We apologize for the lapse in time, but we chose not to write about this right away as we wanted to give Carnival the opportunity to make things right. They kind of did. After weeks of phone calls, emails, and online reviews, we finally had to bring our "case" into the court of public opinion... aka Facebook. After writing the long post and tagging Carnival at the recommendation of our Skymiles Cruises travel planner, we finally were contacted by Carnival through a Facebook Messenger DM.
Within 6 hours of their DM, a supervisor from Carnival's Guest Care department was apologizing right and left for the many mistakes they made in handling our situation. Long story short, we are not pleased with Carnival's (lack of) customer service. If you would like to read more details on our horrific experience, the link will be at the end of this post.
**We took this 4 day trip with our best friends, Sam and Louie! Dill, Louie, and I had never cruised Carnival, I guess there is a first and last for everything...
Now, down to the nitty gritty...
Day 1 - The Ship
After embarking with priority, we went to explore the ship we would be calling home for the next four days. The room wasn't ready, but this ended up being a good thing because after exploring the majority of our day 1 turned into dealing with Carnival's Guest Services due to the soaked rooms (see Facebook post). The ship was... OLD... the carpets, decor, etc. were... OLD. Being a 3 and 4 day only itinerary, we guess Carnival doesn't feel the need to have fancy features. We had opportunities to eat in the buffet, dining room, and at the pool (home of Guy's Burgers Joint and the BlueIguana Cantina). Just a recommendation to future cruisers, if you happen to find yourself on the Inspiration, which we don't recommend, steer clear of the buffet. The food in the buffet seemed picked over, not fresh, and not good. With that being said, the dining room was better than we had expected and the pool side eateries exceeded expectations and became a staple on our afternoon snack soirée's.
Day 2 - It's the Fucking Catalina Wine Mixer
Although our day didn't start out as timely as we wanted to, due to moving staterooms in a rush, once we made it off the ship in Catalina we explored the island. It had been 5 years since the last time all 4 of us had been on Catalina. The first thing we did was walk to the arcade (Three Palms Avalon Arcade) the four of us hung out in the last time and right away, we went to find the duck pin bowling!!! It wasn't exactly what our 17 year old selves remembered, but we had fun anyway! After bowling and a few arcade games, we walked down the streets of Catalina and eventually found ourselves at The Old Casino. We walked around some more, discovered a private beach club we have never seen before, but it was too cold to even think about laying out!
On the main boulevard, as any good tourist would do, we had to go into Lloyd's candy shop to get some famous salt water taffy. After having our dessert first, we weren't quite ready to have our Wiki's Whacked, but it was definitely time for a cold beer and bar food at Luau Larry's.
Back on the ship, we got all dolled up for formal night and felt like a million bucks $$$!!!
Day 3 - It's Taco Tuesday... wait it's Wednesday
We didn't have any excursions books, but who needs an excursion when you have 2 legs, a new city to explore, and margaritas on every corner! Ensenada was really chill, as we did a little souvenir shopping, a little margarita tasting, and a little taco eating.
We found Ensenada to be very commercial, and after a couple hours of walking around, we had enough. If we every find ourselves in Ensenada again, we will DEFINITELY book an excursion.
Back on the ship we went to the Serenity Adult Area, jacuzzied it up, and had a couple of 'foofoo' drinks. While walking back to our rooms, Dill and Louie thought it would be fun to ride the HUGE water slide on board... turns out it was wayyyyyy tooooo cooold and not fun at all! We ate again in the dining room, and then went to the bar by the Casino to enjoy some tunes.
Day 4 - Sea Day
Turns out 3 days aboard the Inspiration is MORE than enough. Sammi and Sam enjoyed their girl's morning at the Spa while Dill and Louie slept ALL THE WAY IN until noon. We had brunch, gambled a bit, and went our separate ways until meeting up for dinner. On this smaller and older ship, there is not a lot to do, but drink and eat. So while Sam, Sammi, and Louie napped, that is exactly what Dill did... drank and ate!
Day 5 - Oh what a relief it is...
Usually, we are sad for a trip to be ending, but through the aggravation and ALL of the annoyances, it was good to be back on land and off the Carnival Inspiration.
Prior to going on our trip, we were warned by a lot of people to steer clear of Carnival. The truth is, that had we not have had the disasters in our staterooms, it wouldn't have been so bad. We think Carnival definitely needs to work on their customer service and if you can try cruising with Royal Caribbean or Norwegian Cruises, because based off of our experiences, it's better to spend a few extra bucks. When it comes to cruising and being aboard your floating hotel for multiple days, you truly get what you pay for.