This was our first time cruising with Carnival. We had previously cruised with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Boarding the ship was a complete nightmare and took two and a half hours...compared to 30-40 minutes with other lines. Disembarkation was also a complete fiasco we were given a time slot of 8.30 - 8.45 to disembark but did not get off the ship until nearly 11.00!

This aside the cruise on the whole was OK there is certainly not the attention to detail that there is on other lines and we found the staff to be quite grumpy and miserable but it was good value for money and the old saying comes to mind..."you get what you pay for"!

I thought the ship was incredable! After I passed security my brother and cryed the ship was so cool!The arcade was sweet we made some friends.it was even better than cozomel!The glass elovators were so cool you could see the entire lobby from deck S.I want to go on another carnaval cruise so bad!Sometimes I dream i'm back on Inspiration.

We arrived on the inspiration on Saturday 14 May 2005, the cruise was supposed to be our perfect honeymoon, after just getting married in Orlando, we were assingend an outside cabin on deck E, we found the cabin to be very dusty and not properly cleaned, we had requested a second sitting for dinner at the time of booking but unfortunately, were given the first sitting , we tried to change and the Matre'd told us there would not be a problem, but later we received a note through our cabin door informing us this was not possible.The lifeboat drill was a complete unorganised joke , god knows what would have happened if there was a real emergency, the Titanic springs to mind.We booked two trips one in the cayman isles,( island tour)this again was totally unorganised, two ships full of passengers queing for thier trips at the same time. The trip in Cozumel was little bit better.
The entertainment was of a very poor quality with , one evening we had the cruise director dressed up in a bubble bee suit ,and making jestures he was letting off wind, this was supposed to be enterainmment!. on the day of embarkation all "ALIENS" i.e none Ameican citizens had to go to immigration at 6.15 am, and then not allowed to leave the ship untill 10.00am, where again it was a free for all.We are veteran cruisers, and this is the worst cruise by far we have ever been on, i think the Carnival management should visit the european cruise liners to see how it is done
David

GAMBLING ABOARD CARNIVAL SHIPS
Despite many e-mails and letters to Carnival Cruise Lines since our cruise aboard the Inspiration in October, I have received no satisfactory response to the following inquiry. “What is your policy regarding the horse racing game aboard ship?” The situation prompting the inquiry was the “pretend” horse race where passengers hop around the show room on wooden horses according to the roll of the dice. At $3 per bet, I’m estimating that well over $150 in wagers were placed, and in return the only single one ticket winner received $12. No explanation given to the general crowd mumbling response of “what the hell . . . ?” At his point, to the staff at least, this “game” became gambling and a way for Carnival to make money. No one had any explanation for how the money was to be distributed, including the Cruise director, the Purser, or the ships accountant, further stating that “if they did they wouldn’t tell me because it wasn’t any of my business.” I have received one generic response of no value and one general outline of how pari-mutual betting governs the game. No definition of pari-mutual gambling I am aware of allows the fleecing of participants as was done by Carnival. Gamblers beware of all ship board “games” aboard Carnival ships and take note of the sign at the casino entrance that allows them to reset all jackpots between each cruise. E-mail me as you see fit for further explanation.

We travelled at the height of the Florida hurricanes and were half expecting our cruise to be cancelled. However we were informed our cruise would go ahead with a change of stop-overs, we were given the option to cancel too.
We didn't go to Gran Cayman which was the 1 place we wanted to go, however this did not spoil out trip. We did 3 mexican stops and Belize. The trips are very well organised and not too expensive due to the dollar/pound rate being favourable.
The ship was fantastic, we had a twin inside cabin and out cabin boy looked after us very well.
The majority of the guests were American who love the English so this was a good thing.
We were put on the early dinner setting but requested a swap to the later sitting which was done with no hassel. We were sat with 3 American's at dinner who became good friends over the course of the cruise.
Highly recommend and would go again no hesitation.

I sailed with my daughter on this ship from Tampa for 7 nights stopping at Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Costa Maya and Belize.

We had an inside cabin on the lowest passeger deck and the sleeping accommodation was bunk beds. The cabin was adequate for our needs, however, the shower overflowed into the bedroom every time we used it - hence the dark stain on the carpet in front of the en-suite door. One nice touch were a lot of sample toiletries from well known companies - shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, a razor etc.

The shows in the show lounge were excellent, as were the visiting entertainers. However, there was a distinct lack of activities during the day apart from noisy pool games. The main pool has a slide and one game was to try and see who could make the biggest splash on to the deck.

There were very few English people on the ship - only about 30. We had a few problems in communication with other guests, especially with those passengers from the Mid West who couldn't understand our accents.

The food was excellent and there was plenty of it - soft drinks/tea/coffee/iced tea/chocolate/water available to help yourself all day. We ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet on the pool deck and dinner every evening in the restaurant which had two sittings. There were actually 2 restaurants and the larger of the two had first sitting at 5.45pm which is a little early to eat dinner, especially if it is a formal evening and the captain's cocktail party is on beforehand. There were two formal evenings on our week's cruise.

The only trip we booked for from the ship was cave tubing in Belize and although expensive was well worth the money and quite an experience. At the other stops we took taxis or local buses to the beaches.

If you like garish purple and gold decor, casinos and eating all day then this is the cruise for you.

Personally I prefer the subtler P&O ships with a better choice of activities.

If you were luckey enough to win one of the pool games/table tennis/honeymooner's games the only prize on offer was a "genuine gold plated plastic ship-on-a-stick" - a hideous model of the Inspiration.

We were in Orlando for 4 days before the cruise and Daytona Beach for 3 days after, the cruise was brilliant and we all enjoyed it, the staff were very friendly. The stopovers were great as well and it was great to say you were in 3 different countries. You would never think you were on a ship at all, there were tunder storms at sea and it was brilliant watching the lightning at night. The cabins were excellent and our cabin boy had the handtowels made into different animals every night. Would reccommend it to anyone and would sail again no problem. The sail and sign cards were great no hassel with money and our american friends from Chicago at dinner each evening were very good. We met an american couple who's father hailed from up the road from us and they sent us a bottle of champagne to our cabin which was a very nice gesture. Lots to do and see and plenty of sun. Thank you Insperation.

we booked for a holiday of a lifetime my sisters 50th birthday and was really looking forward to our stop in new orleans. we boarded at cozumel approx 30 of us and we were treated like outcasts during the change over in florida the ship was literally closed all restaurants, bars even the pool. we were told to join the queue to get back onto the sship which if we had would ahve take over 3 hours to do. new orleans !!! thats a laugh, without our knowledge that part had been cancelled and we spent a few hours in belize instead yeah belize oh dear we tried to ask as we boarded but was told we had to do that when we got back home. our cabin had a double bed and took a bit of complaining before they changed it. now i love my sister dearly - but not that much the whole holiday was so disappointing and no recompense what so ever dont go unless you want to be treated like an alien