Sea Day--Carnival Inspiration Day 4, January 23, 2014
This was our last full day on the ship to enjoy all the amenities provided on board. Inspiration started serving sea day brunch in December of 2013 and we were determined to take the opportunity to enjoy it at the Mardi Gras. We got to the restaurant at around 9:30, and were seated immediately even though the place was quite busy.
Everything on the menu looked delicious, so we ordered multiple items to satisfy our curiosities.
We used our complimentary drink coupons at this time and ordered the non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri. Delicious!
Fresh fruit plate
Steak and eggs
Egg-white omelette--I had to transfer the omelette onto my steak and egg plate and put the extra plate under because the waiter just handed me the plate even when he saw that the table was full. This was a first at any restaurant on any cruise. Later on we found out that our dinner tablemate went to guest relations and complained about the non-service at the brunch. She said they were ignored and were treated badly the whole time there. I am hoping that it's just a matter of not having enough experience with the new service on the crew part. When the same waiter came back to collect the plates later on he just stood there across the table and said "Miss!" motioning and wanted me to hand him the plates. I know they were busy but that's no excuse to treat customers in such a manner. We are low maintainence and usually things don't irritates us, but I was irritated. I did talk to the person in charge afterward and she said that should never have happened.
Mac and Cheese with beef
grilled salmon
Blueberry pancakes
Dessert--some kind of cheese cake
cream pie
Mind you that I did not eat all these, they were things that were ordered between the three of us.
The amazing thing that happened during brunch was that we saw this guy walking past our table and it was Bill (Zedecruiser) whom we met on the two inaugural Splendor cruises in 2008, from Genoa to Dover and then the Baltics. We were also on the same tour for two days in St. Petersburg. It was creepy because we were just talking about how Bill knows about everything Carnival and then a few minutes later he appeared right in front of us. He was totally shocked when we went up to say hi. He said the reason that he was there was to see how the Sea Day Brunch was working out on Inspiration and also getting the old menu one more time before the new menu is being implemented on the Inspiration.
After brunch we just enjoyed a relaxing day around the ship.
more people were enjoying the Serenity
lots of empty deck chairs
We played some golf here, totally fun!
We did not plan on going to the sea day afternoon tea but when we went past Mardi Gras in the afternoon, we just went in for a peek. Unfortunately, we were the last ones in and they were already cleaning up the place. So we just had a cup of tea and some soggy cucumber sandwiches. Blah!
Our last dinner was uneventful and both food and service were fine even though it took a long time to finish. As always we were one of the last groups to get out of the restaurant.
sushi-good
crab cake--OK
cream of mushroom soup
mahi mahi, not as good as I expected it to be
Banana Split from the kids menu. Should have ordered that more. But I guess the sugar level probably exceeds what we are allowed.
Debarkation--Carnival Inspiration Day 5, January 24, 2014
This has to be the slowest debarkation ship that we have been on. We were not in a hurry and planned on enjoying our morning on the ship. The problem was that they wanted eveyone out of their cabins by 8:30 and breakfast was done serving at 9:00. So people would just be waiting in various locations with not much to do unless you want to get a drink from the bar. After breakfast at the Mardi Gras, we found a spot at the library and waited for our turn to get off. I think we were group 15, which was scheduled to get off between 10:30~11:00 but at 10:45 they were still disembarking the self-assisted passengers. Now we understood why we had to wait so long for boarding on the first day.
We waited here at the library. It was empty at first but slowly got crowded with people sleeping on the couches.
Constantly long line--some people claimed that they were in line for an hour. And these were supposedly self-debarking passengers. The line did not stop here, it went past guest relations through the hallways on the left of this picture.
Not sure who those people up on the stairs were, possibly passengers with Priority passes.
Mardi Gras
Rhapsody in Blue--could be a good spot to wait for debarkation. There were only two people waiting in there.
Inside Rhapsody in Blue
The line actually got better after all the self-assisted passengers got off. When we saw that the line was almost gone for one number before they called another number, we went ahead and exited the ship. It was already 11:15 by then. The line on the gangway to the dome was still incredibly long because of the immigration/custom process. They only had four counters opened for all the 2,000 plus passengers which caused the delay in debarking. By the time we got out of the terminal it was close to 12:00. A call was made to Hotel Maya for a pick up as soon as we were outside and we were on our way home soon after we retreived our car from the parking lot.
This concluded our short but sweet Carnival cruise. Next up, Radiance of the Sea, Sydney roundtrip to New Zealand. Can't wait!
