Infinity to Alaska Review 6/8/12

[honeymooner16]

We just returned from Alaska and rather than getting back to work right away, I thought I'd conintue reliving my honeymoon.

 

First, a little bit about us. We are 20 somethings on our honeymoon, so we are not your average Alaska cruisers. We don't have kids, and we're from Florida. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has!

 

Travel:

We flew United from Florida to Seattle the Thursday before the cruise. We got in around 2pm local time, and went straight to our airport hotel, the SleepInn SeaTac. The hotel included a free shuttle to and from the airport, and to anywhere within a 2 mile radius of the hotel. It was clean and very friendly, and had a decent contintental breakfast. I'd recomend it if you're looking for a cheap place to stay ($69/night). However, it is not convineint to downtown, so if you want to explore around downtown...stay downtown! All the food in Seattle is pricey, and we were honestly exhausted from our 12 hour traveling, so we just went to a local restraunt recomended by the hotel for dinner, walked through a park, and crashed early.

 

Friday:

We woke up early, had breakfast, and took the light rail downtown. I highly recomend this over a taxi or airport shuttle. The light rail cost $2.75 a person, and then you can take a free bus to the cruise port. A taxi will run you about $40 and I believe the shuttle is about that same cost. There was plenty of room on the train for our luggage, the train never got full and it was a fun way to see the city.

 

We dropped off our luggage at the pier at 8:30 with their storage service for $3/bag, and then went exploring. We visited the market and hiked over to Olympic structure park...its all very walkable. At 10:00 we happened to be passing the cruise dock again, and over heard they would start checking people in at 10:45...so guess where we were at that time!

 

Check in was smooth, and we waited in virtually no line. After we checked in we were all held in the terminal until we could board at 11. Celebrity welcomed us on board with Champagne and orange juise, and we headeds straight for lunch (time change+hiking all morning). After lunch, we went up on deck to take some pictures, and our room was ready before the 1pm time. We did all the typical first day stuff, including the muster drill, and it all went smoothly.

 

Mind you we had a wonderful trip, and Celebrity as a whole was great, but here is a slgiht critisism. We booked this trip for our honeymoon 13 months in advance. We picked early dining as soon as we booked the cruise, and asked for a table for 2 (we wanted to be romantic). The table and dining time were showing as confirmed up until we left 2 days before our cruise (last time I checked), but when we arrived we had been switched to the late seating, and moved to a group table. Now the late seating was the major issue for us. We are used to eating an early dinner on East Coast time...so eating at 8pm west coast time would be like eating at midnight for us. We also tend to go to bed early and get up to work out. The Assitant who was re-assigning tables admitted to us that they switched our dining time because they had overbooked the early seating and assumed that because we were young we would not have an issue eating late. The head matrie'd was actually quite rude about it. Basically saying we would change our minds and just deal with it. Thankfully, they were able to get us back to the earlier seating at a group table the first night...and it turned out the group table we were sitting at was missing 2 of their members becasue they had gotten booted to a table for 2! It was all just very disorganized. IMHO they should honor first come first serve seating requests. Those of us who book early (and risk paying more) should at least have the benefit of first dibs on tables. By the second night everything was resolved.

 

Anyway, we stayed in cabin 7901, one of the cabins that was added several refurbishments before. It was a nice cabin, and was huge by inside standards! Definately larger than most of the outsides around us. However, since it was an add on, it seemed to not be quite as secured to the surrounding walls as other cabins, and it made a good bit of creaking noises as the ship rolled. Otherwise, it was a wonderful room. The bathroom had plenty of room and was clean, there was a ton of storage space and the beds were very comfortable.

 

Saturday: Sea Day

This was our first sea day, and it was pretty rough. We sailed on the outside of vancouver island, and we did notice quite a few people getting sick. Niether of us have motion problems, but our prior tablemates spent most of the day sick. We were told tho that we had unseasonable cold weather this week. The warmest day was about 55'F. We had misty rain the whole week too, but thats typical of Alaska. The ship had free hot cocoa in the buffet and flannel blankets on deck for whale watching.

 

There was a group of lawyers on our ship doing a continuing education program, so they had the main viewing lounge closed both sea days. This was a slight annoyance to most people, but being young, we bundled up and headed to the top deck to whale watch. We saw probably 30-40 humpbacks of the course of the trip.

 

Today was alos the first presentation by Brent Nixon. He is fantastic. Don't miss his shows. We learned so much.

 

Both formal nights are also on the sea days, however we were having so much fun whale watching we rushed through dinner and skipped dessert to go back up. Brent will tell you in his presentation when you are getting into good areas to see wildlife, and this always seemed to coincide with dinner.

 

Sunday: Ketchican

 

We arrived in Ketchican around 6:30am. We wish we would have gotten up earlier tho, as the approach to the city is beautiful. We also regret not doing some form of excursion here. MY ADVICE: do an excursion in every city. There is not enough in the towns to keep you busy all day. But we had two excursions planned in other cities, and we thought that we would just take a nice hike up Deer Mountain here. We hiked for nearly 45 minutes just to get to the trailhead, and then it was too cloudy to see anything from the hike. In retrospect, we should have gone kayaking or whale watching. Also note that ketchican has the best selection of shopping of any of the towns, so you may want to pick up your suveniers here!

 

Monday: Juneau

 

This was by far our favorite port, and that is because of the awesome excursion we did. It was raining, so many trips were cancelled, but ours went. We did the 2 hour glacier helicoptor trek. DO IT! It is expensive and worth every penny and more. My husband keeps saying how it changed his world. It is a 15 minute helicopter ride (my husband hate flying) and then 2 hours on the ice. You see such amazing beauty that words and pictures can't describe it. It is not a difficult walk by any means and some in our group were well into their 60s. DO IT! There is a 3 hour hike that includes scaling one of the ice walls. We will do this when we go back next time. It was the most amazing experience. Just do it, its so worth the money.

 

Tuesday: Skagway

 

Skagway means wind in the native language. We're from Florida and have been through hurricanes with less wind. We went horseback riding here, which was neat. We saw two wolves, which was the highlight of the trip, but I think next time we will do the train. Most people who went up on the train saw numerous bears and said it was just incredible. We've rode horeses in the past, so the ride was a little boring for us...no trotting allowed, and we basically stayed on a road the entire time.

 

Wednesday: Sea Day

 

This day was a little calmer, mostly because we had better weather. We spent the day whale watching again, and did formal night. The ship also does brunch this day. The brunch is pretty and its fun to see the food presented all fancy, but its generally the same food as in the buffet.

 

Thursday: Victoria

 

We got into victoria at 6pm, with very rough seas again, so we elected not to go whale watching. However, there is not much else to do in vicotria itself, as most thigns are closed that late at night. We walked into town (about a 35 minute walk) and explored, then came back and crashed early to try to re-adjust to east coast time.

 

Friday: Disembark/ Seattle

We used the luggage valet program so we wouldnt ahve to deal with our bags since our scheduled flight was not until 10:55 pm. We had planned to do the King Tut exhibit and explore aroudn Seattle, but by the time we got there we were exhausted and did not feel like taking the red eye back to Florida. We called anc changed our flight first thing in the morning. We walked right off the ship since we did not need to deal with luggage. Seattle was far more exciting on the first day. We hiked up to the space needle, but were a little put off by all the hippies/ bums sleeping in the parks...in the South we call them homeless, and see this as a problem...not so up there. We decided it was better to just head to the airport. We took the free busses (all busses are free downtown...taxes are high in Seattle!) and then took the light rail back to the airport. We ended up getting back to our house in Florida before our plane would have taken off from Seattle, and were very glad we did that. Overall it was a wonderful trip, but by the end we were just exhausted! (too many late nights, and there is stuff to see by 5am every day).

 

the Ship:

 

The Ship was nice. It was clean, and you could clearly see it had been updated recently. Our cabin was by far the best cabin we have sailed in yet. However, I did not particularly care for the main lobby of the ship. It was only 3 stories high, and very closed off feeling. The shops etc are not centered around this lobby as they are on other ships, and there was no good place to sit and people watch before dinner other than the martini bar, which seemed akwardly placed. The inside of the ship just seemed very closed off and dark. They rarely ahd the windows open in roundezvouz lounge, so if you wanted to dance and whale watch, it was not an option. I personally liked the layout of the Century better, and probably would look for a more open layout in the future.

 

The cruise was fantastic though, and we will go again. I highly recomend seeing Alaska, and go to see the wildlife and nature. It is an incredible place. I also highly recomend celebrity, despite a few hiccups it is defaintely a fun and classy enviroment.

 

Happy Sailings to all of you just getting ready to sail!

[TennesseeTeachers]

Thank you for your review, I leave on June 22nd and am looking forward to my 2nd Alaska Cruise.

 

What did you think about Tracy Arm Fjord?

 

Where did you see the humpbacks? Were they easy to spot? Is it something that could have been seen off your balcony? ( i know you had an inside) or did you need to be up on the open deck?

 

Thanks for keeping us informed

 

Darrell Duncan

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Yes- that would really irritate me also with the late seating. I have also heard from so many people that they thought they had secured a table for two and didn't get one.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[maximus217]

Thank you very much for your review Honeymooner16.

 

With your review, we now changed our Pilot's Choice tour with the 2 hour glacier Helicopter Trek.

 

Can you tell me more about this tour?

 

Thanks. :)

[honeymooner16]

Thank you for your review, I leave on June 22nd and am looking forward to my 2nd Alaska Cruise.

 

What did you think about Tracy Arm Fjord?

 

Where did you see the humpbacks? Were they easy to spot? Is it something that could have been seen off your balcony? ( i know you had an inside) or did you need to be up on the open deck?

 

Thanks for keeping us informed

 

Darrell Duncan

 

-- The Fjord was amazing. You actually get there well before 5am and will start seeing icebergs right away. We saw probably 15 seals, 2 eagles and a bear. There are hundreds of waterfalls and icebergs which are all stunning. We were told we got the closest to the glacier of any cruise yet this season, but the ice and the harbor seal colony prevent you from getting right next to it. You will be impressed with how close to the walls the ship gets! Definately worth getting up for!

 

Thank you very much for your review Honeymooner16.

 

With your review, we now changed our Pilot's Choice tour with the 2 hour glacier Helicopter Trek.

 

Can you tell me more about this tour?

 

Thanks. :)

 

It was amazing. They gear you up with waterproof gear (wear plenty of layers though, and take warm headgear), gloves, and shoes. The give you clampons, an ice pick, and a safety harness as well. The tour guides are all college kids up there for the summer, but they do a great job of showing you all the glacier has to offer. We were able to stradle a crevace, lean over a few huge holes, and "walk on water." We had some older people in our group that were afraid of some of the activities, and that slowed us up some. The helicoptor ride is amazing too. Our pilot was great. The big difference between this trip and the 3 hour is the longer trip gets to scale one of the ice walls. Had we realized that, we probably would have done the 3 hour. We had a blast, and I highly recommend this trip!

[honeymooner16]

Thank you for your review, I leave on June 22nd and am looking forward to my 2nd Alaska Cruise.

 

What did you think about Tracy Arm Fjord?

 

Where did you see the humpbacks? Were they easy to spot? Is it something that could have been seen off your balcony? ( i know you had an inside) or did you need to be up on the open deck?

 

Thanks for keeping us informed

 

Darrell Duncan

 

 

Sorry I missed the 2nd portion of your question...humpbacks were all over! We saw 2 or 3 out in the open ocean on the first sea day, another one came very close to the ship going through the pass the first night (Brent Nixon will come over the PA in the public areas this night and tell you -- its right around 7pm). We saw a bunch in the inside passage, even some while we were sitting in port in Skagway. The last sea day is probably when we saw the most. The trick is to just be up looking. You can sit in the constellation lounge and be warm and see plenty (though our pictures from inside did not turn out as good). Try to sit where you can see the front of the ship though, it gives you the best vantage point. We had a blast doing it. Everytime one of us would see a blow we'd jump! Happy Sailings!

[maximus217]

Thanks for the info.

 

By the way, when is the formal night on the MDR? How was your experience?

[Regal Eagle]

Thanks for your review. We are going on the Infinity on June 29 and are interested in also doing the light rail from the airport. What stop did you get off to connect with the bus to the port?

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the review of your cruise. Glad you had a good time.

[honeymooner16]

Thanks for the info.

 

By the way, when is the formal night on the MDR? How was your experience?

The formal nights are both on the sea days. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up. My husband wore a tux and I wore a long gown, and we were not over dressed. There were more pant suits for ladies on this trip than others I have been on, but that probably has more to do with the age of the crowd.

[honeymooner16]

Thanks for your review. We are going on the Infinity on June 29 and are interested in also doing the light rail from the airport. What stop did you get off to connect with the bus to the port?

 

We got of at international station/ china town and took the route 99 bus to the water. That bus is a 15-20 minute ride, but it will drop you off right in front of the cruise ship. If you google the light rail, they have a "plan your trip" feature which will tell you your options and what stops/buses to take.

[Regal Eagle]

We got of at international station/ china town and took the route 99 bus to the water. That bus is a 15-20 minute ride, but it will drop you off right in front of the cruise ship. If you google the light rail, they have a "plan your trip" feature which will tell you your options and what stops/buses to take.

 

Thanks! "Plan Your Trip" says exit the train at "International District Station Bay A" and then walk north to S Jackson St and 5th Ave S for the #99 bus. Does that sound like what you did?

[Flickershot]

We got of at international station/ china town and took the route 99 bus to the water. That bus is a 15-20 minute ride, but it will drop you off right in front of the cruise ship. If you google the light rail, they have a "plan your trip" feature which will tell you your options and what stops/buses to take.

 

We were actually on the Infinity the week before you and did the exact same thing! For 2.75 a person it was so worth it! Getting off at international is super easy. Just go upstairs and across the street to catch the 99. The only hitch we had was a crazy guy that tried to start a fight with another commuter in the station. Thankfully Security was on him fast and they let him rant and rave while the police were coming. Entertaining to watch!

[Regal Eagle]

Thanks for your directions! We get in the airport early and have time to kill, so I am looking forwarding to seeing their light rail.