Infinity - Great Floating Hotel - 8 ports; 1 sea day; British Isles - June 13-23

Glad you enjoyed your cruise, many thanks for the review. We were on the cruise before yours to Iceland and Norway and also had an amazing time, the ship was fantastic, I'm glad it continued and you also got good weather :)

Thanks for the review, we sailed on her 3 times and thought she was great.

Enjoyed your report.

Keith

This was a wonderful cruise. Great weather every day. The tendering in St. Peter Port was very long. If you book an excursion through CC, you get off early. Otherwise you get a number at a table on deck 5 and wait your turn. We didn't have anything planned, so we left later in the morning and got right off.

We didn't have anything planned, so we left later in the morning and got right off.

Can you tell us how you arranged to leave the ship late in the morning, as we have a early evening flight out of FLL. Obviously, you can't wait in the cabin, where did you wait? Did you self disembark and if so did it present problems. Thanks for suggestions!

Can you tell us how you arranged to leave the ship late in the morning, as we have a early evening flight out of FLL. Obviously, you can't wait in the cabin, where did you wait? Did you self disembark and if so did it present problems. Thanks for suggestions!

Weldon is talking about Tendering at a port.

I think you are thinking about disembarkation. They will assign you a lounge to wait in until your disembarkation time.

There are Celebrity trips to the Everglades which will drop you at the airport. I have not done one, but I have seen them advertised.

Also, if you have a Celebrity package( flight + transport) a day hotel will be booked for you ( well it is for passengers ex UK, not sure about Choiceair)

The last scheduled departure time was 0845 (or earlier). All departures were from the theatre or ensemble lounge. Walk-offs started at 0600. We were in group 2 with a scheduled time of 0645. Since there is no customs/immigration at the port, there is no line and they are anxious to get you off the ship to be ready to start boarding at 1100. You may want to plan on going early and taking one of their short tours before arriving at LHR. Please allow yourself plenty of time at LHR - it makes up for the quick, efficient disembarkation at Harwich.

Upwarduk is correct. I was speaking about tendering in St. Peter Port. I purchased a transfer from Celebrity from Harwich to Heathrow. If you do this, you are assigned a number (for purposes of luggage collection and bus) and a time when you are scheduled to leave the ship according to when your flight leaves. You go to your assigned waiting area, wait until your number is called, exit the ship and either collect your luggage or carry it off with you. You then look for the corresponding bus number. The driver loads the luggage for you. Otherwise you need to find your own way to get the the airport. You can walk off the ship early.

I enjoyed reading your review. Your itinerary is on our bucket list.

Do you plan to post pictures of your cruise?

Good review. We go 14th July and I found it very useful. Thank you

For those that just did this cruise, did you find that tickets were still available to purchase from celebrity to transfer to heathrow and stop at Windsor, once on board? They have sold out on line, but I was told to just buy once on board - that they leave seats available to book on the ship. I am concerned about not taking care of the transfer in advance. Thanks

For those that just did this cruise, did you find that tickets were still available to purchase from celebrity to transfer to heathrow and stop at Windsor, once on board? They have sold out on line, but I was told to just buy once on board - that they leave seats available to book on the ship. I am concerned about not taking care of the transfer in advance. Thanks

I wouldn't take any chances.....I would call Celebrity. I have found that if you call in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, you will get to an agent quicker.

Cheers!

- Holyhead - BusyBus. Not recommended. Their advertising implies they use small busses to get to places the big busses can't go. We were met by two 50 passenger coaches and one 30 passenger coach. We were told they shifted since it was so hot and only the big busses had air con. Well one of them did. Our initial tour guide was one of the worst we have ever had. We shifted to the other bus with the company manager. There were 5 empty seats on the bus. Seems like they have lost their focus on service and now favor bigger profits, If you want a small group tour, find another vendor.

Open for questions.

I can't believe you found the busybus tour bad? We were on it recently and it was the best tour of the trip - by far! We had a guide "Peter" and it was just non-stop entertainment. The tour took in places other ship excursions definately didn't go.

I also fail to understand how you can claim their advertising suggests what vehicles they have (or use). Their website makes it totally clear? 16, 30 and 49 passenger. What's wrong with that?

Perhaps you just had a bad hair day? Poor ol' busybus! I don't think they deserved that slating. :( Go-busybus-go...prove me right and thanks again for my tour! Loved it :-)

...

Glad you enjoyed your cruise, many thanks for the review. We were on the cruise before yours to Iceland and Norway and also had an amazing time, the ship was fantastic, I'm glad it continued and you also got good weather :)

We will be taking the Iceland/Norway cruise July 24th...any suggestions for excursions?

Many thanks.

Infinity is in great shape. If you want to find minor flaws you can, but none were distracting or bear mentioning. The crew is happy and responsive. Hotel department officers very visible while at sea and in port; navigation officers were busy going from port to port.

 

Ship set up a Cruise Critic meeting for the first evening just after boarding (from 7:45 - 8:15PM) providing sparkling wine and mimosas. Several hotel department staff were there although they were very busy having just embarked over 2000 guests. Our first 8 days were in various ports so it was nice to meet other CC members early on rather than waiting until the day before disembarkation.

 

Dining in Trellis was very good. We had anytime dining and made reservations for 6PM. We found an excellent waiter Jose Salinas and his big assistant Zambrano who took great care of us, even though they were very busy doing it. Excellent service and good food. We normally book AQ and there is a world of difference in food prep between Trellis and Blu.

 

Standard fare of three production shows and the usual magicians and entertainers. The highlight was a Beatles impressions group the night we left Liverpool - how appropriate.

 

Formal nights - evenings departing St. Peter Port and Holyhead. Made for a quick change for our standing 6PM reservation, but our only sea day was the day before disembarking. Formal night - about 90% of the men had coat and tie, some in formal attire. 10% did not appear to meet the dress code, but were not turned away.

 

Captains Club evening receptions in the Constellation Lounge - deck 11 forward; no coupons

Captains Club morning treats in the SS United States on deck 3 midships.

 

Cabin - 3114. Nice new cabin where the meeting rooms used to be. Great big circular window. Particularly nice cabin for a very port intensive trip in cold climate. Michael and his assistant, Vladimir, kept it clean and always greeted us and opened the door if they were in the passageway.

 

Embarkation in Harwich was easy. Eddie Manning delivered two other couples and us arriving about 12:30. We were onboard in about 10 minutes - no long lines anywhere.

 

Disembarkation. Luggage tag numbers based on information already available, e.g., flight numbers from Choice Air. Since we had prearranged earlier transport with Eddie Manning, we asked for and received earlier numbers. (Very nice not to have to fill out paperwork on the second day of the cruise.) Immigration is done at the airports, so it's not like Fort Lauderdale with long lines. Disembarkation started at 6:45 with 8:45 the last time. Very quick and efficient.

 

We did all private tours arranged through CC except for ship's tour from Le Havre to Paris.

- LeHavre/Paris - Ship tour LH03 - Paris sightseeing with lunch cruise. Lots of windshield time. As expected, most sights were seen from inside the bus passing by. River cruise lunch was very good with narrated tour. Had about an hour to walk around the Eiffel Tower and shop for souvenirs. 2.5 - 3 hours each way.

- St. Peter Port - After some initial confusion over the meeting point, Gill Girard gave us an excellent walking tour and her brother did likewise using his taxi showing the high spots around the island including the German Occupation Museum. We were on the first tender; by 10:30 reported wait was about 1.5-2.0 hours for tenders. Go early and avoid the crowd.

- Cobh/Cork - eCoach/Butler's Bus. Excellent guide and tour. Got us to Blarney Castle before the hoards from the ship tours. Could have been a long wait if you were on the last bus. Saw several additional sites and had time for lunch.

- Dunmore East/Waterford - All Ireland Chauffeur Tours. Another excellent tour. It was hard to find a provider here, but these guys did an excellent job. Again a tender port. We were on the first tender with our group.

- Dublin - Tour Dublin - Good tour, but do not take option B to Malahide Castle. It's a long trip and shortens the time in Dublin plus the ship tours had bought out all the afternoon castle tours. Disappointing.

- Liverpool - Liverpool History Taxi Tour with Phil Garrard. Excellent tour. We asked for some history and Beatles sites and got it. Phil is an excellent guide with lots of information and "secret" places.

- Greenock, Scotland - Great Scot Tours. Very good tour - 8 - people. Rearranged schedule to make sure we go to Stirling castle before the ship's tour busses which cut us out of our visit to Malahide Castle.

- Holyhead - BusyBus. Not recommended. Their advertising implies they use small busses to get to places the big busses can't go. We were met by two 50 passenger coaches and one 30 passenger coach. We were told they shifted since it was so hot and only the big busses had air con. Well one of them did. Our initial tour guide was one of the worst we have ever had. We shifted to the other bus with the company manager. There were 5 empty seats on the bus. Seems like they have lost their focus on service and now favor bigger profits, If you want a small group tour, find another vendor.

 

Our background: Late 60's; active; like to see lots of sights (and we did on this cruise); 9 cruises total; 7 on X; 75 days on Celebrity ships before this one.

 

Open for questions.

Get information. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this review. Getting excited about the cruise and our trip to the British Isles and Paris.

Get information. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this review. Getting excited about the cruise and our trip to the British Isles and Paris.

Thank you for taking the time to write this concise and informative review. We will be leaving July 14. Can't wait.

N:)

Could you tell me where the port in Dublin is ? Does X have a shuttle for a cost and where does it let you off? We will be doing a similar trip the end of Aug. and are trying to make some specific plans. Thank you in advance.

There is a shuttle. If I remember correctly, the cost is $15. The shuttle stops on a side street across from Trinity College. Right down the side street, is the HOHO bus. I don't know what you mean by where the port is? Do you mean how far is it into Dublin? There was a lot of traffic so the ride took at least 20-25 mins.

We had friends got on the other HoHo bus at the point where they cross downtown. It was the wrong one and was taking them away from the shuttle to the ship. Finally got going in the right direction, but decided to take a cab back to the port (and made it).

We were dropped close to Trinity college, but even closer to Molly Mailone's statue.

Useful information here:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone

We then took the Ho-Ho bus, as the queue to get into see the Book of Kells in Trinity cloth was huge.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

You could be dropped off the bus, which we did outside Jameson's Whisky distillery, where we did a tour. Also had lunch there.

http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/uk/index

Great read thanks for taking the time & effort to do it. Sounds a really good trip, need to have a look at the finances for next year. We are in Aqua later this month they don't have a seperate Blu restaurant on Infinity do they ? If memory serves me right it's a part of Trelis.

Phil

Blu is a separate dining area on the port side on deck 5. There are walls which separate it from Trellis. The galley is a separate part of the main galley. Looking forward to it on our next trip on Infinity - South America.

Hello - I realize this post is a little old, but can you tell me more about cabin 3114? Was it noisy? Smelly? Just right? :) We are looking at this cabin for an upcoming cruise. Any information would be great! I read one review that said the diesel engine provided a white noise throughout the cruise, but that there was a slight smell of diesel one day. Did you find this to be true?

Thank you!

As I mentioned we love AQ and having meals in Blu. However, for a port intensive cruise, we didn't think we would use the balcony. It is one of the most convenient cabins on the ship. Just off the lobby area on deck three. Easy to walk down to deck one to board the tenders or to deck two for the pier. There was no noise from above or below and we were pleasantly surprised at the lack of noise from the lobby. There is a bit of a hum from the diesel engine a few decks below, but it is steady and was hardly noticeable. We enjoyed it so much that we booked it again for an upcoming port intensive Asia cruise. As far as dining goes, we are early eaters and were always one of first in line for dinner - had a two top with the same wait staff the entire cruise. Have fun!