Searching for summer - LIVE from the newly refurbished Infinity 12/5/15

[Bimmer09]

Great review Jenna, of places I have only visited from my armchair.

 

Thanks for sharing and being so generous with the photos!

 

Norris

[bwilson310]

Jenna,

 

Thank you for your review. We will be sailing the same cruise in April 2017 in the same PH suite. We are so looking forward to this upcoming cruise... Thank you for your detailed review.

[chemmo]

..I have logged on almost daily and enjoyed your 'diary' holiday experience. Sincere thanks for taking the time to post....When are you next X cruising? Cannot wait to follow your next adventure!

 

Best Wishes for the New Year,

 

Chemmo

[h20cruzer]

Jenna are you posting on the Cubian cruise, if so where?

Thanks Norma

[handy4u]

Loved the review! Thank you for the time you took to do it and sharing your experience!

 

We are blessed enough to have a Royal Suite on the West Coast cruise in May coming up. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary. Our first cruise ever was to celebrate our 10 year anniversary on the Infinity in 2006. We did an Alaskan cruise in September of that year that ended in San Francisco. This will be our 2nd time on Infinity and are looking forward to it!

 

I have been looking for pictures of the updated RS and I want to thank you for posting them!

 

Quick question if you have the time to answer: How was the internet speed? I unfortunately have to stay in contact with work while we cruise. :(

 

Thanks again for your review!

[GottaKnowWhen]

I've been in a bit of travel hell today as I head off on my next trip which ends with a cruise to Cuba, which will be absolutely nothing like the cruise I reported on here. Oh the juxtaposition of experience.

 

Our flights home were interesting...

 

We got home Christmas Eve about 4 pm after a stop for groceries and I immediately started to unpack, do laundry and get ready for my next trip.

 

That's all folks, any more questions, I'd be happy to answer.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna...

 

Jenna - I hadn't realized you were doing a Live report! Just found this. Thank you for sharing, and thank you again for hosting the party the afternoon of the canal passage. Wishing you and Dee safe travels...

 

Stan

[need2bespoiled]

First, sorry for the lack of replies. I just returned last night from a cruise to Cuba. In terms of cruise experiences, I don't think it could have been more opposite to what I experienced on Infinity. I shared a room with a friend who I met cruising in 2013 and cruised with friends we did the Amazing Asian Adventure with. The cabin was the size of the bathroom / dressing area of the PH and the cost was what 1 night was for the PH. The food was variable, but generally just fair to BAD. Oh well, I wasn't cruising for the ship, but for Cuba, which by the way, starting with Havana was AMAZING.

 

Jenna are you posting on the Cubian cruise, if so where?

Thanks Norma

 

No live blog on the Cuba cruise, really there was no time, we were pretty busy seeing Cuba. I posted hundreds of pictures, along with my friends on a private Facebook Group. Norma, do you still have my email address?

 

My name with my last initial (g) and the number 6 at gmail and then I can help you find me on the book of faces ;)

 

..I have logged on almost daily and enjoyed your 'diary' holiday experience. Sincere thanks for taking the time to post....When are you next X cruising? Cannot wait to follow your next adventure!

 

Best Wishes for the New Year,

 

Chemmo

 

Thanks Chemmo, we don't have another cruise planned until Nov when we cruise Rome to Istanbul (supposed to include Israel but my hopes are not up that will happen) and then the Suez Canal to Abu Dhabi on Constellation. Should be another fun and unique cruise. No Penthouse for this one but we have some nice flights planned (and mostly booked).

 

Jenna, thank you, thank you, thank you for the great trip report! We're doing a similar itinerary (minus Cartagena and Colon; plus Grand Cayman, Pisco and overnight in Lima) in 2017. I'll try not to be "that guy" who bombards you with hundreds of questions, but I may skirt the line, as this is almost a bucket list trip for me. :D

 

I'm curious about your Arica excursion to Lauca NP. I assume, since you mentioned it was a roll call group, you arranged a private tour. Was there any question about making it back to the ship on-time? My wife is hyper-paranoid about missing the boat. But I'm leery of ship excursions after being burned on a few and am looking to spend some quality time for photographs and rock hounding at the park.

 

How was the Valparaiso-Santiago commute? Since United has a direct SCL-IAH flight late at night, we'll have all day to get there. Would you recommend puttering around Valparaiso or Santiago if you had to leave that day?

 

Thanks!

 

First for Arica, this was by far the hardest and most expensive tour to book of all of them. We do not do buses well at all. It's not our thing. We like small tours, 4-6 or maybe 8 and all of our tours but this one met that. For this one we had 15 and a van that could hold up to 18 so it wasn't too bad. We made it back to the ship without issue. If we were running later they could have made less stops. We passed a few of the big buses on the way back so we knew we were OK. They provided snacks and water and we stopped for lunch, but you could save time by having them bring more snacks / sandwiches as lunch wasn't that great. You do need the time to get all the way up there and down. The ship left pretty late so not a huge issue. We were much, much closer in Lima, but Dee had arranged to make sure we had a "late buss" even though it got us back to the ship before sailing as opposed to late after sailing time, and Celebrity accommodated. I will say in these more "exotic" ports where you have to take shuttles to the ship they are a bit more lenient than we've seen in the Caribbean with late arrivals. The port agent phone is always on the Celebrity today so bring it with you and make sure you can call or your guide can call if something happens.

 

The ride from Valparaiso to Santiago is not bad at all, especially when you tour Valparaiso first, stop for wine tasting and lunch. We had a VERY full day and still made it to our hotel by 6pm. We had some with us who had the evening flights like the UA SCL-IAH flight who wanted to get dropped off after the city drop off as we went by the airport but it was too early. I would say spend a good chunk of the morning to get a taste of Valparsio and then spend a good day on the wine tour and see a bit of Santiago, stay a day or two if you can in Santiago. 1-2 days would be good, as there is SO much to see and do there, love it, love it.

 

DO NOT DO A CELEBRITY TOUR FROM VALPARAISO TO SANTIAGO. You have been duly warned. We met some other suite guests who did in Santiago and four twice what we paid they had a buss tour to a horrible bbq lunch, a cheap wine tasting, barely any time at the artisan market and we're pretty upset. Join the roll call, book early, use the German Pirate and ask for his guide Borris who was AWESOME. Borris also does cooking type tours and classes under Facebook can be found at Chilean Flavours.

 

Loved the review! Thank you for the time you took to do it and sharing your experience!

 

We are blessed enough to have a Royal Suite on the West Coast cruise in May coming up. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary. Our first cruise ever was to celebrate our 10 year anniversary on the Infinity in 2006. We did an Alaskan cruise in September of that year that ended in San Francisco. This will be our 2nd time on Infinity and are looking forward to it!

 

I have been looking for pictures of the updated RS and I want to thank you for posting them!

 

Quick question if you have the time to answer: How was the internet speed? I unfortunately have to stay in contact with work while we cruise. :(

 

Thanks again for your review!

 

This is one area where Cuba Cruise and Celestyal beat Celebrity. The internet was SLOW. Think dial up. If I tried hard, maybe I could get out for skype, post smaller pics or even do face time, but it was slower, think dial-up. Since it's unlimited for a RS, you'll be ok but don't think you can always do a desktop sharing or VPN. Nights and early mornings are better and internet cafes are around and even in some of the terminals.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna