Live from the infinity - June 12 a 19

Wow! We are loving this. I can see now why cruising is addictive. This is amazing- and we haven't even gotten to a port yet.

I am going to try to keep a little live report each day. Let me know if I can answer questions for anyone! The Internet is so so, and I'm no blogger but I'll do my best. I'm on my phone so typos are a given...

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I probably missed the picture of the repair work.

Love having daily updates. It makes the wait for our July 3 sailing easier to take.

Have a great trip!

Carol

Us

We are a couple in our 40s from the east coast, work pretty demanding jobs. We have 2 boys, 6 and 13 who are with the grandparents while we take our first couple vacation since before our youngest was born. We debated bringing the kids, but didn't for a couple of reasons. 1. Cost! 2. Our oldest has high functioning autism. We needed to scout out the vacation to see how he'd do. I think he would love this, but we just weren't sure and didn't want to be stuck on a boat for 8 days if he hated it. Next time! For now we are really enjoying reconnecting.

Getting here

We dropped the kids off on Saturday and flew out of Charlotte that afternoon. Strangely, no directs to Vancouver. We had a very easy tsa experience in Charlotte despite recent reports of hours long waits. We probably waited 20 minutes if not less.

We had to do customs in Toronto which was kids of a pain. You have to get your bags, re tag them, then exit and go through Canada's version of tsa. Again about a 20-30 minute wait. We had 1:24 between flights and walked right on to the plane at our gate. I wouldn't schedule a connecting out of Toronto with much less time between flights.

We then took west jet to Vancouver. A fine flight, about 4 hours. It was 2 am when we landed our time, and we were feeling a little delirious. In our fog we couldn't quite figure the shuttle to our hotel so we just took a cab.

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I love live updates. Thank you for taking us along!

Vancouver hotel.

Since our arrival was so late we opted to save our dollars and stay at an airport hotel. I did Hotwire about 45 days out and got a holiday inn for $100 US. If was a little old but very friendly and comfortable with good wifi and a nice bed. Nothing walkable nearby, but a fine place to lay our heads for a few hours.

Despite our late arrival I was up at 5 am! The internal clock knows no times zones. Oh well. Did some reading shower etc and facetimed the kids.

About 1030 we took a cab to Canada place. It was a MOB SCENE outside. We got dropped off a block or so away and trucked inside. We dropped our bags with the longshoremen and got outta there!

We took martincaths excellent brunch advice instead of heading straight on board. The weather was gorgeous and we had a nice walk to Medina, a cozy local-favorite brunch spot. The wait was about 45 -60 minutes, which we passed by getting a coffee and chatting with a very nice Vancouver girl (hi shelley!). Soon we were seated and enjoyed seriously the best waffle I've ever had. Dipped in salted caramel. Oh my. Let the vacation begin!

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We had other awesome food and coffee too. I had a special frittata with so much deliciousness in it - goat cheese, Carmelized onions, yams, herbs and tomatoes. His bad had a delicious cassoulet bathe sauce was kind of Indian/North African tasting to me. Yum.

We meandered back Canada place at 2. No line to check in and about 8 minutes in customs. Room was ready! This is the way to do it! Thanks again martincath for steering is there!

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Room

We upgraded to a gty suite about 30 days out. We expected an accessible suite and that's what we got! We did the upgrade for a few reasons, none of which was the size of the room, so it is fine to us.

Roger is our butler. Great fella from Honduras. When I got on the ship I thought having a butler was a ridiculous idea. 24 hours later I'm in love.

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We are in deck 9 with a large overhang. The ping pong is overhead. I knew this was a possibility so was prepared for it. I was not prepared for the fact that there is a PROFESSIONAL ping pong team on board that practices. A lot. I don't expect this will be an issue for many cruisers so I don't mean to put anyone off the room. But. It's pretty annoying.

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Otherwise the room is lovely. It has a huge overhang, which for me is a giant plus. I have a standing date with my dermatologist every 6 months to get bits of me cut off as penance for my sun worshipping youth, so I'm thankful for a shaded balcony.

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. Soon we were seated and enjoyed seriously the best waffle I've ever had. Oh my. Let the vacation begin!

Did you say WAFFLE? ;)

We did sail away one he front of the ship which was lovely. The scenery out of Vancouver is spectacular. Then exploring, music at the aft bar, muster (which was surprisingly painless -15 minutes total!) unpacking.

We went to the 7 pm comedy show. The guy Dan was really funny! Way better than I expected though lightly attended.

On to dinner!

Oh luminae. I am in love. Truly. This was the reason I upgraded. Even with first night craziness, service was friendly, accessible and the food was fine restaurant quality.

We had a ham croquette amuse Bouche. It was lovely. Appetizers weren't to our taste though beautifully presented. I had tomato soup. I loved the way the ingredients were artfully laid on he bowl, and then the soup was poured over them. Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as it looked. Pork belly app that dh ordered was okay. My filet was divine however as was his duck entree. Desserts were equally yum. Almond cake and a chicolate something.

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DanaDanes I am looking forward to reading your updates as they are posted. I am excited for our cruise and this makes it easier to wait. If you could post pictures of the Dailies as you get them I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks and have a great cruise.

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:):) Thank you, thank you, thank you! Can't wait to hear more about your cruise. Thank you for doing this. ;)

Enjoying your posts and photos! Can't wait for our cruise in September 2017 - too far away!:(

Did you say WAFFLE? ;)

lots of them!

Thanks for taking the time to fill us in! We sail on June 26th! I'm guessing all is well with the ships condition. Looking forward to hearing how your stop in Ketchikan goes. :)

Vancouver hotel.

 

Since our arrival was so late we opted to save our dollars and stay at an airport hotel. I did Hotwire about 45 days out and got a holiday inn for $100 US. If was a little old but very friendly and comfortable with good wifi and a nice bed. Nothing walkable nearby, but a fine place to lay our heads for a few hours.

 

Despite our late arrival I was up at 5 am! The internal clock knows no times zones. Oh well. Did some reading shower etc and facetimed the kids.

 

About 1030 we took a cab to Canada place. It was a MOB SCENE outside. We got dropped off a block or so away and trucked inside. We dropped our bags with the longshoremen and got outta there!

 

We took martincaths excellent brunch advice instead of heading straight on board. The weather was gorgeous and we had a nice walk to Medina, a cozy local-favorite brunch spot. The wait was about 45 -60 minutes, which we passed by getting a coffee and chatting with a very nice Vancouver girl (hi shelley!). Soon we were seated and enjoyed seriously the best waffle I've ever had. Dipped in salted caramel. Oh my. Let the vacation begin!

 

 

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We are staying at the Vancouver Hyatt right near the ship terminal. What advice did you get about the time to board the ship? We are so close to the ship we are not sure what the best time is for us to check out and head to the ship to avoid massive crowds.

Thanks for the Infinity Updates. We live in Alaska & always love to hear when people are enjoying themselves in our beautiful state!! We'll be on the Infinity in December & are enjoying the comments regarding the ship as well.

Myself and my family will be in infinity after the Alaska cruise season. In the fall. Looking forward to it

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