Quick Review of Inspiration 5/30/04

[sseidner]

We just returned from the Inspiration with our family (me, husband, kids ages 7,4 and 4) and wanted to give a quick review of our cruise.

 

Overall B

 

Embarkation A Easy!

 

Ship Decor B-

Typical Carnival. Dining rooms, library, and Promenade bar area were nice. Brasserie is particularly ugly.

 

Room A-

We had 2 interior rooms on the Riviera Deck. Very clean, well laid-out and quiet. Lots of storage. Slightly dated decor and one of the rooms smelled heavily of cigarette smoke.

 

Room Steward A+ Wonderful!

 

Food C

Great pizza and room service food. Dinners were nice, but not gourmet. Ran out of choc milk, sushi (at bar) and certain fruit and cereal every morning.

 

Entertainment B

The juggler and fire gauchos are great! The lead female singer Theresa is great, but the lead man Rodrigo? was awful (so bad it was funny)

 

Dining Room Service A

Fabulous! Cventlena and Eva were superb!

 

Bar service C

Either not enough alcohol or too much and drink tasted like gasoline (Although this worked in our favor when we saw the sail and sign bill!)

 

Camp Carnival A+++++

These ladies made the cruise for us. Angels! My kids had the greatest time! I can't say enough great things about this program.

 

Grand Caymen B+

Stringrays and snorkeling with Captain Marvin's was fun, but I got a little seasick. I had to stay on the boat because one of the kids was scared of the stingrays,

 

Costa Maya N/A

We couldn't dock there becuase of high winds. Bummer!

 

Cozumel A+

Our favorite port. Because we skipped Costa Maya, the ship arrived in Cozumel at 7 PM. We went shopping and partying that night (Leave your kids on the ship -- x-rated behaviour at the bars). The next day, went to Chankanaab Park. Beautiful and great for the family! Fun!

 

Belize D

The low grade is our own fault. All the ship tours were booked up so we just went to the small tourist center on the waterfront. You're not allowed to leave this area if you don't have a tour. The shops were overpriced and all had the same items in them.

 

Fellow passengers B

Like us, lots of families from FL, GA, AL and the Carolinas. Very polite and considerate. Not the most intellectual crowd, but hey, it's the fun ship. Discussions included NASCAR, bass fishing, thanksgiving turkey stuffing recipes, etc. Fine wines, ballroom dancing and Nobel Laureates were nowhere to be found. If you want the latter, don't pick the Inspiration.

 

Service staff (overall) A

The staff works very hard with little time off. And they still manage a genuine smile and greeting.

 

Cruise Director D

Steve Knisley thought he was hilarious and he wasn't. Does the man ever stop talking?!

 

Debarkation A Easy again!

 

 

We didn't have any problems with deck chair hogs, inconsiderate smokers or screaming kids at dinner. There were many multi-generational families on board. I did see Carnival staff serving alcohol to obviously underage kids (about 14 years old). I also heard some stories about people having to stay in Cozumel because of alcohol issues (hospital and/or police).

 

Great time had by all!

 

Now back to land-locked reality....

 

5/30/04 Inspiration

[CLDS]

Thanks for the review!!! We leave July 4. We plan to have a great time and know everything won't be perfect. Having reviews like this to read really helps with expectations. I will also be having the no alchol talk with the boys (15 & 16,but look older) before we leave. Thanks for the heads up on that point.

Cheryl