I am scared now! Booked Carnival Inspiration!

[ManyMore]

I have done 14 Carnival 3 RCCL 1 NCL (never again) and 1 Disney. I have done the Inspiration 3 time and two of them were in the past year and a half. I wouldn't keep going if it wasn't a good cruise.

[samiam519]

The first cruise we took my son on (then also age 18) was the Inspiration and he loved it. He is now hooked on cruising as are his parents! He found others his age right away and played basketball, hung out at the pool, wandered the ship, went to some of the clubs, girl watched, etc. He had a great time on port days and can't wait to go his next cruise. Love the Inspiration and I think you will too. Have a great cruise.

[Ally22]

We took our 18 year old on a spring break cruise last year. We found he spent more time with us than he usually does on a cruise. We figured that he knew he was going to be away from us (at college) soon and we had a really good time seeing him as an almost adult, as compared to our kid.

 

He spent plenty of time meeting friends, playing basketball, eating etc... But also joined us for dinner in the evenings and then went to the shows and casino with us. He was thrilled to take $20 to the casino and play for awhile.

 

Have a great trip! The Inspiration is our next trip! Just cant hammer down the dates yet!!

[mysh442olds]

GREAT SHIP

ENJOY:eek:

[chandoe]

oh.... Thanks guys! I feel better! Any advice on where to park/stay in Tampa? We are driving down the day before and are looking for a place to sleep and park for the days we are on the cruise. Looking for clean/safe/cheap ~ LOL :) Is this possible?

 

 

We always stay at Embassy Suites Airport/ Westshore. They have a stay and cruise rate, plus free breakfast etc. Two malls are within 5 minutes of hotel and a lot of good places to eat near by. One mall is right across the street and you can walk to it. If nothing has changed since last year, you can set the time that you would like to be picked up and taken to the port. The port is about 15 minutes away.

[Kissyfur19]

We did this cruise a few years ago (when it was the Sensation that did this sailing). I can't say anything about the ship itself, but I can tell you that the cruise was great just because of the ports it goes to.

 

Relax & enjoy your trip!!

[Peaceful]

I have been on the Inspiration twice and will soon be booking my third. Read my review below for the last one I took on her a year ago. We stayed in a suite and loved, loved, loved it. You will have a wonderful trip. There are A LOT of pictures.

[Jsme]

OP, I hope this will make you feel better. We have been on NCL, DCL, RCI and Carnival. I would rather cruise Carnival over the other ships. Due to my job I have to cruise according to the time I can take off not always the cruiseline I would prefer. We are booked on the Inspiration in October. I look forward to this cruise. Please remember all vacations are so subjective.

[poptart]

That being said . . . I beg that you'll please not read any upcoming reviews (if there are any) for the current sailing, taking place right now, on Carnival Inspiration [5/28/09]. I fear it would cause you to possibly cancel your own booking, as it would possibly cause me to cancel my own, if I didn't know better. There is a unique group onboard who fits the old Carnival stereotype much more than the current standard.

 

Bon Voyage!!! :)

 

 

spill the beans....what group? :D

[poptart]

I have been on Inspiration more that any other Carnival ship, and she has always given me a great cruise. I have been on RCI's Monarch as well, and enjoyed that too. Its true that the RCI ships are fancier, but Carnival is more relaxed and casual.

 

What type of suite did you get?

 

 

just sailed the Monarch...slept in a closet :eek: that cabin was a shock!

 

Cruise was nice, really enjoyed CoCo Cay, had an excellent time with my granddaughter but much prefer Carnival.

 

We really enjoyed our cruise on the Inspiration, had a ball.

[Bdd2043]

I JUST got off the Inspiration 3 days ago! (5/23 cruise to Cayman and ... Cayman). I had an absolutel blast! The staff was friendly, the food was good, weather was AWESOME!

 

It was my first cruise, and the ONE most important thing, I learned from HERE is .. A CRUISE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT!

 

Go and have fun!

 

HH

[SailorGirl72]

I have been on the inspiration and it was so fun! You will love it.

[time11130]

I am going with an open mind... I think we will have a blast. Like I said before, we are not fancy people so I think we will be fine. I pictured some run down boat, barely flaoting down the water after reading some of the reviews. Thanks for everyone advice! Great ideal bout taking the X-Box or Wii, maybe my son will meet some friends and they could get together and play those. I didn't think about taking something like that! I will also check out the hotel advice. I am short on time right at the moment but I just wanted to tell you all THANK YOU! for your help! Lisa in Indiana

[jimbug]

I just got off the Inspiration on 5/28...I'm working on a review that I'll hopefully have up today. It was a fabulous trip--don't be worried at all--I had only been on longer cruises on larger, newer ships before, so I was expecting to be disappointed with the Inspiration. (Bad attitude, I know, but it's true...) HOWEVER...I was pleasantly surprised...other than a little wear-and-tear in the elevators, the ship was in tip-top shape and this was the BEST crew I've encountered in 6 cruises!

[shellann]

And regardless what you have read, the clientèle is exactly the same.

 

Respectfully, because I see you have been on many many more cruises than we have, have you really found this to be true from all home ports or do you mostly just sail out of Florida? I ask because we have found Carnival to have a younger clientele. We sailed the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore last spring and then the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore this spring and we found the crowd much younger on Carnival. Many more children and families (neither trip during Spring Break) and the "feel" of the ships were very different. I thought they would have had more of the same clientele sailing from the same locale. I know my adult "kids" would not have had a very good time on the Grandeur (we did because we went with an awesome couple our own age) but the kids did enjoy the Pride as much as any of our other Carnival ships out of Florida. I guess I am asking (longwindedly) if RCI and Carnival are more the same when their ships sail out of Florida than when they sail out of other ports?

 

To the OP -in our limited experience, I would say your 18 year old will have a wonderful time on the Inspiration! We've brought 16 through 30 year olds on Carnival ships and they have always had fun. But we are a very close family and tend to do almost everything together anyways. I can't comment on the Inspiration specifically but we've been on another Fantasy class ship, the Elation, and it was wonderful. It was our first cruise and that year we had our 16 y/o and 22 y/o sons with us as well as quite a few other young adults and they all had a blast!

 

Have fun!!!

[yesterdaystime]

Sailed on her twice, and will sail on her again! Wonderful ship with a great crew. When we drive down, we stay on St Pete beach - it's a half hour from the port. At the port, we use their "valet parking". In processing is fast and we are on the ship in no time at all.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[dan40]

Respectfully, because I see you have been on many many more cruises than we have, have you really found this to be true from all home ports or do you mostly just sail out of Florida? I ask because we have found Carnival to have a younger clientele. We sailed the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore last spring and then the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore this spring and we found the crowd much younger on Carnival. Many more children and families (neither trip during Spring Break) and the "feel" of the ships were very different. I thought they would have had more of the same clientele sailing from the same locale. I know my adult "kids" would not have had a very good time on the Grandeur (we did because we went with an awesome couple our own age) but the kids did enjoy the Pride as much as any of our other Carnival ships out of Florida. I guess I am asking (longwindedly) if RCI and Carnival are more the same when their ships sail out of Florida than when they sail out of other ports?

 

To the OP -in our limited experience, I would say your 18 year old will have a wonderful time on the Inspiration! We've brought 16 through 30 year olds on Carnival ships and they have always had fun. But we are a very close family and tend to do almost everything together anyways. I can't comment on the Inspiration specifically but we've been on another Fantasy class ship, the Elation, and it was wonderful. It was our first cruise and that year we had our 16 y/o and 22 y/o sons with us as well as quite a few other young adults and they all had a blast!

 

Have fun!!!

 

The age of the passengers is highly dependent on the length of the cruise, shorter is younger, and the time of the year. If a RCL ship, and a Carnival ship left the same port on the same day for a similar itinerary, the average age of the pax on each would be within 5 years. Probably the exact same age.

Carnival, RCL, NCL, MSC, all would be very close.

 

I'm in the seventh decade of life on this planet and I do not take short cruises, NOT because the pax are so young, but because the cruise is too short. We have done a couple of 7 day spring break cruises because we are forgetful old farts, but they were still fun. But that's young men and women, not little kids. I can drain energy from young adults, little kids drain it from me.:D

[shellann]

The age of the passengers is highly dependent on the length of the cruise, shorter is younger, and the time of the year. If a RCL ship, and a Carnival ship left the same port on the same day for a similar itinerary, the average age of the pax on each would be within 5 years. Probably the exact same age.

Carnival, RCL, NCL, MSC, all would be very close.

 

I'm in the seventh decade of life on this planet and I do not take short cruises, NOT because the pax are so young, but because the cruise is too short. We have done a couple of 7 day spring break cruises because we are forgetful old farts, but they were still fun. But that's young men and women, not little kids. I can drain energy from young adults, little kids drain it from me.:D

 

Thank you so much for your insight. I just thought it strange that the RCI crowd was so much older than the Carnival crowd from the same port. Both in May although Carnival was the Bahamas and RCI was Eastern Caribbean, both 7 days. But just two cruises are hardly anything to compare with. We did discover that longer cruises (Celebrity-Hawaii-16 days) definitely draw a more "mature" crowd (the line-up for wheelchairs to board was unbelievable!) but I would pick the oxygen crowd over the wild unsupervised preteen crowd any day. I guess we'll just have get some more cruises under our belt to figure it all out for ourselves. :D

 

I hope we're still cruising in our 70's, oxygen and all. :)

[newlife_2010]

That is what I was thinking when i booked this cruise! I thought surely we would find something to eat that we would like... we are not picky, and enjoyable to me will be just sitting on the balcony watching the waves go by, then go to dinner, and maybe a show, what could possible go wrong with that? Guess what worries me the most is if our 18 year old son will also have a good time. He really isn't into dancing and since he is going by himself I hope he can meet up with other people his age to hang out with and keep out of our hair for part of the day anyhow! Thanks for everyones help on here! You guys are the best!

 

HE WILL HAVE A BLAST. Is he introvert or extrovert?

[shellann]

Both in May although Carnival was the Bahamas and RCI was Eastern Caribbean, both 7 days.

 

Oops, I made a mistake... the RCI cruise was a 9 day (shortened to 8 because of bad weather from previous cruise) so that was probably why the age difference. Longer cruise. So I'm glad to hear that our RCI experience wasn't really comparing apples to apples.

 

I still think that the OP's 18 year old will a lot of fun on a Carnival cruise. (saving my hi-jacking butt);)

[janetop]

We just were on the Inspiration in May. Because of itinerary change due to swine flu, we were in Grand Cayman for two days.

 

WE loved it.

 

We have been out of Jacksonville, Port Canaveral and Ft Lauderdale and Tampa was the best port so far...they have valet parking which was well worth the money. Waiting area was huge with plenty of seating and we liked how they called groups of people at a time to get on the ship. The flow of people was very good.

 

We enjoyed the ship and Grand Cayman was great...the swimming with the stingrays was a lot of fun and really neat to see. We spent more time than usual shopping, but would like to go back to dive the area right off the port.. called Eden.

 

This was our 4th Carnival cruise and have more of them booked already.

[time11130]

You all have great advice! Thank You! I have shared this info with my son who is getting more excited about going. I am glad to hear that the ship is in great shape. That was also one of my fears because the other cruises we have been on were on newer ships. Thanks for everyone's help! Lisa in (rainy again) Indiana

[valancy1]

not to bash but if you come into this with a bad attitude thinking it will be bad it most likely will. you can't always rely on what you read. I have read reviews on ships where people had a terrible time and then another review on the same ship and cruise and be just the opposite. relax and have fun and everything will go well.

 

I've read several of these replies and I keep thinking "DESTINY"!! Destiny had a bad wrap, too, and we went on this ship with all that stuff in our heads (but an overriding thought of WE ARE GOING TO HAVE FUN!) and we had a blast. Destiny is a beautiful ship. If the itinerary would be somewhere we wanted to go and Destiny sailed it, we would SO sail her again. Loved it.

 

So, I hope you have a wonderful time aboard Inspiration. We just booked a cruise on her for November!

[lizardhowson]

Can anyone please tell me this is a great cruise? LOL We have only been on 2 cruises, both Royal Carribean and I was "sold" on this one by a Carnival rep. This was a last minute ideal to take a cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary and due to son going away to college. he is 18 and will be going with us. We booked a Suite because I have always dreamed about sitting out on a balcony and watching the waves go by. Since this was also our anniversary I thought this would be nice and since this is just a 5 day cruise it really did not cost much more. Anyhow, I have read horror stories about this ship and Carnival in general. Has anyone been on a Royal cruise and then a Carnival and been happy with it? We are not hard to please really but hate the thought of us wasting $ on a cruise that will be terrible! Not only that but time with our Son, he will be going away for College and will not be back home for a year! Any advice PLEASE? I am so nervous about this being a big mistake! Thanks for any help you can give me! Lisa

 

You have got to be kidding me ???

 

A cruise is what you make of it, either good or bad, the same as any other vacation or life experience.

 

Sounds like you planned for a good time with your son, the balcony and a suite.

 

No reason not to have a good time, but, that is up to you.

 

PS, I still don't understand why you are so bothered over this ??

[cruiselover 43]

I have been on RC & carnival - I enjoyed both cruises, but I have to say

Carnival had better food choices & more activities to choose from. tHAT'S WHY WE CAME BACK TO CARNIVAL AGAIN. ENJOY - YOUR ON VACATION!