upset, first island, tour on our own and we were a running late. We did arrive at the pier around 2:00 p.m. and there was a line to get back on and many people joined the line long after we were in it. We got back on the ship I think about 3:00 p.m. I must add to not let this worry you to book this tour, Kerry learned something from this experience. Our ship was the earliest to leave and Kerry said she would make sure in further tours that they check which ship the guests are on and load the earliest leaving on the first van. I would make sure you tell them on the boat what time your last tender is and let them know you need to be on the first van and you should have no problem.

 

We did but the video for I think $54.00 and it will be mailed to our home address. This is a must do for your first visit to GC.

 

Judy

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

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teedee

teedee

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Judy - Thanks for the great review, I'm really enjoying it. We have 3 more months before our cruise on the Inspiration. I'm glad you had such a good time. I know it's hard to take the time to write a review, when you're trying to catch up at work, so again thanks. Can't wait for the rest.

 

Nibbles - We're on the same cruise as you. There are 8 in our group. I haven't seen a roll call for this cruise, have you?

 

 

Terri

 

Skyward - 1989

Carnivale - 1991

Holiday - 1994

Fantasy - 1998

Century - 2002

Century - 2003

Inspiration - 7/04

Century - 9/04

Coral Princess 3/05

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ryan5

ryan5

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Hi Judy,

Thanks for the great review, we are sailing on 6/6/04. We are so excited about going! Were there lots of kids on board? I have 3 ages 11,13,16. This is our first cruise!

Thanks

 

Kathy

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teedee

teedee

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Nibbles - We've got 3 adults and 5 kids from 13 - 19, 3 girls and 2 boys. I guess I should say 4 adults so I don't make the 19 year old mad icon_smile.gif

 

Terri

 

Skyward - 1989

Carnivale - 1991

Holiday - 1994

Fantasy - 1998

Century - 2002

Century - 2003

Inspiration - 7/04

Century - 9/04

Coral Princess 3/05

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sexyred

sexyred

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Hi Judyf, I am sailing on the Inspiration on 4-25-04 with my sister in law and my 8 year old niece. What other information can you give me for shore excursions and onboard activities. Thanks for the info. I read your messages and !!!

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judyf

judyf

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Costa Maya: I really enjoyed this port. One thing that was nice was the time arriving at the port, 11:00 a.m. It gave you time to take in the activities the evening before and not have to get up super early. This was the only port that we docked at and it was a pleasure! We walked right off the ship, no lines, no delays, it was nice. We looked around the pier area, the merchants here are real pushy. I did buy a bracelet for $10.00 that started off at I think $30.00. We saw some entertainers right in this area and there’s plenty of shops.

 

We found a horseback riding booth, I think the name of the one I found was Water Marina or something like that. I couldn’t find the one we were looking for Mayawal Tours. I got the price down to $40.00 pp no lunch included. This was fine with us, cause I wasn’t crazy about the Italian place that the other tour went to, I wanted to try the local food. We were giving a tour pass and directions to the cab, $3.00 going and $2.00 to return plus tip. We get right into a cab no problem and the worker with our tour company told the driver where we were going. We arrive in town and we show him our tour pass and he brings us back to a place where we saw horses. It was a really nice beach bar area. We pay and tipped the driver and he’s off, we walk in and show the women are tour passes and she tells us, I have horses but these are not my passes. Oh boy!! Now we need to walk back to the area where the cab should have dropped us off. It wasn’t really far but it was really hot and we were carrying bags filled with camcorders, cameras and snorkeling stuff. My mother at 66 didn’t like the walk but we made it. Our horseback ride was for 12:00 noon island time by the time the cab took us to the wrong location and we walked back it was about 12:10 when we arrived. We met Nina as we were instructed to and had a seat and waited. She told us to wait while she got a snorkel tour out, this is done and we are still waiting some people come and another snorkel tour goes out. We ended up missing the 12:00 tour and didn’t get out till about 1:30 p.m. I wish we knew this at first this way we could of shopped a little and looked around instead of just sitting there. The ride was 90 minutes and we went through town and along the beach. There were only 5 horses total. My mother ended up not going, I guess she got a little afraid of the horse. There was a family of 4 on 3 horses and a mother and daughter on one and me.There was 2 guides that walk the trail with us. It was lots of fun and I’m glad I did it and would do it again.

 

After the ride we walked down the road in town and went to Tarpus Bar on the beach. I got a chicken fajita and a margarita for I think $12.00 total, $7.00 for the fajita and $5.00 for the drink. We went over to the beach area and sat at a table with chairs. This was nice and relaxing. I went in the water and tried to snorkel, it wasn’t good in this area but the swimming was nice. We stayed till we gave ourselves just enough time to see the folklore show and return to the ship in time. We enjoyed the folklore show nice free entertainment. I did get a yard rainbow margarita on the way back to the ship and I was able to walk on the ship with it in my hand. Boy was it good!

 

Judy

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

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Knights on the Beach

Knights on the Beach

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Judy, I'm enjoying your review! Can't wait for the rest . . .

 

Beth

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Countdown to Glory

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Emerald Seas 6/86

Emerald Seas 11/87

S.S. Royale 10/88

Celebration 6/97

Grandeur of the Seas 6/98

Sensation 6/99

Carnival Triumph 6/00

Carnival Triumph 11/17/01

Enchantment of the Seas 10/27/02

Carnival Victory 5/25/03

Carnival Glory 5/22/04

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