VERY LONG Review: Infinity 08 Jan 06 Eastern Caribbean LONG

[flagger]

This was our third cruise and due to ship shuffling our second time on Infinity. We were originally booked on Millennium. We had a coveted aft balcony on deck eight. After spending a week in that cabin with that HUGE balcony I now understand why they are coveted. We are a couple in our late 30’s traveling with a 2.5 year old daughter. Because we have sailed this ship before, I will be making a few comparisons between our Alaskan sailing in September 2004 and the cruise from which we just returned.

 

I want to stress a couple of things at the beginning. Overall we rated the cruise as Good to Very Good. We are active members of a few boards where members post reviews of their cruise experience. Because of this, we know that we look at the entire experience with a more critical eye and maybe have higher expectations than the average cruiser. We also realize that everyone can have a totally different cruise experience on the same ship and same sailing. Please keep this in mind as you read any criticisms of our experience as another’s experience will be different. Some of our comments will be just observations, some suggestions and others downright criticisms.

 

Pre-embarkation day

 

Flying is never fun. Flying across two time zones from the west to the east is never fun. Flying with a 2.5 half year old is really never fun. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and put a call into our hotel (Holiday Inn Express Port Everglades) and a shuttle bus was sent over. It took about 20 minutes from the time of the call to being picked up. The weather in south Florida was much cooler than expected and with the wind it was downright chilly. At least we had on jeans. I felt sorry for those folks in shorts waiting for their transportation.

 

We were picked up by Kevin from the HI Express and headed off towards the hotel. We wanted to pre-mix some margaritas for the sailing and didn’t want to fly with them across the country so we asked Kevin about liquor store close the hotel. There are actually two just a block away, but Kevin stopped at one for us and waited while my wife loaded up. She takes margarita mix, mixes it with Gold tequila and triple sec then pours it back into the plastic bottle. This hotel is also close to a Winn-Dixie and Publix. We like soda in our room and bought a few on board of our favourite brand not found on board. Yes we can drink water or juice, but this is our caffeine. I am not making excuses for going against the cruise line rules, just reporting our experience.

 

The hotel itself was nothing special. In fact the water was yellow. I mean the colour of urine yellow. No smell or anything but we refused to do anything but take a quick shower in it. I know water meets certain standards and yellow does not mean non-drinkable but would you?

 

Embarkation Day

 

We were up and ready to head over to port by 10AM. There was a 10:30 bus for $6 a person, but the cab ride was only about $10 for all three. We flagged down one cab driver who actually turned down our business at about 10:20. He told us we did not want to go down to the port then because of all the traffic and disembarking passengers. He told us to wait another hour. He left and my wife and I discussed our options. She wanted to beat the shuttle bus leaving at 10:30 and we were both were ready to start our experience. We flagged down another cab, and off we went.

 

Arrival at the actual Celebrity pier was a bit of a nightmare because of conflicting drop off locations given between port security personnel. However we were out of the cab and dropped our bags with a porter in no time. We went inside and sat in a row of chairs and just waited. We were then directed to another set of chairs because we were told we would enter in order we had been seated. We ended up sitting behind a couple from Australia from our Roll Call. I looked over and my wife was speaking with this couple and there they were. We were moved again and we ended up sitting back down across from another couple from our roll call thread.

 

One difference noted at Port Everglades from our embarkation for our Alaskan cruise was the lack of pastries, sandwiches and coffee and juices we had experienced in Vancouver. When the doors opened at 11:30, it was more confusion as people got up from their chairs and headed to the doors. Back to sit down again. Finally we were through, turned in our Xpress Passes. Got our SeaPass and it was on past the photo and through security.

 

On Board

 

We were on the ship by 12:10. They made an announcement that staterooms would not be ready until after 1pm. As we had an aft cabin we headed to the aft elevators just to see if the fire doors were closed or not. As we passed through the Rendezvous Lounge we stopped to see the Maitre’d to ascertain our table location. We had table #487 which is a four topper by the window on the port side. We had decided to only do babysitting during the dinners if we had been seated at a larger table. It is just too disruptive to strangers you have just met for one person to be constantly getting up and down to keep a toddler happy. With that we headed up to Deck Eight, and, not seeing the fire doors closed, we headed back to our stateroom, dropped off our luggage and headed down to the specialty restaurant SS United States. We wanted to confirm our reservations we had made through the Captain’s Club 800 number and make an additional reservation for our long day at St. Maarten.

 

While making the second night’s reservation, our roll call friends from Australia strolled up. My wife looked at me and said shall we invite them to join us. We did and they happily accepted. We were so glad they did as getting to dine with another adult couple in such a setting was such a delight for those of us who consider any place without a drive through to be fine dining. Speaking of which, our next stop was guest relations to arrange for in-cabin babysitting which is part of what sold us on Celebrity. We arranged for sitting for three of the seven nights on board. We ended up having a babysitter for eight and a half hours which is charged to your SeaPass account at the rate of $8 per hour. Just note it shows up on your running charges as “Guest Relations”. I was getting dressed to go down to Guest Relations to inquire about the first charge when I realized why that charge had been so named.

 

The Pluses

 

We had a wonderful assistant stateroom attendant from India named Conrad. He was friendly and quite accommodating with our request to remove the contents of the minibar fridge as to keep little hands from opening small liquor bottles. He also took ownership of one of the minuses on our list and had it fixed the day he reported the issue.

 

Running into our waiter Vernon from our Alaskan trip and seeing his face light up when I asked him if he still calls his son everyday. It is one thing for a waiter to remember you, but I think it means even more to have you remember something about them.

 

Our assistant Maitre’d Katerina from the Czech Republic. She was able to see that we received our special requested desserts of White Chocolate Mousse (not just one night but the next night as well) and my all time favourite dessert on board Mohr Em Hend (sp?). We had that the last night of the cruise, and she even arranged to have some prepared for our mates from Australia. They shared it with their tablemates who told me later it was the best dessert they had had all week. I have to agree.

 

Our waiter, Moises from Peru, in the Trellis had a small station and was quite open about life on board and his home country during evenings when not everyone was seated for dinner.

 

His assistant, Natasha, from Serbia, who, despite her contract ending in two weeks, was very friendly to our daughter and always there to help with her plate of fruit or to fill her milk or juice glass.

 

The new menus on board were a plus but also a minus as you will note later. I am sure frequent Celebrity cruisers will appreciate the new menu offerings.

 

Speaking of food, the hot dishes actually came out hot as opposed to just warm on our previous Alaskan cruise.

 

Dinner at the SS United States the first night was fantastic. This will also appear on the needs improvement or minuses part of this review as I will explain later.

 

The random stateroom attendants whose names I missed who would always smile and say hello.

 

The one stateroom attendant who gave her extra boxes of Cova Café chocolates so our daughter would smile or say something to them.

 

Angelo from India in the SS United States restaurant. I know he misses his two daughters whose names I forget but I know they mean friendly and beautiful. His stories of life in India and how someone can come straight into the specialty restaurant as a waiter from the outside were very interesting.

 

It is human nature to want to talk about yourself and your home. I think the crewmembers find it a pleasant surprise when a passenger wants to know about crew life than talk about their own.

 

Ricardo from the Martini Bar. Many who have sailed on Celebrity have seen him during the first days of the cruise on one of the video channels. He introduced us to Martinis and made special drinks for both of us before and after dinner. His wife Jennifer was also a delight. I hope she had a special birthday and enjoyed the present we gave to Ricardo. I know they both miss their daughter Nicole (daddy’s girl) very much.

 

Forgive the spelling of this name, but I think it was Dmeltan from Bulgaria. He was a deck hand I noticed everyday changing out trash and cleaning up near the Aft bar area on deck 10. There are so many others like him who most would probably pay no attention, but he always had a smile for us and my daughter and was there everyday doing the grunt work his job entailed. While not as flashy as master of the vessel or maybe the cruise director, you have to admit the removal of garbage in an enclosed space is VERY important.

 

We found the officers to be far more approachable on this sailing than on our previous experience with Infinity. It was a welcome change.

 

Captain Kafetzis, the master of the vessel. He was very personable and lively. He had a great sense of humor.

[flagger]

The Minuses

 

Probably the most important one was the problem my wife had the last day at sea. The balcony door which had during the week remained in a locked position while all the way open slid closed and locked her and my daughter on the balcony with no way to open the door from the outside and no way to contact anyone from the outside. The handle was down yet it slid closed and when the door remained closed it locked. Fortunately they were only out on the balcony for about five minutes when I had returned and it was a cool day. It could have been far more unpleasant. We did report it to Guest relations, but maintenance had not come by our stateroom by the time we had disembarked.

 

When we got to our stateroom, we noticed the tube from the hairdryer on the wall just hanging from the wall unit and not attached to the handle you hold that when removed starts the hairdryer. Concierge Class cabins have a separate hair dryer so this was not an issue, but we did report it our first day to Guest Relations and by day three it was still not fixed. It was only fixed on day four of the cruise as noted above because of our wonderful assistant stateroom attendant.

 

Invitations to the Cruise Critic “Connections” party were never delivered. It was instead posted in the daily activity guide. Most from prior experience were expecting those invites and probably did not regularly consult the activity guide. I know the few that did come to the party missed it and only came because we had called those from our roll call. One couple from our roll call never got a daily activity sheet the prior evening only the Daily newspaper.

 

Our stateroom attendant just performed an adequate job not just for us but for the other cabins he serviced as well. One day we also received no daily activity sheet in our own Daily. He never went above and beyond what was required of him. Our assistant stateroom attendant was always opening our door whenever he was around and saw us coming. Our main attendant only did it once on the last day when it was too little too late.

 

Our provided binoculars in cabin went missing the first night. We mentioned it to our assistant stateroom attendant. There was no reason to ruin our cruise worrying about because the charge for replacement was not astronomical, but we did turn that room upside down looking for them. They mysteriously reappeared on the floor next to the mini-bar the next to last day of the cruise. We can make no accusations or explanations on what happened, but it was very strange.

 

The removal of the Social Hostess position and replacement with a Captain’s Club hostess position is a HUGE MINUS in our opinion. It is much easier for someone who is able to roam the ship to approach a guest than it is for a guest to come up to someone sitting in a window for set hours. It just puts a barrier between guest and hostess than we feel is a big negative.

 

The new menu introduction did not seem to include adequate time for training the wait personnel. I saw several waiters with several sheets of paper so they could explain just exactly what was involved in the preparation of some of the new dishes.

 

Spelling and grammatical errors in the daily newspaper drove us batty. On the last day of the cruise, it showed the dress code to be formal. This lack of attention to details was just another example of the “little things” we felt have room for improvement.

 

We do not think that it is worth it to dine more than once in the specialty restaurant per cruise. While the meal was fantastic, the meals in the Trellis were quite good. However, I noticed that one of our tablemates did not have her water glass refilled for at least five minutes. We were literally the last one dining in the restaurant, but for a “five star dining experience” this type of lack of attention to the details should never occur. She was certainly not going to die due to a lack of thirst, but I feel one should not have to ever request a refill of water in that type of dining environment.

 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

 

As a reminder these can be taken in any way the reader chooses. They reflect our experience and another cruiser on the very same cruise may never have noticed or cared. They are not all negative nor are they all the fault of Celebrity. The ones under the control of Celebrity however are listed first.

 

It seemed to us that the crew on board was not in sync with each other. Whether it was because this was the first cruise of the routine of Eastern Caribbean then Western then Eastern or because the Hotel Director joined the ship four days before our cruise and the Cruise Director joined two days before we cannot say.

 

There was a lack of attention to the “little things” that one would seem to think sets apart Celebrity from other cruise lines. Some may call these being overly picky, but they are just our observations.

 

As examples:

 

The map of the navigational route that sits on an easel by Guest Relations on deck three showed the route of the cruise the week prior. This was never changed throughout the week.

 

The supports holding the canvas over the aft balconies are in need of scraping and painting and touching up of rust. The canvases are also in need of a good cleaning. Of course being exposed to the sea day after day and week after week tends to cause rust and show grime, it was such a difference from the inside and outside of the ship in several other areas.

 

The male bathroom on Deck four just outside of the Trellis consistently had the smell of foul almost raw sewage odor.

 

It seemed there were more slots added and the tables moved closer together which made for some uncomfortable moments around the tables.

 

We requested room service for three the first morning and only received silverware for two.

 

When we first awoke after being reminded to set our clocks forward an hour, we noticed the time on the bridge cam was still showing an hour behind. Talk about not being in sync!!! It was however corrected later in the day.

 

Half of the time the bath rug that has the words Celebrity Concierge Class embroidered on it was placed upside down. I know this may seem petty, but it just typifies the “little things” or lack of attention to details we observed on board.

 

The CD would record his daily update video the evening before and several times both he and his assistant would forget about which he was talking. It was almost painful to watch.

 

There was no forecast sheet all week in the little card from Make-A-Wish placed on your pillow with the chocolates each night. I asked guest relations about this and never received an answer on if this policy had changed or it was something else our stateroom attendant was failing to do as part of his duties.

 

Here are some of the things we observed outside the control of Celebrity:

 

There were 2050 passengers on board; 70 under the age of 18 and 150 under the age of 25.

 

To us it seemed this crowd was much older than the crowd on board our Alaskan cruise.

 

One woman on the second day wanted the pool butler to drain the pool because she was being splashed but the movement of the pool water due to our rough seas.

 

The captain reported 40-50 knot winds the second day at sea. During his welcome aboard toast he said he wanted the entire crew and staff on board with his officers but half of them were sick and by the look of the crowd in the theatre for the second welcome toast of the evening half the crowd was sick as well.

 

A few left the ship in San Juan due to rough seas. We never once got sick and our daughter managed to walk better than both of us. Her low center of gravity helped greatly of course. Or maybe it was the lack of martinis. (G)

 

One woman at our lunch the second to last day mentioned how nice it was how Holland America puts representations of the days dishes near the entrance to the restaurant so those who are not foodies can see what those funny sounding terms on menus actually represent. We thought that would be a wonderful idea if ever implemented because as parents we consider fine dining at this point to be any place without a drive through.

 

SPECIAL NOTES ON TRAVELLING WITH CHILDREN

 

It is never easy when you are dealing with a toddler who is not in her element with her creature comforts. However, what we did during the week was no different than what we do at home without having to cook or clean.

 

We missed being able to do activities as a couple or stay for entire shows because our daughter was ready to go. However this is the life we have chosen and want to include our daughter in our lifestyle.

 

You have to respect other passengers and we know that while our daughter will not act like an adult ever, she will have a certain expectation of behavior and face removal from the area if she cannot meet this.

 

Our table location in the restaurant was perfect in that it allowed her to get up from her chair to look out the window and stay away from waiters carrying hot trays of food.

 

Celebrity does an excellent job keeping the younger kids old enough for the programs entertained and invisible to other passengers. We will not be ones to just drop our daughter off for the week to an onboard babysitter, but breaks will be nice to have some fun as adults on our next cruise.

 

Speaking of babysitters, Loribell from housekeeping was always on time for the hours we requested. We choose Celebrity because of the availability of in-cabin babysitters.

 

Ports of Call

 

San Juan – We never got off the ship due to our arrival time and the fact that we had main seating. It would have been just too difficult to get anywhere and then rush back for dinner.

 

Antigua – The weather and use of the stabilizers throughout the night made us an hour late into this port. We did stay an hour later in Antigua to compensate. Our driver we had arranged never was there to meet us. This was not his fault of course. We shared a taxi for a tour of the island with another couple from California. It was the luck of the draw and we drew a short straw as this driver was far from informative.

 

St. Maarten – We didn’t get to do the things we wanted and the weather was rainy on the French side of the island. I did get to Maho Bay to see the planes landing at Juliana airport, but my wife never did get to shop. The traffic on the island was awful. We do hope to go back to this port again when our daughter is older though.

 

DISEMBARKATION

 

We were off the ship and in a taxi by 5 minutes before 9AM. We were through security and at the gate by 9:40. We found it strange that there were two unmanned metal detectors and X-ray machines on disembarkation Sunday. Thank you to the person directing you to one of the stations who did not make us or our daughter be subjected to the new screening device the blows air across your body and then I guess “sniffs” it. I think she would have FREAKED OUT.

 

In summary, we had a very good relaxing vacation. We did not book another cruise but will be considering a short cruise on Century in December. We have returned to the real world now. Instead of packing for our next vacation, we are packing up our household for yet another cross-country move.

[Andy]

Hi Flagger !

 

Thanks for the excellent review.

 

I agree with you on the Mohr em Hend (sp?) Dessert. It is one of the best I have ever had on Celebrity. We like it so much, that we wish we could have it over most of the other Desserts.

 

Can you give us some hints on what the New Menu items were, and how you felt they were ? Would you say the New Menu was an improvement or disappointment ?

 

Also, are there any of the old favorites that are no longer there ? It would be great to hear more about what's in, and what's out on the revised Menu.

 

I also agree with you, about the removal of the Social Hostess. I feel this is a Big Mistake, and I hope that Celebrity will revert back to the old method sometime in the future.

 

Welcome Home !

[Char]

Wonderful objective review!! :) You covered a lot of detail that others would gloss over. Thank you for taking so much time to put your thoughts down.

We will be sailing the same itinerary in less than 3 weeks! I have a couple of questions for you.

1. Who is the Captain's Club Hostess? We had Mahalia for 2 of our Infinity cruises last year and she was supposed to go home for Christmas with Holli taking her place. Comments on whoever is the current hostess?

2. Who is the cruise director? You mentioned that he had just come on board, so he wouldn't be Damian who was CD on our last cruise. What is your impression of him? What is your impression of the activities staff? I realize that traveling with a child would keep you from participating in the daily activities, but perhaps you have an observation.

Like Andy, I'm interested in the new menu changes. By the way--that dessert you mention--is it the chocolate cake with the warm chocolate center? It is my favorite and I can never remember the name! If it's something different--what is it?

 

Thanks again for your review! :D

[Fang]

My wife and I were on this cruise also. We too had a great time.

 

I agree with Flagger, that there seemed many little things not getting done. Not a big deal, but it was interesting to see these things go "under the radar", that had never happened on our other Celebrity cruises.

 

Our biggest problem, that our cabin 6121 was directly across from the butlers pantry. Around 6:30 AM they would start working and the noise would wake us up. It would have been nice to sleep late, but that never happened. Our butler Al, said they would try to be more quite. All they did was shut the door instead of leaving it open.

 

We had table 409 at late seating. Our waiter, Oscar, was fantastic.

 

As far as the new menus go, they were very nice. I am sure others will be able to write a better review of the menus than I can. Many of my old favorites were still on the menu. There were some very good ones also. The fish selections seemed much better, than our Constellation cruise in November. The steak on the first formal night was one of the best steaks I have ever had. The Halibut was also fantastic.

 

There was a pasta dish with Scallops. This dish had six very large Scallops and was perfect. Other than that dish, the pasta seemed weak, to me.

 

My seafood gumbo had to have the worlds smallest shrimp that I had ever seen.

 

As an elite member of the Captians Club, I was dissapointed that there was no galley tour. Instead, there was a tour of the theater. We did not go. I guess it was not that big of a deal since we had done several galley tours in the past, but it would have been nice to do it again.

 

I was very surprised that we got into Antiga late. We left San Juan before the RCI ship and the Carnival ship and they got thier long before us.

 

We tried to book an cruise with the onboard cruise person, but she was to busy for us to walk in, and when we tried to make an appointment with her she told us that all of the appointments were full. I would have thought that she would then extend her hours, but that did not happen.

 

Speaking of new menus, there was also a new drink menu. There are now three drinks of the day, new ones such as Cosmos. My wife really liked that, but she can not remember to much from that day!!!!

 

I thought the Captain was great. The last days we had very rough seas and he positioned the ship that the rocking was not all that bad. He was also very accessable during the cruise. We saw him at the pool and gym. Each time he stopped to talk to people for some time. A very nice person.

 

Due to the cold weather in Fort Lauderdale on embarktion day and the cold weather on the first and last day at sea, my wife and I will be leaving from San Juan on our next winter cruise. Unfortunatly, due to scheduling, it appears that Celebrity will not have a ship in San Juan during the first week of January of 2007. So we are going to have to look for a new line to try.

[gkm]

Flagger, welcome home. That's a great review you wrote and it sounds like you and your family had a wonderful cruise.

 

When and where are you moving? Good luck with that!

 

Garry

[flagger]

Can you give us some hints on what the New Menu items were, and how you felt they were ? Would you say the New Menu was an improvement or disappointment ?

Ms. Flagger is scanning them today at her office. I only came home with three out of the seven nights. We did not dine two nights in the restaurant and one night they were not placed in the well next to the window which is how I was able to get them. We asked our AMD but was told on the last night because they were so new there were only limited copies available. I picked one up for the second formal night but cannot find it anywhere. I will post a link as soon as I can.

Also, are there any of the old favorites that are no longer there ? It would be great to hear more about what's in, and what's out on the revised Menu.

This was only our second Celebrity cruise so I don't know enough about the old ones.

Welcome Home !

Thanks

[flagger]

1. Who is the Captain's Club Hostess? Comments on whoever is the current hostess?

Belinda I believe. Other than seeing her at the CC party on the second formal night, we had zero interaction with her.

2. Who is the cruise director? What is your impression of him? What is your impression of the activities staff?

Jeff Potts from Vancouver. He mentioned he had been in Romania four days before the cruise visiting his girlfriend and had flown back to YVR to get his stuff and then turned around to get to Nassau to meet the ship for the handover. My wife found the Activities Manager and Bingo runner "Cold Cash" Courtney to be annoying. We saw him around the ship more than we had John Howell on our first cruise. He was friendly in person and not as standoffish, IMHO.

 

The daily updates were recorded in different spots around the ship, a couple of times they were done after the evening's event in a nightclub and it was hard to hear him over the loud music in the background. He recorded one one deck at night just after the ice carving and it had been raining and with the wind his mic kept cutting out. One night he recorded one with Courtney and she kept looking off at something else in the distance which was sort of distracting. I thought ok this is very unprofessional. It was funny that one woman came up to him while recording and asked where was the disco and he brought her on camera and just kept on going. I did make him laugh one day when I asked where was the disco. :)

 

I think the activities staff in general worked very hard to get the people interested but I know one event only had four participants and there had been ZERO (cheap prizes) to give away. I know it may only be a keychain or luggage tags, but to have nothing really put off one of our mates.

By the way--that dessert you mention--is it the chocolate cake with the warm chocolate center? It is my favorite and I can never remember the name! If it's something different--what is it?

Yes

[flagger]

When and where are you moving? Good luck with that!

We are moving across the country to the SE part of the US. I think with recent postings you will understand my vagueness about exactly where. We expect to be moving between mid-Feb and mid-March.

[Char]

:D THANK YOU, Flagger for letting me know the name of that dessert!! I'm going to write it down so I won't forget. Maybe I can get our maitre d' to have it made for us for an additional night.

[cruising with marti]

Thanks Flagger for a great objective review. Not sure I would have noticed some of the negatives you speak of, I would have been to busy having a great time. Oh, wait a minuet, I guess I would have noticed Marti, locked out on the balcony:D

 

 

Phil

[Lois R]

Hi Flagger, I enjoyed your review and welcome back.

 

Phil, you would have noticed....because next time it would have

been you that was locked out;)

[Sky Sweet]

We are moving across the country to the SE part of the US. I think with recent postings you will understand my vagueness about exactly where. We expect to be moving between mid-Feb and mid-March.

 

Good luck, flagger, with your upcoming move. I hope it goes smoothly and that your new home brings you and your family much happiness :)

[flagger]

I got three menus scanned and will try to post a link at some point today. A couple of other thoughts.

 

There were children in the hottubs but the sign says anyone under 16 must be accompanied by an adult as well as the no swim diapers/pullups rule. Because it was so windy and cool, DD and I did end up in the hottub but there were no others in with us.

 

There is a section in the book in the cabins about enforcing the evening's dress code at least in the dining room but I never saw it enforced with people being asked to leave.

 

I would say at first seating there was only about 20% in tuxes on the one formal night we attended.

[Char]

I got three menus scanned and will try to post a link at some point today.....snip.... I would say at first seating there was only about 20% in tuxes on the one formal night we attended.

OH, I can hardly wait to see the menus and to point our other cruisemates to your link. I'll be checking back!! Thanks a big bunch for your hard work!! :D

 

Interesting about the tuxes. We haven't cruised on a short cruise in some time--at least 10 days or longer for us! On the longer cruises there is a greater percentage of men in black! I wonder if it's because of the opportunity to wear the tux more often on the longer cruises? The Bobster will be in his tux--we'll see how many others are equally formal. :p

[WeBeCruisin']

Interesting about the tuxes. We haven't cruised on a short cruise in some time--at least 10 days or longer for us! On the longer cruises there is a greater percentage of men in black! I wonder if it's because of the opportunity to wear the tux more often on the longer cruises? The Bobster will be in his tux--we'll see how many others are equally formal. :p

 

I think it's probably a question of demographics. People who take the 10-14 day cruises generally are move financially solvent (since the longer cruises cost quite a bit more), older (to have the time to take longer cruises) and probably, because of the first two factors, more attuned to the niceties of social situations and adhering to requested clothing and behavioral guidelines.

 

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. Some wonderful people can only take shorter cruises because of work and financial restrictions, whereas some of the people on the longer cruises can be very obnoxious and socially without a clue, especially it seems that in some of the groups a few people are paying for some of their family members to take their first cruise, without having briefed them on the subtleties which make a person compatible with his/her fellow passengers.

 

Allen

[WeBeCruisin']

 

Ricardo from the Martini Bar. Many who have sailed on Celebrity have seen him during the first days of the cruise on one of the video channels. He introduced us to Martinis and made special drinks for both of us before and after dinner..

 

Martinis for Flagger? Maybe there's hope for him yet. Before his first cruise, he had over 1,000 posts where he was trying to convince people that complying to the dress code on formal nights was something he would never do, and that the Specialty Restaurants were a rip-off. He later was able to re-examine those adamant never-having-cruised statements and I think he even wore a tuxedo on formal night and did indeed go to the Specialty Restaurant. In this review, he even mentions how outstanding the restaurant was.

 

He also started a thread once where he was boasting about not spending a penny on drinks and about how people who "needed" to drink on a cruise had a serious problem. When a few people defended their choice to imbibe martinis, cocktails, wine, and beer, Flagger excoriated them as having no right to respond to anything on that thread.... that it was a "private" thread and that they all needed to just shut up unless they shared his opinion. Controversy ensued. :D

 

Now, he admits to enjoying martinis! Be still, my foolish heart!

 

It also sounds like, from his review, that many of the staff went out of their way to accommodate him and his toddler daughter. I truly hope he could bring himself to compensate them for their above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty service by rewarding them with a tip. And wouldn't Ricardo's special custom-made martinis made for Flagger and his wife warrant a tip? Unfortunately, I'm sure he didn't. I'm sure he would have mentioned it if he had.

 

As for his waiter immediately recognizing him from a previous cruise, waiters probably DO have a special memory of people who have stiffed them. :D

 

Keep trying, Flagger. You have at least proved that you're capable of changing your opinion on occasion. I sincerely commend you for that. If you can just get past your psychological problem against tipping, you have the potential to be a very nice and considerate person.:)

 

Allen

[flagger]

Actually I fell off the wagon on this cruise in a big way as really I never drink. I never intended to try them for my own personal reasons. Compared to others on the cruise, we really did spend very little. Not that that matters.

 

Want to bring up old threads, I just asked for people to post who did not drink on cruises it made no sense to post on a thread if you did since that was not what the topic was about.

 

Anway back to the topic.

 

Here are the links to the three menus I could grab. I have tried to indicate a new item by a red dot next to them. I know I have the second formal night menu around here somewhere so I will keep looking.

 

It should be noted that each menu is stamped at the bottom with the words STAND '06/D# and the corresponding day of the cruise. Our second formal night which was actually day six of our cruise was stamped STAND '06/D#13.

 

Sunday

Wednesday

Saturday

[cruising with marti]

Thanks Flagger for a peak at the new menu, looks like thy have added some pasta dishes. YIPPEE:D

 

One of the things I rate Princess cruises over Celebrity, Is the pasta dishes served at dinner.

 

I am a pasta junkie:)

 

 

phil

[cruising with marti]

Make that peek:D

 

 

Phil

[more mangos please]

 

 

 

Mohr im Hemd

[flagger]

Not sure I would have noticed some of the negatives you speak of, I would have been to busy having a great time.

Ya know Phil, I thought about this for a day and you are probably right. As I said in my review most people might not have noticed, but I tried to balance out my observations with both the positive and negative points.

 

None of the minuses were what I call "hey let's demand a free cruise" issues. However they were just our personal observations. I talked to several on board who also felt the crew was not quite in sync with each other. Did it ruin their enjoyment whatsoever? Not in the slightest.

 

Totally going in a different direction now, I was looking in the I-Cafe looking for information about the WiFi hotspots around the ship when I overheard someone talking about their conversation with a passenger who called the meals "the best she had ever had on a cruise". The one I overheard then said "Was she on the same cruise as I? I had much better food on my NCL cruises." Now just ponder that for a second.

 

Then as we were going down the gangway we overheard someone say "Gosh HAL just does this so much better". I was whispering under my breath 'Then perhaps you ought to go back and cruise with HAL if this is so bad.'

[gkm]

Wouldn't it be a boring life if everyone liked the same things? This, my friends is what make life so much fun. If we all liked the same things, what would we talk about? Variety in life is the reason for getting up in the morning, talking to people, having different tastes in everything we do, from our jobs, our books, TV, tastes in food, soft or hard mattress, mountains or shore, daytime or nighttime. I could go on and on and on.

 

One persons pluses are another person's minuses. :D :D :D Isn't it fun!

 

Garry

[Blue46]

Thanks for a peek at the menus. I noticed they are now offering sugar free deserts. This is a plus as my husband is diabetic, and last time we were on the Infinity he wasn't able to enjoy desert.

[Shirley and Les]

Thanks for a peek at the menus. I noticed they are now offering sugar free deserts. This is a plus as my husband is diabetic, and last time we were on the Infinity he wasn't able to enjoy desert.

Be a little careful. Mostly, they are "no sugar added" desserts and not sugar free. I am a diabetic and quite often order cheese and crackers plus a good dessert. One bite of the good dessert and then pass it to DW and then I finish up the cheese and crackers.

 

Flagger, this was a great review.

Les