Carnival Inspiration Review
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Our first cruise was on Carnival almost 10 years ago and we really had a good time. Our second cruise was on Royal Caribbean and after that, we decided we would never do a cruise with Carnival again. We are glad we gave it another try. We would sail with Carnival again.
Our very first impression wasn't good. It took us over 2 hours to get on board. There is no excuse for lines that long. There just were not enough people to process all the people. We arrived at 1:15 and didn't get on board until after 3:00. We have NEVER had to wait that long. We were told that the "Groove Cruise" charter before us was to blame because it took them so long to get everyone off the ship and have it ready for us, backing up the early check-in lines and jamming the entire process. A better bet may have been to arrive at 3:00 instead. On the upside, our cabin was ready and our luggage was already there.
The entire purpose of our cruise was a quick, and cheap, getaway. We knew from our past experience not to expect much. We were pleasantly surprised. The Inspiration is a very nice ship. While the décor was more “cheap 70s plastic” than what we had become more accustomed to, we didn’t mind. It reminded us a bit of old school Vegas. The exception was the absolutely beautiful library. Very well done.
Cabin Review
TThe cabin location was excellent. This is an Empress Deck room and our previous Carnival cruise was on Riviera. Much prefer Empress. We were looking out at the ship's wake from our window and really enjoyed the view. There was also quick access to the Serenity deck and the Buffet through a back set of stairs. We found ourselves stopping by the stateroom more often when it was that convenient. The room itself was pretty sparse. We were used to a small sofa and coffee table in the room from other lines, but appreciated the extra open floor space. There is also no curtain separating the sleeping area that we were used to. While Carnival does publish that they don't have hair dryers on board, we were still surprised by it. The vanity area was OK, with good lighting and a pull out stool. There was one 110 outlet and one 220 outlet. Bring a power strip for your electronics. We also didn't have any sort of clock. We used our smartphone for setting an alarm. The bathroom was tiny and the shower did not drain well at all. There was a small shelf for bar soap and they had shampoo and body wash dispensers like you might find in your local gym. No place to put your shampoo bottle or conditioner if you brought your own. The vanity area in the bathroom was as joke. One tiny shelf and almost no room around the sink. There is one 110 outlet above the mirror. We saw our stateroom steward only twice. Both times when he wanted to make up our room. Friendly, but not very helpful. We didn't have much trouble with noise, until we went to dock in Ensenada. Apparently the thrust used in this port creates a significant vibration that can be felt even on the upper decks. It was enough to wake us both up. Otherwise, no issue with aft cabin.One issue we could not really get over was the occasional smell of cigarette smoke. It wasn't constant but it was there. It seemed to come through the Air Conditioning unit. It wasn’t often enough to ask for a different room but it was noticeable and if you are highly sensitive to it, stay away from this cabin. There is nothing they can do to fix a ventilation problem.