Review Of Infinity Roundtrip Cruise Los Andgeles-Hawaii (Oct 22 - Nov 5 2006) Part I

We were cruising on Infinity RT LA-Hawaii for 14 days, from 10.22.06 to 11.05.06.

Here’s my review about the cruise and the ship.

It is quite long, but I tried to make it more or less comprehensive, so deal with it.

Our short background.

This will help you to adjust/level up our observations.

My wife and myself are in our late 40s-early 50s. We cruised 5 times before Celebrity, with 4 different cruise lines, ranging from Radisson Seven Seas to Royal Caribbean, so one may consider us as somewhat experienced in cruising. We came to the US from Europe (naturalized with over 13 years of living in this blessed country), so in addition to the age/experience factor, we have fairly unbiased opinion with regards to what’s expected by both Americans and Europeans from a cruise trip in general. This is important because on every cruise ship you see people of various nationalities and ethnicities –cruise reported here was not an exception, we had a large group of German tourists, and all PA announcements were made both in English and in German.

We also belong to a more physically active kind of cruisers, enjoying swimming/snorkeling (to a great degree), sports, dancing, etc. We like to explore ports to the fullest, using every chance to look for far-from-ordinary attractions and places.

About this review.

I express here our (and our only) opinion, based on thorough study of the Internet data, scrupulous observations during the cruise and conversations with other cruise guests and crewmembers. If you’d find this review atrociously wrong and shamelessly partial – sorry, can’t help you.

I will not mention the names of our waiters/stewards/deck boys etc., because it is useless. Nobody would remember those, and nobody from both sides – the guests and the crew, because unless you tipped happy Hassan a grand, he will forget your name and face the second you disembark. I can’t stop wondering how naïve are those reviewers who often write “...if you’d see Hassan, say hi from me...”.

God bless their pure hearts.

Finally, you won’t find here the word “whisked (away)”, because it’s one the most often used clichés in the cruise reviews.

I just hate it, sorry.

SUMMARY OF "CELEBRITY SECRETS THEY WON’T TELL YOU..."

Despite of all the rave and excitement about such renowned topic on this board, I can honestly tell you that 5 out of 6 these "secrets" are not secrets at all – I’ll give a few for-examples.

You don’t need to pre-order escargots and shrimp cocktails in advance – they are listed on the left page of daily menu in the main restaurant, and are available for anybody every evening. Just order them.

Waffle and sandwich station of Ocean View Café at the stern is depicted on the plan placed at the entrance to the Café.

Two electric outlets above the desk are quite enough for all of your charging purposes – no need to drag a power strip with you. I had a camcorder, a digi, a computer, and a cell phone (charger) – never had a conflict of their interests.

Yes, bathroom-installed hair dryer sucks, but you can’t use your own (neither you can use your iron in the cabin) – warning sign quite aggressively tells you about responsibility for any fire damage, etc., which this unauthorized use may cause.

Desserts in Cova Café are free and are about 90% the same as in the Ocean View Café on 10th deck at the teatime – they tell you this straight and all the time. By the way, I’ve red somewhere that Celebrity’s canapés are not good – not true! We enjoyed them immensely, every day of our 2 weeks onboard they had a variety of up to 10 canapé types, and they all were exquisite.

Ordering extra dessert – and in any quantity – is not a secret, it is always suggested by your waiter, as is a substitute for an appetizer/entree/dessert which is not prepared to your liking.

The absence of a clock in your cabin is something mysteriously typical for any cruise ship, thus, you should bring it with you not only to Celebrity ship, but anytime you are going cruising...

We brought several large bottles of Evian with us, which wasn’t really necessary, since water, juices, fruit punch and lemonade were available by the glass pretty much the whole day in the food courts (you can pour it yourself or ask a waiter to bring you one). I saw some smart people pouring water or fruit punch into gallon size jugs - for the whole family, apparently. Plus, each stateroom has small stainless pitcher with cold drinkable water, and an ice bucket; these were replenished by room attendants frequently.

There is also quite passionate discussion on this message board about the sturdiness of mattresses on the X ships. Many say they hate’em. I can’t complain – it was really sturdy, but it did not bother me at all, despite of my bad lower back. In fact, I slept better on that mattress than on my own at home.

What bothered us during the night (besides the gurgling sound of elderly fridge) was a strange hissing sound coming from outside the room – a pipe? An underwater stabilizer? We were unable to find out, hence just learned to ignore it.

PRE-CRUISE

A lot of confusion was caused by Celebrity’s double standard regarding BYOA (bring your own alcohol) policy, which is/was extensively discussed on this forum. Recent increase of the corkage fee and explanation of the policy by various Celebrity execs are even more confusing. I studied Celebrity’s wine list thoroughly and found that many wines from that list (or their close analogs, for that matter) I can buy at Californian liquor stores for a half of what is asked by Celebrity. For example, a pair of our often enjoyed over dinner German Piesporter Spatlese wines (reg. $ 13-15) costs $27-32 onboard, plus 15% gratuity... I was surprised to find (not in the brochure/Web site, but by inquiring with Celebrity reps on the phone) that Martell Cordon Bleu is in the Celebrity Bon Voyage liquor package (#C712) for only $80, but quickly learned that this package is "not available anymore". Apparently, because in the stores this cognac already costs $90-95...

Thus, we took a good hard look on possible scenario of being caught while bootlegging alcohol onboard (sans much hated Celebrity’s greed and infamous RCL new "BYOA" policy), and packed 2 bottles of hard liquors and 4 bottles of selected wines in our suitcases.

Not a single sound. Nothing was said or touched. Viva la TSA.

All bottles made it to our cabin unharmed, fulfilling their purpose within next 14 days. The money we saved on booze went into a massage combo for my wife, and into a couple of car rentals on the islands. No kidding. We easily saved around 300 bucks on drinks. Just to tickle your interest: on the last night, when we went to the specialty restaurant “SS United States”, we purchased a glass of mediocre quality chateau-neuve (really over-dried), which supposed to make my steak Diane even more pleasurable, and a glass of the above-mentioned $13-15 piesporter for my wife’s magnificent halibut – and paid for the two glasses $38 with tip.

Do your math.

Yes, we saw not even one couple that was drinking a bottle of wine every night in the dining room (bought from sommelier). We also met people who claimed to drink 6-8-10 cocktails per day. To me, if you want to get wasted, there is more productive way than to pay several hundreds extra just to have a chance to loose your face on a rocky ship.

But this is a long-standing marine tradition, right?

That’s the way Celebrity handles this issue. That’s your double standard, pure and simple.

Overpricing is a characteristic feature of Celebrity, no pun intended. I checked excursion list and quickly found that even "cheap" walking tours in Lahaina or Honolulu would cost for a couple more than this couple would spend renting a car for a day. We ended up renting a car in each port, and never regretted that decision – it gives you a lot of freedom, and if you study the islands/ports well in advance, you may essentially see more and go further than your fellow cruisers who booked the excursion from Celebrity. It was very obvious in such popular spots as National Volcano Park (Big Island) – we easily avoided the crowded buses and enjoyed a solitude and wilderness of the park at our own pace. I’ve also talked to people who booked in advance either snorkeling tours or helicopter rides with local providers, and everybody was very happy with the quality of service and pricing.

Do not even dare to use mini-bar onboard. Seriously. First thing we did was that we asked our steward to remove all the tiny devil bottles from the fridge and used it efficiently to store our own booze, sandwiches for the next day trips, and chocolates. (Strangely, the fridge was making so much noise during nights onboard that we had a hard time to go to sleep when came back home – we missed the clunking sound of rattled compressor).

What’s amazing, dry cleaning/laundry was probably the only service onboard which did not force your eyebrows travel to the upper end of the forehead. It was not cheap, but tolerable, and considering duration of the trip, the absence of laundromats onboard, and very confined and humid bathroom (hence drying dump or wet clothes, especially bathing suits or sports gear was a permanent pain) – it is worth the price.

I tried to inquire before the cruise regarding prices for various treatments and packages (listed proudly on Celebrity Web site for Infinity’s Elemis Spa); however, Celebrity’s reps were totally speech-impaired about it. When we took a spa tour onboard, I understood why - the use of Elemis Spa would torpedo anybody’s shipboard account big time. Of course, if you are a spa junkie, and determined to have your teeth whitened only on Infinity ($200-250), or you are dying without mud therapy for only $400, or can’t wait to see your renewed face after facial worth $350 – that shouldn’t bother you...

EMBARKATION

We showed at the Terminal around noon. Dropped our suitcases at curbside and spent about 10 min in the line waiting for initial security check. Since we have registered on-line, bar-coded passes were at hands, and our registration with purser’s desk was very short, which essentially meant checking on our passports and scanning our credit card to establish a shipboard account. Then we walked through the wall-of-shame (traditional picture-taking) and stepped onboard of Infinity. Traditional cheap champagne and "mimosa" drinks were abundant in the main lobby.

The whole embarkation procedure took about 20-25 min, which was very efficient. I grant this to our decision to come 2 hours earlier of scheduled embarkation beginning – later on I looked down from the deck and saw people standing in line on the gangway and far further into Terminal.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION OF THE SHIP

For a 5-year old ship, which was never officially refurbished, she actually looks extremely good. We were impressed with condition of public areas, both furniture and décor, including carpets. Yes, you see occasional signs of wear and tear, but they were much less visible than we expected. Exterior (salt-related rust of metal surfaces, peeling paint on window sills and varnish on hand rails, etc.) was also noticeable, but to much lesser degree, because crew was constantly working on repairing/repainting/replacing and so on – the type of repair one can see on any other cruise ship.

Design of the ship is not entirely ergonomically correct, considering that many passengers are in their 70-s or 80-s. We also had a number of fellow cruisers in the wheel chairs. Three sets of elevators are probably OK for a ship of this size, but the most often used – mid-ship – set of 4 elevators is placed closer to the aft, thus, folks from the bow-placed cabins have to walk long corridors in order to get to the Trellis restaurant or to the Ocean View Café.

There are twelve decks on Infinity, two upper being considered sports decks (plus Constellation Lounge for dancing and entertaining on 11th deck). Deck 10 has two pools; one of them is under the glass roof in the AquaSpa. Gym, Elemis Spa, and Ocean View Café are also placed on the same deck. (I have to mention here a very cool thing on Infinity – a sauna, which is in the AquaSpa. Incredible views of the ocean through huge porthole in combination with dry heat, followed by a cold shower – great!). Decks 9, 8, 7, and 6 contain cabins and suites. Deck 5 has upper entrances to the Celebrity theater (bow) and Trellis restaurant (stern), Emporium shopping plaza, large bar area separated into Champagne and Martini bars, and Cova café Milano – one of the most revered places for gourmands onboard. Deck 4, accordingly, has main entrances to the Trellis and Celebrity, Michael’s Club (piano bar), Fortunes casino, photo gallery, and Rendez-vous Lounge. Besides some cabin space, deck 3 features Guest Relations and Excursions Desk, SS United States (a specialty restaurant), and a Cinema/Conference Center. Finally, deck 2 has oceanview cabins.

Overall, the speed of the ship was very impressive (23-25 knots at sea), and ship motion (rocking) was quite noticeable only during a couple of days at sea on our way back. Stabilizers help, I gather.

I am not going to discuss here Infinity’s propulsion pod problem – this topic is covered extensively elsewhere. I want to say just this: when going on the cruise for 4 days in the middle of the ocean, it is not really comforting to think that ship has inherited a serious mechanical design flaw.

We had 2000 fellow cruisers onboard.

On the ship this big you always could find a quiet corner – I immensely enjoyed a nice leather chair in the empty library room (second floor – yes, yes, it has two floors... and the entrance is on the first), when I was writing.

Quality of ship’s décor is uneven – in a lot of places it looks very nice, in many it is somewhat dull, especially the choice of carpet colors in combination with eye-popping blue rays (ceiling lights in numerous areas). Bright-blue color dominates in public places, but after a couple of days you get accustomed to it. I personally found it quite intriguing – the color of sushi (tuna) and of some cold cuts wasn’t really red in those blue rays!

Glass sculptures and porcelain figurines scattered throughout the ship are really tasteless... but hey, no one is perfect (and I am talking about my taste, I guess).

So we were quite pleased with condition of public areas.

The cabins – different talk.

We opted out for the ocean view cabin, because we are more active and social than those balcony-sitting folks, and we spend far more time outside of our stateroom during days at sea. We use every minute of days at ports, so having a balcony is nice but not imperative.

When we first crossed the doorstep of our cabin, a heavy cigar stench kicked up so strong that we immediately closed the door. The steward was very apologetic but said that he just replaced the steward working here on the previous cruise, and he has no idea about the smell. Two deodorizing treatments within next three hours did nothing; in fact, the smell became even more unbearable because the chemical vapors mixed up with cigar stench.

Visit to guest relation desk did help, but in a dissatisfactory way – we were offered a “stepdown”, a cabin of lower category. Not an upgrade or even a similar category – we were told that the ship is fully booked. I inquired about compensation, but was immediately told that this has to be handled by Celebrity Cruises headquarters, after the cruise (and yes, they did... they offered us $80 to cover up our downgrade...).

So I could compare at least two different cabins regarding their condition.

Here you have it – closet doors with ripped out and replaced hinges, stains on the carpets, outdated Philips TV sets, bed spreads in such condition that we rolled one in our room out immediately and told steward never put it back again, upholstery on the chair and the sofa in such a shape that we never sat on them without covering by a towel... Do not take me wrong; I am not saying that Celebrity is worse than any other cruise line with regards to cabin condition. It’s just obvious – the ship needs to be refurbished. Yes, stewards were going beyond belief in their efforts to make it look nice’n’cozy, but if remote control has a battery lid held by scotch tape, a toilet sit has a permanent (and really weird) yellow stain underneath, and a shower curtain smells funny... It’s time.

One more odd thing. In our originally scheduled cabin the bed was positioned in the middle of the room (headboard to the wall). In the other cabin it was placed headboard to the window, which created an unusual problem – a/c outlet was blowing a strong and permanent current of “fresh” air that was traveling along the ceiling and then curved down when hitting the window wall. We asked our steward to think of something... and he did (apparently, this was familiar issue for him) – he created an elaborate cardboard/duct tape construction, siphoning the air down from the outlet.

Yet another weird stuff. I red about high levels of chlorine/bleach concentration in the AquaSpa pool before the cruise and chuckled in disbelief.

I was wrong.

First several days it was hard even to pass by that place – the chlorine odor was eye-itchingly strong. When the threat of potential disease outbreaks went away at the end of the cruise, it was actually almost pleasurable to sit under the roof of Aquaspa, when the weather kicked back to cold on the last two days of the cruise.

I appreciate your candor about Infinity. We cruising over the holidays to South America and I've been curious to hear from someone that has recently sailed. My husband laughed at me when I told him I'm brining my own shower curtain, but you made him think differently :)

I'm looking forward to reading part II.

Laurie

Marylander,

Overall, great review!

We were cruising on Infinity RT LA-Hawaii for 14 days, from 10.22.06 to 11.05.06.

Here’s my review about the cruise and the ship.

It is quite long, but I tried to make it more or less comprehensive, so deal with it.

I was on the same cruise.

My wife and myself are in our late 40s-early 50s. We cruised 5 times before Celebrity, with 4 different cruise lines, ranging from Radisson Seven Seas to Royal Caribbean, so one may consider us as somewhat experienced in cruising.

I'm of similar age (49). This was my twenty-first cruise overall and eighth with Celebrity (first thirteen were with Princess).

We brought several large bottles of Evian with us, which wasn’t really necessary....

You're right. A cruise ship's potable water, distilled from the ocean, is the purest drinking water that you will find anywhere. Most bottled water, BTW, is just somebody's public water supply.

There is also quite passionate discussion on this message board about the sturdiness of mattresses on the X ships. Many say they hate’em. I can’t complain – it was really sturdy, but it did not bother me at all, despite of my bad lower back. In fact, I slept better on that mattress than on my own at home.

The experts actually recommend very firm mattresses for people with back problems. The softer mattresses apparently give too much in the wrong places.

When we first crossed the doorstep of our cabin, a heavy cigar stench kicked up so strong that we immediately closed the door. The steward was very apologetic but said that he just replaced the steward working here on the previous cruise, and he has no idea about the smell. Two deodorizing treatments within next three hours did nothing; in fact, the smell became even more unbearable because the chemical vapors mixed up with cigar stench.

Visit to guest relation desk did help, but in a dissatisfactory way – we were offered a “stepdown”, a cabin of lower category. Not an upgrade or even a similar category – we were told that the ship is fully booked. I inquired about compensation, but was immediately told that this has to be handled by Celebrity Cruises headquarters, after the cruise (and yes, they did... they offered us $80 to cover up our downgrade...).

So I could compare at least two different cabins regarding their condition.

Here you have it – closet doors with ripped out and replaced hinges, stains on the carpets, outdated Philips TV sets, bed spreads in such condition that we rolled one in our room out immediately and told steward never put it back again, upholstery on the chair and the sofa in such a shape that we never sat on them without covering by a towel... Do not take me wrong; I am not saying that Celebrity is worse than any other cruise line with regards to cabin condition. It’s just obvious – the ship needs to be refurbished. Yes, stewards were going beyond belief in their efforts to make it look nice’n’cozy, but if remote control has a battery lid held by scotch tape, a toilet sit has a permanent (and really weird) yellow stain underneath, and a shower curtain smells funny... It’s time.

This is the one place where my experience was very different than yours. My cabin was in very good condition. There was one drawer in the main closet that needed new runners, but it still worked, and that was the only issue requiring attention. Of course, this is an area in which cabin stewards make all the difference. A cabin steward who is "on the ball" notices things that need repair and puts them in for maintenance right away, so the cabin stays in good shape.

Norm.

Thank you both for reading.

I have yet another 2-3 parts to come!

Looking forward to the next installment........Frank:)

Here's my review of the same cruise...take the differences as you will, but we're in agreement on a few things.

Here's a link: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...?EntryID=23215

Andrew

Oops, double post.