BigB0882

55 minutes ago, famof4togo said:

It IS SO YUMMY...I do not believe I have ever consumed at the table; it is always eaten at midnight on the balcony but that just makes it all the better...

 

A bit of a shame too in that I always want to try the table art dessert but can never say no to the Cheesecake....lol

It really is, hoping someone will have the recipe!

Apologies if this has been covered, I searched and found something from 2013 but the recipe wasn't posted.

We were recently on a Carnival Cruise (Glory) and one night we enjoyed an amazing meal at the Steakhouse.  The cheesecake was the best I have ever had.  It had such an amazing texture, very light and fluffy and was quite full of lemon flavor.  I normally don't even care for lemon!  Anyway., I know Carnival often shares their recipes.  Would anyone happen to have this recipe?  I would be so grateful!  I thought about reaching out to John Heald but figured I would try here first.

I'm sorry you found the crew to be less than great. We spent 28 nights on the Infinity in Feb/March and found the crew to be awesome. 1st 14 nights we were in a Suite and 2nd 14 nights were in a FV dining in the MDR- in both we had excellent service.

I am glad to hear you had a better experience.

I wonder if many of the crew were at the end of their contracts and getting tired and ready to go home? Maybe something was going on behind the scenes that we were not aware of. It did not ruin our cruise, it just stood in stark contrast to last year on the Solstice.

I am not going to do a full review but please feel free to ask me any questions you have.

We were on the Infinity June 4th sailing out of Vancouver on the Hubbard Glacier itinerary.

This was my 2nd Celebrity cruise after sailing Alaska last year on the Solstice. I expected the Infinity would not compare to Solstice due to age and I was right but overall the ship was still in decent shape although it could certainly use some work in certain areas, new paint and such.

The biggest shock for me was the difference in the crew. The crew on the Solstice were just amazing. Went out of their way to make sure we had the best cruise and they are the entire reason we made sure to book this cruise on Celebrity. The crew on Infinity can not even begin to compare. With some exceptions, they were very rude and did not seem happy to be there. The exceptions were a couple of bartenders at the Martini Bar and our room steward. The other bartenders (for the most part) were extremely rude and the servers in the MDR (with one exception) were just awful. It was so embarrassing because we talked up Celebrity for a full year to all of our friends going on the cruise and the very first experience we have is eating dinner and having our servers stand over us staring at their watches asking us if we planned on eating or just sitting there all night. We had not even received our drinks yet and they were mad we weren't rushing to put in our order (and no, there was no one eating after us, we took the latest reservation). I know they want to get done and have other work to do but we just wanted to chat and get our drinks before ordering.

This seemed to be the theme for the cruise. Bars not opened when they should have been, bartenders saying they aren't supposed to make a certain drink even though they had everything they needed, no one taking drink orders (not necessarily alcoholic, just for a diet coke) at the buffet and having to walk to a bar to get something to drink. Service was HORRIBLE.

We were concierge class and we were not given a pillow menu and when asked, we were told they were all on the bed anyway. That was not true because there was no body pillow on the bed. The evening savories were only delivered to our room 2 nights out of 7. When we didn't touch the fruit, they just put it back on the table. I called on day 2 and specifically asked for a cheese plate every night since we drink wine. Did not get it a single time.

I will compliment our room steward, he was awesome. We had one great server in the MDR who was exceptional but we were only able to get his section the one night. The entertainment crew was just awesome, always super friendly.

The embarkation and disembarkation process was a breeze, even with having to go through customs. Celebrity was great at this in Seattle and now Vancouver. They have Carnival beat hands down. It makes me wonder why in the world Carnival can't do better. It can clearly be done.

After this sailing I am no longer going to assume Celebrity is the best out there. Solstice had me sold and now Infinity has scared me away. I will still sail Celebrity depending on price and itinerary but I will NEVER sail Infinity again. Oddly enough, we ran into a crew member who was on our Solstice cruise last year and she remembered us. We asked which ship she preferred and she was nice in her answer but said she missed the Solstice. We totally understood why. She is a friendly and talkative person, I don't think the crew, for the most part, are the same.

Oh, and entertainment was great. They do a wonderful job. The aerialists put on a new show that was amazing and the guest singers were so good.

I still prefer Celebrity over Carnival but Carnival has very consistent service from ship to ship. I can't help but wonder why things are so different on the Solstice and Infinity. Who is in charge and letting things slip on one ship but not the other? This is something Celebrity needs to work on.

We are headed to Vancouver on Thursday and our ship leaves on Sunday. I have read multiple reports of nightmare situations with embarkation and getting to/from the airport. I am a little worried, to be honest. We have sailed Celebrity one time and it was last year out of Seattle and it was the easiest embarkation ever. No line at all and we had no priority advantages. I was hoping it was the same at all Celebrity ports. Fingers crossed that we wont have this problem.

I will be on the Infinity starting June 4th, hopefully things are better by then but I have the utmost faith in the crew doing all they can. They can't help if passengers continue to not use sanitizer stations or wash their hands. It must be more frustrating for the crew than for the passengers, most of whom don't end up getting sick. When we were on the Solstice last year they had people stationed outside the buffet entrances holding a huge bottle of hand sanitizer and squirting it into everyone's hands. It really helped to stop people from not using it, you felt obligated since a person was there doing it for you. They also almost always had someone in the mens restrooms. The person wasn't responsible for telling people to wash their hands but I bet having someone in there results in more people washing their hands before they leave. I don't know if the Solstice was "sick" that week but maybe that's why these measures were in place. I ended up with a horrible cold the last couple of days, unfortunately but I'd rather have a cold than noro. The worst of the cold didn't kick in until I got home, which was fine by me, I'd rather enjoy the cruise and be sick at home.

It was Chip Chase.....Celebrity's Santa Claus! He is devoted to Celebrity cruise members and brings them gifts on every cruise. He and his wife Jenny, who live on a ranch in Texas,, cruise eight times a year. He has a loyal following of friends on Facebook. A nicer couple you will never meet.

 

Carol Ann Westbrook. Brantford, Ontario.

How crazy, on my only Celebrity cruise I saw Mr. Chase! He was the first person I met as he was in the computer room when I went with my FIL to set up his wifi package. At the time I didn't think much of him but I saw him many more times on the cruise and he and his wife were often giving out gifts. I wish I had struck up some conversation with him and his wife. Maybe I will get lucky and see them on our cruise in a little over a month.

I have also seen disgusting behavior at the buffet. People think they can grab chips with their hands, use the tongs...even if the tongs may break some of the chips!

The craziest thing I saw, or heard, was on Carnival. We were walking down the hall from our cabin and a couple was engaged in some VERY loud...activities. They seemed to be having an amazing time.

I was able to use my OBC and went ahead and upgraded our drinking packages so we don't have to do it when we get on board. Won't really save a lot of time but it is one less thing to worry about. I am on the Infinity out of Vancouver June 4th.

I thought they had some nice reds with the Premium package but the problem was they ran out of them within 2-3 days. One of the Pinot Noirs we wanted they were out of from the start. So we were down to two choices and another of those was gone within 2-3 days. If you found a bartender who was good they would go try and hunt down a bottle. It really bothered me since I drink Pinot Noir 99% of the time. I am upgrading to Premium again on my cruise coming up, hoping they have their wine stocked.

Even though Tracey Arm is retreating and is hard to get into, your cruise ship WILL go to a glacier. At least Celebrity did and I assume Carnival would do the same. They just took us down a little further to a different glacier and it was spectacular.

There are only two of us. Our other friends are going to pre-book is my understanding. I think we have decided to wait and see as it is not vital that we go on this excursion. We want to but it will not make or break our trip. Our gratuities are pre-paid. The only thing we will be using OBC for at this point is to upgrade to the Premium drink package. We would gamble but Celebrity makes it difficult if not impossible to use OBC for gambling.

I may try booking and then canceling on board but that seems risky. At this point I would rather not go then spend so much money out of pocket. We have $600 OBC and this is the one big excursion we want to do. We went to Alaska last year so for the most part we are going to take it easy and not spend much money. I know booking through Celebrity is more expensive but when you have the OBC it is definitely far cheaper than booking independently.

I am hoping someone will come along and share whether they, or someone they know, were able to book this on board. I heard someone doing it on my cruise last year but not sure if that is the norm or if that person just got lucky.

Would love to hear what your favorite excursions were to help us decide which are the ones most worth taking.

The best excursion and the most bang for our buck was the catamaran that you got on at the glacier and it met back up with the ship in Juneau. It was expensive (as most excursions are in Alaska) but you got all this time at the glacier AND we saw so much on the way back. We saw whales, bears, etc. etc. We did a whale watching tour that night and while it was different, there was really no reason to have done another with all the whales we saw while coming back on the catamaran. I know each trip is unique and perhaps we were lucky but I think you are more likely to see whales and other wildlife on the catamaran than not.

It was the best vacation of my life and I can not wait to go back. My heart was left behind in Alaska.

We will be sailing to Alaska in early June (Celebrity Infinity - June 4th) and one thing we all want to do is go to Taku Lodge. We went on an Alaskan cruise last summer and did not go to Taku because our friends wanted us to wait and go with them this summer. We had heard you need to book early because it fills up but while on our cruise we heard people booking it at the excursion desk during the cruise.

My question is do you think we can book while on the cruise if we go straight to the excursion desk? We would much rather book on board because we all have a good amount of OBC we could use. Otherwise we have to pay completely out of pocket and in advance.

Any experiences trying to book this excursion on board?

It sounds like they moved the Pig and Anchor to where they had the Tandoori Buffet. Is that true? I loved the Dream because of the Indian food. It was also only open for lunch hours. It will be missed, by me at least.

My biggest complaint about the Dream, and Carnival in general, is the food times are so random and not well thought out. As someone said, why are you closing up so many food options right as dinner is getting underway? Sometimes I don't want to fight the crowds or long eating times in the MDR so it would be nice to get a plate somewhere else. I am sorry but the Lido buffet is not an option.

After sailing on Celebrity this past summer I am completely spoiled with more food options and a buffet that is just so much better and that is on a line that isn't even top notch in the food department. Carnival really lags behind in choice, timing and food quality.

Did they get rid of the Tandoori Grill in dry dock? That was my #1 favorite thing about sailing on the Dream.

I agree. This was our one complaint on Solstice last summer. We upgraded to Premium and we only drink Red. Thought we would have plenty of options and were extremely limited. By the 4th day of the cruise we literally had only ONE choice of Pinot Noir (and I am pretty sure they were out of one of them from the very first day which made absolutely no sense to me). If we had a truly good bartender they would go looking for other choices but often they were too busy to leave the bar. I will upgrade again next time just for the chance that they may have more choices and so I can get that random shot of Bailey's at dinner or that Bloody Mary with Grey Goose but I am not holding my breath for many wine choices. I don't think it is expecting too much to have at least 3 decent Pinot Noirs available, that has to be one of the most popular Reds.

The rule may be that you have to be 18 to even be in the casino but that is really not upheld. I have seen plenty of young teens playing those coin games where you drop the coins in and it pushes more out. Also, on some of the ships you basically have to walk through the casino to get to certain areas so how can you actually keep kids out?

I always go to the Tandoori Grill and the Pasta station upstairs. No one knows about the Pasta place that first day so it is not crowded and you get your food quickly. The rest of the week it is always too busy for me to bother with.

Unfortunately I do not think Carnival is heading in the right direction. To be blunt, suite cruisers are not who they are trying to bring in...they seem to still be in the business of just getting warm (alcohol-drinking, casino-playing) bodies on the ship. :(

I agree with this.

We have sailed almost exclusively with Carnival because they sail out of New Orleans. However, after our recent sailing on Celebrity we realized how far behind in so many areas Carnival is. Carnival has its place, don't get me wrong, and I would go with them every time for a quick get-away but I will no longer drop big bucks on Carnival.

We spent much more for our Celebrity cruise up front but we had a drink package and $300 OBC when we stepped on the ship. We get deals from Carnival for gambling but the last time we were on Carnival the casino was so horrible to us that our bill at the end was more than our bill for the Celebrity cruise. :eek: That is no ones fault but our own but we learned an expensive lesson. We would prefer to spend that money on a much better all around experience than spend it in a smoky casino.

I don't do suites (hopefully one day) but if I did then Carnival would be out of the running immediately. Their suite perks are just non-existent.

Unfortunately this is not listed under my travel offers. Too bad. Maybe it will show up later but I doubt it. Not sure why it is there for some and not for others.

Thanks for the heads up. I just got an American Express that I was interesting in using for the rewards. Hopefully I have this option but since I have never used the card I don't know. Will need to register online and see if it shows up. If so then I will be off to a good start on my rewards.

Thanks everyone. I think we will have to decide whether to use the OBC on the current cruise or apply it going forward to the next cruise. At least if we do cancel and forfeit that it isn't as if we really lost anything since we did spend it on the ship.

What we do is we order the entree we really want and then if we are interested in trying something we order it and share with the entire table. That usually means not much is wasted and the portion sizes are small compared to most landbased restaurants.

We completely over-packed. Just bring plenty of jeans and long sleeve shirts that you can wear over an undershirt or t-shirt incase you need to remove it. There do have Chic nights but it is hardly formal. I brought a pair of slacks and wore that with a button up shirt. Next year when we go back I will pack MUCH lighter.