Infinity 16/1 Round the Horn, long review

DH and I have now cruised for the first time! First of all a big thanks to this forum where I could find all information I wanted!

This is a very long review and I apology in advance for my English as it isn’t my native language.

It there are any questions I will do my best to answer them.

Boarding

It was nice when we arrived to Valparaiso and from the hills surrounding the bay, for the first time saw Infinity. We liked her lines very much, a really beautiful ship!

The boarding worked very well. We had some discussions first because the on-line papers we had, didn’t showed that we had prepaid the tip. (problems with the X site that wasn’t solved in two months…) But that was solved very quickly and we were on the bus to the ship after just 15 minutes.

One thing they didn’t inform us about was that the little blue envelope with the sea passes in ALSO included recipes for our passports. It was just plain luck that we still had the envelope when we where asked to pick up our passports.

To add to that it was only one recipe for one passport. It was no problem though to pick up both passports.

Onboard we were greeted with a glass of bubbles and we went to find our cabin.

In the cabin our tickets for the excursions waited for us. The luggage had arrived when we returned after dinner.

Cabin

#2030 front starboard side, deck 2.

The cabin was nice with enough of storage place. The bathroom was also OK. The only thing that was very irritating was the hangers in the closet. They where very slippery and the clothes were slipping down all the time. It’s not so nice to find your blouses and dresses on the floor…

The cabin was very quiet, we didn’t have any problem. It also was very close to the front elevators. To the MDR in the aft, it was a bit to walk but for us it was no problem.

The cabin attendant was doing a good job and the cabin was kept very clean. Even on disembarcation day when we left for breakfast the cabin was cleaned. We didn't expect that considering that they had to fix the cabin after a couple of hours before the new guests arrived. The telephone was not working properly, sometimes it worked and sometimes not. The fridge was not cold. It was working (you could hear it working) but it didn’t cool anything. I told the attendant twice but it wasn’t fixed.

We could place our bags under the bed after we had opened them. If they were closed they were too high to fit under the bed.

Bed’s OK. For me it was a bit hard but I asked for an extra mattress that was delivered promptly.

We had a cabin on the lowest deck with the window approximately 5 -7 m above sea level. That made that you sometimes in hard weather, actually could see trough the waves as they where higher than the window. Very fascinating!

Food

We had early seating at MDR, in all papers the time stated 18:00 but was really 18:30. We were seated together with two of our mates in our group and we had a wonderful time. Our waiters; Renato and Andreas were very, very good. We didn’t have to wait for anything. A very good service and Renato was very entertaining. Every evening he had new surprises for us. :)

The food was excellent. The food could sometimes lack some seasoning but I suppose they are cautious considering the large amount of guests.

It was no waiting for anything and the food was warm. We were seated near the stairs and noticed that not all of the tables had a good placing. Some of them where placed “outside” the dining area with all waiters going/running behind their backs. I was surprised to see that any tables where placed so badly.

We had expected a better choice of wines per glasses. On a 14 day cruise you get a bit tired of the limited selection. We didn’t order bottles as we both had the premium beverage packets.

The Buffet was also very good.

We were dining one night at USS Ulysses. The service was excellent but we were a bit disappointed at the food. It was not better than in the MDR. I had expected another level of the food in this restaurant.

We think it had been a better choice to take the 5 course dinner complete with wines.

Beverage packets

We both had the Premium packets and had paid for them in advance. Very good - nothing to sign, no problems whatever to get service. Only once they had missed it and the bill was charged the seapass. The waiter didn’t remove it when we told him so we had to straighten it out on Guest Relation. No problems! After two nights in the MDR we didn’t have to show the seapasses at all. Even in some bars we didn’t have to show them as they recognized us. DH had his whiskey poured without having to say anything. Amazing considering that we weren’t that regular customers at this bar…

SPA.

The spa was quite good but I had expected a higher class, especially when you consider the very high prices. It was good - but not that good….

I made a complaint to the Guest Relation before leaving. A rather unpleasant incident took place when I was waiting for a treatment one of the last days. :mad: The manager of the spa (who seemed to have boarded in one of the ports) did a nasty scolding of one of the girls. I don’t know what the girl had or hadn’t been doing, but it’s no excuse for such a bad behavior. Things like that has to be done in private, it’s very unprofessional behavior. No surprise really; I had actually seen her the day before and noticed the way she treated her staff. I meant to talk to this lady myself but I was called in for my treatment and I didn’t see her any more.

Persian Garden

I used it once as it was included in a treatment. It was relaxing to sit on the heated bench but not more. I would never pay just to use it. When I was there one of the saunas wasn’t working and during the time I spent there nothing was done to fix it. The staff looked a bit irritated when person nr 16 came and told them that the sauna wasn’t in function… It might bee a good idea to place a note on the door that it wasn’t working and was to be fixed, instead of every new person getting in there, had to go to the staff and ask about the broken sauna.

DH used the training facilities and was very pleased with them.

Pools

Pools were very nice. The heated ones where never overcrowded. We didn’t use the outside pools until the last days of the cruise when the weather permitted it. The outside pools are saltwater, not heated. After just two days in the sun the temperature was very nice.

You could eat healthier food at the Pool bar but I can’t understand why they didn’t have the ingredients for a smoothie when they have on the menu? Every time you ordered one, the staff has to run of to another bar, on another deck to be able to make the smoothie. Bad logistic! It must be frustrating to work like that!

Entertainment :D

Was very good. The only one we didn’t like was the Liberace copy. He was really bad, no feelings in his playing, with a stiff smile on his face… Awful!

The Pampas Devils, the dance group and singers, the French acrobatic couple – really, really good!

Allan King, the cruise director where doing a good job. Very popular with the ladies I think… ;-) And he was an absolutely fantastic telling stories….

Sorry to say, we where a bit disappointed on the entertainment the last evening. After having seen such good entertainment almost every evening we had hoped for a really smashing fare-well performance.

But no – it was over before it even had started, if you understand what I mean. A bit long-faced we left the theater….

Iternary – ports - excursions - weather

I might say this first. X is making a big issue about the wonderful Chilean fjords that we were supposed to see. But nowhere had they mentioned that we always sailed there at night… I understand that if the weather conditions are bad, they have to change route but I can’t see any reason why they constantly sailed the scenic parts at night. Maybe it would be possible to change the times in ports to make it possible to do at least some scenic sailing on day time.

We did three executions; In Puerto Montt, the Petrohue Falls. It was very beautiful but not worth the cost. Maybe better to arrange that private for a lesser cost.

In Punta Arenas we had the shorter penguin tour to Otway Sound. It was really the best! Walking around the penguins was a wonderful experience!

In Ushuaia we had the shorter Beagle Channel sea lion tour. Also good as it wasn’t a whole day tour, we like to both have an excursion and to have some time over to walk around.

I felt that X handled the execution very smooth. Go to the theater, pick up your badges and wait for a while before our groups where leaving.

The weather was what we had expected; windy and raining some times but also really nice days. Rounding the Horn was a special experience. The wind where going from 15 m/s to 35 m/s in just a couple of minutes and it was actually really hard to stand on your feet in the hard wind…

Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and Punta del Este where tender ports. In the first ports we had excursions and was leaving on the early tenders. In Punta del Este we waited for quite a while before going ashore. We found it a bit annoying that we had to go to the theater, get tickets and go back to the tender boat. There were no lines and nobody asked for the tickets. So why make us go and get them in first place? That is a question that has no answer…..

Staff

At the Guest Relation you had to know exactly what to ask, to get a complete answer. No extra information given if you didn’t ask for it….We where there asking if it was possible to change money. The answer was “Yes, of course, just come back when it suits you” Not a word of information that they didn’t change money when in port. We learned about this the next day after waiting in a long line. No big issue but a thing I would had expected them to share voluntary. Had expected better.

As an overall impression it seems that the staff can’t act/think by them self if something happens that isn’t planned for. For example: putting up a sign when something is broken. Maybe they are not allowed to do that, I don’t know.

Anyway –the staff seemed to work all the time, keeping her “ship shape and Bristol style”.

Our waiters Renato and Andreas really had that extra that made us feel special. It felt like they liked their jobs.

Ship

Beautiful lines, nice to look at in distance. Onboard she was a bit worn – what is what you can expect from a lady that has been in traffic for ten years. No problems with that, she was kept very clean and tidy.

She was also very roomy, not once it was overcrowded anywhere. We spend a lot of time at deck 9, sitting in the deck chairs with blankets around us. Very nice and cozy!

Shops

I roamed the shops sometimes during the cruise buying T-shirts and some fake jewelry (as I couldn’t afford the real stuff) Beware of the rings! :mad:The quality is very poor. If you were them for a couple of hours they leave nasty colored marks and a metallic smell that is hard to wash away. I didn’t notice that before I got home otherwise I would have returned them. And for the price ($30 ö $80) it was NOT value for money.

Disembarkation

The disembarkation went also very good. We met on the same place (can’t remember where…) and could leave on the time stated.

To end this loooong review I sum it up like this:

The cruise was wonderful and we can recommend it to all out friends (and stay friends with them afterwards).

Great thanks to all fellow guests and X staff that we met and made this cruise to fantastic!

Maybe we will meet again somewhere on the oceans!

Thank you for doing the review. We are doing this cruise the other way round in Jan 2012 so it is really interesting to hear about!!

Hej Sollan, thank you and "tack" for your thorough and balanced review. No need to apologise for your English -- like most Swedes we've met, you have a very good command of the language.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise on a nice ship, sailing perhaps our favourite itinerary. Shame about missing some of the scenery at night... didn't you have a 'sea day' in the fjords and/or Strait of Magellan? Did you pass by the glaciers in the Beagle Channel before arriving into Ushuaia, or was it dark then as well?

Thanks for your review.

"Little Boy Blue"....but you forgot to mention "12 Angry Pigs"..oink, oink!! (inside joke!! :D) LuAnn

Thanks for the honest review of Infinity. I'm going on her this fall and like seeing info on the good and the bad. I just hope they don't have any of those executions when I'm on board. :eek:

Your English is definitely better than my Swedish, which is zero. Couldn't pass that up though. Glad do hear you enjoyed your trip.

we did this cruise last year and loved it, too. thanks for posting.

Thanks for the review and info, especially about the tenders; since we will be on her in less than 2 weeks going the opposite way.

Thanks for the honest review of Infinity. I'm going on her this fall and like seeing info on the good and the bad. I just hope they don't have any of those executions when I'm on board. :eek:

 

Your English is definitely better than my Swedish, which is zero. Couldn't pass that up though. Glad do hear you enjoyed your trip.

Thanks...

The mentioned execursion were all good, excpet the first one, that was OK but in our opinion overprized. So don't hesitatate to take the penguin and sea lion tour.

Regarding sea lions; in Punta del Este there where two of them lying in the marina. You could get as close as you dared....

And Lou Ann - I haven't forgot the 12 pigs.... I don't thnk it's possible...:D

Great review with some excellent suggestions. You sound like a very thoughtful person. We, too, have had the experience of seeing a crew member get told off in public and nearly went up to the manager to give him a piece of our mind!! I agree it is very unprofessional.

Your English is fabulous. We would love to see Sweden one day and a Baltic cruise is on our bucket list.