Recent Infinity cruisers - give us the scoop!

[SFcruiser16]

We are leaving on the Infinity to Alaska 9/3...all of those recent Infinity cruisers, how was it?

 

Tips, suggestions - best places on board to eat? Best shopping deals? Things we should know?

 

Thanks!

 

Lucy

[bbro]

We were on last week and we really enjoyed it! We didn't do the inside passage because of the mechanical issues, so that was a huge disappointment, but didn't ruin my vacation in any way. We enjoyed the sushi every night at 5:30 in the Ocean Breezes cafe (we peeled the fish off the negiri and had sushimi). Loved the room service - best chocolate chip cookies and clam chowder in a bread bowl. Room service pizza was always hot and fresh. We bought the week Aqua Spa pass for $99 pp. Well worth it for us. We loved the various steam baths after a long day of walking (or lounging!). If you think you'll do this bring a pair of flip flops to wear. We didn't and were a little grossed out walking around the locker room and spa barefoot. Definitely, definitely eat at the USS Restaurant (specialtly restaurant) and try the lamb. We did the menu exeptional (5 course as opposed to 4 course and also paired with wines (yes, 5 glasses of wine!) for an extra fee of about $32 pp). If you don't want to do the menu exceptional do the ala carte and you'll get more choices and no extra $32 fee. But well worth the experience and pampering!!!! If you choose to go, book early as they fill up quickly. We got on Sunday at 12:30pm and there were already some limited choices for the night we wanted. Take rain wear and rain pants if possible and even water proof shoes. We had a lot of rain and were very comfortable in our rain gear as opposed to running around all wet. We never saw one show (we're not show people) but heard they were pretty good. Chocolate and almond croissants at Cova Cafe are free and yummy! Coffee costs extra. If you have a balcony bring some warm clothes if you plan to sit out on it. We had an aft cabin so we didn't have as much wind. But the side cabins complained it was too chilly to spend a lot of time on it. Due to the changed itinerary we had one less informal night and one extra casual night. So if you have the changed itinirary (Sitka and Ketchikan swapped and later docking) bring extra casual clothes for dinner. We also brought one pair of really good binoculars of our own to view wildlife and they came in really handy! CC class cabins have a pair in the room, but they're not that great. Bring some waterproof disposable cameras too. Our digital got rained on while we were taking pics of bears and now it's broken. Gives you a good alternative if you know it's pouring outside. But don't pack it in your luggage, the x-ray mahcines will fry it. Put it in your carry on. Bring gloves for hubbard glacier. I think that's all I can think of right now. We had no virus outbreaks and only heard of 1 or 2 people who had issues. We brought lots of hand santizer and clorox wipes and wiped down our cabin to be sure. We also took Acidophillos (spelling?) for our tummies, but you can eat yogurt and get the same cultures for healthy intestines :-). That's all I can think of for now. Relax and have a great time!!! If I think of anything else I'll post. I'm so jealous, I'm ready for my next cruise!!!!

[SFcruiser16]

BB:

 

Thank you SO MUCH for the tips. We live in SF so cold weather is something we are used too but I will make sure we bring some extra rain gear.

 

We have a CC cabin and an inside cabin. I think the CC cabin is a side cabin so if it is windy...my parents may not want to be sitting outside too often.

 

Waterproof shoes? Hmm...don't have any of those, but I planned on bringing my running shoes along w/ clogs so that I can switch on and off.

 

I do plan on trying the specialty restaurant.

 

As for coffee, is there a charge everywhere or just at the cova cafe?

 

I am SO EXCITED for this trip. I CANNOT wait. I want to do the steam baths but may not have time as we have our 15 month old son with us. I am just hoping to get time to workout so I can handle all the extra eating I know we will be doing.

 

Lucy

[many cruises]

Unfortunately, my comments will not be so upbeat. If you really want to know what happens when the "pods" break, read my review posted in the review section & on the Celebrity board. Hopefully, everything will be operational until September 13, when they put the Infinity in drydock to attempt to repair this problem.

 

Wishing you a wonderful cruise!

[thomasadv]

I am just back and the mechanical is a big problem. This was my third Celebrity Alaska cruise.

1. You will not be doing the inside passage up. Rough ocean all the way.

2. You will be not doing the best part of the inland passage down and it will be DARK when you are in the better parts. (leaving ports) Open seas during the day.

3. We tendered two of the three stops. Plan on hours to get off the ship unless you book a tour. Even then, they were late.

If you can switch to the Mercury, do.

Infinity staff wonderful, food wonderful...but you might as well be on a trans-pacific.

[cruiser2004]

Thomasadv, Thanks for the information about what to expect on the Infinity. Your advice should be given consideration. The reason for the long open sea days is that the Infinity was probably cutting across open waters, as the Summit did this May, to cut off distance, instead of following what is advertised in the brochure as 1,000 miles of beautiful Inside Passage coast line. I am truly sorry about your experience. Some posters will offer answers such as "things happen", they have no idea of how frustrating what you went through must have been, believe me I can appreciate your dissapointment.

[minniemom]

I feel so sorry for you guys. We were on the July 23-30 Infinity. I do feel bad for you , because I loved doing inside passage. It was just beautiful to sit and watch the beauty of it all. DH sat on the veranda much of the time. He loved the weather. WE had been suffering from 112 degree heat at home, so he was loving it. We ordered room service and if it was too cool to eat breakfast out there, we just pulled our drapes way back and watched with the doors closed..

Oh, I hope they will hurry and get that fixed.

Good luck.

[motherchic]

BB:

 

As for coffee, is there a charge everywhere or just at the cova cafe?

 

I am SO EXCITED for this trip. I CANNOT wait. I want to do the steam baths but may not have time as we have our 15 month old son with us. I am just hoping to get time to workout so I can handle all the extra eating I know we will be doing.

 

Lucy

The coffee everywhere else is free

[bbro]

SF Cruiser -

Despite the loss of the Inside Passage we still had a great time. Were we disappointed - absolutely. It was the main reason we took the cruise. However, we chose to make lemonade with our lemons. It still beat being at work and here in the miserable heat and drought we're experiencing at home. Tendering is always a pain, but it never took us hours. We were always off in 20 minutes or less. You have a CC cabin, so you'll get priority tender tickets - take advantage of them. Be ready to get off when the ship arrives in port. Maybe if you wait it will take longer, I don't know. We got off as soon as she arrived.

 

Please judge this cruise for yourself. Go in with an open mind. Before we left we read so many negative posts and there were many days I was in tears thinking our cruise was going to cancel, be virus-ridden, break down etc..

It really ruined the anticipation of the cruise for both me and my husband. And that's half the fun of a cruise. Take everything you read, even my post, with a grain of salt and judge it for yourself.

[clearbluewater33]

We found tendering even with the priority tickets to be terrible, not curise ruining but terrible and very fustrating esp. since we'd booked tours independently so they in all honestly didnt have any obligation to get us off, even though they did put us and the other people had tours at our time in the front of the line. Sitka was by far the worse, though in Ketickan they only had 1 tender site running from each side (2 boats on each side).

 

The food was as amazing as always, sushi especially. My only complaint! the portions were too big! Make sure to get the waffles and crossiants.

 

The Disco, if you're looking to dance "into the night" shuts down other than a few 20 somethings chatting in the corner by 12.

 

The thallsotherpy pools and her respective hot tubs are warm and beautful and comfertable, the pools and hot tubs outside are a little chilly!

 

The spa trys to "give" you products after your massage, pedicure whatever and then charges you for them, a bottle of lotion there was 65 dollars!

 

I didnt find the drinks too expensive the drinks of the day are 4.95, other mixed drinks and high class beers are anywhere from 5-6 dollars. I found these prices high, but no higher than going out in any major city.

 

Captain larry was amazing! We saw at least 10 whales, a family (pod?) of harbor seals and sea lions, it was absolutely POURing that day but he had plenty of room for the 40 of us on the new boat which was completely covered but had a back part that you could stand on and a roof area. Dirk was the naturalist and had tons to say. We also booked Southeast Sea Kayak which was great great great, we had a great time, even though we're both fairly novice (i've been 3 times, my mom just once).

 

The beds werent exactly comfertable but I didnt wake up sore, we were in CC so i got an isothermic pillow which worked fine.

 

The crew was extremely friendly and efficant 99 percent of the time. However, in the "disco" I ordered a ginger ale and he didnt come back for an hour and he had my card. He had apparently taken his break with my card. Another waiter about 30 min later brought me my drink but then the first waiter charged me for it, i told him I would not pay for a drink that took 1 hour to get and that he didnt tell me that he was going on break otherwise I would have reconsidered ordering from him. I refused to sign the slip. However, they still charged me, I called guest services and they reversed the charge immediately. so that was the only major SNAFU.

 

our waiter Savio at table 407 was great, not very talkative but efficant and he tried very hard. His assitant Mario was very good, one of our table mates could down a glass of water before he was finished filling the rest of us so he was around a lot! he always rememberd that another tablemate only wanted green tea. They did an excellent job pairing us up, we sat at a table for 8, my family (3 50 something, 50 something, 21), another family with the same demographics and a mother and daughter (who was also 21). Turns out that the other family of 3 lives on the same street that my dad grew up on! Talk about small world, we all really got a long and would eat together when we ran into each other at sushi.

 

No sign of illnesses, there were Sana-Stations all around the ship and we took advatange of them, didnt see too many other people take advantage of them but we did and nobody got sick.

 

Entertainment was decent. the singers and dancers were, well...not broadway calaber and the director took a fair share of creative licesnse with the songs, they were just not my style. Noodles and the other comdienne Matlida were roll in the isles funny, amazing, make sure to see Matilida you're in for a HUGE surpise with that little lady.

 

overall i'd give this cruise an 8, some bumps but no cruise is a bad cruise.

[motherchic]

SF Cruiser -

Despite the loss of the Inside Passage we still had a great time. Were we disappointed - absolutely. It was the main reason we took the cruise. However, we chose to make lemonade with our lemons. It still beat being at work and here in the miserable heat and drought we're experiencing at home. Tendering is always a pain, but it never took us hours. We were always off in 20 minutes or less. You have a CC cabin, so you'll get priority tender tickets - take advantage of them. Be ready to get off when the ship arrives in port. Maybe if you wait it will take longer, I don't know. We got off as soon as she arrived.

 

Please judge this cruise for yourself. Go in with an open mind. Before we left we read so many negative posts and there were many days I was in tears thinking our cruise was going to cancel, be virus-ridden, break down etc..

It really ruined the anticipation of the cruise for both me and my husband. And that's half the fun of a cruise. Take everything you read, even my post, with a grain of salt and judge it for yourself.

VERY WELL SAID !!!!

Nadine

[BobBeaSea]

An aquaintance of mine (one of my customers) and his wife were on the Aug 20 sailing. It was their 1st cruise and they have no knowledge of cruise boards. They will be back next week and I am interested to hear what he and his wife thought about their cruise. It will be great to get a perspective from "rookies" with little or no prior knowledge of cruising. I didn't tell him anything except for two things...they picked a good cruiseline and you can get on board (usually) on embarkation day earlier than the docs indicate.

 

It is a shame Infinity couldn't do the Inside Passage, they would have loved it, I'm sure.

[BlondyX]

We were on this cruise and we had a fantastic time. I realize everyone's opinions are subjective based on your own personal experiences, so I can only speak for myself.

 

I was worried going in, reading these boards about the problems Infinity was having. But she is a beautiful ship! The staff was amazing! They were friendly, helpful, and bent over backwards to help. We had the late dinner seating and although our waiter wasn't the best I've ever had on a cruise, he was efficient and friendly. Our table of 6 was a bit rowdy, and teased the poor man mercilessly, and I think because of the language barrier, he didn't quite understand all of our humor, but he smiled and laughed along with us. The Maitre d', Luis was FANTASTIC! We missed out on the pea soup at Hubbard Glacier, because it was raining they moved it inside and we never found it. So the next night at dinner, he made sure everyone at our table got our pea soup. This was just one of things he did to make our meals special.

 

The scenery in Alaska is breathtaking, and we enjoyed being on our balcony watching it go by. We even saw an Orca swimming along with us for a bit, very close to the ship. What a highlight. I had to run out to the balcony in my bra so I didn't miss him!! We never noticed "rough" seas. A couple of rocks here and there, but certainly nothing worth noting.

 

We had no problems at all tendering in Sitka. Ketchikan was a bit of an issue in that it took longer than expected. But we made it to shore in time for our excursion. I know many people were upset with the wait times, but let's face it, trying to get 2000 people off the ship at the same time is not an easy feat. I think because it was the afternoon everyone wanted off right then and there, where as a morning arrival, people tend to wander off the ship at a more leisurly pace. All in all, I think they did the best they could under the circumstances.

 

(Clearwaterblue, after reading your review I'm guessing we were on the same kayaking trip in Ketchikan, I didn't even think about us having talked about that before hand, SORRY!!)

 

We whale watched with Capt. Larry in Juneau and although it was poring we had a phenomenal trip. Tons of WHALES! We also saw sea lions, harbor seals, dall porpoises, eagles, and many other different kinds of birds. It truly was an amazing experience. Unfortunately our helicopter ride to the Glacier was canceled. We had had such a great time on the whale watch though, we could hardly be too disappointed.

 

The food every night was from great to fantastic. Only thing I really didn't like in the main dining room was the coq au vin. But we had been eating so much on the trip, I may have just been on tastebud overload!! Waffles and Sushi in the buffet area were both to die for. Room service, although prompt was pretty much room service food. Never quite hot enough and a little dried out. The S.S. United States, was an amazing experience that everyone should try at least once. We had the wine pairing menu with a filet mignon with a truffle sauce as our main course and it was absolutely amazing! The goat cheese souffle was extraordinary. and the service was beyond impeccable.

 

I thought drink prices were fairly reasonable. We did the martini tasting on the first night of the trip and that was great. 6 martini's in front of you though is a bit intimidating!

 

I try to take everything in stride while on vacation and do my best to make good out of every situation, but on this cruise, there was no need. From Embarkation, which took less than 5 minutes, to debarkation, which went very smoothly, we had a fantastic vacation.

 

The only real hitch in the whole trip, was that Celebrity booked our return flight for 5:50 PM. And after having to leave the ship at 9 am, and going straight to the airport, where they wouldn't let us check in until 3 hours before the flight, we had quite a bit of time to kill. But we ate in the hotel that is right there in the terminal and walked around the shops, and it wasn't so bad. But we will probably book our own flights to avoid that in the future.

 

Again I will say, Infinity is a beautiful ship and the staff is fantastic. If you have a cruise booked on her, don't worry, you will have a great time!

[cechase]

We are leaving on the Infinity to Alaska 9/3...all of those recent Infinity cruisers, how was it?

 

Tips, suggestions - best places on board to eat? Best shopping deals? Things we should know?

 

Thanks!

 

Lucy

 

Lucy, we have a very robust group of cruise critic members on our Roll Call for the 9/3/2006 cruise on Infinity. You only have about one day to register for our cruise connection get together on Infinity. Just go to our roll call, and there at the left hand top is a link.

 

We have over 80 now registered.

[SFcruiser16]

Thanks Charlie...I did register for the CC get together w/ Celebrity.

 

I am looking forward to this vacation. I appreciate all the input. I admit the negative comments have lowered my expectations somewhat but if anything, that just means we will have a better time since we have lowered expectations.

 

I have only heard good things about Celebrity compared with other cruise lines so I am hoping for the best. That doesn't mean I won't be wiping down the cabin myself first thing!

 

Thanks.

 

Lucy

[KeyDoctor]

Would probably help if posters would supply the date of their cruise. I say this as we too are just back from our Alaska Infinity cruise, 8/13/06 - 8/20/06 which was after the other "just back" cruise report.

We arrived in Vancouver on Saturday the 11th, the day after the security crackdown. What a mess. There had to be 3,000 plus people waiting in line to go through immigration at the airport. Took a little over an hour to go through, then to find checked baggage sitting all over the place next to the luggage carousel so to make room for more incoming bags. We (4 of us) were advised to take a limo in to town $ 46.00 (Canadian) as the bus would have been $ 13.00 each, one way and would not have return trips before 8:30 am on our return day (too late for our 10:00 am flight home).

Arrived at the ship terminal just after 1:00 pm on Sunday and were on the ship in about fifteen minutes.

By now I assume you have heard about the cancellation of the September 17th? cruise (into dry dock, pod problem again). We were originally on the May Summit cruise that was cancelled do to "pod problems". I believe that the rearrangement of ports (Sitka & Ketchikan) was done as a result of the "pod problems" which prevents them from cruising at their normal

23 knot speed.

Arriving in Ketchikan at 2:00 pm caused the Neads Bay float plane Bear

viewing to be cancelled. I had enough notice of the cancelled 2:00 pm tour from Celebrity so that I was able to book the same tour ( at 5:00 pm) on my own. Arriving as originally scheduled on Tuesday was better than arriving on Friday at 2:00 pm with FIVE other large cruise ships already there. Overload for the tour companies especially with the other ships there first. You can probably book almost any shore excursion in Ketchikan on your own as Celebrity has been unable to offer all of them due to the change in arrival day and time.

Although this is my 12th cruise, 3rd with Celebrity, this was my first one to Alaska. As far as I knew we did cruise the inland passage and the seas were calm for the most part.

Compaired to Scottsdale (350 days of sun a year) where we live, the weather was foggy and rainy half the time. The people in Juneau said they have had ten days of sunshine since January 1st. The rain and fog caused the cancellation on any tour involving an aircraft which ment we didn't get to do the glacer dog sled helicopter tour. I get the impression that these tours tend to be cancelled due to weather more often than they go. Would be nice if us cruisers were told that the possibility of cancellation was good.

Have nothing bad to say about the ship, on the whole the service people were very good. Think the speciality restaurant on the Constallation was a little better than the SSUS restaurant.

We had no problem with the tendering at either Sitka or Ketchikan. The sushi was O.K. but not to die for. Could use some improvement.

We too enjoyed Matilda, really funny and Noodles got better after a slow start.

Have a great cruise and I hope your weather is better than ours was.

[handy4u]

You got to b kidding! This is my first cruise (Sept 3) and one of the highlights for having a balcony is being skipped. Then it's too bad too sad! Thats not right. I went to My Celebrity and the Inside Passage is still listed. Is this a lie by X, people here that don't know what they're talking about, or just a case of a massively inept web master? For those that claim to have missed IP -- Did your cruise list the Inside Passage on the itinery right up to departure? IMHO this is the same as skipping a port!!! Hasn't X set a precidence giving credits for skipping ports?

 

Thank you!

 

Look, I am going to have a good time no matter what. I just want what I paid for! I understand the contract and all but a precidence has been set. Do what's right X, give people what they paid for or give some credits.:cool:

[krewzin]

I get the impression that these tours tend to be cancelled due to weather more often than they go. Would be nice if us cruisers were told that the possibility of cancellation was good.

 

I learned about this way in advance from reading the boards...I wouldn't expect the cruiselines to tell you this... I also heard it from the locals when I booked my stuff independantly.

 

Unfortunately this is the norm for just about all the ports in the summer... liquid sunshine.

[bbro]

We were found out on these boards that we may or may not do the passage. We were told by staff on the ship that the passage was skipped (we cruised on 8/13 cruise) due to the slower speed. While at times it actually looked like the passage I've been told we didn't do the actual full passage. This was said by fellow experienced Alaska cruisers and by staff. Scenery was still gorgeous for me though.

[bbro]

One more thing SF Cruiser - if you have a helicopter trip planned in Juneau and it happens to be cancelled due to weather definitely run across the street from the dock to Orca Eco Tours and take Captain Larry's Whale watching tour. Very cool and lots of whales to see! Definitely a highlight for us after a disappointing helicopter cancellation. In Ketchikan our tour was also cancelled due to the itinerary change so we rebooked a Misty Fjords Float plane trip ourselves through SeaWind Aviation (thanks to these boards for the Capt Larry and SeaWind recommendations). Steve and Lesley Kamm were great (they own Seawind)! Here is their website:

http://www.seawindaviation.com/

 

Have fun!

[Cachecara]

I haven't been fortunate enough to take an Alaskan cruise yet. I hope that will become a reality either next summer or the following.

In the meantime, I do a lot of reading on this site. A LOT. About what ports to go, the excursions and the itinerary, the naturalists on board and the lines themselves.

After all the planning, not to mention the expense and anticipation, I would be very upset missing the Inside Passage, too. I have heard wonderful things about the scenery. Enough to sell me on this itinerary.

 

I realize things go awry. (Weather, illness and unexpected mechanical problems) But I am not going to gamble with a known problem. I love Celebrity, but not on an M class with an itinerary I have been dreaming about. I would rather do my gambling in the casino, thank you very much.

[bbro]

Yeah, even though we had a great time we will also wait for the M-Classes to be fixed before we take another chance on them. Our next ship is the Century - no pods! :-)

[Cachecara]

I just viewed the Seawind site BBro. Which tour did you do? The site is awesome. Thanks

[bbro]

I just viewed the Seawind site BBro. Which tour did you do? The site is awesome. Thanks

We took the Misty Fjords tour. It was truly breathtaking. I was expecting it to be bumpy and maybe even uncomfortable in the little plane - it wasn't at all. Steve is a great pilot and really knows the area well. We set down in a small lake and I was blown away by how quiet it was (they let you get out on the rocks and they turn off the plane). If you want to do a trip I would highly recommend them over the ship tours. I think you get more flight time and it's even cheaper.

[tiger-91]

We were found out on these boards that we may or may not do the passage. We were told by staff on the ship that the passage was skipped (we cruised on 8/13 cruise) due to the slower speed. While at times it actually looked like the passage I've been told we didn't do the actual full passage. This was said by fellow experienced Alaska cruisers and by staff. Scenery was still gorgeous for me though.

This is very strange. I was sure we'd done the Inside Passage last week. (start 8/13). In fact, my Monday daily and my Saturday daily both say we did cruise the inside passage. And the Television channel with the map showed us going down it. And I swear I saw it on Saturday. We did take a different route than the other cruise ships. We went on one side of an island, and they went on the other. While eating we all joined up again, but the Infinity was in the lead! My nephew was very proud of our Captain.

 

Anyway, I'm a novice to Alaska, thought I was in the Inside Passage, and loved it. Sometimes it's better to be uninformed :).

 

I didn't like having Early Seating. We missed dinner (Lobster) on Friday because of our 3:30pm Zip Line excursion. (OK. It was really worth it...) and we missed a good part of the Passage on Saturday evening because we were in the restaurant.

 

Thanks to this board I hunted down the croissants at the Cova Cafe and the waffles at the buffet. The almond croissants are terrific. You don't have to catch them from the rolling cart, they put them in the display case until 11AM or so, along with other pastries. The waffles? I didn't care for them. They're plain. With the usual super-sweet fruity sauce topping. I'd have preferred a pecan waffle, or crepes. Around the bend is an excellent omelette station, though they use the egg-from-a-carton liquid.

 

One other thing I never see mentioned. The free drinks in the buffet include not only coffee, iced tea, and water, but also hot water and hot chocolate mix or 4 or 5 different varieties of tea bags. Iced Tea is not dispensed in the mornings. Instead a special fruit juice is. On the days I noticed, it was Passion Fruit. Other dispensed juices all day are Orange and Apple. Hmmmm there was a third, but I don't remember it.

They also have sugar, brown "natural" sugar, Splenda, and the pink stuff sweetener. Maybe the blue stuff too?

 

I only mention this because I brought several hot chocolate mixes for the family to enjoy at the glacier but didn't need them.

 

In the Trellis Restaurant, I had the assistant fill my glass with iced tea rather than water. The first night was a learning curve. I guess he found out that I had to keep asking for more from the waiter as well as himself, and thereafter he never let it go dry.

 

A peculiar thing I noticed is that they have attendents stationed at the buffet exits. Never was I challenged when taking food or drink out the buffet though. Maybe because I didn't take more than a handful.

 

Probably the biggest things I miss from the cruise are the desserts and the morning workouts in the gym. (They go hand in hand :D)

 

I enjoyed Noodles and Matilda's performances. But I REALLY enjoyed the gymnasts Sally Jane and Alexey. Amazing stuff. Wish I could have a recording of that! (The ship calls them "Adage artists" but I don't know why.)

 

It was quite peculiar to see the "talent", like Matilda's partner or Dr Bob, walking around ship during the day. Even more weird was seeing the employees enjoying the nightlife, especially the Captain courting a blonde bombshell over a few cocktails.

 

The therapy pool next to the Aqua Spa on 10 is terrific too. It's free to enjoy, indoors, free from all kids, and has a "healthy" restaurant to boot.