Nichole

Age: 29
Occupation: business owner
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: carnival
Ship: inspiration
Sailing Date: April 25th, 2005
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

My husband went on this cruise for our 10 year anniversary. This was my first cruise, his second. Overall the cruise was enjoyable, however it left a taste in my mouth to go on an even nicer and bigger boat, i'll explain why later! Boarding on the boat went very smoothly, that probably took about 20 min. we boarded at 1:00 pm. Once we got on the boat we went to the Lido deck for lunch. The buffet food was pretty good, however the food at the sit down dinner at night was awesome!!! The lido deck had pretty much the same food everyday. Hamburgers, hot dogs, salad fries etc. The service was not very impressive the first day. There seemed to be allot of commotion and the staff seemed very snappy!! Not what I was expecting. Dinner at night was very nice. We opted for the late seating (8:30) we brought friends with us so we sat with them every night. You do get sat with people you don't know, but they seem to try and put all the singles together, the married young couples together etc. The day at sea we lied out all day, we didn't go in the pool or the hot tubs, they were always crawling with kids and very crowded. There is a steel drum band that plays for a few hours everyday and they definitely put you in the Caribbean mood. Grand Cayman was our first port of call. It was terribly damaged by the hurricane last year and they have alot of rebuilding to do. We did the stingray city tour, which is awesome. There must be hundreds of stingrays it freaks you out a little because there are so many of them. We did a little shopping, but Mexico is the next stop so save your shopping for there. The next day we were in Mexico and did snorkeling and the power boat tour. Both were fun but the power boat excursion was soooo much fun, definitely worth the money!!! After that we went some shops and went shopping, you're in Cozumel don't pay full price for anything, definitely bargain them down... next to went to Carlos and Charles in Cozumel... what can I say but FUN!!!! we spent a few hours there, that is definitely an experience not to miss. Margaritas and shots later we took a cab to Fat Tuesdays right at the port and stayed there for a couple of hours and danced, drank, and danced.

This was my first cruise so I didn't really have and expectations.. They ship was older but very clean. I was a little disappointed because I thought there would be more elaborate ice sculptures, but that was only one night. The dinner dining room was just like a restaurant, I was expecting maybe a more elaborate ballroom.

We chose the 730 early debarkation. this is so if you have an earlier flight, we were off the boat by 815. There are plenty of airport taxis and shuttles waiting for you, we had a private car company pick us up, but that wasn't necessary, there was more than enough transportation. My suggestion bring liquor on board, they don't check, buy it in Mexico, we saw people bring on bags of liquor and it wasn't taken from them.. although the liquor on the ship in the duty free shop is very cheap, the only thing is they don't give it to you until the morning you leave, which is no big deal if you're planning on taking it home anyways.

Like I said earlier, if we go on another cruise I am definitely paying the extra money for a nicer ship. When we were in Cozumel there were about 4 other ships and just by looking at them from the dock they had rock climbing rolls, mini golf etc. There wasn't a ton of activates on this boat. Although the nighttime entertainment was good. Good shows, great comedians. This cruise left me wanting more, next time we'll take a different boat. We give this boat an overall rating of B- to a C+.