Review of Celebrity Infinity-Pacific Coastal May 17th Sailing

Celebrity Infinity May 2017

Background- Total of about 35 cruises, ~30 with Celebrity,last few were all on Solstice class ships.

Route-We started in San Diego and moved up the coast ending in Vancouver, 7 stops in 11 nights, also doing an overnight in San Francisco,each city stunning in its own right. They couldn’t have picked a better itinerary, and we were only touched by rain one time in our journey which lasted about an hour, luckily that was on a sea day, so it affected nothing other than missing an hour in a lounge chair

Boarding

Boarding in San Diego was hectic. Two ships Infinity and Disney Magic) were boarding the same day and port didn’t seem well equipped to handle more than one. Once we made it past the security screening all was fine and smooth but did take about 1-2 hours to get to that point. We purposely arrived later in the day to avoid crowds (boarding started about 11, we arrived at 2), but still chaotic. 6/10 (but Celebrity’s portion 9/10)

Cabin

I initially booked a C3 for this voyage bit a few weeks before a Suite Guarantee became available for a nominal $600 so I grabbed it since it also included the 4 perks, so I ended up in an S2 on deck 6. The room was nicely maintained and updated (Infinity was refurbished in 2011), and carpets were changed again 2 years ago. The Sky suites are a bit smaller on the Millenium class that the Solstice class (250 vs 300ft2), but plenty of room for two people. Small balcony as well with a few chairs was great. Only negative I found with the suite was the combination bath tub/showers limited height. If you are tall it’s a bit awkward, as is just climbing in the high wall of the tub.Heard a few people that had sky and Celebrity suites complain unless you are tall it’s hard to climb into the tub/shower.

Plenty of closet space, drawers and storage, so much so that I only used about ½ of it. Did like the little touches, the plush bath towels, great sheets, and that the room attendant and butler introduced themselves the first day. Cabin service was excellent. Never used the room service, but cabin was serviced twice a day and butler checked in 3x a day, and canapes delivered daily at about 4PM 9/10

Excursions

Took two of the ships excursions and good ROI (return on investment on both). We visited the Reagan library in Santa Barbara and whale watching in Victoria. The tendering operation was a bit frustrating for some as we tendered in two ports, and somewhere getting antsy about the lines, but I think that’s just a part of cruising.Always amazed how crabby some people get over little things beyond their control. I do wish they would re-write the explanations on excursions details though. It just seems like every excursions details include two much flowery generic prose that could be found in a tourist publication and not really any nuts and bolts detail of nuts & bolts of the tour (how much time will we spend on bus, what places are we visiting, are we going to be sidetracked to a pottery place to try and sell us trinkets?). I wish it was more of a bulleted time line of what, where, when and how long. 7/10

Food & Dining

Main Trellis Dining Room-Didn’t try it

Sushi on 5-Didn’t try it

Blu- Tried it once enjoyed it-Seemed to me to be a mini-me version of the MDR with smaller portions and a few different selections, nicer more intimate atmosphere than MDR. 7/10

Luminae-We dined the majority of our meals here. Can’t say any negatives about it. Truly a 100% positive experience. Service OUTSTANDING,by the second day everyone on staff knows your name and has the atmosphere of a place you’ve been dining out for decades. Food well prepared, original,seasoned and cooked to order. Their recommendations were generally spot on. The menu consisted of about 4 or 5 appetizer/soup/salad dishes and about the same in main courses. You could also order off the MDR menu if something didn’t catch your eye, but most meals I found the Luminae selection to be the better quality choice. Not even once did I find myself waiting for service, a course,or a table. Efficient, friendly and great attention is given to everything.Only open on sea days for lunch which makes sense, since when they have tried to keep it open every day (on past cruises), as it sits empty unless it’s a sea day. 10/10

Qsine-It’s a fun playful experience and you always end up with a lot more food than you can ever imagine. My only negative is that since you use the Ipads to select your dishes, would it be two difficult to have them connected to the waiter? It just seems silly that put all these inputs into a computer and ultimately the waiter comes and writes them down on a slip of paper.

Bravo to Qsine for the way they handle vegan/vegetarian dishes. One person in our party, preferred vegan/vegetarian, and for just about every dish we ordered that contained meat or seafood, he offered our friend a meat/dairy/etc/etc/etc free version of the same or similar items. Truly astounded me on how the waiter kept track of the ultimately 20+ or so different dishes that he bought the three of us. 8/10

Tuscan Grille-It was awesome, had dinner one night with Captain and 8 other guests, and last night dined with the Hotel Director and three friends, and it was fabulous. I savored every bite of every dish. Filet Mignon was fantastic (as for the brown mushroom sauce for it), the plate on Antipasto (prosciutto, sopressata, salami and cheeses was heavenly). Again in Tuscan my one friend’s dietary requests were adjusted to give him alternates to the meat heavy menu. The establishment itself has a great ambience, nice old world Italian steak house design. Service was attentive but not overbearing. Like Luminae it’s a great restaurant to have a conversation in. Tables and seating are set up so you’re not having to raise your voice to speak at someone at the other end. 10/10

Oceanview Grill- Ate their twice for breakfast and a few times for lunch It’s hit or miss. I like the salads, fresh fruit and ice cream.Pizza’s are limp right out of the oven rather than crisp (I’m used to New York pizza which the Gold standard), a few of the dishes were good, but nothing really memorable. They do a great job of bussing tables, and making sure people aren’t waiting for tables. 8/10

Bars & Lounges-Great smiling faces at them all. Most of the cruise critic events were held at the Constellation Lounge on deck 11.Especially though that Istavan from Hungary was fantastic. Superb fun bartending group overall. Erik and Dian fantastic at Michaels club. Didn’t spend much time at sunset or martini bar though, so hard to give you good feedback on those. 9/10

Entertainment

Was fun that they did the silent disco a few times, I think it’s a slam dunk win even if you don’t participate, and just watch the fun. Alejandro did a good job, and the activities team really seemed to enjoy getting people involved in everything from bingo, to trivia, to mock game shows. Always enjoy the Celebrity dancers and singers, the material is usually dated, but their vigor and enthusiasm makes it fun to watch. Liked some of the guest performers, magician was funny, and always fun when you see them tailor their act to audience a bit,and make it interactive. 7/10

Spa

Tried an 80 minute massage, it was OK. They always try for the upsell though. 80 minute massage DISCOUNTED rate was ~$200, then if you want hot stones during it, that’s ~$30 more. I’m a massage junkie at home, and this was pretty good but not very good 6/10

Crew

In a word-OUTSTANDING. Captain Berdos and Hotel Director(HD)Bosco Pires work together like a well oiled machine. Their personalities are similar and I think so is their work ethic, excellence performance. I can’t say enough good things about them and their management style. Rest of the department heads outstanding as well. The housekeeping manager, the F&B director, guest relations manager, restaurant managers all go out of their way to keep passengers happy. Kirsty the Captains club host also spectacular as was the event coordinator. The excellence of the senior managers rolls down to the staff which seems totally engaged in guest satisfaction. The senior staff attended every event that we had from Captains Club to CC, to informal gatherings, and were always asking what they can do to make things better.Great sign of an engaged group of men and women.

One of the stories I heard from the HD I thought was surprising.He told me he found being a HD on a Millenium class ship more challenging then on a Solstice class ship. I would of though since Solstice having more dining venues, more passengers, more lounges and staterooms it would be tougher. He went on to eloquently explain that because the Solstice class ships have all the “bells and whistles” (my words not his, his explanation was much more poetic), it makes it easier from a guest relations standpoint. The older ships it takes some extra marketing and extra effort to make them a competitor, and he enjoys that extra challenge of showing any product he is currently serving aboard. Really enjoyed our talks as much as the meals. 10/10

Overall-I’d give the cruise 5 stars. Any minor things I pointed out were minor in comparison to all the great things that the team onboard does to keep you happy. You know it’s been an excellent cruise when you’re two biggest complaints were that

Voicemail in my room didn’t work

Internet was slow

I already have my next voyage booked on Infinity for February of 2018, so see I put my money where my mouth is

I’ll end the review with this story the Captain read on the public address system the last day, it’s called “Why I want to be a Captain” and was written by an 10 year old British boy.

“I want to be a captain when I grow up because it’s a cool job that is easy to do. Captains don’t have to go to school such a long time.They only need to learn figures so they can read instruments. I think they also have to able to read maps so they don’t get lost when they sail.

Captains have to be brave so they don’t get scared when it’s so foggy they can’t see and when the propeller falls off they have to know what to do about it. Captains must have eyes that can see through the clouds and they mustn’t be afraid of thunder and lightning which they have closer to them than we have.

The captain’s wages is another thing I like. They earn more money than they can spend. That’s because most people think it’s dangerous to drive a boat, except captains, because they know how easy it is. There’s not much I don’t like, except that girls like captains. All girls want to marry a captain, so captains are always having to chase them away to get some peace…

I hope I don’t get seasick, because if I get seasick I can’t be a captain and I’ll have to start working.”

That was one very, very nice review.

Thanks for a great review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We were on Infinity in Oct for ABC Islands,,,we enjoyed it...Blu not so much but thumbs up for Tuscan and Q sine. Also enjoyed the boy's letter the Capt shared,

We are booked on Infinity again next Oct for a Pacific Coastal itin but ours is from San Pedro 8 days up Ca coast,.,,,hope it stays in good shape!

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the feedback and the nice photos.

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Thanks for your review and for the story as well.

Enjoyed the review, thanks!

Thanks for the review.

Thank you for your excellent review. We are on the Pacific Coastal with Infinity out of San Pedro this September. I am not too familiar with tendering. You mention that it was frustrating for some people. How long should we expect it to take to get off the ship?

Great review! Sounds like a fun time was had.

Thank you so much, We will be doing our first Celebrity cruise in September and are excited. Your photo's are an advertisement as to why you should book Celebrity. Our dear friends are traveling with us and we can't wait to see this ship. We have sailed NCL, Princess, Disney and now Celebrity coming up. Great review!

Mr. Johnny,

Thanks for posting. :)

Thanks for the great review!

Thank you for the nice review. I'll be on the Infinity in two weeks, so it was great to hear how attentive the staff are.

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Nice review, thanks for posting. Sounds like a nice itinerary.

John, it was a pleasure meeting you on this terrific voyage. I can't add much to your excellent recap except to say our experience and enjoyment mirrored yours. We, too, took advantage of the suite guarantee upgrade when it was offered. What a great decision as the access to Luminae truly elevates the overall cruise experience.

Living in California, we're all too familiar with what is known as "May gray" and "June gloom" weather patterns of cool, cloudy and overcast skies at this time of year. Normally, this itinerary is best done in Fall when the Pacific Coast has its true summertime weather. But Mother Nature hit a home run with the abundance of sunshine and comfortable temps all the way from California to British Columbia.

This itinerary and cruise were pure pleasure.

Nice Review. We were on the Infinity years ago through the Panama Canal. One thing we are wondering is about food. We don't eat in the restaurants and only eat at the buffet (we have to get dressed up every day for work so look forward to wearing shorts). The last time the only meals they had at night was baked pasta and chinese. No salads or veggies or any other options. Also, they stopped cooking burgers at 5:00. So, has anything changed? Thank you.

Nice Review. We were on the Infinity years ago through the Panama Canal. One thing we are wondering is about food. We don't eat in the restaurants and only eat at the buffet (we have to get dressed up every day for work so look forward to wearing shorts). The last time the only meals they had at night was baked pasta and chinese. No salads or veggies or any other options. Also, they stopped cooking burgers at 5:00. So, has anything changed? Thank you.

There is now a daily, full dinner buffet served in the Oceanview Cafe. On Infinity, the burgers are just outside the buffet and served until 6:00pm. The full dinner buffet inside begins at 6:00pm (except for Pizza and made-to-order pasta which is open continuously from around Noon to midnight).

Thanks for your review. We also were on this cruise and thought it was wonderful. Itinerary couldn't be better.

Service was great pretty much everywhere. While we didn't go to any specialties or to the theater we had a great time. I was sad to see it end.

We ate most meals in the MDR and thought it was good to excellent. We compare this to Oceania which is the other main cruise line we do. I don't know what the people that gripe about a downgrade in quality are talking about.

:')

John, it was a pleasure meeting you on this terrific voyage. I can't add much to your excellent recap except to say our experience and enjoyment mirrored yours. We, too, took advantage of the suite guarantee upgrade when it was offered. What a great decision as the access to Luminae truly elevates the overall cruise experience.

 

Living in California, we're all too familiar with what is known as "May gray" and "June gloom" weather patterns of cool, cloudy and overcast skies at this time of year. Normally, this itinerary is best done in Fall when the Pacific Coast has its true summertime weather. But Mother Nature hit a home run with the abundance of sunshine and comfortable temps all the way from California to British Columbia.

 

This itinerary and cruise were pure pleasure.

My absolute pleasure meeting you both as well :D

Thanks for your review. We also were on this cruise and thought it was wonderful. Itinerary couldn't be better.

 

Service was great pretty much everywhere. While we didn't go to any specialties or to the theater we had a great time. I was sad to see it end.

 

We ate most meals in the MDR and thought it was good to excellent. We compare this to Oceania which is the other main cruise line we do. I don't know what the people that gripe about a downgrade in quality are talking about.

I couldn't agree more with your synopsis. I think if you look hard enough you can find good and bad in every aspect of the hospitality biz, so happy that Celebrity shows us the good

We were also on this wonderful cruise. We liked itinerary so much we booked similar cruise next year. Thanks for your review!

We were on the Infinity for our very first cruise in May 2001. The ship was just a couple months old and was in a word...amazing! We always loved Infinity, especially that super awesome jacuzzi pool in the solarium (you have a pic of it). Hope it lived up to your expectations.

Thank you so much BEAV:) Really appreciate it. Maybe you can answer another question - we are used to cruising with Princess where we can get to our cabin when we board - is this true with Infinity or do we need to check our luggage and get into the cabin later in the day? Thank you.

We were on this cruise and went right to our cabin immediately after boarding.

Thank you so much edgee:)