Panama Canal and Infinity Questions

[Chip and Dale]

Hi Everyone

 

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone who has been on the Infinity and/or done the transit of the Panama Canal could provide me with some info. We are possibly doing the Canal on Infinity in March or April 2012. We have done Princess and RCI and RCI actually says that no one does the Canal like Celebrity. We will be Diamond then on RCI. We would like to know the following:

 

Are there Suite Perks

 

Is the difference in price for Concierge worth it

 

Is the ship newer or older (sorry at the office don't have much time to research). Is it well maintained and easy to get around.

 

Are there preferential cabins on this ship, we typically book a hump cabin on RCI, we love the extra space, is Celebrity the same situation.

 

I understand that Diamond on RCI would mean that we are Elite on X. Are there discounts on X for balcony and higher. Also is there an Elite Lounge and events like on RCI.

 

Anything anyone can post to help us make the decision would be greatly appreciated. It is between the Canal and Europe (out of Barcelona). We definitely want to try Celebrity.

 

Thanks so much in advance

Dee

[shipshape sam]

Can't advise you on choosing between Canal and Europe, but we have sailed on Celebrity twice through the Canal and Princess once. I liked Princess very much and have no negatives. I have lots of positives to Celebrity. We sailed on Island Princess and Celebrity Infinity twice.

 

Diamond gets you into Michaels Club which is a great plus for before dinner drinks!!! Lots of savings and meeting other Diamond cruisers and CC'rs is great.

 

Somewhat older demographic and less kids, a plus for us. We were in balacony cabins and not much difference in our opinion, but we were not in cabins long/often. During Canal you want to be all over the ship for a variety of views/photo opps.

 

Food is similiar. Will have to say I do very much like Princess's self service laundry. We took less clothes. Also DW loved souffles on Princess. Princess seemed to have them more often.

 

For us, we tend to prefer Celebrity, but our first choice is always itinerary!

 

Have a GREAT trip. :)

[DHADEN]

Hi Everyone

 

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone who has been on the Infinity and/or done the transit of the Panama Canal could provide me with some info. We are possibly doing the Canal on Infinity in March or April 2012. We have done Princess and RCI and RCI actually says that no one does the Canal like Celebrity. We will be Diamond then on RCI. We would like to know the following:

 

Are there Suite Perks

 

Is the difference in price for Concierge worth it

 

You didn't say what the difference is..... If it is a couple of hundred $$, then yes.

 

Is the ship newer or older (sorry at the office don't have much time to research). Is it well maintained and easy to get around.

 

Newer or Older than what? Her maiden Voyage was Feb. 2001. She is in GREAT shape, and maintenance is ongoing daily.

 

Are there preferential cabins on this ship, we typically book a hump cabin on RCI, we love the extra space, is Celebrity the same situation.

 

As Radiance Class Humps with the HUGE balconies, Infinity doesn't have that. - - But, if you want pictures from your balcony (especially during the canal) then stay away from Deck 9 - - there is an overhang that sticks out about 8 or 9 feet. You can't see the sky, and the support beams are everywhere - they will impead any view/pictures.

 

I understand that Diamond on RCI would mean that we are Elite on X. Are there discounts on X for balcony and higher. Also is there an Elite Lounge and events like on RCI.

 

We started Cruising Celebrity after 15 RCI cruises because RCI was taking away the Diamond perks. It seems that Celebrity is ADDING Elite perks.

The coupon book is much more valuable, the Micheals Club "happy hour" is equivelant to what RCI used to have in the Concierge Lounge, but it is only from 4 to 6.

 

Anything anyone can post to help us make the decision would be greatly appreciated. It is between the Canal and Europe (out of Barcelona). We definitely want to try Celebrity.

 

I think the service and staff were the best ever. The food quality in the Dining Room was EXCELLENT and so was the service and presentation. Donna and I both said many many times during our Infinity Cruise,

"This is as good as RCI used to be!"

 

Hope This Helps.

[bobbyleduck]

Hi Everyone

 

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone who has been on the Infinity and/or done the transit of the Panama Canal could provide me with some info. We are possibly doing the Canal on Infinity in March or April 2012. We have done Princess and RCI and RCI actually says that no one does the Canal like Celebrity. We will be Diamond then on RCI. We would like to know the following:

 

Are there Suite Perks

 

Is the difference in price for Concierge worth it

 

Is the ship newer or older (sorry at the office don't have much time to research). Is it well maintained and easy to get around.

 

Are there preferential cabins on this ship, we typically book a hump cabin on RCI, we love the extra space, is Celebrity the same situation.

 

I understand that Diamond on RCI would mean that we are Elite on X. Are there discounts on X for balcony and higher. Also is there an Elite Lounge and events like on RCI.

 

Anything anyone can post to help us make the decision would be greatly appreciated. It is between the Canal and Europe (out of Barcelona). We definitely want to try Celebrity.

 

Thanks so much in advance

Dee

 

Try to get an FOV, the best being 7199, which my parents had for our Panama Canal cruise in March/April 2007. Huge verandah, port side aft. You'll love it.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

[bob278]

We sail RCL and Celebrity about 50/50 and they each have some advantages. Unless you love every little thing about RCL (pool activities, rock climbing wall, promenade like Freedom and above have), you will probably like Celebrity about as well. It is less frantic (not so many pool activities, fewer announcements all day long) and the M-Class ships are not as "pretty" as RCL ships, but they are nicely understated quality. The service is at least as good and frequently better. Same for the food.

 

Here are a few comments/observations on your questions.

 

Hi Everyone

 

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone who has been on the Infinity and/or done the transit of the Panama Canal could provide me with some info. We are possibly doing the Canal on Infinity in March or April 2012. We have done Princess and RCI and RCI actually says that no one does the Canal like Celebrity. We will be Diamond then on RCI. We would like to know the following:

 

Are there Suite Perks Yes, but nothing spectacular. You get a butler in addition to a cabin steward. The butler does everything a Concierge on RCL would do and more. They will serve you dinner in your suite, supposedly in courses from the main dining room menu. We've had a couple of sky suites but never tried this so don't know if it really comes in courses. Breakfast has an expanded menu and will be set up on your balcony table with linen if you like. There are a few things like priority tender tickets and boarding (much like RCL) but I can't recall anything else exciting.

 

Is the difference in price for Concierge worth it In my opinion, with Elite benefits, concierge class doesn't really offer much. If you can snag an aft cabin (all of them are suites Family Ocean View or C1) it is definitely worth it. Think of the largest balcony you've ever seen on RCL and double it and you are close. You get a welcome bottle of "champagne" and daily hor derves but they are really nothing at all.

 

Is the ship newer or older (sorry at the office don't have much time to research). Is it well maintained and easy to get around. It's about 7 or 8 years old, but reports are that it is well maintained. We've been on Constellation and Summit but not Infinity (going through the canal in April 2011, though)

 

Are there preferential cabins on this ship, we typically book a hump cabin on RCI, we love the extra space, is Celebrity the same situation. There are no hump cabins as such on M-class, but the aft C1 cabins are highly prized. There are also 4 nicer C1 cabins on Deck 6 near the aft. Another "secret" is the sweet sixteen cabins. The cabins are the smallest of the balcony cabins, but they have very large balconies. It's the 8 forward 2C cabins on each side on deck 6. There is a picture below. There are a few angled balconies that are a bit larger. see 8045 and 8161 for examples. Otherwise, use your judgement about placement (mid-ship, forward, aft) based on your past preferences.

I understand that Diamond on RCI would mean that we are Elite on X. Are there discounts on X for balcony and higher. Also is there an Elite Lounge and events like on RCI. Unfortunately, there are no discounts like Diamond gets on RCL. There is no lounge like the Concierge Lounge, but Celebrity does host an Elite happy hour from 4:30 to 6:30 in Michael's Club (unless the number of Elites is too large, then it moves to a larger venue). Drinks are free and there are light snacks available. The drink menu is a bit limited (not all froo-foo drinks are available, but it is about what you can get in the Concierge Lounge on RCL. There is also a breakfast service but I don't remember the details. It is NOT a sit-down served meal, though.

 

Anything anyone can post to help us make the decision would be greatly appreciated. It is between the Canal and Europe (out of Barcelona). We definitely want to try Celebrity.

 

Thanks so much in advance

Dee

[PirateShark]

As an FYI: The Infinity is undergoing the "Solsticization" in I believe November 2011. Which means a freshened up Infinity for the Canal cruises in 2012 (of which DH and I will be on) :)

[Chip and Dale]

Can't advise you on choosing between Canal and Europe, but we have sailed on Celebrity twice through the Canal and Princess once. I liked Princess very much and have no negatives. I have lots of positives to Celebrity. We sailed on Island Princess and Celebrity Infinity twice.

 

Diamond gets you into Michaels Club which is a great plus for before dinner drinks!!! Lots of savings and meeting other Diamond cruisers and CC'rs is great.

Somewhat older demographic and less kids, a plus for us. We were in balacony cabins and not much difference in our opinion, but we were not in cabins long/often. During Canal you want to be all over the ship for a variety of views/photo opps.

Food is similiar. Will have to say I do very much like Princess's self service laundry. We took less clothes. Also DW loved souffles on Princess. Princess seemed to have them more often.

For us, we tend to prefer Celebrity, but our first choice is always itinerary!

 

Have a GREAT trip. :)

 

Thanks so much for your reply. We tried Princess once and the service was so incredibly bad that we vowed we would never cruise again. DH convinced me to try RCI and we have been there since.

 

We like the itinerary for the Infinity. My one son is actually working for Princess right now as a youth counsellor, go figure eh:rolleyes: The laundry self service really is convenient. I think that we will go with Celebrity for this one since we will be diamond and we like the perks.

 

Thanks so much for your input!

Dee

[Chip and Dale]

Hi Darrell

 

Thanks so much for the info. This is what we were looking for. The Concierge cabins are about $300 and higher more than a balcony. Does X put bathrobes in your cabin if you are Elite the way that RCI does if you book a regular balcony cabin?

 

The question about the ship was simply due to the fact that we have sailed on older RCI ships and had a GS on the Legend which was to say the least desperately beat up! They constantly cleaned and polished the open areas all over the ship, but the cabin was in really rough shape. The crew were absolutely incredible on that ship, but the Legend was definitely showing it's age.

 

Thanks so much, you have been very helpful!!

Dee

[Chip and Dale]

Hi Bob

 

Thanks so much for the cabin suggestions, you have outdone yourself honestly! I knew that I would get the help I needed here. We really want to try Celebrity, friends love it more than RCI. RCI is slipping in many ways lately, it's too bad.

 

Sounds like we don't need the concierge cabin. Good to know. All I care about now is robes in the cabin, I don't see that listed as a perk, does X do this the way that RCI does?

 

Hopefully you will post a review after your cruise through the canal.

 

Thanks again!

Dee

[gkm]

Dee and Dennis, Bob and I will be on the Infinity for the Panama Canal sailing next April 24. We'd love for you to join us. We have a really nice roll call and website for this cruise. Also, a bunch of us are going to stay on the ship once we reach Seattle and do the first Alaska run. It's going to be a lot of fun!

 

Garry

[bob278]

Hi Bob

 

Thanks so much for the cabin suggestions, you have outdone yourself honestly! I knew that I would get the help I needed here. We really want to try Celebrity, friends love it more than RCI. RCI is slipping in many ways lately, it's too bad.

 

Sounds like we don't need the concierge cabin. Good to know. All I care about now is robes in the cabin, I don't see that listed as a perk, does X do this the way that RCI does?

 

Hopefully you will post a review after your cruise through the canal.

 

Thanks again!

Dee

I honestly don't remember about robes. We sail both lines and this year has (for various reasons) been all RCL. If there are not any in your cabin, I would bet that a request to your cabin steward would get them. They are very accommodating. :D

[arkansasnanny]

Bob Were you in SAC? Julie

[bob278]

Yes ma'am, I was. I spent 8 years working on flight simulators for the BUFF (B-52) and training navigators and radar-navigators. Amazing to think that some of the planes I worked on are still flying (and I got out of SAC in 1966).

 

Most of my time was in Colorado, California and Georgia.

[Hypo]

If you are Diamond on RCCL, you must call the Celebrity Captain's Club to get your new Captains Club membership numbers. It is not done automatically.

 

Just call them, give them your RCCL numbers and they will immediately tell you over the phone your CC numbers.

 

We had Sky Suite 6146 on the Infinity for our trip through the canal last fall. It was a very nice cabin, the only downside being the connecting door to the Penthouse Suite which is next door. There is about a 1 inch gap below the door which allows sound from both cabin to be heard on the other side of the door. (The kid in the PH suite, on our cruise, had to practice his clarinet every afternoon). We stuffed a couple of pool towels under the door to muffle the noise. The balcony is large and was a very good spot to pbserve the working of the canal while passing through.

 

The butler will serve your meals in the cabin if you desire. My wife hurt her back rather severely before we left for the cruise. She was nearly unable to walk for the entire two weeks. We had most evening meals served in the cabin, since she did not want to sit in the MDR for two hours in the evening. Our butler brought every course we ordered, on a rolling cart. He set up the table in the cabin or on the balcony as desired, with table cloth, full silverware, etc. He opened and poured our wine that we had ordered. He would have come back and served each course, but you would have had to page him whenever a course was finished. It was much easier to just place our dirty plates on the bottom of the cart and help ourselves to our next course. When we finished dessert, we just paged him and he immediately came and cleared everything away.

 

We also had breakfast delivered nearly every morning. It was so nice to wake up and have breakfast served on our balcony.

 

Hypo

[gkm]

Dee, I'm pretty sure the Conceirge Class cabins have the robes. I don't know about the other ones.:rolleyes:

 

This will be our second time through the Panama Canal and the aft cabins are the place for that. The gates close really close to the ship, and it's fascinating to watch.

 

Garry

[hapicruisin]

Hi Bob

 

Thanks so much for the cabin suggestions, you have outdone yourself honestly! I knew that I would get the help I needed here. We really want to try Celebrity, friends love it more than RCI. RCI is slipping in many ways lately, it's too bad.

 

Sounds like we don't need the concierge cabin. Good to know. All I care about now is robes in the cabin, I don't see that listed as a perk, does X do this the way that RCI does?

 

Hopefully you will post a review after your cruise through the canal.

 

Thanks again!

Dee

 

 

Robes are in every cabin on Infinity. Always had them on every Celebrity cruise.

 

Have a wonderful time.:)

[Chip and Dale]

As an FYI: The Infinity is undergoing the "Solsticization" in I believe November 2011. Which means a freshened up Infinity for the Canal cruises in 2012 (of which DH and I will be on) :)

 

Hi Pirate Shark

 

That is actually the sailing that we are looking at. I like the sounds of a freshened ship:D

 

Do you have a roll call going for that cruise? Does Celebrity do a M and M like RCI does?

[Chip and Dale]

Dee and Dennis, Bob and I will be on the Infinity for the Panama Canal sailing next April 24. We'd love for you to join us. We have a really nice roll call and website for this cruise. Also, a bunch of us are going to stay on the ship once we reach Seattle and do the first Alaska run. It's going to be a lot of fun!

 

Garry

 

Hi Garry

 

Thanks so much for the invite, but we have to go in 2012. Feb 2011 we are taking my oldest son and my new DIL on their first cruise as a wedding gift. Crazy kids wanted us old people to go with them:D We are doing a B2B on Adventure out of San Juan...one of our most favourite places in the world. We will be diamond after the first week, that is unless we can come up with another shorter cruise this year. Holidays are difficult. Our bosses expect us to actually work....can you believe it.

 

I promise if we win the lottery we are all yours in April next year!

Thanks again

Dee

[Hypo]

I just remembered, another perk we received for being Elite and/or staying in a Sky Suite, was that we were invited to dine in the Specialty Restaurant (complimentary) on the first evening. Very nice surprise perk.

 

Hypo

[Chip and Dale]

Hi Hypo

 

Thanks so much for the info. We will be Diamond after our next Cruise and will let Celebrity know when that occurs. Can't wait! Although there aren't as many perks as there once was, we are happy with some of the perks we receive like priority boarding and the discounts. It will be nice to have access to a lounge on some of the ships. On our B2B we will be diamond on the 2nd leg which will be nice.

 

Hope that your wife's back is better, we had one cruise where Dennis was very limited in mobility due to his back. Not a very nice thing to have on a holiday.

 

Thanks Again

Dee

[Chip and Dale]

I just remembered, another perk we received for being Elite and/or staying in a Sky Suite, was that we were invited to dine in the Specialty Restaurant (complimentary) on the first evening. Very nice surprise perk.

 

Hypo

 

Wow, thanks for letting me know that. That really is a nice perk!

Dee

[Chip and Dale]

Robes are in every cabin on Infinity. Always had them on every Celebrity cruise.

 

Have a wonderful time.:)

 

Thanks Hapicruisin...you made my day. Den thinks I'm crazy but it saves having to pack one and works so well to go out on the balcony first thing in the morning so as not to shock anyone:D

Dee

[Chip and Dale]

I just wanted to thank all of you so much for all of your input. This is such a nice board and you have all provided so much valuable information. It really makes me want to go on a Celebrity ship right now:D

 

Thanks again!

Dee

PS....If anyone thinks of anything more I will keep checking this thread.

[TravelerThom]

I just remembered, another perk we received for being Elite and/or staying in a Sky Suite, was that we were invited to dine in the Specialty Restaurant (complimentary) on the first evening. Very nice surprise perk.

 

Hypo

I did the Panama Canal on Infinity in 2007 on the way to Valparaiso. Loved it. I have also sailed on the Celebrity Century out of Barcelona; loved the city, loved the ship. Do I like fresh strawberries and cream better than a good filet? Damned if I know. I recommend BOTH.

 

Complimentary Specialty Restaurant is a Suite perk, not Elite [i'm Elite and have never gotten this benefit, as I have not done a suite].

 

As stated above robes are in every cabin, but higher class cabins get thicker robes.

 

Michael's Club Happy Hour is 4-6pm all the times I have sailed. In my experience food is brought around, but not very often, so don't think you'll be chowing down. Drinks however were strong and often - you have to be very explicit on "no more" or you will soon have another. Of course the fact that I give the guys [and/or gals] a modest tip [no pressure, but I figure they deserve it] might have some effect, but they seem to keep everyone well supplied.

 

8-10am Michael's Club has a continental breakfast including almond croissants:) every morning [these are available elsewhere on the ship, but not very often], served cappuccinos, etc [they run out to Cova Cafe for these; if you get these at Cova you'll have to pay], smoothies [from the galley, again a pay item elsewhere on the ship] along with Bloody Marys etc. All mentioned are included, but a tip doesn't upset the staff.

 

Among other benefits each Elite gets 90 minutes of free internet, up to 30 free pieces of laundry [must be put in at the same time], and free dry cleaning of one item [a tux or suit is one item]. These are totally free, not buy one, get one. These are for every Elite, not per cabin, so if your spouse / roomie / whatever is also Elite, YES you each get these.

 

enjoy

Thom

[Chip and Dale]

Hi Thom

 

This is all music to my ears. I have to avoid wheat and seafood so I typically don't eat just have a drink here and there. Love champagne and wine. We tip as you do and have always found the wait staff to be wonderful with us with few exceptions.

 

I'm really starting to like Celebrity!

 

Thanks for all of the info!

Dee