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

Marylander

By Marylander,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Marylander

Marylander

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ENTERTAINMENT

Can’t say much about that. We did not go to the shows every day, checked just a pair of production shows. The Infinity show cast has four singers, two of which are really good. Dancing group is average, and there also was a pair of very unique air gymnasts, everybody enjoyed their part quite a bit in each show.

The costumes of the troupe were fantastic, this compensated for the lack of brilliancy in the performance.

As always, there was a band, on Infinity it is a group of seven or eight musicians form Philippines, with three singers. Their repertoire was somewhat limited, as were their voices. String quartet was playing in Cova Café before dinner and then in Trellis restaurant; their performance was solid but not extraordinary. A solo guitarist with great skills always played in the Ocean View Café after 6 pm. There were other musicians on the ship, a duet of piano/guitar players for dancing enjoyment of older fellow cruisers in the Champagne Bar, and a pianist in the Michaels Club – can’t say they were great either.

I guess, quality of musical (or entertainment overall) performance onboard of any cruise ship is not something people are going after anyway. Infinity is not an exception here as well.

SPORTS

Infinity has a gym with a number of various workout equipment and dedicated staff who provides classes of aerobics, yoga, etc. There is a jogging track on deck 11, which was used substantially during two stretches of days at sea. Table tennis is set on deck 10 (ironically, right next to the smoking area...), and a great plus of Infinity (as of other M-class ships, I figured) is a basketball court on deck 12. We had a great basketball game between the crew team (leaded by the captain) and the guest team. One can also play "compromised" tennis (with modified racquets), volleyball and even soccer (short court version). All these games were played during days at sea. It wasn’t easy to play ballgames with winds over 15 mph and the ship rocking like crazy; this feels quite a bit on the top deck. However, the games were competitive and helped participants to burn calories, as planned.

DISEMBARKATION

It was ugly. Everybody can confirm that. Forget color codes. Forget "approximate" time slots to appear before the eyes of five (yes, there were only five of them – for 2,000 passengers!) Customs officers in the Theater. We spent over two hours in the wavy labyrinth-like line of tired, sweaty, angry people, marching through the same lounges several times as the line progressed. I do not understand why it was organized like that. One possible explanation is that on that Sunday there were two (!!!) more ships disembarking at the same time, and the port authorities decided to at least somehow put this havoc under control.

Well, they failed.

Hundreds of cars simultaneously tried to find a spot to upload their parties on just about 20 or so parking spots along our terminal. Porters were dropping luggage in three or four rows along the road.

Somehow we managed to get into the car with all our suitcases unharmed.

I looked over the shoulder back – the great Infinity was getting ready for the next leg...

OVERALL IMPRESSION

For our 2-week trip, 75,000 lbs of fresh fruits were loaded up on Infinity.

About 50,000 lbs of vegetables.

2,000 lbs of ground coffee.

Thousands and thousands of pounds of meat, poultry, veal, seafood, flour, sugar, etc....

It just kills you to think how much of all that food was dumped unused.

The food was always a trademark of Celebrity, I was told.

To a certain degree, this promise was fulfilled. But even dining room staff was overly critical about how things have changed since RCL took over Celebrity. X cruise line was created in the attempt to fill the gap between "first class" cruise lines and "economy" class of Costa, RCL and the likes. Something of "economy plus" class, I gather. Maybe, somewhere in the Concierge Class staterooms of Infinity this "plus" is still possible to feel, but for us, coach-class folks, it was a Princess-class food and entertainment, conjoined with beaten-up Windstar-class cabins and RCL-class shrewdness in the attempts to squeeze some extra money from you.

Will I go again with Celebrity?

Why not?

After all, it is a decline in the whole cruising business, not only in Celebrity Cruises.

Oh wait! Did I say – decline? No, they call it "streamlining"...

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spearmint

spearmint

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Lots of good information re: Celebrity in your three narratives, but I would also like to know what you thought of the actual itinerary... 5 days at sea each way, and 4 in Hawaii. Were you satisfied with that? Would you recommend doing the same? Or would you consider flying to Hawaii and cruising around the islands for 7-10 days?

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rjg41

rjg41

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As can be seen in our signature, we have done a number of X cruises, before and after the RC purchase including this same itinerary last spring. While nothing stays the same, we see no degradation in service, food or other aspects of the cruises since we started sailing X. You can always find disgruntled employees everywhere. Instead ask the great X employees like Sal and Happy Happy what they think.

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Marylander

Marylander

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5 days at sea each way, and 4 in Hawaii. Were you satisfied with that? Would you recommend doing the same? Or would you consider flying to Hawaii and cruising around the islands for 7-10 days?

Hi, spearmint:

Thanks for reading. As for your Q., I think it depends on one's preference. I was a little uncomfortable originally with that much time at sea - at the Ocean, that is - but found that time can be used (or killed, if you wish) very productively within these two stretches of 4-5 days. One thing to bear in mind: at fall, the first 2 days at sea (on your wat there) and the last two days on return are quite cold, so be prepared - there is a slim chance to sit at the pool in your trunks/bating suit.

I personally enjoyed writing during those days. Playing sports is always a good choice of killing xalories (not a typo = X calories!). Good thing about a big ship is that it offers a lot of nice and quiet escapes - or a good company of cheerful fellow cruisers, if so desired.

It is mesmerizing, how big is the Ocean. Gives me chills to think that for days and days we haven't met a single ship, or saw a bird, or a whale, or a dolphin.

If you've noticed, I did not say much about the islands. They are gorgeous, but I personally did not like the way the itinerary was set. Forget the X's change of originally scheduled day at Kauai for a half day extra at O'ahu. I've got an explanation - "the pier was repared at Kauai, thus it X was forced to make this change" - which I've heard. Bull!.. there were NCL and Princess ships docking at Kauai in October AND in November...

In each port there was at least one extra ship = 1000ds of more tourists. And I don't think it would get better. It definitely tends to get busier and "crowdier" with every year, so get your chance to see (partially) unspoiled Hawaii!

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Texed

Texed

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I'd just put a link here for those doing research on this cruise so they get two (not entirely differing) persepctives on our cruise.

 

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

 

Andrew

 

Andrew,

A wonderful review ( I had read it prior). We are going on Summit on December 23rd, so it was of great help. :)

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