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

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.

Infinity is in great shape.

Open for questions.

Thanks for posting. We are on the July 24th Infinity sailing. :)

Thanks for sharing!! Do you remember who the CD was?

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for sharing!! Do you remember who the CD was?

He reported on the "Who's on Board" thread that the CD is Pete Baker. :)

Thanks for review! This is a cruise we really want to take...we just cannot find one at a time we can go.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for posting. We are on the July 24th Infinity sailing. :)

Hi we are sailing on the Infinity Oct. 27 and look forward to hearing comments from a "neighbor." ;)

Shoesonfire

Thanks for posting your trip report!

Great to read that you enjoyed Infinity very much - I also really love the M-class. Food and service we also enjoyed on Summit. :)

Your review is another evidence that you should not overrate some negative, nitpicky complaints...

Thank you for your review BSinPNS it was very helpful. We are booked on the July 14 sailing and looking forward to it very much. The many ports was the attraction for us, although afterwards you need another holiday/vacation as it is exhausting. Regarding Holyhead you mentioned not to go with BusyBus, was this arranged by CC? or did you do it privately. This is the first time we are trying Aqua class, I thought Blue was great, but you say Trellis is great. How do you reserve there, or is a specialty restaurant?

We have booked our transportation to Harwich with International Friends tours 123.46 pounds for two. I don't fancy having to do all the train thing carrying luggage. Getting back to Heathrow we are going to book with CC, and I believe you can reserve that once you are on the ship. Any advice on doing that? Thanks again.

Thanks for the report! That's a great itinerary, we did a similar one on Princess a few years ago.

I just saw that Trellis is one of the main dining rooms on the Infiniti. I believe Aqua can go there as well. Will have to try it.

Thank you for your review! We sail on July 14 and can't wait, Sadly, we are already booked on busybus tours for Holyhead :mad: oh well, we will make the best of it! It's still better than a day at work!;) (I hope) thanks again for taking the time post!

Hi we are sailing on the Infinity Oct. 27 and look forward to hearing comments from a "neighbor." ;)Shoesonfire

Hello Shoes. I will be glad to. :)

We are booked to leave on this cruise in just three weeks! A couple of questions- who is Eddie Manning? Did you here of anyone taking the train from Liverpool Street Station- what was their experience? We have already booked with Busybus in Holyhead - any recommendations other than to get the bus with the tour leader? What time was the first tender in St. Peter's port so as to not wait too long to go ashore? How was your weather? Thanks so much for the information!

I'd also love to hear about the Liverpool train to Harwich, especially if you did the Manningtree transfer :-)

Thanks for the review! It sounds like you had a wonderful cruise. Did your CC group have a Sail Away gathering? Was it at the Sunset Bar on deck 10? Trying to organize a Sail Away party for July 14, was told that the Sunset Bar would be a great place, but doesn't show up on most deck plans.

Cheers!

Thanks, I will be on Infinity next year.

CaptDave

One of our CC members had used Eddie Manning Transport (just Google them) previously and liked them. She did the arranging and Eddie sent each of us an invoice which we paid via PayPal. Based on her recommendation I booked a private transfer for DW and me from LHR to Doubletree at London Tower. We paid the driver directly on that one. We were 1.5 hours late arriving from ATL but our driver knew that and was waiting for us as we exited immigration.

Several people on the cruise used the train, but I was not into moving luggage from the Underground to the train. While the transfer may be at the same station, it can be a good haul up/down levels from the subway to the train portion. The trains are very efficient and the people who took it seemed to be satisfied, but they did mention there was a lot of work with luggage. The train station is literally at the port entrance.

There are a variety of Celebrity transfers to London or LHR. There were 5-6 coaches lined up when we got off the ship. They all were scheduled to leave at the same time and of course they wait until the slowest person is off the ship and carries their luggage to the bus. I don’t know if there were separate busses for each terminal.

Heathrow is a huge airport and the terminals are not connected. We had one couple who needed to be dropped at Terminal 2 and we were going out of Terminal 4. It was about a 12-15 minute drive between them. Eddie Manning charged 12GBP for the additional stop which was fair. You need to know the specific terminal for your departure flight since some airlines operate out of two terminals that are not connected. Print your boarding passes on the ship as the queue for the check-in kiosks were long.

BusyBus – If you have already booked, I would suggest that you look for the guy in charge – 40-ish and get on his coach. He is an excellent guide. It’s just with 45 people, you always seem to be waiting for someone to show up and to be fair, he has to allow time for people who may be late. Each seat on BusyBus is booked online directly with them, but several of us who had been part of the smaller excursions booked with them.

Sailaway – we did have an informal one for CC members at the Sunset Bar which was very nice. Instead of saying the Sunset Bar I would suggest calling the patio bar at the back of the Oceanview on deck 10.

Tenders – Our group met on deck 3 in front of Shore Excursions 15 minutes before the scheduled arrival time and were on the first tender (with the photographers) going ashore. Depending on your Captains Club status or cabin type, you may get priority tender tickets delivered the night before to your room. Otherwise the tender ticket queue opens at the scheduled arrival time, but they won’t give you a ticket unless all members of your party are ready to go. If you are ready to go on the first tender, you really didn’t need a ticket.

This was a great cruise. Friendly crew. The weather was perfect-no rain the entire time. Beautiful flowers everywhere. We did a Celebrity tour in Holyhead that we really enjoyed-Discover Anglesey. The tour guide was very informative. Wales was lovely. We also took the Celebrity transfer to Heathrow. They assign you to a bus based on your airline and departure time and terminal you need to get to. Very easy and they got us there by 1030 am for a 2pm flight so had plenty of time to print boarding passes and look around the shops and have something to eat before boarding our plane. The itinerary was fantastic-really enjoyed Wales, Liverpool (took an In the Steps of the Beatles tour) and Guernsey. Be sure not to miss some of the action in the Constellation , especially the Dancing With the Officers night-very funny. The shows were very good in general and we went to all of them. It was easy to get free wifi in most ports so was able to avoid paying for internet onboard. For those of you going on this cruise later this summer, hope you have as nice a cruise as we did!

This was a great cruise. Friendly crew. The weather was perfect-no rain the entire time. Beautiful flowers everywhere. We did a Celebrity tour in Holyhead that we really enjoyed-Discover Anglesey. The tour guide was very informative. Wales was lovely. We also took the Celebrity transfer to Heathrow. They assign you to a bus based on your airline and departure time and terminal you need to get to. Very easy and they got us there by 1030 am for a 2pm flight so had plenty of time to print boarding passes and look around the shops and have something to eat before boarding our plane. The itinerary was fantastic-really enjoyed Wales, Liverpool (took an In the Steps of the Beatles tour) and Guernsey. Be sure not to miss some of the action in the Constellation , especially the Dancing With the Officers night-very funny. The shows were very good in general and we went to all of them. It was easy to get free wifi in most ports so was able to avoid paying for internet onboard. For those of you going on this cruise later this summer, hope you have as nice a cruise as we did!

Thank you for sharing. Infinity is one of my favorite ships.

 

 

 

Tenders – Our group met on deck 3 in front of Shore Excursions 15 minutes before the scheduled arrival time and were on the first tender (with the photographers) going ashore. Depending on your Captains Club status or cabin type, you may get priority tender tickets delivered the night before to your room. Otherwise the tender ticket queue opens at the scheduled arrival time, but they won’t give you a ticket unless all members of your party are ready to go. If you are ready to go on the first tender, you really didn’t need a ticket.

Thanks for posting! So it sounds like tender tickets were given out at arrival? When I was on the Infinity to Alaska, they gave out tender tickets the day before our port arrival. I'm coordinating meeting with someone else from CC for an excursion so it's helpful to know the process!

For Waterford/Dunmore, we got tender tickets near the martini bar. You get them when your party is ready to get off the ship. We are captain's club but don't have elite status so were not given any priority tender tickets but had no trouble getting off the ship when we were ready. Dunmore is a nice town to walk around in-lots of thatched cottages and very quaint.

As noted, the cruise director was Pete Baker. He and his staff were great.