Imagination - Miami vs. Inspiration - Tampa

[jrdoa]

My wife and I are looking to book a cruise in November 2005. This will be my first and wife's 2nd. We are looking at porting out of either Tampa or Miami. We will not be staying in these cities any additional days.

Which boat (Imagination - Miami vs. Inspiration - Tampa) would you recommend sailing on? We are in our early 30's and cruising to Cozumel for 4 days. We enjoy good food, good drinks, and good times.

Thanks for all the responses in advance.

[Darcy]

I've sailed the Inspiration twice out of Tampa and she remains one of my favorite ships. I've found both embarkation and debarkation out of Tampa to be very easy to do and Tampa's an easy city to fly in and out of. Having said that, just be aware that with cruising in and out of Tampa you have to be able to navigate the channel. On our April 2005 cruise on the Miracle we had some bad weather coming back and couldn't get into the channel. We were supposed to be in port at 8:00 am, but didn't dock until about noon and it was about 1:30 - 2:00 before we cleared customs and were off the ship. For this reason I always book a late flight out and plan to do something in port for the day.

[David West]

I've never been on the Imagination, but I have been on the Inspiration The Inspiration was our second cruise, and our most exciting cruise to date. We sailed on the Inspiration when it was ported in N. O. /
7-day cruise to the Western Carribean.

I've always said, that was the one cruise I would've sailed back to back on. The atmosphere onboard that week was amazing. So I guess you could say that I'm a bit partial to the Inspiration.

I would fly in the day before. That way if you do have a delay, time is on your side. If all goes well, thats great You can get up the morning of your cruise relaxed and ready for your cruise No worries there mate. 8)

Either way, you have a win - win situation. Both ships could be great.

Happy cruising;
David