Good news about the Infinity...

[Blazerboy]

Since I'm feeling so kindly disposed today, I thought I'd post a few good things about our recent Infinity Cruise (Did I really just get off the ship last Friday?)

 

One: oft-mentioned Deck 6 stink- Smelled it on day one, near aft stairs, mentioned it to both our room attendant and the "guest relations" desk. With in minutes, Chief housekeeper was there with crew, and I didn't smell it again. 10 extra point for Celebrity. :) No problem with smell on balcony as reported on Cruise Critics before.

 

Two: service- We both felt that, while we've had fine service before, that the crew on this ship outdid themselves. Julie at Guest Relations, our room attendant, Allain, and the Captain's Club Hostess (er, forgot her name- lovely woman) were all very helpful, even when I wasn't happy with something. Axl, the concierge, scored HUGE points by owning up to a mistake he made without ONE qualifier! No "sorry you misunderstood me" or " you have to understand that we get many requests..." Just a straightforward apology, and everything was made right. Our dinindg room staff was great- although our waiter was TOO good- he got promoted to Ass't Maitre d' IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR CRUISE! But we were happy for him- Johannes was his name. 30 extra points!:cool:

 

Three: Artwork: For those of you who were underwhelmed with the artwork on the Constellation, the art on the Infinity is much better, not exactly making house room for the stuff, but it didn't offend the eyes! No extra points, but none taken away either!;)

 

Four: Food- Always a touchy subject, because some demand cruise ship food that would get three Michelin Stars, while others are happy with food that isn't exactly haute cuisine, or cuisine at all. So this is comparitive with what we've had before. The news? We thought the quality of the food has improved! Better than last time on Infinity(2002), and better than the Constellation last year(2004). 15 extra points.

 

Overall, a great cruise, made better by all our folks from the rollcall here!

 

(And, no the points don't mean anything.)

 

Andrew

[Texed]

Andrew,

 

Thanks for the mini-review. :)

[dbertell]

Strange you should mention Johannes as your "too good" waiter who was promoted midway through your cruise. We were on the Infinity in May to Alaska and even though Johannes wasn't our waiter. we happened upon him one of the few days we ate in the dining room at lunch. He saw my wife (who is confined to a wheelchair) and I reading the lunch menu right outside the dining room. He came out and escorted us a table. He went out of his way to make that the best lunch we had on board. His service was fantastic, his personality couldn't have been better. When we were ready to leave, he again pushed my wife's chair outside the room. We happened upon him one morning later in the trip at breakfast in the dining room. He remembered us and we certainly remembered him. He escorted us to our table, but unfortunately wasn't our waiter. Still just having him remember us was great. We mentioned him in our comment card by name. Good for him that he got promoted. Bad for us since we are going to be on the Infinity again in May, 2006. We were going to ask for either our dining room waiter (Henry from Honduras) or Johannes on our next cruise.

[smdubowsky]

We've been on both Constellation and Infinity and pretty much agree with you down the line. Some small points. We thought SS United States was slightly better than Oceanliners although they were comparable. All in all we love both ships.

[joelmarj]

We were on the same sailing as Andrew and concur all his findings. I would just add a few more items to his great list:

 

The United States was a far better experience than the Olympic on the Millenium. Food quality was wonderful on both, however service-wise we really enjoy the United States more. At the Olympic, service was stuffy, hectic and felt chaotic. In the United States it was warm, friendly, well paced, and quite relaxing while still maintaining the elegance.

 

Spa - there have been many complaints about the push to sell in the spa after a treatment. I think Celebrity must be listening. We used the spa on 5 different occasions and not once were any products being sold to us at the end. It really was a great change.

 

Embarking/Disembarking - this was surprisingly organized and went very smoothly on both ends of the trip. It took us no more than 15 minutes from arriving at the port to walking on board drinking champagne. When disembarking, there was a slight delay in starting (maybe 15 minutes), but once they allowed it to begin, we were again off the ship with our luggage in about 20 minutes tops.

 

Butler service - we were in a suite, but really only booked it for the extra room. Given a choice, I'd be fine without the butler but he really was very good and efficient at the few things we requested (John). Esther our steward was ever efficient and always on top of her game. We also had Jonathan and he truly was a wonderful waiter and was missed. We were graced with a replacement who was pulled from the United States, so service levels were still very high.

 

Overall a delightful trip, and looking forward to sailing again with Celebrity.

[Blazerboy]

Forgot to mention how much we enjoyed to food at the Spa cafe, complete with our replacement waiter from the dining room! (Marj- what was HIS name? I'm so bad with names.:o )

 

Also wanted to add that a change that some of you may have expereinced, but was new to us since last Fall, was that the Spa had published rates for both sea days and port days at the start of the cruise, so that you didn't have to wait until the night before to see if a treatment was on sale during a port day. Not sure if the discount was as great this way, but it certainly allowed us to book the services we wanted at the beginning of the cruise, and still get a slight savings on port days.

 

And to respond about the more relaxed service in the specialty restaurant- I think it may have been us! :D We heard similar things about the "Oceanliners" and stuffy service, but our waiters on that trip loosened up when we started having a good time and joking with them!

 

Oh, and we then saw Johannes EVERYWHERE for the rest of the cruise, so I'm sure you'll see him on the Infinity when you're there.

 

Andrew

[reggierail]

Thanks for your review of the Infinity.

I'll be sailing in December on the 6 night Mexico cruise.

I just got my cabin assignment for my veranda guarantee and really hit the jackpot. I got 6035, one of the huge fwd 2C cabins.:)

It was actually cheaper than the Cat. 4 cabin I had originally booked.

 

Reggie:D

[littleboy]

we are sailing on her on April 2,2006 right after she comes out of dry dock what happens to staff the two weeks she is in dry dock?

[reggierail]

The staff is usually kept pretty busy as they take part in any refurbishment on the ship.

 

Reggie:D

[DrKoob]

Andrew,

 

You forgot Eliseo, incredible Martini Bar bartender/waiter. He was so far beyond the definition of great service that when we got home I looked up Superb Service in the dictionary and found his picture.

 

I have to disagree with you on one thing--the food. My experience with it must have been different than yours. I felt that the dining room experience was much better on our Panama Canal cruise on Infinity in November. The United States was superb both times (and we were lucky enough to eat there twice on this cruise--the second time being noticeably better than the first.)

 

I also wonder if some of the changes we saw from the 14 day Canal cruise had to do with the number of kids on board. On the canal cruise at breakfast (for example) we had hot waffles right off the waffle iron and were able to put our own toppings (as much as we wanted) on them. This time, the waffles came out of a steam tray (soggy!) and an attendant put the toppings on and looked incensed if you asked for more.

 

I did think the Aqua Spa cafe was as good as always and we discovered they do a superb breakfast. Of course not as much fun as breakfast with Bubbles.

[Blazerboy]

Jim! Watch it!:mad: (;) )

 

Yes. Elesio was great, and I should have remembered him.

 

My food comps were from the Infinity three years ago, and the Connstellation last year, so things can go up and down, I suppose.

 

Kids didn't bother me, WHICH IS AMAZING in itself, but I also only ate smoked salmon/cream cheese/bagels for breakfast (O.k., I also snuck in a little veggie curry- really wakes up your taste buds at 8:00 a.m.!) I did like that they had the salmon every day instead of just a few times a week.

 

General rule of thumb is to not get steam table/ already prepared food if at all possible. "Pick your own pizza toppings" is my new favorite because the pizza is made to order! Try blue cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichoke hearts!

 

Actually the worst breakfast I saw was in the dining room- Marg's french toast couldn't be cut WITH A STEAK KNIFE, let alone a fork, but the wiater quickly replaced it with "fresh" french toast.

 

No experience is perfect, but I liked the improvements I saw.

 

Andrew

[LuAnn]

Reggie...congrats on your cabin...how you doing? LuAnn

[DrKoob]

Andrew, you weren't there on disembarkation day but I had discovered the lox and cream cheese earlier in the voyage and wanted it one last time. One of the worst parts of the cruise for me was to go up that day to the buffet, pile the lox on the bagel and find that X had no cream cheese and no sour cream either. Can you believe it?

[Blazerboy]

Sorry Jim, once they realized I was off the ship- why make the effort?....;)

[DrKoob]

Sorry Jim, once they realized I was off the ship- why make the effort?....;)

 

You have to be one of the wittiest people we know.