budmeister

We were on the Infinity on Sept 9th. While I agree with what everyone said about the main dining room, the rest of our cruise was very good. We are not the average cruisers, and that worked to our advantage in some areas the OP found lacking. We did not use the casino, pools, spa, and or any drink package. We stayed in an indoor room. And we did not expect a Premium experience. We expected a quieter and nicer experience than our RC usual, less kids, and better live music throughout the ship and better food. All but the better food delivered. We liked the buffet food, but agree the layout was inconvenient. The best food was sometimes around a corner past where it looked like the bufftet ended. The variety was less, but the food was better. Our plates did not end up with a of variety that we took one bite of and left on the plate. We were lucky enough not to have trouble hearing the mentalist show and thought he was exceptional. We never noticed the towels. tv or toilet paper. Disembarkment was a normal time- between 8 and 9, we were off and had out luggage in 20 min. We received notices to change if we wanted to. So, if you like the Greece port schedule, and are more like us in habits, you will be fine. We also missed Mykonos for the same reason, so don't count on that.

Correction, I think the rug I wanted that went from 2900.00 to 2000.00 was probably a 6x9 0r 5x8.

Hi, Thank for the context on the subject. You are right, this was our first European cruise. We were asked if we wanted to see, nothing was forced. The 3 students we saw were adult women. This was an official government school, but I do not know where the rugs that we saw on the walls or rolled out for display were made. We were told that once the students ready for commissions, they kept 80% of the sale price, and 20% went to the school because all of the training ,equipment, and supplies were provided by the school. This is not as much money as 80% may sound like because the high prices rugs took a year or so to make. I will look up the school out of curiosity. It was Heirloom weaving center, village @heirloomturkey.com. I requested a card. I will never be able to afford $2000.00 for an 8X10 foot silk on cotton rug, but it was beautiful enough to wish I could. I only asked the price of one. It was 2900.00 until I said my budget was 300.00. That ended the talk of a sale ASAP. No hard sell.

Ad Athens luxury suites. Loved it. I talk about it in a recent Greece thread. The least expensive room is very nice, but very small by US standards. I would get a larger room next time. This is my own post, so I copied it. Hotel location small street entrance, very nice, wonderful hostess - so much more than just a checking in staff. Room very nice. But the size of a postage stamp. Well done for size, but I booked least expensive room and wish I had booked a larger one. Half block from small grocery, street of kind of like a main street mixed with about 20 restaurants, chocolate place, art and souvenir, locally made jewelry. Heaven for me. And open at night, as if it was midday. Maybe lots of tourists sleep first day and wake up in evening. Weather was a nice 70s. Perfect for sitting outside along the street with food or drink, and waking in and out of shops. Plenty of people. Just like a pleasantly perfect mid day activity, except not over crowded or hot. Tip- if you think you don't need electrical plug adapters because the cruise ship is US plugs , don't forget your night or nights b4 and after cruise. Luckily, hotel has a draw of them to lend out.

Hi, I am curious, due to all the negative posts about the carpet weaving demo- did you go to the school, only 3 students, 2-3 min talk info on material and technique at each ,and they brought out a lot of different carpets showing different technique results, and you could walk the main hall and look into all the rooms of finished carpet displayed on the walls? No pressure to buy, just one simple question to ask if you were interested? We saw silk being rolled from the silk worm cocoons and talked about where there colors come from. The results were gallery like in clarity, the horse carpet hung on a wall could have been a photo, but was a rug. I wonder if my experience was not the norm, or if I just liked it better than most.

I can only comment on the places that were on our cruise. Turkey Ephesus was probably our favorite stop. We were out from 7:30 am to about 2, and we skipped The Terrace House I think we should have done. I see your longer stoop there is on a Saturday. I do not know is the carpet weaving school is open then. We loved that, and would take the shorter day to be able to go. We liked the Ephesus ruins, but there are ruins at all stops and you could spend less time there than we did. Mykonos was cancelled for us because of weather, and I did not know how often that happens. I do know that as one who likes to do independently book tours, the 11:00 start time is a nuisance. We wanted to go on a boat and delos tour, or beaches by boat tour, and they all started too early for that. Thessaloniki was an interesting 2-3 hour see the little town walk. You might look and see how many ships are in Santorini when you are. We had a wonderful on a sail and did not go to the town until about 4:00pm. We heard that the town would be almost unwalkable with crowds during the busy parts of the day. At 4-5:50, is was busy but not too busy.

I am curious about when this changed. I thought main dining was 6 or 8 and I did 5:30 MTD this past January. It was on the Explorer.

I have found in the past that if you go right at 5:30, there usually is not a line, even without reservations. At the dining podium I was able to make 5:30 reservations. This was this past Jan., so my experiences may not be currently true. I don't know how much you have cruised, and created your own habits and experiences, but we have found that we prefer the later dining times. We usually enjoy a snack in the afternoon, after completing a daytime activity, and then a rest. So, we are not hungry for the early dinner as expected. Also, at the earlier times you miss the first show and then have to wait a while for second one, so it is not like an early dinner ends your evening early. A 6:45 dinner gets you done in time to change and get to the show in time for good seating choices. But it is much harder to get a table for two at this time away from the crowd, at 5:30 it is easy.

Sad for you. It happened to me once, but at least it was a Caribbean cruise and almost a year out. I had no truly comparable choices at time of re-booking- I ended up paying a lot more for a day shorter.

It would be nice if one cruise would grow points by one cruise for each brand- such as a 7-night Celebrity cruise would give what Celebrity does for that on Celebrity and add 7 points to RC. That way cruisers would not lose out on building one brand by cruising the other.

I have never had a Viator issue either, and use them for every trip. I agree about food at the 2-3 time we got back most of the time. I made sure to enjoy Greek food b4 getting on the ship. I would not have been so ok with that if this was not a special location. If in the Caribbean or US ports, I would have been really annoyed.

We went to Turkey, Santorini, and Rhodes a couple of weeks ago. Mykonos was cancelled due to weather. We did all off ship excursions, and we are not fearless adventurous people! We safe, secure, and easy people .We were able to do private excursions and get back to the ship like 5 hours b4 all aboard or last tender.

Well, I am not the most observant, but I only noticed a couple of things. Colors were a bit faded and the wood on the chairs in the dining room showed nicks and scratches. I am pretty sue that if I looked or thought about it I would have seen more, but nothing else caught my attention.

Agreed. There is a lot to really appreciate in Celebrity. And we are on Wonder in 1/24. Looking forward to it!

I had this in the Greece forum, but realized that this part is only about the ship. The parts about the ports are in the Greek forum Sadly, it is the last day of our cruise. I am happily sitting in the Constellation at deck 11 forward tip of the ship lounge with a cup of coffee, enjoying the view of Hydra. I love this lounge. It is huge, 3/4s around floor to seating windows, air conditioned and quiet most of day time. First, I will comment on a couple of board type topics. We had chocolates on our pillows, our room was cleaned twice if we left long enough at the right times, the dining room coffee was better than expected. Paper daily schedules were delivered each night. There was a sommelier listed for each table on the plaque and one stopped by each of the 2 nights we were there. The shows we saw were excellent, the mentalist and magician awe- inspiring. Every crew member was exceptionally friendly and helpful, except the one that dropped it a notch because I really wanted something he could not give me. I loved the theater seating of rows of connected couches and little tables for your drinks. And there was room to let people by without standard up. The rooftop terrace was another wonderful surprise. Couch like seating. Not crowded and split between shade and sun, and fairly quiet, even if a movie was showing. There was a lot of live music that I liked quite often when we passed a lounge . I wanted table that was reserved for 2 and not 3 inches from the one next to the next one. My only complaints of the ship are about the dining room. When the dining room was full and there were lines, I was not accommodated with a true 2 person table or a table for 4 which would have solved the problem, and the slim dining room menu, and service was slow and very understaffed. I am sure it was very frustrating for the crew to work so hard and have guests unhappy with the dining While I liked the dining room dinner food, hubby had the basic chicken the 2 nights we ate there. The menu was slim, with a fish, salmon, ordinary chicken, iffy beef every night. Daily differences included a vegetarian dish I liked and a second chicken or salmon. I love the French onion soup and the salads and appetizers, plus the vegetarian and pasta choices, so had it better. The Alfredo gnocchi was wondering as well as a fruit curd dessert. We ate in the buffet the most of the rest of the cruise and really enjoyed our food. It exceeded our expectations, we cleared our plates instead of taking a bit or two of lots of stuff and not liking it. We never had trouble finding tables in the buffet and you do have to go to the tip in the back for some of the best food. It looks Iike you are going past where the buffet ends. We went back to main dining once because of that french onion soup and I liked the pasta, hubby said steak was edible, and we both liked the desserts. There are European and American outlets, but only 2 of each. If you don't bring adapters, that limits charging your electronics over night when you have a cpap and white noise machine. The ship is longer than I expected. I usually book mid ship on a big ship, twice the passengers of this one, and was surprised that the walk from ship aft dining to a room almost the farthest forward room was such a walk.

This is not a jab, as you would not know, but there are multiple posts in the Greece forum about this. It is just faster to direct you than re-write experiences.

The only Diamond so get Elite perk we actually used was the free 30 item laundry bag a scoop of gelato. We packed less and came home with less dirty laundry. We really appreciated this benefit. We were able to get a few bottled waters and diet cokes in the theatre bar between 5 and 7, but the crew indicated that they were not supposed to. We never managed to be in a lounge at the right time. While I enjoyed my Celebrity cruise, and would go again, I missed having the Diamond lounge breakfasts and appetizers, getting my free diet coke and bottles of water easily every day, and a free day of internet. As indoor or balcony cruisers who do not do the drink package, we probably missed our Diamond benefits more than most. As a non- related point between the two- We always get the ultimate dining package on RC, but expected the dining room food to be better on Celebrity. It was not. The buffet was much better than RC, but I would still buy at least some specialty dining b4 you. go.

Hi, I am not religious, and I found this visit to be interesting and satisfying to see. We had a guide passionate about the history, Hanry from Ephesus tours, that did make a difference. I am not sure I would have been as pleased if I did not have the knowledge to understand what I was seeing. I really enjoyed the visit.

I thought the same, and it turned out to by the highlight of our trip. We did a private tour listed as for cruise people only and we really enjoyed it. We used Ephesus port tours with Hanry as our guide. We were picked up at the port with him having a sign with out name on it. It was a large luxurious min-van type of car, and a driver drove while our guide talked to us. He was passionate and knowledgeable and made the history come alive as I never could have expected. We visited Ephesus and Mary's house, and a carpet weaving school, with lunch next to the school. We had a choice, and chose to see the carpet making school. It was actually a highlight of our trip and the best meal of our whole vacation next to it. We watched the silk being rolled from the silk worm cocoons and a few ( like 3 ) students do the weaving. A person talked about the weaving and the materials. The product output part was awe inspiring in beauty and detail. These carpets could have been photographs. There was pressure to buy at all. We asked how much our favorites were, and they were 2000.00. So, it was like looking at a art gallery for us, not a shopping stop.

We did this and we really enjoyed it. We used Ephesus port tours with Hanry as our driver. It was listed on trip advise as for cruise guests only. We had a choice, and chose to see the carpet making school. It was actually a highlight of out trip and the best meal of our whole vacation next to it.

The tour guide was surprised, but it was not an issue. The tour included tickets for the cable car ride down, so I asked for them and she gave them to me.

Even if you actually used them? My excursion set it up. There is a company at the Athinois Port. Maybe you could google which one it is, or an image. I also used SAN... Tran... in Santorini. I think that would be fine as well. I got lucky- the Oia on your own was only 67 a person. I paid it because I really wanted to go on the sailing excusion I had, and there was no other way.

That is exactly what we did, but the tender was to Athinios port, not to Oia. The bus picks you up at Athinios port and drives you to Oia. You do not hit Fira on the way in. The original tour goes to Fira after some time in Oia, gives you a ride to Fira, and you do get a ticket for the cable car ride down from Fira. While I cannot be sure of your tour, I am positive about the Oia on your own tour from the Celebrity Infinity last week, as I was on it- as far as the tender, b4 getting on the bus to Oia. I originally had a tour scheduled for pickup at Oia , and cancelled it as I realized from these boards that the tendering to a different port and then bus ride from there to Oia did not give me a time table I was comfortable with. Even with a perfect timing of getting on the first tender, we watched the busses wait to be filled from multiple tenders and then start the drive to Oia, which previous board conversation has at possible 40 min- no guarantees on that. I likely would have missed my tour if I had booked pickup from Oia at 8:45.

Wow- I thought we were the only ones. We cruise exactly like you do, and experience exactly the same.